December 2, 2025 โข 30 mins
We explore how complacency hides inside success and how to replace drift with drive through clarity, filtering, relationships, and honest evaluation. Chris Robinson shares stories from the stage in Cambodia to the โ55 is greater than 800โ moment that reset his habits and focus.
Key Takeaways:
- redefining complacency as careless security and satisfactory success
- awareness as the gateway to overcoming underperformance
- clarity that cures myopia and hyperopia with the next easiest step
- filtering inputs and environments to align with the desired identity
- getting into the right rooms with bigger windows
- posture over imposter syndrome by choosing progress over impress
- evaluation loops and inviting hard truth from trusted people
- faith as fuel for living fully alive and rejecting comfort
- practical mantra of learn a little, do a little
Why don't you do them a big favor and buy one for yourself, and then buy another copy for your friend as well, and share it with them, and go through the book with them? If you like this episode, be sure to follow Chris on his website, but also share this episode with a friend who you know needs to hear it. And certainly, we'd love it if you could write a review out there to get this into the hands of as many people as we can.
=======================================================
๐ฅTimestamp:ย
0:00 Welcome And Why Complacency Wins
1:36 Redefining Underperformance And Complacency
5:36 The Cambodia Wake-Up Call
11:20 Clarity, Myopia, And Hyperopia
15:45 Filtering: 55 Beats 800
20:04 Growing Beside Maxwell Without Hiding
23:55 Relationships And The Right Rooms
28:20 Imposter Syndrome Versus Posture
๐ฃ What's your biggest leadership blind spot? Comment below!
๐ฅ Click ๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐๐ to support our channel and ๐ ๐๐๐๐๐ the audio podcast to boost our ranking! ๐๐จ๐ง๐ง๐๐๐ญ ๐ฐ๐ข๐ญ๐ก ๐๐ก๐ ๐๐ง๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ฆ๐จ๐ง ๐๐๐๐๐๐ซ:
๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐๐ฎ๐๐: โถ๏ธ https://www.youtube.com/@coachjohngallagher?sub_confirmation=1
=======================================================
Connect with Chris Robinson:
โก๏ธ LinkedIn (primary): https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakerchrisrobinson/
โก๏ธ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@1globalchris
โก๏ธ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/1chrisrobinson
โก๏ธ Website: https://www.chrisrobinsonspeaker.com/?fbclid=IwY2xjawObl1xleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETE5bktsY3d3dE9OanNXM3JGc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHs3vgzUEV0VDHY2TE2aLEHItKbbhJ0Ydtn6BB_r1_sLORzWGDrmKRpexNBo5_aem_6RNbXTBoLl_bihfJdj1BEQ
โก๏ธ Book: https://www.chrisrobinsonspeaker.com/book
Thanks for listening in to the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Please take just a minute to share this podcast with that someone you know that you thought of when you heard this episode. One of the most valuable things you can do is to rate the podcast and leave a review. You can do that on Apple podcasts, or rate the podcast on Spotify or any other platform you listen.
Did you know that many of the things that I discuss on the Uncommon Leader Podcast are subjects that I coach other leaders and organizations ? If you would be interested in having me discuss 1:1 or group coaching with you, or know someone who is looking to move from Underperforming to Uncommon in their business or life, I would love to chat with you. Click this link to set up a FREE CALL to discuss how coaching might benefit you and your team)
Until next time, Go and Grow Champions!!
Connect with me
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
Getting people from that complacency myopia and
hyperopia, I think that's thebalance beam in between is
learning a little and doing alittle, and that'll move you in
the direction that you want togo.
SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
Hey, Uncommon Leaders, welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, John Gallagher.
I gotta tell you today, maybethe events of the year in terms
of the podcast.
I've got with me a member of theMaxwell Leadership Team,
executive vice president, ChrisRobinson, who's written a book
recently that came out, and Ihave dove all through it called
(00:40):
From Drift to Drive.
We're gonna have a conversationabout that book today, and you
can see the sticky notes that gothrough there.
But I got to tell you, Chris isone of those guys that as we get
started, he's one that I'vefollowed for a long time.
Not only is any executive vicepresident for the organization,
he's a certified speaker, he's atrainer, and he's a coach with
the Maxwell leadership team.
He's worked with organizationsfrom Fortune 500 companies all
(01:03):
the way down to entrepreneurs.
So he's speaking directly to youtoday.
And I am excited about thatconversation.
Chris, welcome to the UncommonLeader Podcast.
Such so great to have you here.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Hey, man, John, I'm doing outstanding.
Thanks so much for having me ontoday.
And my goodness, when you saythat you dove into that book,
when you when you showed thesticky notes inside there, oh my
goodness, you have been insidethis book.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
Oh, yeah.
Well, we're gonna talk about howyou crush a book later as well,
because I love that inside ofthe book, how you talked about
your story.
So that's gonna be really good.
But look, let's jump right intothe topic of the book from drift
to drive.
And one of the things that yousay right off the bat, the
biggest problem, and I believethis too, it's something that I
teach every day in my coachingand consulting with
organizations that we face todayis underperformance.
(01:47):
And you've identified the causeof that underperformance to be
complacency.
So tell me the story that got tothat, who you wrote this book
for here today.
SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Yeah, you know, this book was written for high
achievers.
I mean, I I love this book.
I love this topic of, you know,overcoming underperformance.
And I mean, I literally gotgoosebumps when you said that
because every single time I talkabout this book, you know, even
though it's been written andreleased and everything, like
I'm so excited and so passionateabout it because this is really
what wakes me up at night to go,man, how can I help somebody get
(02:19):
better today?
How can I help somebody that isfeeling stuck or somebody that
is doing well, but they're justkind of going through the
motions, and this topic is it.
But we started at, you know,trying to help people with
underperformance was my originalgoal for the book.
I'm going, man, I just reallywant to help people perform
better in their life.
But as we begin to kick aroundthe concept, we begin to talk
(02:41):
about what's really the rootcause of underperformance.
And if we look at the rootcause, we kept coming back to
this word complacency.
Now, I know that most people,when they listen to the word
complacency, they go, Well,Chris, I'm busy.
I'm not complacent at all,because they really assign the
word complacency to laziness orapathy, but it couldn't be
(03:02):
further from the truth.
Complacency actually creeps inin areas that we have success.
And so the way that I define andredefine complacency inside the
book is that I call complacencya secret place of satisfactory
success.
Now, when you think about that,you know, those places where
we've done the work, we've putin the grind, we've done the
(03:24):
thing to get good at it, andthen over time what's happened
is we've said, hey, that's okay.
It's good, it's good enough.
There's no pain there, there'sno push there, it's just right.
But if you also go back to theoriginal meaning of the word
complacency, the origin meaningis careless security.
Now think about that, John.
(03:46):
Think about careless security,meaning that where is it that
you feel secure in your lifethat you're being careless with?
And so when we begin to talkabout those things, when we
begin to talk about that, Ibegin to look at my life going,
man, where are these secretplaces of satisfactory success
in my marriage, in my health, inmy spiritual journey, in my
career?
And I and where am I beingcareless?
(04:08):
And oh my goodness, complacencystart to pop up in my life like
whack-a-mole because of this newawareness that I mean, and I
want to help people stomp thisout.
SPEAKER_00 (04:17):
Chris, I think you if they're right at the very
end, look, I'm you mentionedchills and things like that.
It's just the the recording thatI play back from different
clients all the time.
But use that word awareness.
You all have individuals thatI'll talk about.
You know, you have an assessmentinside of your book, and I think
folks should go out and we'llput the link to the assessment
in the show notes as well.
But you know, ultimately I askfolks where you are on a scale
(04:38):
one to five.
One is you're a horrible leader,five is you couldn't be better,
and you're done in yourbusiness.
And a lot of times folks will bethere in the four or five range
in terms of that.
And if they're really beinghonest, what we really are
looking for, I believe, again,you mentioned all these
different areas of our lives arethose folks who are aware and
can say, I'm at a two or athree.
(04:58):
I'm actually doing pretty good,but I know I can do better.
Those are the ones that I thinkyou wrote the book for because
that awareness is so important.
And many of them are not awareof it yet.
And you think about that, youhave to deal with all kinds.
