Technology & Mental Health with Dan Parry

Sean Pritzkau: 

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[00:00:05] Hey there and welcome to this episode of We Can Do This, whether this is your first time listening in, or you've been listening since day one, I'm really grateful that you decided to take time out of your day to listen to this podcast. And if you are listener you may have noticed that,  there's a few weeks where we didn't have episodes release for a few reasons.

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[00:00:25] One being that we had a holiday here in the US where I live, where I decided not to release an episode, which is funny. It made me go into our podcast analytics, where I can see kind of where people are listening from.

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[00:00:39] And to my surprise, aside from a lot of listeners in the United States, we've had listeners so far from Venezuela, Singapore, Canada, the UK, Philippines, Israel, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Thailand, Germany.  Didn't realize we had so many, international listeners. So I guess it doesn't make sense to, plan episodes around US holidays.

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[00:01:06]So I'm really excited to jump back in. And for today's episode, we have a conversation with Dan Parry. Now, Dan has worked in various roles when it comes to marketing in London, he is co-founder of the customer research company. Has been an educator in a number of universities and nonprofit organizations, teaching people about tech and about business.

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[00:01:28] And we've talked about some really interesting things around his own personal journey when it comes to starting companies and launching products and ideas. And specifically there's a thread through this conversation that you'll notice about mental health, about how Dan has been mindful of his own mental health during all of these various stages.

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[00:01:51] And ultimately he is currently working on a project in the mental health space, which I think you'll find really interesting to hear about. His thought process around launching his own company own project that he's working on right now. So, so I think this episode is going to be really interesting specifically, if you have an idea, the idea that you're kind of toying with in this moment, figuring out what direction to move in, Dan's going to explore all of these things for us in this episode, and I think we're gonna find it really interesting. So let's jump into this week's episode.

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[00:02:43]Hey there and welcome to the podcast. Today I'm excited to be with Dan Parry. Now, Dan, studied computer science at University in London, and very quickly realized he was a terrible programmer. Since leaving university in the early two thousands he worked in tech-support across multiple industries, been a creative in marketing companies in London, a "technical non-technical" product person, co-founded a customer research company, and has been an educator at a number of universities and not-for-profit enterprises teaching new entrepreneurs about tech and business.

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[00:03:18] And now that technology has finally caught up, he's using no-code tools to build a mental health startup on the side called Wellos. So Dan, I'm excited to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

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[00:03:30] Dan Parry: 

[00:03:30] Thank you very much. I'm so glad to be here.  

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[00:03:32] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:03:32] So it's funny as I was just  reading your bio, there's like this dance between tech and non-tech. Talk to us  about that. Like, what were you up before Tectonic and Wellos and tell us about this relationship that you have with tech.

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[00:03:46] Dan Parry: 

[00:03:46] Yeah, sure. So I think my main love of technology. When I was growing up and I got a computer my father got us a computer and I was just instantly in love with playing games on it. And and using it to just see into different possible futures and different possible worlds. And the idea  like shaped my way of thinking around technology and how it can be used to help people and entertain people and do so many things. And I've just loved, it loved computers since I was eight or so. I've always been a creative person, so always drawing, writing, making music. I used to rap, I produce music now I do all of these random things. So I feel like at my core, there's a, there's a tension between technology and  art or creative work. And yeah, I usually use technology to try and further this creative, these creative passions of mine. But yeah, there's, I think there's always the tension. One of the interesting thing is one of my previous life, I used to be do tech support at a textile mill in the Highlands of Scotland.

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[00:04:56] So I was, I'm the only black person in the town. I In the mill, the like going into where they were weaving all the factory fabric, it was like going into like the 18 hundreds, like they were just old school machinery. And just, again, just that tension  just arose to just like teaching people have to copy and paste.

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[00:05:16] Like they've never copied and pasted things before. So like, when I tell them they used to enter in all the information into the loom details by hand, and if they made a mistake, they'd have to do all together. And there were thousands of readings and I was like, oh, you could probably do. Copy and paste the data already learned.

