I keep doing things I’m not supposed to do. Then they work. Then I do bigger things I’m not supposed to do.
High school dropout turned world-famous DJ. Got banned from the US, went bankrupt, then built a multi-million dollar tech company. Hypnotized 5000+ people on stage just to see if I could. Now I’m going after climate change because… why the hell not?
Here’s the thing: I document everything. Every experiment. Every failure. Every holy shit moment. Not to teach you – because I’ve learned something strange: When people witness me doing the impossible, they start doing impossible things too.
This website is my laboratory. These stories are my evidence. And the Frolic 100 are my witnesses – not just watching me, but having their own realities rewired by what becomes possible when someone goes first.
The question isn’t if you want to see what happens next. The question is: What will happen to YOU when you do?
One thing that has become crystal clear to me is from my years of working through my imposter crisis is that I have an incredible understanding of “How” I best do things. I learned this because to overcome my crisis I had to switch from feeling like a fake to owning my successes. I learned how to identify my retroactively provable truths, some of which is documented in what I call my “Statement...
For the first time since I started my blog, in January 2018, I didn’t write a weekly article last week. That’s over 4 years and over 200 articles, week in and week out, not to mention publishing 2 autobiographical books. As I was thinking about what I might want to write about last week, I was inspired with the thought that the most difficult thing for me to do would be to not write and take a...
Many years ago, a friend once remarked to me “You’re successfully underemployed”. He was remarking on my light work schedule, during my DJ career. We’re so overwhelmed with overwork messaging. There’s that old joke that entrepreneurs “quit their 40 hour a week job so they can work 80”. Guys like Elon Musk brag about 100 hour work weeks. It’s simply never been my experience. I can perform when...
Many years ago a friend of mine shared with me a gaming acronym and metaphor; DoT – Damage over Time. In computer gaming, it refers to things that can happen to your character, like being poisoned or having a spell cast against it. In the real world, we used it to describe choices and decisions around spending money that weigh you down and can negatively impact you. DoTs in real life can apply to...
I’ve been dealing with a lot behind the scenes. One of the things I’m learning about myself is my natural habit of soldiering on in the face of huge adversity and not revealing to anyone else what is going on. I tend not to talk about the tough times in my life until they are in my past, and then they become stories I share. My challenge now is to share what I’m going through and allow myself to...
I’ve come to understand I’m a life-long learner, even though I don’t have a piece of paper with my name on it. One of the ways I enjoy learning is books. I’m particularly drawn to books that are not on the best sellers lists. Here are some of the books I’ve read recently and what some of my takeaways were. Ask Iwata : Words of Wisdom from Satoru Iwata, Nintendo’s Legendary CEO Iwata was CEO of...
“I’ve never seen someone so happy writing a $250,000 cheque for their taxes before”, said my accountant. The thing was – I was happy. I was happy I had the money, I was happy to put my tax bill behind me, no need for deferments or other tax planning trickery. Many years ago I avoided my taxes. I was late filing them, and my avoidance was so bad I didn’t file for years and went through a personal...
This week’s article has taken more effort than usual. I’ve started and stopped over a half a dozen attempts. Maybe I’ll come back to them when my inspiration is better. I scrolled through the last year of daily journaling looking for inspiration and topics that I’ve not already written about. I could feel the pressure I was putting on myself to get it done. And yet, nothing was happening. The...
I’ve been getting better lately at recognizing some of the dark voices in my head. Recently, Robin and I were having a deep conversation, but Robin didn’t want to continue it. I felt Robin “pulling away from me” simply because Robin didn’t want to have a conversation with me at that very moment. I experienced this as a threat of withdrawal of love. And I realized in that moment, this...
From my perspective and my own life’s experiences, there is only one thing that separates those that achieve great things from those that don’t; those that achieve take action, and the ones that don’t only dream. My own life forever changed because of an action I took when I was only 12 years old. I walked into a business and asked for a job. When they declined, I didn’t take no for an answer and...
I was recently involved in an exercise to introduce myself to a room of people by allowing myself to be seen in a vulnerable way and crafting a poem about who I am. I’m sharing this here, now, with you. I am Chris Frolic. I am audacious and goofy. I wonder how deep can I go within myself? I hear the theme song from Super Mario Bros. I see my wife’s face lying in bed looking at me. I want to...
