Anthony Di Iorio, Co-Founder of Ethereum | The Perfect Formula To Solve Any Problem

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About The Guest

Talking Points

• 00:00 – Intro
• 03:35 – Anthony Di Iorio’s origin story.
• 14:38 – The problems they were trying to solve when they started Etherium.
• 19:41 – Is it too early or too late in the crypto game?
• 21:09 – Crypto in regards to financial gain vs. underlying tech.
• 23:57 – What future is Anthony Di Iorio focused on? 
• 36:36 – What are the steps that we should take to move in the right direction? 
• 42:30 – What does Anthony Di Iorio want to be remembered for and where do people connect with him? 
• 45:25 – What was the biggest challenge in Anthony Di Iorio’s life and how did he overcome it 
• 47:41 – Who was Anthony Di Iorio’s mentor?
• 48:43 – A book or a podcast recommended by Anthony Di Iorio. 
• 50:48 – What would Anthony Di Iorio tell his 20-year-old self?
• 51:11 – What does success mean to Anthony Di Iorio?

Show Links

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonydiiorio1/
• https://twitter.com/diiorioanthony/

Podcast & Newsletter Sponsors

1. HUBSPOT – http://hubspot.com/successpod/
2. TRADE COFFEE – https://drinktrade.com/successstory

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What is the Success Story Podcast?

On this podcast, you’ll find interviews, Q&A, keynote presentations & conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship.

The podcast is hosted by entrepreneur, business executive, author, educator & speaker, Scott D. Clary.

Scott will discuss some of the lessons he’s learned over his own career, as well as have candid interviews with execs, celebrities, notable figures, and politicians. All who have achieved success through both wins and losses, to learn more about their life, their ideas, and insights.

He sits down with leaders and mentors and unpacks their stories to help pass those lessons onto others through both experiences and tactical strategy for business professionals, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between.

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Machine Generated Transcript

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, bitcoin, create, business, life, framework, called, day, lead, world, business models, shopify, wallets, thought, money, success story, technology, problems, theorem, coffee

SPEAKERS

Scott D Clary, Anthony Di Iorio

 

Scott D Clary  00:00

Welcome to success story, the most useful podcast in the world. I’m your host Scott D. Clary. The success story podcast is part of the blue wire podcast network as well as the HubSpot Podcast Network. Now, the HubSpot Podcast Network has incredible shows like The Hustle daily. It’s hosted by Zachary Crockett Jacob Cohen, Rob literalist, and Juliette Bennett RYLA. Now, the hustle daily brings you a healthy dose of irreverent, offbeat and informative takes on business, tech and news. And it happens daily. So if you want to stay up to date on the latest and greatest, and some of these topics are interesting to you, then you’re going to love the hustle daily topics like Amazon’s grocery strategy. The rise of the ugly shoe economy is AI the secret to love and America’s sleep deficit problem. So if these are topics you want to get into and you love hearing up to date content whenever you wake up in the morning, go listen to the hustle daily wherever you listen to your podcast. today. My guest is Anthony Diorio. He is the co founder of Aetherium. Now over the course of three decades, Anthony has launched more than 10 companies invested 10s of millions of dollars in numerous industries, including blockchain, Anthony immediately recognized the paradigm shift from the age of computing to the age of information and more recently the age of value. In late 2013, he co founded Aetherium, the decentralized, smart contract platform that at its peak hit $150 billion in market cap currently is the founder and CEO of decentral, a Toronto based innovation hub and software development company focused on decentralized technology, decentralization maker of Jack’s Liberty a digital asset platform that has empowered millions of people with the tools they need to control their digital lives. Well versed in cryptocurrency, Blockchain, finance and business. He’s advised a number of companies and as the inaugural Chief Digital Officer for the TMS group. The parent company of the Toronto Stock Exchange, has explored ways to make exchanges operate faster and cheaper through blockchain technology in 2018. He further distinguished himself as a winner of the EY, emerging Entrepreneur of the Year Award as the winner of the FinTech Leader of the Year Award, and may Toronto life’s list of the 50 most influential people in 2018. Currently, he is working on a new project called perfect formula. So what do we speak about? Well, we spoke about his origin story, we spoke about the problems that he was trying to solve when he started Aetherium. We spoke about crypto blockchain, we spoke about financial gain versus underlying technology. We spoke about the future of the entire industry where it’s going, what we have to do to make sure that the crypto blockchain defy world moves in the right direction. Then we spoke about some of the things that he’s working on now with perfect formula, and how he’s trying to re envision how we do business, how we compensate stakeholders shareholders, how we place importance on certain things versus other things when we’re scaling a business properly and ethically. So he’s an incredible wealth of knowledge, from everything business, to tech to crypto to blockchain to future to defy. Let’s jump right into it. This is an awesome interview. I was super happy to sit down with them. This is Anthony Di Iorio. He is the co founder of Ethereum.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  03:35