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[00:05:31] They're just like blew their minds. So yeah, I just love helping people. I just love tech, arts, all of those things. And the reason why I went into tech support, oh, well, the reason why I went into state tried to study computer science at university was because I wanted to make video games. I want us to give those feelings and then on my first day I realized that I cannot program and I will be a terrible programmer.

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[00:05:53] And My parents being from Ghana forced me to or strongly suggested that I continue until the end and I did, and I barely made it through. And that really shaped my self-belief in myself and shaped my  limited my view about what I could be and what I could do because yeah, I never thought I could make anything, but now I can. 

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[00:06:14] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:06:14] yeah. Oh, it's so interesting. I mean, I liked how you said that your interest in technology started because you wanted to help people. And I think technology at its best is something that helps people, whether that be through entertainment, whether that be through business or like some of these, you know, this practical experience that you had in helping people copy and paste.

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[00:06:36] Right. And especially when it leans into more creative fields and people have an idea or they have an aspiration or they have an album, right. That they want to work. And they realized that the thing standing in the way for, for them really teasing that dream of what they wanted to accomplish is technology.

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[00:06:56] And it becomes this big barrier. And if you feel like. It's a you vs. Technology and technology wins, then it can be really discouraging. And it's, I can see how that gets wrapped up into the, your aspirations, your creative dreams, ideas, things that you want to want to do. So tell us , I mean, tell us  about this relationship with technology.

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[00:07:16] It seems that in university, it feels like tech one in the sense you made it out, but then in the battle versus tech tech one, and then how did you  redeem or reclaim this relationship that you had with tech?

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[00:07:28]Dan Parry: 

[00:07:28] So so yeah, technology one and defeated me in at university. And so where most of my friends went on to become developers, earn a lot of money coding, I didn't and went into tech support because I was still in love with technology. And it was always tech support for my family and friends anyway, because I knew, so yeah.

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[00:07:46]While I was doing that. And I realized that I was always helping facilitate people, do cool things, but wasn't doing anything cool myself. And that  like forced me to confront certain aspects of myself. So part, part of that was.

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[00:08:04]Started to try and reclaim back sort of my creativity and and mission.

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[00:08:10] I was by doing creative things on the side. So I used to like make music, you know, using technology to try and like learn how to make beats. But the other thing that I did was I. I eventually figured out how to get into a marketing company at the tech support there. So all the cool things that they were doing, all the developers are doing amazing things or people had ideas and then things would just happen.

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[00:08:30] And I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. And I wanted to be part of that and not just helping people like facilitating the underlying infrastructure, but actually coming up with these ideas. So I eventually took a week holiday to work in the creativity. And as a copywriter and that was great.

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[00:08:47] And then I went back to real life and as a, in tech support, and that was not great. And I was like, okay, cool. I'm a, I'm a, I'm a creative person at heart. So I effectively left, did a whole bunch of things and made it back to that same agency as a copywriter. 

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[00:09:01]While I was doing that, my brother. Music tech idea on the side, which was to help empower unknown DJs to promote themselves more effectively.

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[00:09:11] And because of my past experience in university and just how I'd felt about myself, I didn't think I was capable of helping. But as he went on, I  realized that he's a genius and he's going to be rich and I didn't want to be the not rich older brother. So I I helped start helping them along in this journey with his friends and start up life was where I began to see that technology wasn't something that you should be afraid of, and it can help individuals. And again, you can use it to help people. Our whole goal was always to help people whenever we do anything. So we wanted to help musicians and DJs. And so Yeah.

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[00:09:50] we did the whole startup thing of like raising money and get hiring developers of doing all that jazz. And the startup didn't work out for multiple reasons. One of them was Cambridge Analytica, which I can go into bit later, but along the way, I  found out about chatbots and, and it was when the chatbot phase was getting really big. And I was like, oh my God, like you could do like games. You could do. Like you can put chatbots at anywhere to make things really engaged in it's. There was a lot of hype around it and it didn't pan out the way that it was supposed to. But then from chatbots, I  got into the whole no-code scene and started realizing that you could make things and this unlocked so many things in my brain, like so many, like I can, I don't have to pay a developer to build something that is probably wrong and don't have to I could learn new skills and like test the market. I can build, I can teach people. I can be self-reliant I can mess around and have fun. And that's when I think that technology  like started going more way, or I started going to technology's way. It depends on how you put it. 

