← Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
Unemployable with Jeff Dudan
From Rock Bottom to Turnaround King: Chris Collins on Leadership, Parenting, and Truth #167
01:18:36
Loading summary
Transcript161 lines
- [00:00]
Jeff Dooden
Welcome to the home front, everybody. I am Jeff Dooden. If you grew up as a child of missionaries in Mexico, was a broke ass drummer in the Seattle grunge era of the 90s, if you got a job in a car dealership, car wash to start your career in the automotive industry and rose up the ranks to be a record setting, industry leading dealer, gm and since rose to prominence as a fixer and turnaround guru for car dealerships. If you have published the most interesting two book set ever created called I Am Leader, your name can only be Chris Collins. Welcome, Chris.
- [00:37]
Chris Collins
Oh, thank you. That's a great intro.
- [00:43]
Jeff Dooden
Hey, thanks for being on, Chris. Really excited to have you on. I'm not in the automotive industry. I wasn't familiar with you before I bounced into you at the Genius Network a couple weeks ago. I did notice, sir, your shoe game is intensely good.
- [01:02]
Chris Collins
Yeah, I take that pretty, pretty seriously. But mostly it's Rick, Rick Owens, like that's, that's kind of my uniform. Are you familiar with Rick Owens?
- [01:13]
Jeff Dooden
No.
- [01:14]
Chris Collins
Yeah, so that's, that's my shoe game in a nutshell. They take really good care of me over there. Rick.
- [01:21]
Jeff Dooden
Is that a retail store? Is that a designer?
- [01:24]
Chris Collins
Yeah, he's a designer, but less known and kind of more boutique, but yes.
- [01:30]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, so one pair I think had about 50 eyelets on it and it had multiple mounds of shoelaces across is probably most interesting shoes I saw. And I think the next day was a pair of boots.
- [01:42]
Chris Collins
Yeah, you got to get up really early to tie the. So people talk about their morning routine. If, if I'm wearing those that day, I have to get up pretty early.
- [01:54]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, those will injure your back time putting those on. All right, well, look, Chris, you got an incredible story and man, some people when they speak, it's just, you know, everything that you said when you spoke of the Genius Network was kind of a mouthful of truth and it really resonated. Can you share just a little bit with the audience about your background and then you know, how that, how that led into being a leading turnaround expert in the automotive industry?
- [02:29]
Chris Collins
Yeah, I just, I think like a lot of people probably listening to this, I'm, you know, self made. I grew up in a situation where I wanted to do, I wanted to be different than the situation I was born into. And I've been running from it ever since. And you know, part of it creates like a little bit of a workaholic syndrome where you're always kind of running from this, this thing which is, you know, poor Models and just a lot of compliance and followership and you just, you know, just the status quo basically and a lot of externalization to God and government and luck and fate and that sort of thing. And it's all very depressing really is what happens is you. I just, you know, I have a lot of acquaintances from school or even family that are just in this vicious loop that you only escape through being your own boss and creating your own destiny, basically.
- [03:50]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. One of the exercises that I've started doing and I think so much of leadership comes out of self correction. Like until you, until you make a bunch of mistakes and then you think about it and then you try something and then those that build education businesses are in a position to lead or to influence. We build tools. And I built a tool, a simple tool, and on one side of the page it says subtract, on the other side it says add. And you know, you can't until you can create some space for something new to grow up into, like it's not going to happen. So when you talk about people being, being in a vicious cycle is because their plate is running over with all kinds of stuff that's not helping getting them the direction where they want to go. And you know, like there's, there's a, there's a term in football called having dirty eyes. And like if you got dirty eyes, that means you're looking at the wrong thing. If you're reading the wrong keys and your, your eyes are in the wrong place, put your feet in the wrong place, you're out of position, you, you don't make the play. And dirty eyes can be anything from scrolling too much social media to being around the wrong people, to, you know, different types of, you know, you know, maybe drugs or alcohol at a level that's, you know, distracting you, stealing your time. You know, you can get dirty eyes in a lot of different ways. But man, sometimes like as leaders, it's our job to calm the swirl and you've got to give space for the universe to organize itself.
- [05:28]
Chris Collins
Yeah, that's well said. It, we're just very mimetic is humans, right? Like we kind of learn from the examples that we see or from the information that we intake. And so I think, you know, part of being an entrepreneur, being a leader is being outside of that and being the one that is creating that, you know, creating their own path in a sense. And I don't know, I think from a, from a very early age I noticed that what the adults were saying and what they were doing were in conflict. Like, I could just see it, like, well, you're, you're telling me to live this way, but you're miserable. Like, it just didn't make sense, you know, And I, I have always kind of been able to do that when it comes to business, too, is like, if you go into a business to turn it around, what the people say in the business that's underperforming and often losing money is really different than what the truth is. And most of the time, the conversation is around the symptoms, but nobody steps back and looks at it globally or looks at the overall cause, in a sense. And when you're, when you're just treating symptoms and you're reactionary, that becomes automatic pilot, it becomes habit. And that's the world, you know, you end up living in, in a. In a sense. And so from a very early age, I always kind of just saw the, the conflict and the contradiction, and what people said versus what was actually happening didn't line up.
- [07:21]
Jeff Dooden
You know, are these people, were they in business or. When you were growing up, do you think these people were lying to you or were they lying to themselves?
- [07:31]
Chris Collins
Oh, I think that it sneaks up on us. I don't think. I don't think that it's. It's conscious, it's unconscious. And, you know, a lot of times people say the thing that's polite or the thing that they think they should say versus what the actual truth is. Right.
- [07:51]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. You know, in, in business, getting to the root cause of the problem is it's all, It's. It's ensconced in red tape. Like, people protecting their jobs, people protecting each other. Sacred cows. We invested all this money in a project, so we've got to continue when it should be killed. Especially now. Technology, man. I mean, you, you could, you could be $3 million into a technology build, and now you can do it for $300,000 with AI and it's like, well, you know, tough, right? You. You, you want to, you want to hang on to what, what you had going on to. Yeah, I mean, it's. And we're pattern creators. Like, it's, you know, our will is an exhaustible resource. We only have so much battery. It's harder to make a change than it is to just show up and do the same stupid thing every single day. That's why television is so great, because you can just stare at it and you really don't have to do much. And you actually, you're entertained, you're sedentary. Yeah, we're screwed up, we're a mess. And yet, like. But people that grew up without a net, you know, I didn't grow up with a lot of means. You know, I was a failed student. I failed to, you know, I ended up, did go to college, you know, but failed out of the first one. Dropped back to a junior college, ended up getting a scholarship, football scholarship out to one. So I kind of got out. If it wasn't for that scholarship, man, if I couldn't catch a football, you know, that would have been it. That would have been, it would have been a different path for me. But. But one thing I do know is that I can go to zero. And for me, I'm just getting back to where I started. So, you know, there's. Sometimes when people start with a lot, their ability to make progress is harder because they have a higher starting point. When you start with nothing, then everything is a bonus.
- [09:56]
Chris Collins
Yeah, it's good.
