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Tomorrow can be different from today.
Our lives often leave us feeling hopeless—like nothing will ever change. But perspective is everything. When you know where to look, hope can be found in the spaces and places you least expect.
Join Jason Gore (Lead Pastor of Hope Community Church) for a fresh perspective, practical steps, and weekly encouragement that hope really is possible… even in real life.
What's more fulfilling than seeing a, you know,
a kid learn to play and develop a skill,
and then a team come together.
And so, um, I can expand,
but really seeing, um, the teams that I get to lead,
develop, and grow is the, the greatest measure of success,
um, in, in my life.
Welcome to the Hope and Real Life Podcast with Jason Gore.
Our team is passionate
and committed to bringing you more hope in the everyday real
areas of your life.
If this conversation and content is valuable for you,
please do us a favor, like, subscribe, and even share.
You never know how valuable it could be
to share a little bit of hope with someone else.
Let's get the conversation started.
Well, hello and welcome back to another episode
of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
I could not be more excited to be here this week with, uh,
truthfully, uh, not only someone who's been incredibly,
incredibly successful in life, but also a good friend, Mr.
Chris Swong. And so welcome to the show.
Welcome to the episode.
Uh, we are gonna be talking this week about how
to be successful in the marketplace.
And I know there's a lot of folks out there that are asking
that question that are caught up in the grind
and trying to climb that ladder
and just balance the things of life.
And I'm telling you, you, you are a man
that a lot of people need to hear from.
So, Chris, welcome to the show.
Glad that you're here with us.
Thanks, Jason. Happy to be here. Yeah.
Why don't we do this. Let's do this.
Just give him a little background, just personal.
We'll jump into the business side of things in a minute,
but just, you know, married kids.
Let us know the whole deal. Who are we talking to here?
Um, I'm blessed to be a father of four kids, uh, ages, uh,
8, 12, 14, and 17.
Uh, two boys, two girls.
And, uh, every night at dinner we have a blast
sharing about, uh, the day.
And, uh, and all that centered around my wife, uh, Linda,
who is, um, we've been married 20 years,
just celebrated our anniversary recently.
And, uh, you know, I'm, I'm lucky to be a father
and husband to, uh, that, that clan.
Yeah. You know, I would agree with that last statement.
You are lucky to be Oh yeah. That
Clan punch it way above my weight on
All that. Exactly right.
Hey, look, let's do, so I'm gonna,
I'm just gonna read four things here.
So, so to give the, the listeners an idea of who you are,
then I want you to talk about it a little bit.
But, uh, former VP of Motricity, former COO of bandwidth,
former CEO of Republic Wireless, and now CEO of Relay.
Why don't you just give us your, your, you know,
your brief story and what success has looked like
for you in the marketplace over the last, I don't know,
handful of years plus?
Sure. Happy to do that. So, uh, I, uh, went
to undergrad at Stanford, uh,
joined a consulting firm called McKinsey.
Right after that, uh, in the Silicon Valley consulting to,
uh, you know, wireless companies in particular, leveraged
that to go into investing, uh, venture capital
at a place called Technology Crossover Ventures,
where we invested, uh, millions of dollars in wireless
and software companies.
And one of those companies was a company called tricity,
uh, out here in Durham.
So from Palo Alto, found a company in Durham.
Uh, we invested 27 million into them.
And then, uh, they recruited me to join a few months later.
Um, and Tricity was a pretty awesome experience.
We raised about $500 million, bought a bunch of companies.
And I always say like, I dealed my way out
of a job from that company. 'cause I
Love how you just said, we bought a bunch of companies.
Like, that's No. Yeah, we bought a bunch of companies.
Like, I, like, I like I buy coffee.
There you go. We just bought companies.
Yeah. A little bit harder than that, but, uh, uh,
but the last deal, uh, we bought a company in Seattle,
decided, uh, hard decision
to relocate headquarters out there.
And so, uh, my wife
and I faced a, you know, first key fork in the career
and life road where we had to decide where we'd go
to Seattle with the company,
or, um, go to New Jersey area where my wife is from.
That was sort of on the life plan
or, uh, plant deeper roots here in Raleigh.