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[00:10:55]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:10:55] Yeah.

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[00:10:55]It's so interesting because hearing, you know, you have experience in programming and then you've had experience hiring developers. 

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[00:11:04] Dan Parry: 

[00:11:04] Hmm, 

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[00:11:04] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:11:04] and now this , you know, we, when we talk about no code, we hear about this like democratization of technology. It really put these tools in your hands to say, all right, I could have done it this way.

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[00:11:16] I could have done it this way, but now there's like this new way that actually empowers me to, to do what I want to do.

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[00:11:22] Dan Parry: 

[00:11:22] Absolutely. Yeah. And, and the thing is with no code there's often this code versus no code battle on the internet.

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[00:11:29] And the thing I find strange about that, but I think at first I was very like no code vs code, but the thing. th and the argument is that, like, you get more power with being able to develop things. That thing with learning, how to code is that it takes a little more than a certain amount of time. And the chances are whatever thing that you're building is probably wrong. Like, like just mathematically, like you've just got to 

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[00:11:54] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:11:54] that are against you. 

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[00:11:55] Dan Parry: 

[00:11:55] the chances are against you. So actually speed to be able to iterate and speed, to be able to change and add value and it's really important, but also the chances are that your product is not the key aspect of your business. Like I always say that your product is a function of your business. It's like your business, like your business model, your customers, it's like your marketing, all of that stuff.

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[00:12:19] And your product and people spend get so hyped and the coders and no coders get so hyped about the product stuff that they forget, they think that once I've read this thing, that people will come, people will not come.

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[00:12:29]Like, so there's a whole load of other stuff that you have to learn as well and have to have to do, but by democratizing development, the thing I love about that is that it allows people who have traditionally not had access to developers, which are this magical resource or have the time or the ability to learn themselves to now build things that matter to them. 

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[00:12:53]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:12:53] Hm. 

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[00:12:54] Dan Parry: 

[00:12:54] like and, and, and things that would normally be seen as niche could actually have a chance to succeed. and and you can prove that they add value to the world and prove to yourself as well that you could, you can add value if that's what your goal is. 

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[00:13:08] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:13:08] Yeah, absolutely. And I love that you said that because accessibility is so important, I mean, in a array of different ways putting these tools in the hands of people that traditionally didn't have them one is is incredibly exciting for the things that come from that, right? The fruit of like these products, these tools, these platforms that were in the hands of certain people.

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[00:13:29] Now they're in hands of everybody. I think is awesome. But specifically, so I, when I talk about this with other people, there's always like a gateway drug into no-code and it seems like, 

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[00:13:39]your gateway drug into no-code was chatbots.

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[00:13:43]A lot of people I hear is Glide, right? They start playing Glide and it, I liked how you said it unlocks something almost in your brain. You're like, there's all these new realm of possibilities. And so tell us, walk us through  from you had this experience in the startup , it didn't pan out in some ways Now discovering no code using it for these chatbots, which you can think of a million different ways, that chatbots can be useful for the internet. 

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[00:14:06] Where did you  from there? 

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[00:14:07] Dan Parry: 

[00:14:07] Hmm. So while we were building our music tech startup lots of people kept asking us, how did we build. 

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[00:14:12]This platform. And so we effectively started a development company to bootstrap the music tech business and that development company. What we noticed was that all the founders who had better, lived experiences.

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[00:14:27] So if they were barber and they wanted to make a barbershop app. They, it was better than this, like random dudes who came up with random ideas 

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[00:14:34] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:14:34] Yeah. Someone saw a money-making opportunity 

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[00:14:37] and said, let's figure it out. Yeah. 