How do you help make them awareas to where they are on that
journey that they really arecomplacent?
They don't believe it yet.
SPEAKER_01 (05:15):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, and again, especially ifyou have success outwardly.
All right, it makes it verydifficult when things are going
well in life.
It makes it very difficult tosay, and admit that, hey, I'm
not doing very good in that, orthat I'm being complacent in
this particular area.
So I'll give you an example ofthat, you know, that I share
inside the book.
(05:36):
You know, uh, and what wasreally a wake-up call for me was
that I went on a trip to uhCambodia with John Maxwell, and
uh, you know, it's really kindof a speaker's dream.
I mean, there was two people onthe agenda.
It was John Maxwell, ChrisRobinson, and we're speaking for
about 2,500 people at thisevent.
You know, I prepared for it likeI did, and even before the
(05:57):
event, I got a chance to dosomething that I had never done
before.
Is I I walk into the presidentof Cambodia's office with John
Maxwell.
We get to sit down and meet thepresident of a country.
And I'm going, oh my goodness,you know, things are going good.
I mean, I'm taking pictures withthe president of a country, with
me and John Maxwell.
I'm speaking in front of 2,500people.
(06:18):
I go and I deliver this talk,John, and I delivered the talk
well.
But after the talk, I sit downwith John and I say, John, hey,
give me some feedback.
Now, again, I'm getting aperspective from one of the top
1% of the 1% communicators onthe planet.
I said, John, give me uh somefeedback on my talk today, and
he obliged me and he gave me alist.
(06:39):
I mean, John, it started withone, two, three, all the way
down to nine and ten, and thenthe table, there's about four or
five other people there.
They've somehow mistaken thisfor a brainstorming session.
Everybody's just kicking in, youknow, all the different things I
could do to change.
And I went back that night and Ilooked at that list of things I
was told that I should be doingin this presentation.
(07:00):
Now I'd given, you know,thousands of presentations.
I speak every single week overthe past 15 years, but I looked
at that list and there wasn'tone thing on that list that I
didn't know.
But what I can tell you, John,is that I prepared more years
prior to go speak at a rotaryclub for a free lunch than I did
to go speak for 2,500 people adecade and a half later.
(07:21):
And I was so convicted, I was soum, you know, found out.
And again, I delivered well tothe average ear, but to the best
of the best, there was such alarge gap of what I could do
right.
I said, Oh my goodness, that'scomplacency.
It was careless security.
This was an area that outwardlyit looks good, outwardly things
(07:43):
are well.
Outwardly, I can bypass theaverage ear, but when I was
among the best, there was stillthis large gap to do.
And he knew that, and I knewthat.
And so what this book is reallyabout is not pulling you towards
your good, but pulling youtowards your potential, which is
your greatness.
SPEAKER_00 (07:59):
Chris, you're talking to me, man, as well.
Absolutely.
By the way, that's what madethis book so sticky note for me
as well.
It's like, oh my gosh, he'stalking to me.
Like I'm trying to teach it on aregular basis about complacency
and about underperformance.
And here I am finding some ofthese examples.
I'm like, oh man.
I mean, in inside of theassessment, I'm answering these
questions.
I'm going back, and as I wentthrough the book, it kept
(08:20):
confirming what I did on theassessment.
So, folks, this is what I loveabout the book.
It's packed full of stories asto how Chris has been impacted,
how others have been impacted,but it also takes you on a
journey as to how you can fixit.
Uh, you talk about the sevensteps basically, and it's a
cycle to overcome that problem.
You start out with clarity, youfinish out with evaluation, and
so many things in between.
(08:40):
And we don't have a chance totalk about seven of those going
through there.
But I'll tell you, let me pointthe arrow right at myself and
talk about that first one inclarity.
You had a term you calledcomplacency myopia.
If you find all kinds ofmotivation for gathering gear,
organizing your office, geekingout on the minutiae, but find
yourself stalling out when itcomes to being able to do
something about it, that wouldbe complacency myopia.
(09:02):
And here I'd look around myoffice, I'm like, goodness
gracious, here I am.
And you know, get the recordingbutton I've not been able to hit
because I want perfect uh interms of video podcasts and
things like that.
Tell me more about where you hadthat in your life, okay?
And they were able to overcomeit.
SPEAKER_01 (09:18):
Right.
Well, I run between, you know,complacency myopia and
hyperopia.
So my wife, so hyperopia is theother side of it, meaning that,
hey, you got this big far visionand you have no idea how to get
there, so you do nothing.
And uh so I I lean more towardsthe sides of myopia, uh meaning
that I love to stay busy, like Ihave to be doing something at
(09:40):
all times.
But then I've got to look up andgo, well, where am I going?
Where am I going?
And so it's that reset andreally bringing that 2020 vision
together of, okay, where am Igoing?
And then what's the next easieststep to move in the direction of
where I want to go?
And I think that that gives themfulfillment, but they don't know
where they're going.
So it's getting that, gettingthat where do I want to go?
(10:03):
And what's the next easiest stepthat I know that I can take to
move towards that?
But I've done it both ways,John.
I've been very busy goingnowhere.
I've been very uh, you know,vision-oriented and go nowhere.
But you got to find that inbetween so that you're making
those steps moving towards it.
Yeah, so good.
So good.
SPEAKER_00 (10:23):
All right, I got the next one.
Filtering is step three.
So I'm skipping over a littlebit, but I want to say I want to
know that I'm gonna check yourmath here a little bit because I
grew up in an engineer.
Your math is a little bit offhere.
You say 55 is greater than 800.
You understand, Chris?
How is 55 greater than 800?
SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
Yeah.
Well, you know, in this book, Ishare about a very, I call it
what I call my TV turnaroundinside this book here.
And uh it was years ago, it wasprobably around 2006 or so, I
would was at any conference atan event, and I was listening to
a Dr.
Dennis Kimbrough.
Now, Dr.
Dennis Kimbrough, he wascommissioned by Napoleon Hills
(11:01):
Foundation to go and rewriteNapoleon Hill's book, Think and
Grow Rich from an AfricanAmerican perspective.
And so what that required wasthat he interviewed African
American millionaires, and hewas telling a story about how he
would interview thesemillionaires.
And he said that he noticedsomething about all these homes
that he was going into.
He said that I noticed that thebigger the house, the smaller
(11:23):
the TVs and the larger thelibraries.
He goes and the smaller thehouses, the bigger the TVs, and
the smaller the libraries.
And I sat there inside thatmoment, John, just sweating
profusely because I had a55-inch TV in an 800 square foot
apartment that you had to takethe back off to get into the
(11:44):
place and not a book to be foundat all in my in my apartment.
But I knew in that moment, Ibegan to sweat and go, man,
something has to change.
And so in that moment of mylife, that 55 inches was greater
than the 800 square feet that Iwas living in because that was
(12:07):
the dominant thing inside thehome.
And so when I made that switchand I began to, you know, get
books at one point in time,John.
I there was a seven-year timeperiod where I didn't even have
a TV in my home.
I was so hyper-focused onlearning, reading, growing.
For seven years, we didn't havea TV in my home.
And in fact, you know, I had afriend of mine come over one day
(12:28):
and he's looking around, and youknow, this is a very generous
friend of mine.
And, you know, a couple hourslater he comes back and he's so
excited.
He's got this large TV for me.
He goes, Chris, I noticed youdidn't have a TV, and I just
want to be a blessing to you.
And I love him, and that, youknow, so we graciously accepted
the TV at that time, but thatwas highly intentional that I
(12:51):
was wanting my library to bebigger than my circumstances.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
This is so good.
And I I so appreciate that asyou again, the the different
stories.
You know, I think about this andmaybe a little bit of a sidebar
as I prepared for theconversation.
I mean, you all are inorganization, you mentioned at
the top 1% of the 1%, thegentleman uh John Maxwell, the
name on the company is Maxwell,the organization is there.
I I gotta believe there can be atendency to say, I just want to
(13:20):
ride on his shoulders all theway through and be complacent
how we are.
How do you as a team, you know,keep your team um grounded and
continue to not settle forcomplacency as well?
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Well, I mean, it you know, you would think that's the
case that you would say, well,man, I just want to ride this
out with John Maxwell, but infact, it's quite the opposite.