And when we came out here, we thought it'd be a two
or three year stint,
but, um, we, we came to really love this area.
We came to really love our church, hope, uh,
that was a key influence in that decision,
and we decided, let's try to find something here.
Uh, then I was fortunate enough,
God brought two guys into my life named, uh,
Henry Kaner and David Morkin.
Uh, they were the founders of Bandwidth,
and quite honestly, they didn't have a,
a job I could apply for.
We just had a lunch, hit it off,
and they, uh, invited me to, to come into the company, uh,
to help with, you know, just
a bunch of different things. They
Didn't have a job opening for a guy
that just bought companies. No, that's not,
No, they didn't have that job, job rec out there.
So, uh, so I think I came in with a strategy kind of title.
Yeah. Uh, just, you know, random bunch of stuff. Yeah.
And, uh, but one of those, uh, work streams was
to help think about new growth areas for the business.
Yeah. As growth had kind of flattened out a little bit.
And so we came up with, uh, a bunch of different ideas.
Some didn't work, um,
but two that did, uh, one was what Bandwidth became today.
So Bandwidth is a communications
platform as a service company.
Uh, what that means is they help, uh, companies like, um,
an Uber or, uh, you know, any app
that's trying to communicate Right.
Send texts and make calls from the app.
That platform enables those kind of services.
So we grew that business, uh, into a public company.
Uh, at one point it was, uh, worth $5 billion.
Um, so had a lot of great success.
Uh, the other company that we birthed out of Bandwidth, uh,
was, we had this crazy idea that we could,
this is back in 2011, use wifi, um, offload a lot of minutes
and megabytes onto the, the wifi towers in your,
in your living room instead of the big cell towers.
That'll never work. Never work. Yep.
It's not gonna, A lot of
People told us that would not work, um,
that we were crazy, but we, uh, you gotta take,
it takes a little bit of crazy to start something new.
Yep. And so, uh, we, we gave it a shot.
We thought we would just launch this little experiment.
We hacked some Android phones and, uh, it was crazy
'cause we, uh, we went viral about,
you know, the story about the company.
Yep. Um, on TechCrunch, and then I'm dating myself,
but on Yahoo News, which is really a big thing,
once upon a time, uh, the servers melted down,
we couldn't open up our site,
but when we eventually got them open, it was like midnight
and we sold all 5,000 phones that we had bought
for the year in three hours.
Yeah. And then we were like, Hey, we,
we've caught some lightning in a bottle here,
and we actually pivoted a bunch of our best people to go out
and focus on that business. Yeah,
Man. I mean, I wrote down here
from Talk, from Talking With You,
our, our team, Republic Wireless ended up selling 5,000
phones in three hours.
There's a wait list of,
and there was also a wait list
of hundreds of thousands of people. Yeah.
Hundreds of thousands of people wanting
to buy our $20 unlimited plan.
Uh, and back then unlimited plans were like $120. Yeah.
So we were crazy cheap.
Um, we honestly didn't know if we could make it work or not.
Yeah. But, uh, we got out there
and over the next five years, uh,
we built the business from zero that night, uh,
November 19th, 2011 to
five years later, a hundred million of revenue.
Uh, we were consumer reports, top prepaid carrier
for a couple years in a row,
and serving, uh, hundreds of thousands of consumers,
saving them millions of dollars in their personal budgets,
um, all across the country. Yeah.
I mean, that, and that's like, I mean, that's adding value
to people's lives too.
Yeah. And you're saving the money different way. Yeah.
Completely disrupting the market. That's exciting.
And then from Republic, now you're a CEO
of a company called Relay.
Yeah. And talk to us just about that, just for a moment
and what that transition was
like and what relay's all about.
Yeah. So we, we grew Republic to a hundred.
Uh, but then it became tough to grow because Sprint
and T-Mobile, uh, got into a big old price war.
If, you know, sprint had to join up
with T-Mobile, they couldn't survive that.
And it became hard for smaller companies like us to, uh,
continue to grow and survive.
So, uh, we focused the business on profitability.
We used those cash flows to then, uh, invest in, uh,
research and development of a, a new product
that we call Relay.
