Pete Erickson is the founder of Modev, a community-based organization that creates conferences and special events aimed at keeping developers ahead of the fast-moving technology curve. Pete believes that human connection is vital in the era of digital transformation, and built Modev to fulfill this need. Through his organization, Pete aims to foster the exchange of ideas, guided by the desire to learn, teach, and grow as individuals, organizations, and industries as whole.
In 2017 Pete founded VOICE, a series of events, conferences, and media properties that bring together more than 25,000 of the voice tech industry’s top creators, developers, designers, marketers, and executives from around the world. In 2017, VOICE Talks won the 2021 Webby People’s Voice Award Winner.
In this episode, Pete and Bryan discuss:
– How Pete’s college job at Costco set him on his path to being a community builder
– The many rewarding ways communities can help bring people together
– Why growth and transformations are an important part of life for individuals and businesses
The show is shared on the following platforms:
Transcript:
Bryan Wish:
Pete welcome to the One Away Show.
Pete Erickson:
Hey, it’s awesome to be here, Bryan. This has been a long time coming.
Bryan Wish:
Long time, couple cancellations, couple of [inaudible 00:00:13].
Pete Erickson:
I think one was my fault, one was your fault. So now we’re even, and here we are.
Bryan Wish:
We’re even, but we waited for your birthday is what we’re going to tell everyone.
Pete Erickson:
Hey, that’s right.
Bryan Wish:
Happy birthday.
Pete Erickson:
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Bryan Wish:
Yes. Well, Pete, thanks for being here. I’m so enjoyed our relationship. I would love to chat about your one away moment. What is it that you want to share with us today?
Pete Erickson:
Well, I think the one away moment I go back to when I first started building community, when I came here to DC. I moved here in 2008 from Seattle. I was in the tech space in Seattle. And I was in the midst of kind of a career job change at the time when I moved here to marry my now wife, Sabrina, and that’s worked out well. So 13 years of marriage, two kids, life is good, living here in Arlington, Virginia. But my one away moment is really that I’m a community builder. And I learned that when I moved here and it was because I found myself in this circumstance where I was in a new city, I didn’t really know anybody. The iPhone had come out and the iTunes app store was starting. And it was this sort of revolutionary idea in the way that software could be delivered. And I was in, I was like, I really wanted to explore it. And I was looking for the people in this town that I could collaborate with around it. And I was having a hard time finding that nucleus, that community.
Pete Erickson:
So I started a group which became Modev and it was a meetup group. So that got really popular and, or I think it got pretty popular. We put on a three day conference and it was school of hard knocks, I had no idea what I was really doing and burning the midnight oil. But after three days and a hackathon and tons of classes and speakers, everybody just said, “Hey, this is so important, you’ve got to keep going.” So I think it’s when I realize that my vocation, my calling is one of community builder and really just accepting that. Just saying, “Okay, I think I can make a job out of this and really make a company out of this.” And ever since that time, it’s been a really fascinating journey and it’s been super hard. Sometimes it’s been absolutely super rewarding but at the end of the day, super satisfying and important work. So that’s my moment and here I am.
Bryan Wish:
Awesome. Wow. I bet moving here and kind of diving into the unknown was thrilling and scary, and kind of being here with your wife seems like a good decision at the end, but also a lot of unknowns. So I want to back up before the maybe inception of Modev. You moved to a new area and you’re trying to find your people, right? You’re a community builder. So what year was this for kind of technical-
Pete Erickson:
2008 I moved here from… So full time, I moved here in 2008.
Bryan Wish:
So we had cell phone service around this. Got it. So I was going to ask you is, but Facebook wasn’t really around, you’ve had a network of people. How did you go about finding all the technologically sound interesting people in DC, not knowing anyone? Like, what was your approach?
Pete Erickson:
Well, the social network that had started at the time was Meetup and I have to give, Meetup a lot of credit. I have to say, I started a Meetup, it was fairly inexpensive and suddenly people were joining my group. So I formed the group in December, 2008. We didn’t have our first Meetup till January 21st, 2009. And I didn’t have any venue, I didn’t know anybody with space. So I plucked it at a pizza shop that isn’t even there anymore in Arlington, down in Rosalyn and 12 people showed up. And the funny thing is, this is back in the day, 12 people RSVPd and 12 people showed up. So that’s when everybody showed up and they said they were going to be there during those days. Now that’s that’s not the case anymore.
Pete Erickson:
But the next month, so that was January. In February, I think we had like 36 or 40 people. Like it just suddenly just started and then it went to 50, 60, and then it went to 100. So we kept having to find bigger and bigger spaces to house everybody. But the conversations were so important because everybody was in discovery mode right then. And some of the people that came to those very first Meetups are now my long time friends, people I’ve known now for over a decade. In fact, most of the people that I know that I call my friends around this area, came through my work at Modev and I’ve got lifelong friends now that are part of that community. So I credit Meetup because there wasn’t another platform for making meetings happen so easily.
