Dr. Jeff Berger -Email, linkedIn schedule

Foreign.

Are you fed up with the corporate bullshit holding you back? Welcome to Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. The ultimate launchpad for entrepreneurs ready to seize control and unleash their creative genius. Hosted by Phil Better, the podcast Mogul, each week he's breaking the chains of conventional work with bold strategies, raw insights and inspiring success stories from the entrepreneurs who took the risk and invested in themselves. This is your call to arms. Invest in yourself, break free from someone else's rules and build the empire you deserve. Now, let's dive head first into today's explosive episode.

Welcome back to another transformative episode of Investing Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur Podcast. With your host, Phil Better, the podcast mogul, I'm on a mission to spotlight the game changers, thought leaders and visionary entrepreneurs who are redefining what it means to be successful in the digital world. And today's guest is no exception. What if the key to true wealth wasn't about money, but a holistic modern approach to wellness, purpose and financial empowerment? Our guest today is leading a powerful movement to redefine what it means to truly thrive in today's fast evolving world. As the CEO and founder of Abundance in Optimum Wellness, he's a certified holistic coach who champions a bold finance first approach, guiding people with financial fatigue to financial freedom by embracing a new mindset around wealth and wellness. He's also a global ambassador for cutting edge technology company that's innovating across real estate, finance, education, AI and the metaverse, creating a more inclusive and empowering future for all. If you're ready to explore the new pathways to prosperity and unlock true wealth in every sense, then get ready because today I am joined by none other than Dr. Jeffrey Berger.

Jeffrey, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you Phil. It's a pleasure to be on your stage today and I'm very humbled by the experience.

Thank you. So I said a lot of fancy words there and it was all really true because it comes from you and it's the truth for me. I'm really excited to learn about you Doc. So we're going to jump into the first question. What made you decide to quit the corporate, whether you were or whatever the corporate was and jump into the crazy world of entrepreneurship, specifically in our digital world.

So great question. August of 2015 is when I opted out of corporate America, specifically from the hostile work environment. Working extensive hours, 60, 70, 80 hours a week and it was a toxic environment. Being an ex software engineer of 2017 seven years and during the last five to seven years of my professional Career I had always in the back of my head was trying to formulate what can I do when I leave this world? What kind of an impact can I have? And what I was doing was filling the pockets of corporate America and that was not going to get me anywhere. So it came to the point where, you know, I ended up leaving corporate America from that really horrific situation and started to explore. And over the next two years I was finding, redefining myself, finding myself again if you will, and trying to determine what I was going to do. But during that I had, I was developing health issues and in 2018 my doctor wanted to put me onto a sixth medication because I was having problems with the other five. So I'm like wait a minute, this doesn't sound right.

So long. And the short of it is I started out with exploring holistic options and was able to come off of five medications, reduce my stress, anxiety and depression from a 10 plus for decades down to a level one and reverse my type two diabetes. And it's been that way since August of 2019. Being are ex free and which really got me to, to create abundance and optimum wellness because I truly believe we all should be living a life of abundance and optimum wellness physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially. And for the first four years of my coaching career I explored and talked about physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. But I never broached the subject about finances and that didn't happen until about two and a half to three years ago. So it's been an interesting journey of, you know, a roller coaster ride and bringing to where I'm at today from corporate America and now sharing what I've learned over the last, you know, since 2018 up to today.

I love it. And your finance first because you're like a holistic finance finance guy too, right? It's, it's different because you're, you're focusing on the finance because it flips the typical wellness model on its head. I want to know how did you really fully develop this philosophy and how does financial health act as a catalyst for holistic well being in today's entrepreneurial landscape? Like what, what is it about being holistically healthy in finance?