And Relay was really centered on an idea
that not every interface should be that rectangular piece
of glass that we all look at called the smartphone.
Yeah. That, uh, a screen free interface would be better
for certain kinds of people and use cases.
The best examples that aren't Relay are, um, Amazon Echo,
Google Home, Siri.
Right. You know, where you're talking to the cloud,
not just looking at a screen.
Right. And so we thought about, uh, really two segments
that could benefit from this.
The first was young kids, right?
This is, uh, 2000, you know, 18, 19, uh,
screen addiction was a big thing, uh, in the world.
And, uh, we all had young kids who were kind of getting to
that age, and we didn't want to give them an iPhone.
Right. We didn't want to give 'em another thing to be
Yeah. I mean, I can speak
to this one directly.
We were product owners Yeah. Of Relay. Yeah.
Because when we, my, my kids are now, they're 15,
they do have phones now, but,
and of course I heard for years we're the only people on the
planet that are our age that don't have smartphones.
Yeah. Good. That's on purpose.
Um, but we did, we had relays for that, for that reason.
If they're going to spend the night at a friend's house,
or if they're at school, if they want to communicate
with us, they can push a button, leave a message
where it's gonna, we're gonna flash it, you know,
it's gonna come up on an app on my phone.
Yep. I can listen to it, I can communicate back to them.
They don't have a screen. I don't have
to worry about other people getting to them
or what it is that they're getting to.
So, phenomenal product.
Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Well, um, in that launch
with great success, we got into a thousand
plus target stores.
We were serving families,
our own families in particular, needed that product.
So we were kind of scratching our own
itch, if you will, with that.
But, um, you know, uh, along the way, uh,
all these frontline businesses,
which was the other market opportunity
that we had on our whiteboard, uh, they started coming
to our website, our Cute kid website,
which had no business marketing at all,
and saying, how do I buy 50 of these from my housekeepers,
or 20 for my, uh, security team,
or a hundred for, uh, my cleaning or warehousing teams?
Right. And so, uh, this, the second opportunity
that we had in the whiteboard we realized was actually an
even bigger need in the world, uh,
because, um, it's not really a commonly known thing,
but, um, the walkie-talkie market
is still a multi-billion dollar industry.
And frontline workers think housekeepers,
think warehouse workers aren't allowed
to use smartphones, uh, on the job.
Right. And so they're not connected to the cloud.
So can you imagine how, uh,
less productive you would be if you didn't have your
smartphone every day in your job?
That's the life of millions of workers around the world.
In fact, uh, frontline workers represent 80%
of the world's population.
Wow. Right. Yeah. So our mission at Relay is to help kind
of connect these frontline workers to the cloud
and unlock the same productivity that, um, you know,
we enjoy as information workers. Yeah,
That's awesome, Chris.
So thanks for sharing your story.
So, I mean, I think by any, uh, any measurement,
someone would hear that career
and be like, okay, he's experienced some success.
He's seen it. Uh, and so I'm gonna ask you in a moment
how you would define success, though.
'cause I wanna hear that from you. Before I do that though,
real quick, last little question about yourself.
Did you think when you were younger,
like maybe even say pre Stanford days, uh,
did you think this was gonna be your career journey?
Did you have a plan? Did you have any idea
what you thought or hoped it would look like?
And how does this correlate?
Um, I think my first dream job was to be a journalist.
Uh, and I pursued that path for a little bit,
then realized it was a really hard career,
and journalism was kind of changing a lot.
And so, uh, so then I began pursuing business in college.
And since then, um,
I could not have anticipated the journey that I've been on.
I think God has, uh, moved in my life over
and over opening up these doors.
But I did always sort of want to, uh, be a leader in,
in a business and start something eventually.
So, um, feel blessed to have seen that sort
of ambition fulfill. Yeah.
Um, I think, uh, anybody who's been around you and, and,
and again, I have the privilege of being one,
those people who's around you regularly, uh,
would describe you as an incredibly humble man.
Um, how do you, how, how have you managed to kind of make it
through those successes, you know,
and a billion dollars here and a billion dollars and,
but still keep that perspective
and just still keep that center, uh,
that you have and that humility?