Bryan Wish:
Wow. I didn’t realize Meetup was even around in 2008.
Pete Erickson:
Yeah. It launched in… It was a Web2.0. So that’s back when now we talk about Web3, but back then… So it was 2007, the Web2.0 Oh conference in New York, 2007, 2008, the Web2.0 Conference. I met the Meetup group up there in their booth at the Javits Center and got their pitch. And I just thought, oh, I think that’s what I need to do is use that. So that’s how I learned about it.
Bryan Wish:
Interesting, interesting, interesting. I mean, pops to you, right? For, I think it has come through all of our conversations that we’ve been in, but you thrive at the intersection of people and technology and then kind of catalyzing them around one thing. So let’s go even deeper. Where is your interest in technology in the first place? How did your early interest develop in technology and what were you doing as a kid or high school where you said, huh, kind of a knacker interesting?
Pete Erickson:
Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, it did it credits Steve Jobs and my dad. Bought us an Apple II computer, I think I was 13 or 14. And there was some software for the Apple II computer, but not very much. I mean, we loved the video games that they had at the time and we had the five and a half inch floppy disc drive. So we could play we could play God, what were some of the games? I’m trying to remember. Frogger and some of the other games, Gogan it’s crazy. But, I had to write, I had to figure out how to program so that I could write other games that I wanted to play. And so that was when I really fell in love with technology or fell in love with computing in general.
Pete Erickson:
And I learned how to back then there was this thing called Apple Basic was a very basic computer program. But if you really wanted to do more with graphics, you could use like Pascal. So I learned how to write Pascal. And then if you wanted to do even more, you had to learn a little bit of assembly language and start to play with some of the very rudimentary components of the computer, but that was all. And I would learn how to do it through magazines. So we would get I can’t remember the name, I think Byte was one of the early magazines back in the day. And there’d be articles in there teaching how to do it. So there wasn’t, it was hard to find the information, how to do this, but that’s when I really kind of fell in love and really became a technologist.
Pete Erickson:
And then when I went off to go to college, I was really going to be a computer science major, that was really the track that I was on. And the interesting thing is, I really admired the business school. And so my third year I switched to a business degree and I thought maybe I would go back and pick up the minor in computer science, but I never did. I had enough under my belt from a technological standpoint and I finished with a BA in marketing and in business administration and so. But since those early days, sitting, I mean, and I was classic would spend all night long coding those formative years in my house and writing games. And I just really, and I rue the day that I let all those discs go and let those machines go, because all that’s just gone and went to some garage sale at some point and I don’t have any of that stuff. And I really wish I did, but those were fun days.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. I mean, it seems like quite the journey for you. Obviously thanks to your father, I mean, but again, I think it takes a lot of your own curiosity, right? To lean in, to learn what interests you and the scary unknown of this whole World Wide Web. And so I’m sure to see it before some of these big websites kind of came to life. I guess when you were at that age, right? Did could you foresee all these websites coming to life? Were they talking about social networks back then? Or did that kind of all happened so quickly? I’m just curious what you were thinking about before web2 was a thing.
Pete Erickson:
I had a little bit, so here’s the thing, I mean, it’s pretty funny history. So I was 18, I was a freshman at Seattle university and the very first Costco store I had opened in south Seattle. So I don’t know if people know Costco founded in Seattle. Very first door was down on fourth avenue, south in kind of the industrial district down there. Well, because I could… And they recruited from Seattle University. That’s where they did a lot of the recruiting. And because I could program computers at the time, I got tasked with running the cash register system in the mornings. I would get into the store at 5:30 in the morning, and I would actually through a 2880 BoD modem, I would dial up into an IBM system 38 computer from an IBM PC. And I would download all the pricing data from the day before.
Pete Erickson:
So they would load up all the new pricing data, all the items and all that stuff. And I would call up over a modem. They will [inaudible 00:10:23] and they would download all this data. Then I would put that pricing data on an eight inch floppy disc. And I would take that eight inch floppy disc and I would go open up a register, slide it down into the register and then load up all of the pricing data onto four registers. And each one of those registers was tied to four more registers. So you had a lead register that would tie to four. So there was 16 total cash registers in the store, but I was 18 and I was the one responsible for doing that every morning. Well, that taught me a lot about networking that most people didn’t have access to at the time that I was on this IBM computer in the store and I was calling up into a mainframe computer and downloading the data.