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[00:14:38] Dan Parry: 

[00:14:38] precisely, precisely. So so we effectively decided to focus predominantly on this development company with, and by an, our key differentiator was that we would do customer interviews before we built people's MVPs.

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[00:14:52] So we could say, Hey, like, We know that building the MVP is expensive and cost prohibitive to most people on the planet. Let's de-risk it by actually talking to your customers first, so that we'd know what you need to build. We love that we did, we kept on doing that. And then we eventually just stopped the development piece because it was so difficult.

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[00:15:10] And I could see the rise of low-code tools, like rather than spending loads of money. Building something that nobody wants, that it's just a bunch of your best guesses. Actually, let's talk to people first, find out. what they actually do need and build the smallest thing. First, you don't need a crazy system or that you probably just need like a small website that does X, Y, Z.

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[00:15:31] So we did that shut that in music tech business. And that  just became the the research piece of paper, the core of what we did. And I, and, and teaching people about. Customer development and customer research. Because again, like we believe that de-risking the whole process by talking to your customers, teaching people how to understand and analyze the data to helping people with finding the right tools that they can make their MVP's from in their businesses from is all is the right thing to do to help people build better businesses. 

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[00:16:04] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:16:04] Yeah, 

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[00:16:05]better. Yeah. I love it. Better businesses. And the word that stuck out to me is de-risk right. Cause there's still probably a hell of a lot of risks, no matter what you're doing, but you're taking this ginormous amount of it away. So that now you have like a level of confidence going into that startup idea, MVP, which you could even potentially, you know, utilize no code tools to do it.

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[00:16:27] So you eliminated risk and then there's still risk investing in the building that platform. But if you can do that at a fraction of the cost and time, there's a whole another level of risk that gets removed. 

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[00:16:40] Dan Parry: 

[00:16:40] Yeah, yeah, absolutely. 

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[00:16:42] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:16:42] so I can see, I mean, I can imagine if we were to look at like the success rate of people that did that.

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[00:16:46]That and then moved on. I I'm really curious to see what that would look like. Cool. So this is super interesting and you move into this, really, this customer, audience discovery part of your journey. And if I'm correct there's a lot of this work that you're really you're doing. And then to  reach back to the beginning of our conversation, talking about technology is solving.

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[00:17:09]Dan Parry: 

[00:17:09] Hmm. 

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[00:17:10] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:17:10] Sometimes there is problems that are of a different caliber, right? They could be societal problems. They could be problems that are involving under represented people. There can be, there's all these global problems and we're seeing, Hey, I'm learning all this about technology, putting in the hands of people that traditionally didn't have it.

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[00:17:32]I'm learning about, you know this experience of customer research and actually talking, discovering what people want, what people care about. I imagine if I was  in your head at this moment, I'm also seeing all these other ways that these things can be used to really impact people and, and do a level of good in the world.

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[00:17:52]So I understand. Wellos is is a platform that you've been working on for some time. 

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[00:17:57] Right. Talk to us  about that and  maybe how that began, what inspired you to start that project and yeah.  Connect the pieces to some of this elements, some of these elements of your journey that you've talked about.

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[00:18:08] Dan Parry: 

[00:18:08] Yeah. Sure. So I have had depression since I was about 12 and mental health has been a huge aspect of a part of me and tried to understand my own mental health and in trying to understand my own, trying to help others understand their own as well. And. So I, when I entered into the no-code space, as soon as I had the opportunity to be able to build things, I was like, okay, cool.

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[00:18:32] Well, I could build anything, but it's probably worthwhile meet. Focus on a particular area, especially with when I talk to founders, I always say like fall in love with a customer area or afforded enough feedback, a problem rather than like specific solutions. So my general idea and goal in life is to try and help the world's men to improve the world's mental health by 10%.

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[00:18:56] Like it a ridiculous statement to make an immeasurable, but something that I is a worthwhile challenge for me to do, and I can do it in multiple ways, acting games. I could do it in an apps businesses, anything. So I built a small app before in Adalo, which was a tool to help me remember my wins as a suffer of depression, I have a terrible memory.