Um, well, I think it starts with just, uh, realizing
through my faith that it's not by my own ability
or will, uh, that the successes come.
It's really, uh, trying to be obedient to God, God's will.
And so, um, we would need a whole five hour podcast to go
through every story, but almost every time I made a
plan, God had something better.
Every time I was chasing a particular door, uh, willfully,
God closed it and opened up something better.
And so, um, so I think that's really the, the first key,
uh, to answer that question.
Okay. And you asked about how do I define success? Yeah.
Yeah. And so, uh, while there's business measures, right,
like, you know, millions of revenue or X percent growth
or, you know, each of the companies that I referenced, uh,
Tricity Bandwidth and Republic, uh, you know,
we're valued at a billion dollars at, at one point or more.
Um, and those are sort of some of the, the, the metrics
that we look at as business people.
But honestly, what probably drives me more in terms
of success, um, is seeing others, uh,
grow right in their careers around, uh, you know, the,
the businesses I get to be part of, um, like you,
I'm a coach at heart, I'm a
basketball coach outside of work.
Yeah. And what's more fulfilling than seeing a, you know,
a kid learn to play and develop a skill
and then a team come together.
And so, um, I can expand,
but really seeing, um, the teams that I get to lead,
develop, and grow is the, the greatest measure of success,
um, in, in my life.
We are going to take a brief break from our show
to let you know about a resource
that we are making available to you.
If you're looking for a resource on personal development
or spiritual enrichment, then you've gotta check this out,
Chris, listen, the Hope and Real Life app, it's a free tool.
Now, free to our listeners, free is Good, was not free
for us to create, but free for our listeners made.
Specifically for anyone who's looking
for a bit more hope in their everyday life, listen
to the features, daily devotions, parenting tips,
financial resources, marriage insights.
There's even a community
where you can share prayer requests.
If you've got things going on in your life and you can see
and know that other people are praying for you, I
Need all that. By the way,
Every single bit of it, stay tuned, keep looking for it.
We'll have it out. But listen,
tomorrow can be better than today
and hope is possible even in real life.
Let's get back to the show. And
so I'll ask you a very similar question then,
because that's how you define success, is seeing them.
How would you define leadership
to actually moving people in those directions from A to B?
Yeah. So, uh, sometimes people think leadership is like
strategies and, you know, financial models,
and it, it is some of those things,
but some, for me, a a simple principle, I think about,
and we've actually coined it at our company.
It's a little cheesy. Uh,
it does take some inspiration from Snoop Dogg, uh,
we call it Be Wimble.
Right? Uh, something that maybe you might hear from Snoop.
Yep. Uh, uh, and so Be Wimble stands
for best work in my life.
And so as a leader, I think about, uh,
helping my team achieve be Wimble, right?
And so, what, uh, best work in my life could be, Hey,
I'm learning something new.
I'm, I'm stretching and growing.
It could mean, uh, I'm making a huge impact,
even if I'm not learning, or it can mean I'm working
with a team that I just love.
Right? Ideally, it's all three of those things.
Um, but at Relay
and all the companies I've led, um, our,
our philosophy is like, if you look back 12 months,
at any given point, you should have experienced B Wimble in
a moment, a project, hopefully a season.
Now, it's almost never the whole year, right?
Life is not that, that easy or, or sunshine and rainbows.
There's gonna be tough times, maybe a lot of them,
but if you haven't had one be wimble moment
or season in 12 months, something's probably wrong.
You're probably in the wrong job, the wrong company. Yeah.
And so as a leader, if I can get a hundred percent
of my employees, my teammates experiencing Bwim, all,
we will have success as a company, no matter the strategy,
no matter the financial model.
Yeah. That's great, man. That's great.
Let's try to get real practical here for our listeners.
Uh, so if you have, if someone's listening
to this episode right now,
and they're thinking individual, how can I achieve success
as a, as in the marketplace?
Uh, what advice would you give to 'em?
And I know that's a wide open question,
but I think that's the question a lot of people are asking,
like, how do I achieve success in the marketplace?
What would you say to them?
The word that comes to mind, uh, in any role, CEO
or just starting out in your career, is, uh, relationships.
Hmm. Um, focus on relationships.