It it is 100% the oppositebecause let's be honest, you
know, John Maxwell is 78 yearsold.
Okay.
He's he's not getting anyyounger, and but he's still
(13:52):
fired up, speaking more than anyof us inside the organization,
impacting more of us inside theorganization.
But there is this very, youknow, just passionate pursuit
of, oh my goodness, I've got tobecome more, you know, in order
to begin to step into theseplaces where John is, I've got
to write more in order to stepinto these places.
And so my goal at this time inmy career is really to be where
(14:16):
John Maxwell is not.
And so I instead of trying to bebeside John Maxwell, you know,
and he's out speaking indifferent places.
My goal is, well, if he's on astage, how can I be on a stage?
You know, just like today.
He's on an event today, I'm heretoday.
He's going to someplace I'mgonna be in Asia, you know, in
the next two days.
(14:37):
And then eventually, you know,there's an event that we'll
speak at together in Asia, butit's where can I go to impact
people where he's not?
And so we've really taken anopposite look at that, uh, at
least from my perspective, andwhat I'm trying to do is that I
need to be in places that he'snot.
Love that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
Are you tired of being tired?
I know I was.
That's when I was glad to findown it coaching.
Now my resting heart rate's down20%, sleep quality up 300%.
You know, I just ran my firstSpartan rage at age 56.
I feel better than I ever have.
So if you're ready to stopsettling and start owning your
(15:14):
own health, go tocoachjohngallagher.com forward
slash own it and set up a freecall with the own it coaching
team.
That's coachjohngallagher.comforward slash own it.
Now, let's get back to theepisode of that.
And again, I recognize that Ithink about that often.
I mean, just the challenges ofan organization like that for
you and Mark Cole and Chris andall the you know, all the team
(15:35):
members that are there reallytrying to make that happen and
keep that going.
So cool.
Uh, I feel like I'm jumpingaround a little bit because I
think there's so many thingsinside of the book.
The one that I hung on, the stepthat I really dove deep into was
step number five, and that'srelationships, and which makes
sense for me in terms of how Icoach and how I work with teams
as a consultant as well.
But you mentioned getting in theright rooms.
(15:58):
What do you mean by getting inthe right rooms?
You said the right rooms havebigger windows inside of the
book.
But where is that for you?
And again, how did you get inthe right rooms to go to where
you are today?
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Yeah, you know, what do we mean by that?
I remember uh a pastor of mine,you know, years ago, he said,
Chris, if you want to get aroundsuccessful people, you're gonna
have to get on a lot ofairplanes.
And uh, a lot of people acceptthe relationships in their life
based upon proximity andhistory.
Proximity of this is the person,these are the people that live
(16:28):
in my neighborhood, these arethe people that I work with,
these are the people that I grewup with.
But if you want to get aroundmore people that are going the
direction that you want to go,you're gonna have to be highly
intentional about that.
All right.
And so for me, it was one ofthose things where I knew I
needed to have goodrelationships.
I knew that my network was mynet worth.
(16:49):
I knew that I had to be aroundgood people, but the nuance that
I did not get very early on wasthat I need to be around
like-minded people that wereheaded in the direction that I
wanted to go.
That was the accelerator.
So I was in your traditional,you know, mastermind groups,
networking groups, where, youknow, I was with the group of a
financial advisor, with themortgage person, with the HVAC
(17:12):
person, you know, I'm inside,and that's great.
Okay, just different businessowners helping each other out.
But then there was one day, youknow, I got a chance to go up on
a whiteboard, share my businessplans as a coach, speaker, and
trainer.
And, you know, the goal of thegroup was to give each other
feedback.
And for weeks I'd been givingpeople business feedback and
what they could do and how theycould help.
I went up to the board, John,and it was quiet.
(17:34):
Not a single word came out.
And I mean, I was honestly, Iwas hurt, going, man, nobody had
anything to say.
But one of my very close friendswas inside the room, and as we
walked out, he says, Chris, hegoes, What you said up there was
great, but nobody in the roomknows what it is that you're
talking about.
Nobody in the room knows aprofessional speaker, nobody in
the room knows a professionalcoach.
He said, Chris, I think you'rein the wrong room.
(17:56):
And he was absolutely right.
I mean, it shattered me.
I mean, it was like, I'mfollowing the principle of being
around successful people.
Like, you know, I, you know,this is what I'm thinking in my
head.
And so when I now gotintentional about, hey, I'm
gonna get into a room with othercoaches, speakers, and trainers,
other whatever it is that youdo.
You know, the same thing appliesat anything that you do.
(18:18):
When I wanted to get aroundbetter pickleball players, I had
to go get around betterpickleball players.
When I wanted to go get bettergolf, I had to go get around
better golfers.
Okay, so the principle applies,but like-minded people trying to
get better at the thing thatyou're trying to get better at.
But when I got in the room withother coaches, speakers, and
trainers, it was like you justpoured gasoline all over me and
just lit fire.
(18:39):
Because now every conversation,everyone knew or had some good
idea or thought or vision ofyes, I'm going in that
direction.
And that was the activator.
But what it also did was itplaced me in a room with people
that were further ahead of medown the journey, where their
vision was much bigger than whatI was thinking of at the time.
(19:00):
And what we mean by thosewindows are bigger is that they
expand your vision, right?
They expand your vision of whatyou think is possible.
And so getting inside the rightrooms is critical for your
growth.
SPEAKER_00 (19:12):
Yeah, I'm gonna stay there for a minute because look,
I let's go back to the 21-yearfood laws of leadership.
I think it's number 19, the lawof sacrifice.
You must give up to go up.
I make up that one of the thingsthat keeps people in smaller
rooms is they're afraid to hurtothers, that they don't want to
tell someone they're leaving togo to a bigger room, so to
speak.
Did you experience that when youwent into the bigger rooms and
(19:35):
went forward?
Or how did you overcome that?
SPEAKER_01 (19:37):
Well, I mean, I think there's two sides of that.
I I think one, there's this kindof I don't want to leave the
smaller room, but then there'salso the fear of being inside
the bigger room.
Okay.
Absolutely.
What that means is like, wait aminute, you know, these people
are doing so much more, youknow, and then we get into that
impostor syndrome, which I talkabout in the book.
(19:58):
And and I love this because Ithink a lot of people deal with
So you know it's page 146.
SPEAKER_00 (20:02):
That's where I am right now.
Imposture versus imposter.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (20:05):
Right, right.
But imposter syndrome happenswhen your need to impress is
greater than your need toprogress.
And for me, that was that wasjust putting myself in a place
of being a student and going,hey, like, it's okay for me to
be the dumbest person in theroom.
It's okay for me to be thebrokest person in the room.
(20:27):
And in fact, I want to be thebrokest person in the room every
single time.
I'd be like, hey, let me, let mebe that person.
But for some of us, the ego islike, we want to, we want to be
the big fish in the small pond.
I want to be the person.
But what I've learned is thatthe higher that you go up, the
more successful people that yougo around, I think the more
(20:48):
student mentality that I'veseen.
I mean, being around JohnMaxwell, one of the very best of
this industry, he's one of themost curious people on the
planet that I've ever seen in mylife.
You you see a dinner with JohnMaxwell and you're sitting down
beside him, you would think thathe's talking the entire time,
just pouring out wisdom.
And yeah, you sit down with him,so wisdom's gonna come out, but
he's asking questions the entiretime, and he is genuinely
(21:11):
wanting to learn from everybodyat that table.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
I love that.
I mean, you're you're talking ifyou're the person in the room
with the most experience and themost insight, you're in the
wrong room.
I mean, I see that, and I lovehow you distinguish between
having posture or impostureinside of that room.
You can add value.
And this is really about uh, andthis is something that look,
I've been facing recently aswell is that you know, I belong
in that room versus to yourpoint, the negative side of
(21:37):
saying, man, I don't know if Ibelong here or not, kind of
thing.
Yeah, I think there's there'spower in that.
Chris, I'm gonna have one morething and then I'm gonna have
some fun questions too from thebook.
Step seven, evaluating.
I love that.
So if you can evaluate yourperformance ultimately as you go
through that, I love that it's apicture of a cycle that you
start over again.