So finances are the number one stressor globally for everybody. You know, most people are working paycheck to paycheck. I believe that we are living in a world of corrupt and broken systems. I start with the medical system because it's a system about managing illness, not getting to the root cause and managing wellness and the same thing for the finances and These systems that are developed by these, by them up here, where the masses down here are filtering into what's up here, they're benefiting and they're, we're still struggling down here. And the rude awakening for me was, well, there was, there were a couple of things. Between 9 and 11 and 2008, I lost over 900,000 in my retirement portfolio. And that was due to 9 11, the real estate crash here in the United States in 2008, which took a huge impact because we're brought up to, you know, go to school, get an education, go find a job and then invest in your retirement. Which is, I did all that, but all of a sudden, boom, within, you know, just one day losing, you know, over 85% at 911 and then almost up to 95 to 98% in 2008 was, was a rude awakening and still tried to recoup that, which didn't happen over the next 10 to 15 years until 20, losing another 75,000.

And that's when I said that, you know, something has to change here because you know, some people have great portfolios, which is awesome, but most people don't. The more people, I would say about 80 to 85% of the people that I talk to have lost a lot of their retirement. So I was like, what, what is going to change that trajectory to allow us to be able to have more options when we retire? And I was introduced to the world of digital real estate and the real world asset era because currently we are in a massive paradigm shift with regards to the technologies that are being developed today that are changing the world and finance three to five to ten years down the road. And I always go back to this reference. In 2009 I was offered to purchase 500 Bitcoin at 0.0017 cents, which was an 85 cent investment in response. No, sounds like a scam. So bringing that full circle in 2017 is when I said, you know what, cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, you know, and these different posts that are coming across social media, in the news over then, so on, that's when I said I need to step into my uncomfortable zone and start to learn this. And have since taken a low, very low six figure retirement portfolio and have converted it over to, you know, now today it's, it's in the high sevens and by the end of this year will be in the eight figures as the projects, you know, launch.

That's the, that's the projection of what I have pulled together to date with Regards to the, the wealth coaches that I'm working with who are self made millionaires and the programs and the companies that I am aligned with at this particular point. So I want to pay it forward. I want to share the information with individuals so they can make an educated decision because there are a lot of people looking, but they don't know where to look. And the last thing I'll say is that for many, many years we've been told, don't buy bitcoin, don't buy a cryptocurrency, don't, don't, don't. So it's really scaring and pushing people away when in fact these people that are saying don't, don't, don't, are buying bitcoin, are buying cryptocurrency, are creating their own currencies and eventually, and I'm just seeing on the news today, some of these banks are ready to flip over and it's going to be digital currency and it's here, it's here now. So I want to get the word out and share the information so people are informed rather than blindsided and then just slapped right in the face with, guess what? This is where we're at. Well, five years ago you said don't do, don't get involved. So that's kind of where I'm at right now is educating the people about what's going on.

I have a question concerning the digital because I know a bit about bitcoin, I know a bit about blockchain. We have had some blockchain guests on the podcast because I am somewhat interested because it is the future. Like it may not be right now. It's the future. And obviously there's a lot we hear about the rug carpet pulls for the cryptocurrencies and that. And I do believe that it is the future. It is just right now, not, it's not for us because there's a lot of social maneuvering and scammy things and that. And yeah, like, I believe in that technology because I can see where the forces of good and usually bad takes over before the good cleans them out.

But anyways, I don't, I don't want to push more of my political beliefs or anything like that. My interest is in the, the, the digital real estate because this is something that I've, I've like, it tickled my eardrums in the past because I've heard about it, but I was like, I'm, I'm just learning about real real estate. Like I don't Think I, I'm ready to learn about the digital real estate. And I heard about the Metaverse and when Zuckerberg spoke about it, you know, and then all these other people are like, oh yeah, this is it. And then I, it's weird. So my question to you, because I have zero information, I'm a complete noob, I'm a baby out of the womb type thing when it comes to digital real estate, what the hell is it? And it's not like I can physically see it. So that's like, what is it? Is it like a website? Is it like Facebook? What is the digital digital real estate? What is Metaverse and all this?

