We've got to enjoy the ride more and instead of
Craving these champagne moments that we share an Instagram and you know these these big moments in life instead
You know take it down into the short-term
goals and
That short-term kind of metric of success I have is
Amount of impact made on a daily basis welcome to the speak your sexists podcast
Welcome
To the speak your success podcast I'm your host tedx speaker and best-selling author Jonathan Jones and I'm here today
We have a special interview with mr
Chris hey how we doing Chris what's up Jonathan I'm good I am good we're we're eight hours away from published. Oh
Yeah eight out so how are you feeling tell us how you walk us through this how are you feeling right now in there
It's funny a lot of people been asking me that recently and I it's kind of emotional
You know it's uh
yeah, I mean I guess I go, back to like my intentions around writing in this book the Millennial whisper and
It really it revolves around two main points
Which is how do we?
Bring more love and empathy into our world and more
Human connection and I think that's what we need now more than ever before and I
start the book with my own journey and I'm very transparent and vulnerable and that and
It it's so it's been a lot more work leading up to lunch then. I think I anticipated and
I can honestly say like I've done absolutely everything possible to
make this success and to have the impact that I wanted to have and
That's about as much as I think you can do so I
Think it's relief and I'm just trying to practice what I preach a bit with um you know one thing
I say in the book and what I try to lead with is we've got to enjoy the ride more and
Instead of craving these champagne moments that we share an instant and you know these these big moments in life instead
You know take it down into the short-term
goals and
That short-term kind of metric of success I have is
amount of impact made on a daily basis and
So what I'm trying to do is just
Enjoy this a little bit because it's been very
It's been a lot more challenging than I initially thought
It would be when I set out to do this about 15 months ago
And I know I've also done it in a pretty quick turnaround
Which it did when I was writing it it seems super slow but now like the promotion of leading up to a book is
It's crazy it's crazy, I could have used a little bit more time maybe but
Hey, over there we go, yeah yeah
Well man you so you just broke it down he told us to focus on you know just focus on?
Breaking down the day and you focus on that level of impact that you made how did you how did you get to this
perspective to where you began to think the way you think in
Regards to that it's like wait a minute I don't want to focus on the year
I don't want to focus on the month
I don't want to focus on the week but let me just bring it it like was there something that yeah I hit I hit
rock bottom I start my book there and that was about two and a half years ago and rock bottom for me was
a realization that I was prioritizing the wrong things in life and I think you know what it made me do was
Refocus all of my energy into my family my two daughters and my wife
and into forging real connection with others and
So it was through that that I also figured out that one of the other things I messed up
Was my own metric of success and my metric of success
Up till my you know hitting rock bottom was beating my brothers
I'm the youngest six kids in the game of life and
I went and that is the essence of
focusing on kind of those champagne moments and
So I refocused that into
My metrics needs to be judged by myself when my head hits my pillow
did I have the impact that I intended today and
every the good news is every night I have been successful in that
So I think it's also a big thing with our generation like. I'm deep down a millennial right I'm born in 1980 but
One of the things that I talk about leaving into a lot of these promotions is
Millennials aren't the problem they just exposed the problem
Or millennial is a mindset
like my friend Mike Harrison says and who's one of those stories he's an executive at Home Depot and I think
There's a big element of just mindfulness I bring a mindfulness instructor and once a month to help you know
Retrain our brains to stop living in our feeds and you know really relishing
These moments that are life and now look at this like we took we talked for the first time ha what God about?
What 30 minutes ago?
That's what it's all about this is what it's about
No yeah so okay
so
when cuz cuz you brought up mindfulness and it's funny because I was on the plane yesterday coming back from New Orleans
And I was actually sitting next to my friend her name is Amanda Mohammed and she does she does mindfulness
Training like she goes into schools and works with superintendents principals and all that good stuff, but well
What what brought that about like what brought that to you
or what well
Made it to where that was a focus to where you wanted to see more a little bit more about and learn more about that
Yeah, yeah so it's an embarrassing story but one thing. I do is a leader within my organization is
I'll start off talking about how we've got to stop comparing our insides to other people's outsides and
one of my favorite kind of topics or places that I feel like we need to
Empower leaders to do more of which is kind of managing millennial angst because one thing we've got to understand is this
generation has grown up with
right and
You know anytime we wanted that instant gratification
Or that build me up we would post something on Instagram and get it and now how do we?