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[00:19:20] So I can't remember the things that I've done, which then makes me feel bad and spirals. So I was like, okay, cool. Let me build this app to help me Remember my wins. And then I got invited to join On Deck in the inaugeral no code cohort. And as part of On Deck, the thing that you have to do is a showcase of a, of an app and I wanted to do something different and I wanted to yeah, try and figure it out. Something creates something. Firstly, which was very incredibly stressful. It was around Christmas time, I always have like a terrible time. We've got mental health around them. I was struggling. Work was like a lot just all the things. And I 

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[00:19:57] had my first panic attack. Yeah.

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[00:19:59]I've never had a panic attack before, but because I was in therapy and I'm in therapy, I was able to  question those thoughts, see whether they were real or not. And then I listen to some music that I really loved. Then I had a shower and I was like, oh, okay, cool. This should be a wellbeing. Like this is like a little map to be able to help me or menu to help me. Whenever I have these moods, that me. This could be my idea. So out of the terrible time that I was having, I I, I came up with this idea. And then 

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[00:20:27] I effectively tried to make a small version of this. I showed it to my mastermind group group and they loved it, but they didn't use it. And basically after doing the customer research process, I realized that Wellbeing professionals were the ones who were looking to share their content and, and provide the content and. And grow their business. 

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[00:20:47] And there were lots of people who are looking for that stuff, but I wanted to focus initially on those wellbeing creators. So I pivoted and started to building in that space to effectively create the colloquial term was wholesome only fans which is what I was trying to do, try to make a platform that allowed these creators to monetize from their skills and knowledge to 

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[00:21:08] help the world. And as I went on through the journey, you learn so much because even though I'm in a customer research capacity, I tried sometimes to do things in the wrong way. So to, in order to. Be able to be more effective with my teaching

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[00:21:23]so it's called the typical way that people do things. It's just that they just build things that they like. And then they're like, Hey world. And the world is, Yeah.

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[00:21:31] yeah. And the world is like, please uncross those fingers. So I realized that, okay, I needed to meet down even more. And I  wanted to focus more on the mental health aspects of the physical health for, in the wellbeing space. So I niched down 

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[00:21:43] to therapists and I've really been following lots of therapists on Twitter and trying to understand the space more and try to understand the, create the quality space more. And yeah. Built features. And, but like there was this feeling that I was having as I was building this, that I may have come down the wrong path. The reason why I say that is because I ended up building a marketplace and like, marketplaces are really hard. 

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[00:22:14] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:22:14] Yeah. 

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[00:22:15]Dan Parry: 

[00:22:15] Really hard. And I knew that, and I didn't want to build a wealth, a place by it.

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[00:22:20] I was getting so many in the research. I was getting so many signs and I had to. So what I've, what I've thought is actually take a step back, really reflect on what this thing is and what I'm trying to do. I'm actually almost re pivoting back to the initial, to the original idea of curating wholesome content and wellbeing content that and having it searchable in the right ways, finding creators that I really love showcasing their work. And then from there, I'll probably end up still making whole Simone with fans, but I'm going to be starting from a really simple place. So yeah, that's well loss. 

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[00:22:57]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:22:57] Yeah, that's so interesting. I love hearing , I feel like we're  in the mind of a founder and identifying what is the right direction to go. I have a mentor that says this phrase, hopefully I don't butcher it, his name's Mike Kim. He has this phrase that he says that "clarity comes from a marriage of movement and meditation". 

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[00:23:14] Dan Parry: 

[00:23:14] Mm 

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[00:23:14]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:23:14] Meaning clarity comes through both doing and then reflecting. Right. And I think there's this process I'm hearing in your story of. Taking a stab at it, seeing how it responds and with your background experience and customer research, knowing that there's actually people to see if they will respond, right.

