00:00:01
[music] [music] Yeah, you're keeping me [music] in my right mind and you know I believe Just doing a quick mic check to make sure you guys can hear the music and hear my voice that we're streaming before we get started. So, if you're watching this on LinkedIn or YouTube, please just comment LinkedIn or YouTube depending on where you're watching this live stream from. Back to the music and we'll just confirm we're live before we get going. Yeah,
>> that's the love.
00:01:18
>> All right, I think it's time to get going. Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, everybody. You survived. Happy Thanksgiving if you're in North America. So, congratulations on that. Hopefully, you're of a full spirit, an open mind, and hopefully you didn't have to like let one button out on the belt there. Uh my guest today or my co-host as always is Miss Jody Cook. Jody, what are we doing today?
>> What are we doing today? So, the big huge topic right now is personal brand
00:01:48
and the meaning of life. So, I'll I'll give some context first. So we So Chris and I have been recording together all year, nearly a year now. And um the first time I showed up to record with Chris, we were doing a video called How to Stop Caring About What Everyone Thinks. Remember that one? All the way go all the long time ago in January. And so I showed up to this with five points of what we were going to talk about this like structure for it. And I thought this is a really simple title. It's a
00:02:17
really simple structure. No big deal. What actually happened was I started talking about the first point on that list and Chris kind of goes, "Well, hold on. Let's unpack that." And then what ended up happening is we never ever ever got to the rest of the points for 90 minutes. We just unpacked that first one. We like absolutely went to town on that first point. And so everyone who's watching maybe already knows this by now, but like Chris is a insanely deep thinker. And so what I've learned is you
00:02:48
can't waste questions. You can't just give him a question that is like you don't really care about the answer to because he will give you like two hours of response to it and it'll be like incredible. So I feel like I learned this like very very early on and so now I just don't waste questions with him whatsoever. So I was in LA the last couple of months on my last night there. Chris and I went for sushi and I thought I need to I need to do this right. I can't just open with like oh how's the
00:03:16
weather? How's the LA? How's that? Like all these kind of wasty questions that none of us actually really want to talk about either. Anyway, um so I so as soon as we sat down, I pretty much went, Chris, what's the meaning of life? And then we ended up talking about that for about three hours. And as we were talking, as he was telling me all his theories and how he'd thought about this before, I just got this big sense of everyone should hear this. And so that was the thinking behind saying, "Hey,
00:03:46
let's do this. Let's put it on. Let's do a LinkedIn live. Let's do a YouTube live and let's talk about this because I really think it's cool what you think about this." So Chris,
>> so here we are, [laughter] Jody. Here we are.
>> So here we are. So would you mind telling us the story about how we're not humans, we're maybe from some other place?
>> Yes, I'd love to share this. It's a story I've shared on stage. smaller um smaller events and venues. And it's
00:04:16
something I haven't talked about too much. I have this crazy theory that we're actually not humans. Like there's a lot of questions about where we're from, who made us, how long have we been around, and are there other intelligent beings in the universe. So depending on your belief system, you have all sorts of answers to this. But I want you to just imagine for a second if everyone could just pause and just lock in with me for the next couple of minutes. I want to tell you this little story. I
00:04:42
want you to think about this. Okay. Now, I just want to imagine that you were born somewhere else in a distant planet far away from where we are now. And then your parents realizing the impending doom that was uh faded for your species decided to send you somewhere else. And they put you in a pod and they sent you to the one place in the entire galaxy where you with your genetic biological makeup would have an inherent advantage. So, they launch you to this place, Third Rock from the Sun, and you land here on
00:05:14
Earth somewhere in the late 1990s or early 2000s, depending on when you were born. And you were found by human earthling parents. And these parents raised you and they knew you were special. They knew you were different, but they were genuinely very concerned for you. Because we've seen this happen too many times in fiction, in literature and movies and pop culture that whenever people don't understand something, they they they're scared and they want to test and probe and they want to look at you like an
00:05:44
experiment as a thing and not a person. So they shielded you from this. And so they wanted to raise you in the earthling ways in humans and how we speak and how we socialize and not recognizing that you are actually not of this earth that you're from some other place and you grow up in this place. But what you didn't realize was because you were on this planet, you have superhuman abilities. For some of you, you have superhuman strength. You could lift things, heavy things. You could move
00:06:15
things. And for some of you, you have like a telekinetic ability. You can sense people. You can read thoughts, emotions, and feelings. And you're imbued with all these powers and you just kind of have these repressed strengths. And I believe this is this is what we're all experiencing right now. that somewhere along the way when your memories joged and you recall your origins and who you are and where you came from and all these natural abilities and gifts that you have, you can truly step into your superpower. And
00:06:47
if this story sounds eerily familiar to some of you, some of you nerds out there like myself, this is the story of Superman. Superman was born on Krypton. The planet was doomed. Their parents being wise scientists warned the entire population of Kryptonians and none of them believed them. So they built a rocket ship. I don't know why but just for one and launched to Earth where they knew the yellow sun would give you power. Like on your home planet you're nothing special. And so you are the last
00:07:21
of your kind, the last of the Kryptonians. And there's only one thing that can hurt you which is a a rock from the same planet called kryptonite. when exploded into the universe or into the into the blackness of space, there's only one thing that can harm you. But very much like in the story in Superman, um Kael was was raised by man uh man Pog Kent, raised in Kansas City on a small farm, taught humble values to to think less of yourself and wanted to protect you, but knew you were special and knew
00:07:53
it from the minute that they saw you because you showed them this power and it was kept as a secret. You were even told never use this power in public ever. Not even to save your own parents. But you know in that story we know what happened. Now here's the weird thing. This is your story and this is real. Now do you believe you have this power? Do you believe you're from some other place not of this earth? And that's the real question. It's the thing I'm I'm interested in exploring.