- [09:58]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [09:59]
Chris Collins
You know, so interestingly for me, I think everything I needed to learn in school, I was a terrible student. Had a hard time sitting still. Like, what, you know, I think eighth grade was eighth or ninth grade was probably where I could have ended and been okay. Thank God I didn't try to go to college and keep trying to do what everybody was telling me I should do. But I got to work. Like, I just started working and I learned more by working and just, you know, kind of to the, to the point of the contradiction of what I noticed in adults when I was a kid, what they would say versus what reality was and how miserable they really were, and businesses that are underperforming and what people say versus the truth or the reality is that they're, you know, they're not performing. And the, the commonality in, in both of those, which is. Is fascinating to me, is that in most situations or most interactions that you have full potential is never on the table. Like, we're so busy with everything else that nobody talks about full potential at all. And you know, the, so the, you know, the, the book that, that I made, I Am leader. It took me a little over four years to do it. And I was doing that out of frustration in the sense that I would go to leadership training and I would buy leadership books, and it all seemed like management training to me. And it made people feel good. Right. Like there's a lot of feel good books, like Leaders Eat Last and like, you know, these kind of cliche dog whistles, but they don't change anybody. And it really wasn't addressing leaders like leadership is a big deal. It is held in high self esteem and it's not easy to obtain obtain and takes a complicated, you know, bunch of characteristics that you have to be good at in order to be a leader. You have to be charismatic. Right. You have to know how to speak, you have to know how to read a financial statement. You have to understand sociology, you have to understand design and architecture. You have and, you know, design of systems, design of customer experiences. There's so many, you know, aspects of human behavior and systems that you have to understand in order to be a leader. Leaders are really one in a million. Everything that we're talking about most of the time that gets, you know, titled as leadership is management.
- [12:45]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [12:46]
Chris Collins
Most people are managing something that somebody else created. Right. Like if you own a franchise, you're managing a system that somebody else created. I have this client on the East Coast, Mr. Mills, and he, we were talking about this the other day and he said, you know, it's, it's the difference between the builder and the landscaper in a sense where if you build something, you create something. You're the builder, you're the creator. But most people are landscaping the yard that somebody else already designed. Yeah, they're just mowing the lawn, right?
- [13:25]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [13:26]
Chris Collins
And that, that gap in having a real conversation about what leadership really is all. It always felt like everybody's trying to be politically correct but not talking about what it really, you know, what it really is. And so when I was writing the book, it became very clear to me that it was two books, that there had to be the, I am the part about the individual and then there had to be the leadership part. But we couldn't talk about leadership until we address some fundamental things about us as humans and, you know, dealt with some stuff way before leadership is even, you know, a possibility. Really.
- [14:12]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [14:13]
Chris Collins
And so, you know, it's that same same thing. And the, the funny thing is, is that most of the people that have come to the, the workshop that I've done here, so I done about seven of them. And it's like a two day kind of immersive thing. I'm not doing it anymore because I really, to do it, I need to break it up because it's too much for people in two days. But when I was doing it, the thing that happened invariably is that everybody related it to parenting. So people would leave the first day and they had homework. They would come back the next morning and we would discuss like what they'd experienced the day before. And everybody was like, Oh, I went home and I called my kid. I want. I'm buying this book for my kid, you know, and the. The thing that they would do is they would relate it to parenting, not business, which. Which was a surprise to me. But I would also say that parenting maybe is the hardest leadership role there is. And most. Most people are passive or even indifferent in parenting. Like, for example, I was born into a situation where my father left when I was two months old. So, I mean, it wasn't like two people were sitting around going, hey, we're gonna have this kid, and we're gonna raise him to be a better version of us. Like. Or, you know, there was no intentionality whatsoever in my existence except for that I happen. And now I was around, and I had to be dealt with, but there was no intentionality. And so that, you know, true leadership in parenting is, you know, having a plan and being intentional and working, you know, two parents working together to create a human being that outperforms what they did. Right? Like, you want your kids to be better than you. You want them to be more accomplished. That requires intentionality. It doesn't happen by. By accident. And, um, you know, I had. Before I was 13, I'd had one dad that left in two months and a stepdad that left when I was 13. And, you know, I was. Wasn't intentional. My. My design of how I think and how, you know, I was to behave or whatever mostly came from me observing, not from anybody sitting me down. And like, hey, we're gonna. We're gonna raise you to. To be something, you know, incredible. And I. And I would contend because people always have a hard time when I. When I talk about this, like, because people say, well, oh, well, you turned out really good, and you're successful, and this, you know, so why talk? You know, why have these regrets or whatever? And I'm like, it's not a regret. It's an observation. But I would contend that I might be a high school coach, way more fulfilled than being this successful workaholic, you know, that's running from something, if that makes sense. Like, I don't know, because we have no way of a b, testing our lives that way. But it is. It is a. You know, it's a fascinating kind of thing to. To explore and think about in that way. But people relate the. The book more to parenting or to parenting first and then business second. And that's. That's been a interesting outcome of, you know, of this.
- [17:51]
Jeff Dooden
So I do shorts, and when I came back from the conference, that we were at. I actually did a short and, and relating to how parenting was similar to building a business. Leading a company was similar to leading a family. Because I got that like it was, that was. It's, it's amazing that you mentioned that. But you know, it's, it's, you know, I got this little bit that, you know, 1% of people create all the value. They're the builders. They create the vision, they create the game that everybody else plays. The next 19 of people manage that value and then the, the last 80 of people consume it and you know, it's, it's. I mean, so like what does that. Like if. So if we want to change our state and our where we are in life and we want to be a builder, then like it's a high bar. There's a lot of things you got to let go. There's a lot of things you got to be willing to do if you want to stand on nothing and create something, which is one of my favorite definitions of a leader. You can stand on nothing and create something, man. There was a, there was a, there was a lot inside of that. I did notice in your book where you did. There was one page where you were talking about where people about parenting and that, you know, parents are saying it was such a sacrifice to raise their kids. And I also noticed you had one. There was one page where you said leadership and management is same as Kanye west and abstinence. Right?
- [19:23]
Chris Collins
Yeah. It's fun. It's funny. So what would you say that meeting we were at, what would you say the average annual income is in that room?
- [19:34]
Jeff Dooden
It's over a million, you think? I, It's. Yeah. Millions. Millions. Millions. I'm.