I seem to go through fits and starts of wondering “What’s Next?” It’s made more complicated for me because for the first time in my life I’m in the fortunate place of creating from abundance. I have money and resources, and I definitely have the time. I have all the passive income I need from my business ownership. Every time I’ve answered “What’s Next?” in the past, it was coming from a place of...
I’ve been on a “news diet” for several years now. This practice has come to mind again with all the turmoil and world events, which can seem quite overwhelming. We used to live in a world where news was delivered by newspaper once a day, and nightly TV news. Then in the 1980s that changed to 24 hour news channels (that needed content to fill). That expanded, and expanded again...
I was recently invited and challenged to attend an event in San Diego this August. This triggers a lot in me. The short version of this is that over 20 years ago I was caught, detained and deported for working in the US without a visa as a DJ. This happened in 2000 (prior to 9/11 when we took the border much less seriously). The last time I tried was in 2005, when I was denied entry and held...
There’s a quote on my wall. It’s unattributed and I don’t know the origin. When I Google it, nothing much comes up. I don’t even remember where I got it from, but it made enough of an impact I wrote it down and put it on my wall. It says: Give people what they need, not what you want them to have. There’s so many times in my life, every day, that I want so much for people. And the cold reality is...
I’ve been getting more and more clear about what my investing strategy is. For the most part, if we talk about “Heart vs Mind” decisions, I go with my heart. Even if someone could make mathematical arguments about how some things can generate more money, that doesn’t move me. Here’s a breakdown of ways I invest my money. In myself. Between psychotherapy, couples therapy, deep...
This past week I participated in an exercise, and was asked to come up with a 6 word mission. This is what immediately came out of me: Share my story, change the world. I was struck by how true that simple statement is for me. How I’ve been living in to it. You are a part of it. Every week I share my story. I do it because for too long I ran from telling my own story. It took me 14 years to...
One of the questions I’ve asked myself in recent years is why did things get so difficult for me later in life? Things like my imposter syndrome turned into a full-on crisis. The things I did to protect myself, like hiding from people, had me acting in completely unreasonable ways. I was afraid to speak up at my own family table. I spent years on stages and somehow got to the point where I felt...
I’ve spoken a lot about a liberating metaphor I use, that helps stop me from comparing myself to other people. I call it “running my own race”. The best part of running my own race is I always win. The one trap I can still find myself in is “moving the goal posts”. The easiest example of that is around money. Some years ago, I had created a goal for myself called “Freedom 35”. It was a monthly...
This week I woke up with a waking thought. In my bedside notes I wrote: write your own obituary. I’ve barely read obituaries. I don’t know what goes into them. I haven’t had a lot of death in my immediate circle, so it’s nothing I’ve been exposed to much. A dear friend of mine reads obituaries and appreciates the good ones. We’ve spoken about how frustrating it can be for her to read a poor one...
On my recent “Ask Me Anything” someone inquired about what I refer to as “deep work”. This is an abstract thought and term, and this morning I was inspired to write this article about it. I would describe it as a culmination of everything I’ve been doing these last 4 years. Of a journey looking inward. Of understanding myself. Of healing. Of learning what drives me, and why I do things. Of...
Here is a capture of the Ask Me Anything I hosted on January 3, 2022. It was an experiment of me testing myself, showing up in a different way, sharing my wisdom in whatever way it was called upon, and kicking my year off in a strong way. Topics included Blue Ocean Strategy and using “pain” in your marketing, amongst anything and everything else that came up. I was very...
A mentor I worked with many years ago had an antidote to the inertia a lot of self-employed people feel coming out of the holidays. It’s not hard to let the holiday slowdown continue for weeks into the new year, or even months. He came up with a concept called The Big Drive, which was a challenge to kick off the new year with a huge amount of momentum. He would compare it with a skier going to...
I’m trying something different this week. Instead of writing “What do I need to hear most right now?” I’m writing this article for 1 person in the Frolic 100. This is for Shannon. Shannon in an email to me had shared about the challenge of being on social media while creating a coaching business. This is what i was inspired to write. There’s a business metaphor that I love called “blue ocean...
A colleague once offered some constructive feedback, they said “You sure want me to like you” in response to one of my posts. I can see why they thought it, I write a lot about myself, my experiences, the things I’ve learned. The thing is, they had it wrong. It wasn’t that I wanted them to like me, it’s that I wanted to like myself. Almost everything I write about for the Frolic...