Folks, you got to get this bookbecause there's more and more
inside of it.
But there's a statement you hadin the evaluation chapter that
(22:00):
really hit me hard.
It says, one of the most caringand compassionate things you can
do for a person is to tell themthe truth, particularly when you
see something that is takingthem away from the life they
desire.
Now that's scriptural as well.
Proverbs 27, 6, you listenthere.
Faithful are the wounds of afriend, but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful.
So it reminds me a lot of thatperformance review you got after
(22:23):
that presentation that Johnpoured truth into you.
They might have been wounds atthe time, but you took the
perspective of going to getbetter.
How do we care enough about aperson to deliver truth uh with
love and compassion so that theycan continue to grow?
SPEAKER_01 (22:38):
Yeah, well, one, the person has to be open and
available.
Again, if we go back to thatword awareness, they have to be
aware that, hey, I I still needto learn and grow in this area.
And, you know, to be honest,when I asked, because it's when
I asked John for that feedbackthat day, you know, I was
looking for feedback and I wasplacing myself in an open
(23:00):
position to go, hey, what can Ilearn?
Because he I hadn't spoken frontof him probably in maybe it was
around three or four months atthat time.
And so he hadn't seen me.
So I thought, okay, hey, let meget some feedback here.
But I think that we have to becareful too, because if you go
back to that, you know, the thekisses of an enemy.
And after I delivered that talk,there was a long line of people
(23:22):
that told me how awesome it was.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, and again, not that theywere wrong or not that they did
anything, but I could have justreceived that, sat down at
dinner and went, oh man, I didgreat.
I'm awesome, right?
But but it was having thatopenness, but having the right
people give me feedback.
And I knew that the people atthe table, they loved me and
(23:44):
that they were giving mefeedback that was only gonna
help me.
It's very hard, one, for peopleto admit that they need help,
and two, for them to have theright type of feedback.
And so, you know, receiving it,you've got to be open, you've
got to be aware to give it, yougotta make sure that person is
open and aware because sometimespeople just don't want it.
(24:06):
They just don't want it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
So good.
That is so good, Chris.
I mean, there's like again,stories myself, again, you're
you're throwing those things atme again uh in the past week uh
that have been that thatsomeone's poured truth into me
and and held me to anotherlevel.
I go back to that wordcomplacency and I and I throw my
faith into it.
We were not called to be goodenough.
We were not called to be okaywith our success.
(24:31):
We were called to greatness.
And I think you know, that'ssomething that if we as
obviously as leaders, ascoaches, as mentors can make
folks aware of what's possiblein terms of their potential,
that can be so powerful.
And you know, as brothers inChrist and as Christians, it's
our obligation to do that aswell in terms of how we're
living our lives.
(24:51):
So I still appreciate how you uhhave done that so good.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Let me real quick on that one because you know you
brought your faith into it,brought our faith into it.
And and I heard a quote justyesterday that really just
sparked, you know, this area ofcomplacency for me in stomping
this out.
But it was from Saint Arrheniuswho said that the glory of God
is man fully alive.
(25:15):
I mean, think about that.
The glory of God is man fullyalive.
That is lack and void ofcomplacency, but fully alive.
And so the question we've got toask ourselves is hey, when was
the last time we were fullyalive and present?
And if we get to those places,we get to those rooms, we get to
getting out of bed with thattype, that's the glory of God.
(25:40):
Man alive.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Amen, brother.
No doubt about it.
Goodness gracious.
I look, I know I could continueto go on.
I want to ask you a couple funquestions.
Chris has been so good.
I could uh keep going with yourbook.
It's powerful.
Folks, I'm gonna put a link tothe book as well.
I'm gonna ask folks how they canget in touch with you as well,
Chris.
Um, but I got some reallyimportant questions.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:59):
Twizzlers or Reese cups?
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
Oh, Twizzlers all day.
But I love Reese's, but theygotta be frozen.
They gotta be frozen.
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
Oh, frozen Reese.
Okay, okay.
Even that.
All right, because I I look, I Ithink about that as I listen
through your story and talkingabout Twizzlers, about how your
Halloween bucket might have beenas a kid.
You're like, I'm gonna trade allmy Reese cups for Twizzlers
because I want the Twitter.
Now you now you're gonna hold onto the Reese cups as well.
I don't have a chance innegotiation with you.
You love cars as well.
(26:26):
What's your next car?
You got your eyes on one?
SPEAKER_01 (26:28):
Yeah, yes, the next car will be a McLaren 720S, uh,
is what I'm looking at.
I have a McLaren now, and soI've had this one for about uh
almost three years, and so it'stime to go on to the next one.
But yeah, so it'll be McLaren720S, and then also the uh the
Bentley GT convertible.
My wife has been eyeballing it.
(26:48):
So it caught her attention.
I go, oh, I like that one too.
We might be able to make thatone happen.
SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
Goodness gracious, you're gonna need a bigger
garage, like you talked about inthere in there as well.
Uh look, here leaders arereaders, no doubt about it.
Uh the other side.
You mentioned you talked aboutalways have a book.
Look, I think this is a bookthat needs to be in folks'
hands.
Um how do you what's yourdiscipline on reading, how you
continue to grow, Chris?
And then you mentioned how tocrush a book.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Yeah, so the discipline on reading is really
focused in two areas.
What's a problem that I'm tryingto solve or a passion that I
have?
I primarily find myself reallyfocused on the problems that I'm
trying to solve.
And then what I'll do is I'llstack up those books in that
specific topic.
So I never read like a singlebook by itself on a topic.
It's usually going to be three,four, five, six, seven, eight
(27:34):
books on a same topic becausewhat that's doing now is
layering my learning.
And so right now for me, I'mreally uh focused on community
building uh and engagement forMaxwell leadership.
So everything that I'm readinguh in this season right now is
community building, uh, youknow, engagement with uh
communities.
SPEAKER_00 (27:53):
Love that.
Love that.
Thank you for sharing thatbecause I actually, as I
listened to that as an idea, itjust makes total sense going
deep on a topic.
You know, my son uh was a youthministry major at Liberty
University, and he challenged mebecause I had read the entire
Bible kind of four years in arow.
Again, and that's anaccomplishment in and of itself.
But he said, Dad, why don't youjust dive deep into a couple
books for the whole year?
Just pick one old testament, onenew, and just go deep every
(28:16):
month.
SPEAKER_01 (28:16):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
I'm like, wow, how's that?
And just learn that topic andlearn really so I can understand
how becoming an expert in thattopic, putting that stack of
books in the same topic can bereally powerful.
So cool.
Chris, you've been ultimatelygracious to share with the
listeners, the Uncommon Leaderpodcast.
How can they get in touch withyou, learn, learn more about
you, and connect with you?
SPEAKER_01 (28:36):
Absolutely.
Well, always at ChrisRobinsonspeaker.com, Chris
Robinsonspeaker.com, and then ofcourse, and all your regular
social medias, Facebook,LinkedIn, etc.
SPEAKER_00 (28:45):
Absolutely.
So I'll put the link to that aswell, Chris Robinson Speak
Speaker, in there.
I'm gonna give you the last wordhere, Chris.
You've been extremely graciousand I've loved our conversation.
I've enjoyed it.
I've laughed at and laughed likethis for a while as well.
And it's again probably moreabout me in terms of that laugh.
Uh, but if you could compilekind of these, you know, uh
thoughts and years, whether it'sjust for your book or whether
(29:05):
it's just for uh you as a personand how you talk with
individuals, probably an unfairquestion, into one billboard,
into one thought, into onemantra for you that you wanted
to communicate with someone whois listening today that needed
to grow, what would that mantrabe?
And why would you list that asyour mantra?
SPEAKER_01 (29:23):
Yeah, so I I and it's actually one of the
chapters of the book is learn alittle, do a little.
And you know, if I could have abillboard, you know, all across,
you know, the US of learn alittle, do a little, I think
that would help a ton of people.
And uh, you know, thatphilosophy of hey, you don't
have to know everything, youjust need to go learn something,
then you need to go do somethingbecause you know, action, you
(29:47):
know, draws learning.
And the more that you do, themore that you learn.