I go back to the line when I was eight years old, I was born in 1975. So in the early 80s, my dad brought home a computer. This was kind of at the dawn of the personal computing age, and people didn’t have computers at home at that time. And that was really the thing that’s that really did it for me as a kid it just since then I’ve been known as the computer guy in the family and taking the computers apart and building them back up and going to camp for computers and rocketry. And that really was a defining moment in my life was my dad who used to work for IBM back in the day and used to do a number of different things from driving cabs to eventually settling and starting a window many door manufacturing companies sliding patio door manufacturing company, which is what he had for 30 years and most of my life. That’s what he was doing. But he was an entrepreneur and bringing home that computer and really, really set things off for me. So in my teens, I was using modems to communicate with other computers before the dawn of the internet. When when the internet took off, I was like wow, I can now connect to two websites. It wasn’t just connected to one of the person’s computer which at the time before the internet that’s what you would do is you would log into one other guys computer and if someone else tried to log on on the same computer, you get a busy signal and early days kind of the precursor to the internet. So yeah, it was it was I followed The whole modem speed thing which went from like 300 baud modems to 600, to 900, to 9600 2400, to 40. So there’s this whole evolution of speeds that were going on where, you know, would take like, sometimes a minute to download an image. And so that that was really was my life was sports and computers growing up, I grew up in north of Toronto, it’s about a half an hour in place called cow Cobra channel. And yeah, those are the two defining things for me was was sports and, and computers, great family, parents were all about the family, I have a older brother and older sister. And I, when I went to university, I didn’t go for computers, I went for business, my dad was an entrepreneur, and I didn’t want to, you know, be a developer. And I didn’t want to learn, I kind of was that was my thing already. So I was decide to go into business. But school was something I never really aligned with too much. Going into high school and university, I really just kind of coasted through, it wasn’t something that was very meaningful for me. But it’s just kind of what you did when you were in my family, you know, you go to school, and you get a job. And so I graduate of the marketing degree at Ryerson University, and a Bachelor of Commerce degree and went into marketing for a while, didn’t care for it too much I learned back then like didn’t really like a lot of marketing is trying to get someone to do something or influence them to kind of create a purchase or do something that you’re trying to promote or push and didn’t really align with me. And after a couple years of that, not realizing that something that I wanted to pursue, I eventually started working for the family business in my dad’s business and his his cousin, his his cousin and brothers business. And the four of them had a sliding patio door manufacturing company and learned a lot of my other business skills there. And it’s through my my teens and into my 20s I had a few other startups and businesses, my my first thing that I did was setting up a web design company back in the early 90s. Me and my brother set up a company doing logo design and doing web design, right at HTML one back in the early 90s. So computer was always my thing there. And then business and growing entrepreneurial skills with the family business until 2008 When my dad decided to sell a business, and his brothers decided to sell it. And he came to me and said, you know, what do you want to do? You probably don’t want to be working with the same with the owners that are buying it and what would you like to do and I thought about it for a while. And I decided that I wanted to get into something kind of green technology focused. And we had a friend who was the kind of the foremost leader in geothermal drilling. And this is geothermal drilling, where you drill holes in the ground and use the earth’s temperature, heat and cool buildings. So I proceeded to buy this massive drill out of Italy, went over to Italy. And my drilling company, which I started up was was we did two two large IKEA projects in Italy, where we were using the parking lot to drill hundreds of holes in the ground, there were hundreds of feet deep. And then that’s what was heating and cooling the IKEA centers there. So they did two big projects there then brought the drill to Canada and proceeded to do commercial buildings, condos, homes. At the time, there was a lot of government incentives, and it was kind of a hot thing at the time there. And over a couple years, it actually changed and there’s a lot of red tape that started to be put onto it by the government. And the incentives were taken off through the change of government. And I’m not a fan of of government incentives, I it’s not something I really aligned with. But at the time, it was the two factors of the removal of those incentives. And just the red tape that was put on that didn’t make it really feasible anymore. And I ended up in a situation where I leased a drill out to another company and and again, I was in a position where Okay, what do I what do I really want to get into right now. And from 2005 to 2010, I had some properties that I purchased and some student housing by York University that I had put together there. And this was in 2008 2009 did a housing crisis and financial crisis in the US and I kind of thought the same thing was going to happen up here in Canada and I ended up selling my properties I did quite well. And then and I had this cash. And I love that time my brother had got me thinking about the history of money. He had been in politics, he was a counselor up in Richmond Hill, the same place that I was grew up and after getting out of out of his position. He started, you know, learning a lot about the history of money and banks. And this was again, by the time the housing crisis, financial crisis, when and I started studying economics played a lot and got into that and I learned about the Austrian School of Economics, which is a little bit different than the Keynesian model, which is taught in universities and the the Austrian school is all about having sound money and it’s all about creating value and limited government and free markets and, and that’s really what I aligned well towards and I started studying and figuring out what had happened during the housing crisis in the financial crisis. And that also with with the kind of when government got involved with my drilling business and how they were impacting things there started to learning a lot about boats, you know the, a lot about debt and a lot about sound money and I dabbled in gold and silver for a bit in 2011 and lost over 25% of what I put in there and, and then, in 2012, when I was looking for, for some new podcasts new listening material, I came across a show called free Talk Live and free talk live that is a show that’s on a, you know, a number of radio stations in the US. And on the very first show, they mentioned something called Bitcoin. And I’d never heard of it before. That day, I started reading into it. And it was combining decentralized technologies, which I was quite familiar with in terms of following the whole file sharing growth from Napster and Kazaa, and all the different things from there and being kind of understanding where that was, and understanding the internet. And it also combined economics and combined solutions for how we could empower people to you know, be their own banks to, to empower people to understand that, that you can have a technology that has, you know, a sound kind of cash Digital Cash system that could have a predictable inflation rate, something that you don’t have with traditional currencies, and it just right away that day, was a major changing point in my life. And I like to say the first 10 years of my life was like computers, the second 2010 years was about connecting and communications with the internet and, or with modems. The third third decade was kind of like entrepreneurship and learning business schools and the tools that I would need and then when I heard about Bitcoin, it’s just after I’ve been studying economics, and it was like a perfect storm for me to take all these things of my past and what what I had and be able to utilize it at the time that I think I’ve thought it was prepared, whereby with the internet, I just wasn’t very I was still going through university with the Internet. But this was like a perfect storm for me to say this is something I’m interested in, I understand it, I think it has a lot of value. I don’t have a lot of hope to empower people and to you know, remove us potentially from the clutches of third parties, intermediary layers that that usually exist between individuals. In Toronto, there was nothing that existed in terms of a community and I decided to start it. So I started the Toronto Bitcoin Meetup group in 2012. I started a nonprofit called the Bitcoin alliance of Canada in 2013, which is more of a national organization to help promote Bitcoin and to, to discuss it with the media and the governments and I, the meetup group I started kept growing throughout 2013 Eventually, I set up a physical location at King and Spadina in Toronto called Bitcoin decentral. And I started, you know, thinking from 2012 to 2013, we’re How can I provide value in the space and initially, I started a gambling site for Bitcoin with a partner developer that I connected with in the US. And a few months later, we exited that for a few 1000 Bitcoin at the time, and then started building wallets. And wallets are really the interface for for the whole ecosystem. It’s a way that you can manage and move value, just like the browser’s the way that you can manage it with information for the internet. And I got very early on that this was this was like the age of value, it’s now you can be in control of your own value. And just like you had the age of information that democratized information, now you have the ability to be your own bank, the ability to send directly to these decentralized networks and to be able to send from peer to peer one person to the other, another value anywhere, anywhere around the world at very low costs and remove a lot of that expensive middle layer. So this was 2013. I then, at the same time, I was opening Bitcoin central in Toronto, a gentleman named Vitalik Butyrin, who would come to my first meetups, and I got to know him over 2012 and 2013. He showed me a white paper for something called a theorem that he had devised. And he had helped me building some wallets that I had prior. And I then along with him, and three others, based on the funding that I had, from my prior exit, ended up funding and founding Aetherium out of my shop decentral in Toronto. And that’s that’s how Aetherium got kicked out, kicked off there. So I know I’ve been rambling on a bit, but that kind of takes you to 2013 and the start of a theory and then it’s been it was a whole world when we became the largest crowdfunding portal of all time, raising $18 million from 9000 participants around the world. And that market cap has now gone up to I don’t know what’s what it’s at these days. 500 billion or something like that.

