{ "version": "1.0.0", "segments": [ { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "0.56", "endTime": "27.605", "body": "Hey, everyone. Welcome to Tales from the Pros. And this is Michael Georgiou, your host and cofounder of Imaginovation. I have a very special guest with me here today. He's a top fifty speaker in the world, New York Times, and Wall Street Journal best selling author of numerous books, including The Art of Influence and Leadership Rules and Successful Entrepreneur in Influence, Sales, and leadership, helping people achieve their peak performance." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "27.985", "endTime": "51.18", "body": "Please welcome the wonderful Chris Wyden. This is Tales From the Pros, where business leaders and influencers share their stories of inspiration, struggles, and successes. And I'm your host, Michael Georgiou. Chris, thank you so much for being with me here today. I really appreciate it." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "51.18", "endTime": "53.68", "body": "Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it as well." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "53.98", "endTime": "65.645", "body": "Absolutely. Glad we're able to to make this happen. I know, as I've mentioned previously, I know you're super busy, but, it seems that you you know how to prioritize, your time very well. We could talk about that a little bit later." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "66.345", "endTime": "67.405", "body": "Yeah. For sure." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "67.54", "endTime": "84.90435", "body": "Sounds good. So Chris, kind of just jumping into it here. You know, due to due to the level of success you've achieved as a speaker, and an author and business leader and so on and so forth, how did you essentially get to this position in your life? I know it's a loaded question. It's a big question, but give me a little background of your story." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "84.90435", "endTime": "86.21304", "body": "What really got you" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "86.21304", "endTime": "100.12", "body": "to this point? Well, it's sort of a circuitous route to where I am. I, spent the first 50 years of my life in Seattle, Washington. My dad died when I was 4. He was making $90,000 a year in 1960 69." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "100.12", "endTime": "127.0", "body": "He died in 1970 with $30,000 worth of life insurance. So, he he was making the equivalent of $1,000,000 a year, but didn't have much life insurance after taxes and burial fees and, you know, all that kind of stuff. So my mom ended up getting into real estate and flipping houses long before it was famous on HGTV. TV. And so I ended up living in 28 homes and went to 11 different schools and was shipped off to live with relatives twice mainly because I was a real kind of a bad kid." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "127.14", "endTime": "150.93", "body": "And, so I ended up getting shipped off. My mom sent me to my aunt and uncle's house for a couple years in the 4th grade. She shipped me off to live with my older sister in the 9th grade, her and her new husband, the Seattle police officer. I got involved in drugs, starting in the 6th grade. I made most of my money growing up, either scalping professional sports tickets on the street corner or betting the horses at Long Acres horse track." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "151.40999", "endTime": "172.92", "body": "So, you're kinda getting an image of where I was going, which was nowhere fast. And, summer before my senior year of high school, I realized, wow, I'm about done with school and I better figure this out. And like everybody, I wanted to be successful. You know, I do this thing in my seminars where I ask people, how many of you would like to have a $1,000,000 in your bank account? Everybody's hand goes up." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "172.92", "endTime": "185.23", "body": "How many of you would like to have a a love of your life and great friends? Everybody's hand goes up. How many of you would like your children to grow up to be productive members of society? Everybody's hand goes up. How many of you would like to live a long, healthy life?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "185.23", "endTime": "204.97", "body": "Everybody's hand goes up. Everybody wants the same thing, and I did too. I wanted all those things, financial security and love and friendship and success and, you know, all those kinds of things, leaving a legacy, living long. I just had no idea how to get there. I had no idea where I was going, what I was doing, but I did turn my life around, got into college." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "204.97", "endTime": "244.845", "body": "And as soon as I got out of college, people knew my story that I had, you know, been this troubled kid and now college graduate, top of my class, you know, been class president 1 year and, you know, all this kind of stuff. And so I started speaking to high school summer camps, colleges, you know, that kind of stuff. Eventually, it navigated over to speaking more for adults, time management. I did time management seminars for a while, and then really focused in on leadership and particularly this this idea of influence. So most of my time now is speaking, to to companies, salespeople on how to influence the sales process or leaders on how to influence people who work for you and and the like, stuff like that." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "244.845", "endTime": "259.435", "body": "So I've had a few good breaks along the way. I ended up getting able to, go strike for a guy named John Maxwell, who's one of the world's top leadership gurus. Ended up working with Jim Rohn for about 7 years. He's a legend in the industry. Oh, wow." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "259.435", "endTime": "260.475", "body": "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "260.475", "endTime": "283.695", "body": "I wrote Jim's last book, a book called 12 Pillars. I wrote the Jim Rohn 1 year program. Most people don't know Jim is the guy who gave Tony Robbins his first job. When Tony was 17 years old, he went to work selling, selling Jim Rohn seminars, and, Tony and I both spoke at Jim's memorial service in Anaheim, California. And then I was able to, have a television show with Zig Ziglar." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "283.695", "endTime": "307.07", "body": "I had my own television show in Dallas, and when the network asked, Zig to do a TV show. He was getting a little older in age and knew he kinda had a a need for somebody to help him carry the the time. And so, one of the greatest privileges of my life was being able to, to share that television show called True Performance. You can still find it online on YouTube, but but able to share that with with Zig and what a great guy he was." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "316.705", "endTime": "329.29498", "body": "That's great. Yeah. I mean, I I love how, how you you mentioned that Jim Rohn was, you know, was one of your mentors. So when you met, when you met Tony Robbins, how was he? I am sure he's a he's a great guy." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "329.29498", "endTime": "330.51498", "body": "I'm a huge fan of him." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "331.215", "endTime": "348.405", "body": "Yeah. He's an interesting guy. You know, guys like that, guys like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates and Tony Robbins, guys that become, you know, giants, they, they're interesting. You know? They are bigger than life." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "348.46503", "endTime": "358.07", "body": "You you don't get to that point. Mhmm. You know, it's kinda funny. People say, oh, Donald Trump has an ego or they'll say, Barack Obama has an ego or, you know, whoever. Right?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "358.21", "endTime": "374.43", "body": "And I'm like, anybody that that says, I think I should be the most powerful man in the world probably has an ego. Right? So I don't care if you're democrat, republican, none of those guys are going into it for public service. They they think very highly of themselves. And so Tony's an interesting guy." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "374.43", "endTime": "392.24", "body": "He's a giant of a man. That was a that was the most surprising thing to me. I'd never met him before the funeral. We knew of each other, of course, but I'd never met him and and he's really truly a giant of a man. I I understand that he has that giganteism, the same thing that Andre the giant had and, you know, makes your brow really big and your hands giant." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "392.24", "endTime": "398.18", "body": "And, but man, you know, he, certainly has accomplished something that no one has ever accomplished before." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "400.365", "endTime": "421.105", "body": "Wow. Yeah. That's, one day I would love love to meet him. So, Chris, you know, how do you I I know you, you know, you teach a lot about success and leadership, and I I know you mentioned you teach sales teams and all I'm sure all types of different, you know, teams within companies. But how do you really teach or coach others to become truly successful internally and externally?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "421.165", "endTime": "433.905", "body": "Because we know that it's not just about reaching a a a certain, financial point. Like you said, a $1,000,000. There's more to it. How do you how to become happy? And when you're happy internally, you you can be more successful externally." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "433.905", "endTime": "436.32498", "body": "Right? So what are your what are your thoughts on that?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "436.865", "endTime": "455.345", "body": "Well, the first thing you have to understand is that success is completely subjective. There is no objective definition of success. Success for somebody is going off to, Rwanda and running an orphanage for little kids for their whole life. Right. Other people, it means being a school teacher here in in, the states." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "455.345", "endTime": "479.65002", "body": "For other people, it means, having a net worth of 10,000,000 or a 100,000,000 or a $1,000,000,000. For some people, it means opening up 1 hamburger stand. And for other peoples that meet for other people, it means opening up a 1,000 hamburger stands. So, you know, to me, the first thing I have to help people understand because I I do, you know, personal coaching. I I coach a lot of executives and and entrepreneurs and the like." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "479.65002", "endTime": "510.70502", "body": "And and, the first thing I help them do is determine what is their definition of success because it's not my definition of success that that is gonna determine, you you know, what, what they need to achieve. It's whether they wanna achieve, and then I help them achieve it. I'll give you an example from my own life as a speaker. I could have spoken a lot more, than I did when my kids were growing up, but I just decided that I was gonna be home for my kids. And I have friends who are on the road 200 plus days a year with little kids at home." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "510.70502", "endTime": "524.705", "body": "Yeah. And, you know, I always say to them, hey. You know, these kids are gonna grow up fast. Why don't you raise your speaking fee a little bit and cut back, you know, a third of your speaking engagements? You'll still say make the same amount of money, but they're, you know, they're unwilling to do it." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "524.705", "endTime": "531.76", "body": "And I look at them and I think, wow. That's really kinda sad. Their kids are missing out. But for them, they they don't care. That's their thing." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "531.76", "endTime": "558.605", "body": "Right? That's what they wanna do. So, you know, I I I think sometimes we get a little judgmental about how other people live their lives, but I think as long as they're not hurting anybody and and, that the members of society, they just choose to live their die life differently. So once we just establish what it is that they wanna do with their lives and what definition of success is theirs, then we have to develop the internal. And the internal is really 2 things." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "558.605", "endTime": "570.26996", "body": "It's beliefs and thoughts. Right? I guess attitudes, you could put attitudes in there as well, but, beliefs are the things that you truly believe to be true. It's what you believe to be true. Thoughts are just things that you can change." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "570.26996", "endTime": "587.96", "body": "Right? So if I tell you picture yourself in front of the Eiffel Tower, You could have that thought. You probably did have that thought. Most of the listeners probably pictured themselves standing in front of the Eiffel Tower. Now, if I said, believe that you are standing right in front of the Eiffel Tower right now." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "588.82", "endTime": "626.445", "body": "You can't believe that you, because you're not, you don't believe it, right? So the difference between a belief and a thought. You can think I'm gonna become, worth a $100,000,000 But if your belief is that you don't have the skills and you don't have the talent and that rich people step on the backs of poor people in order to get there and you hear your dad saying, we're not rich people, we're blue collar people. If you believe that you're a blue collar person, you're probably never gonna achieve that wealth of a $100,000,000 even if you just say it to yourself over and over and over again. So understanding the difference between core beliefs and thoughts, what we need to do is we need to change beliefs and there's a process for doing that." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "626.505", "endTime": "652.45", "body": "And then we turn it into thoughts that help support those beliefs, and then you develop the kinds of attitudes that help you, that help you stay positive about those thoughts and beliefs. And then thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes become actions, and it's actions that determine results, and results are the things that we're looking for. So that's sort of a basic overview of the simple process of it, but that's what I work, that's what I work with people on in my coaching programs." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "652.99", "endTime": "660.125", "body": "And what about anything with in regards to, like, passion and joy of what you do? That that has to you probably coach a lot about that as well." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "661.145", "endTime": "673.7", "body": "Well, you know, it's funny. I, there's a lot of, difference of opinion on that. Mhmm. The the role of passion. You know, we were talking about Tony Robbins earlier." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "674.025", "endTime": "677.305", "body": "Tony Robbins and a guy named Larry Winget. Are you familiar with Larry Winget?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "677.305", "endTime": "679.72504", "body": "Yeah. I've heard of him. I've heard I've heard of him, actually." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "680.185", "endTime": "688.33997", "body": "Larry's a business partner of mine. We have a a podcast real man podcast. People wanna check it out. It's it's for guys. It's at real man podcast.com." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "689.04", "endTime": "719.085", "body": "Larry is one of the most successful speakers the last 30 years. I mean, he's been doing a 100 gigs a year at at the highest levels. It's a lot of money, for the last 30 years, National Hall of Fame, Speakers Hall of Fame, 6 New York Times and Wall Street Journal best selling books. Now you can you can understand from the title of his books things like, you're broke because you wanna be, your children are your own fault, and shut up, stop whining, and get a life. The the titles will tell you a little bit the perspective that Larry's coming from." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "719.58", "endTime": "734.185", "body": "So he and, Tony Robbins gave a speech one together, and, Larry was on first and Tony came on right after Larry. And, of course, Tony was in the green room or whatever. And Larry gets up there and he says, you know, passion. Everybody tells you it's all about passion. You gotta be passion." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "734.245", "endTime": "746.84503", "body": "It's not about passion. It's about discipline, It's about choices. You can you can love your work and that's great. And if you're passionate about it, most of the time, that's fantastic. But what about the days you don't have that emotion of passion?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "747.305", "endTime": "755.69", "body": "You still have to go to work and do your job and be disciplined. And he said, now the next guy is gonna come out, and people didn't know that Tony was coming out. He was a surprise guest at the event." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "755.69", "endTime": "756.01", "body": "Oh, wow." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "756.01", "endTime": "768.685", "body": "The next guy is gonna come out and the right out of the shoot, he's gonna tell you it's all about passion and it's a bunch of horseshit. So thank you very much. Clap, clap, clap. Off the stage goes Larry. The guy comes up." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "768.685", "endTime": "777.29", "body": "He says, alright. We've got a special guest. Here he is, mister Tony Robbins. Larry is standing on the side of the room, you know, and there's only a couple hundred people in this room. It's very high level meeting." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "777.43", "endTime": "790.77997", "body": "Larry is standing on the side of the room, and Tony comes out. Literally within about 30 seconds, he says, how many of you know that all of success is about having passion in your life? And the entire audience, like, didn't even clap. They looked at Larry and Larry shrugged his shoulders. Oh, wow." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "790.77997", "endTime": "807.375", "body": "And so and so there are there are differences of opinions. Do I believe that passion is important? I do believe passion is important. Do I believe that you can be successful and not be passionate about it? I think that it's difficult because we are not only cognitive beings, we are also emotional beings." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "807.60004", "endTime": "837.085", "body": "But do I believe that, life ebbs and flows and passion ebbs and flows and sometimes you're really excited about it, other times it's just a drudgery? Yes. You know, you can be a college student and and say, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna change the world as an elementary school teacher. And the 1st 3 or 4 years, nothing is better than being an elementary school teacher and shape those little minds and helping them learn those things. But eventually you're gonna come to the point where you're gonna go, this kinda sucks." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "837.545", "endTime": "852.43", "body": "Teachers, they get the crap from the parents. They don't get paid much. Know, there's a lot of things that isn't really great about the teaching profession. Right? Now all of a sudden, 5 years in, they're not terribly passionate about it anymore." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "852.84503", "endTime": "867.62", "body": "Does that mean that they just give up being a good teacher? No. So passion is great to have, and it can take you a long way. But at the same time, it shouldn't be the sole source of energy for your work and your life." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "868.72003", "endTime": "880.59", "body": "I completely agree. And that's the reason I ask you that question because I know a lot of people as well, Chris, that they they say, oh, I love this. I wanna do this. Or the you know, this is my passion. This is what I wanna." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "880.83", "endTime": "901.42", "body": "But you when you the problem I see with a lot of them and this is even just start ups, entrepreneurs is that they they have that passion. They they have that joy. They have that that, even that, you know, in a sense that entrepreneurial itch, that leadership itch. You could see, you know, they they wanna do something great. They they have the intention to do something big in their lives, but they don't execute it." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "901.42", "endTime": "920.185", "body": "And with execution comes a lot of consistency, hard work, and discipline, like you said. And you know you know, Will Smith talks a lot about he's preaching about this all over the world about consistency and discipline. You have to discipline yourself. You gotta work hard. You gotta you gotta find ways to deliver and execute, right, and get out of your comfort zone." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "920.185", "endTime": "932.57996", "body": "There's just all these elements combined, and I love how you said that because it's not just about passion. It's not just about having joy in what you do. Those are important. Absolutely. They can get you through some tough times, but it's not just those things." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "933.36", "endTime": "933.6", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "933.6", "endTime": "951.95", "body": "I know it's called discipline the least sexy, but the most important aspect of success. Discipline is not sexy at all. Like, you you know, could you imagine if you had if you had a podcast called the discipline podcast? Nobody would listen to that thing. Nobody wants to talk about this." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "951.95", "endTime": "962.615", "body": "They might listen to an episode or 2, but nobody's gonna listen to the discipline podcast. They want the secret to business success Mhmm. Podcast. They want that magic bullet, that pixie dust, that unicorn ride." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "962.615", "endTime": "962.871", "body": "That's what people want. But So true." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "962.903", "endTime": "979.405", "body": "You look at true successful people, true successful people are the people who discipline themselves day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade. And at the end of 40 years, they've built something monstrous." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "979.67004", "endTime": "987.67004", "body": "So true. I I 100% agree. I think, beautiful insight. I I love it. So you know, what do you this kinda goes to the next question here, Chris." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "987.67004", "endTime": "1013.905", "body": "So what do you really consider aside from passion? What do you cons well, I won't say passion's wrong, but aside from talking about passion, like, what do you consider wrong ideas or concepts that others have described in order to be successful? You know, we know it's not only passion, but what do you think there's any incorrect concepts being preached out there, that are are really, or in your opinion, not true in order to to reach a high level of success? Whatever it may be for for you, subjective, obviously." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1013.965", "endTime": "1018.04004", "body": "Well, alright. So half your audience is gonna love me, half your audience is gonna hate me." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1018.04004", "endTime": "1018.2", "body": "And I" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1018.2", "endTime": "1018.36005", "body": "don't even" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1018.52", "endTime": "1018.76", "body": "It's okay." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1018.92004", "endTime": "1039.74", "body": "And I don't even know if you're gonna love me or hate me at this, but I'm gonna throw it out there. The Secret, you remember the book, The Secret? Yes. That is the biggest bunch of horsemen war I've ever heard in my life. The only person who got rich from the secret was the woman who wrote it, and a few of the people who were who were big names in it." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1040.485", "endTime": "1063.6749", "body": "You know, people always says, I'm just telling the universe that I want a Ferrari. Okay. So the universe is a place, not a person. The universe is a place, not a person. Telling the universe that you want a Ferrari or a bigger house or a better job is like telling Detroit that you want a Ferrari or a bigger house or a better place." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1063.895", "endTime": "1082.745", "body": "Detroit is a place. The universe is a place. So this whole idea, I'm just telling the universe what it is, is it's a way for people to shirk responsibility for their own thing. Because if you're telling the universe for it and it doesn't happen, what does that really mean? Means, well, maybe the universe didn't want you to have a Ferrari." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1083.55", "endTime": "1095.835", "body": "Maybe the universe didn't want you to have a better relationship. Maybe the universe didn't want you to have a bigger house. So what I believe is is is in personal responsibility. It's your choice. I'm more of a, if it's gonna be, it's up to me kind of thing." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1095.835", "endTime": "1096.075", "body": "Right?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1096.075", "endTime": "1096.475", "body": "I agree." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1096.475", "endTime": "1105.4199", "body": "Yeah. No. I I believe in God. I I'm a Christian. I I believe that that God is is active and and that that there is a higher being." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1105.64", "endTime": "1124.39", "body": "And and I do believe that God in some ways, interacts in the world. And so I'm not in any way saying I'm not spiritual or it's not a spiritual aspect to life. I'm just saying that, you know, I don't know. I'll give you a story. Remember, I don't know if you've ever heard this before, but there's a guy and and he's in his house and and they get a warning that the flooding's coming along." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1124.39", "endTime": "1138.32", "body": "Right? Mhmm. And, and all of a sudden, the the water start to rise and and a big pickup truck with big wheels comes along, and this guy's on his front porch. And the guy says, he says, hey, come on, jump in the jump in the back of the truck. We're getting out of your Fort Flutz." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1138.32", "endTime": "1141.28", "body": "No. No. No. I'm waiting for God to save me. Okay." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1141.28", "endTime": "1155.5801", "body": "They take off. A little bit later, a boat comes by. The waters have have raised even more and boat comes by and and, and, the boat pulls up next to the the front porch and he says, hey, come on, jump in the boat. It's really getting bad. You need to get no." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1155.5801", "endTime": "1169.485", "body": "No. No. I'm waiting for God to save me. So eventually it's so high. He's literally on the roof of his house and, and a helicopter comes and lowers down, they drop a rope and they say, get me, not, did I say elevator?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1169.485", "endTime": "1176.57", "body": "I meant helicopter. Yeah. Helicopter flies by and they lower a rope and they say, get in the helicopter. This is your last chance. No, no, no." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1176.57", "endTime": "1194.22", "body": "I'm just waiting for God to save me. And so, eventually, as you can probably tell, he dies. He gets swept away in the floods and he dies and he ends up in front of the pearly gates and they let him in and he goes up to God and he says, God, I trusted that you were gonna save me. And God says, what are you talking about? I sent a pickup, a boat, and a helicopter." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1194.44", "endTime": "1208.36", "body": "What are you talking about? You made the choice to stay there. Right? So here's the deal. There's a lot of stuff in this life that I think people push off to the spiritual when they really just need to get very, very material about it and say, okay." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1208.36", "endTime": "1231.65", "body": "I need to get my ass out of bed today, and I need to set an agenda for the day, and I need to execute on that agenda. So I think a lot of people hyper spiritualize, some things. They they emotionalize it. They say that it's about passion or it's about God or it's about the universe or no. It's about determining what you want out of life, developing a strategy and a plan, and then executing that plan." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1231.855", "endTime": "1241.395", "body": "Yeah. I I I couldn't agree with you more, Chris. Because I I'm Christian too. I I've I'm very spiritual. I believe in God and and, you know, the thing is is that I've never read the the book, The Secret." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1241.9501", "endTime": "1267.275", "body": "So I have I have no say on that. But in regards to people kind of over spiritualizing, success or happiness or what have you, I mean, for me, you know, I I believe God gives you strength and or you pray for God to give to give me strength and opportunity, and to not be lazy and to do the best that I can in my life. And and that gets me awake. That that wakes me up to know, you know what? I gotta bust my ass today because it's not gonna be given to me." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1267.355", "endTime": "1277.26", "body": "There's opportunities out there. I know he's given me strength. I know I know I have I have wisdom. I know I I have people that are gonna support. There's people that are gonna there that are gonna that are gonna help me." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1277.26", "endTime": "1296.14", "body": "I do believe people come in and out of your life for certain reasons. But in that sense, it doesn't mean it gives me an excuse to be lazy. I know some people that that do that, and they just say, oh, it's I'm waiting for for for for something to just happen. I'm like, listen, man. Like, you gotta get off your butt and go find it because, you know, that you have free will." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1296.14", "endTime": "1301.875", "body": "You have you just it's a big world out there. You gotta go out and find it. Go seek it. It's there. You gotta work hard." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1301.875", "endTime": "1302.755", "body": "Yeah. Certainly. You know?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1302.755", "endTime": "1317.22", "body": "And certainly one of the mysteries of life is this is this interaction between the natural, the supernatural, the spirit, and the material. Yeah. You know? But at the same time, you know, the old saying, pray like it depends on God and work like it depends on you. It's probably pretty good saying, you know?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1318.135", "endTime": "1326.06", "body": "Yeah. I do like that. I I actually heard that years ago, but I'm glad you brought that that quote up again. Maybe I'll maybe I'll use it. But, that that's great, Chris." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1326.38", "endTime": "1337.855", "body": "Thanks for that insight. And I think that's I think a lot of people can really can really, you know, use that and put into their daily lives. Or they might hate this podcast or they'll love it. But you know what? It's okay as long as they listen to it." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1338.315", "endTime": "1362.0499", "body": "So, you know, Chris, with with that being said, are there are there, like, certain struggles or obstacles you feel that everyone has to overcome, or might overcome in order to reach a high level of success and happiness? Do you think there's do you think there's certain just certain obstacles that that, you know, everyone has to go through? Or you think it's just different for every single person?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1362.35", "endTime": "1377.5801", "body": "I think it's different for every single person, some of the specifics, but I think a few generalities that everybody experiences. I think first of all, is the mundane. Everybody wants everything to be exciting, and yet most of life is not exciting. Most of life is the mundane. You know?