Yeah, great question. So let me preface my answer with this. We have been living in a decade, a little decade plus with the cryptocurrency and bitcoin and this is digital currency that is out in crypto world, in that blockchain world where you can't touch it. All right? Today, real world assets is the new buzzword. And real world assets are entities that back the purchase of cryptocurrency of real estate, which are NFTs, so forth and so on. So today we're moving forward in that aspect of having cryptocurrency backed by something physical. So with regards to real estate, our real estate is that we have, we have properties, we've got two properties in Dubai, one that broke ground a year ago in Zanzibar, a hotel and resorts, and then we have property in Mozambique. And these are the initial properties that we have from a tokenization perspective.

And our first Property was a one bedroom apartment in Dubai. 2019 successfully tokenized that apartment as a test bed. Now we're moving forward. So the tokenization and the real estate aspect of it is that you purchase X amount of dollars for X amount of percentage of that piece of property, the apartment or the hotel and resort. So I'll give you a specific example with regards to Zanzibar. Zanzibar is a three phase hotel and resorts. They broke ground a year ago creating apartments, luxury apartments and glamps. And these are like half moon shaped glorified camping sites and they're one bedrooms.

And people, when the doors open, could purchase a full apartment, they could purchase a full glamp, or they could purchase a portion of that. And I invested and got 50 NFTs at $1,000 per NFT. So when the facility, that phase one, which is only 17% of the entire project, when they start renting that out, then I start getting dividends. And the beauty of, from traditional Real estate is, I've got this investment into this piece of property, they manage it, they do all the work and then I benefit from the dividends that come from the rentals. So that is where the digital real estate comes in. We have a contract ID that is on the blockchain, that is, I purchased 50 NFTs, I have 50 contracts that are associated with this piece of property and a partial ownership of that. And this is the way real estate is moving in the forefront here. It is starting to change.

And there are more and more companies that are coming up with opportunities for people who want to invest in real estate from a fractional ownership perspective because most people don't have the money to invest in an apartment complex or commercial real estate, so forth and so on. So it gives them the opportunity to come in getting their baby toe wet with this type of new paradigm shift in financial investing and diversifying your portfolio. So hopefully that helped.

It did. But it also brought us so many more questions. But questions that are good because if I'm having them, I know there's at least one other person who's having them and they want and that's that person who's interested in this. Because it does interest me a little bit because whenever I heard NFTs, because obviously you heard the NFT craze and it was the buzzwords. And I've always been hesitant with new technologies because I was, I know I, I come from a background in fraud analytics for a major financial institution. So my brain is always looking, thinking like a fraudster. So how can I screw someone out? That's, that's how I had to think as a fraud analyst, looking at all these transactions and stuff. So like whenever I hear stuff like this, I'm like, okay, how is, how can this be worked as a scam? And so that's how my brain works.

And I want to make sure that my audience informed as well. Because this is an emerging aspect, right? This is something that is still kind of the wild west because it's unregulated. And I don't mind unregulation because it's the free market, right? It's the pure free market unregulation. But I also want people to be safe, right? And my.

You're absolutely correct. And, and let me just interject with this. When you talked about fraud, my very first experience in this whole world of digital and blockchain technology, I lost over 125,000 in my first investment. And because I was green, I was still learning. I didn't know the ins about what to look for. And obviously that's all changed now because just like anything in this world, there are scammers and there are hackers that are out there trying to take your money. And it's a matter of really understanding what, what are the signs and what do you need to look for when you're looking at a company that you are interested in, you know, putting a chunk of change down.

Okay. And in that regard I'm going to kind of shift it into an investing in yourself type of point of view. Question. What after you, obviously you said you were green when you lost that large chunk of chain change, which hurts anybody regardless of where you are in the social economic status, some more than others. Right. What investing in yourself did you do to learn more about this crazy world of the future so that you're not as green, if you will, and you're better informed to see these kind of scabs so that my audience can take those steps and maybe not lose such a large chunk of change, Maybe a smaller chunk that doesn't hurt.

