Las Vegas Friends - Invitation to Friendship Network

This page is a personal invitation for Vegas locals. My intention here is simple: I want to make more growth-oriented local friends that I can regularly connect with in person.

Because of my self-development work (blogging, speaking, YouTubing, live events, traveling, etc), I've made lots of good friends all around the world and still keep in touch with many of them. But the vast majority of them aren't local, so I hardly ever get to see them in person. At this point in my life, I'd like a bigger, more vibrant local friendship network where I live. That's progressing nicely, and now I want to expand the invitation.

I've done many one-time meetups with people who've visited Vegas, and I've enjoyed that because I love meeting new people, but I can't really invest in much depth there if I seldom see those people again. These days I desire more depth, consistency, and longevity in my local friendship circle. That can be challenging in Vegas because many people move here from other cities and then move away after a few years. I've lived here continuously for more than 20 years, so I've seen a lot of friends come and go. Vegas isn't for everyone, but I love it here.

I have some good local friends that I enjoy connecting with, and I'm gradually making more of them. I also want more compatible friends where we can invest in a high-trust relationship for many years. So I'm putting up this page to openly share my intentions and to create an ongoing invitation for this part of my life. I assure you it's genuine.

I'll share more details next to help you sense whether we might be a good match.

Friendship Compatibility

I make casual friends very easily, and I have plenty of those. Now I'm seeking more long-term friends who are strongly compatible with me, so we can go beyond casual hangout buddies. I'm open to how that flows, intending that it leads somewhere fun, rewarding, purposeful, caring, and mutually beneficial.

For me good friendship is about having a strong mental, emotional, and spirit-level affinity. I tend to recognize fairly quickly that some people are just fabulous matches. It's not something I can articulate perfectly, but I can at least list some criteria that matter, especially to help mismatches and weak partial matches filter themselves out.

Vegas Locals - I want good local friends that I can see often, like at least monthly. I'm okay with frequent Vegas visitors too, like if you visit many times each year, but ideally I prefer true locals who like Vegas and call this city home. I moved here from L.A. in 2004 and still like it here. I live in a nice house in Summerlin (West side of town), not far from Downtown Summerlin. I know that Vegas isn't everyone's cup of tea, but there's something about the energy, vibrancy, freedom, and possibility of this place that I find attractive and compelling. I love that this city takes risks and keep striving to reimagine itself. I'm not into the drinking and gambling scene, but I do love the overall energy here. Some people felt I was crazy to move here because they don't get it; they only see the facade of Sin City that Vegas emits, but long-term locals know that there's a lot more to the Vegas Valley than the tourists normally get to see. I felt like I was called to move here and to call Vegas home. Somehow this place really suits me. I'd love to connect with others who feel similarly. I don't feel very compatible with people who merely tolerate Vegas but would rather live someplace else. However, I can extend this invite to people who really like Las Vegas and visit the place often, including those who feel tempted to move here someday. Perhaps I can encourage you to take the plunge, and I can potentially help you make more friends here in Vegas too if I think you'd be a match for them.

Vegan-Friendly - I'm a committed ethical vegan, and so is Rachelle. If you want to be good friends with one or both of us, then you need to actually like and appreciate that about us. If you would merely tolerate that (very core) aspect of my lifestyle, you're not a good match. You don't have to be vegan yourself, but admittedly it's a huge plus if you are. Our home is our fully vegan sanctuary, so we don't allow anyone to bring animal products inside. I'm also very into raw foods and typically eat mostly raw. One thing I enjoy doing with some friends is making interesting meals together.

Growth-Committed - I love people who are committed to lifelong learning, growth, and self-development. I resonate strongly with people who have a can-do positive attitude. People who are very stagnant and complacent just don't offer much – I get bored with them pretty quickly. If you don't like growth, you clearly wouldn't be a match for me since this is such a huge part of my life and work.

Emotional Resilience - I'm very positive and resilient. Depression just isn't something I experience. My mind has very strong inner defenses that prevent it from turning against itself. I'm very much an optimist and bounce back from setbacks quickly. I tend to be most compatible with like-minded and like-hearted people. I really don't want my primary friendship role to be that of therapist to my friends. That's okay on occasion, but I generally prefer to connect with people who are emotionally strong and stable, not those who constantly seem like emotional messes or fixer-uppers.