- [19:44]
Chris Collins
I'm just gonna guess. I'm gonna guess five. Yeah, but it's a guess, right? I don't know, but it's, there's some people in there doing some pretty big numbers. And the, the thing that I thought was interesting is throughout the day, what, you know, way before I went up there and was talking, people were somehow parenting came up and people were talking about raising their kids and should we pay for my kids college and don't pay for their college and all this superficial stuff that was so odd, you know, odd to me. And I was dying to talk, but I waited until, you know, I was up there and I mean, if you, if you want to raise kids that are going to be successful, the number one thing that you want them to have that protects them from, you know, being followers, from making decisions based on pressure from being depressed, whatever. You know, all the negative things that you wouldn't want your kid to have is you want them to have high self esteem. High self esteem protects them from everything. Like if you have a general, you know, there's that quote, and we talked about it at the meeting where there's this book, six pillars of self Esteem. And he says in there that self esteem is the immune system of consciousness. Just think about that for a second. Like self esteem is the immune system of consciousness. Consciousness is with us every second. We're experiencing it live, you know, and so how we feel, what our self esteem is, is what are, you know, how we're going to interact with our consciousness, how we experience things. If we, if we have low self esteem, we're always going to think things are, are an attack or we're not good enough or we don't, you know, there's all these negative outcomes that come from that. And it's the, you know, it's exactly the same thing with leadership is if you want to raise a strong leader, you want to develop leaders. Like I believe fundamentally that I have a leadership factory and I create leaders. And anybody can be a leader if they want to put in the work. But the first thing that I want in anybody that I'm trying to turn into a leader is I want to raise their self esteem. Because, you know, the people that have authority or have power, that have low self esteem are the ones that do bad things. They're the ones that are corrupt. They're the ones that, you know, are not narcissist or psychopath. Like it's, you know, the tools, like the tools in the book. And I make the point in the beginning of the leadership book that Hitler was a leader. Like the same road map that Hitler used to become powerful is the same one that is used by Mandela. Like a lot of people are using the same, you know, the same architecture, but it's the intentionality in who you are that is going to, you know, determine whether you use these tools for good or for evil in a sense. And so just like with kids, you know, the first place to start with leadership is self esteem. Like you gotta have healthy self esteem. And you know, one thing that drives me crazy and this happens all the time, I do this, this series, I don't know if you saw it on the channel, but it's called Books that change my Life.
- [23:19]
Jeff Dooden
Okay.
- [23:20]
Chris Collins
So people come in with the book that changed their life and we talk about it. Invariably a lot of those books are self help.
- [23:26]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [23:26]
Chris Collins
And In a lot of those books, what they, what they'll say and people will, will be talking about the book and then they'll say, and then I'm really working on chapter six. I'm really trying to love myself. And I'm. And that's a self help thing. That is continuity, if you've ever seen it. Because if you, if you're trying to love yourself, then you're gonna have to break up with yourself. Like, it doesn't even, that doesn't even make sense. Right?
- [23:55]
Jeff Dooden
What is, what is that? What does that makeup look like?
- [23:58]
Chris Collins
Yeah. My point is always like, hey, why don't you just like yourself? We're none of us are so great. Like, we're just not so great. Why don't you like yourself? And then you'll be more willing to deal with the parts of you that need to be addressed. And when I say that, when I say, hey, you know, the thing that I've found is don't try to love yourself. Just learn to like yourself. People, literally, their posture is like, oh. And they'll be like, I'm so glad you told me that. Like, yeah, like trying to love yourself. And it's, you know, and it's all, all people are more susceptible to that sort of nonsense when they have low self esteem and they're trying to find meaning and belonging. Right?
- [24:43]
Jeff Dooden
Look through line of. Everything that we've talked about this far is truth. You know, be. Can you truly be extrospective? If there was a camera in the corner of the room that was watching you and you were objectively observing yourself, how accurate is your self image? How, how true to yourself can you be? How much grace can you give yourself? And like, you talk about like people in companies, parents, you talk about parenting like, I've got some simple. I got three kids, they're all doing just fine. I didn't grow up in a kind of a nuclear household. So, you know, I had, you know, so part of my parenting with my kids was, I think, some like, neglect. Like, first of all, I never lied to them. I never sugarcoated anything. If they didn't make the team, you didn't make the team. The cat didn't run away. I ran it over the dogs, you know, grandma, whatever, you know, like, you just tell them the truth because if you ever lose the locker room with kids and they think you will lie to them to protect them, then they think, well, I'm not worthy of being told the truth to. They know when you're lying, right? They like they're smart, they're just less experienced. They're just as smart as you are. They just don't have the perspective and they don't have the experience. Then the other thing is just don't rescue them. I mean, how many of us grew up, you know, without under resourced, under managed with very little intention? There's no net underneath us. So if we fall off, we're going to hit the ground and then what do we learn? We learn to bounce. We learned to figure things out. We, we learned to, you know, to. Well, and then another thing you talked about in the book and mentioned was the, you know, where's your, where is your locus of control? Like, I, like when you talked about that, I could not unsee it. Everybody I talk to now and I hear it in their language, I'm like, they've just blamed three other conditions or people for what's happening to them. And it makes it hard to navigate. Like it's, you know, because, and the concept is external locus of control. Who's responsible? Who's in control of what happens to you? Is it external factors or at the end of it, are those just circumstances and you're really in control about what you do about it?
- [27:04]
Chris Collins
Yeah. So, yeah, for anybody who doesn't understand locus of control, it's basically where do you plant your flag of control for your life? Is it external? Is it religion? Is it all God's, you know, in God's hands? Is it fate? Is it luck? Is it the government? Is it, you know, oh, I had terrible parents. So the reason why I'm all messed up is my parents or, you know, what, what are you externalizing control to? And there's a very small, it's 10% of the population have kind of made the decision that the control is inside of them. Like they're planning their flag and they're saying it's me. Like, it comes down to my work ethic, my ability to learn and be flexible, my charisma, my, you know, ability to sell, my ability to manage myself. Right. Like it's, you know, a lot of people say too well, I can't control my emotions. Like, yeah, you can if you want to, but it's, it's easy to say you can't. But if you, if you want to be successful and you want to have some sort of belief in yourself and high self esteem, you're gonna, you, you're gonna have to look in the mirror and decide that you're the answer to all of your problems. Because, you know, the Outcome. And there's tons of studies on locus of control. There's thousands of studies. I have no idea why we don't teach this in school. Because if we taught this in, like, I don't know, fifth, sixth grade, we would have highly productive, highly energized, patriotic kids. And we've known about this for a long time. We've known that the common denominator between people that are successful and happy and the people that are depressed, low status, poor, miserable, is locus of control. It's agency. But, you know, for some reason, we keep this a secret, but it is the key to everything. And then it ends up that kids, you know, in high school, they've studied this over and over again. The kids in high school that have an internal locus of control end up being more successful. They end up being more fulfilled. And the kids that don't are prone to, you know, anxiety, depression, all kinds of negative stuff. And they're low. They're low status in a sense. And the other part of locus of control, too, is we're not just talking about. We're not just talking about work. We're talking about your personal life. Like, you know, there's people, and I have friends that'll say, oh, the reason why my kids are all messed up is because I work so hard and I was never home. It's your fault. Like, you decided to work too hard and not be home. Like, that was a. That was a decision, whether you're conscious of it or not. You made that. You made that decision. Right? And so, you know, I have friends that, that struggle in their love life, and they'll, you know, I have one buddy, he's. He's a complete Adonis. Like, works out, eats, you know, eats nothing but probably chicken breast and embryos or something. I don't know. But he's an Adonis. And he, you know, he believes that women are, you know, corrupt or gold diggers. He has all these negative connotations about women. And we live in Los Angeles, and he says, oh, there's no, there's no women here. And you're like, there. There's 18 million people here. Nine of them are. Nine million of them are women. Like, I don't. Is it them or is it you? You know, and it's. He has a belief system and it's, you know, the thing that doesn't happen is he doesn't look in the mirror and decide that he needs to change his approach or his beliefs. You know, he externalizes it to women or gold diggers or Corrupt or whatever it is. And that's how most people are. There's areas of our lives that we externalize control. In. The areas where we're the most intentional, we will automatically develop an internal locus of control. So, like, for me, I didn't want to be poor, so I had an internal locus of control when it came to business, but I had an external locus of control when it had. When it came to other stuff. Because that's just how I was raised. I was raised that God was the, you know, controller of everything and it was fate and your destiny was already laid out and it ends up. None of, you know, none of that is true. There's the. The old joke about the. The guy who prays to God to win the lottery over and over again. Have you heard that one?
