July 10, 2025 • 52 mins
Christian Ray Flores, the author of "The Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America," which emphasizes the values and opportunities that the country offers, often taken for granted by its citizens. Christian shares his remarkable journey from experiencing political upheaval in Chile to thriving in the United States.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
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What's up, everybody? Welcome to this week's edition of the
On Purpose podcast, where it's our pleasure to show up
with you each and every week. Get your mind working,
get your body moving, get you maybe living life a
little more curious. I'm excited this week, especially, you know,
(01:03):
right around the fourth of julyst well era, I think
the eleventh of July, so we're kind of in a
patriotic time as far as the calendar goes. We're also
in the time of turmoil and some a lot of
political divisiveness and just unsettled time here for the United States.
And I thought, what a great timing for this guest
(01:24):
who's an author and entrepreneur, amongst other things, who wrote
a book called The Little Book of Big Reasons to
Love America Christian Ray Flores, and his journey is nothing
short of extraordinary. He's born in Chile, raised amongst political turmoil,
and witnessed first hand to fall of the Soviet Union,
(01:45):
bringing us a global perspective of freedom, resilience, and opportunity.
His book is a powerful tribute to the values that
make America unique, blending personal experience, historical insights, and cultural
reflections to highlight our names strengths. Through his work, challenge
or Christian challenges you to see the bigger picture, appreciate
(02:06):
our freedoms that we often take for granted, and cultivate
a deeper sense of gratitude for the opportunities available to us.
So this week, I'm excited to sit down with Christian
and learn more about his perspective, learn more about his
views and what's going on and how he recommends we
handle it. How from his view, we're still lucky to
(02:27):
be alive today and here. So before we get to
this conversation, please do me a favorite get over, like subscribe,
share this podcast wherever you're consuming. If you've already done that,
thank you so much. If you haven't, just take a
moment and help us win the battle to algorithms to
get out and reach more people around the world to
fulfill our mission, which is to be one of the
(02:49):
most impactful podcasts in the world. That means we're a
podcast that creates momentum and ripples and gets people living
life with more purpose. So do that and then sit
back and enjoy this week's conversation with Christian Ray Flores.
Christian my newest friend. Welcome to the On Purpose podcast.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Thanks for having me, Jared, I'm good man, I'm excited,
excited for the talk.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I want to thank you for sharing your story. Man,
I want to thank you for doing what you're doing
and putting that story out in the world. I think
too many times we don't find value in our old story,
or we compare it to everybody else as we keep
it to ourselves. But nobody can learn from a story
unless it's told.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, I think so. I mean it took me, I
don't know, a decade to even write what I knew
what I knew should be written, So you know it
takes me a while.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, but I think that's good, right, Like I think
sometimes we're too big a hurry to move on from things.
We don't let that masterpiece marinate a little bit and
really gain the perspective that comes with getting past the
moment and looking back to it.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, I think. I mean, I think for me it
was not even a masterpiece. I think it's just what
you said first, is that I didn't think it was
valuable enough. Right, So you sort of have it in you,
you know, I think every single person has a book
at least one book in them, right. But then people
tell you, hey, you should write it down, you should
write it that, you should write it down. Who's going
(04:19):
to read that? And it's a lot of work, you know,
that kind of thing. So eventually, eventually sort of there's
a critical mass where you go, yeah, I should write
it that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
All right, before we jump into your story, Christian, I
like to have a warm up for you. I have
to think of this as like a mental warm up
to get the mind and body ready to go. You
ready for your warm up?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, go for it all right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You get to have one word to describe you. What
word do you choose?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Refugee?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh? That ties in good to your story?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It does? Yeah? Yeah, what do you want me to
unpack that? Or yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Tell me why that comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, I shoul because I had one word, I
said refugee. I would say leader of refugees if I
would had more like three words. And the reason that
is I went through this exercise just recently. I don't
remember where I heard it, but somebody said, look, what
are some of the things that you've, like like a
shadow word that you would use about your life, something
(05:22):
that doesn't that's not a fond memory, right, And and
I was thinking, I was like, this is a great
this is I think refugee is the word. And then
he said, find a way to frame it so that
you can be so that it actually feeds into the
edge that you have in this world, how you can
(05:42):
be a service to other people. And that really helped
me because I thought, you know what, I've always I've
never liked big institutions because of that sort of origin
story of being a refugee at age five, and it's
sort of I never thought of it that way that
I've always had avocated for essentially a rebellion against orthocracy,
(06:07):
against sort of anything that's hyper hierarchical, oppressive and removes
your freedom. Every single even career path, I had that
thing on in me and I never noticed that that's
a pattern. Right, So I'm like, you know what, I
think this is how I reframe it. I'm a leader
(06:28):
of refugees. I'm a leader of people who want to
get you know, get out of the machine, get out
of the matrix, you know, and that's my band, right,
So I think it's I think it's something something was
there instilled in me that it helps me now. Right.