instead take some of those things and and and break it down into
Truly enjoying these moments in life whether it be good or bad
we've got to take a timeout to do that and you can probably tell I'm high energy I'm a go-getter and
Mindfulness for me is like an oxymoron but I
Figured out a way to make it work and so the embarrassing story I talked about was
Three and a half years ago I was in Sun Valley Idaho
and I was there for a wedding and
obviously I'm in Sun Valley Idaho in September why would I want that shot of me on Instagram that's that
that movie scene from a river runs through with Brad Pitt with the silhouette of the mountains in the background
And my kind of the fly-fishing so I turned to this guy. I'm like listen dude
I'm gonna pay you six under bucks to take me I want that perfect, shot and I don't care whether or not
I catch a fish I want you to catch me a fish a trout and I just want a picture of it in
the net so I can post both those things on Instagram and this guy looks at me he's like
Dude are you serious
Your pain you're paid $600 for
Instagram posts I was like no
$300 each totally worth it let's go and I used that as an example of kind of what
we do in our lives we really do we try to display this perfect life that we live and
Instead, I think what we're forgetting is
where real connection happens is
Like what I mean granted were through a video screen?
But it's it's it's it's breaking it down and talking person-to-person about real things that
make us who we are
And so that idea of stop comparing your insides or other people's outsides and you know I think another
Complex that we all deal with it's not Millennials it's all of us it's the grasses
His greener complex where we think that the perfect
job
Is somewhere outside of here and in the book I talk about my 70/30 rule and my 70/30 role is teaching everyone then
30% of you jobs always gonna suck
30% of your job is always going to drain some of your energy 70% should fuel you up and
how you know whether or not you're in the right job is what I call my sitting in your car role and
if it for two days in a row
You're sitting in your car and you're about to go into work and you have that sense of dread and that sense of dread isn't
associated your own self development meaning you're pushing yourself out of your comfort zone or your own procrastination that something's got to change and
I think in our life and in our society we've forgotten to
I think life should be a ruthless pursuit of passions and
That's why I wrote this book this became my passion as I try to help others find theirs
So that's my quick rant on all that Wow I love it the 70/30 rule man I love that I really loved because
What is it I saw I pulled up I
Put a some statistic I believe was like there's a Gallup poll and I said 85% of Americans hate their job
But according to the 70/30 rule I guess the next question would be when
Did we poll these people because if you post
Somebody after they get a race of course they're gonna love their job Donal it buddy you know after they got reprimanded then
maybe not but that's I think that's really great I think there's something really for people to
To take time and reflect on and like you're talking about going back to mindfulness looking ok wait
there's there's five days okay, we'll see I went to work five days this week
Okay, one of them, was bad but the other four were great
Yeah, so let me let me just get over it let me just move on yeah yeah I really love it
Well I think it's with experience that you
I think we get stuck in these I have I have a friend he's a ridiculous human
being okay and a lot of my friends were ridiculous his name's Garrett Craven and
His goal, he we were grabbing coffee and his goal, is to he said run the 2028 Olympics in LA
so he'll be the guy that runs the whole thing and I
to him and asked them a question which was what
Are you gonna do when you wake up
The day I the closer Moniz and you just accomplished that
what's next is it another big audition goal and what if between now and twenty twenty eight your passions and
drive changes because we change as human beings there are certain things that, we can't control that are gonna change us and
it brings up this idea of our long-term goals
the wrong way to go about life and instead if we just focus on what I kind of call this
Ruthless pursuit of passions that will kind of it's not linear and I think that's uncomfortable for people
but allow us to get these experiences to then take us to
What is in your head and heart isn't that the better way to go
So, I don't know another thing to think about hmm know this I think that's really good because like you said as
human beings
We're we're human so our passions can change based on
Different current events our passions can change based on our perspective based on a different book that
We read somebody might read the Millennial Whisperer and like wait a minute hold on wait a minute
I'm sitting in my car sitting in the car wait no no no I think I need to something's gotta give somewhere
Maybe this guy Chris is on to something
We're about to find out whether or not the public agrees with it but uh ya know I mean you know I think
it's one thing saying it's another thing doing and I think we spend so much of our lives dreaming and
We lack the confidence to take action and I think accountability in action or
Key, things even in reading some of these books and I mean the way that I wrote the book was at the end of every?