00:08:24
>> And what's the reaction when you tell that story? What's my reaction?
>> What's the reaction that other people reaction when you tell them that
>> people get kind of emotional, but the story doesn't end here. By the way, this is just the first part of many of my strange musings and philosophical beliefs as I ponder life and the meaning of life itself. And so, people do kind of get a little emotional because there's a reason why there's so much pop culture fiction around a special person.
00:08:54
And it's like the one of the oldest and most classic story frameworks which is a stranger comes to town, right? It's like in Twilight, he's the vampire, his skin literally sparkles in sunlight and he's imbued with superhuman strength and he can do all kinds of things. And of course, we all want to be him or we want to be the object of his affection, which is Bella. And if you just look across the span like from Snow, I think there's a character called Snow who was this superhuman person. Uh from every single
00:09:24
character that you can think of, they have some special ability. And the ability could just be like a human ability like you can calculate massive amounts of data in your head. And I I think there's a TV show called Limitless where you take this pill or there's a movie called Limitless where you take a pill and it unlocks your superhuman skills. Lupasant created a film and starred a female and she had superhuman skills. So I think it's a very natural desire for us a belief sorry excuse me
00:09:55
this desire for us to want to be special to be different. So I send that out there and just wonder how many of us are dormant not fully fully realizing our origin and being able to tap into that inner strength. So now I'll thread the mythology or the lore of Superman to a different piece of pop culture if you don't mind, Jody. Is that okay?
>> Absolutely. Yeah, go for it.
>> Okay. So when I tell this story, I said, you know, there's this movie. It's my favorite film of all time. And if
00:10:25
anybody knows me, they already know the answer to this. It's it's The Matrix. And The Matrix is a really interesting piece of fiction by the Wowskis. And I think it combines so many different deep rooted ideas but presented to us in a form that we can we can uh we can absorb or or watch and underneath all this are like deep ideas. So in the story there's a character his name is Morpheus and Morpheus is short for like uh metamorphosis and so he's his mission in life is to find the one. The one that's
00:11:01
all he cares about is finding the one. and he's been on this mission to because he believes that if he finds the one, it'll set all the people free. It'll set the humans free. And then he thinks it's this character named Neo, played by Keano Reeves, right? So, I I know this is 20 plus years, so there should, you know, there's spoilers all over the place, everybody. So, Morpheus finds Neo and he first speaks to Neo through a computer screen because he we open on that screen, he's on the computer and he
00:11:28
says, "Follow the white rabbit." He's like, "What?" So, there's a knock at his door and these people are like, "Hey, let's go." And he's like, "I'm not that interested." And they're like, "Whatever." So, this blonde girl turns away and there's a rabbit on her shoulder or something like that, a tattoo. So, he's like, "Oh my gosh, I need to go." Now, some of you don't know this, but Neil doubts whether or not
00:11:49
he's the one. But the entire time, Neil's an anagram for one. If you just change the letters around, it's one. And so, he doesn't believe it. And Morpheus says, "I'm looking for the one." And it's literally in front of his face and Neo can't see it.
>> So there's a lot.
>> It blew my mind. [laughter]
>> She was, "Wait, what? Neo? It's an anagram of what?" [laughter] Yeah.
>> Now, Jod, have you seen The Matrix? And now, everybody apparently seen The
00:12:15
Matrix.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But too recently, far too recently in the last few years.
>> Oh, okay. I've only watched it like 45 times, but the entire trilogy. Right. the the first one.
>> I think it should be everyone should see it every year now. I think it should be like required watching given that the time we're in.