For example, I do coaching right right now, I do
personal brand coaching for people, for people who want to
(06:49):
be known for something. And people have asked me so
many times why don't you do that? For like, why
don't you do corporate coaching? Because that's where the money is, right,
Corporate just have money. They send their people to coaches
to do the stuff, and I never ever wanted to
do that. And the reason because I just don't like
big corporations just as a as a as an environment
(07:10):
for me. It might be great for some people, it's
not good for me. Like I would run away from
a corporation if I was in a situation like that, right,
because too much bureaucracy, too much hierarchy, too much rigidity.
And so even in my professional expression, I shy away
from the thing that that sort of communicates to me,
(07:32):
this could be oppressive, you know what I'm saying. So anyway,
it's too long of an answer. I'm sorry, but you
asked the question, right, what's the what's the what's the word?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah? I love it all right? What's a favorite quote
that kind of sticks with you throughout life?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I have a few? I mean, okay, so too, can
I do too?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Okay, So, mother Teresa, there are not great things. There's
only little things done with great love. I'm probably butchering
it a little bit, but sort of the essence of it.
That's one. Uh, and then James Clear and I'm butchering
both of them. Oh my gosh, terrible memory for like
(08:12):
word for word. Basically, James clear is you will not
race to race to the level of your of your aspirations.
You will fall to the level of your habits.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So those those two things, and now that I say it,
I'll go, oh my gosh, I think they're saying the
same thing, you know, if you think about it, right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, all right, Christian, your your life has a theme song?
What would your song be?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Theme song?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
My gosh, I would say Our Generation? Okay, yeah, that's
the theme song. Nice?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So what brings that? What memory comes up with that?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Well, I'm cheating a little bit because basically, our Generation
was the name of the of one of my biggest
hits in my previous career as an artist, and the
and the and the and the chorus went, where we
are our generation, We're a sign of liberation. And it
was basically the song that Boris Yelton used in his
(09:19):
presidential campaign against the communists, and the song was all
about freedom. So and they literally used that song as
the anthem for the presidential campaign. So I'm cheating a
little bit because I sort of know what the theme
song is, but in a broader in a broader sense,
you know, it actually feeds into the lifestyle. The stuff
(09:44):
that I do, how I do it right. So it's
really a sign of liberation kind of stuff. Love it.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's a favorite book or a book you're currently reading.
You can answer either way.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so book that I'm reading, I'm reading that Native
Act by Rick Rubin. Uh, and again I might be
butchering the title. It's either the creative act or the
creative lifestyle or something like that. Yeah, okay, the producer
of the music, the epic music producer, Rick Rubin, right stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, okay, one last question, Christian. You get to have
dinner with one person they could have passed on or
still been be with us. Who would you have dinner
with and what would you want to ask them?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I would have dinner with the apostle Paul and ask him,
how did you how do how did you even imagine
the life that you led after being a complete enemy
of Jesus to becoming the apostle who wrote half the
New Testament? And how how do you start a movement
(10:50):
like that? From nothing?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
That's interesting? That's got a lot of layers too, right,
because it's also like one of the things that comes
to mind hearing that is that he had to kind
of move past who had been to create who's new.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, yeah, huge, I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
The story is amazing, right, and so many people in
today's society are so beholden to who they've been they
refuse to grow or change into anything new.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. That's a that's a that's a very good point.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, that'd be interesting conversation. All right, you feeling warmed up? Christian?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I am man, all right, so talk to me.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I want to kick off first the title of your book,
Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America. I want
to talk to you about where did that come from
and what made you decide to write that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So the title, actually I stole the title, uh, sort
of creatively stole when I was again, you know what,
it's so cool the theme. Right, this was maybe twenty
or maybe eighteen years ago. My children, my two youngest daughters,
(12:04):
were in school. I did not like how their education
situation was gone. And then my wife brought me this
little booklet and it's a little I mean I could
read it probably in a couple hours max. It was
called The Little Book of Big Reasons to Homeschool. And
I read that book and we decided to homeschool our
(12:26):
two youngest daughters, and we homeschooled all the way through
high school. And it's one of my best decisions ever. Right,
So that's so put a pin on that. And how
the book happened itself is that I was a fan
of America my whole life, right, And I grew up
overseas Latin America, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and I
(12:49):
became sort of I sort of was attuned to the frequency.