- [31:54]
Jeff Dooden
No.
- [31:55]
Chris Collins
So he prays. He gets his whole church to pray. They have prayer meetings. He does it for years. And then finally God sends a message down to the pastor of the church and says, hey, could you tell him to buy a lottery ticket to help me out? Like, how do I make him win the lottery if he never buys a ticket? Right. It's like, people think, oh, well, Chris, you know, Chris is saying that God isn't real. It's like. It's not what I'm saying. I'm saying you can't blame all your problems on God or pain or luck, you know?
- [32:24]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. You have to take some sort of an action. Have you seen a correlation between people's locus of control, their success in life, and the size of their friend group?
- [32:50]
Chris Collins
Yeah, but I. I would. I would maybe say that the friend thing is also followers. Like, the thing that automatically happens is the person who has an internal locus of control usually ends up being the natural leader in the room. And so, yeah, they have friends, but they're the. Also the one that people count on, that people look to because they're more in line with the truth. Right. And you can count on them. And they are who they say they are. They're more authentic. I mean, people are attracted to authenticity. And when you start to own your own stuff, you become more authentic because the only way for you to improve is to work on yourself. And so it goes back to what I was saying about liking yourself is if. If you know, you're genuinely rooting for yourself and you're trying to get better and you're trying to improve, well, you're going to have to change some things. You're gonna have to work on some things. And through that process, you just become more Authentic and more genuine. And we're all attracted to people who are authentic and genuine.
- [33:54]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, I would, I would suggest that sometimes as you, you know, when you get successful, a lot of the interactions that you have start to be around business and then a lot of those are either, some of those are vendor relationships, some are employee relationships, some are dependent, financially dependent relationships. And you know, it's, it's, and if you, if you, if you truly don't care that much about what other people think, meaning it doesn't, it's not that you don't care, it's that you're not going to let it impact you and you're not going to let it change your actions, then you're probably less likely to be caring about things at the golf club or the social events or these types of groups. I don't know, maybe I'm internalizing that a little bit. But you know, I, I just, I've developed a real impatience for solely social situations and you know, and, and just, you know, being, trying to go there and be palatable, maybe be somebody I'm a little bit, not, maybe that's my kind of hang up or, or whatever. But you know, I, I, you know, I, I take full accountability. I, I, I catch myself. But I do think I have an internal locus of control. And you know, I think sometimes, you know, if it is to be, it's up to me. So I'm very, maybe you get a little bit narcissistic. You get a little focused on yourself because you know that like, that's where the work is. You know, if you don't spend any time blaming other people for things, the blame's going to you. And now it's like, well then why did I just waste four hours doing this or why did I waste four hours doing that when I could have been making myself a little bit better? I don't know, maybe there's nothing there, but I, I just, I find this fascinating.
- [35:46]
Chris Collins
It's interesting to me that that's how you feel because like, you know, you have a presence. Right? So like when, when we were at that meeting, I noticed you, you had a, you had a presence. And I was, I was wondering when I was on stage what you thought because, yeah, you, you kind of are like me. You have a poker face a little bit. And then you went out of your way to come and tell me and talk to me about, about it and you were very complimentary and excited about getting the book and, you know, which then, you know, made me feel great and Made me feel like I belonged there in that room and, you know, that sort of thing. So it's interesting that. That you feel that way in the sense, because you. You navigate it very well, and you were, you know, you were very welcoming in your. In your actions and behavior. For me, you know, that's the first meeting I'd been to since, like,2018 or something. I don't know.
- [36:53]
Jeff Dooden
Well, I. I will say I was genuinely interested and fascinated. And, you know, I was. I mean, what you talked about, people.
- [37:00]
Chris Collins
Won'T say anything really. You went out of your way to. To, you know, which then validated me in a way, you know, which was.
- [37:08]
Jeff Dooden
I appreciate that.
- [37:10]
Chris Collins
Yeah, they.
- [37:11]
Jeff Dooden
They put the guy with the. Put the guy with the big head. Tell Joe not to put the guy with the huge head in the front row next time. Just staring.
- [37:18]
Chris Collins
It wasn't your head. It was your guest.
- [37:22]
Jeff Dooden
Well, it was, you know, I got a couple.
- [37:25]
Chris Collins
I got a couple laughs. But you were. You were kind of like. I felt like you were still trying to figure out if you trusted me or liked me was the feeling I had.
- [37:34]
Jeff Dooden
Oh.
- [37:36]
Chris Collins
And so, you know, also, like, a compliment means more from somebody who isn't just laughing and following what everybody else is doing, right?
- [37:46]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [37:46]
Chris Collins
Because it means you're genuinely thinking about stuff and that way, too. But you have a tremendous presence. Like you. You have a. A very calming, nice presence in a room, too, so.
- [37:59]
Jeff Dooden
Man, I appreciate that. Thank you.
- [38:00]
Chris Collins
Maybe how you feel is different than how others are experiencing it a little bit.
- [38:05]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, maybe. Yeah. I don't know. That's interesting. I appreciate that. Thank you for the awareness. So, speaking of awareness, you said a couple things about walking into a car dealership. So let's talk about truth. If you're walking into a car dealership, it's not working, right. You. You've seen the numbers. You know, they're bad. You know, they're last in the region, or they're not hitting their rebate numbers or anything like that. You walk in, you start walking around, you. Everybody's smiling, everybody's shaking your hand. I'm the sales manager. I'm this guy. I'm that guy. Right? What. You know that you're there to fix it. What. What are. What's your approach? How do you enter? How do you wade into that pool? And what are some of the first things that you do and why?