>> Yes. So I share part of the stories because Morpheus mission is not to be the one, it's to find the one. So there's something that's really
00:12:41
interesting that happens. So the the movie kind of progresses to this point in which Morpheus introduced Neil to the Oracle. And we don't know anything about the oracle right now, but the Oracle can see the future apparently. So Neil walks into this tiny little kitchen and he's like, "Man, whatever. I'm here because you know the man said I'm I'm the one, but he doesn't believe." And he goes, "Why am I?" And she goes, "No." And I think he's like, "Yeah, I knew it." So
00:13:06
now he's like, "I'm going to tell Morpheus this." And there's this line that a lot of people don't catch when he walks away. She goes, "Well, not in this lifetime." And that's foreshadowing what's to happen. So he sees Trinity and Trinity's like, "What happened?" and and he's about to tell her and she goes, "No, no, that's between you and the oracle." So, we want to believe so much and Morpheus is willing to lay down his life and Neo
00:13:29
for for a portion of this is so racked with guilt because he's like, "You're a great man. I am just somebody and you're willing to sacrifice yourself to save me at all odds or at all costs." Doesn't make sense. Okay. So when I tell this story and the reason why I tell this is because I think in some ways I my role in this lifetime is to be Morpheus is to let you all know you're the one. Now it's not so obvious because your name's not Neo, right? Doesn't mean new. It
00:13:59
just it's just you. But if I tell you right now that within each one of us how we're designed, built or created or evolved, whatever your belief system, I believe you have at least one advantage that makes you better than most people. Not better like superior, but you can outperform people in one category. And the problem of our existence is through socialization, we've been taught to try to blend in, to be like the norm. like our grading system, our school system is to stamp out individuality. So, let's just say
00:14:31
like you could hum a song in your head and you have like a near photographic memory for for sound or music, but because you're humming when you're supposed to be writing or listening or being quiet, people tell you to be quiet. You're sent into detention. So, eventually, just like in my fictional version of the Superman origin story, you have slowly started to forget who you are. So to answer the question and to put a bow on this to book end this Jod says I have this idea that I believe
00:15:00
we all have this really big mission and your future self has traveled back to your current self and asked you right now what is your mission and I paused and I told Jod this and I think it surprised her a little bit. I said to free souls and she's like what? To free souls. I don't mean some esoteric thing. I don't mean a religious thing, but I'll tell you something that's happened to me recently. I go out and I do talks on personal branding, about connecting with yourself. It's not
00:15:29
really about personal branding, the way people think, but it's really about getting in touch with who you are, doing deep inner work. And there's a gentleman who drove out to a podcast that I was doing in Las Vegas. His name is Jeffrey. And Jeffrey is a mortgage broker. And you know, after I did my pod, he came up to me and says, "Chris, I have something for you." He gave me a book. He said, "I hope you don't have this book. I really thought hard about what book you might
00:15:51
not have and I don't think you have this one. Of course, I didn't. I said, "Thank you." Inside of it was a really beautiful note. But what he said to me in the personal meeting was why I answered the question the way Jody asked me, which is this. He said, "That first time you presented to our mastermind, you said something during your presentation that's kind of set a fire in my mind." He goes, "I've always wanted to be a creative person. Somehow I got into mortgage mortgages and it
00:16:20
wasn't for me. So it took me a while to find it. But now two years later, I edit produce videos for other people. I do creative work for people. And he didn't say this part, but let's just assume he said it. Although I might not make more money, I know who I am now and I thank you for that. That that part he did say just the money part I inserted in there. And so sometimes what we do is we're told to take the path, the shortest path towards financial reward. And in pursuing that
00:16:52
outcome, we sacrifice a lot of who we are. And so when I say I set souls free, I want you to be whoever you were supposed to be in this lifetime. It doesn't mean you have to be a creative person. It could be you're a creative person. You should have been a doctor or you should have been a doctor, but you know, you pursued law. whatever it is you're supposed to be, if you didn't have to listen to anybody else's dreams or desires for you and you can just act upon your own wishes, that's what I want
00:17:20
to help you find for yourself because when I see him now, I I'm sure he's working really long hours, not making that much money, but there's a lightness to his soul and his spirit. And that's why I said my mission is to set souls free. And this is coming from the least spiritual person, you know. I'm just saying it that way so you all understand it.
>> Back over to you, Jody.
>> Um, when you were saying about people having their almost like their powers, it's almost like their
00:17:50
powers crushed. If everyone's got this power and they go out in the world with it, then what naturally happens is that people try and crush us down. And it's reminding me of a friend. She's called Stephanie. She's a podcast host. And when she was younger, people used to tell her that she asked too many questions. And now she's one of the best question askers in the whole world because she just kept asking questions and she actually didn't listen. But she probably did listen at first. And it's
00:18:15
almost like how long are you going to wait listening to other people and listening to the insults and the slights on you before you go hang on. No, this is my thing. This is my jam. And I think it's in the Ken Robinson TED talk about why schools kill creativity. The most watched TED talk of all time. And there was a girl who I think she couldn't sit still. It was like her teachers and her parents just wanted to sit still, stay still, and then it was like, "No, hang on. She's a dancer." And then she she
00:18:46
became this like world famous incredible dancer because like of course she couldn't sit still. She wanted to dance all the time because that was her gift that was trying to come out. And when you said about the freeing souls, this idea that the soul is there, the dancer, the question asker, the something, it was it felt like actually the perfect antithesis of something that's in, you know, the David Gogins book, Can't Hurt Me, which I read and then I bought my dad the clean version of and it was like
00:19:14
a fraction of the size. But he talks about taking souls and he talks about taking souls in the sense of beating someone at something and then you're like, I'm taking a soul. and taking us all, which is exactly the opposite of like, oh, I want to take your power away from you and I want to I want to be bigger compared to no, I want to free you. I want to help you find your power and I want to I want you to be bigger. It's like it's so different. But I really like the idea. May maybe you're
00:19:39
the superhero, Chris, and maybe David Gogggins is your is your nemesis. I don't know. But there's some kind of there's some kind of beautiful opposite there that I really enjoyed.