Pete Erickson:
So I had a pretty good idea of networking and then we’re going to flash forward to post-college. So that was my college job and so I worked at Costco for five years through college. And I had a bunch of different jobs, I worked in data processing a lot though. Then I went to work actually in the jewelry industry of all things really through nepotism. So after I graduated from college, I went to work for a big manufacturing supplier that would supply all of the major retailers. And I leveraged my technology expertise to help these manufacturing plants, which were all just old school manufacturers, but install what’s called EDI so that they could… Electronic data interchange, which was developed by Ross Perrow’s company. But it was a way that they could get on automatic replenishment with these major retailers like Walmart and JCPenney and Target were three of our big companies that we did business with. So I got involved in how to get these manufacturing plants automated in automatic ordering and then that put these companies in a very good position to be traders.
Pete Erickson:
But the interesting thing is, these were pre-internet so this was 93 to 96 ish, 97 ish, right before the internet came out. But they were all layered, EDI was layered on the internet. So we could actually write emails to the clients and we would get emails back, but the company had one email address. So all emails would go to the company, all the buyers would look at that same email and then answer it. So we very rudimentary very early on before the World Wide Web really became a thing. I was fortunate enough to work in and kind of like on the pre-internet days. And there wasn’t really a… It was all text based, it wasn’t really a browser. But you were looking at sort of a portal if you will for all this exchange.
Pete Erickson:
So I was very fortunate, the jobs that I had early on were very technically focused and kind of used the pre-internet capabilities. And then when the web came to be, and I was living in Seattle, I jumped in into the .com boom, in 1998, got in with a company that had raised a bunch of a venture capital and it was the wild wild west. So then I jumped two feet in to the whole fray.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. Wow. Quite the journey. I mean, I think it’s so interesting that you were there, like pre-internet right? And you were just on the ground floor of it, and then just your job in college and post… You really took a, I mean, you got your hands dirty right? In the areas [inaudible 00:13:54].
Pete Erickson:
Oh yeah. No, it was definitely, definitely getting the hands dirty and I think Walmart’s name for it was called retail link. Retail link was basically websites between the stores and the suppliers. It was really, really, really very advanced stuff back then in the day, very cutting edge. But I would say this, I yes, I do love technology, but what I learned is really, I just love the humanity around the idea of building things, leveraging technology. And so after starting Modev and running it for a while and realize when you’re the community builder, you’re not the product person, you’re not trying to build products. Some people do and we’ve looked at some IP over the years, but some get into it more than others.
Pete Erickson:
I think Patty Cosgrave at Web Summit has built a lot of proprietary technology. But I find myself too busy with the event planning and the community building piece of it, the human being part of like what it’s going to be to bring all these people together that I haven’t been able to focus on technology as much, but that led me to my why. And the why of motive is, we believe human connection is vital in the era of digital transformation. So while people talk about digital transformation, it can’t go anywhere if people aren’t connected and communicating. And that’s our purpose. And that’s why we do what we do and why I do what I do. So yes, I do love technology, but it’s kind of funny because it’s like, well, technology’s technology, it’s not something I think I don’t have a passion for it per se. But I do have a passion for what it can do to bring people together and then it’s the human beings that really make it fun.
Bryan Wish:
Right. Totally. I love what you said about technology. I mean, I think you’re right, technology is this byproduct, it’s a means to bring people together, right? And you like to assemble that in a way to achieve the things that you want in the world and scrap it together. So even if you’re not as much on the product and building side, you understand what the human wants and kind of the heart of the human to create incredible experiences. So let’s go back to what you said initially. And I really appreciate the back story on your learnings and technology. For you, Pete, when you saw this kind of early traction, right? With the first Modev event, you said, people were saying, you got to keep doing this, you got to… Where did that lead you? How did you build on that journey?
Pete Erickson:
Yeah. So in order to be a community builder and do it professionally, you have to learn how to monetize community. And that’s a very, it’s a little bit of a tricky slope, right? Because you want to be able to make it great for sponsors, but also for attendees as well. And so we looked at so many different ways to make that happen and there’s no playbook. There are lots of companies that do sponsor, I mean, do events really well and they grow really big and they scale lots of different conferences. And always with Modev, it’s kind of been this continual journey of this balance between figuring out how to make community building a vocation and a profession and a profitable company, but then also making sure that it serves the community really, really well and not just the sponsors.
Pete Erickson:
So I would say that led me on a journey. We created a bunch of different kinds of events because we wanted to see, if we focused on the human being component of technology. So we developed an event series called Code Writers’ Workshop, which is everything outside of the code. So code writer sort of refers to the person that’s a software developer, but the workshop is really on the human being. So what if we could create a one day event that talked about communication, negotiation, time management, all the things that you need, conflict resolution? Right? Negotiation. What if we created that kind of program? And for a couple years, we did really, really well with those, these one day events when, when the primary sponsor we had for those, when that sponsorship dried up, and what happens in our space is sponsorships move for any number of reasons. A lot of times it’s organization chart related.