And so getting people from thatcomplacency, myopia and
hyperopia, I think that's thebalance beam in between is
learning a little.
And doing a little, and that'llmove you in the direction that
you want to go.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Very simple, very pragmatic, but very powerful.
Absolutely.
Chris Robinson, it's been such apleasure to have you as a guest
on the Uncommon Leader Podcast.
I wish you the best in thefuture, okay?
Thanks a lot, John.
All right.
So, folks, you've listened allthe way through.
You've made it to the end here,no doubt about it, and you know
someone who needs to hear thismessage.
You know someone who needs toget a copy of the book.
(30:23):
Why don't you do them a bigfavor and buy one for yourself
and then buy another copy foryour friend as well and share it
with them and go through thebook with them?
Because I think you're going tofind power inside of that.
If you like this episode, likethis conversation, be sure to
follow Chris on his website, butalso share this episode with a
friend that you know who needsto hear it.
And certainly we'd love that youcould write a review out there
(30:44):
to get this to hear it.
And certainly we'd love that youcould write it into the hands of
as many people as we can.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
Getting people from that complacency myopia and
hyperopia, I think that's thebalance beam in between is
learning a little and doing alittle, and that'll move you in
the direction that you want togo.
SPEAKER_00 (00:19):
Hey, Uncommon Leaders, welcome back.
This is the Uncommon LeaderPodcast.
I'm your host, John Gallagher.
I gotta tell you today, maybethe events of the year in terms
of the podcast.
I've got with me a member of theMaxwell Leadership Team,
executive vice president, ChrisRobinson, who's written a book
recently that came out, and Ihave dove all through it called
(00:40):
From Drift to Drive.
We're gonna have a conversationabout that book today, and you
can see the sticky notes that gothrough there.
But I got to tell you, Chris isone of those guys that as we get
started, he's one that I'vefollowed for a long time.
Not only is any executive vicepresident for the organization,
he's a certified speaker, he's atrainer, and he's a coach with
the Maxwell leadership team.
He's worked with organizationsfrom Fortune 500 companies all
(01:03):
the way down to entrepreneurs.
So he's speaking directly to youtoday.
And I am excited about thatconversation.
Chris, welcome to the UncommonLeader Podcast.
Such so great to have you here.
How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01 (01:13):
Hey, man, John, I'm doing outstanding.
Thanks so much for having me ontoday.
And my goodness, when you saythat you dove into that book,
when you when you showed thesticky notes inside there, oh my
goodness, you have been insidethis book.
SPEAKER_00 (01:24):
Oh, yeah.
Well, we're gonna talk about howyou crush a book later as well,
because I love that inside ofthe book, how you talked about
your story.
So that's gonna be really good.
But look, let's jump right intothe topic of the book from drift
to drive.
And one of the things that yousay right off the bat, the
biggest problem, and I believethis too, it's something that I
teach every day in my coachingand consulting with
organizations that we face todayis underperformance.
(01:47):
And you've identified the causeof that underperformance to be
complacency.
So tell me the story that got tothat, who you wrote this book
for here today.
SPEAKER_01 (01:56):
Yeah, you know, this book was written for high
achievers.
I mean, I I love this book.
I love this topic of, you know,overcoming underperformance.
And I mean, I literally gotgoosebumps when you said that
because every single time I talkabout this book, you know, even
though it's been written andreleased and everything, like
I'm so excited and so passionateabout it because this is really
what wakes me up at night to go,man, how can I help somebody get
(02:19):
better today?
How can I help somebody that isfeeling stuck or somebody that
is doing well, but they're justkind of going through the
motions, and this topic is it.
But we started at, you know,trying to help people with
underperformance was my originalgoal for the book.
I'm going, man, I just reallywant to help people perform
better in their life.
But as we begin to kick aroundthe concept, we begin to talk
(02:41):
about what's really the rootcause of underperformance.
And if we look at the rootcause, we kept coming back to
this word complacency.
Now, I know that most people,when they listen to the word
complacency, they go, Well,Chris, I'm busy.
I'm not complacent at all,because they really assign the
word complacency to laziness orapathy, but it couldn't be
(03:02):
further from the truth.
Complacency actually creeps inin areas that we have success.
And so the way that I define andredefine complacency inside the
book is that I call complacencya secret place of satisfactory
success.
Now, when you think about that,you know, those places where
we've done the work, we've putin the grind, we've done the
(03:24):
thing to get good at it, andthen over time what's happened
is we've said, hey, that's okay.
It's good, it's good enough.
There's no pain there, there'sno push there, it's just right.
But if you also go back to theoriginal meaning of the word
complacency, the origin meaningis careless security.
Now think about that, John.
(03:46):
Think about careless security,meaning that where is it that
you feel secure in your lifethat you're being careless with?
And so when we begin to talkabout those things, when we
begin to talk about that, Ibegin to look at my life going,
man, where are these secretplaces of satisfactory success
in my marriage, in my health, inmy spiritual journey, in my
career?
And I and where am I beingcareless?
(04:08):
And oh my goodness, complacencystart to pop up in my life like
whack-a-mole because of this newawareness that I mean, and I
want to help people stomp thisout.
SPEAKER_00 (04:17):
Chris, I think you if they're right at the very
end, look, I'm you mentionedchills and things like that.
It's just the the recording thatI play back from different
clients all the time.
But use that word awareness.
You all have individuals thatI'll talk about.
You know, you have an assessmentinside of your book, and I think
folks should go out and we'llput the link to the assessment
in the show notes as well.
But you know, ultimately I askfolks where you are on a scale
(04:38):
one to five.
One is you're a horrible leader,five is you couldn't be better,
and you're done in yourbusiness.
And a lot of times folks will bethere in the four or five range
in terms of that.
And if they're really beinghonest, what we really are
looking for, I believe, again,you mentioned all these
different areas of our lives arethose folks who are aware and
can say, I'm at a two or athree.
(04:58):
I'm actually doing pretty good,but I know I can do better.
Those are the ones that I thinkyou wrote the book for because
that awareness is so important.
And many of them are not awareof it yet.
And you think about that, youhave to deal with all kinds.
How do you help make them awareas to where they are on that
journey that they really arecomplacent?
They don't believe it yet.
SPEAKER_01 (05:15):
Right.
Yeah.
Well, and again, especially ifyou have success outwardly.
All right, it makes it verydifficult when things are going
well in life.
It makes it very difficult tosay, and admit that, hey, I'm
not doing very good in that, orthat I'm being complacent in
this particular area.
So I'll give you an example ofthat, you know, that I share
inside the book.
(05:36):
You know, uh, and what wasreally a wake-up call for me was
that I went on a trip to uhCambodia with John Maxwell, and
uh, you know, it's really kindof a speaker's dream.
I mean, there was two people onthe agenda.
It was John Maxwell, ChrisRobinson, and we're speaking for
about 2,500 people at thisevent.
You know, I prepared for it likeI did, and even before the
(05:57):
event, I got a chance to dosomething that I had never done
before.
Is I I walk into the presidentof Cambodia's office with John
Maxwell.
We get to sit down and meet thepresident of a country.
And I'm going, oh my goodness,you know, things are going good.
I mean, I'm taking pictures withthe president of a country, with
me and John Maxwell.
I'm speaking in front of 2,500people.
(06:18):
I go and I deliver this talk,John, and I delivered the talk
well.
But after the talk, I sit downwith John and I say, John, hey,
give me some feedback.
Now, again, I'm getting aperspective from one of the top
1% of the 1% communicators onthe planet.
I said, John, give me uh somefeedback on my talk today, and
he obliged me and he gave me alist.
(06:39):
I mean, John, it started withone, two, three, all the way
down to nine and ten, and thenthe table, there's about four or
five other people there.
They've somehow mistaken thisfor a brainstorming session.
Everybody's just kicking in, youknow, all the different things I
could do to change.
And I went back that night and Ilooked at that list of things I
was told that I should be doingin this presentation.
(07:00):
Now I'd given, you know,thousands of presentations.
I speak every single week overthe past 15 years, but I looked
at that list and there wasn'tone thing on that list that I
didn't know.
But what I can tell you, John,is that I prepared more years
prior to go speak at a rotaryclub for a free lunch than I did
to go speak for 2,500 people adecade and a half later.
