That’s been the reaction to most of my life.
High school dropout. World-famous DJ. Got banned from the US. Went bankrupt. Built a multi-million dollar tech company. Hypnotized 5000+ people on stage. Wrote 4 books. Took on climate change because why the hell not.
Now? I’m chasing serendipity instead of goals. Waiting to be in the room when something impossible becomes inevitable.
350+ articles and 7 years of figuring this out in public are here if you want them. So is my story.
1. I’m not a coach. I don’t call myself one. 2. I’m a high school drop out without a piece of paper with my name on it. 3. I have an income that comes from a business I created and has nothing to do with coaching. I don’t rely on coaching for money. 4. I paid for and abandoned my coach certification. I threw that money down the toilet. 5. I don’t have large social media following. Well, none at...
This event has past, instant video replay is now available – request yours below! I’m hosting a free Zoom for those who practice coaching and aren’t comfortable with labels and want permission to build a business as unique as they are. This is an exclusive invitation-only event for a select group of attendees. I am also accepting referrals. During the call: I will share the results of all...
My ability to create something from nothing is what makes me valuable. It’s not about teaching you to do what I do, or do what I did, but it’s about facilitating an environment that supports you to create something new yourself. That is what I bring to the table. It isn’t about labels or simple easy steps. And I love that I don’t have to pretend to be anything I’m not. I refuse to act as if I am...
I’m going to model something right now. Take from this what is of value to you. I have a very small email list. Mostly because of the decelerated life I choose to live, I don’t participate in social media and all the usual ways people generally are reached these days. I’m co-founder and co-owner of a successful business that pays me monthly dividends and I have stepped away from daily duties. I...
I wrote and shared this with my children at the dinner table. I’m now sharing it with you. Dear Gavin & Connor. Daddy wants to share 5 things I’ve learned that will help you live an extraordinary life. 1. Take action. Most people don’t. They give into their fears and never find out what might have actually happened had they just done it. They find busy work to pretend they’re doing...
There’s a feeling I’ve regularly experiencing lately. The best word I can use to describe it is “pride”. Pride sometimes is seen as negative, especially when it’s about comparing yourself with others. Usually pride is used to compensate for one’s shortcomings, and then creates a story of why they’re better than someone else. On a recent call, during a...
I used to be ashamed of doing things different from everyone else. Now it gives me pleasure. I learned this about myself and can now just tap into it. I literally get a perverse pleasure when I do things that are completely contrary to everyone else. All I know is I don’t want to follow the rules, so I’m not going to. I give the best I’ve got to my blog. I enjoy sharing my...
My birthday just passed. Normally I’d take my family to a nice restaurant and that’s our treat. This year, because of covid, that went out the window. We’d stay home. Because I “lost” something, I asked myself how can I celebrate my birthday this year? I came up with 3 things: Gratitude Acknowledgement of what an incredible year this has been Spend it with my family...
This summer we had a socially distanced visit of another family to our backyard. They are old friends that have known me since my DJ days. One of them asked, “Chris are you working now?” I paused. Robin, my wife, answered for me, “That’s a complicated answer.” I’m continually challenging myself over what “work” is and how I go about it. If work is...
I was having a discussion this week about money. The common challenges most people have with money were coming up, primarily the difficulty in valuing yourself. During the discussion an insight came to me that I wrote down: Money is a byproduct of my awesomeness. Be Awesome. I liked that statement as soon as I wrote it. It made me feel good. I immediately shared it with everyone. With a lot of...
I live a decelerated life where I don’t use social media and don’t chase followers. This blog only gets a few visitors a day. I had decided early on I was going to not use traditional metrics and break every rule there is. It gives me pleasure every time I do something like that. The people that need to find me find me. I love knowing I’m your secret weapon (or that I can be)...
I was recently asked what my greatest accomplishment of the last 10 years is. I’ve done some great things over the past 10 years. I launched a multi-million dollar business. I also had the courage to leave it. I completed and published my memoir after it being incomplete for 14 years. I bought a home. Reached financial independence. My life has had huge changes. However, one accomplishment...