Pete Erickson:
So I would just say to all community, builders out there, always be aware that any number of things could happen. But that’s happened to us and it’s happened multiple times. We, at that time, right about the same time the Amazon Alexa came out and we saw a need to build a community around voice technology, because it looked like it was going to be revolutionary at the time. So Alexa came out, Google Assistant came out. And so I saw an opportunity to take all the learning of the previous six years of building community, doing all these interesting events, looking at how to really nurture the industry and the individual in the industry. And I thought, well, what if I could apply that just to a conference? Where we ride a wave of a new market that was developing around voice technology.
Pete Erickson:
So I took all that learning and low and behold in 2018 we went to launch an event and planned on first year, 1500 people and we hit 3000. And I think it was largely due to the programming and kind of like having this well rounded program where we could not only provide knowhow of how to code something, but also how to be something and how to be someone and how to… And we also just made sure that we made the event incredibly accessible to sort of everybody. We landed the event in Newark, New Jersey of all places. I think we were one of the first major conferences to go into Newark. And in 2018 and 2019, it was an ideal spot to grow a conference. So 3000 people first year, almost 5,000 people second year. And all these things sort of came together, and so next thing I have the largest voice tech conference in the world. And then of course, 2020 happened. And that’s been a journey for the last couple of years.
Pete Erickson:
But I would just say that the human component to building community around technology has been probably the biggest learning for me and something that we have to make an integral part and integrated part of every event that we do.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah, absolutely. Pete, your journey is more than I think inspiring because I think what you have done is, in a technological world, right? Where everyone is so focused on the code or the product, or what is being built, you are looking truly, I mean, what’s what I’m just hearing come through in your voice and kind of the way you’re articulating it is, you’re really looking out for the person and then bringing in relevant content, curriculum, relationships, programming, right? To meet those needs of that. So I just want to just reflecting that back to you because it’s so evident of how much you care.
Bryan Wish:
But too I have to imagine that intentional effort and focus is really transformed a lot of lives. When you look at… So my question is when you look at some of these events over the years that you have done, I’m sure to packable job with building out, is there any stories that, can you look back? I’m sure there’s dozens, but any stories within these events where you look at people who attended, that lives were completely shaped or changed because of that intentional effort that you put into the makings of Modev.
Pete Erickson:
Oh, so many different stories. I mean, and I want to be careful, I don’t take credit for anybody’s transformation, they did that. I just got to play a role in it. But I think back on Tommy Shea, who came to a hackathon with his dad when he was nine and they won a prize that day. And then when he was 11, I invited him to do a closing keynote at one of my Modev conferences. And he just brought the house down, he was just delightful. Got a note from him not long ago and just telling me how much his life had changed because of that. And, or co-founders that met at one of my conferences and then ended up on shark tank and getting a massive investment, like one of the biggest investments from Mark Cuban. Or there’s just so many. And to Thomas Chapel, a Def developer works for Prudential. I had provided closing keynote for us at voice 2019. And there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he finished his keynote.
Pete Erickson:
And when an audience of I don’t know, five or six or 700 people, how many were there for the closing keynote, but there’s no clapping, you raise your hands and you wave and you look out on that crowd, and it’s just like, I mean, just like it just moves, you completely moves you. At that same conference, by the way, the Bruce street school for the deaf, which is I think a K through 12 deaf school, we scholarshiped that whole school to come into the conference, they sat in the front tables and we had the mayor say some words, the mayor of Newark say some words. And after he finished, he walked down and he got to meet all these kids. And they signed to him their name, what they do, what they… And it just like to watch that, and they their eyes light up and just know that you are playing a role in changing people’s lives and giving them access to something.
Pete Erickson:
So whether it’s a stage or just each other, the opportunity to connect with one another. But I hear all the time from people that say, “Hey, we met at your event and it was life changing because we went and informed a company.” Or so many people get jobs, they get a job with somebody that met the company. So there was just so many like that, and it just makes it all so much worthwhile for me. And yeah, there’re just so many of those stories.
Bryan Wish:
Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. I was thinking about, as you were talking, obviously it sounds like you’ve seen in transcended impact across people there, and I’m sure there are so many stories that you don’t even know about, right? As a result of making the right connection or creating an environment, right? To facilitate that, right? Which is a byproduct of the event. For you as a person I’m curious, not only have you changed the lives of others, but motive has been a vehicle for you to change your own life and develop and evolve as a leader, I’m sure as a everyday human. Where have you seen this company, this conference series push you and evolve you?