(07:21):
And I was so convicted, I was soum, you know, found out.
And again, I delivered well tothe average ear, but to the best
of the best, there was such alarge gap of what I could do
right.
I said, Oh my goodness, that'scomplacency.
It was careless security.
This was an area that outwardlyit looks good, outwardly things
(07:43):
are well.
Outwardly, I can bypass theaverage ear, but when I was
among the best, there was stillthis large gap to do.
And he knew that, and I knewthat.
And so what this book is reallyabout is not pulling you towards
your good, but pulling youtowards your potential, which is
your greatness.
SPEAKER_00 (07:59):
Chris, you're talking to me, man, as well.
Absolutely.
By the way, that's what madethis book so sticky note for me
as well.
It's like, oh my gosh, he'stalking to me.
Like I'm trying to teach it on aregular basis about complacency
and about underperformance.
And here I am finding some ofthese examples.
I'm like, oh man.
I mean, in inside of theassessment, I'm answering these
questions.
I'm going back, and as I wentthrough the book, it kept
(08:20):
confirming what I did on theassessment.
So, folks, this is what I loveabout the book.
It's packed full of stories asto how Chris has been impacted,
how others have been impacted,but it also takes you on a
journey as to how you can fixit.
Uh, you talk about the sevensteps basically, and it's a
cycle to overcome that problem.
You start out with clarity, youfinish out with evaluation, and
so many things in between.
(08:40):
And we don't have a chance totalk about seven of those going
through there.
But I'll tell you, let me pointthe arrow right at myself and
talk about that first one inclarity.
You had a term you calledcomplacency myopia.
If you find all kinds ofmotivation for gathering gear,
organizing your office, geekingout on the minutiae, but find
yourself stalling out when itcomes to being able to do
something about it, that wouldbe complacency myopia.
(09:02):
And here I'd look around myoffice, I'm like, goodness
gracious, here I am.
And you know, get the recordingbutton I've not been able to hit
because I want perfect uh interms of video podcasts and
things like that.
Tell me more about where you hadthat in your life, okay?
And they were able to overcomeit.
SPEAKER_01 (09:18):
Right.
Well, I run between, you know,complacency myopia and
hyperopia.
So my wife, so hyperopia is theother side of it, meaning that,
hey, you got this big far visionand you have no idea how to get
there, so you do nothing.
And uh so I I lean more towardsthe sides of myopia, uh meaning
that I love to stay busy, like Ihave to be doing something at
(09:40):
all times.
But then I've got to look up andgo, well, where am I going?
Where am I going?
And so it's that reset andreally bringing that 2020 vision
together of, okay, where am Igoing?
And then what's the next easieststep to move in the direction of
where I want to go?
And I think that that gives themfulfillment, but they don't know
where they're going.
So it's getting that, gettingthat where do I want to go?
(10:03):
And what's the next easiest stepthat I know that I can take to
move towards that?
But I've done it both ways,John.
I've been very busy goingnowhere.
I've been very uh, you know,vision-oriented and go nowhere.
But you got to find that inbetween so that you're making
those steps moving towards it.
Yeah, so good.
So good.
SPEAKER_00 (10:23):
All right, I got the next one.
Filtering is step three.
So I'm skipping over a littlebit, but I want to say I want to
know that I'm gonna check yourmath here a little bit because I
grew up in an engineer.
Your math is a little bit offhere.
You say 55 is greater than 800.
You understand, Chris?
How is 55 greater than 800?
SPEAKER_01 (10:39):
Yeah.
Well, you know, in this book, Ishare about a very, I call it
what I call my TV turnaroundinside this book here.
And uh it was years ago, it wasprobably around 2006 or so, I
would was at any conference atan event, and I was listening to
a Dr.
Dennis Kimbrough.
Now, Dr.
Dennis Kimbrough, he wascommissioned by Napoleon Hills
(11:01):
Foundation to go and rewriteNapoleon Hill's book, Think and
Grow Rich from an AfricanAmerican perspective.
And so what that required wasthat he interviewed African
American millionaires, and hewas telling a story about how he
would interview thesemillionaires.
And he said that he noticedsomething about all these homes
that he was going into.
He said that I noticed that thebigger the house, the smaller
(11:23):
the TVs and the larger thelibraries.
He goes and the smaller thehouses, the bigger the TVs, and
the smaller the libraries.
And I sat there inside thatmoment, John, just sweating
profusely because I had a55-inch TV in an 800 square foot
apartment that you had to takethe back off to get into the
(11:44):
place and not a book to be foundat all in my in my apartment.
But I knew in that moment, Ibegan to sweat and go, man,
something has to change.
And so in that moment of mylife, that 55 inches was greater
than the 800 square feet that Iwas living in because that was
(12:07):
the dominant thing inside thehome.
And so when I made that switchand I began to, you know, get
books at one point in time,John.
I there was a seven-year timeperiod where I didn't even have
a TV in my home.
I was so hyper-focused onlearning, reading, growing.
For seven years, we didn't havea TV in my home.
And in fact, you know, I had afriend of mine come over one day
(12:28):
and he's looking around, and youknow, this is a very generous
friend of mine.
And, you know, a couple hourslater he comes back and he's so
excited.
He's got this large TV for me.
He goes, Chris, I noticed youdidn't have a TV, and I just
want to be a blessing to you.
And I love him, and that, youknow, so we graciously accepted
the TV at that time, but thatwas highly intentional that I
(12:51):
was wanting my library to bebigger than my circumstances.
SPEAKER_00 (12:56):
This is so good.
And I I so appreciate that asyou again, the the different
stories.
You know, I think about this andmaybe a little bit of a sidebar
as I prepared for theconversation.
I mean, you all are inorganization, you mentioned at
the top 1% of the 1%, thegentleman uh John Maxwell, the
name on the company is Maxwell,the organization is there.
I I gotta believe there can be atendency to say, I just want to
(13:20):
ride on his shoulders all theway through and be complacent
how we are.
How do you as a team, you know,keep your team um grounded and
continue to not settle forcomplacency as well?
SPEAKER_01 (13:31):
Well, I mean, it you know, you would think that's the
case that you would say, well,man, I just want to ride this
out with John Maxwell, but infact, it's quite the opposite.
It it is 100% the oppositebecause let's be honest, you
know, John Maxwell is 78 yearsold.
Okay.
He's he's not getting anyyounger, and but he's still
(13:52):
fired up, speaking more than anyof us inside the organization,
impacting more of us inside theorganization.
But there is this very, youknow, just passionate pursuit
of, oh my goodness, I've got tobecome more, you know, in order
to begin to step into theseplaces where John is, I've got
to write more in order to stepinto these places.
And so my goal at this time inmy career is really to be where
(14:16):
John Maxwell is not.
And so I instead of trying to bebeside John Maxwell, you know,
and he's out speaking indifferent places.
My goal is, well, if he's on astage, how can I be on a stage?
You know, just like today.
He's on an event today, I'm heretoday.
He's going to someplace I'mgonna be in Asia, you know, in
the next two days.
(14:37):
And then eventually, you know,there's an event that we'll
speak at together in Asia, butit's where can I go to impact
people where he's not?
And so we've really taken anopposite look at that, uh, at
least from my perspective, andwhat I'm trying to do is that I
need to be in places that he'snot.
Love that.
SPEAKER_00 (14:54):
Are you tired of being tired?
I know I was.
That's when I was glad to findown it coaching.
Now my resting heart rate's down20%, sleep quality up 300%.
You know, I just ran my firstSpartan rage at age 56.
I feel better than I ever have.
So if you're ready to stopsettling and start owning your
(15:14):
own health, go tocoachjohngallagher.com forward
slash own it and set up a freecall with the own it coaching
team.
That's coachjohngallagher.comforward slash own it.
Now, let's get back to theepisode of that.
And again, I recognize that Ithink about that often.
I mean, just the challenges ofan organization like that for
you and Mark Cole and Chris andall the you know, all the team
(15:35):
members that are there reallytrying to make that happen and
keep that going.
So cool.
Uh, I feel like I'm jumpingaround a little bit because I
think there's so many thingsinside of the book.