Openness to New Experiences - In terms of core personality traits, I tend to max out the score for openness to new experiences. I love meeting new people, trying things I've never tried before (within my ethical boundaries), and having new adventures. I so love it when I meet like-minded people who really want to squeeze the juiciness out of life and soak up lots of experiential richness. Some of my best experiences involved taking a risk just to see what would happen, such as going to Disneyland for 30 days in a row, traveling to new countries (sometimes with a one-way ticket, not knowing when I'd return), or microdosing with magic mushrooms. I'd especially love to do some future self-development and experiential explorations with a core group of local friends. Take what I'm already doing in my own life and open it up to be way more social. I've already done that online with Conscious Growth Club, so I'd love to create a similar growth-oriented friendship network here in Vegas.

Good Conversationalists – I love people who can verbally express themselves, so we can have deep and fascinating conversations together, especially with some energy and enthusiasm when discussing what interests us. I find it very easy to passionately share what I'm into. I'm often highly enthusiastic about my latest pursuits and explorations. Some people love that side of me.

Playfulness - I love people who have a strong playful side, a healthy sense of humor, and a genuine appreciation for having fun. Laughter is always a big part of my best friendships. If you've suppressed or killed off your inner child, you're not a good match.

Huggers - Open-hearted hugs please, not handshakes. I routinely offer hugs to people I'm meeting for the first time. Becoming a hugger was a meaningful part of my own self-development path, so I always appreciate connecting with people who appreciate hugs. I find that it adds more warmth and depth to a connection from the get-go. At live events I love to greet people at the registration area, offer each person a nice warm hug, and encourage everyone to hug other attendees too. It created a much better vibe when I started doing that many years ago. It seems like second nature now.

Co-Creative People - I've been on a creative path for 30+ years, so I tend to resonate strongly with other people who do creative work (or who want to get into it). This isn't essential for friendship, but I'd say most of my best friends tend to do some kind of creative work... not all of them though. I also created a major audio course called Amplify to support other creators. I haven't had a job or a boss since 1992, figuring that I'd be better off investing in my creative skills instead. I've also done some rewarding co-creative projects with people, and it would be fun to do more of that with local friends who feel similarly.

Diversity But Not Stupidity - In addition to strong compatibility, especially when it comes to values alignment, I like having lots of diversity among my friends. Age, race, sex, gender identity, culture, life experience – I love variety. I often connect well with people who are a bit divergent from societal norms. But while I appreciate diversity, I do not feel the same about idiocy, which is why Trump supporters get a ferocious no. Morons and assholes don't get to be part of my inner circle, online or in-person. The main reason I share this isn't to repel such people – they don't tend to find me or my work appealing anyway – so hardly anyone reading this is likely to be that far gone. I share this because I want people to know that I maintain a Trump-free inner circle (online and offline), and that is indeed very attractive and compelling to like-minded people. We do this with Conscious Growth Club too, which is why it's so beautifully supportive inside.

Honesty & Trust - I want to build deeper, long-lasting, committed friendships with people I can really trust. It's important to me to maintain and invest in high-trust relationships for the rest of my life. That requires honesty and the willingness to share our innermost thoughts and feelings. People who are very shielded, jaded, suspicious, skittish, or untrustworthy aren't good matches. I thrive in high-trust social circles, and after spending so much of my life in that space, I have zero interest in dealing with low-trust drama.

Spirity - I tend to frame myself as more spirity than spiritual. I love exploring in spirit space, with or without psychedelics, but the spirit-level is also very infused into my daily life and thinking. I tend to get along well with people who consider themselves woo woo, but I don't normally use that term to describe myself. I do feel like spirit-level energy is always with me and flowing through me. I would especially love more friends that are interested in doing some spirity explorations together. That's very open-ended and flexible and could take a variety of forms, like doing intention experiments together (we do them every month in CGC), or taking some substances and setting similar exploration intentions, then comparing notes on our journeys.