Pete Erickson:
Oh, man, that’s a huge question. So my journey through this has been very personal. The thing I suffer from the most, and I think this is something that a lot of business leaders suffer from that isn’t really talked about that much. People talk about addiction and other things, or any kind of mental illness. But my affliction is codependency. And I think a lot of community builders may, may relate to this, but it is probably making sure that others are taken care of really before yourself. And it’s something that’s passed down in families and it’s something that’s very tough I think for a lot of people. And codependency can be very incredibly debilitating because it can really get in the way of being healthy, having healthy relationships and setting good boundaries.
Pete Erickson:
So I would just say for me, the evolution of me as a person has been shedding the layers of codependency. The job that I had before I jumped into community building when I was living in Seattle, before I moved out here. I was in a company where basically I gave them everything I had. And I was the number one employee. I wasn’t a quote unquote co-founder, but I mean, I took the zero very little salary refinanced my house many times. When that startup really didn’t work out, I was in debt and broke and I’d given it all away to a company that wasn’t even mine. So I had to really accept my role in all this and understand that I had not been taking very good care of myself.
Pete Erickson:
Also, I’ll tell a little, very, very tough and sad story. I’d lost a brother to alcoholism. He actually took his own life five days before the first VOICE Summit conference. So I here I am on a Thursday afternoon, I’d done a wellness check on him and he was at the time living out in Vegas. And sure enough, I get a call back from the corner who was with him, with his body and had to let me know. And this was on a Thursday, I was supposed to leave for Newark on Saturday. And I contacted all my siblings, contacted his ex-wife because as an alcoholic many alcoholics, they lose everything, their families included. But he had three young children all under the age of 13. It was just like, I mean, absolute sheer devastation.
Pete Erickson:
But I would say couple things about that. One is, I was incredibly codependent with my brother. I was an enabler trying to help him quit drinking for the previous decade. But I was active in Al-Anon at the time of his death. Al-Anon is an organization that really helps you manage your own life and your own challenges relative to somebody in your life that’s struggling with alcoholism or any kind of addiction. And I’d learned a lot, but when Tim died, it was like, it just shown a huge light on the rest of my life and all my co-dependencies. And there was just like, and I was so co-dependent, it was so many people. And even in my company, just terrible codependency, and so what does that look like? Well, a lot of times what it means is, you might hire somebody who may not really be the right fit, but you think by working with you, they’re going to be able to solve some of their problems as well.
Pete Erickson:
So you’re sort of hiring people that already kind of our predisposed to maybe not working out very well. And while they are your staff or your employee, you’re doing more to kind of help them along than you are yourself or the company overall. So you get yourself involved in a lot of like, not super healthy relationships. But I would say this, I ended up making it to VOICE, I wasn’t sure if I was going to make it there. So I found out Tim died on Thursday. On Friday I flew to Seattle all the way across the country. Huddled with my family, shock, grief, everything else I flew back on Sunday, the conference started on Monday. So I flew back to Arlington, took a train up to Newark and made it to the conference on Monday.
Pete Erickson:
And I will say this, I was surrounded by people I didn’t know yet. Most of the people, I mean, the 3000 people that came to VOICE, I only knew a small handful. This was a new community that I was starting. I let the speakers know what had happened. I’d ask for help that I may not be able to make it on stage. I wasn’t sure like what was going to happen, but I will say this, community is everything. So here we were about this new technology and this new thing, but it was the humanity that saw me through. And again, a repeat theme is, many of the people I’m closest with today were at that event that week were there for me and they didn’t know me. But they knew what ID just gone through, they knew I’d gone through just, or that I was going through just a horrible, absolutely terrible experience along with the rest of my family.
Pete Erickson:
But, the people are the ones that got me through. And so I would just say that, what have I learned? And I’ve evolved as a leader. I think I’m healthier today than I ever have been, I’ve done a ton of work around and it’s really around codependency and being healthy, having good boundaries, having good relationships with my team and transforming. And I would love to tell a quick transformation story. Can I share one?
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. The by all means, let’s do it.
Pete Erickson:
So Tim and I used to play guitar together, but we would always just dink around. We had some joke, we had some funny joke songs we’d play together. He had a lovely voice. He was much more talented than me naturally, just out of the box. But when he died, I thought, I’m not going to get to play guitar with him ever again, but I can play guitar by myself and I can really take it like much to the next level. Like I said, I don’t, I was in a punk band back in high school, back in the 80s. But I had never played with a band since, I didn’t really think that I was a performer, and that was something that I would do. But when I lost him, I thought, you know what, screw it. “I’m going in. I’m really going to learn to play guitar and I’m going to learn to sing.”