The one that I hung on, the stepthat I really dove deep into was
step number five, and that'srelationships, and which makes
sense for me in terms of how Icoach and how I work with teams
as a consultant as well.
But you mentioned getting in theright rooms.
(15:58):
What do you mean by getting inthe right rooms?
You said the right rooms havebigger windows inside of the
book.
But where is that for you?
And again, how did you get inthe right rooms to go to where
you are today?
SPEAKER_01 (16:08):
Yeah, you know, what do we mean by that?
I remember uh a pastor of mine,you know, years ago, he said,
Chris, if you want to get aroundsuccessful people, you're gonna
have to get on a lot ofairplanes.
And uh, a lot of people acceptthe relationships in their life
based upon proximity andhistory.
Proximity of this is the person,these are the people that live
(16:28):
in my neighborhood, these arethe people that I work with,
these are the people that I grewup with.
But if you want to get aroundmore people that are going the
direction that you want to go,you're gonna have to be highly
intentional about that.
All right.
And so for me, it was one ofthose things where I knew I
needed to have goodrelationships.
I knew that my network was mynet worth.
(16:49):
I knew that I had to be aroundgood people, but the nuance that
I did not get very early on wasthat I need to be around
like-minded people that wereheaded in the direction that I
wanted to go.
That was the accelerator.
So I was in your traditional,you know, mastermind groups,
networking groups, where, youknow, I was with the group of a
financial advisor, with themortgage person, with the HVAC
(17:12):
person, you know, I'm inside,and that's great.
Okay, just different businessowners helping each other out.
But then there was one day, youknow, I got a chance to go up on
a whiteboard, share my businessplans as a coach, speaker, and
trainer.
And, you know, the goal of thegroup was to give each other
feedback.
And for weeks I'd been givingpeople business feedback and
what they could do and how theycould help.
I went up to the board, John,and it was quiet.
(17:34):
Not a single word came out.
And I mean, I was honestly, Iwas hurt, going, man, nobody had
anything to say.
But one of my very close friendswas inside the room, and as we
walked out, he says, Chris, hegoes, What you said up there was
great, but nobody in the roomknows what it is that you're
talking about.
Nobody in the room knows aprofessional speaker, nobody in
the room knows a professionalcoach.
He said, Chris, I think you'rein the wrong room.
(17:56):
And he was absolutely right.
I mean, it shattered me.
I mean, it was like, I'mfollowing the principle of being
around successful people.
Like, you know, I, you know,this is what I'm thinking in my
head.
And so when I now gotintentional about, hey, I'm
gonna get into a room with othercoaches, speakers, and trainers,
other whatever it is that youdo.
You know, the same thing appliesat anything that you do.
(18:18):
When I wanted to get aroundbetter pickleball players, I had
to go get around betterpickleball players.
When I wanted to go get bettergolf, I had to go get around
better golfers.
Okay, so the principle applies,but like-minded people trying to
get better at the thing thatyou're trying to get better at.
But when I got in the room withother coaches, speakers, and
trainers, it was like you justpoured gasoline all over me and
just lit fire.
(18:39):
Because now every conversation,everyone knew or had some good
idea or thought or vision ofyes, I'm going in that
direction.
And that was the activator.
But what it also did was itplaced me in a room with people
that were further ahead of medown the journey, where their
vision was much bigger than whatI was thinking of at the time.
(19:00):
And what we mean by thosewindows are bigger is that they
expand your vision, right?
They expand your vision of whatyou think is possible.
And so getting inside the rightrooms is critical for your
growth.
SPEAKER_00 (19:12):
Yeah, I'm gonna stay there for a minute because look,
I let's go back to the 21-yearfood laws of leadership.
I think it's number 19, the lawof sacrifice.
You must give up to go up.
I make up that one of the thingsthat keeps people in smaller
rooms is they're afraid to hurtothers, that they don't want to
tell someone they're leaving togo to a bigger room, so to
speak.
Did you experience that when youwent into the bigger rooms and
(19:35):
went forward?
Or how did you overcome that?
SPEAKER_01 (19:37):
Well, I mean, I think there's two sides of that.
I I think one, there's this kindof I don't want to leave the
smaller room, but then there'salso the fear of being inside
the bigger room.
Okay.
Absolutely.
What that means is like, wait aminute, you know, these people
are doing so much more, youknow, and then we get into that
impostor syndrome, which I talkabout in the book.
(19:58):
And and I love this because Ithink a lot of people deal with
So you know it's page 146.
SPEAKER_00 (20:02):
That's where I am right now.
Imposture versus imposter.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01 (20:05):
Right, right.
But imposter syndrome happenswhen your need to impress is
greater than your need toprogress.
And for me, that was that wasjust putting myself in a place
of being a student and going,hey, like, it's okay for me to
be the dumbest person in theroom.
It's okay for me to be thebrokest person in the room.
(20:27):
And in fact, I want to be thebrokest person in the room every
single time.
I'd be like, hey, let me, let mebe that person.
But for some of us, the ego islike, we want to, we want to be
the big fish in the small pond.
I want to be the person.
But what I've learned is thatthe higher that you go up, the
more successful people that yougo around, I think the more
(20:48):
student mentality that I'veseen.
I mean, being around JohnMaxwell, one of the very best of
this industry, he's one of themost curious people on the
planet that I've ever seen in mylife.
You you see a dinner with JohnMaxwell and you're sitting down
beside him, you would think thathe's talking the entire time,
just pouring out wisdom.
And yeah, you sit down with him,so wisdom's gonna come out, but
he's asking questions the entiretime, and he is genuinely
(21:11):
wanting to learn from everybodyat that table.
It's amazing.
SPEAKER_00 (21:15):
I love that.
I mean, you're you're talking ifyou're the person in the room
with the most experience and themost insight, you're in the
wrong room.
I mean, I see that, and I lovehow you distinguish between
having posture or impostureinside of that room.
You can add value.
And this is really about uh, andthis is something that look,
I've been facing recently aswell is that you know, I belong
in that room versus to yourpoint, the negative side of
(21:37):
saying, man, I don't know if Ibelong here or not, kind of
thing.
Yeah, I think there's there'spower in that.
Chris, I'm gonna have one morething and then I'm gonna have
some fun questions too from thebook.
Step seven, evaluating.
I love that.
So if you can evaluate yourperformance ultimately as you go
through that, I love that it's apicture of a cycle that you
start over again.
Folks, you got to get this bookbecause there's more and more
inside of it.
But there's a statement you hadin the evaluation chapter that
(22:00):
really hit me hard.
It says, one of the most caringand compassionate things you can
do for a person is to tell themthe truth, particularly when you
see something that is takingthem away from the life they
desire.
Now that's scriptural as well.
Proverbs 27, 6, you listenthere.
Faithful are the wounds of afriend, but the kisses of an
enemy are deceitful.
So it reminds me a lot of thatperformance review you got after
(22:23):
that presentation that Johnpoured truth into you.
They might have been wounds atthe time, but you took the
perspective of going to getbetter.
How do we care enough about aperson to deliver truth uh with
love and compassion so that theycan continue to grow?
SPEAKER_01 (22:38):
Yeah, well, one, the person has to be open and
available.
Again, if we go back to thatword awareness, they have to be
aware that, hey, I I still needto learn and grow in this area.
And, you know, to be honest,when I asked, because it's when
I asked John for that feedbackthat day, you know, I was
looking for feedback and I wasplacing myself in an open
(23:00):
position to go, hey, what can Ilearn?
Because he I hadn't spoken frontof him probably in maybe it was
around three or four months atthat time.
And so he hadn't seen me.
So I thought, okay, hey, let meget some feedback here.
But I think that we have to becareful too, because if you go
back to that, you know, the thekisses of an enemy.
And after I delivered that talk,there was a long line of people
(23:22):
that told me how awesome it was.
Oh, yeah.
Okay, and again, not that theywere wrong or not that they did
anything, but I could have justreceived that, sat down at
dinner and went, oh man, I didgreat.
I'm awesome, right?
But but it was having thatopenness, but having the right
people give me feedback.
And I knew that the people atthe table, they loved me and
(23:44):
that they were giving mefeedback that was only gonna
help me.
It's very hard, one, for peopleto admit that they need help,
and two, for them to have theright type of feedback.