- [39:04]
Chris Collins
So there's probably two. Two narratives going on, in a sense. Right. Is like, what the truth is, isn't verbalized. Right. Because if. If I Come into a situation and it, it could be a car dealership, it could be a bicycle shop, it could be a doctor's office, it could be a bunch of different things. If you came in and you told the truth, you would isolate people pretty quick because everybody, you know, everybody wants to feel like they're important and like they belong. And so the, the easiest path to, to turning something around is asking everybody their opinion and making them feel like their opinion matters, even if their opinion is wrong, in a sense. Right. So the way that I would do it is I would go in and I would interview everybody and I'm asking questions strategically that are almost designed like guided discovery, right. But I'm making everybody feel important. The other thing that happens is when I talk to everybody in a business and it really doesn't matter what kind of business, I find out who's sleeping with who and what's really going on. Who really calls customers back, who doesn't, you know, that you learn more from the people actually doing the work on the front than you do anybody in any sort of management or executive tower. Most of the time there's a big disconnect between what you know, what's really going on and what isn't. And then, you know, so that's the, the kind of tension of truth, right, is nobody's really talking about the truth. They're reactive. Most of the time, the more money they're losing, the worse the people usually are, the less talent is there, in a sense, right? There's usually very little, little talent. But the thing on the other side that's happening that I know is like, I know what the fix is already. Like, I know that we're going to go through this 90 day process and by the end of it, they're going to be making money or on their way to making money. But it's the definition of magic, right? It really is a magic trick. And the best definition of magic I ever. I've ever heard is that magic is the initial and the final solution in the casualty between, like, the magician knows that they're going to pull a rabbit out of the hat. The magician knows what is what the final solution is or what the. What the outcome is. It's the audience that doesn't know, right? And so when you go in to turn something around, if you told people like, hey, we're going to be making money in 90 days, right? Most people like, well, first of all, I didn't know we weren't making money because most of the time the employees don't know that the company isn't making money. But second of all, they would be like, well, there's no way. And then the other thing is, if they're smart at all, the thing they start to figure out is, well, you know, how they're going to make money is they're going to cut me or they're going to cut my pay, or so panic starts to set in that way. Right. Because people, initially, when you go in, people be like, oh, you know, you're, you're gonna come in and cut and restructure, that sort of thing. But what I know the problem is in between is systems. The systems are broken. People are, People are secondary. In the beginning in a turnaround, like everybody wants to, to talk about, oh, people are the most important thing. And when I was young, I used to debate this with people, and I would always, you know, lose the debate in the sense that I wasn't convincing anybody. But nobody was fixing businesses like I was. They. They were in a business, and they, they wanted to believe that people were important so they could believe they were important. Right. It's like the same thing I was saying earlier about books like, oh, leaders eat last. Well, that's great, because you want people to treat you that way. And so, yeah, leaders should eat last because we all feel good, but it doesn't fix anything. Like, it's not one little tool in a toolbox. But there's also leaders that everybody should stand up and wait to eat until they're sitting down. You know, it depends on the situation and the application and the time that we're in. And, you know, there's a lot of variables. And so the, the first thing that I have to do to turn something around is I got to get some systems in place that take away all of the friction and improve the customer experience. Because invariably what I'm going to have to do is add more value to the customer in anything that I'm fixing. Like the, the thing that fixes everything quicker is customers that perceive that they're getting more value than what they're paying for. And also a lot of times I need to raise the prices. So I have to dramatically increase the value by making the customer experience frictionless and more emotional. You know, I need to add a lot of perceived value and make people feel good through the process. So I need to put a system in place. And a system, you know, kind of has different elements to the, to the recipe. But the way I see a system in a turnaround is that it has a, you Know, a built in improvement mechanism, a feedback loop in a sense. And then there, there's some sort of intention, like what is the intention, what is the outcome we're trying to create that drives that feedback loop? And then usually I'll, I'll gamify it or tie pay plans to it or something, but that's, that's kind of what is happening while they, while I'm getting people's opinions and kind of getting to know everybody and building trust. So then what happens and what I do usually is I kick every change that I'm going to do off on the same Monday. So new pay plans, new pricing strategy, new system, the new people that are starting because you usually got to hire people. If you're going to double the sales, you're going to have to have more capacity to produce. Like in a car dealership, the most profitable individuals are technicians because technicians are selling time and they're fixing something. So I'm going to have to add technicians if I want to, you know, increase the, their revenue.
- [45:33]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [45:33]
Chris Collins
Dramatically. And so all those technicians are kind of going to start on the same day. And then I create so much momentum by doing it all at once that people either get on the bus or they get off. And you know, the better I, I've gotten at it, the, you know, the less turnover there is, the more people that buy in. But, but it's all based on momentum and a sleight of hand. Because if you went to people and you said, hey, the pay plans are out of whack, then they would want to quit because you're gonna change their pay plan. And if you say, well, hey, but we're gonna increase sales so you're actually gonna make more in the end, they don't believe that you're gonna increase sales. Cause they haven't seen it. So you have to do this kind of sleight of hand and there's a leap of faith that happens that they're not even aware of that. Yeah, once momentum starts, there's, there's no way to stop it.
- [46:28]
Jeff Dooden
Yes. That is so counterintuitive because when I've, when I've thought about the turnarounds that I've had to get involved with and there's been several over the years, you know, the best question to ask is if private equity bought the company today and walked in here, what's, what's the, what, what, what actions would they take and why are we not taking them? But that, that leads to cuts, right? That leads. So basically you, you have A subtraction mindset where you're saying, well, the first thing that we're going to do is we're going to cut and then we're going to build back. But you're saying, let's create a wave, let's create a movement, let's create momentum, and let's go ahead and start a, you know, by, by creating this wave of positive actions. And then inside of that, the subtractions will happen by people that don't choose not to get on board or people that choose not to participate in that.
- [47:22]
Chris Collins
So, and I've never, never cut a business into profitability. Right.
- [47:28]
Jeff Dooden
You got to grow.
- [47:29]
Chris Collins
Only happens by increasing the, the customer experience and, and your margins. Now you, you want to run expenses tight and you want to get your, you know, your personnel in line and be a good steward of that, but that will, you know, that will only get you, get you a marginal increase. You need, you need, you need momentum going up.
- [47:55]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [47:56]
Chris Collins
More. More sales. And yeah. Never cut, cut anything into profitability.
- [48:03]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. Yep.
- [48:05]
Chris Collins
Or not true profitability. That's scalable, you know.
- [48:09]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [48:11]
Chris Collins
And also the, the deduction mindset of cutting has a negative effect that takes a little time to recover from. Because if you, you know, if you, if you, if your only thing is cut and you don't have a distraction of momentum and sales going the other way, that becomes the focus. And people that are just focused on cutting and expenses don't, don't grow. Like, that's why, you know, accountants don't make very good CEOs, right. Because they don't understand marketing and sales. And there's an art to that. And it, it's a different, you know, a different mindset.
- [48:51]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [48:51]
Chris Collins
And that's why I say leadership. You have to have both. You have to understand accounting and you have to understand people and the magic and psychology, you know, also, they go hand in hand.
- [49:04]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. As you were, as you were starting talking about it, leadership versus Management, I was thinking to myself, well, is it more art or is it more science? But it's really both.
- [49:14]
Chris Collins
Yeah.
- [49:15]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [49:16]
Chris Collins
It's hard for sure. Most and, you know, a lot of, a lot of people. And just back to locus of control to that point, because I think it, it, it's a valuable tool for your, your audience is when you have an external locus of control. So you're, you're basically indifferent in your outcome. Right. So you're externalizing your fate to your boss or to God or to the government or to the market. You're in what, you know, Market conditions are the reason why sales are down. Whatever it is, invariably what happens is those people also have an unconscious association with routine and safety. Right. So your average blue collar person wants to know that they're safe in their job and they want to show up and do the same thing every day.
- [50:10]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [50:11]
Chris Collins
That is the opposite of what it takes to be successful, which is creativity. The best leaders have to be creative because if you can't externalize control to something outside and you're forced to look in the mirror, when you look in the mirror and you want to change it, you got to be creative, you got to find other paths or cre. You know, passive creativity to change the situation that you're in. And so the, one of the most important, you know, characteristics of a leader is creativity. You have. And it's art, Right. Being creative is, is an art.