 

Scott D Clary  14:35

Incredible. Yeah, no, it’s just incredible. But I want to get into so I want to get into your mind and and your thought process because I think it will carry over to even what you’re working on now. So when you started Aetherium, what what problems are you trying to solve? Because you go big, like you’re trying to solve like, if you’re talking about removing intermediaries, disrupting banking, disrupting any interest, that’s an that’s a like a, like a monumental task that most people can’t even fathom. So

 

15:01

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17:03

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Scott D Clary  18:14

oh, what were you trying to solve? How did your brain work? To think that this project, this white paper with this developer that you met at metallic material, like the met at this meetup could actually solve these things? What was like the first iteration of a theorem? And then obviously, how did that change over time?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  18:31

Sure. So even even before theorem, I made it my mission to build the tools to empower people to be in control of their digital lives. If that was the that’s your mission. That’s what that’s that was my mission, my mission was has always been about freedom. As I mentioned, I don’t like school, I never never liked being told what to do. And I, you know, a lot of business model models revolve around becoming an intermediary layer between two individuals who need that’s how banks kind of came about was provide a service for individuals to be able to protect their money and be able to, to to provide services that help connect people, but as the internet would grow, and as new technologies emerge to the need for these middle layers, and costly and maybe an efficient middle layers becomes less and less necessary. And with Bitcoin, I saw it as a big opportunity to help create change and empower billions of people around the world with the tools that they need to be their own bank and be able to send transactions where maybe they don’t have the financial systems in their countries like or areas like Africa or, or areas that don’t have the the basic things that we have in banking systems here that we’re so used to. But with the theory of was much different. This was now taking it beyond the financial ecosystem into pretty much any other any other space that has intermediary layers, that you can then create contracts that that would, that individuals can create amongst themselves that can be trustworthy and transparent and can execute as they’re supposed to without the without kind of humans getting in the way. And the idea of inefficiencies how they can and be removed in areas of law in areas of pretty much any business model again relies on these third parties that usually have centralized authority to to do things. But more and more, these are empowering individuals and creators to to develop code that can execute goes well beyond finance. And that’s where I saw was the kind of the light that went off when Vitalik showed this was. Bitcoin is great for what it does enables you to send and receive something but you can kind of put it If This Then That. And then if this happens do this and and that was really like the game changing aspect that people started to realize that a theorem had the opportunity to create a really valuable change and in many, many different other sectors, not just in finance. And that’s really what what what got me excited. It’s what when I brought Charles Hoskinson into shorting the paper there and got him on board for the project. This is Charles at once Cardano and a few others, when we got all together, we realized very soon after, because of the amount of attention it was getting that this was something that could be really big. And we we ended up spending the next year carrying it out doing the crowd sale, and then over the next year building the product and launching in 2015. And kind of the rest is history, we’ve got amazing growth of developers and community. And this was a combination of 1000s and 1000s of people coming together in an open source protocol. That just is it’s been being used by just pretty much every fortune 500 company or companies that are getting in the space are using Aetherium for release they’re doing and it’s led to the whole NFT space, it’s led to the decentralized autonomous organization space, which is starting to bear fruit and it’s just, it’s a much more utilized and just it’s just gonna do so much more than what you could do with Bitcoin. And that’s, that’s why people have kind of rallied around it and it’s grown to where it is.