So I was sort of a student of the American
culture in the American way, et cetera. And then I
married an American. Then I moved to America. I was
thirty five years old. And when I moved to America,
I was I noticed things that most American take takes
(13:10):
take for granted, and I was excited about it. And
I would point, and it's not just things that are
sort of on the surface, right, Wow, there's people here
have let's say, more safety, more freedom, more abundance, et cetera. No,
it was a lot more nuanced than that, right, infrastructure, culture, faith, charity,
(13:33):
things like that, Right, And I would say that, of course,
the person who hears me the most is my wife
so my wife Dad would go, you keep saying those things, right,
and you should write it down somewhere, because I think
people don't have that perspective. So she'd said that for
a long time and then eventually, you know, we're going
on a walk here near our house. We have these
beautiful trails, and she said, you know that it was
(13:57):
it was maybe it was election, you know, the last
election cycle, so the one where you know, we're electing
the president, et cetera. And things got real ugly, right,
really really ugly, and deb was like, and it was
it was not the election yet, but it was pre
election like it was sort of ongoing, slow rolling. It
wasn't it wasn't near because the book came out before
(14:20):
the election, actually before the results. And so in the
beginning of the year she was like, you know, the
thing that you tell me about America, you're so excited
about it, you should write this down. I mean, look
at this ugliness, you know. And basically that's how I
ended up writing a book. It was ten chapters, ten
reasons so of America. And then I stole the title
creatively stole the title from the homeschooling book and go,
(14:41):
that's kind of a nice title to it, Little Book
of Big Green Still America's so simple. It communicates that
it's short. You can read it in about three hours.
And then I added my creative layers to it. So
I added colory illustrations, AI illustrations, archival pictures, QR codes
to videos, and quotes from like every chapter has quotes
from notable figures who speak about the thing of that chapter.
(15:06):
So I sort of added some layers to it later,
but that's how it came about.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So talk to me about your childhood and just your
earlier life going through political up here. He was on
Chile to see in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
How did that shape your perspective?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I saw a lot of I think, I think
I just saw so much oppression right in. I saw
oppression in like in literally three continents, slightly different even
brands of oppression, but the results were all, you know,
you know, terrible. So the I was five years old,
(15:46):
we moved to Chile from Russia. My mom's Russian, but
we moved when I was a baby. So I was
five years old when there was a coup in Chile
and tens of thousands of people got arrested, they overthrow
the government, and they put people in concentration camps. My
dad was in and one they put people in these
big state like soccer stadium because they ran out of space,
(16:07):
so they were put him on soccerams a large They
can put a lot of people there, right, and they
would literally torture kill a bunch of people. A lot
of people disappeared without trace to this day that we
don't know where they are. So it's a famous story.