Exactly. No, great question. It's really getting out there and doing your due diligence and looking for professional people who have been in the industry for a number of years and getting the education from them. You know, I work with, you know, three T warriors, which is he coach jv has a whole program that, that's kind of where I started initially. But then when I came over to what I'm doing today as a global ambassador with this company, I vetted out a, a, an individual who today is my wealth coach. And he's a self made millionaire at 27 in real estate. And in 2019 he incorporated this business model into his portfolio of businesses and has created an eight figure additional income stream just from this, you know, this ecosystem. And so I work with him on, you know, a regular basis as we are evolving into the products and services that we have to offer people.

And one of the major aspects of me coming on board and making the decision to move forward with the company was the fact of getting the right information from him. The company being registered with government, the appropriate government agencies to do business and the NFTs, the tokens, and we're all registered with the appropriate authorities. And it has evolved into today where the company is working with the sec, they're working with global experts who are guiding them along this way in the digital world and utilizing the, the blockchain technology to launch their product. But they're also now they just announced an IPO and they're going to be opening up on the New York Stock Exchange. So they're really getting the best of both worlds. So people can see the evolvement of this. And you know, those are some of the things that I, that have really helped me grow in this industry. And then when I look at, you know, when I share information about.

You talked about the Metaverse here. This is a project that we're launching right now and this is decentralized. So it's on the Ethereum Mainnet ecosystem and the token is available on MetaMask. But this entire system is accredited by Microsoft, accredited through Amazon, Amazon Web Services. Those three companies have invested a lot of money into this platform. And what's different about this versus this? This is real estate. You own a fraction of it. This is a system, an ecosystem that is.

Right now we have over 200 schools that are registered and then we have just around 500,000 students who are enrolled in this system. And the vision of this, and it's on the blockchain and the vision of this by 2029 is to have over 11,000 schools registered and 8.5 million end users. And currently, and we talk about growth and how this works, it works the same as it does in the New York Stock Exchange. As a company grow, grows, so does the value of the, you know, the entity, the stock, the share, the token. And this is the token. It started out at 6 cents and right now it's valued at 70 cents. It's opening on the market this year, June, July at $2 and it could go anywhere from 2 to $5. So those are the two different entities of going IPO initial purchase offer and then ICO initial coin offering on the decentralized, which is the Ethereum blockchain and this is on the New York Stock Exchange.

I like that. I like that. Old and new coming into the world together in different ways. I want to go. Because some people are unsure of what an NFT is, which is a non fungible token. They think of it's just a clip art piece of art, but it can be so much more. It's pretty much a contract. It's a pretty contract, if you will, sometimes a pretty contract.

Because we're all throwing out these lingo to these people who may not have any idea Cryptocurrency or coin that is, think of it like legal tender. That's all it is. It's an IOU that you have. I owe this company. Bitcoin owes you this amount of money because. Or it's a stock. It could be considered a stock because it's an investment in something. You're buying a piece of a fraction of a company.

Nft. What is an, how is an NFT different than a cryptocurrency?

So a crypto. So. And it really depends on the definition that is really presented by the company. And why do I say that? You know, you've got NFTs out there that are pieces of art just out there in crypto world. Our NFTs, our NFTs, our tokens and our coins. Right now we have tokens and NFTs, plus we have the shares for the real estate that's going to go IPO. So that's a share. But our NFTs and our tokens are backed by projects and a cryptocurrency right now like XRP or Bitcoin.

They don't have a backing to it. It's the investment that comes in on the blockchain technology and it's there and you sell it, you exchange it, you do whatever. However, I'm seeing from time to time that there are discussions about moving into the future with real world asset backings to some of these projects that are coming down the pike. And of course you talked earlier about deregulation. I mean, regulation is going to come in, which is good because it eliminates.

A lot of the fraud and scammers.

Exactly, exactly. And so we've jumped in right away with working with the sec. And the other thing is, I mean we've incorporated in California, we're setting up a San Francisco headquarters, U.S. headquarters. So we will be here. And then we are also, we have a business entity registration in the state of Delaware. That's where we started a couple years ago, is getting it into the United States. Now we've got that going on.