And so, you know, receiving it,you've got to be open, you've
got to be aware to give it, yougotta make sure that person is
open and aware because sometimespeople just don't want it.
(24:06):
They just don't want it.
SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
So good.
That is so good, Chris.
I mean, there's like again,stories myself, again, you're
you're throwing those things atme again uh in the past week uh
that have been that thatsomeone's poured truth into me
and and held me to anotherlevel.
I go back to that wordcomplacency and I and I throw my
faith into it.
We were not called to be goodenough.
We were not called to be okaywith our success.
(24:31):
We were called to greatness.
And I think you know, that'ssomething that if we as
obviously as leaders, ascoaches, as mentors can make
folks aware of what's possiblein terms of their potential,
that can be so powerful.
And you know, as brothers inChrist and as Christians, it's
our obligation to do that aswell in terms of how we're
living our lives.
(24:51):
So I still appreciate how you uhhave done that so good.
SPEAKER_01 (24:55):
Let me real quick on that one because you know you
brought your faith into it,brought our faith into it.
And and I heard a quote justyesterday that really just
sparked, you know, this area ofcomplacency for me in stomping
this out.
But it was from Saint Arrheniuswho said that the glory of God
is man fully alive.
(25:15):
I mean, think about that.
The glory of God is man fullyalive.
That is lack and void ofcomplacency, but fully alive.
And so the question we've got toask ourselves is hey, when was
the last time we were fullyalive and present?
And if we get to those places,we get to those rooms, we get to
getting out of bed with thattype, that's the glory of God.
(25:40):
Man alive.
SPEAKER_00 (25:41):
Amen, brother.
No doubt about it.
Goodness gracious.
I look, I know I could continueto go on.
I want to ask you a couple funquestions.
Chris has been so good.
I could uh keep going with yourbook.
It's powerful.
Folks, I'm gonna put a link tothe book as well.
I'm gonna ask folks how they canget in touch with you as well,
Chris.
Um, but I got some reallyimportant questions.
SPEAKER_01 (25:58):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (25:59):
Twizzlers or Reese cups?
SPEAKER_01 (26:00):
Oh, Twizzlers all day.
But I love Reese's, but theygotta be frozen.
They gotta be frozen.
SPEAKER_00 (26:05):
Oh, frozen Reese.
Okay, okay.
Even that.
All right, because I I look, I Ithink about that as I listen
through your story and talkingabout Twizzlers, about how your
Halloween bucket might have beenas a kid.
You're like, I'm gonna trade allmy Reese cups for Twizzlers
because I want the Twitter.
Now you now you're gonna hold onto the Reese cups as well.
I don't have a chance innegotiation with you.
You love cars as well.
(26:26):
What's your next car?
You got your eyes on one?
SPEAKER_01 (26:28):
Yeah, yes, the next car will be a McLaren 720S, uh,
is what I'm looking at.
I have a McLaren now, and soI've had this one for about uh
almost three years, and so it'stime to go on to the next one.
But yeah, so it'll be McLaren720S, and then also the uh the
Bentley GT convertible.
My wife has been eyeballing it.
(26:48):
So it caught her attention.
I go, oh, I like that one too.
We might be able to make thatone happen.
SPEAKER_00 (26:53):
Goodness gracious, you're gonna need a bigger
garage, like you talked about inthere in there as well.
Uh look, here leaders arereaders, no doubt about it.
Uh the other side.
You mentioned you talked aboutalways have a book.
Look, I think this is a bookthat needs to be in folks'
hands.
Um how do you what's yourdiscipline on reading, how you
continue to grow, Chris?
And then you mentioned how tocrush a book.
SPEAKER_01 (27:12):
Yeah, so the discipline on reading is really
focused in two areas.
What's a problem that I'm tryingto solve or a passion that I
have?
I primarily find myself reallyfocused on the problems that I'm
trying to solve.
And then what I'll do is I'llstack up those books in that
specific topic.
So I never read like a singlebook by itself on a topic.
It's usually going to be three,four, five, six, seven, eight
(27:34):
books on a same topic becausewhat that's doing now is
layering my learning.
And so right now for me, I'mreally uh focused on community
building uh and engagement forMaxwell leadership.
So everything that I'm readinguh in this season right now is
community building, uh, youknow, engagement with uh
communities.
SPEAKER_00 (27:53):
Love that.
Love that.
Thank you for sharing thatbecause I actually, as I
listened to that as an idea, itjust makes total sense going
deep on a topic.
You know, my son uh was a youthministry major at Liberty
University, and he challenged mebecause I had read the entire
Bible kind of four years in arow.
Again, and that's anaccomplishment in and of itself.
But he said, Dad, why don't youjust dive deep into a couple
books for the whole year?
Just pick one old testament, onenew, and just go deep every
(28:16):
month.
SPEAKER_01 (28:16):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
I'm like, wow, how's that?
And just learn that topic andlearn really so I can understand
how becoming an expert in thattopic, putting that stack of
books in the same topic can bereally powerful.
So cool.
Chris, you've been ultimatelygracious to share with the
listeners, the Uncommon Leaderpodcast.
How can they get in touch withyou, learn, learn more about
you, and connect with you?
SPEAKER_01 (28:36):
Absolutely.
Well, always at ChrisRobinsonspeaker.com, Chris
Robinsonspeaker.com, and then ofcourse, and all your regular
social medias, Facebook,LinkedIn, etc.
SPEAKER_00 (28:45):
Absolutely.
So I'll put the link to that aswell, Chris Robinson Speak
Speaker, in there.
I'm gonna give you the last wordhere, Chris.
You've been extremely graciousand I've loved our conversation.
I've enjoyed it.
I've laughed at and laughed likethis for a while as well.
And it's again probably moreabout me in terms of that laugh.
Uh, but if you could compilekind of these, you know, uh
thoughts and years, whether it'sjust for your book or whether
(29:05):
it's just for uh you as a personand how you talk with
individuals, probably an unfairquestion, into one billboard,
into one thought, into onemantra for you that you wanted
to communicate with someone whois listening today that needed
to grow, what would that mantrabe?
And why would you list that asyour mantra?
SPEAKER_01 (29:23):
Yeah, so I I and it's actually one of the
chapters of the book is learn alittle, do a little.
And you know, if I could have abillboard, you know, all across,
you know, the US of learn alittle, do a little, I think
that would help a ton of people.
And uh, you know, thatphilosophy of hey, you don't
have to know everything, youjust need to go learn something,
then you need to go do somethingbecause you know, action, you
(29:47):
know, draws learning.
And the more that you do, themore that you learn.
And so getting people from thatcomplacency, myopia and
hyperopia, I think that's thebalance beam in between is
learning a little.
And doing a little, and that'llmove you in the direction that
you want to go.
SPEAKER_00 (30:03):
Very simple, very pragmatic, but very powerful.
Absolutely.
Chris Robinson, it's been such apleasure to have you as a guest
on the Uncommon Leader Podcast.
I wish you the best in thefuture, okay?
Thanks a lot, John.
All right.
So, folks, you've listened allthe way through.
You've made it to the end here,no doubt about it, and you know
someone who needs to hear thismessage.
You know someone who needs toget a copy of the book.
(30:23):
Why don't you do them a bigfavor and buy one for yourself
and then buy another copy foryour friend as well and share it
with them and go through thebook with them?
Because I think you're going tofind power inside of that.
If you like this episode, likethis conversation, be sure to
follow Chris on his website, butalso share this episode with a
friend that you know who needsto hear it.
And certainly we'd love that youcould write a review out there
(30:44):
to get this to hear it.
And certainly we'd love that youcould write it into the hands of
as many people as we can.
Until next time, go and growchampions.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Two Guys, Five Rings: Matt, Bowen & The Olympics
Two Guys (Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers). Five Rings (you know, from the Olympics logo). One essential podcast for the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics. Bowen Yang (SNL, Wicked) and Matt Rogers (Palm Royale, No Good Deed) of Las Culturistas are back for a second season of Two Guys, Five Rings, a collaboration with NBC Sports and iHeartRadio. In this 15-episode event, Bowen and Matt discuss the top storylines, obsess over Italian culture, and find out what really goes on in the Olympic Village.