Section there's a make it happen so what it is it what is it that we're talking about
Theory now how do we?
apply that into a day to day takeaway that we can actually apply to our lives and
I feel like we all need to take more action and
Accountability for where it is that we're going it might not always be right and that's, okay?
and I think we need to do at all with with with it with a
With an idea of building each other up like
I think we really do need to leave with empathy because as humans and
In the way that the world is unfolding we need it now more than ever before
Wow I
Promise I'm not I'm not buttering your biscuit Chris but the more I hear you talk about this book
the more I'm anxious to read it because I
Feel like you have just a very innovative mind and just seeing the way that you put this book together
I'm thinking because after after every book
I read I've you know I've I'm in the midst of almost finishing thinking roerich and I read some other books and you know like
a lot of these books have great information but where's the application piece totally it happened where's the
Get in there and gritted out our where's the piece where it actually applies to my life versus
Napoleon Hill are you know
The kristef so man so here's one for you ready so okay
When Sheryl Sandberg first so I grew up in the social space and social media I kind of was like one of the you know
oh
geez if you will and okay media fell into it and it was my passion for many years and still is to a certain extent
but
when Sheryl Sandberg first got to Facebook she introduced a program called by when and
The program was for their sales people where they would take any of their
Audacious goals or things that they would say in answer with one simple question and that was by when
And so I kind of and it helped turn around
Facebook and make it the valuable company that it is today I mean that it that is something that is
now a part of the backbone of what is culture especially their salespeople and
So I actually talk I forget what's chapter it's in but I talk about turn your let's into by when and there's no worse
Email then let's do this or let's do that how many of those emails actually end up happening
So instead and you can do this in person
Someone will say you know what group meeting you Jonathan I you know you're so
Delightful and great like let's grab coffee next time you're in town and then if you return. By what
they're gonna be like
And then you just need to offer up how about within the next two weeks and what you'll find is that it changes
Everything
my goodness but I think it's also a thing that's very indicative of kind of it's not a I mean it's a
Generational shift but it's a shift with technology and it's unaccountability and you know instant everything
Where we forget to
Apply that last little by one thing to be held accountable and to have a real
Next step if you will man I really love that because one of the things so I wasn't necessarily big on New Year's resolutions
but this year
was one of the first years where I wrote out my yearly goals
But then I broke it down and what I need to do by each quarter and
Then I put in some steps in between that to achieve the quarter goal
So, I think that's that's really great because the by now it's I mean by win
but by win really is focusing on
giving you a deadline
mm-hmm and you have to take action in and I think that that really goes to show who's serious and who's not just like
We were talking earlier today like we're knocking not even 30 minutes ago and I was like Christmas I mean
We need do an interview you're like let's make it happen
Exactly exactly
So what so so with the book now getting ready to buy time we drop this I'll make sure I drop it to where you
Know it goes out by time the book drops but what are you most excited about
the potential ripple effect after this book, what what does that look like for you
I think it's
you know for me it is hearing
from people
that have read the book and are applying the things in it
say I was a skeptic when I heard about this thing and I
Believe and I've seen it work and this is how you know and I'm talking to some very
large companies about ways to roll out the book on a global scale and
They asked me they're like well so how do we know if it's working and my response is well what metric or we try what
Are, our goals is it
how do we get people to stay longer in their job then let's look at retention rates if it's
if it's
You know we've got to figure out that out of the gates and then, we'll figure we'll work backwards and hold
What we'll hold ourselves to real metrics in this it's not hard
We've got digital everything everything is measurable so let's measure ourselves
against that and so I think for me it's hearing Chris we were able to take our
Turnover rate of 30% of our workforce and a yearly basis that are largely millenials and we cut that in half
Just by instituting some of these things and you know on the back of the book it
Right out you know bring the beer kegs home forget about ping pong tables put the participation trophies
in the trash where they belong
because it's a lot more -
It takes a lot more than just the stuff I won one story in the book was someone that took me to
to coffee and she turns to me she's like crisp I just can't attract these
Millennials and I have a cereal bar where we have 30 different types of cereal that anyone
can pick and and and they seem did they love the variety
they love you know the perks and I also have all these other things but they still are leaving and and
my immediate question back to her was well
What are you doing to catch up with them you know what what is the connection that you have with your different
employees so you know I asked you some of these deeper questions I
Don't know a lot of this is like, well let's start there let's start there
Anyways yeah I really I really love that because I think that's the
That's the bigger issue it's not the millennial issue it's just I believe that
the generation has
Been just labeled with certain things that a lot of them are general like they're they're so general
just a general perspective and
Just as like the younger generation or the older and younger generations you know how it goes every generation that comes
somebody has something to say about the next generation
When it's just literally passing the book
Exactly and you know one thing I taught I set up to do in the beginning the book is
you got to take this generation and divide it into two joints older Millennials and younger Millennials what makes them
Distinctively different are two variables one when the recession either hit them or their parents and two
when in their life they adopted this and
social media and for the older Millennials they were in the market or about to enter the market by the time the recession hit in
2008 and they a lot of them didn't have smartphones and social media until well into college
whereas the younger ones grew up with it all through their their puberty and their coming of age
They had the you know
snapchats and and instagrams and they saw their parents lose their jobs in
2008 and so they inherited a lot of debt so what it does is it creates like one of my friends
who, works for a radio show that I'll be on on Friday I says
they're the
Oregon Trail Millennials the older Millennials because they played Oregon Trail and
At some point in their computer classes and snapchat Millennials is kind of how it labeled the younger ones but
I think that's an important distinction and instead of clumping everyone together and that's, also like you guys are just taking the
synonym of
Inexperience and putting it with Millennials like it's not like anything's changed
Xers of boomers but it the same way you know and so
stop labeling the Millennials where it's just they're just inexperienced and
we we have a few places to
Push, that blame when people show up on our on their first day of work and they're not ready for the real world because we've
trained them to go from one thing they went from band practice to varsity
Varsity tennis to
bilingual
Training and Cantonese and then they had to do seven hours of homework so they get perfect I see
To go to the perfect school and by the time they show up on our doorstep we're like why aren't these guys
more sociable like why are we having an issue with this than that
well I
Think we're the problem where there were the reasons for that product
Yeah, I think that's one of the biggest things too because if there's a blame being put somewhere
Then the person on the other side of the hand has to look and has to take credit somewhere because, we didn't berth ourselves
We have parents somewhere we have grandparents somewhere and if the parent or the grandparent is pointing at us then it's like
Well mom are dead how great of a job did you do yeah so I think
Man man okay, okay?