 

Scott D Clary  21:49

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Anthony Di Iorio  23:08

Yeah, I think, you know, when we, when we started it, we, you know, we knew what daos had the potential to be and these are decentralized autonomous organization, that kind of organizations that run in the cloud, for those that don’t know, that don’t have jurisdictions that don’t necessarily know who’s behind these, these, these new type of corporations. That was something that we knew was going to be massive down the road and NF T’s I mean, I’ve NF T’s have been something that I’ve been, you know, thinking a lot about for over five years really, and, and the power that they’re going to have to help empower creators and create digital assets that are unique. Whereas before, you couldn’t have these digital assets, because everything could be copied and duplicated. And now you have Bitcoin that created a non duplicatable currency. And now you have these these digital unique assets, collectibles that the artists and creators are putting together now in order to to create digital value. So we kind of saw what the future was going to be in those things, but there’s just like the internet, you’re gonna over the next number of years are gonna be consistent things that are going to emerge and new ideas that are going to lead to things you never even thought about yet. So that’s I think, you know, on a timeframe, we’re still very, very early on. It’s exciting what’s to come down the road, a lot of it hasn’t been probably thought about yet. But what’s has been thought about is super exciting. And just getting off the ground as well.

 

Scott D Clary  24:23

I love that. And I guess, like the point that I’m trying to to get to is the like crypto as a market. It’s a lot. It’s really driven with a lot of speculation as well. So I’m wondering if it’s more like the underlying tech and like practical applications use cases that are driving the technology forward? Or is it more speculation and potential financial gain that’s driving this industry forward?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  24:48

So it’s combination of both and over time, I think you’re gonna see more and more of the utility aspect that’s going to lead to more and more of the value increases and that’s that’s where the value comes from. In my opinion, it’s You know, when we started off, we had 9000 people that that entrusted us with their Bitcoin to then turn that into the technology that we were creating. And they took a gamble and a risk by giving us that money up front, in a pre sale of a product that we didn’t deliver till a year later, which was, which was the plan. But, you know, they were, they were speculating that work, you know, when it’s speculation, just another term for, you know, taking a risk or it’s a term for investing. There’s, it’s a lot of it’s just terminology. But early on, there was a lot of speculation, there’s still a lot of speculation, but more and more every month, you’re seeing utility come out of it, you’re seeing how the different sectors in different industries are going to be radically changed from the technologies. So it’s, it is still speculation, but it’s it’s people also that realize where it’s going to go. And it’s always about thinking ahead of the curve. And that’s something that I think I pride myself on, on being able to see where things are heading in the future. Whether it be business models that are deficient, or whether it be where the crypto space was gonna come in, and be able to start to offering potentially alternatives to government current currencies, it’s all about staying ahead of the curve and understanding where things are going based on where things have gone in the past and making sure you have the tools and assets that you can put it together in order to utilize what your knowledge is. So there is a lot of speculation, I’d say most of it is still on speculation, but there’s a lot of good utility coming out, there’s a lot of good people realizing that their their jobs and their areas of where they they’re in are going to be radically changed. And it’s important for you to stay on it. And a lot of people are betting on a theorem and other similar technologies. And it’s that’s why it’s growing, it’s growing because there was a realization that these things are very powerful. They’re very empowering the the they can be really efficient. And once they scale and grow beyond some of the barriers that may have now watch out, it’s going to be really radically changing the world

 

Scott D Clary  26:43

yet. And like now, you see like, obviously El Salvador has adopted bitcoin is legal tender. And these are these are more like actual fixing addition, like, like existing currency problems that countries have. I know that Zimbabwe is looking at adopting Bitcoin as legal tender. So you’re starting to see some like, like practical application that are like that are really changing how a country can function. But yeah, okay, so let’s, let’s walk through, you know, your, your story. So after Ethereum, I know that you worked on decentral for a bit, but then you left, those are walk me through how you how you left, while you’re working out with Aetherium and decentral. And then what you wanted to focus on going forward, because I know that you’re working on a new project. Now, I think it’s actually very interesting and totally syncs up with, like, what your vision and your mission is. So walk me through that process and what we’re doing right now.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  27:44