>> Yes. Maybe he's my Lex Luthor. Yeah, he he has the the build, the body, the mind. I guess [laughter]
>> that's something. And then so we we quoted the Pablo Picasso quote, "The meaning of life is to find your gift and the purpose of life is to give it away." But then you had a you had more thoughts on that.
00:20:11
>> Yes. And I'm actually writing a book right now about this which I'll share with some people later. I'm I'm really moved by this quote from Picasso, which is something like I hope I don't screw this up. The meaning of life is to find your gift. The meaning of life is to find your gift. And the purpose of life is to give it away. A gift is not meant for you. It's like you you you have something and you have to give the gift away. That's the whole thing. And here's the part that I add to
00:20:41
it. Not to say like I'm trying to stand on top of Picasso, but I think the the remarkable thing is the gift is you. In order for you to find your gift, you must express yourself in your truest ways. And that's the gift. Like you don't have to learn a skill. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to change who you are. In fact, you have to remember who you are. And when you can do that, you are now in alignment with who you're supposed to be in this lifetime. And just by doing this now I
00:21:12
I'll I'll put it in very practical ways now and I will answer some of the spiritual questions because they're coming in because I've said the comment that I said I could see them flying by right now.
>> Okay.
>> Now I I think the practical version of this is when your state is one of depression, anger, jealousy, envy, it influences the way that you behave, the things that you say and how you perceive the world. And perception is reality. Now, I used to think that was a fun
00:21:40
saying, but the more I learn about how we process things, there's very little that we can all agree on, which is objective reality. Like, we can all look at a car, a house, even a piece of dirt and say, "That's my future home. Someone else's, that's a pile of manure." They'll say whatever it is they want to say, and you know what? You're both right and you're both wrong. So, perception is reality. So if your state is one of positive energy or negative energy, put it into those two kind of
00:22:07
binary categories, then it's going to impact you. So let's just imagine that you're working and you're a soul bread winner for your family, man or woman, doesn't really matter. And it's a lot of stress on you and you're you're treated unfairly or so you perceive. And you come home and everyone's running a muck and everybody's having fun and you just had like a really bad day. Well, your state is not a positive one. And you're going to then interact with people. And
00:22:33
very few people can just switch it off and become the person they're supposed to be in that moment. So your your child might do or say something like, "Look what I made you." You're like, "Don't bother me with that right now." And somebody could make you a really great meal and you're like, "That's not what I had in mind right now. That's not what I need. Can everybody just be quiet?" So your state can impact things. Now imagine if you came home, same scenario,
00:22:55
except for you did your life's work. you're and you are operating in your zone of genius, the things you're supposed to do and feel so effortless for you and it's just so easy and everybody praises you for it and and you're making real impact, small and and big impact. You're making impact and you come home, the house is not on fire, but it's a it's a hot mess. People running around, the the meals burnt. You're like, you know what? I'm grateful that you're all well and that there's so much
00:23:22
energy and that we have food to consume and you put in the effort to make this meal. So, we can completely flip it. And the reason why I think this matters so much is if you are doing the things that are aligned with who you're supposed to be and you're vibrating on that frequency, you're going to impact a lot of people. And if there's more of this positivity in the world, I think we wouldn't be in the state that we're in today. Right? There's a lot of sewing of seeds of of dissension, hatred, and
00:23:52
marginalization of people and bigotry. This is not just in America. everywhere and I just think it's because we're operating in a very negative state. I'll pause there and throw it back to you, Jody.
>> Remember who you are is also in The Lion King. It's what Mufasa is saying to Simba when he kind of comes back and he's like big in the sky and he's like, "Simba, remember who you are." After we talked about it, I looked at I haven't got any tattoos and I haven't got any
00:24:20
plans of making one, but there was there was a Simba one that just said remember who you are next to it. And it's almost like that is just the line, isn't it, that you need to remember the whole time. But then I was thinking, is that every Disney movie? Is just that? Is that just the hero? Is it the hero's journey? Or does it go beyond that? Because it feels like it's Moana, it's Cinderella. Is everyone just Is that our one job? It's our one job to remember who we [laughter] are.