It was a big, big, big thing. We were smack
in the middle of it. My parents were Marxists, so
(16:28):
they were supporting the president that was overthrown. The president
that was overthrown was a socialist, so it's an interesting
sort of dilemma that sort of comes full circle later
when I campaigned against the Communist as at a big
pop star in Russia. But at the time I was
five years old. My first memory was standing outside of
that concentration camp that my dad was held in and
my mom was trying to pass food through the guards
(16:51):
to him, which never made it to him, by the way,
and I remember just being scared. We ended up being
in a refugee facility for a few months, and you know,
with a bunch of families under the protection of the
United Nations. And then we got asylum in Germany, so
we were basically refugees, revugee like Munich, you know. We
got off the plane, they the Germans were very, very hospitable,
(17:14):
actually incredible, just incredible. They took care of us, like
the mayor was at the airport meeting us, which it
was amazing. So so eventually we made it back to
the Soviet Union because Mom was socill shocked, she wanted
to go back home. It was worse. We ended up
in a communal apartment, you know, like when you share
like a hallway in a kitchen and a bathroom with
(17:36):
another family. It was horrible, right, like right, you know,
terrible terror, it's cold, everything sucks basically right. So, like
I have such bad memories of that, you know, like trump,
I was sick all the time, almost died there. I
had pneumonia back to back to back bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchitis, pneumonia.
So I was in the hospital a lot. And then
(17:58):
my dad gets a job in Africa, in Mozambique. So
Mozambique just got hit its independence from the Portuguese sort
of that whole wave of independence movements in Africa in
the sixties and seventies. And we end up in Mosamique, Mozambique,
as I'm seven years old. This is literally my fourth country,
(18:21):
my third continent, and I'm seven years old. Wow, like
completely different languages, you know, so like you talk about
massive changes, like back to back to back in Then
a year after we landed there, there was a civil
war that started there. It was mostly up north, but
we got bombings, we got all kinds of things, food, shortgages,
(18:41):
you know, we had ration cards for some stuff, and
so it's just a very strange existence. But it was
a very happy actually childhood because there was so much
freedom there. Like as a child, it was amazing, right.
So we ended up doing that and went back to
the Soviet Union when I was now a teenager after
my parents divorced, and I was back in the sort
(19:03):
of the land of mediocrity, right, Entrepreneurship is illegal, Okay,
censorship is absolute. We lived in a one bedroom apartment.
I slept in the kitchen. We were not hungry, ever,
but everybody was poor. So we were middle class in
the sense that everybody's poor, and that's it no car,
(19:27):
no restaurants, you know, not hungry. But that's why I say,
it's a land of mediocrity. You exchange freedom for mediocrity.
And I saw the whole thing collapse basically, you know.
And I graduated from university ninety one masters in economics,
(19:50):
and the whole thing collapses, you know. And I basically
all my friends go to banking and trade and everything,
and I went into music like I was the one idiot,
A chose something that has almost zero success rates. Right, So,
but I was very lucky and successful. I was good, right,
and I became basically one of the top pop stars
in all of that territory of fifteen different countries, and
(20:13):
basically the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
When did it come to your attention, if you go
to America you have a chance at a completely different life.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, well I knew. I always knew that, Like I
hadn't I never had I never even hoped to go
in America when I was a kid, right, my first
glimpses were I was a Now, I mean, think about this,
this is one of the poorest countries in the world,
Mozambique at the time seventies. There's no television, My like
three years, I and my dad builds this big tower.
Wer we get the signal from South African television and
(20:45):
they showed these American shows. And we were in a
country where and we were in a privileged position where expats, right,
still pretty basic like for us, it wouldn't be for Americans.
Now it's nothing, but we made but more than seventy
percent of the population makes it lives on under two
(21:06):
dollars a day in that country and still today, right
like let that sink in. So we're in that place
and I see shows where people go and cruises and
the high rises in New York and the beautiful American cars,
and it's like it just seems like a like a
different planet basically right at the time. But then eventually, obviously,
(21:31):
you know, I became famous, I got a fame and fortune.
I traveled to America quite a bit, so I became
very acquainted with it. I didn't really want to move
because now I have a brand in like all of
that territory, right Like, if I go to America, I
need to start over. Nobody cares who I am there, right, so,
you know, So we would go back and forth to
(21:52):
visit my wife's parents and stuff like that. Right, So
she's American, she's from Wisconsin, and and so I didn't
really want I admired the culture, and I almost like
subscribed to the signal, right, to the signal of freedom,
even in everywhere I went. I had that sort of
(22:15):
rebellious streak, right, entrepreneurial, street, creative streak, all of those things.
But I really didn't want to move to America because
I had sort of made it in somewhere else, right,
So going to America was not an aspiration from me.