And I think that this is why, um, you know,
the Christian walk is so, uh, complimentary, um,
and foundational to, um, to business success, really, right?
Yeah. You know, because it teaches so much about how
to treat others and build relationships.
And those same principles
that you learn in the Bible are the ones
that I think yield success in business.
What do I mean by that? So whether you're dealing
with a customer, uh, an investor, an employee, ultimately,
I know it sounds a little, little, little, uh, you know,
motherhood, napa pie,
but it, it's always just about people, right?
Yeah. And, um,
and if you can build connections, authentic connections
with people, trusted connections with people,
they'll wanna do business with you,
they'll wanna mentor you, they'll wanna work for you, right?
And so, um, a a lot of people think about business
as this cutthroat battle, right?
Yeah. Winners and losers. Yeah.
Um, I think if you approach it from a,
a win-win model, right?
How do I, you know, gain something?
How do you gain something? How do we grow a relationship in
that, even at some cost to me personally, right?
Even at some loss Yep. Some dollars to, to my company
in the long run, those relationships
are what build value, right?
Yeah. Um, either on a team or, uh, with customers.
Yeah. And I'll, I'll tell you, we,
we were talking a little bit before the show,
the reality is, because you said some people think
of business, some people do not only think of business
as cutthroat, but like, for some people,
that's, that's their approach.
Yeah. It really is.
And I'm not saying there's no one out there that has not
achieved some level of success that ha
that has been their approach.
Um, but man, you could do anything.
And let's just use some of these market numbers, you know,
to, to half a million dollars or maybe to a million,
but I mean, to a billion dollars over a again,
and then again, and then to see something else.
Then there's some principles there that, um,
things just aren't sustainable over the long haul
and that many different directions.
Um, without a level of organizational health,
without a level of relational trust,
like at some point the relationships break down if we're not
pursuing what's best, not just for me,
but what's best for you as well,
and if you're not doing the same thing.
And so, yeah, I couldn't agree with you more, uh, with that.
There's, um, you know, I, I'll throw this in now. Yeah.
I, I didn't know, you know,
Fire Away my friend. There's
A, there's a, in, in the Bible, which I know a lot
of our listeners aren't necessarily reading the
Bible every day, and that's great.
We're here to bring hope to whomever we can.
But in, uh, these books, uh, first
and second Samuel, it talks
about these three different kings.
Essentially. You've got this king Saul,
and he's kind of a great king,
but then kind of loses his way a bit.
And then, uh, there's another king that's kind of,
uh, up and coming.
And, and David, he's not king yet,
but he kinda knows the throne is his one day.
Pardon me. And so, uh, but he handles himself the right way.
Like, he doesn't jump after it, chase after it
before, it's his time.
Um, and eventually he does move in,
and then there's another king even after him.
And, uh, and Absalon, he kind of has the wrong approach
and is just going to, you know, do whatever he can do
to hijack the throne.
I say all that to say, um, there's a lot of lessons
that can be learned and approach to leadership
and, uh, approach to what does it really mean to chase
after that thing that's in front of us,
or what some people would call success.
There's a, there, while I know a lot
of our listeners wouldn't sit down
and read through all that in the Bible,
there's a great book called The Tale of Three Kings Mm-Hmm.
And we will link to the, to the show notes,
but kind of what you're describing right now is realizing
like, Hey, there is a greater good, there's a way
to focus on doing my job really well,
but also recognizing like there's other things at stake
and other things at play as well that are also important,
that it's not just the bottom line, it's not just success.
So we'll put a link there, and that,
I think could be a great resource. Yeah,
That sounds great.
I mean, um, just to amplify
that point about relationships, right?
You know, business is about ultimately transactions,
but if you, if you focus on the transaction
and not the relationship, right?
Like one sale, right?
Versus a a a multi-year relationship with a customer,
for example, uh, I think you, you don't build
that long-term value that we've been able to build at,
you know, at Bandwidth and Republic
and hopefully Relay to come here.
Um, it's, it's investing in that relationship
that longer term outcome that is, uh, critical, right?