00:24:44
>> It could be. It's the most difficult thing to figure out.
>> So, what would someone do if they felt like they didn't know who they were? I think in some way we've all suffered mass amnesia. So it's not just like, oh, I wonder what those people are doing. It's like us looking in the mirror. I mean, and asking yourself, well, who are you? Who are you supposed to be in this lifetime? And are you doing it right now? Now, I think regardless of how old you are, we already have a gut instinct answer to
00:25:16
this question. We already know this. See, so like when I was 15 or 16, uh I think I I got my workers permit and I started working right away. And the first three or four jobs I had were low low skill jobs like it was just all labor and getting paid minimum wage. I was a stock boy. I was a French fry guy at a fast food place. This is what I did. And I just knew is and and I remember looking at myself not quite like literally like holding my hands in front of me and looking down, but thinking is this what I was meant to do
00:25:45
in this life? And I could just feel my life force draining away from me. Literally taking one of those punch cards, going in every day, going and putting in a slot, punching in and out for lunch, and just looking at the hours I worked and then seeing my check at the end of the week or two weeks and thinking, "Oh, I made $87. Not quite enough to buy a skateboard yet." Like, dang, this is not what I was meant to do. And I can see future versions of myself because I was one of the youngest people
00:26:12
working there. So, there are people in their 30s and the 40s. I presume who were working there. This was their career. And I I I I asked myself, I wonder if when they were 14 or 13 years old, if they had this big dream for themselves and this was the dream. Are they living that dream life? Thinking, oh, I'm a part-time manager at a discount fabric warehouse. I don't think that was their dream. And so everywhere I go, I just look at people kind of like Haley Joe Osmond in the six sense. I see dead people. You
00:26:44
know, it's like what is going on
>> all the time. [laughter]
>> I don't mean to say that from a judging point of view because I also see people who have very little in life but are so like lit up from the inside who are just vibrating with positive energy and I just love that. The last time I was in Canada, I went to get my haircut and when I was getting it cut, I realized that the hairdresser was like chuckling to themselves. They were like just kind of laughing. And I was like, "What's going on? What's what's
00:27:18
the deal?" And he said, "I just sometimes I just I can't believe that people pay me to do this because I just love it so much. Like I just I'm so happy doing this that I'm like, "Oh my god, this is my life. Someone's paying me to do this. I get to do this every day for multiple people." And he was just he did exude that kind of joy that was just so mesmerizing to watch. But I guess the question is is there like can everyone do this? Does the is the world set up in such a perfect way that every
00:27:47
single person on the planet could do the thing that they love that lights them up and it would all work in harmony together or like do you think that it is someone's dream to like clean the streets or something? Is it is it is it literally everything?
>> It is. I think the potential is everyone and it is someone's dream to clean the streets because if you go to Japan and they have this spirit that's so unique about Japanese people that they they embody this idea I read it from Ryan
00:28:14
Holidayiday's book the obstacles the way and there's a Latin expression in there which I cannot say but the meaning of the expression is something like this there's nobility and doing humble things well and the Japanese people have this spirit so I can walk around the streets early in the morning or whenever and see young and old people doing things, but they do it with such a kind of vigor that and and a level of elacrity that I was like I don't see everywhere. There's an old lady. It's like it's not quite
00:28:43
lunchtime, so the shop isn't open yet. She's got one of these like wooden or grassy kind of um brooms and she's just sweeping and just cleaning and washing with a bucket and just making it sparkle, you know? It's like every day you're going to have to do this again and it's going to get dirty again. That's why in some some cultures like why bother? But in Japan, it's so unique that they do care about these things and they're taught from like a very young age to take care of each other and to be
00:29:10
very thoughtful and intentional what they do. We go to a fast food place. Uh I I order some kind of deep fried chicken breasts or something like that. And I'm getting ready to go and he's like, "Hey," meaning my friends are like, "Hey, put your tray over there." So you bust your own table. So he goes, "No, no, we're not done." You see those little towels? That's not for you to wash your hands. It's for you to wipe down your surface so the next person
00:29:35
gets it as nice as you do. You know, and we see these videos on the internet all the time actually of people doing really humble things really well. They they'll like uh there will be a chain of men usually they're in India, I think. They'll take like giant scoops of cement and they'll throw it up to the next person. It flies through the air. that person catches it with the pallet and then flips it up to the next person or this guy who's like folding pizza boxes and he's just doing like a thousand in a
00:30:03
minute. It's incredible to see that he's all muscle memory right now or someone repairing a tire for a bicycle and now because of the internet, social media, and how we're monetizing this kind of stuff. I believe we're living in a time where there's this giving economy. Let me explain. So people say something like it's the information economy which it used to be and it used to be the attention economy which I guess this is a subset of but I think we're in the giving economy which is something like
00:30:34
this. If you do something that is giving to other people you're taking care of an animal, you're helping solve a problem or you're giving me some kind of value in my life. I will watch this. And just by watching this, the economy is that that person will now make more money by people watching their content than they would doing whatever it is they're doing, getting paid pennies a dollar an hour or something like that. And I love this. And we see it for like trades people, people who mow lawns, who wash
00:31:02
cars, who clean carpets, who who fix roofs. If you do something really really well and we can see your joy and just how easy you make everything look, we revel in that. I think we understand and we see the light that exists within that person and it's very attractive.