So in I left a theorem in 2015, you know, I was one of the the initial funders, we had also Joseph Lubin who runs a company called concessive consensus, an organization we’ve had, we funded the operations of it until the crowd sale and then the money came in from the crowd sale, and it kind of came down to the developers carrying out the mission. And there was there a little bit of the restriction back in the day, there was a there was eight founders at that time, it was difficult to get decisions made. And what happened is kind of the developer team, you know, it was about them carrying things out. And they they kind of took things by the rains and work towards getting the product out. And Charles ended up leaving the project and Amir one of their founders, and then over time, Joseph and myself also knew that the writing was on the wall there and with a theory and it kind of opened my doors to things on my mind and things other than Bitcoin, which at the time, before a theorem, everything was Bitcoin. And then there was a theorem and that’s like, well, a theorem is gonna spawn so many other organizations and projects that are going to be run on a theorem and other technologies. So it’s not just about one technology. And I like to be very inclusive in my mindset with things. And so the idea was, there’s gonna be 1000s of these things out there. And they all need interfaces, they all need ways to send and receive and connect to the network. So I continued building the wallets that and creating the first multi currency multi platform wallets in the space that wouldn’t just support Bitcoin or theorem, but also would support Litecoin and Dogecoin. And eventually, you know, 1000s of these technologies. So in 2015, I continued building building wallets and technology and infrastructure to connect it all together. And I launched a product called Jackson, Jackson, Nick launched in 2016, we launched a successor called Jack’s liberty, and really again, building the tools to empower people to be in control of their digital lives, their money, their communication, their identities, the three pillars that I’ve always built things on. I think it’s really important to own your identity it’s really important to own your money it’s really important when your communications and and those three together done in a decentralized fashion where the user is in full control is a very powerful product and that’s what we built is, is we built wallets that that put the the keys and allow the individual user to actually fully own his assets we don’t ever take custodianship of it of any of the the the the digital asset It’s actually fully owned by the users and they only they hold the keys. But what we do is connect into all the different protocols in the platforms like Bitcoin and Aetherium. So that’s where that’s kind of been my main focus as CEO of the central over the years. And just just, you know, since 2018, when the markets really started hitting down in 2018, after the big Ico craze that happened in 2017, I started reevaluating what it is I want to do with my life. And I’ve gotten to the point where, like, I didn’t need to be, you know, thinking about the boat, setting myself up for the rest of my life, things were pretty good at the time. But I realized that more and more of the the more freedom that I was seeking, actually less freedom actually had. And what I mean by that is, you know, when you become your own bank, you got certain responsibilities, and you no longer have your your money sitting in a bank somewhere that that’s being secured by a bank. And it’s not black and white, one of the biggest lesson I’ve ever learned my life is that nothing’s black and white, and there’s kind of gray areas of everything. And there’s always dials and get to turn up and down. And yes, it’s important to be in control of your life. But also sometimes it can be good to have others that are that are offering services to help you along the way. And it was it was eye opening experience. When, you know, a theorem started getting really, really, really big, and just the attention that we were getting got really massive. And it just, you know, it was at a point in my life, I’m like, I want something to happen here that can really make a game changing life on my family and things, you know, I I make wallets, we don’t hold the keys, but something could still happen there that could could could cause some issue. And there’s other risk factors to be considered of. And I ended up rethinking what my mission was and spent a lot of time thinking about three things. My what my why, and my how, and those three things ended up figuring out where my what, you know, what is it I want to do with my life. And now that I’ve done what I’ve done, and I have the resources to continue to do what I’m doing, what is it that I really want to do and what and then it’s like, Well, why do I want to do the thing that I want to do? And then how am I going to do it? And over time, I’m really thinking about this, and I decided to, you know, what makes me happy as being in service. It’s, it’s, it’s the idea that what am I good at? And what can I do to offer to the world that I that I would what I’m good at, and and it’s to be to serve as many people as possible and to help people and that’s figured out? Why do I like to be in service. And I love hosting events and doing things like that. And but it’s really because I It makes me happy to see other people happy. So the idea of what is it I want to do is to serve? Why I want to do it is because it makes me happy. And then how do I do it is something I call perfect formula. It’s a general framework that I came up to solve problems. It’s a, it’s a general problem solving formula that runs on the basis of creating winning situations for as many stakeholders as you can possibly imagine you’re wondering what it is you’re doing. It’s a framework that I’ve developed based on principles, principles, processes, and tools I’ve developed over my lifetime. And it just kind of revolves around, you have a problem, or there’s something you want to achieve. And I take it I take a framework through it, where I say, Okay, who are what is the problem you’re trying to do? Who are your stakeholders, and by stakeholders, I mean, anybody that you could potentially have in the mix that could provide value to you and what you’re trying to do something where you’re trying to create movements of people all aligned towards common interests and common goals so that people realize by joining you on what you’re doing, your life gets better. So I spent time putting together this framework, that kind of is how I’ve run my businesses in the past and, and ended up coming up with something that I think is pretty powerful. And something that I that I think can I can utilize as a problem solver and as a leader, to take my framework to the world. And no matter what sector it’s in and be able to utilize the framework to create better results that create more situations of winning for more people and doesn’t exclude people from the equation because a lot of times business formulas and business models, they’re not a fit. They’re not they’re not efficient enough for them. They have deficiencies, which disclude people and those disclosures of people leads to people that aren’t happy with what you’re doing, or at least the people that you’re not creating a win for. And if you’re not thinking ahead of how you can actually provide value to as many stakeholders as possible. Over time, you’re either going to get disrupted with change that comes about because you haven’t thought as good as someone else doesn’t come down the road, or even to get people that that are feeling that you’re your mission, whether it be to return maximum returns to shareholders, which is what a lot of companies are kind of forced to do. That’s what their mandate is, it usually comes at the expense of something else, whether it’s other people or comes an expense to the planet. And I think if we can move the dial from deficient models, which are maybe let’s say 50% efficient, and they’re still not serving 50% of the population, how do we move it to 60% or being served? How do we move to 70%? How do we create models of aligned people that come together to create 90% of models where people are realizing that by joining your product or joining your company or joining your mission, their day to day life is getting better? And that’s kind of what I’m trying to do with with my framework is bring to the table that there are better ways to have business models. There’s better ways Do things that don’t necessarily rely on advertising models which create, in my opinion, a lot of misinformation and people that are that are taking down these paths, because advertisers are paying money to get eyeballs on something, which leads to, you know, this this attention economy that we have, and the amount of screentime that’s out there. And even models that collect user information, and then are allowing that information somehow to get to get exposed, and people aren’t in control of their other stuff. So I think there’s a big deficiency in business models, which usually stem from having to return money to investors, and people having to squeeze things that eventually lead to problems and lead to a situation where, like we’ve had with with Facebook, you know, government’s questioning, Hey, your business models are leading to these problems here. And, and it’s not good. And in Why are you doing it this? Well, it’s like, well,

 

Scott D Clary  35:49

it’s that’s all because that’s what that’s what everyone does. That’s the status quo. And

 