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1377.9801", "endTime": "1411.92", "body": "I I think it's one of the reasons why so many people end up getting divorced. You know, dating is so exciting. You know, you're going out 4 nights a week. You're, you know, you're going on trips. You tell the person you love them and it's so exciting and you're, you know, you get butterflies in your stomach when you know you're gonna see them and then it's so exciting you decide to get married And now you're living in a house together and, you know, you're doing the dishes, and you're sweeping the floors, and you're sitting on your butt watching TV at night, and, you know, it's the mundane." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1412.62", "endTime": "1419.8049", "body": "And pretty soon, it's like, woah. This isn't what I signed up for. I I thought it was gonna be exciting. And you know what? It's not." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1420.105", "endTime": "1444.2749", "body": "You know, I lived in Seattle at the first 50 years of my life, just moved to Scottsdale about a year ago. And some of those big companies, you know, Microsoft, ton of friends that made millions at Microsoft, ton of friends that made millions at Amazon, Starbucks, you know, but it's mundane. You know, it's exciting. Like, Microsoft, oh, it grew so fast, and all these people made millionaires, and janitors with Ferraris, and all this. But you know what?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1445.04", "endTime": "1473.9751", "body": "You used to be able in the early days to drive by the Microsoft campus at 2 in the morning, and you'd have all the lights on and people walking around. They were there grinding it out 2 AM on a Thursday night. You know, they they had sleeping bags that they slept on in their in their offices, on their couch, on cots, you know, just the grind of the mundane. You know, I I play poker. One of the interesting things about poker, I've played in the world series of poker, I've played, you know, poker for a long time at at very high levels." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1474.515", "endTime": "1501.75", "body": "And, you know, people watch poker on television, and it's I'm all in, and it's these big pots and it's you know? And then they go and they decide, well, I'm gonna go play poker, and they rush off to the casino or they go to Las Vegas for a a convention. They go down to the poker room, and they're all in and they, you know, hand after hand. What they don't realize is that those television shows are edited and that the the best poker players in the world fold 90% of the hands they're dealt. It's just Interesting." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1502.13", "endTime": "1518.24", "body": "Wow. Boring. Yeah. They call it VPIP, voluntarily put into pot, which means they voluntarily they have a VPIP rating, percentage. The the amount of times they voluntarily put money into the pot or play a hand, and and most of the best pose poker players in the world are less than 12%." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1519.34", "endTime": "1537.5701", "body": "That means 88% and above of the hands they fold and don't even play. So it's a lot of sitting around waiting for that moment in which you're gonna play. And then oftentimes you get unlucky and you lose your entire stack in your the tournament. But, but that's life. Whether it's marriage, it's a lot of mundane." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1537.5701", "endTime": "1554.99", "body": "It's business. You know, it's a lot of cutting code at Microsoft offices at 2 in the morning. It it's a lot of sitting around folding your hands in poker. It doesn't really matter. The people who are the most successful, you will almost always find that it's it's a mundane life for them." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1555.69", "endTime": "1563.115", "body": "I mean, think about what's like one of the most exciting jobs you could have? Professional wrestler. Right? Professional wrestler. Right?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1563.175", "endTime": "1601.605", "body": "You know, you're you're on the WWE and and but think about those guys. They get about 8 minutes on television, and what that 8 minutes is exciting. You got 25,000 people screaming your name, and you're on television, and, you know, lights and sound and music and action, 8 minutes a day. The other 23 hours and 52 minutes, on a bus, going to the airport, you know, lifting weights in the gym. Like, literally, you can't pick a profession that that isn't driven by the mundane in order to succeed in the moments of excitement." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1603.03", "endTime": "1630.2649", "body": "And so this is kind of a this might be a little bit of a tough question. So how do you become happy or not successful, but happy in the mundane? What you think it's a lot of is really mental or is it spiritual? You think is it is it something that setting the right expectations mentally, emotionally, spiritually, understanding that listen. For me to get to this point like, when I started my company, Imagine Ovation, right, 7 years ago, I knew it was gonna be tough." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1630.325", "endTime": "1650.145", "body": "But some days, you know, when we close a big deal or when you you win an award or you you do a great job for a client or whatever it may be, right, it feels great. It's it's it's awesome. Right? Because you know you work so hard and you finally see some progress and performance, but you don't you know, other people don't see the the 12 to 15 hours you're putting, and you're working till 3, 4, 5 o'clock in the morning. You know?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1650.145", "endTime": "1670.645", "body": "But but for me, I I felt in order for me to to to find my to fill my purpose, to do something great in my life, I know it's gonna take a lot of days that, to to be honest with you, suck. You know? And they're not happy days. They're not great days, but there was still something inside of me that pushed me to continue." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1671.6399", "endTime": "1691.28", "body": "Yeah. Well, it's funny you should ask that about happiness. You and I are recording this on October 2nd, 2018 and on October 15th, 2018. So in less than 2 weeks, I have a brand new 3 hour audio program coming out. I'm looking at it right now on Amazon, the presale, called the secrets to life and happiness." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1691.58", "endTime": "1692.3", "body": "Okay. The" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1692.3", "endTime": "1701.575", "body": "secrets to life and happiness. It it's up right now. I don't think you can buy it right now. It says October 15th, 2018. But there are some secrets to life and happiness." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1701.575", "endTime": "1733.78", "body": "And I think one of the biggest things is understanding what you shouldn't tie your happiness to. So the first and foremost thing you shouldn't tie your happiness to is money or possessions, because there is, you know, a plethora of proof from every rich guy who shot himself that money does not produce happiness. And the fact is is there are happy poor people, and there are sad poor people. There's happy rich people, and there's poor rich people. I mean, unhappy rich people." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1733.925", "endTime": "1746.66", "body": "So the money isn't the variable. You have to look at the variables, and money is not the variable that determines happiness. Otherwise, all rich people would be happy and all poor people would be sad and unhappy." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1746.66", "endTime": "1748.52", "body": "So money is just the byproduct, do you think?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1749.915", "endTime": "1762.8301", "body": "Money to me is irrelevant. Yep. I often say instead of talking about money, talk about hammers. Replace the word money with hammers. And imagine if somebody said, God, if I just had a 1000000 hammers, I would be so happy." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1764.675", "endTime": "1779.59", "body": "You wouldn't. You'd have a 1000000 hammers. You could, you could you could give those 1000000 hammers to a 1000000 construction guys who could build a lot of homes, but it's not gonna determine whether you're happy or not. See, the reason I use hammers is because money is a tool. That's all money is." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1779.59", "endTime": "1793.9401", "body": "But the problem is is that most people view money as a sign of their of their esteem, or their prestige. And it's not. It it simply isn't. And even if it is a sign of your prestige and people go, oh, wow. He's got a Bentley." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1793.9401", "endTime": "1798.02", "body": "He must be amazing. Till you find out he's beaten his wife and he's drunk 6 nights" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1798.02", "endTime": "1799.105", "body": "a week. So true. Yep." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1799.1849", "endTime": "1812.52", "body": "You know, and not to say that everybody has a Bentley beats their wife and drunk 6 nights a week. I know it's true. I'm just saying that I'm just saying that, you know, your possessions and your money is irrelevant. It's great if you have it. You know what?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1812.52", "endTime": "1819.785", "body": "Fantastic. Good for you. You can afford a Bentley. Perfect. You know, I when I was, 38 years old, I bought my dream home." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1819.785", "endTime": "1847.6699", "body": "I drove by this house for 21 years. 21 years. Now let me tell you about this house. 6000 square feet, 10 acres, half a mile of riverfront, swimming pool, pool house, 1800 bottle wine cellar, quarter of a mile circular driveway, and my front gate was 500 feet long of brick pillars and rod iron fencing. I bought this house at 38 after driving by it and stopping at the front gates for 21 years and say I'm a buy that house." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1848.755", "endTime": "1865.6", "body": "Bought the house, moved in October 6th, and middle of October that year, a couple within a couple weeks of buying the house, I poured myself a drink and I decided to go out and take a walk around the driveway. So I'm I'm, you know, walking around the driveway, shot a bourbon in a glass with an ice cube in it, and I was enjoying" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1866.645", "endTime": "1866.7516", "body": "I was" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1866.7516", "endTime": "1879.75", "body": "enjoying life. I got to the top of the driveway and I looked back at the house and I will never forget the thought that I had. I thought, now what? Now what? Now what do I do?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1879.75", "endTime": "1889.605", "body": "I got this. It didn't even last 2 weeks. The the fulfillment, you think about guys that get Porsches. Right? They or Ferrari or Lamborghini." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1890.12", "endTime": "1894.8401", "body": "They park it way out at the edge of the parking lot for, like, the 1st 3 weeks, 4 weeks. Right?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1894.8401", "endTime": "1895.24", "body": "Yeah. Just" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1895.24", "endTime": "1912.7799", "body": "can't get on that car. And, they they won't let anybody. You can't don't don't you can't don't bring that bottle of water in my in my car. I don't let anybody drink in my car. Well, 6 months into it, they're parking, you know, way up front, and they got, you know, old McDonald's bags on the on the back seat." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1913.08", "endTime": "1940.995", "body": "You know, it it everything loses its allure. Possessions and money lose its allure, which is, is why you have to find peace and happiness inwardly. And whether it's spiritually or in touch with what your purpose is, or, really knowing what your goals in life are and focusing on in on those. I do 33 segments in this 3 hour program, an intro and outro and then 31 lessons in there. But it's going through all these things." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1941.0549", "endTime": "1957.485", "body": "Not even tying your your happiness to a relationship. A lot of people think if I just find the right wife or if I find the right You're right. Husband, I have the right friends. You know, happiness is an inside job. Happiness is something you do for your self, and it's never dependent on outward circumstances." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "1957.7051", "endTime": "1960.285", "body": "It's always dependent on your own perspective." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1961.66", "endTime": "1972.9451", "body": "Yeah. I I, I I'm agreeing with you so much here. I thought we really do think alike. I I agree. I mean, there's I think a lot of people do tie, their happiness and success to material things." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1972.9451", "endTime": "1996.48", "body": "And material things, I mean, they lose they they lose its butterfly effect. You know? Like you said, when you get into when you start dating and everything's hunky dory and amazing in the beginning, but, you know, it's it it that feeling is not it's it's you know, you're not gonna feel that way. Not saying that you're gonna you're not gonna love that person forever, but but you lose that initial feeling when you get, you when you go and buy clothes, you you're excited to wear it the first time. But after the first or second time, you're like, alright." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "1996.48", "endTime": "2008.4049", "body": "Whatever. You put it in you know, you don't care anymore. Same with the car. And we shouldn't tie these our our our our life's purpose, our happiness, or even our success, whatever it means to us, to these things. These things lose value." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2008.4049", "endTime": "2018.965", "body": "These things don't mean anything. They they they don't there's there's nothing there's no spirit in them. There's nothing. That's why I think a big part of it, I love what Tony preaches as well as it's giving, giving, giving, giving. You know?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2019.365", "endTime": "2019.765", "body": "You know" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2020.005", "endTime": "2020.965", "body": "They're great to have." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2020.965", "endTime": "2021.205", "body": "Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2021.205", "endTime": "2022.4049", "body": "They're great to have. Yeah." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2022.4049", "endTime": "2022.645", "body": "If you" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2022.645", "endTime": "2031.6799", "body": "have a if you have a beautiful car, fantastic. Yeah. That's great. You know, it's great to know that your car isn't gonna break down on the way to work or or whatever. That's perfect." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2032.0599", "endTime": "2047.95", "body": "You know, one of the reasons I bought that big mansion was not to to prove to myself how great I was was because I had lived in 28 homes and went to 11 different schools. And I wanted my 4 children to be able to be in a house where they could, you know, enjoy it. I I'll never forget. It's still pictured in my mind. I can picture it right now." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2048.33", "endTime": "2066.47", "body": "I was in my bedroom, I have a very large master suite with a big balcony overlooking the backyard and the river, And my 4 kids down there playing badminton and just realizing, you know, that they were living a life that I didn't have. And to me, that was happiness, not the big house, but having a house where my kids could feel like it was home." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2066.85", "endTime": "2083.4102", "body": "And and you see there's nothing wrong with it. That's good. And and you know, the way you, you know, the things that you buy, like, for example, the home. For your for your kids and and your wife and your family to be comfortable and to to live the a better life than what you lived is that's a good intent. That's a good motive." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2083.4102", "endTime": "2103.0598", "body": "That's a good that's a good reason and purpose. So you're tying what you bought there to good reasons, but a lot of people aren't like that, Chris. That's the problem. That's that's why I I I I really appreciate what you're saying here, and I I I think people can really, find value in this. So so, Chris, you know, did you go through a lot of different obstacles?