Availability - I have a flexible schedule and work from home, so I can make time for friends and social activities. I want to make this even more of a priority in my life. If someone is constantly unavailable or flaky, then there isn't much to invest in there, so I'll invest my energy elsewhere. I do get busy with projects or travel myself sometimes, but most of the time I have excess capacity and experience a healthy sense of time abundance. I want to devote more time and energy to investing in strong friendships. This requires a willingness and capacity from all involved.

Friendship as Its Own Reward - I want to make more friends who truly value and appreciate having good friends that they get to see often in person, not people who see friends as pawns to be used to serve some other agenda. The love, trust, and joy is compelling enough for me. I don't want to go to my grave without having given this aspect of life my best.

Psychonauts - This one definitely isn't mandatory, but I do love to deeply explore in the realms of consciousness and spirit/astral space through meditation and psychedelic explorations. If you consider yourself a psychonaut too, that's a big plus. I'd especially love to meet more locals who are open to exploring together in this way, so we can compare notes. Since 2023 I've been active in LVPS (Las Vegas Psychedelic Society) and have been making friends through it. I've also been to a few psychedelic related conferences like Psychedelic Science and PsyCon and intend to go to more. I like sharing about this aspect of my life, such as I did in the YouTube video I made about going to a Depeche Mode concert while shroomie.

Cannabis Enthusiasts - I'm not a daily cannabis user and prefer not to smoke it, but I have been exploring it via dry herb vaping, THC tinctures, and vegan gummies. I especially like to try different strains, and I compile notes on my experiences. I've found a few strains that have been really fascinating for creative insights and some others which serve as great meditation aids. I'm not really into getting stoned and zoning out, but I do like using cannabis for creative and spirit-level consults, often in combination with mini-doses of mushrooms. I'm also open to exploring cannabis for the social effects with people who like that sort of thing. If this resonates with you, that's a plus, but it's not a big deal to me if you're not into this, as long as you can handle that I'll be exploring this now and then. I wrote a blog post about some of my early cannabis explorations if you want to know more about this.

Lovers - I'm open to connecting with new lovers too (women only please). Rachelle and I have been in an open (unfenced) relationship since we got together in 2010, which feels very normal and natural to me. Some years we've invested more in that aspect, including having multiple threesomes (fun and loving). I've also linked up now and then with women who've come to Vegas and with women I met while traveling. I'd love to rekindle, refresh, and expand this aspect of my life but with more depth, connection, friendship, and longevity as part of it. I'm not interested in casual hookups or one-night stands though, and I want to focus on long-term connections with local women who want to explore that kind of deeper connection together. To me there isn't a hard line between friend and lover with certain women; it tends to be more of a spectrum. I see this as a beautiful extension of friendship when the compatibility, chemistry, and mutual desire are strong. If this interests you, I'll refer you to my Lovers invite page for further details. If you're not into this way of connecting, that's fine; we can still be friends, but it's important that you accept that I'll be exploring in this way with other female friends.

Video - I'm getting more into video and YouTubing, so it would be especially lovely to make more local friends with similar interests. Perhaps we can make some cool videos together. I have a small home studio and seem to upgrade it every few years, but it's admittedly a bit limiting when I handle every aspect myself (or even with Rachelle's help). There's just so much that goes into it, so on my own I usually have to keep each project pretty simple. I see the potential for making richer and more interesting videos if I had more local friends who were interested in doing co-creative video projects. I'm very comfortable on camera and have gradually been building skill with lighting, sound, and editing. I'd be happy to help out with a friend's video project too if I can make time for it and if it's aligned with my values. In the long run, I think I'd really enjoy having a small team of friends who enjoy doing interesting, growth-oriented video projects together, even if the videos are just at the hobbyist level and don't do much commercially. Either way I intend to keep building up my YouTube channel, especially since I expect that it will help attract even more great people into CGC.

Get in Touch

If you see some potential here or have some questions about it, I encourage you to reach out and get in touch. If it seems promising, we can meet up for a chat (or connect on Zoom first) and see what happens. Send me a message via my contact form to let me know. Your message will go straight to me, so no worries about any assistant seeing it first if you want to be candid. Don't try to find me on social networks like X, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram though since I'm not on those services.

I anticipate this will lead to some very rewarding experiences for all involved.

Hugs!

- Steve