>> I think there's have you heard of the emotional guidance scale and there's 22 points on it. So it's it's the idea that so at the top of the emotional guidance scale is like joy and at the very bottom is like um anger, jealousy, um
00:31:41
hopelessness, despair, that kind of stuff. And the idea is that if someone was feeling like really down the bottom of the ocean of the emotional guidance scale, they were feeling like all this really bad stuff, you can't just like jump to joy, but you could jump through some of the other stages to get to joy. So once you're bored, it's like, okay, great. That's about the middle. So you've progressed and then you can get to appreciation and then you can get to joy and then you can go up. Um, but I
00:32:07
was thinking it kind of matters what state what what stage on the emotional guidance scale someone is at themselves when they see when they witness that magic going on, when they witness someone else using their powers. Because I think imagine that there's a guy who can do amazing stuff with pizza boxes or imagine there someone who's got this really big YouTube channel. If you witness that when you yourself are in a state of joy, I think the response that automatically comes out is like, "Oh,
00:32:35
cool. They can do that. They're using their powers. All that is possible for them is possible for me. What's my thing?" And you don't feel a sense of comparison or competition. It's not like, "Oh, I want to learn how to flip pizza boxes, too." It's like, "No, no, no, that's their thing. What's my thing?" And you feel very inspired to find that and to use your own powers. Whereas if you approach or if you kind of look at that person with that contempt, that jealousy, that anger,
00:33:00
that hatred, that rage, the stuff that that like the bad emotions or yeah, the emotions that aren't actually that useful, helpful, don't feel that good to feel, then you're going to just be like, "Oh, well, they probably cheated to get there." Or, "Oh, well, he probably practiced for ages." Or, "Oh, his parents were probably rich." Or, you know, you you're going to come out with all these horrible things. And then that takes away from the real message which
00:33:23
is no, this person has found their thing. You can find your thing too. So it so matters who you are first.
>> I think so. You know, I heard this piece I think it was on NPR on Radio Lab or something like that. I can't remember where I heard it, but they were talking to somebody who was the director of the Neon Museum. So I I think neon's like what most of us kind of associate with signs and signage. And so when they're moving from one technology, a legacy technology to a newer technology like
00:33:54
LEDs, they they pull them off buildings. And so some people are trying to preserve these things. And so they asked the the curator or the guide of the Museum of Neon, why is it worth saving? And his answer was a little bit different than what I thought. I mean, I'm a designer, so I I really enjoy beautifully crafted signs with lettering. And there's something that when I look at it just it transports me back in time. It makes me feel nostalgic. Right? But his answer wasn't about nostalgia at all. He goes,
00:34:26
"The reason why they use neon gas inside neon signs is because it emits a certain wavelength of light." And it's biological within us to be drawn towards a certain wavelength of light. I don't know how or who figured this out originally because because you imagine if you're driving down the street and there were normal signs with normal lights and there was this one neon sign that says welcome open or vacancy and you just stop you're like whoa it caught your eye and that's what
00:34:55
you needed. You'd pull in and you would kind of give the that business your money. You would patron the business and so it's really interesting. So he's like we're wired to see neon or this or this wavelength of light and be drawn towards it. I think maybe it comes from like the moon or the sun or source of light or something and we're just compelled to move towards it just kind of like how insects are drawn towards a light source. Now I believe this and I know this is I need
00:35:23
to address the spirituality thing. When you are in alignment with your higher self and you're operating in this frequency, you are transmitting an invisible light because we also know the visible light spectrum is just a small fraction of the available light spectrum that you're emitting a light that draws people to you. Now, I have to bring it back to the world of fiction and and comics and movies. In Zack Snider's depiction of Superman, there's this moment when he saves the world or
00:35:51
whatever. He does an heroic act and the people surround him like he's um like he's an egg and there's like sperm. It's like we see this large overhead shot and all these people coming to him, reaching their hands out to him like he's God. I mean, he is a god among men in the narrative that has been created for him, but we're drawn to him. I think it's the same thing that we feel when we meet another soul, another spirit that's emitting this kind of light that we can't see. We feel calm and we're drawn
00:36:22
towards them. And the weird thing is this is not the kind of light we're like, "Hey, look at me. Aren't I great? Aren't I beautiful and smart and amazing and talented?" Their light shines on us, not on themselves. And so there are poets, singers, songwriters, performers, uh spiritual guides, therapists, or whoever it is in your life. It could just be a caretaker who people just see and are drawn towards. Now, the interesting thing is we had American Thanksgiving a couple days ago, and we
00:36:53
had the largest gathering at the house that we're in ever. And my antisocial anxiety was just like, "Okay, this is a lot of people. My cousins, my relatives, uh, distant cousins were coming over." And there was an individual in particular, I won't name who it is, but he's my cousin, I guess. And my wife just came over and into the kitchen. She goes, "He's the purest person I've ever met in my life. there's an innocence to him that has not been polluted by this
00:37:20
world. And I and she's enraptured with him, you know. Of course, he's also a good-looking tall man. So, I was like, "Okay, I get it." You know, and he has a very soft spoken voice. I'm like, "Dang, all right. I need to corrupt this kid." But, you know, other than that, it was just like, we see it. We feel it. And there's something weird because as as dark as my wife sees me, I have this weird thing where I attract people who are like this because all the people who
00:37:47
are close to me, when my wife meets them, she's like, I really like that person. I know what she's thinking. What do they see in you? But that's a story for another day.