Pete Erickson:
So I spent the next three years playing every day, hour to two hours a day, sometimes three. Taking voice lessons and just really, really, really working on it. And as of last Saturday night, April 23rd, my band that I formed about a year and a half ago, we had our first official gig. We played a three hour show at a very popular beer garden venue here and it was an amazing experience. And I realized after that show and I play a guitar and I sang, I’m the lead singer on the band. And just played lots of, lots of songs that I love and very formative music. But I realized on the next day, I was sitting there kind of reflecting on the night that it was the end of a transformation journey that I started in the wake of my brother’s death.
Pete Erickson:
And it just felt like, oh my God, very profound. It was incredibly profound, just sort of feeling like, oh, I did that, I’m a performer now. And I have another show this Friday night, I’m doing a solo show. So it was a lesson to me, but I wanted to be a lesson for those out there as well. I mean, I’ve finished my first official gig at the age of 55. And since then I’ve turned 56, so. But anyway, that’s a transformation story I love to share because I’m incredibly proud of it, but I’m also just… I just think it’s something that I want people to know that it’s never too late to jump in on something and become that person we want to become.
Pete Erickson:
And now I’m working on the next transformation and that is one of being a true leader. And I think it’s shedding the code of dependency, which I think I’ve done a pretty good job of, but now the next step for me, the next transformation for me is getting out of any, any operations of my company that I’ve built, like out of all of it. So, and then just focus on where is this thing going to go? And who, who are we going to be partnered with at the company? So anyway, long story, but that’s the next step for me.
Bryan Wish:
Well, let’s definitely get there to just acknowledge what you said. First, congratulations on your gig, I saw you posted about it on Twitter I think if I saw it correctly. So, well first amazing that you’ve taken on the journey of a performer and what bravery encouraged, I’m sure that was scary and amazing all in one. But on a deeper note, I think we’ve had some deeper talks, like with your brother’s death it sounds like it was a crack, but it really revealed a lot of cracks underneath it.
Pete Erickson:
Oh yeah. No, it was, I mean, it outside of my wedding and my two kids being born and obviously my own birth, honestly, that was, I mean, it’s the most profound event in my life. I lost my mother to ALS 10 years ago. And before that was it. But losing Tim and the way we lost Tim, and we’re so many other families out there when I see these stories of these college athletes now that are taking their own lives, I just… Suicide is such a huge challenge and it’s the kind of loss that it’s not unlike, I mean, it is unlike other losses, it comes with its own set challenges. But it did crack me open. The other thing I will say is I’d really changed my relationship with alcohol a long time before, about a decade before I kind of went from a pretty heavy drinker in my 20s and 30s regular going out on a Friday night and tying went on.
Pete Erickson:
Entering into my own marriage and trying to live a different kind of life, but also in trying to help Tim, I’d really curved my own relationship with alcohol, but I hadn’t totally let it go. So when Tim died, I just lost all interest. And I was able to let go of alcohol. And that also was a huge challenge, but it was one of those things where it allowed me to do the work that I needed to do without that crutch. And so that’s another kind of, part of the transformation is also just being somebody who doesn’t drink anymore. And that’s an interesting journey in and of itself. But it cracked me open. Definitely.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes life does that in the most unexpected ways. And the fact that you went on a journey to face yourself, and it seems like music was an outlet. And to watch that come full circle, right? To a stage kind of the stage almost metaphorically represents this transformation of stepping into this evolved self that it took that long, but it is symbolic, there’s no doubt. And so I wanted to acknowledge the bravery just on both sides, right? You sounds like overcame drinking, you overcame your codependency and now also that’s translated to where we can go next now, is where Pete goes as a leader. Pete tell us, you’ve crazy couple decades, it sounds like you’ve… But there’s seems like a lot of clarity and conviction in you and what is ahead. What does the evolution of Pete 2.0 3.0 look like?
Pete Erickson:
Yeah, no, it’s funny, it’s letting go. I think that it’s realizing that the ideas I have are good enough and that there’s a lot of people that can help me execute on them that I don’t need to get into the day to day morass. In fact, it’s way, way better if I don’t. There are just a lot of people that are just fine… Look that putting on events, there’s a lot of components of it that are just really commodity based there are a lot of good, really skilled people that I… So it’s about having trust and it’s about letting go. And letting go, when I say everything, it sounds kind of funny, then it’s like, well, what are you doing? Well, and if I can let go of all the operations. And so that includes sales and any of the execution and the decisions around programming and all that stuff. All that’s the stuff that if I can let go, I can actually bring the company, I can move the company into realms that I can’t even imagine right now.