But the other thing too is to look at the history of high tech. Where is it going and where are you getting recognition? I mean, this company has been recognized in over 12 digital magazines from Benzinga to Yahoo Finance to Business Insider, so forth and so on. But then also they were invited to 2024 Disrupt in San Francisco and then they were invited to Saudi Arabia in February of this year and they ranked number two out of over 2,000 companies as most innovative metaverse company with a product that works. We're developing five continents within this product. The first is the educational. The second is the business day which incorporates the virtual reality of real estate. We actually have our zans of our property in the metaverse so people can see, they can look at the apartment they can look at the glamp, they can look at the pool, they can look at the Indian Ocean. So getting that type of a recognition has been really instrumental to our rapid growth and bringing awareness.

But then the other thing too is here in the United States, with the new administration, they embrace blockchain technology. They embrace the products and services that are developing on this platform and the technologies and where they're taking not only the companies, but also those individuals who want to diversify their portfolio. And with the $500 billion AI Stargate merger of three companies, this is giving us really a very competitive edge here because we're all about Metaverse and we're in the forefront of this whole industry and breaking groundbreaking technological advances, if you will.

I love it. We are coming to the end of the episode, which I despise because I'm having a great time with you, doc. So I'm going to ask you the final question. Actually, I'm going to get to two questions. I want to know where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Oh, wow. Well, I do see myself on the beaches eating bon bons or on my own private island.

Don't we all?

I think, you know, for me, and this is funny that you asked this because I was just talking about this with somebody yesterday. My vision is, you know, I want to pay it forward. I think many of us have grown up, especially my generation. I'm 70, I'm a baby boomer. We were taught to go to school, get an education, work till you, you know, work until you retire and then be happy. Well, most people are not. So what can change that paradigm from years ago to what's happening today? When I started with computers, I had a floppy disk to boot up my computer. They're running the world now.

So it's a matter of being open to getting information and of what's going on today that's going to change your future. Because those who are in the know now, we're benefiting now. I never in a million would have thought that I'd have a seven and soon to be eight figure portfolio. That was never in my mind, but it is possible. So that would be my recommendation, is for people today to really step into the uncomfortable zone and start getting educated on this. And if it's for you, great. If it's not for you, great. But it's an option.

You need to have options to be able to make educated decisions.

I love it because it kind of leads into my, my final question, which is I have 10 year old Jeffrey right here. Sitting beside me. We were chatting a moment ago. It was great. We're talking about chocolate chip cookies that mom made, which was always so good. You have 60 years of experience with a lot of lessons and wisdom that you can pass back. But what's one piece of advice you would love to pass back to? Young Jeffrey?

Young Jeffrey. Oh, boy. So especially in 2025, the world has changed and it is, it is growing so much more rapid. It's, it's, it's growing at a very high pace of a rate with the technologies and the tech. These technologies are changing the paradigm of where we're going to be three to five to ten years down the road. And I encourage, talk to a lot of parents and I encourage them to start getting their kids educated and maybe ask their dads or their moms, mom, put away $1,000 into a, you know, a nice little project. And then when I'm 18 years old, who knows, maybe it'll be a million, maybe it'll be $5 million. Because when Jeffrey, 10 years old today, gets to be 18 to 20 years old, we will be well into the digital currency world and what we see today.

I don't know what we're going to see today in 10 to 15 to 20 years from now, but hopefully I'll still be around to see where that will go.

I love it. Such a great piece of advice. Dr. Jeffrey Berger, I want to thank you so much for being here. You are an amazing guest to my audience. Make sure you check out the show notes down below to connect with the good sir and see where you can go in the metaverse and in the future of the digital world. This is Phil Better from Investing Yourself, the digital Entrepreneur podcast. Remember to always invest in yourself.

Thanks for joining us on Invest in Yourself, the digital entrepreneur podcast. The podcast mogul reminds you that your journey to freedom and success starts with one powerful move. Investing in yourself. If today's episode sparked your fire, hit that follow button on Spotify and drop us a comment. Share your wins, your challenges, and what drives you to bring break free from the corporate grind. Remember, you're your best investment. Always invest in yourself because your potential is limitless. Until next time, keep hustling and take control of your destiny.