>> But you're Morpheus, right? So you've got all these Neos around you [laughter] who are like gravitating towards you and Neo neon like this might be connected as well. You just don't even know. [laughter]
>> But then is it called would you call it someone's aura?
>> That's a word that people use aura
00:38:16
>> cuz I have there's like a friend of a friend and she does aura readings and think says that she can kind of see the aura and read it in that way. It's kind of interesting because if there's so many different spectrums of light and different spectrums of everything, then you pro like for someone it's going to be their specific skill that they can tune into that frequency and they can read that stuff.
>> I think some people pretend to read that stuff. So, let's address this spirituality
00:38:48
thing right now because we're getting talked to about this because you and I talk you and I have talked about this because um some like I think I feel like you have a lot of spiritual people in your life but you wouldn't call yourself spiritual but my kind of theory is that you've almost loled spiritual it's like you think about stuff in such a way in such a deep way that you almost understand spirituality on a logical ical level. So, you would never call it spirituality. You'll be like, "No, this
00:39:18
is just how things work." But interested to hear your take on it.
>> Okay. I know some people think very differently about me than the way I see myself. Some people might call me a scammer, guru, blah blah blah, whatever it is they want to say. And to that, I say fair, whatever you want to say. But I find it irritating and bothersome when people pray on people's needs to be connected to higher sources of energy and they are the interpreters of the energy and that really sets off all my
00:39:51
my like red flags. So when people are like, "Oh, I do energy readings." Like, "Do you? Do you?" Hm. And it always seems like we leverage people's innate desire to want to know where they come from and to tell them about their past, present, and future that then mystics and gurus and palm raiders and fortune tellers just pop up out of the woodwork. Now, I think what they're doing and the the way I would logically explain this is they know there's a the deep yearning
00:40:21
in your soul to feel like you belong and for there to be order and meaning to your life and that we're just seeking order. And they can read your body. They can say a few things and see how you twitch in the micro expressions. And so they'll use that in creating this narrative for you. And generally speaking, and this has been tested many times in very logical ways where they can never tell you anything specific. It's always very broad and when people are instructed not to give them any
00:40:46
clues, they're pretty clueless, right? So, let's address some of the things. Um, I'm not sure I believe in a spirit or a soul. I think my belief system right now currently, despite what it says on my hat, which is when you die, you turn to dust and that's the end of your life and you become food for worms. And new life will come from that, but not in the way that we think. I don't believe there's a bank of souls floating around ready to inhabit your body. And I don't believe in an afterlife. And I
00:41:14
used to believe in this, but I don't believe it anymore. And even in my own thought process, when I'm ready to go, whatever time that is, I just believe there's blackness and we're done. And you just go into an eternal sleep and you never wake up. It's a dreamless sleep. And so when I say that to a lot of people, they're really been out of shape. So that's why I say based on how most people interpret spirituality that I'm not a spiritual person yet. Can't tell you how many times people are
00:41:42
like, "Chris, that was super spiritual. Like, you're a soul or spiritual healer." I'm like, "Am I?" Okay, if you say so.
>> I feel like it's just important that you believe whatever's useful to you.
>> Yeah.
>> And also, who even made up the definition of spirituality anyway? Like there's no there's no like this is what means spirituality. Even if it's in the dictionary, it's not real. Someone just wrote that. So therefore, there's
00:42:08
there's a scale. there's like spirituality and made it word anyway. So, it's almost like it doesn't matter as long as you know your belief system. I feel like the I feel like the most important part of it is that you're just you act consistently with those beliefs and if you change them that's fine, but you're just acting in a certain way across a longer period of time and that's going to be the thing that takes care of the base level of who you are and how you operate.
00:42:34
But then it's yeah you're it's so interesting because yeah some of the stuff you say is crazy spiritual to on a like a one definition of it but then do you not see yourself as like what's the does how does that word make you feel?
