“Empires with Empathy. Capitalize both E’s.”

I was driving through North Carolina when I finally saw my “it”.

It was a quick exchange. A throwaway line in a conversation between friends. Two grown-ass men. Millionaires laughing like little boys about a word they didn’t quite understand at the time and honestly still don’t.

For them, “Empires with Empathy” was a clever turn of phrase Shaan threw out. Sam quipped, “Capitalize both E’s,” giggling about authenticity, empathy, and nuance—as if those things were contagious like cooties.

What they didn’t realize is:

They’re masters of all those things. Even if they don’t call them by those names. Two years ago, they missed the power of what they had just said. Not because they aren’t brilliant…but because they are.

They just see “it” differently than I do. And that’s the whole point of why I listen to them.

Before I can build my own Empire of Empathy and capitalize on both E’s, I aim to reclaim the definition of the one word even the most brilliant voices in my mind don’t totally comprehend.

Empathy.

Sam and Shaan probably wouldn't even remember the exchange. But as I listened to it two years ago, I finally saw the answer to the questions I’ve been asking my entire life:

• What is my purpose?

• What can I do better than anyone else?

• And how do I get paid to do it?

I have tried to start this newsletter for several years. Real life has resulted in a series of starts and stops that keep bringing me back to step one with no momentum. But finally I am home to stay. Hopefully to do what they both did but to do it in my own way using my own language.

Sam Parr and Shaan Puri, hosts of the My First Million podcast, both started and sold newsletters for seven figures or more.

With the money they earned from their exits, they graduated from doing what they could do to doing what they want to. That, to me, is the definition of success and can’t be measured in millions.

Now these two unconventional high achievers have a podcast where they interview other unconventional high achievers about how they made their first million dollars (among other things).

I devour their podcast episodes. I dissect them. I read the transcripts and the YouTube comments. I read everything that they write on social media and try to moderate my comments so I don’t seem like a stalker.

I run everything I’m building through AI using their filters:

• How would Sam the brilliant copywriter say what I am trying to say?

• How would Shaan the consummate story teller summarize this soliloquy?

• How would a My First Million listener interpret what I’m trying to convey?

Not because I am copying them. Not because they or their listeners are my target audience. But precisely because they’re not.

Sam and Shaan don’t know me…but theirs, their guests and their followers voices are some of the loudest, clearest voices in my head.

I listen to every episode. I read every comment. Yes, all the way back to Season One, when Shaan was recording solo in a rented studio, popping his P’s into a cheap mic. Those early episodes that they probably don’t even remember are some of my favorites.

I catalog every insight from them and their guests. File them away, not as individual takeaways, but as a gestalt of success:
 
They are what it looks like when unconventional high achievers choose to do most what they do best, in the way that works best for them.

Together, they’ve become the avatar for why I must write and speak using my own language.

They represent the Eagle in my Bird Brain.
The “What Is” section of my Daily Vision Questionnaire.
The Known pane of my Johari window.

They have never heard any of those terms but once I heard the words “Empires with Empathy,” I couldn’t unsee them. My first book, Through The Hummingbird’s Eye: A Neurosparkle Manifesto is an adult message disguised as a children’s storybook.

That phrase, those three words - Empire of Empathy - became the basis of my writing and the foundation of my Ikigai. The “it” in my version of “It is what It is”.

What is my purpose? To build an Empire of Empathy
What can I do better than anyone else? Build an Empire of Empathy
And how do I get paid? Build an Empire of Empathy

I don’t know yet what “it” will become but I know whose voices will help me figure “it” out.

Starting next week, I’ll be dissecting another episode of My First Million. This one where Sam Parr and Greg Isenberg teach me “How to build a $1 Million Startup using AI”.


Watch the Clip that accidentally defined my Ikigai -

Watch the full My First Million episode here: https://youtu.be/pM2oNbwgsZc?si=gt-FOPwG77Xzs7yf&t=1243

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