- [50:49]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. And you have to create the space. You know, one of Vern Harnish's recommendations to CEOs is get two to four hours a week, turn everything off, and kind of let the universe organize itself. So, you know, and that's where that. Create that. Yeah. The music is made between the notes. Right. Like my, my ideas. How many great ideas do you have when you've taken three days away from the business and you're just coming back and like, you're like, wait a minute, why, why are we not doing this? You know, it's. Yeah, I, I didn't realize till late in my career, so I was a restoration contractor and you know, just banging away, you know, sales, estimating all of the, all of the stuff contractors do, man. You know, I'm a creative and I really didn't embrace it or understand it until Probably I was 50 years old and realized, you know, and Dan Sullivan helped me a little bit with that, you know, like, what's your unique ability? Like, really understanding, like who you are, what your unique ability is. And then kind of. And again, like you said, blowing. Blowing up into that, doubling down on that, you know. You know, taking your unique ability and creating a growth plan around it. No, like, nobody saves their way into prosperity and, and it's no damn fun be on the other side of it. So what is, what are some of the. You mentioned something about when you. One of the first things you do when you go into a dealership is you change everybody's furniture around. Tell me about that. And what is that? A Just a pattern interrupt. Is that a. Is that an uncomfortable, you know, discomfort, comfort thing? What is that? A power move? What is that?
- [52:31]
Chris Collins
So it's all of that. So there's a bunch of things going on, right? When you come in from the outside, you're in a gunfight with paper. Like, you. You know, you can't fire anybody. Like, you're an outsider, right? So your. Your influence is created by the perception, right? So if you move everybody's desk, they perceive you to be the one that has authority. Right? Yeah, that makes sense.
- [53:00]
Jeff Dooden
Are they in. Are they in the desk when you do it, or do you do it when they're not there? Sometimes, obviously, I'm.
- [53:07]
Chris Collins
Usually. I usually tell somebody else to tell them to do it, but. Okay, they know, Right? But the second thing is, it's a great test. Like, there's two tests I'll do is one is I'll just go in and I'll gamify something. And if I gamify something, I'll know how competitive or driven that crew is. Like, do I have leverage here? Like, are they competitive? And then the other thing is, if you move people's desk and people are coming up to you and, you know, they're like, jeff, I can't. I. I just can't do it anymore. He moved my desk. I gotta go somewhere else. You're talking about a culture, right? And culture is a big part of leadership, is understanding what culture is. You have a culture of stagnation. Like, people are so stuck that just moving their desk ruins their life. Like, I want to condition constant change and constant adaptability. And so as a leader, you gotta manufacture that, right? Like, just like as a parent, you want to put your kids in different situations so they can learn about themselves. You, you know, you want to do that with your team, too. Like, what happens when Covid happens and you really do have to change. Like, how many restaurants went out of business because they couldn't pivot and go to delivery? Like, it was too. It was. They're. They're making food. Just. The difference is they're not serving it in their restaurant. They're serving it to an Uber Eats guy or whatever, right? Like, think about how many restaurants couldn't make that shift. And it's an easy shift on the surface, but mentally, they couldn't do it. Oh, what are we going to put the food in? It's like a box. And so that's what happens, right, is people are just prone to routine and consistency and safety. And so I'm just trying to see how. How. How much do I have to break here? How. How dug in is everybody with that mindset, right? And that's that's one easy way to figure that out.
- [55:12]
Jeff Dooden
So you have an established playbook. You've done this hundreds of times, I imagine how long. What's. When you walk in somewhere like, you know, when's the, when is the, when does the rabbit come out of the hat? Is this a 90 day magic trick?
- [55:29]
Chris Collins
So the way, the way that I used to do it. So I don't do, I don't go in to businesses anymore, but I have coaches that, that do this sort of thing and it's. The timeline's a little longer, but when I did it was 60. 60 days was the kickoff and then 90 days was when they print their next financial. Right. So the, the financial in the third month was the one where we should be making money. Like I could, in two months I could dial it in, get everybody to, you know, take a leap of faith, get momentum going. But we should make money in that third month.
- [56:11]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, it probably takes longer.
- [56:13]
Chris Collins
The ones that are the, the ones that make the most money are the ones that are making money. Like when you take a business from losing, from losing to breaking even is like childbirth.
- [56:25]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [56:26]
Chris Collins
Then you got to regroup and then it. From breaking even to making money is another, another operation. But if they're already making money, like, you know, if they're semi profitable, going to very profitable is way easier because they already have some systems in place. The people are probably pretty talented or coherent and they just need a different view. You don't have to, you don't have to drag them along, if that makes sense.
- [56:53]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. And then there's a compound effect because the systems you've put in place have now changed the customer experience. And over time, customer sentiment, customer memory will, will grow and it'll build upon itself. So you mentioned culture. Do you have a go to definition of culture?
- [57:14]
Chris Collins
Yeah. So what is the opposite of culture?
- [57:21]
Jeff Dooden
The opposite of culture? I don't know. Chaos. Yeah, that's the word I was looking for.
- [57:29]
Chris Collins
Okay, so culture is law and order.
- [57:32]
Jeff Dooden
Law and order. Okay.
- [57:36]
Chris Collins
Yeah.
- [57:37]
Jeff Dooden
A set of norms, a set of boundaries, a set of values, principles, philosophies, activities.
- [57:44]
Chris Collins
Think about the. In football, the New England Patriots. Belichick.
- [57:51]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [57:52]
Chris Collins
Do your job.
- [57:53]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [57:54]
Chris Collins
That's law and order. We're not talking about how you feel. You know, we're not talking about, oh, you, we don't let you bring your cell phone to practice anymore or you don't like this guy or whatever. No. It's like you got a role to do. Do that role. And if you don't do that role, we're going to find somebody else who does it. Now in the back of every player's head on that team. If they, if they didn't do their job right, what would they expect?
- [58:22]
Jeff Dooden
Fired.
- [58:24]
Chris Collins
It's law and order. So what happens if you murder somebody? What would you expect?
- [58:34]
Jeff Dooden
Well, it depends on whether it was planned or not, but let's say. Yeah, okay. Well, Jen, I would, I would hope that I would, there would be consequences and I would be arrested for that.
- [58:46]
Chris Collins
Going to go to jail. That's right.
- [58:48]
Jeff Dooden
Yes.
- [58:49]
Chris Collins
That's law and order.
- [58:51]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [58:51]
Chris Collins
There. You have to have a murder line in your business.
- [58:54]
Jeff Dooden
Yes.
- [58:54]
Chris Collins
Like people don't, first of all, most people don't even know what they stand for. They, they don't have a clear mission. They don't even know what the mission is or what the problem is they really solve. Right. Like a plumber thinks that the problem they're solving is plumbing. But it's way bigger than that in the, you know, if you really understand marketing and business and what you're doing. But in your business you got to have some sort of murder line where this is the acceptable behavior and if you cross that, there's, you can't be here. Like that's it. So people think culture is everybody's sitting around smoking a vape or whatever, feeling good and. No, it's, you know, when you have clear law and order and consequences, you attract better people because talented people want to be in a situation that is a chaos. And if you don't have that, you usually have a lot of people with an external locus of control. You end up having to be heavier handed than you want to be as a manager or a leader because you're dealing with chaos. Like people that externalize control are very unpredictable. Right. Because the only way to predict something is somebody who's owning the responsibility and trying to get better and learn. When you go to somebody and you're like, hey, that thing you're doing isn't the outcome, isn't there? We're not selling. Or customers are miserable when they interact with you and you're like, oh, well, all customers are crazy. I can't do anything with that. If somebody says, well, what is your observation? What do you think I could do to get better? And I said, well, you could smile and you know, find common ground with people or whatever it is. If somebody wants that feedback and they want to improve. Now I got some, you know, there's got something to deal with. I have a path there that I can go with, but you know, people with an external locus of control usually create a lot of chaos because it's nobody's responsibility and they don't own anything. Nothing's their fault, nothing's their responsibility. And then as a, as a manager or you know, you just, you overreact because it's just chaos. You're fighting, you know, a lot of people going to work every day and they feel like they're playing whack a molecular. Well, you designed that. That's the outcome of what you're allowing to happen.