Anthony Di Iorio  35:53

we haven’t thought differently. And we need to think different. You know, I created models for my wall that don’t work customer funds, because I realize when you’re holding stuff other people’s, you’re now responsible for it. And I don’t want to be responsible for it. So how do you think differently to create wallets where the user is holding the key, and I’m not holding the key. We’ve never used advertising in our models. I think, generally, people don’t like advertising. There’s better ways to do things. So our models for our wallets are we create partnerships and provide services that connect individuals with, with with companies that provide good services. And we provide the interface and kind of the thing that connects it all together. So I believe there’s better ways to do things and the business models that exist. I think the business models that exist lead to a lot of problems, a bolt has at least a disillusion of people, and leads to a situation where a few or maybe being served, but a lot aren’t. And when you have that type of situation, you don’t get aligned people coming together to create movements, when everybody feels that they’re in this together, I kind of want to be a leader and a problem solver. Because I think that’s two things that the world is sorely lacking these days. And using my framework that I’ve developed, I want to serve as many people as possible with what I’m bringing out as perfect formula, which is really a framework, I want to get out to the world that’s has no other intention, rather than to just be in service. It’s not something I’m doing good I plan on doing for profit. In fact, if I was to enter that into the game, I think I would lose credibility from a lot of people that believe that it’s the same type of motive that I’m trying to fix or trying to work with. So it’s really important to have trust, it’s really important to have social capital, trust capital, you need wealth, capital, all these things to come together to create a perfect formula to be able to do what it is you want to do. And check all the boxes in your business and create a situation where no one can say you didn’t think of that in what you’re doing. And your solutions are creating more inclusivity they’re creating more people coming together to on common goals and interests, and you’re creating new solutions for incumbents to even come along because you can’t exclude them in the next either. You have to bring everybody along in what you do. I want to help be a catalyst for

 

Scott D Clary  37:44

that. I just want to take a second and thank the sponsor of today’s episode trade coffee. Now I’m a coffee lover and I just found out a really unnerving stat and facts about coffee 90% of coffee that you buy from a grocery store is actually stale. You heard that right it blew my mind. The coffee in though in love and you go buy from your grocery store needs an upgrade. And that’s not the way coffee is actually supposed to taste. So instead of buying this old, same coffee that you’re already getting at that stale Trade Coffee sends you fresh coffee as much as you want. As fast as you drink it, it’s going to replenish but it’s always going to be fresh. So trade sells fresh, roasted and ethically sourced beans from America’s best independent roasters, they ship free to you as often as you like hole or ground. Whether you’re a coffee nerd or you just want a better daily cup trades real coffee experts at taste has over 400 roasts, and use technology to match you to your ideal coffee. based on your preferences and your brewing method. They actually set up a quiz so that you can answer some information and they’ll have a better idea of what coffee actually fits your particular profile. And they also guarantee that if you don’t love your first bag that they send you they’re gonna replace it for free. They’ve been featured by New York Times wired GQ, they’ve delivered over 5 million bags of fresh coffee. I’m a huge coffee nerd and any way I can get better coffee that I regularly enjoy on game for the subscription is no hassle you can skip shipments you can change your frequency you can cancel anytime you want. And for all success story podcast listeners, they set up an intro offer to get you off the ground. They’re offering a total of $20 off your first three bags when you go to drink trade.com/success story but you have to get started so to start take their quiz figure out what coffee works for you go to drink trade comm slash success story start your journey to your perfect cup that’s drink trade.com/success story get $20 off your first three bags and you and I guess if a business I’d like say an executives listening to this right now and they’re like we are entrenched in the system that we already have. We have investors in could be early stage even we have investors or we’re larger Republic we, you know we have we have shareholders we have to deliver to like how do we move in the right direction? What are steps that you can take? It’s obvious if you’re starting a business with this in mind, you can take actionable steps from day one. And I’d still love to hear what those are. But if you already are operating a business, how do you move the needle towards something that is more inclusive, because this is obviously not the norm at all?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  40:24

No, and I’m a pretty optimistic and positive person, I think there’s always ways that you can create change. And, for me, I learned a long time ago, I don’t want to ever hold people’s money, I don’t take investor money for any of my projects. So last time I did that was with a theory. And when we, when we raise that capital for the project number a little out of my hands through the way I necessarily want to do it. Because with this group of people that were putting this amazing thing together, I didn’t have as much say, I wish I would have on my own. But since then, and this was 2014, I don’t take investor money, I figure out ways to fund things myself in ways that I then stay in control, that I can go in the pace that I want with the speed that I want to carry out what I want, instead of having to be consistent and considering investors along the way, which, you know, it’s like people have to do and I understand that I invest in a lot of projects. So it’s not, it’s not necessarily something I say is, you know, for me, principally, I don’t do it. But what I would say is that a lot of founders will lose their way and and lose their mission and what they’ve actually set up to do because they’ve taken investor money. And then then investors have certain timelines and horizons that they want and, and it ends up it can really detract from the goal of what you’re trying to achieve. And then maybe you’re losing your mission of what you started out. And then you’re kind of in the system and the way that things generally work. So I always like to say, you know, I don’t like normal, I don’t like doing things normally. And it makes you think differently than if I don’t like this, this and this and I don’t want to be under someone else’s thumb. Could there be another way that I’m able to do this, where I’m figuring out how to do things myself or do things differently? If the way things have always been done? If they never existed? What would you do? That’s the way I look at it? You know, the the general flow of raising capital and doing all these other things with the general flow of wealth, I’m a bank, I got a hold someone’s money, but then I’m taking their I got to worry about it to being stolen, I got to think differently, think if the ways of making money didn’t exist right now, what would you do? You know, if the ways of sitting between individuals technology can replace that now and replace what it is you’re doing and your job? And that’s potentially could happen? But what are you going to do? So don’t be complacent, potentially, and what you’re doing right now and start thinking if this was to happen, what am I going to do? And it allows you to think differently, it allows you to think outside of the normal box of of this is going to change? Do I want to be the person that’s going to figure out what that change is going to be? And how am I going to get there. So it’s thinking differently, it’s trying to think in different lenses of if this didn’t exist now, what would I do in the future, and saying, it might not be the easiest way to do it. And it might be really challenging, but I do believe there’s a solution, everything, there’s a better way to do things. And let’s keep moving the dial towards better situations and better business models and better experiences. That that that allow people to be more served and to have problems in their life, solve and improve people’s lives. Because at the end of the day, for me, the big thing is to improve life. That’s my, that’s my, my ultimate goal is what can I do to improve life as a whole. And for me, it’s using my frameworks and being a leader, and solving problems and using my framework, which is based on principles, tools and processes and sticking to the principles that I’ve always adhered to. And that’s where how we want to,