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[00:23:32] If it's an empty room, no, one's going to respond to what you're doing. But if you know, there are people that are interested. They'll talk back at you. We had Arvid Kahl on a recent podcast and we talked a ton about that. And then once you reflect, deciding where to go next. And it's, it's all really interesting.

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[00:23:50]And so it's, as far as our listeners who are listening to this episode today, let's say they probably have ideas, aspirations, creative things that they want to accomplish. Maybe traditionally didn't know that they could actually build these things. And they were saying, how do I clear up my thoughts so I can try to translate that to a developer or someone that could.

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[00:24:10]Dan Parry: 

[00:24:10] Okay. 

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[00:24:11] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:24:11] That could make those things reality, which is challenging. But now they're discovering, Hey, I have this idea, I have this thing. I want to build a platform. And now I'm thinking I might be able to do this. 

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[00:24:21] Dan Parry: 

[00:24:21] Okay. 

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[00:24:21]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:24:21] And realizing that like you've been transparent and vulnerable and sharing your own experience with mental health.

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[00:24:28] And let's say. These people are also feeling  defeated by when they've tried to do some things like that. Yeah. What would you say to people listening today that are maybe at this point before you started Wellos right. And they just have an idea, maybe some tools, some first steps they want to take, but mental health is also in the picture.

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[00:24:47] What would you say to them?

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[00:24:49]Dan Parry: 

[00:24:49] So, I guess my first thing to say is commend you for wanting to take, the step. I think it's brave to actually want to change the world in your specific way. and you are worthy 

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[00:25:02]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:25:02] Hmm. 

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[00:25:02] Dan Parry: 

[00:25:02] and and capable. And there are lots of people around you are always going to be willing to help because there are people who'd like, love the space that you're probably going to be in there.

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[00:25:11] People who love the tool that you're probably going to be in, that you could he'd love you. So there's lots of people around. In trying to build something, I would say that focusing on the customer and the customer area, and who they are, why they do what they do is critical. Finding the customer type that you enjoy spending time with is critical. As I've mentioned, I've mentioned to multiple people, the chances are that the grand idea that you've got in your head is likely wrong, just because of the number of assumptions that you have and not just mathematically, but if you're always talking to your customer and getting feedback from them and spend time with them, it's like, you're building things with your friends or building things with your peers.

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[00:25:54] And so getting them to help shape what you're building is likely to reduce the risk. And it's going to be a fun time whenever you start with, like, whenever I'm stuck with Wellos, like I just go and talk to a therapist and I like talking to a therapist or yoga instructor and I'm like, oh man, like, even if it's not quite what I thought, it's, it's like, it's, it's a good conversation.

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[00:26:16]And then regarding shipping the product there are two aspects of this and one of them is people have a concept of what an MVP is and everyone's MVP is always too big. Like minimum viable is not very minimum, not very minimum. I always say, think about what your MVP is and then divide it by 10.

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[00:26:38]And like drop the most atomically small thing that you could possibly drop just to get feedback from the market, whether this thing is a thing or not. And sometimes it might be too small, oftentimes just not it's just so you might need to make it smaller, but if it's too small, then you can add to it incrementally, but people will spend lots of time, money, or emotional energy into building something that I like, this is my baby. Don't tell me my baby's ugly. Or, or this is why baby. I'm not going to show the world my baby, because I don't want anyone to tell them that this thing that my babies ugly, whereas it's 

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[00:27:14] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:27:14] My wife call that precious. 

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[00:27:15] Dan Parry: 

[00:27:15] Yeah.

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[00:27:16]absolutely. It's it's, it's really the way I look at it actually is the idea that you've thought came from somewhere. Whether it's lived experience, whether it's opportunity, whether it's just, you're a genius, but very few people, have the ability to shape the market into their will and bend them, work it into the world.

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[00:27:36] It's actually more of a collaboration. It's like you are an artist on a song and the market is doing the feature, the guest verse, it's a collaboration, or you're the band and they're the lead singer. 

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[00:27:47] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:27:47] Yeah. 

