Jason Shepherd: Creating Meaningful Community Spaces
Listen Now!
Jason Shepherd: Creating Meaningful Community Spaces
Listen Now!
Episode Overview
Today’s guest is Jason Shepherd, a master community builder in Denver, CO who has become a good friend of Amy’s over the years. Jason is an investor, an entrepreneur, and a partner at Atlas Real Estate Group. Jason is driven by a strong purpose to create vibrant, connected, and equitable communities and is interested in how property owners can take on a more active role in connecting people in the communities that they live and work in. To do this, Jason started a wellness-based social club called Archipelago, and most recently, launched a new marketplace technology called venUse. It’s Jason’s goal to lead efforts in reimagining how the world interacts with real estate and how it plays a role in how we gather.
In this episode, find out how Jason has done a complete 180 from where he was 10 years ago, how a trip to Tulum changed everything for him, how Archipelago was formed, and how its members pushed to decriminalize psilocybin in Denver through Initiative 300. You’ll learn about the magic of breathwork that changed both of their lives, and finally, Jason will tell us about his life scoreboard that starts with two questions: “What have I created?” and “Who have I served?”
What we cover:
- How what Jason has created in Denver has changed Amy’s experience of the city
- How they first met at Summit Series in LA in November 2017
- The people as the foundation of the community — not the beautiful space or the programming itself
- The many sides of and characters we play as humans, including the playful, relaxed, ethereal and deep version of ourselves
- Why getting out of your normal operating procedure forces presence
- The importance of stepping out of your comfort zone, leaning into uncomfortable moments, and finding your edge to grow
- Jason’s biggest biohacking hack: Healthy food and diet, as food can either be poison or medicine
- Redefining masculinity and how men can also encourage conscious, healthy, clean living
- Belonging, connection, and community as the third wave of health & wellness
- What didn’t work when building Archipelago
- Making connected experiences approachable through tiny details
Meaningful communities must rise from the ground up. That’s what makes Archipelago such an awesome social club. Creating the space for intention and connection makes community gatherings all that much more special — and a beautiful, aesthetically pleasing setting doesn’t hurt either. Hopefully, this episode inspires you to step out of your comfort zone in order to find that much needed sense of connection, belonging, and community.
Social Wellness Challenge
Bring awareness to your social experiences!
At your next event or gathering, notice the little things — the music, the lighting, the food, the energy of the people around you. All of it is adding to or subtracting from your experience with this group of people. Start with awareness and then ask yourself, “How did I feel after this social experience?” Recognize what elements of that experience resonate with you and then you can start to build a roadmap of what your peak social experience looks like.
Links
ArchipelagoClubs.com — Denver social clubs
Summit Series — The conference where Jason and Amy first met
Habitas — Like minded community where Jason first went on his trip to Tulum
Clueless — The best 90’s movie out there
Calendar of events and programs at Archipelago
Places doing a great job of building community through co-living and working environments: WeWork, Habitas, Summit, Ondalinda
Weave: The Social Fabric Project by The Aspen Institute
David Brooks, author and New York Times columnist
Dr. Dan Engle — Pushing the ball forward on psilocybin education
venUse.io — Website allowing creators to make use of beautiful commercial real estate spaces
Michaela Boehm — Teacher whose workshops Amy attended in Ojai
This Week’s Guest
Jason Shepherd
Jason Shepherd is an investor, entrepreneur, and master community builder here in Denver, CO. For the past several years, his focus has been on optimizing real estate investing as well as galvanizing property owners’ role as host to connect community.
Jason is co-founder of the investment fund DP Assets, a real estate brokerage firm Atlas Real Estate Group, the wellness-based social club Archipelago, and new marketplace technology venUse, It is Jason’s goal to lead efforts in reimagining how the world interacts with real estate and the role it plays in how we gather.
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