It was just an inspiration more than an aspiration. And
we ended up moving to America only because my wife,
(22:35):
who has some uterimmune issues, was getting sicker and sicker
with the climate.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And where was that at? The climate in Russia?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, the climate sucks in Russia, very cold,
there's no sun. You know.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Did you ever share these ideas with your mom? How
receptive was she to you come into America?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
She was fine with it. Well, she was sad because
I was leaving, but my sister had already gone to America,
she was already lived there, so she was sort of okay,
I guess, so you know, then she she sort of
went back and forth. She would go back and forth.
She's an American citizen now she goes back and forth
and back and forth still. But yeah, so she was
she was fine with it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
And one of the themes in your book is the
power of gratitude, right, being grateful for the opportunities we
have and m hmm, kind of reminding yourself that even
our problems are better than a lot of places in
the world.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, How did you develop that mindset to be grateful
for your challenges? And how would you say that more
of us can do that with intention, be more purposeful
to looking for the gratitude piece.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It's actually one of the things one of the things
that I when I that I coach people in is
that it's sort of in the morning routine. You can
it's very simple. You can just have a journal a
piece of paper and you can say, hey, just write
down five things every day that you're great for, like
in the immediate sort of vicinity of last week, for example, right,
just small things notice or people, and you can vary it, right,
(24:08):
so it doesn't get old. It could be people, it
could be long term, it could be short term, it
could be present, it could be even gratitude for the future. Yeah,
that sort of thing. But are because our brain bends
towards the negative because it's sort of prime primed to
to help us survive, not thrive. Doing something like that
(24:29):
intentionally really really helps, right, But I think so there's
definitely ways to nurture that quality in you. The other
thing is being in environments that are that have that
kind of cultural trait, right, So a community, a church,
a coaching group, whatever, right where people are like that,
(24:51):
So you become sort of the average of the closest
five people that you're around all the time. So you
put yourself in a situation where people are generally grateful,
you're more grateful. Like if you put yourself in a
situation where most of the people around you complain, you're
going to complain more. So it's just not complicated. But
I would say for me, there was definitely an added
layer of optimism and gratitude throughout And to me, I
(25:18):
don't know why that happened, but it was there. So
it's a mystery to me, honestly. But it comes to
like a baseline. I think everybody has a baseline, And
you know, I've talked to some of the top researchers
on for example, joy and happiness, and basically what research
shows is that about fifty percent of its genetic, not
just genetic naturally, but nurturing. Like for example, if your
(25:40):
parents were a bit negative and sort of not present
and not joyful, you probably have a lower baseline, but
it's just fifty percent, which means you can double your
joy just by practicing certain things and being around the
right people and learning certain skills. Right. So to me,
I am definitely my baseline was high.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
How did you handle that? How did you? How did
you manage to keep that baseline high? When you're seeing
what you're seeing? When you're you got the up here,
you move it in and out because it's.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's crazy, right, yeah, right, I think I get that
all the time. But there, I mean, people like look
at me and go, how are you? How are you
not bitter? Basically right like? And I honestly don't know.
I can't really like I wish I have theories, but
I don't have an answer. I think it's a mystery.
And my theory is that you can reframe something negative
(26:37):
and what what how it who? It made you? Right?
So I'll give you might be two or three examples, right,
So one is this, I'll give you three specific examples
how I reframed it. But my point is, well, how
do you get there to reframe it? I don't know,
you know. But so one is this, if you went
(26:59):
through some rough time times and it's there's a pattern
of that and you're okay after that, you can say
I have more strength than most people realize. I know
I have more strength. Most people think they may have strength.
I know I have more strength and resilience because I've
actually experienced that and most people have not, which basically
(27:19):
means I'm much more like I'm much more unafraid of
suffering and anything good in life. If you're an entrepreneur,
if you want to become get in shape, if you
want to build a good relationship or learn something new,
that is all suffering, Like, you can't not suffer and
get there. So if you're unafraid of suffering, you'll probably
(27:41):
try more things and actually do better right long term.