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2103.0598", "endTime": "2110.785", "body": "What were some of the toughest obstacles that you had to overcome in your life to get you to this point? You know, any stories or what did you really have to go through?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2111.725", "endTime": "2117.23", "body": "Well, 28 homes, 11 different schools, and starting drugs in the 6th grade is a is a beginning. Mhmm." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2117.45", "endTime": "2127.655", "body": "Or anything kind of lately or the the last 10 years or so, you know, to to get to the the higher level of of of your of your purpose or just happiness? What were some really tough tough times?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2128.675", "endTime": "2152.22", "body": "You know, I've been very fortunate as an adult, And I think part of that is because I figured out a way to live my life. I really believe that life is pretty simple. If you live it one way, it it turns out one way, if you live in another way, it turns out a different way. And, you know, Jim Rohn always used to say that success is just a few simple habits repeated every day. And failure is also just a few simple habits repeated every day, right?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2152.28", "endTime": "2166.18", "body": "And so your actions produce results. I will say though, you know, that I, it has not all been perfect. I went through a divorce about 3 years ago after being married for 27 years. And that was, that was hard." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2166.18", "endTime": "2166.5798", "body": "Oh, yeah." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2167.3", "endTime": "2212.7651", "body": "Any any divorce is hard whether you've been married 3 months or 30 years, you know, the tearing apart of of people who at one time loved each other and and, you know, writing assets and and, you know, what people think and people take sides and, you know, all that kind of stuff. And and it was devastating for me, particularly as a guy, you know, who teaches people how to be successful. I suffered a lot of, embarrassment and shame and, you know, can I really tell people, you know, what the right thing is and and all that kind of stuff, you know, now that I've I've failed to make that work? You know, so it certainly set me back mentally quite a bit going through that. And then just, I went to counseling for a couple years and just, you know, talked it through." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2212.7651", "endTime": "2226.7349", "body": "I got a couple friends who are pastors. I talked to them, You know, just a lot of internal reflection and deciding to make myself better out of it. You know, I'm I'm engaged now to a beautiful lady and getting married soon." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2226.7349", "endTime": "2227.2349", "body": "Congratulations." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2228.095", "endTime": "2244.7852", "body": "Yeah. Thank you. One of the things that, that I always say is, if I'm gonna make my if if I'm gonna be successful in my second marriage, I gotta figure a few things out. Because if my first wife didn't like it, my second wife probably won't like it either. I mean, you ever thought about that?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2244.7852", "endTime": "2263.025", "body": "Yeah. You ever wonder once, you know, second marriages are are more doomed to failure than first marriages. And I think the reason why is is because people don't do any sort of self reflection. I'll tell you what I did once, not too long ago. I sent my ex wife a text and I said, would you be willing I'm I'm doing a lot of self reflection, self awareness." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2263.025", "endTime": "2282.9849", "body": "Would you be willing to share with me 2 or 3 things that you think I did that committed to the demise of our marriage? And to her credit, she sent me three things. She said, I think you did this and this and this, and, you know, I think that wasn't good for our our marriage. And I wrote back and said, thank you very much. I appreciate that." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2283.2", "endTime": "2286.4", "body": "She wrote back with 3 more. And," }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2286.88", "endTime": "2287.5999", "body": "and and" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2287.5999", "endTime": "2306.55", "body": "and then telling me she wasn't gonna help me anymore. And I said, okay, fair enough. But, you know, when you talk, for example, talk to a divorced man and say, why did you get divorced? You know what the average man is gonna say? The first what do you think the first two words out of an the the man who's divorced and you say, why did he get divorced?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2306.55", "endTime": "2314.975", "body": "What do you think the first two words out of his his, mouth are gonna be? My wife or my ex Her fault." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2315.2551", "endTime": "2315.8152", "body": "Or if it" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2316.615", "endTime": "2333.285", "body": "My ex wife was, you know, not a go to the average divorced woman. Why did your marriage not work out? My ex husband was the biggest jerk. No self awareness. No understanding of what it is that they did to contribute." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2333.425", "endTime": "2352.175", "body": "Right? So one of the things that I think is important when we when we talk about failure is that failure is never a failure as long as you learn something from it. You know, failure can it can be a great educator, but you have to be willing to to learn. And most people just never learn from their failure. They make excuses." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2352.2349", "endTime": "2367.605", "body": "They blame somebody else. It was it was my mom's fault or my dad's fault or my, you know, my boss's fault or, you know, the next door neighbor's fault or my dog's fault. It's somebody's fault other than my own. Yeah. And that's, that's why people repeatedly fail." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2367.745", "endTime": "2389.43", "body": "I have a guy, I'm gonna write a book someday. The book gonna be called 4 Wives Can't Be Wrong. I was, I was invited to serve on the board of a business in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho. And this guy, right after I got on the board a couple months in his 4th wife left him. And then as I got involved in the business, I realized that every top salesperson had left him and every president of his company had left him." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2389.49", "endTime": "2402.7449", "body": "They'd all left. They they showed up, they stuck around for a while and they left. And the reason why is because he was a total prick. I mean, the guy couldn't get along with anybody. So I thought, okay, this guy's paying me good money every month to to be a board member and adviser." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2402.885", "endTime": "2418.075", "body": "So I said to him, I said, you know, have you noticed what the one common element is in all of these things, your wives and your salespeople and your the president of your president of your company? Do you see what the common element is? And he said, no. What? I said, you." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2418.855", "endTime": "2434.8452", "body": "You're this one who's at the scene of every accident. And and he he was so offended. And and literally, his 4th wife had just left him, and I looked at him, and I said, look, so and so. 4 wives can't be wrong. 1 wife could be wrong." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2435.465", "endTime": "2445.8098", "body": "2 wives, oh, that's too bad. 3 wives, oh, there's something there. Four wives, if 4 wives leave you, you're the problem. Right? Because it can't all be great, and I would say the same thing." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2445.8098", "endTime": "2450.345", "body": "Four husbands, 4 wives, it doesn't matter. Right? But he didn't wanna look at himself." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2450.345", "endTime": "2452.045", "body": "Lack of self awareness. Absolutely." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2452.185", "endTime": "2453.885", "body": "Lack of self awareness. Totally." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2454.505", "endTime": "2475.48", "body": "Yeah. And and I think that even probably goes back to, a lot of what you teach, right, is increasing self awareness, being vigilant, being watchful of what you're doing. You know, we don't a lot of us don't. This is the problem, Chris, is that a lot of us don't wanna take responsibility in our own thoughts and our own actions. We wanna blame, blame, blame, blame." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2475.48", "endTime": "2490.0352", "body": "And I learned that through my journey of being, being an owner of a company as well as I was making this I mean, I I I would be the I mean, I've made tons of mistakes, a 100%, and I'm aware of those. You know? I should have been more organized. I should have been more planned. I should have been more task oriented." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2490.2998", "endTime": "2503.335", "body": "I I should have been more more punctual sometimes. I should have been, you know, in these things, and I listed them out. I'm like, what am I doing wrong here? What can I do better to be a leader in my company, to grow my company, to be a leader in life? And and and it's being aware." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2503.635", "endTime": "2516.115", "body": "It's so important being aware, and that it's gonna make you more humble as well. And that's gonna be more make you, increase humility. It's very important to be to be humble. That makes you a better leader, but that's just some of my take." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2516.115", "endTime": "2517.9548", "body": "But Sure." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2518.595", "endTime": "2532.355", "body": "So jumping a little bit here, Chris, what do you really consider the you know, are there certain steps or processes that people need to take in order to become a good leader in life or in business or whatever leadership means to you?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2533.155", "endTime": "2561.01", "body": "Yeah. Actually, I just finished reading rereading a book that I think is one of the best leadership books of all time. I I run a national men's mastermind guys that, that paid to belong to a 1 year program with me, and we we read a different book every month. And we just read the West Point Way of Leadership and, was written by Lieutenant Larry Colonel, Lieutenant Colonel Larry Donathorne. And it was fascinating because he says, the first thing is that you have to learn to be a follower." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2561.47", "endTime": "2581.4648", "body": "You can't be a leader unless you can follow. And he tells about how these plebs show up at, West Point. And I'd never thought about it till I read the book, but you think about all these young kids, these young men that show up at West Point, now with young men and women, they show up at West Point. And if you think about it, every single one of them is a leader. They were the president of their ASB." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2581.4648", "endTime": "2596.7249", "body": "They were the quarterback of their football team. They were the head cheerleader. They were whatever they were, but they were the thing at their high school, right? Number 1 in their class, whatever, class president, you know, whatever. And then they show up." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2596.7249", "endTime": "2629.01", "body": "And the first thing they do is they strip these guys of all their inability to lead and they make them follow to the point where they are given literally, rote responses that they have to repeat verbatim to any sort of requests are given. They're not allowed to just speak whatever comes to their mind to answer a question. They're given the responses that they have to give, and they have to memorize them, and they have to follow. And it's interesting because the reason they do that is because in the military, if you don't follow, people die. Right?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2629.1501", "endTime": "2644.7402", "body": "And so they teach them to follow. And so they have to learn to be able to follow and to respect the leadership of other people. I think the second thing is to improve your skills, particularly your communication skills. People ask me what's the top skill of leadership. It's always communication." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2644.9602", "endTime": "2661.77", "body": "I think that that's key. My book, The Art of Influence is really great for leaders. And, I talk about how to gain trust, respect, admiration, and loyalty in that book. And the 4 things that I talk about, you gain trust through integrity. A leader has to have integrity." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2662.15", "endTime": "2678.78", "body": "You get respect through your own personal standards of excellence. People respect you because you excel in your life. Admiration comes from optimism. The greatest leaders are optimistic. And then the last one is loyalty, and loyalty comes from service, being a servant leader." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2678.9749", "endTime": "2700.095", "body": "And so developing the the skill sets of a of a leader and developing the character traits of a leader, very, very important. And then I would say just say lastly is developing a a strategy for accomplishing that vision, and then executing that vision, and that strategy on a day to day basis." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2701.035", "endTime": "2721.295", "body": "Perfect. Thank you very much for sharing all that. And, Chris, so just to kind of, conclude things in the in the podcast, I always ask the 3 house. Now you did dabble in all of these, but in in just one sentence or as as quick as you can define them, how would you define failure in your opinion? How would you define entrepreneurship?" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2721.435", "endTime": "2722.975", "body": "And how would you define success?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2725.82", "endTime": "2743.79", "body": "Failure, I would define as not achieving your specific goals. Entrepreneurship, I would define as the person who initiates capitalism. And what was the last" }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2743.79", "endTime": "2744.53", "body": "one? Success." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2745.87", "endTime": "2751.555", "body": "Success? Success is not the overachievement in one area, but the balanced achievement in all areas." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2752.275", "endTime": "2769.0151", "body": "I love it. Everyone that I interview, it's it's crazy because some some of the interviewees to have some similar answers, but some people have some very, very different answers. So I love to always ask the three how's. How do you define failure, entrepreneurship, and success? And, Chris, I really appreciate it." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2769.095", "endTime": "2774.635", "body": "You know, thanks again for for being part of this, podcast and episode. And and can where can everyone find you?" }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2776.37", "endTime": "2797.25", "body": "They can find me on Facebook at, facebook.comforward/chrisweidnerspeaker. That's also my username for Instagram, at Chris Weidner speaker. Twitter is just at Chris Weidner. And, if they're available or they desire any sort of personal coaching, I also have a coaching program for people who wanna become speakers and authors. They can just email me." }, { "speaker": "Chris Wyden", "startTime": "2797.25", "endTime": "2811.0", "body": "My my email is widenergroup, widenergroup@gmail.com. Let me know that you, might be interested in some personal professional coaching or specifically, speaker and author coaching." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2811.0", "endTime": "2820.535", "body": "Fantastic. Chris, thanks again. Thanks for being part of the podcast and sharing your story with us and your insights and expertise. I'm I'm very thankful. And thank you everyone for for listening." }, { "speaker": "Michael Georgiou", "startTime": "2820.535", "endTime": "2823.72", "body": "And this is your host, Michael Georgiou on Tales from The Pro." } ] }