Many (most) of my Frolic 100 article writing comes from the prompt “What do I need to hear most right now?” However, today I asked “What am I scared to admit right now?” and I had an immediate answer: This is all there is. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been coming to terms that I’m dealing with another existential crisis, possibly the 3rd in my life. There are ebbs and flows. This one caught...
Everything great that has ever happened to me happened because I was willing to face a fear, and walk through that door. Shermain Melton and I used this as the topic of the most recent Accomplished Misfit gathering. There’s a distinction between talking about old, vanquished fears, and ones you are actively facing today, or in this very moment. We had a spirited call where everyone used...
What if you already had all the knowledge for every challenge you’re facing? I just found and digitized an old VHS tape from 1997 of me appearing on Groove Radio 103.1 FM in Los Angeles to promote a new kind of music barely anyone had heard of called happy hardcore. I wanted to challenge myself to not just use this video of nostalgia from a bygone era, but to help me with my ongoing mission of...
Ever have one of those moments where it seems the universe has resorted to having to scream a message at you that you were doing your best to ignore? Today was that day for me. Like many of my Frolic 100 articles, I often start with the prompt “What do I need to hear most right now?” and I did so today. I literally write it out on my Word document, and had those words staring at me from a blank...
Last week I created a challenge for myself and invited anyone who wanted to hear me pitch an event I’m collaborating on in Toronto with my friend, Shermain Melton, where all we have is a date so far and a commitment from both of us that it will happen. Instead of figuring out what it is first, we’ve decided that working together is the most important part and that the ideas will come after...
I love breaking rules. I love taking risks. I love risking failure. As part of the “scary conversation” series of chats I had this week, I challenged Frolic 100 member Leslie to pitch me on her current program. I was proud of her for stepping into her courage and doing so. But then she unexpectedly turned the tables on me and asked me to pitch her on my October program, which at this time was...
I live to tell stories, and when someone says something to me like “What a story!” I know I’ve accomplished something incredible. It’s even more powerful when I can catch that I’m living through a story, or that one is in front of me – if I just say “Yes” to it. Here are the elements of what makes an incredible story. One where you change, and the people that hear the story change as well. This...
Something I’ve learned about myself, and continue to learn, is how attracted I am to new creation, and not re-creation. That is why I don’t do nostalgia, and I’ve never had an interest in revisiting the chapters of my life. At least, not in the exact same way. I’ve also painted myself into a corner, where in recent years I will take on a topic or challenge, and then not feel any energy to return...
Last week I spoke about the trap I can fall into comparing the impact I have in the world with billionaires, and in the past I’ve also spoken about an “inner mob boss” who lives within me and tells me I’m not doing enough: “I’m only as good as my last envelope”. I live within a paradox where I want to feel at peace, and at the same time I want to believe my best is yet to come. But the chase for...
I woke up, around 2am, and felt difficulty breathing. I could feel a tightness in my chest. I took in a deep breath – good, I still could, and let it out. For some reason, I was having an anxiety attack in the middle of the night. It woke me up. Years ago I used to think these symptoms were a heart attack. Because it never was, I learned it wasn’t, and no matter how bad I felt, it would pass. I...
Do you have an insidious voice that lives rent free in your head always telling you nothing you do is enough, nothing you have is enough, and you’re never enough? I do. Today I decided to write to an earlier version of me, from seven years ago. A letter I have all the authority in the world to write, because I know the truth, having lived it. The letter is below: Dear 2018 Chris from 2025...
I find almost everyone using AI is playing the wrong game with it. They’re trying to figure out how to have AI let them do “more”. More productivity, more revenue, more output, more, more, more. This is the same trap humanity has been caught in for decades, if not centuries. AI is just the latest tech tool that is facilitating “more”. For most people, if they were...
As I write this I’m suffering from my second covid infection in less than two months. It was just over 6 weeks ago I wrote that life can be random and unfair sometimes. My wife wasn’t even fully recovered from the previous one and is also infected again. This just sucks. In this moment though I’m grateful for a spontaneous lunch I took with my wife exactly a week ago. I was...
First, an admission of failure. “The Big Drive 2025” for me is a complete bust. Making money for the sake of making money simply isn’t motivating me. There was value for me in analyzing my past processes, and writing them up in a series of articles for others, but returning to that specific playbook is not working. Because I’m not the same person. There’s an old quote that I feel is relevant in...
You know what’s wild? I’ve written 344 articles on this website, but the hardest thing to write has always been my About page. Seven years ago, I was a wounded man entering middle age who felt like the world’s biggest fake. My website sat there with a blank About page – a digital monument to my shame. I couldn’t tell you who I was because I didn’t know. For...
If I’m truly honest and open, I have an admission to make: I’m sitting here at my desk, trying to write about failure, and realizing I’m failing at failing. Not the kind of failure I promised when I declared this my Year of Failure. More like the embarrassing kind where I’m staring at my screen thinking “what the hell am I doing?” Last night I couldn’t sleep...
It wasn’t exactly the best Christmas for me this week. My oldest kid tested positive for covid on Christmas eve, and my wife tested positive on Christmas morning. The last time my wife had covid, they got so sick with erratic heart beats we had to call an ambulance and have them taken to the hospital. My wife left the hospital in a wheelchair and had to use it for several months. A...
Once upon a time I had a LinkedIn profile. It wasn’t great. I was ashamed of myself and my story when I had created it. I downplayed all of my accomplishments, in a weak attempt at trying to appear more “corporate”. My imposter syndrome at the time also had its hands around me like a choke hold, and I didn’t even list my webinar company, StealthSeminar, by name. I listed myself as some sort of...
I never know when or how my next story will show up. This past Monday I was driving my sixteen-year-old to school. It was an unusually bright and sunny warm October morning. My son sat quietly, looking out the window. Later that same day I was planning to return to one of my old activities, playing with the Toronto Pinball League. I haven’t played regularly since before COVID and I’ve...
The webinar business I co-founded over 14 years ago just completed due diligence and closed its sale to a $100 million private equity fund that specializes in SaaS (Software as a Service), and now that particular part of my life is done. Even though I exited an active role with the company several years ago, I still retained 50% ownership and monthly dividends from that. It feels good to have...
During the peak of my DJ career, back in the year 2000, I was banned from entering the US after being caught entering to work as a DJ without having the required paperwork (Longtime followers of mine are very familiar with this story, and I wrote about it extensively in my memoir). I spent many years regretting my actions that led to that. This ultimately led to my eventual retirement from DJing...
(The following is an excerpt from my memoir, Requiem for My Rave. I’ve been asking myself lately what lessons I can share from this time in my life with audiences today.) It was March 2000. Robin, my girlfriend at the time and I were in the middle of making dinner. It was a night no different than any other. Robin was cutting some tomatoes, and I was working the stove with tilapia. It sizzled in...
Can a single day at an amusement park redefine years of anxiety and personal growth? Let me tell you how it did for me. After a lifetime of precarious financial living, personal bankruptcy, homelessness, living on the edge, dealing with eviction notices for late rent while juggling my young family, booming and busting multiple times, my financial situation permanently changed in 2012. I had...
A paradox is generally defined as something (person, situation, action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases. I’ve come to the conclusion lately that my life is full of paradoxes, and they leave me in a state of feeling like I’m supposed to be doing something about them. However, what if by their nature of being a paradox, there wasn’t actually anything to fix or change? Because...
I’m not sure where I picked up the phrase “quality problem”, but I’ve been using it recently to describe the doldrums I have found myself in. I’ve written previously about the not-so-helpful habit of comparing my “quality” problems to other people’s “real” problems. Like some prior advice to myself, I’m going to “stop...