Okay I don't want to hold you too much long but
I'm just curious about this because like just I don't know if we share this but
well, well Chris what else do you do but besides you being a a new author now well what it what else is that you
Do I read that's hilarious because that's what birth this book in the first place
We were on an executive retreat with 14 it might have been 18 guys and I was in North Georgia?
And we're all introducing ourselves, we didn't really know each other that
well and all like kind of high-level executives from around Atlanta we got away to kind of just share
life
Stories and work in ourselves and mindfulness and all of these things it was an experiment
I mean I went to go introduce myself and I was like you know what like my role is really evolved at my agency we're
370 employees and I started is the kind of digital and social guy but
I'm kind of like the Millennial Whisperer now like that that's what I do I I empower and try to coach
this next generation to be better
workers and people and I
sat down and
Tommy
Breedlove who was leading the retreat who I didn't really know at the time and now we've become good friends and he wrote the foreword
of my book he kicks me by the fire and he goes you better write that book I was like what book he goes the
Millennial Whisperer I was like I don't know how to write a book
He, was like?
I got you like just I'll give you some good resources and that was 15 months ago and now here I am
about to publish this thing so I mean I think it's a
segue into
your question of what do you do and I mean my
My passion and drive is to really coach and empower
individuals and and it's not any different than what I'm trying to do with my daughters or my relationship with my wife or
The guys that I'm best friends with or
my organization and it's how do we bring more love and empathy into
our day-to-day and how can we create more connection and
That's what I do every day
and it's the best job in the world I
love it I was talking with one of my friends the other day just talking about how we have
So many social media platforms but now we're
More non social than ever before as far as just face-to-face one-on-one
connection, type deal
but man
and Chris I really I really appreciate you taking the time man - yeah sit down for it for us to hop on and I
Mean, I can't imagine what else
just I know you have so many other things going on but grateful for you just to take the chance and man just just
let me do the interview man for sure Jonathan it's such a good
it's so awesome to meet you
and we've got to end this with one more tactical takeaway and
what I use is one of my examples of how do you
Create more of a rewards and recognition program and so I start every one of our team statuses with what's called snaps and
started as an experiment and now has become just a part of our
Meetings every single week and what we do is we give snaps to each other where I'll say hey
Meg killer job on that big presentation that you did yesterday you pushed yourself
You did you know you you were able to do this that and the other
Snaps and then everyone gets smacked and so the way I've been taking pictures with anyone
Or ending interviews as we give snaps so Jonathan I'm gonna give you snacks for being awesome and for having me up
Hey, I appreciate I receive those snaps with with open arms so Chris where can people find you
where can people
Order the millennia whisperer because I could told you early I ordered my copy and I'm looking forward to reading it but I just tell
The people where they can find you and where they can get their copy just so on Twitter it's at Chris tuff
and then the best place to go is either Amazon or my website at the Millennial whisper calm and
Millennial for those who are?
like, when I first started writing this book millennial is a tough word to spell two L's and two ends two L's two ends millennial
with the Millennial whisper calm gotcha gotcha great we're gonna have all the information down in the show notes
And man Chris thank thank you for being on the show and we're gonna go ahead and close it out like we always do this
is TEDx speaker and best-selling author Jonathan Jones with the one and only Chris tough and
We're reminding you to speak your success
Believe in your greatness and continue to create the life and business of your dreams
why would you want to live any other way
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