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[00:27:48] Dan Parry: 

[00:27:48] This is a collaborative process. So like minimize what you're trying to do, work with the market and build the smallest thing, atomically smallest thing that you can do, and then practice your shipping. Practice being awkward in front of people, practice telling your story, practice, like figuring out how to launch apps, practice, and don't be afraid. And the more you do this, the more you lower your risk and the more you can increase your chance of success. 

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[00:28:15] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:28:15] Hmm. That's, that's very, very good. Very helpful. One of the other threads that I  heard in your story and maybe this is relevant to like your own mental health journey too in doing this is, there was people along the way. That it seems like you really engaged with that help spurred you on.

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[00:28:31] I think I heard your brother, right? You 

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[00:28:33] Dan Parry: 

[00:28:33] Hmm. 

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[00:28:34] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:28:34] you were, co-founding a company opposed to being a solo founder in that sense. Right. And then hearing your journey of On Deck for people that don't know what On Deck is.

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[00:28:43] Dan Parry: 

[00:28:43] Cohort based education. 

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[00:28:45] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:28:45] Cohort Based education. right.

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[00:28:46] And then I heard you used the word mastermind. So it seems like there's, there was people around you in that. How has a community and people really helped you stay on course. 

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[00:28:55]Dan Parry: 

[00:28:55] Oh, man, it's been so important. I think that some of the mastermind side, I mean, I mean one of the a hundred days of no code masterminds and I joined that last may. So I've been doing it like one for every Monday or so for a year over a year. And. Initially there's this, 

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[00:29:16]We used to talk about tools and like, oh, what new apps come on?

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[00:29:19] What news? Cause as well, but then as you. But what, in your journey, you start realizing that it's much more about the mental health aspects, much more about having a supportive group of individuals who are there for you, who are there when you're up there, when you're down. Like, it's very rare that everyone in the masterminds are always having the best of times as it was a very rare that everyone's always having the worst of times.

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[00:29:41] So you  balance each other out and learn a lot and learn from each other. Yeah, so I think having the On Deck community is incredible. My, my team is a community and again, really supportive of decisions and apps and things that we do. I think having a supportive community around you, of people who are trying to do the same thing as you, not same project, but like achieve.

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[00:30:09]Like change, like you are, is so important in order to basically find balance

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[00:30:16] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:30:16] Hmm. 

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[00:30:17]Dan Parry: 

[00:30:17] my natural as a creative person with ADHD. like my natural demeanor is to do things until I get bored and stop. And then keep doing lots what's things. And there's a benefits of it because I'm good at a bunch of random things that no one cares about, but like, um, however, the downside is that like finishing things or get into a state of mastery of things is difficult because.

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[00:30:44] You don't, you don't complete them, but when you're in these communities or groups, you're, you're looking at examples of people doing things and, and people keep asking questions like, oh, how did that thing go? And you're like, ah, I guess I should only do that if it's the same thing, example as like why Peloton works right. It's like a community of gym goers who like go to the gym and the virtual gyms or whatever, and do exercises and like are trying to teach something that is greater than themselves. So, Yeah.

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[00:31:13] I'm a big believer in communities. I think that may have been, yeah. So critical to my growth and success  limited success that is And, but key to my, not failure 

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[00:31:26] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:31:26] yeah, I really liked how you phrased that. I would say the very same thing. Community has been, incredible, incredibly helpful in my own journey too. As we begin to wrap up, 

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[00:31:36]Is there anything you're learning right now that is, has been helpful or is there anything that you'd kinda like to share as we, as we were. 

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[00:31:45]Dan Parry: 

[00:31:45] Yeah. So things I'm learning right now, I 

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[00:31:47] am, I guess I'm always 

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[00:31:49] learning. So like I think that might be part of my ADHD that I'm always just super 

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[00:31:53] curious about things. 

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[00:31:54] So I'm currently trying to learn a lot about crypto and not in like in the investment side of things, but more than just like, what is it, what could it mean for the world?

