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.
(Chris’ note: This article was hard for me to write and share. I’ve realized I can be vulnerable about all sorts of challenges in my life, past and present, but the one thing I get scared to do is talk about my successes. I know this is fueled partly by my complex relationship with money, how I value myself, and societal lessons that no one likes a braggart. And at the same time I...
My wife and I have been making incredible progress in our couples’ therapy. We started it not to save or repair our relationship, but to “up level” it. Both of us had a goal, of imagining 5 years from now looking back and realizing we had grown in ways that we didn’t know possible when we started. We’re a year into the weekly therapy, and things are starting to snowball. I didn’t realize how much...
I can’t believe it but this is the 200th article I’ve written for my blog (now the Frolic 100). Committing myself to writing once per week to share my wisdom with the world was the very first step I took in my recovery from my imposter syndrome crisis. My website (chrisfrolic.com) was a literal blank page for several years after I left the stage hypnosis business. I sat in the...
I think the single biggest thing people would be surprised to learn about me is how introverted I am. It flies in the face of what they generally know about me or how they’ve experienced me. I feel like I am a pendulum that can swing to extreme ends. I can be the guy on stage, literally conducting the energy in a room of thousands of people, and I can be the same person who can spend weeks at...
“You’re polarizing, but I’m really into you”, I was told this by someone in my circle recently. They didn’t mean it as an insult, and I didn’t take it that way, but it was an interesting comment to be on the receiving end of. I sat with it for a moment, and then I realized how OK I was hearing it. There is nothing I’d want to do different about how I show up these days. I find moments of feeling...
This summer my family was invited to stay for a weekend at the summer camp my oldest kid normally goes to. Because of covid they’ve been unable to operate as normal for 2 summers. As a way to do something, they invited a handful of families to enjoy their property, in a socially distant manner. I haven’t done anything or gone anywhere since covid has started, so this was a really nice offer that...
I’ve been very intentional about how I refer to the expectations of my book. I had a “release”, not a “launch”. The book has a 10 year mission. I will evaluate its impact and success only after 10 years. I’ve asked readers to share the book with the people in their lives that will benefit from reading it. I’m giving the book the space it needs to let that...
So I just completed an incredible achievement. I published a new book. In it, are the best lessons I have to share about how I overcame feeling like a fake. It’s literally the book I wish someone had given me. I couldn’t be more proud of it. I’m sure it will help others. It culminated with a book “release” Zoom hosted by me and attended by dozens of people. I’m equally as proud of that Zoom, and...
I recently shared a fear of mine that I experience every single time I host a Zoom event. There’s a moment, maybe for a few minutes, as I sit ready but before people connect, that I wonder if anyone will show up. That I’ve become aware of this voice is progress. That I speak it is progress. AND it is still present. It was present last week during my book release. Dozens of people...
I’ve posted the recording of the Zoom I hosted celebrating the release of Unorthodox Success, Secret Shame. Click here to view.
If you are international, check your local Amazon store for local shipping options.
Click here for the official book page.
I’ve been pondering the difference between what it means to “launch” something as opposed to “releasing” it. When I think “launch”, I think of a rocket being propelled into space. When I think of “release”, I imagine an animal, that has been nursed to health, and then released into the world. Both are impressive events. There’s something awesome about watching that rocket, but...
I recently updated my website to add Unorthodox Success, Secret Shame. I now have 2 books listed. Seeing multiple titles like that listed has made it really sink in that I’m an author. There’s no denying it. Doing one of anything can be a one-off or fluke, but when you’ve done it multiple times, it’s definitely “a thing”. I’ve gotten so much pleasure simply from seeing those 2 titles there, even...
Release Date: August 10, 2021. Available through Amazon. Also, I’ll be hosting an INVITATION ONLY book release Zoom on August 9, 2021 at 1pm Eastern / 10am Pacific. I don’t host Zooms very often and they’re always memorable. Hear me tell the powerful story of how this book came to be.Hear about my own debilitating imposter syndrome, something we all suffer forms of.I’ll share my...
Most traditionally published books’ successes are measured with how well they sell within their first 9 months of release. Just like with movies, it’s seen as either a hit or a flop immediately. Most publishers and agents won’t even speak to you about publishing your work unless you have a built-in audience of social media followers (hundreds of thousands or bigger) that you can sell your book to...
This quote is most often attributed to the late founder of Apple, Steve Jobs. It popped in my head last night as I move on to the next phase of my book. I received the feedback from the last of 5 beta readers. Each of them had suggestions to make the book better, and none of them found huge fundamental problems with the book. It means that after spending another day or 2 with my book, I’ll be...
A couple of weeks ago I handed over the first draft of next book (Unorthodox Success, Secret Shame) to my wife, Robin, to edit and review. When she was done, she had sent me the file back with notes. The next morning as I reviewed the notes, I immediately began to start doubting myself. What were Robin’s constructive and instructive feedback, I saw as evidence that I had bitten off more than I...
We’re surrounded by overwhelming marketing messages online from gurus all promising to teach you their easy paths to success. Now, here I am undertaking a very real challenge of creating and releasing a book in 60 days. I have no doubts I will be successful. The thing is, yes this is a very real challenge, and yes it is going from idea to publishing within 60 days, AND there’s no way I’d ever...
This past week I was inspired to complete my next book. There’s a feeling I get sometimes, of “Fait Accompli”, and knowing that something will happen with complete confidence. I sensed it, and decided to take it on fully. I’ve had some clarity recently on who it is I want to help. In the end, it’s always a version of me. I’m the greatest expert on myself. I...
Pinball has been a hobby of mine for almost 10 years. “A world under glass” is often how each game is described. There’s something really engaging about watching all the physical interactions of the ball, as it moves around the playfield, up ramps and down again, getting rocked around by pop bumpers, the lights flashing in your face, the “clackity clack” noise of all the solenoids firing. The...
Despite my best efforts, I still fall into comparing myself with others and then feeling less than. It happened this past week. I was doing a bit of research on podcasts I might want to guest on. I did some searches around the idea of life after you leave your business. I found some, and then I started seeing the little bios of the successful “exits” of the guests. Here’s the thing – I’ve...
Back in 2005 I retired from being a full-time DJ and rave promoter and started a new pursuit – comedy stage hypnosis. I was driven simply from having had an experience years earlier of being one of the volunteers on stage and wondering “What the hell just happened?”. As my DJ career wound down, I knew I needed to find something else. I decided to indulge in my curiosity and take...
My wife, Robin, and I have been doing weekly couples therapy for the past year. We started just before the covid lockdowns hit in March 2019 and we still see our therapist together on Zoom every week. Our goal was after over 20 years together, we both aspired to grow our relationship to a place we don’t even know exists. It will only be knowable when looking back. I want to look back 5 years from...
At the depths of my crisis, my acute imposter syndrome, my overwhelming anxiety, it got to the point where I felt you could hold a gun to my head and order me to do the work I needed to do, and it still wouldn’t get done. You would have to kill me and I would accept my death. The fact that I was making millions of dollars during this same time period compounded everything to me. I couldn’t...
There’s a feeling I trigger often in people. Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself. When you’ve been in the audience for one of my events, one of my Zooms, read one of my articles, or watched a video of mine. I didn’t even realize I was doing it, until very recently. It was instinctive in me, I make myself feel good when I do it, without realizing it. My superpower is: I elicit awe in people. I do...