 

Scott D Clary  43:24

and showing people that they can be successful with these tools, these prints because you’re living it That’s That’s it. That’s the thing, too. Like, I think that a lot of people are very short sighted. And they say, Well, yeah, that that’s nice in theory, but then you look at someone like yourself, that has had exits, that has had success. And it’s like, what, why not? If I if I can do it, let me just lay out the framework that I’ve adopted my entire life. And then yeah, that’s where I see you being like, incredibly valuable, like being an evangelist for a better way of doing things.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  43:50

Yeah, it’s not just the people that that maybe are looking at other comments, like even the large company companies out there, the companies that are relying on business models right now that have maybe shot themselves in the foot, because they didn’t see years before how their business model is going to lead to their potential demise. Deficiencies in models leads to other people coming in. And the the more efficient you are, the more you’re checking all the boxes, the more you’re creating situations that are bringing more people along, the more you’re creating wins for more people, the longer you’re going to be around, the more you’re going to stay ahead of others. So it’s it’s the lack of foresight that I’ve seen with some of the biggest companies in the world that haven’t realized maybe that maybe is not a good thing to collect user information and use that as a monetary aspect. Or maybe it’s not a good idea to have this type of advertising model, which is leading to fake news and leading to misinformation being spread. And if we had thought a little bit differently on how to do what it is we’re doing and maybe thought ahead of the curve, which so many people in the crypto space do maybe we’d been in a better position and don’t find us in the situation that we’re in right now. So that’s kind of I still believe there’s there’s hope I still believe that change can happen. I think it’s both having discussions and and seeing how change can happen by talking to problem solvers and putting on the right direction. And speaking with people that are not about Not to be maybe dismissive about what they’ve done. But if they want to learn and want to get on the right track and want to see where the future is heading, speak to some technologies that have seen it before and have understood for years, like like, like AI and other have been 10 years in the space so far in the crypto space and seeing it right away in 2012. For me, and those that even did it earlier, that this is something that’s very powerful and more powerful than the than the internet. And, and encouraging those those company leaders to to look at things differently. And and look to see how they can do things that are providing more value for more people in the world and not just themselves or how they can do it to bring others along. Because the more you’re helping other people, the more they’ll help you is the way I look at it, the more you’re serving others, the more they’re going to join you because their lives are getting better by them joining you on your mission. And that’s how I think we’ve been so

 

Scott D Clary  45:44

amazing. I want to I want to just ask some rapid fire questions to pull some career insights from you just to close this off. But before before we close it. If people want to reach out to you, where should they go? And also, after that, what do you want to be remembered for when your career your life is all said and done. So drop some socials, but then just close out what you want to be remembered for.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  46:10

So I don’t I’m not really in social media very, very much I, me, I learned that that you can get really lost in those things. As you get on my mission. Right now, once I start putting my frameworks, I’ve got some papers coming out in the frameworks that I’m going to be getting out there anything I ever do on social media, it’s got to have a positive thing for me, it’s not about promoting something it’s not about. So you know, Twitter is something that I used to use a lot. And I still check it every once in a while. But generally I’ve shut off any notification stuff for social media for me. But I would probably say once I start really coming forward with what I’m doing with perfect formula, that’s probably the best place and that’s that’s Diorio Anthony, it’s just my name reversed. And it’s and it’s not Deloria was electrical thing. There’s no LMI name, it’s three eyes, di o r IO. Anthony, San Serif fonts can look the same L and capitalized. So a lot of people think that it’s actually the Loreal, but it’s not. So that’s probably the best the best way for now. I plan on having some articles coming out that I’ll be that I’ll be writing and really putting out the framework so that my goal is to get into the hands of many people as possible. This framework that I use, it’s really worked for me. And I think if I can get that out, and if I can use those frameworks to go kind of sector, by sector, industry, by industry, and take that framework through identifying who the who the stakeholders are, what each stockholder is good at what they’re bad at and what problem each stakeholder have, that’s really a key thing of I have my formula, my framework is if you could figure out what what each stakeholder that you have in the mix is good at and utilize that to your advantage when you’re trying to do it, if you can realize what they’re bad at and get them away from doing that thing. A lot of people are doing things that they’re, they’re not necessarily good at like problem solving. And then the third thing if you can figure out what problems each stakeholder has, and your elements of solutions have to have to encompass that as a solution. That’s kind of the the the flow that I do when I do case studies from sector to sector, whether it’s in real estate, or whether it’s working with government leaders on on how they’re going to create change in their company, I can really take it through a flow that’s that’s I think, can create some really productive outcomes. So getting that framework out there in that formula, and being able to say that that framework really helped to create a lot of change and create movements of individuals coming together for under common interests of just trying to be of service to others, is kind of what I would would like to leave us as a market of serving is is really an amazing thing. And it’s really I think the way to happiness is seeing things through other’s eyes and being able to do things to help others

 

Scott D Clary  48:33

amazing. Okay, that’s, that’s great, let’s, let’s do a couple rapid fire, just pull out some last career insights from you. You’ve had an incredible, obviously, incredible life, you’ve done incredible stuff. What was the biggest challenge that you’ve overcome in your personal or professional life? Had you overcome it?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  48:50