- [61:12]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. Think about the matrix of excuses that are created if you're working with a bunch of people with external locuses of control. It's a competition. Everything's getting blamed on something else. Supply chain, the economy, the, the, the coffee pot. It's. And then yeah, it's, it's, it just lacks, you know, it just smacks. It's just truth, man. Like to me I see it as truth, but to those people that probably is their truth. To them, they believe it.
- [61:43]
Chris Collins
Usually if the person at the top is making excuses and won't accept responsibility, they have a bunch of like minded people below them. Right. Because you kind of attract.
- [61:53]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [61:54]
Chris Collins
What who you are in a sense. And so most of the time that it starts at the top because if you, if you have an internal locus of control and you're intentional about growing your business, you're going to attract and only allow people that feel the same way into your business because it's too important to you. Yeah. You can only make excuses for so long. Right?
- [62:20]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [62:21]
Chris Collins
Like you won't find anybody here in my company that is gonna blame the market. It's not, you know, because it's just not how we think. But.
- [62:32]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [62:32]
Chris Collins
That's an extension of me. Like, you know, you'll, you'll just like if you come here to my office, you'll interact with people and you'll find that they're very similar in mindset and in personality and in energy. To me, like, they're very nice and kind, but they're looking for the truth and they're driven and you know, we're a little bit of the island of the misfit toys in a sense. But we, the thing that we all kind of share in common is we think we can make the world a better place. And it's going to take a lot of work to do that and we're willing to do it, you know.
- [63:06]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. I don't want to get out of here without talking about the book for a few More minutes. This is a.
- [63:16]
Chris Collins
How would you describe the book?
- [63:19]
Jeff Dooden
So you have an Apple level unpacking experience with several surprises along the way. Books, gifts, thoughtfully packed, high fit and finish. So just from the. It just, it just reeks of quality from the moment that you open the box. These are. This is 12 pounds of paper, I believe I heard on one of your podcasts that was 12 pounds. I. It felt heavier to me. But 12 pounds of paper and the book, I would, I would say that the book is raw. There's some darkness to it. There's. It's. It's a. It's a combination of a compilation of wisdom from others and then clearly some authentic text from you. And I think it's put together in a thoughtful way and it's one of the most unique pieces of work that I've seen, and it should probably be prominently displayed in nice homes and businesses everywhere. How's that?
- [64:31]
Chris Collins
Yeah, it's great. So, you know, the, the intentionality of me creating the book. And I kind of shared earlier how I felt like nothing like this existed, right. And then the other thing that I know is most people buy books and they don't read them, right? Because I've written books and people meet me and they'll go, oh, I have your book. And I go, what do you think? And I haven't read it. Yeah. Because it's like, what, 10% or 15% of people that buy a book actually read it.
- [65:01]
Jeff Dooden
Right.
- [65:01]
Chris Collins
And so what I wanted to do is I wanted to create an experience where anybody who bought it and the price point kind of determines this too, right? Like, it's going to be priced at a point where the people that buy it have probably read a book, or if they haven't, they're. They're going to read it because they've invested that much in it. And then when they get it, it's going to be an experience and there's going to be kind of a tempo to it and, you know, a way of communicating that pulls them in and keeps them. But they are going to start to feel accomplishment because, like, it's a page turner, right? You're turning pages, you're thinking about it, but it's not work. I didn't want it to feel like work. I wanted it to feel like discovery. I wanted it to be like, oh, I'm going to think about that and come back. And then the design of it is like a coffee table book where it's not going to fit on your shelf. You're going to put it somewhere prominent, then it gives it more value because it's a coffee table book. It's big, it's important. Right. The design of it is intentional, that it's something that people are going to come over and they're going to be like, what is this? And you know, it's. We. I was asking my marketing department this morning. It's over 40% of people that buy the book gift the book to somebody else.
- [66:18]
Jeff Dooden
For sure. My kids are getting these for sure. Yeah. It'll be. It's a legacy.
- [66:24]
Chris Collins
It's a legacy, right?
- [66:25]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [66:26]
Chris Collins
Yeah. Personally, it's your book. Now, you wouldn't. This isn't a book you would lend to a friend.
- [66:31]
Jeff Dooden
Oh, no, no.
- [66:33]
Chris Collins
You would buy it for him because it's personal.
- [66:35]
Jeff Dooden
Yes. How did you.
- [66:39]
Chris Collins
All of that went into it as. As boring as that might be. That was my intention when. When I was working on it. No.
- [66:46]
Jeff Dooden
And the imagery is power. It's a. It's as much art as it is content. The imagery goes with it. So, like, how I've decided to use the book. So, you know, I got the thing maybe 10 days ago and I couldn't fit it in my suitcase from Phoenix, so I had them ship it to me. So I got it. Thankfully I got it before we got together on the show here today. And. But like, I have. I've had a crazy week, personally and professionally, meaning a lot of dinners out and just not a lot of time. So I've only taken an hour maybe to go through it and to read select things. But what was apparent to me is this is not a skim through book. This is where every morning I'm going to wake up and go through 20 pages. Because you need to think about it. This isn't a book that you read to get through. Like, it's not. Not formatted like that. It's going to be a passage. There might be 20 words on a page, there might be 500 words on a page. There's going to be some imagery and then there's sections. You've sectioned it off in a way. So I'm like, okay, well, this is going to be a book that is. I'll wake up, I'll do my journaling and then this is what I'll read. And I'll read for 30 minutes or however long I've got and then. And then I'll just bookmark it and then go back to it because there's a lot of philosophy in here. And again, I haven't. I. I've looked More in the I am than the leader side of it. But is that the recommended way to go through this? You know, when you go to some books, it's like, yeah, you can. You know what. The one that Tim Ferriss wrote, you know, you can go anywhere and start. And there's five pages by this per, you know, tools of Titans or whatever. But is this a. Is this. Do you mean for this to be consumed in that manner, or what was your intent?
- [68:40]
Chris Collins
Yeah, and hopefully. But, you know, I experience it however you feel whatever's organic to. To. To it. But I'm hoping there's parts where you stop and it takes a couple days to come back. Like, you're like, okay, I got to think about this. And the other thing is, most people don't get through I am like, they. They stay at I am for a while. Once you're done with I am and you read leader, if you go back and read I am again, I am as a road map on how to lead people. The first time you experience I am, it's going to be personal to you, but the second time you experience it to be like, oh, okay, this is. This is how I become, you know, a really effective leader is understanding that this, you know, 90% of people have an external locus of control. They're very mimetic. They're looking for you to give them the answers. They're going to copy your behaviors, and so you'll. You'll experience I am different after you read leader than the first time, it'll read different to you. And that was by design. Also, there's, you know, there's a story arc, and I am. There's one in leader, but then there's one overall, too, between the two.
