The MikeyG Podcast Experience

From Failed Filmmaker to the First AI Feature Film | Sway's Creator Journey + Founder of Absrrd | The Mikey G Podcast Experience

When Sway was 4 years old, a clown handed him a microphone at the retirement home where his mom worked, and he heard his own voice for the very first time. Today, he's an AI artist, the founder of Absrrd, and one of the people behind the first AI feature film , a Terminator 2 reinterpretation covered by Variety and IndieWire. This is his human story. Chapter 1, he's born in LA to immigrants from Honduras, raised in Miami in a born-again Christian family, doing drumline, marching band, and Goju-Ryu. Chapter 2, he fails Accounting 1, calls himself a failed entrepreneur out loud, runs a boutique creative agency in survival mode, and pivots through acting into AI filmmaking when he discovers Midjourney through his friend Nam Perez. Chapter 3, he scraps a brand called VidCult, builds Absrrd, and tells me his thesis: in a world that's forcing you to be normal, choose to be absrrd. What stayed with me from this conversation: we opened on him hearing his own voice for the first time through a clown's microphone, and we closed on him telling me he's going to clown school. Full circle is too small a phrase. Subscribe for the human story behind every builder. Mikey G and Sway are out. TIMESTAMPS:0:00 — The Clown and the Microphone0:30 — Welcome + Glasses Talk2:00 — The World-Famous Mikey G Podcast Experience Question3:00 — Chapter 1: Growing Up Honduran in 1990s Miami9:00 — Immigrant Parents, Born-Again Faith, and the Worship Band17:00 — Multicultural Miami in the '90s21:00 — Self-Diagnosed ADHD, Dyslexia, and Failing Accounting 126:00 — Booking a Disney Tarzan Promo at 1729:00 — Chapter 2: Miami-Dade Film School at 2435:00 — Why the Film Industry Wasn't a Fit40:00 — The Improv Rule for Building a Brand: Don't Be Funny46:00 — On the Art of Asking the Right Questions51:00 — A Magnet for Being Underestimated54:00 — Why I Call Myself a Failed Entrepreneur58:00 — COVID, the Strikes, and the AI Pivot59:00 — How Midjourney Hooked Me Through Nam Perez1:01:00 — Making the First AI Feature Film: Terminator 2 Reinterpreted with 50+ Filmmakers1:08:00 — Going to Web3 and NFT Art Instead of Hollywood1:14:00 — Chapter 3: Launching Absrrd — In a World Forcing You to Be Normal, Choose to Be Absrrd1:17:00 — Why I Killed the Brand VidCult Before I Launched It1:22:00 — Breaking Out of Digital Into Physical Galleries Next1:24:00 — Treat AI Like a Disposable Camera: Advice for Creators1:29:00 — The Recap1:30:00 — Clown School and the Full Circle1:31:00 — Sign-off LINKS:Sway on X: https://x.com/swaymolinaAbsrrd: https://absrrd.com/ Mikey G on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjgcreative/Mikey G on X: https://x.com/mikeygnft TOPICS: AI art, AI filmmaking, generative AI, Midjourney, first AI feature film, AI feature film Terminator 2, building in the age of AI, AI for builders, founder failure stories, failed entrepreneur, corporate refugee, the leap moment, founder origin story, human story podcast, immigrant founder story, Honduran American filmmaker, Miami creative, ADHD entrepreneur, creative agency founder, NFT art, Web3 art, on-chain art, Absrrd brand, builder podcast, Mikey G Podcast Experience.