I suffered for years for an unknown reason. Despite my outward success, the money I made, the things I owned, I was extremely unhappy and miserable. Then I came across the term “Imposter Syndrome” and things started to make more sense for me. I was living my life feeling like an imposter. That I had fooled the world, and didn’t deserve what I had. My case was made particularly...
I love metaphors. I’ve learned I use them more than the average person. I did it so often and so easily most of my life I didn’t even realize it. Now I see it, and lean into it. I use metaphors to describe abstract or complicated ideas or even feelings and turn them into something easily relatable. One of my favorite metaphors is thinking of myself as a gunslinger. I think of watching...
My wife and I have been together for 23 years, 18 of those married. For most people that see us, we come across as a very successful couple, because we are. However, because we are always striving to be more, we decided to start couples therapy this year. The goal was to look back in 5 years time and say these most recent 5 years were our best years, in ways that we couldn’t comprehend today. I...
The exhaust fan in my pool cabana room had died at the end of last year. It sat broke through the winter since our pool was closed. In the spring as we re-opened it, I knew I had to do something, but wasn’t sure what. My mind remembered seeing stickers on the side of the road on the backs of traffic signs with a simple message: Broken bathroom fan? Call the Fan Whisperer. Such a simple and...
There’s an old school computer programming term called “Close to the metal”. It means you’re working with assembly level languages that the chips and hardware understand, rather than much more easier for humans to understand higher level languages. This was more important back in the day with limited hardware and memory power. You had to squeeze everything you could out of...
A few weeks ago I was inspired to challenge myself again. I needed to up the amperage on “What’s Next?” I asked myself this question: What scares me? After I sat with that for a bit, I answered it with this doozy of a question: Who do I need to be to charge 1 million dollars for 1 day of my time? I was less scared of this idea than excited by it. This is me challenging myself in the right way and...
For the past few years, ever since I made the decision to step away from daily responsibility of the company I co-founded, I have been pursuing ideas of what I thought I should be doing. Basically making the world a better place. Aspiring to be selfless. Helping others. Problem was, after a couple of years of this, I realized none of my ideas were taking root. I’d come up with great thoughts and...
Many years ago when I was still DJing I was waiting to be picked up at the Arrivals section of Chicago O’Hare Airport. I was standing by the driveway where cars picked up the waiting passengers. Beside me was a teenage girl and her mother. They had a few suitcases, coming back from who knows where together. As I waited for my pickup, a car pulled up in front of the mom and daughter. A man...
I was recently having a Zoom discussion with a bunch of online peers. Most were acknowledging, if not outright complaining, about how over-scheduled their lives are. Earlier in the call I had confessed that while a lot of them are taking this month off for vacation, I had never taken a vacation in my life. I am totally serious. I don’t know what that is. Every trip I’ve ever taken in...
There’s a box that sits on my desk that is very special. What’s inside of it is even more special and priceless. There is literally nothing like it in the world. Would you like to hear me tell a story about it?
There’s a piece of very colourful art that hangs prominently on my wall behind me. It’s visible when I’m speaking. You might have seen it already. There’s a powerful story about it and how it got there. I mentioned this to a friend. He commented that I have an amazing knack for creating curiosity in people. OF COURSE he now wanted to hear that story. So I recorded this...
I speak with people quite a bit who beat themselves up with all their “failure” stories. They think their failures mean they are not successful. The reality is failure is a necessary part of success. There is no one in the world that hasn’t failed, multiple times, at everything. The most successful people have the biggest failure stories. Myself included. We are taught to not speak of them, to...
It is so easy for me to dazzle people with the “greatest hits” version of my story. To talk about the things I’ve done, to show the pictures and video. I’ve done some cool stuff, no question. I am often “the most interesting person in the room” and for a long time it was fun to be that for people. To tell my stories. Problem was, I was only telling one slice of it. No one ever heard of the...