>> Does it make me feel anything? It's a label. It's like we we make up all all kinds of labels. Somebody's like well you're Asian, you're American, you're short, you're tall, you're skinny, you're fat. They're just labels and
00:43:01
labels don't usually affect me too much. But what's interesting to me, Jody, what's more interesting is how they receive me. That is of great interest to me. So if I say something and someone's like, uh, the best compliment I ever got, I mean, I've been levied a few compliments. I've been very lucky. The best compliment I ever got from a talk was somebody said, "You changed the atmosphere in the room for me." I'm like,
>> damn.
>> Oh my gosh. That is the thing. And
00:43:29
somebody also said, "You're a spiritual healer." And you know, people have shared with me very deep, privately personal things I've never shared with anyone. And for whatever reason, they feel it's safe to share with me in whatever non-judging or judging face that I have. And I got to tell you a little story. There's a woman, I can't mention her name, but she was the victim of essay and she shared it with me and she's like, "I don't know why I feel compelled to tell you this." I said,
00:43:54
"I'm here to listen." and she was crying and I hugged her and then a year later she saw me at another event. She came up to me and she was just like beaming. She goes, "You know, I felt so unbburdened when I told you and my life has completely changed. I'm in a very good place right now and I just wanted to thank you for this." Now, in my mind, I was like, I don't remember the story. I don't know who you are, but I was like trying to find it really fast. And eventually, I figured it out, but in
00:44:18
that moment, I was like, I hope I didn't screw it up. That's all I was thinking. Please don't screw this up for this lady. and she shared that with me. And so people respond to you however they want. And I think most of us are just really projecting our energy onto other people. We see what we want to see. We believe what we want to believe. I'm just trying to navigate this life with with as few lenses as possible to kind of see things as objectively as possible. If people are just seeing the things
00:44:50
that they want to see reflected back, I guess it makes sense to just share as many of your beliefs as possible out with the world because then you get people you kind of get to see which ones attract different type of people in. Like if you wanted to only attract spiritual people, you'd only talk about spirituality. If you wanted to only attract designers, you'd only talk about design. But if you talk about everything then I feel like you open people up to other topics like you have probably even
00:45:20
though you're not spiritual you probably opened up some very very logical designers up to spirituality just because it feels like you talk about it in an accessible way and people are like oh well Chris is a designer he gets this oh and he also gets this okay maybe it's not that bad so you almost like become a gateway drug you're [laughter] not a spiritual Chris, you're a gateway drug.
>> Gateway drug
>> spirituality.
>> So, I'll say this, right? I'm on a
00:45:48
flight to Las Vegas. No, to where am I going? I think I'm going to Texas. I can't remember. Um, and I bump into an acquaintance. His name is Dr. Ken Buu. And he's written this book. And and we we wind up chatting across the aisleway of the of the flight. And we're just chatting the entire time. and we were just talking about different ideas and we're just you know just saying whatever we have to say and he goes my god you are you're a really spiritual person and I have my typical smirk like okay and I
00:46:19
don't say anything and I just gave him a look and he knew he goes it's because you don't understand what spirituality is Chris so this is where I find it super ironic like you're saying I'm a spiritual person but I don't understand it okay so he says well the definition of spirituality to him is that you know, accept and express your truest self. This is where it gets really interesting. So, you know, accept and express your truest self. And I said it back to him. I'm like, that was really
00:46:51
good under that definition. I'm a very spiritual person because all I'm trying to do is to express my truest self in every regard. It's why like for some people, I'm just too much. I'm just too direct. I just tell you the way it is because that is my truest self and I'm sorry if it offends you or I'm I guess I'm not sorry if it lifts you up, right? But the same message is being transmitted. I can't I can't help but to be myself and I'm trying everything in
00:47:24
my power to be the meest me. That's it. at future fest which was at the start of October I think um something the one one of the quotes that one of the many quotes I wrote down was just the best teacher wins [clears throat] and if you think that under that definition of being the USU that exists it's not actually just that is it it's also there's some that that's the kind of that's the do cool stuff part but then the teaching other people to do the same cool stuff is like the second part
00:48:00
and Could you also think because you're also like this is this is me freeing my own soul and this is me freeing other souls but like does everyone need both? Is it enough to just exist? Like does the best footballer in the world is it is it okay that they're just the best footballer in the world or do they need to also teach other people? Do they need to also inspire other people? Like do you need the two?
>> I don't know if you need the two but I was at this conference and I think it
00:48:26
was Blair Ens. I'm hoping I'm crediting the right person who said that he was at some kind of mastermind retreat of like high performing entrepreneurs and they asked each person what is it that you want to achieve in this lifetime and he goes out of the 69 or so however many people that were there he says they pretty much all said the exact same thing it was just wild so then he thought perhaps this is a universal truth this is what they said their desire is to work on personal developmen