So that's one. That's one thing. That's one way to
reframe it. The other one is this was actually a
recent realization because I practice a lot of sort of contemplation, right,
because you need to understand yourself. Is that I because
(28:01):
I was a foreigner. I was an outsider everywhere I've
been in like literally everywhere. I literally don't belong anywhere
because of all those things. Right, So in Chile, you know,
I look Chilean. I blend in real well visually, but
then I start talking and I speak Spanish, but my
jargon is not there. It's slightly different. Right, I'm fluent,
(28:22):
but it's not. They know that I've been I've spent
time in other places, right, and I am actual and
accent and everything, but it's the vocabulary that is different.
The If I go to Africa, they call me white.
If I go to Russia, they call me colored, right
or whatever. Brown. I just never fit in. If I'm
in America, you talk to me for five minutes, you
(28:44):
detect an accent, you detect some things, right, and people
will go like, so where are you from? Exactly right? So,
and it's not all bad, it's just is so that primal,
our primal desire to fit in. I was sort of
divorced from that illusion since the beginning. I couldn't fit in.
(29:05):
So what do you do when you when you you
what do you do when you can't fit in even
if you want to. Well, then you stand out. And
if you think about it, every success in every area,
in every industry is about actually not blending in it. It's
about standing out. It's about finding that edge, what makes
you different, what makes you better, what makes you competitive,
(29:27):
what makes you solve a problem in particular way. So
emotionally speaking, I'm primed for that. Yeah, I'm like, I
don't don't. I don't mind it all standing out. I've
never blended in anyway, you know, So it makes me
makes me more creative basically, So I can go on
and on. But my point is you can find things
like that to to reframe it and then turn it
(29:49):
into some sort of superpower strength.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I love it. The first part of what I heard
there that just came to mind because you said you suffered, right,
and you weren't afraid of us suffering because you'd experience
it and you knew like you could power through it.
The first thing that comes to mind there is you're
being tested, right, like you said, some people think we're strong,
some people think we're fast, something, people think I would
do this in that situation. Until you're tested, you really
(30:15):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Right, you were tested, so you knew you were practicing
resilience because you're being tested by life.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I mean we're taking massive risks,
all kinds of risks throughout my life.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Right, And here's what I love about that. When we're tested,
we build confidence. Yeah, when you're afraid of the test,
when you avoid the test, it all costs. When you
steer clear of it, Oh my god, I might fail.
I'm not going to even do it. You will never
get the confidence. And on the other side, whether you're
successful or not, but you got to get involved in
(30:48):
the doing of it.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah. Yeah, there's no shortcut at all. Ok. Here's the
third one, because, as you know, we crave some thing predictable,
something structured that I I want to know that the
sky's not gonna fall tomorrow, right, that things are going
to be stable. It's very, very human, very you know. Well,
(31:13):
if you go from from being in a military coup,
a civil war, and then the collapse literally of a
whole empire right before your eyes, the illusion of stability
goes away, you know. So, and the the upside of
that is, well, if nothing is certain, then everything is possible.
M hm, and I literally that's how I thought. I'm like,
(31:38):
why would I go do banking It's so predictable. I'm
gonna go do music. It's super high risk, probably going
to fail, but everything is possible. Yeah, basically right. Yeah,
so that's kind of a reframe as well.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, it's so funny listening to you Christians. You're you're
you're talking and you're sharing your stories. I'm hearing all
this goes back to your word, which is ye of
refugee dot. You didn't belong anywhere, so you relieved yourself
of the pressure of fitting in and just accepted that
I'm going to stand out no matter where I go.