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[00:32:05] Like, what is Ethereum, how does it work? Like what does crypto mean for creative people. So yeah, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to learn more about that, to like the new website by a16z.

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[00:32:16] And that's like a lot of articles about crypto and that's been really, really fascinating. I've been learning Bubble so I started learning 

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[00:32:24] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:32:24] That's a continuous process.

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[00:32:26] Dan Parry: 

[00:32:26] Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

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[00:32:28] I try to learn. So Bubble is a visual development platform. One of the more complicated ones. As soon as I got into the no-code space, I heard about Bubble and I was like, oh, this sounds like everything that I could want to do. And I tried it multiple times and just couldn't get my head around it. And it was only when I was in On Deck and I saw people creating beautiful products. Cause I like beautiful things. I was like, oh, Okay. I have to do this now. So I've been learning that I was actually just before this call, I'm watching a video on how to make things responsive, and beautiful. And. Yeah, those are the key things that I'm  learning at the moment. I'm always trying to learn more about myself.

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[00:33:08] So doing therapy, which has been money therapist is really good. One of the side projects that we've done as a business is one called Evermind where we've helped we're helping remote workers get affordable mental health care by finding therapists from around the world 

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[00:33:24] and built that platform using a bunch of no code tools.

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[00:33:28] And in order to test the platform, I booked the session with one of the therapist and she was so great that she's now my therapist. So dogfooding my own products. But yeah, it therapy can, can be quite difficult and covering things. So I've been doing that for a while.

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[00:33:42]Yeah.

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[00:33:42]So those are the things that I'm learning. And in terms of things that I'd like to share I think as a founder or creative, or maybe a person who hasn't built a business before, especially on their own encouraging words that I would say to myself that I'm going to say to you all now, is that. It's absolutely possible. There will be stumbling blocks.

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[00:34:03] There will be difficult times. They will be times when you have to learn to prioritize times when things may take a step back, but technology has made it so much easier. It's obviously it's not. But it's much easier to build a lifestyle that can support your dreams and hopes and ambitions, and also do so in a way that doesn't require your soul, or all of your finances. So 

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[00:34:32] yeah, you can do it. 

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[00:34:34] Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:34:34] Yeah, I love it. I often the most encouraging thing that we can say to someone is the same thing we would tell ourselves. Right. So that's, I love that you mentioned that. Well, cool, Dan, it was really fun to, to chat today. I really love the, the different directions that we went with this conversation.

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[00:34:47]Hopefully, you know, this inspires someone to get something that doesn't exist that should exist 

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[00:34:54] Dan Parry: 

[00:34:54] Hmm. 

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[00:34:54]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:34:54] And I think if you follow through with some of the things that we talked about today, maybe it's community, maybe it's diving into that maybe that gateway drug of a no-code tool, or even just like you said getting your mental health in order, you know, making that connection that you need to make reaching out to a mental health provider using one of the several tools that we mentioned that you've built, right.

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[00:35:15] That that could be the next step for someone on listening today is, is to, to take that seriously. But very, very cool. I'll include everything that we talked about. Any links that we shared in the show notes. So if anyone wants to jump in and take a look at some of these things I'll link to, to Dan social media accounts, I'm very active on Twitter.

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[00:35:36] I think that's how we I got connected so definitely follow Dan on Twitter. But again, thanks for being on the podcast.

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[00:35:41]Dan Parry: 

[00:35:41] And thank you for having me. This has been really, really nice. 

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[00:35:44] 

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[00:35:58]Sean Pritzkau: 

[00:35:58] All right. What an awesome conversation with Dan. I really enjoyed just hanging with him for that conversation, hearing about all these things. Aspects of his own story and how it kind of weave together and to where he is now. And how has you used these experiences from the companies that he started and the experiences that he's had and how these are forming and shaping his current project?

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[00:36:22] Right. So we talked about a bunch of different things. In this episode, we'll have some links to the various websites that we talked through. Definitely follow Dan on social media. His links will be in the show notes, but again, thanks for listening to this week's episode and I'll see you next week. 

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