So for me, it’s how do I stay in balance? And how do I ensure that I’m ready to take on the large things that I want to do for the world? I’ve had a tendency over the years to take on too much and to get overwhelmed and kind of have a down cycle to to that upcycle and kind of going through these ups and ups and downs. And I realized how do i i want to do greater things, it’s always about what’s the next big thing that I want to do. And if I can’t stay balanced and ensure that my physical state, mental state, emotional state is all where it should be to take on things, then I’m going to get in a situation where I feel it’s gonna be too much. And I have to kind of do reset. So over the last few years, it’s really about maintaining that balance. And the biggest thing I’ve done is, is I go to bed early I get up super early. I’m usually up at before for taking time to myself, I do my workouts I do my meditation, really just slowing down is kind of the biggest thing that I’ve been able to do. I was always a very fast paced child. It’s just it’s the way my mind works. I’m always looking to try to solve problems question why with everything. But without that balance and maintain that balance. Things can get overwhelming anxiety can set in and it brings about fear, fear of not wanting to take on what it is you Know that you’re here to do. So for me the biggest challenge was getting over and figure out how I can put in my data, my day life balance that I need in order to tackle these large mountains that I want to tackle. So the more time I can spend, you know, on my own in the early mornings before the sun comes up and slowing down my pace and being present, and being mindful, and really being grateful. I think that’s, that’s the biggest thing, being grateful for everything I have been grateful for the things I’ve had in the past and, and knowing that everything will work out and being at a state where I can have that balance to tackle the large things that I want to do, I think was the biggest challenge that I’ve had. It’s still something I’m working on something random, hopefully doing better with every day. But it’s I got big, big objectives and big things I want to do. And the biggest thing I need to do is make sure I’m staying balanced and doing that and making sure that I’m staying grounded and staying positive and staying in the presence of what I’m doing with everything. I think that’s that’s the biggest thing. And that’s the biggest thing that’s helped me to do things as well.

 

Scott D Clary  50:55

Who was one person who had a major impact on your life? What did they teach you?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  51:01

I think it’s super important that that we that I get my message out to children. So leaders and problem solvers, if we can create the next generation of leaders and problem solvers and children. That’s something that that I would also like to be able to to help with. And I think Mr. Rogers was someone that really not Rogers in terms of Rogers communication, Mr. Rogers, the, the, the the TV show, the child TV show, personality, really knew how to speak to children really knew how to break down, even what’s going on. That can be very intense topics, he was able to bring them to the children in ways to really get down to their level and be able to speak to them. And if I could do that with children, that’s something that I that I would love to mimic or model after what he did. So he’s one person that I say was really important to me. And I’d love to be someone that can really get to the youth to create leaders and create problem solvers with something sorely sorely needed in this world.

 

Scott D Clary  51:57

Amazing. A book or podcast, you’d recommend that you like that you go ask people to check out.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  52:04

Yeah, I love the daily stoic. Daily stoic, basically, it’s a 365 meditations, each with one page per year, sorry, per day. And it goes from just so many different topics and a reading reading those either straight through or reading at one time, one at a time. It’s really helped me and just, it’s just, it’s all about ways of mindsets of looking at the world. And it helps me to kind of stay grounded in the things I do and realize, you know, I can impact things are things that I can’t impact. And for me, positivity has been something that’s really important to me, I tried to remove all negative words in my vocabulary, because negative words and negative energies, create, create, you know, that’s what what you can be comment, that’s what you’re exuding. So for me, everything’s about positivity, and being open minded and change and trying to bring value and seeing the good in all things. And for me to stay grounded, and actually with the with the book, The Daily stoic has been been really great into something over the last few years that I pick up quite frequently, and go through the daily meditations. Each one has come through the quote from, from a famous philosopher, like Aristotle and, and Seneca. And so it’s these just little one page, things that you can think about during the day. And if you do one of those a day and kind of keep it on your forefront, for your mind for the day, and then go through that entire book, it’s something that’s been very helpful for me when I do my retreats, and silent retreats where I do fasting for a number of days and kind of disconnect from everything and spend like five, seven days completely in silence and, and just reading and writing. Daily still is one of the books I usually take when I do that. I

 

Scott D Clary  53:40

mean, that’s a great recommendation. So that’s Ryan Holiday. I’ll link that in the show notes. But that’s a great book,

 

Anthony Di Iorio  53:44

egos the enemy as well. And also obstacles away are two other ones. Those are very, yeah, really the obstacle is the way, the way that you can challenges lead to your learnings and failures lead to learnings and it’s all part of life. It’s all great things to embrace and be thankful for.,

 

Scott D Clary  54:01

Yeah Agreed. Agreed. If you could tell your 20 year old self one thing, what would it be?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  54:07

I don’t know. I wish I would struggle with those. I feel like if I did that I change something that I don’t want to change.

 

Scott D Clary  54:12

That’s kind of that could be an answer to if you don’t have to change if the obstacles away, you don’t change.

 

Anthony Di Iorio  54:17

Yeah, I’m still happy with where things have been unhappy to be where I am right now. Everything is the way things should happen. And everything in the future will be the way things happen. And that’s the way

 

Scott D Clary  54:24

I like to look amazing. And lastly, last question, what does success mean to you?

 

Anthony Di Iorio  54:32

I think for me, success is is doing something meaningful, something that I feel that I can help others with something that I feel that every day when I go to bed that I feel that I’ve accomplished something of meaning that just isn’t for myself, it’s for others and how to blood have had an impact on other people’s lives and I’ve helped people with their problems and help people with their struggles. And that to me is a successful day and hopefully a successful life if I if I keep focusing on those things.

 

55:12

I’m Amira rose Davis, host of the new season of American prodigy all about black girls in gymnastics.

 

55:18

My white coaches just said you may not get the scores that you deserve because you’re black is the story of a decades long struggle of black gymnasts trying to find and amplify their voices. I can’t be the next mobiles. I can’t be the next Dominique Dawes. I can only be the next version of myself. Listen to American prodigies

 

55:37

on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever you get your podcasts