From Romanian Kid to Cybersecurity Veteran | Liviu Arsene, Two Decades in Cyber | The Mikey G Podcast Experience

What up folks! Liviu Arsene grew up in northern Romania, less than 100 miles from the Ukraine border, with parents who didn't speak a word of English. Today he's spent two decades in cybersecurity, has more thoughts on AI than most people in San Francisco, and just announced he wants to get his pilot's license. This is his human story. Chapter 1, Liviu learns English from movie subtitles before he can read, drives his mom crazy taking apart his first computer, and tells me about the grandfather who chased every new piece of technology that came out. Chapter 2, he stumbles into a coding-only university with two weeks notice, takes a Windows tester job over a more technical one because they offered meal vouchers, and tries to build a startup at 21 working 16-18 hour days. They built quality. They didn't know how to sell it. Chapter 3, he opens up about the F1 car analogy for AI development, why CISOs should be hiring more headcount not less, and what a Cambodian fishing village taught him about happiness. What stayed with me from this conversation: when he said his entire horizon, growing up, was what he could see out his window. Then he left, and it opened up. Subscribe for the human story behind every builder. Mikey G and Liviu are out. TIMESTAMPS:0:00 — The cold open0:30 — Welcome, brother4:00 — He used to arm wrestle (and yes, Over the Top is the reason)9:00 — Anthropic's Mithos, 181 vulnerabilities, and the F1 car with no seatbelt17:00 — The format question17:55 — Chapter 1: Learning English from subtitles in northern Romania26:00 — The grandfather who chased every new technology33:00 — Chapter 2: A coding-only university and a binary first-job decision40:00 — The startup that worked too hard and couldn't sell anything47:00 — Two decades watching cybersecurity evolve1:01:00 — Why AI exposed cybersecurity's messy basement1:18:00 — Chapter 3: The pilot's license and a second childhood1:25:00 — Critical thinking as a survival skill1:27:00 — The recap1:39:00 — Sign-off LINKS:Liviu on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/adrian-liviu-arsene-85083922/Mikey G on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mjgcreative/The Guardrails Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/1vTlFUt8pK5h662UEsmzop?si=f15e7c5ca46b4bc5 TOPICS: cybersecurity, AI safety, founder story, human story, Romania, first generation American culture, language learning, startup lessons, MVP, fail fast, AI displacement, CISO hiring, vulnerability patching, Anthropic, critical thinking, Diary of a CEO, builder podcast, long form interview, AI age, philosophy of AI

The $3 CPM Elephant: How PT Barnum Taught Doc to Spot Underpriced Attention — Blue Box Gaming

Doc spent 7 years as a Navy Corpsman, lived homeless in East Hastings Vancouver as a kid, and now runs Blue Box Gaming where every NFT ships with a physical comic to your door. This conversation runs through his framework for learning anything (start with the misunderstood words, go to the Greek and Latin roots), the Navy humbling moment where a petty officer told him "you might be the smartest in the room, but you don't have to act like it," and why he refuses to call what he's building a "project." His core line from our two hours: "The only moat is physical infrastructure and the ability to deliver physical products and meaningful experiences." Find Doc here: https://x.com/curator_doc

25 Years of Connecting Dots: How JT Built from the Dot-Com Bust to AI

JT grew up in tiny Tasmanian towns, bounced through gap years in Europe and Canada, and spent 25 years building Mitchell Lake, one of Australia's first internet-focused executive search firms, surviving the dot-com bust and every hype cycle since. Now living in Spain, he's building socialmedium.ai, an agentic matchmaking platform that connects professionals without public profiles, advertising, or data exposure. We got into his "find the bar" framework for connection in new places, why he left Singapore because it was "too safe" for his daughter, and why his advice for everyone right now is dead simple: don't stop at the chat, build something. Connect with JT here: https://www.socialmedium.ai/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalventures/

From Rock Bottom to Reborn: How Positive Psychology Saved Alfredo Borodowski's Life

Alfredo Borodowski grew up in Argentina, wished for a new life, came to America at 20 without a word of English, and built a career as an executive director, philosopher, and educator. Then on June 19th, 2013, he was arrested for impersonating a police officer during a manic episode he didn't know he was having. Lost his job, his friends, his consulting work, everything. A positive psychology character strengths test pulled him off the couch and back into purpose. Now he coaches corporate teams using his formula (Positive + Purpose = Peak Performance), has a book coming out through John Maxwell Leadership called "The Human Upgrade," and believes the companies that invest in their humans will be the ones that survive AI. Text POSITIVE to 33777 to get your character strengths!