And even if you're, you know, new in a job
and working for a manager, um, don't see it as just sort
of completing A or B for that person,
but how do you like really build trust in that relationship
with that manager so that, um,
you can talk about your career
and, you know, promotion paths and whatnot.
So, um, you know, there's a lot of ways this manifests,
but I think too many people are transactional
versus relational.
And as we grow our, our team, um, you know, in a company,
or if you're building, if you're starting a company
or starting a new team at a, at where you work, um,
you know, the, the, that,
that also manifests in building a sustainable work-life
balance for your team, right?
So some leaders are like, I'm just gonna like see people
as a cog in a wheel, right?
I'm gonna maximize that cog
and make this wheel go as fast as I can
and then, you know, move on.
Right? Uh,
but to me the, the greatest cost
of a business is not any dollars,
or, you know, cents, it's, it's actually attrition, right?
When you lose knowledgeable, well-trained people
that trust each other, right?
Right. That hidden cost of, you know, yeah,
you can fill someone's, you know, that job, you know,
backfill it, but the what's lost in productivity
and chem chemistry and relationship is one of the,
the hidden costs
that too many business leaders don't focus on, right?
Yeah. And so, um, at Relay,
our average tenure is seven plus years, right?
That's invaluable. Yeah.
And, uh, and so to help achieve that long-term kind
of tenure, you also need to make work and,
and life balanced, right?
Uh, I'm not saying it, we don't work hard
and there's not tough seasons,
but you have to like balance those seasons with periods
of rest just as God calls us to every week, right.
With the Sabbath. And so, um, that's really important
to building, I think, long-term value.
I hope, I hope our listeners are picking up on this.
'cause this, this is just a great reminder for me.
I'm, I'm talking to a CEO
of largely a technology driven company.
Yep. Right? And who's seen tremendous success in the
technology driven market in different companies,
and when, when it really comes down to what is success,
what, what drives towards success,
what you're talking about are people
and relationships and culture.
Yep. And, uh, gosh, it's so easy to lose sight of
and just to focus on the bottom line
and the bottom line at all costs.
But man, that is not the sustainable way to build, uh,
into people certainly,
but also even we would say to,
to build into an organization. Yes.
Yeah, no, that, that really is the, if I have one insight
to share, you know, having experienced, uh,
a couple different successes at different companies,
that's the thread that ties it all together. Yeah.
Uh, lemme ask you this,
because I know there's a lot of folks who would listen
to this that, that are in leadership roles.
And so what comes with that is, um,
the hours sometimes don't stop and the stress
and the, and the anxiety.
How do you personally deal with as a CEO?
How do you deal with the stress
and anxiety that no doubt is just gonna come
our way if we'll let it?
Yeah. Um, that's a great question and one that, uh, I
Guess I should say, whether we'll
let it or not, it comes over,
Uh, one that I, I'm always wrestling with.
And, uh, that's a struggle for so many leaders, right?
Whether you're leading a company or a team,
or just even as an individual contributor, how do you deal
with that stress that can just be overwhelming?
And so I think, um, you know, for me it really anchors, um,
once again, in, in a biblical, uh, concept right?
From Matthew of, uh, you know, do not worry about tomorrow.
Right? You know, for tomorrow, uh, for today has,
has enough worry of its own, of its own, um,
and whoever gained an hour of the, of life right?
From worrying. And so,
and obviously the rest of that passage,
which I would encourage folks to read in Matthew,
is about like, why do not worry, right?
Because God is gonna take care of you just as he does the,
the, the birds and the, and the, the fields, right?
Uh, by analogy there.
And so, um, so it, for me, like being able to rest
my cares, my burdens, my, my worries at the feet
of the Lord ev every single night
and in the mornings be renewed from that is critical.
Um, you know, just staying present
and focusing on today's the next problem, right?
Um, to offer a non-biblical secular, uh, bit of inspiration.
I, I live the movie The Martian with Matt Damon. Yep, yep.
Um, because, and I won't ruin the movie
for the listeners here,
but, uh, Matt Damon is faced
with insurmountable crazy odds and problems, right?
That would sort of paralyze most people,
but in that movie, he just focuses on solving the
next problem, right?
Right. And I think that's ultimately what,
what God's telling us into Matthew too,
is don't worry about the 10 problems tomorrow
or the a hundred the rest of the year, just focus on today.