Pete Erickson:
And I’d say that as a leader, that’s where I want to get to. And I think that, that’s where there’s the most discomfort. It’s like, oh gosh, but that’s also co-dependency. It’s Like, look just trust, let go and people can make decisions is fine. And so there’s a lot of training too, on my purchase in terms of, I’ll get a Slack message from somebody, I’ll just say, you decide, it’s going to be fine, you can make that call. Because what would happen before is I just get inundated with decisions on a daily basis because people would just naturally want to default up to me, but I also let that happen. So it’s like just letting go of all that stuff. And so you mentioned Pete 3.0, I’ve started this conference, this new event that’s going to happen this fall called 3. The idea of 3 is it’s going to center largely around Web3 right now. But the idea of three is really an idea of transformation.
Pete Erickson:
Can I create an event where people come and they, they actually transform at the event. And so the technology, what the technology conversations are and all that stuff that’s happening, you now have us be blockchain and decentralized applications and cryptocurrencies and NFTs and wallets and Dows and all that stuff. That’s fine. But can I create an environment that really moves people? They come and they feel changed, they feel transformed. And these are the events that are successful out there.
Pete Erickson:
But the only way I’m going to be able to do that is if I get myself out of all the operational stuff and just let others do that. I can take care of sharing this vision, making sure that, that’s what’s going to happen there and that’s going to happen if I just get the right people involved. So the community that I need to build around this idea is not very big, but it’s all I can do. Think of it as maybe a couple dozen people and that’s all the relationships we can manage.
Pete Erickson:
So, I want to manage the people that are sort of outside the company that are going to help make this vision come to reality and come to life. I can’t manage the two or three dozen people inside the organization at the same time that are pulling the strings. That doesn’t work, that hasn’t worked for me yet in terms of really building a scalable organization or an event that scales. So 3 is my new thing, but it’s a blank canvas right now. And I’d say that I’m in a better position today to paint that canvas than I ever have been.
Bryan Wish:
Got it. Well, I love that, what you’re talking about, Pete. Because what I was thinking in, I was internalizing myself as a leader and like vision and it seems like you are so at this place of, how do I fully kind of detach from all these old decisions, from all these old ways? Just like you have detached from all your old ways personally.
Pete Erickson:
Yes. Yeah. It’s very related.
Bryan Wish:
Right. So if you can bring that into the business, well, you put other people in command so that you can build more scalable and get in front of the vision. Which I think what you acknowledge, it’s hard to do people aren’t used to that, but that letting go process it’s scary now. Because you’re putting other people in the driver’s seat. I think what you said, like you having the self-awareness to realize, if other people are kind of directing this vision and I can just kind of guide it, I’m probably better for it because I’m not going to get in the way of as many things.
Pete Erickson:
Right. Yeah. I mean, I would say that’s it. And so the music is a very good metaphor for me. I transformed in becoming a performer and now I’m really working on transforming, becoming a leader. And you have to let go of ideas about yourself that you’ve grown up with, that I’m very comfortable with ideas of being stuck in meetings all day and being frustrated because we have to make so many decisions and things aren’t working exactly the way that I want them to. That’s all just BS, man, just get yourself out, take yourself out of that equation and trust the others. You’re going to have a healthy organization, they’re going to trust each other more. They’re going to work together, they’re going to solve problems and that creates a healthy culture.
Pete Erickson:
And then we can create the event that we want and that’s… So I have this vision that this event will grow extremely well. And that I have a wonderful team that’s executing on it and a lot of people that want to be involved and like the idea. And 3 won’t just be a technology festival, it’ll be arts. So we’ll have artists and musicians and it’s going to be in Arlington and I think Arlington’s a good space to sort of grow organically, it’s not a traditional conference center. So we definitely want it to be a place of trade where people can come and do business with one another. But I just want something that’s a little less traditional from that standpoint, more like that festival environment. So I feel like all that’s happening, but that’s definitely the next phase of the journey. So in a year when we talk again, I want to give that update and where I am on that transformation journey.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. Of course. Well, I love the vision, Pete. I love that 3 represents, I think transformation as you were talking about a bit earlier, but it gives life to so many opportunities, right? Outside of technology. Gives you a vehicle to put your talents into. When you, let’s just look five years out or 10 years out 3’s reached its pinnacle, it’s a breach the mountain you might be happy with, even though gold post always move. Give me a vision for your life, give me a vision for kind of what 3 looks like five, 10 years out and not just the vision, but if you’ve achieved it, what impact have you left? Or, and what will transcend you after?