- [69:57]
Jeff Dooden
Got it. Well, I want to thank you for everybody for investing the time to put it together. And I hope. I hope sales are. I hope many people are getting their hands on this. I'm sure they are, and I appreciate the time.
- [70:14]
Chris Collins
Just kind of in. In conclusion to Jeff is like, the outcome of being an effective leader is you can just about do anything you want to do. You can make the world a better place. You can solve problems for others, and people are looking for leaders. Like, the problem that we have in the world right now is we don't have leaders. We don't have leaders in politics, we don't have leaders locally, we don't have leaders in business. And everybody's dying for somebody to step up and own the responsibility and improve things. You know, get everybody together to work as a collective to make the world a better place. And that's what we're missing. And I would just say that you're, you know, if you're listening to this, this might be a calling for you to, to become the leader and be the one that raises their hand and says, hey, I'll, I'll, I'll accept responsibility. I'll do it. And the, the outcome of that is you're going to be much happier and fulfilled and you're going to make others better. Like there's nothing better than improving things and making the world a better place. Even if it's just, you know, in your small way in your church or with your family or with your business or whatever it is. But hey, the world would be a better place if we had better parents.
- [71:37]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. Isn't it crazy? Isn't it crazy that everything's just the simplest decision to do it?
- [71:44]
Chris Collins
Yeah, it really is. It is a decision.
- [71:47]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [71:48]
Chris Collins
But unfortunately, too many people are passive in that decision. They let life make the decision for them.
- [71:55]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [71:57]
Chris Collins
Well, Jeff, I, I, I appreciate you having me on, and I can't wait to hang out with you again.
- [72:04]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah.
- [72:04]
Chris Collins
Next meeting and get to know you more.
- [72:06]
Jeff Dooden
This has been, it's been great. How can people get in touch with you or get in touch with your, your business, your coaching and education business? I know that you've got a lot going on online. Looks like you have a significant education business, lots of material. What's the best way for people to connect with you and let you help them?
- [72:25]
Chris Collins
I am leader. Book.com is the, is the website and then you can contact us through, through there.
- [72:31]
Jeff Dooden
Okay. Awesome. Simple. Do you have time for a curveball and a fastball?
- [72:36]
Chris Collins
Sure.
- [72:37]
Jeff Dooden
All right, here's the curveball. Gun to your head. You've got to start a business in the next 30 days, and it's not something you're currently doing. What would you do?
- [72:53]
Chris Collins
Come to my head. I got to start a business in 30 days. What would I do? And it, well, I'm just thinking, so I'm, I'm, I'm walking through. My reasoning here is if I just needed to make money, I would probably do some sort of service like pressure washing or something like that to then build up my income. Am I broke when I do this?
- [73:20]
Jeff Dooden
No, you're, you're who you are right now. I think the question, the question, Go ahead.
- [73:25]
Chris Collins
I would buy something in hospitality. So I would buy a coffee roaster, coffee shops or a hotel or something like that.
- [73:33]
Jeff Dooden
Nice. Yeah. I like to see sometimes people like have, they've, they've seen an opportunity, but they haven't, they haven't acted on it. And they're just, you know, you never know what you're gonna get with that one. But. All right, here's the fastball. This one will come right down the middle. If you had one sentence to make an impact in somebody's life that you could offer them based on your journey, what would that be?
- [73:57]
Chris Collins
The opportunity of a lifetime comes once a day.
- [74:01]
Jeff Dooden
Wow.
- [74:02]
Chris Collins
You just gotta be willing to see it. Like there's opportunity everywhere. You have the opportunity to make somebody's day by buying their coffee when they're behind you in line, just, you know, telling somebody that they did a good job or, you know, spending a little more time on something and then on the business side, you know, figuring out problems for customers and, you know, making the world a better place, but the opportunity is there. You know, just, just think like, you know, just for example, you coming up to me and talking to me about my, my talk at the meeting we were at, like, you, you weren't aware that that made my day or whatever, but those sort of things, kindness and saying something when others won't and being the one that steps up. And like you said, it's a choice, but making the choice to do the thing that makes others better and raise self esteem at the end of the day, maybe we're on the business of self esteem because the world has low self esteem.
- [75:15]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah. Not to unend this podcast because we just wrapped it up, but I, I do want to tap on this because you mentioned it. The reason I. Probably the reason I came up, not. I was very compelled by what you're saying and I wanted to meet you and, and I was excited about the books and all, but, you know, I just. So I got coveted in December and I got walking pneumonia. I was down for like three weeks. And I went like deep, deep into David Goggins and I didn't get it at first. And as I read his books and then I listened to them, it finally dawned on me that like, our standards are the greatest thing that we can give other people and that you need to pursue your limits and standards in the face of no consequences or no purpose whatsoever, just for the sake of your standards. Them unto themselves. So, you know, I, and I was leaving. I was, I'll. I'll share. I was at a, I was an event the next week. I'll share the story real quick. And you know, how many times do you walk by and you see a homeless person and you're like, you know, I'd like to help them, but you just don't take the action. I don't know. Some people say don't, but whatever. So I'm at this meeting, and I got to go over. I'm going to Tommy Mellow's place to do his podcast, and I'm probably, like, pushing time, and I just go down to this. Outside the hotel, to this place to get something to eat, and I shove a huge breakfast burrito in my face right really fast. And then I walk back, and there's a homeless guy, and. And he's got a dog with him, and he's just sitting there, and there's about 75 people out at the cafe. And, you know, he's drawn little pictures, and he's got a sign that says food on it or whatever. And, you know, I walked in and I went to the elevator, and I'm like, well, look, you know, you don't do it for social media. You don't do it for these things. You know, I just left my bag there. I went out back where I got the burrito. I got two huge turkey sandwiches, and I brought them over to the guy, just said, hey, one for you, one for the dog, right? And Norm MacDonald makes this great joke, by the way, about homeless, where he says he sees a homeless guy with a dog, and he says, the dog's thinking, my God, this is the longest walk. You know, he never gets home. But so, you know, I thought about that joke when I saw the guy with the dog, but then I'm like, but the dog was, like, in a great mood, but, man, it was pretty thin and stuff like that. But, like, you know, in that moment, I just took the action, and, like, that's what you like that I took that action in that day. And. And that's it, man. And you just. You just do it for the sake of doing it or, you know, giving somebody a smile or paying somebody a compliment, just. Just because. And you don't real. Like, it cost you nothing, you know, cost you nothing to do it. And so I really appreciate that point. And. And with that. Iamleader.com I am a leader. I am iamleader.com I am leader book. I am leaderbook.com and you can get in touch with Chris there. Highly recommend Chris. This has been amazing. Thank you so much for being on today on the home front.
- [78:28]
Chris Collins
Thank you. Jeff was really fun.
- [78:29]
Jeff Dooden
Yeah, man. The amazing Chris Collins here with Jeff Duden. We have been on the home front. Thanks for listening.