Right? Right. Solve one thing at a time.
Keep marching forward, keep grinding, if you will,
keep getting re renewed by God every morning,
and then look back
and realize, wow, like this insurmountable set of 10 things,
one at a time got solved.
Right? And now you're, you're to the happy ending,
happy ending in the movie. So,
And if I tell you what if somebody's tuning in
and looking for two things,
and then if you hear relationships over metrics, yes.
And if you just fo and then
after that, just focus on the next
thing right in front of you.
Yes. I think, I mean, all of us
as leaders could benefit from, from both of those.
So thank you for that. Yeah.
Uh, couple questions I wanna ask is as we get ready
to wrap up here, and let's just tie it back into you
personally, um, I'd love to for, so our, our listeners
to really, um, here's some hopeful things.
So I'm gonna ask you this question, Chris,
personally in your life, what are you the most hopeful
for right now?
Um, I'll give you two answers. Okay.
Uh, one is for Relay, our company, um,
if I didn't mention earlier,
we're trying to serve frontline workers.
You know, they're, uh, the millions, the 80% of the world
that's disconnected from the cloud,
and we want to connect them.
And I'm really hopeful for our, our ability to fulfill
that mission and create a lot of value for, for workers
and for, uh, you know, our team that's, that's serving
that mission in my personal life.
I'm, um, my kids, you know, uh,
they're at this blossoming age
and they're taking on new adventures.
And whether it's my oldest trying
to get into college next year, or, uh,
or my 14-year-old trying to lead a,
his basketball team, uh, in middle school.
Um, those are the, the kind of things that I'm, I'm excited
for and hopeful every day about.
That's awesome. And then, if we had
to say in five more years, five years from today,
you hope your life looks like, what would you say,
Um, in five years from now? Uh, but I'm open
Buy a bunch more companies. Is
that what we're gonna do? No,
No, no. We're, we're
just building, building products now.
Just building. Okay. Uh,
but, um, you know, I, I, ideally I could, uh,
if Relay has, um, you know, an outcome ultimately go,
goes public or, or another company buys us,
and if I'm done with Relay for, if that is
what God has planned, uh, and that could be 10 years
or 20 years, but, you know, let's say in five, um,
the next chapter that I wanna pursue full-time is I want
to be a, a basketball coach, as I mentioned earlier.
Yeah. That's, that's my passion.
So, um, I'm, I'm open to God's timing
and, uh, you know, obedient to it on
how long this relay journey goes.
Um, and not impatient for it to end to be clear, but
whenever relay's done, uh, whether I'm 50
or 75, I want to go be a basketball coach full time. I
Love it. I love it.
Well, Chris,
man, thank you so much for your time.
I mean, so many nuggets here.
I mean, focusing on relationships,
relational over transactional, uh, making sure
that we're creating as,
as leaders a sustainable work life balance for those inside
of our organizations.
Uh, and then meant that that nugget of, regardless
of the stress, the anxiety,
the overwhelming things coming at us,
the most important thing to do is just
to focus on the next best thing right in front of us.
And so, I so much appreciate
and you being willing to come in here
and articulate these things for us.
My hope is that through this podcast, uh, as you highlighted
to us earlier, that this would help move folks a bit closer
to the best work in their life.
What'd you call it? The Be Wimble. The Be Wimble.
That's Right. Snoop Dog.
I tell you what, we'll close out on that, uh, to,
to our listeners, if you're interested in the resources
that we talked about, a Tale
of Three Kings, a great book there.
Some of the specific things that we talked about,
or even if you're an organization that has frontline workers
that's looking, uh, to, to put a, a resource in,
in your workers' hands, uh,
that I would encourage you to check out Relay.
Chris isn't gonna make that ask,
but I'll tell you a phenomenal company
and putting out a great product.
And, um, if there's anything that we can do for you,
please don't hesitate to reach out.
Resources are here. Chris, thank you so much again
for your time, and here's the hope
and that this brings, uh, listeners a bit more
hope in real life.
See you guys next episode.
Thanks for tuning into this episode
of The Hope in Real Life podcast.
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