Pete Erickson:
Well, I think I want to create something that’s bigger than myself that can just move on without me. Doesn’t need me at the helm and whatever that means. So I’m 56, so I think about my dad retired when he was 60. That’s a nice goal for me. He had a whole nother existence and my mom did as well. So when my dad retired from being a pilot for United airlines, my mom went back to school and went to midwifery school and became a midwife and had a whole… So her career was the next 10 years of their lives. And I sort of have this vision that I’ll move into another phase of life where I’ve done this business, the business worked out, being able to exit that business, whether that means the company ends up getting sold or if it’s operational and I can exit out of the business I still own it, whatever that means. I’m not going to put a judgment on that right now.
Pete Erickson:
But I do sort of have this idea that there’s another phase of life and whatever that means in terms of what I do with my days, who I interact with… I’m just going to be open to the possibilities. And my parents did really good volunteer work as well later in life and I love that idea of giving back. But what I would say it’s really just one of hitting a very comfortable point where you can get off the hamster wheel, take it slow and enjoy. We don’t know how long we have left any of us. But I like to say though, that I do understand, these are the golden years for me right now.
Pete Erickson:
I’ve got healthy kids, I’ve got a home and a marriage that I love and I’ve got friends that I love and I’ve got a band and I’ve got a company. So life is good right now. Really is. And it hasn’t come easy. It’s come through a lot of pain and grief, suffering. A lot of lessons learned, still learn them. A lot of financial challenges, like massive, like just trying to figure out how are we going to make this work this month. That happens and it’s going to still happen. That’s the nature of the beast when you’re in the events industry. But I’ve been able to get through it all and I’ll continue to be able to get through that all. And life is good, but I love the question. I would just say, I will be able to move into kind of another phase.
Bryan Wish:
It’s inspiring. It’s inspiring for just someone sitting across the screen from you to kind of hear how intentional, right? You’re thinking about your next steps. And I think you’ve always been so intentional. You just maybe a clear, clear picture of you’ve been able to let go of a lot of other things around you.
Pete Erickson:
Got a rear view mirror, got a rear view mirror, Bryan.
Bryan Wish:
Yeah. The rear view mirror is-
Pete Erickson:
It’s helpful. It’s helpful.
Bryan Wish:
It’s helpful, right? And clarity over it.
Pete Erickson:
Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan Wish:
So you’re not finding your way through the bushes as much and kind of lift your head up, which is a beautiful thing. And like you said, you’ve worked hard for it. You’ve been through the suffering and the pain and they’ll be more suffering and pain, but with the clarity of what’s ahead and more of a clear why to get you there, even though it’s probably always been the same. So, Pete, I have really enjoyed just the freeness of this show, it’s been so beautiful. As you look back on maybe just this interview or what we’ve talked about, has there been anything I haven’t asked or anything I haven’t shared that-
Pete Erickson:
Oh God, no, you’re really great interview. You I think that you… Your podcast fits me well, because it’s allowed me to just go right to the personal stuff. And it’s funny, I hadn’t really told the story of the evolution of being with technology. So it’s kind of fun to tell the story of working at Costco and then working with the big retailers on technology. But that’s definitely an integral part of my journey. So no, I’ve enjoyed the conversation and I want to honor you because you allow people to really talk about themselves in a way that a lot of folks won’t, and don’t. And it’s not all sunshine and rainbows. And I think that especially after the last couple years and everybody been through so much and all this prolonged uncertainty and that still exists. That there’s still some uncertainty that we live with every day, even though many of us have felt like we need to move on.
Pete Erickson:
We got a note today from the school that 20 kids at the school currently have COVID. It’s just like we ain’t out of this thing yet, but I know that we got to get on in our lives and as an event builder. But Bryan, I just want to commend you, keep doing what you’re doing, it’s really important. the stories and I love to listen to the stories of the other folks that you’ve interviewed and it’s helpful to me. So keep doing what you’re doing.
Bryan Wish:
Well, thank you. So appreciate it, Pete. Really, I’ve enjoyed growing our relationship and excited for what’s ahead.
Pete Erickson:
Amen. Me too.
Bryan Wish:
All right. Thank you, Pete.
Pete Erickson:
Cheers.
Bryan Wish:
Oh, wait. Oh, oh, oh. Oh. Where can people find you?
Pete Erickson:
Oh, Hey. That’s great. I love it. I love this is like the after show.
Bryan Wish:
That’s the show. Where can people find you?
Pete Erickson:
So if you want to reach me, my Twitter handles @PeteErickson, P-E-T-E E-R-I-C-K-S-O-N. You can find me there. You can find me on LinkedIn at the same basically address, pete@modev.com. If you wanted to go check out our conferences, you can go to modev.com and link to them there. Or you can go to voicesummit.ai or gotothree.com. G-O-T-O T-H-R-E-E.com, go check out Three. Call for proposals open, go put in a talk and come hang out with us. And I promise you that I will help you transform.
Bryan Wish:
Great. I’ll speak. All right, bye.
Pete Erickson:
Bye.