So I'm going to stand out on my terms.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Exactly, and then naturally, like now, I mean, I've changed
five different careers. Now I do personal brand coaching, which
is literally helping people first of all, believe that they
can stand out, that they should stand out, actually yeah,
and then tell them how to stand out and how
to not be afraid of it. And then obviously there's
a lot of strategy and tactics there, but my point
(32:34):
is it really helping someone going screw this, like, why
am I a cognitive machine? Love it. I'm more than
this basically. That's so it's very it's a very rebellious
kind of service. Like I'm a leader of refugees, you know,
so no, but.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I look at what you're doing. That's exactly like your
stories revolve around this, and I think one of the
craziest things. And here's what I love about just life
and sharing stories, right is you found the power in
your stories at a young age. You found the power
in going, wait, I don't have to be I'm not
like everybody else. So I'm not even gonna pretend to
be like everybody else. I'm gonna go one hundred percent
(33:12):
into who I want to be. And I think Christian. Unfortunately,
a lot of people, a lot of people don't find
that realization or go that deep into their own psyche
their own emotions until they're near death, right and there
at the end of their life. And like, wait a second,
I spent so much of my life fitting in doing
shit I didn't want to do, being unhappy because everybody
(33:33):
expected me to do this that I'm leaving a lot
of my gifts are gonna get buried with me. I
didn't share them.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, oh totally. And it's it's it's crazy. And to me,
that's part of the reason why I have a passionate
about this is that we'll live. I live, you and
I live in the in the most free, prosperous country
in the history of humanity. Yes, and in the in
the in the country that you're not told what to do,
(34:03):
that no one's going to come and arrest you in
the middle of the night. The censorship is very low,
thank you, and hopefully they'll they'll keep it that way,
that you will not be punished for initiative and entrepreneurship.
Way too many people are settling for the status quo. Seriously,
where do you live? You live in America? You know,
(34:24):
start stop settling, you know, find find you the gifts
that you have in you and go serve the world.
I mean that it means literally the best place on
earth to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So I think you hit on something that's so key there, right,
And that is sometimes we feel like if we follow
our gifts, we're being selfish. But the reality is you
serve people by sharing your gifts.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh yeah, yeah at a higher level. I mean, people
want that in you, but we just don't believe. And
gifts are so familiar to us, they don't feel valuable.
That's basically one of the big obstacles that people have.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well, we get caught up in comparing, right, like, oh,
I can't sing as good as Christian, or I don't
I don't have this as good as Christians. So I
won't even do my thing because Christian is so good
at it over here. But yet, what my unique talent
is somebody's waiting for somebody's waiting to hear the unique
view I have exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah. The word there is there are thousands of people
out there, everybody who want exactly what you have to offer.
If you have just the courage to even yourself acknowledge
here's my here's the way I can solve a problem. Yeah,
and then publish it and share it with the world
so people can find you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Ah. So let me ask this though, Christians. So when
this we're recording right now, we've got riots in LA
we got some big upheaval about the political climate president
not president all that, how do you continue to share
your view of the strength of America even though we're
gonna be flawed? Right, every country is flawed, every human
is flawed. H How do we get people to not
(35:59):
focus on so much of everything is different. But come
back to like, wait a second, we're grateful we can
have opposing views, we can have opposing opinions, we can vote,
and even fifty to fifty half people like the president
half don't like them in every election for most of
the last decade at least. Yeah, but there's space for
(36:19):
all of us. Yeah, So what would you say to
those people are like, no, look at this, this is crazy,
that's crazy, America's falling apart.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I mean here's what I would say. Are people
coming in the middle of the night to arrest you
for your views? No? Are people putting you in jail
for something you posted on Facebook? No, there's a risk
of that. You know that we're trying we need to avoid. Yeah, no,
(36:51):
do you do you not have work? The I think
the unemployment rate in America right now it's somewhere between
four and six percent.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And that's usually like we get to six that's like
world that's like record highs.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, yeah, which basically means that ninety four out of
one hundred people can eat and have a roof over
their head if they want to. Yeah, you know how
insane that is? Like, just just do a quick Google
search on the unemployment rates in other places, including sort
of the some of the prosperous places. Right, the whole
(37:35):
idea of ideological brain brainwashing when it comes to things
that are just not true, Right, we have the least
We are definitely at risk of getting more of that.
But we're definitely the least infected culture in the in this,
in the civilized world for sure. You know. I can
(37:59):
go on and on and on.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, well, we're at risk, Christian when we don't think
for ourselves. When I automatically just assume whatever scrolls up
on social media or the news media, I just assume
everybody else is telling me the truth, and I don't go,
wait a second, let me talk to Christian about this.
Let me see why he thinks this. Let me listen
to Christian and see what his views on this are.
The Other thing that always strikes me, Christian is when
(38:23):
we sometimes we have too much information, right, and I
can sit and go, oh, my God, look at that
terrible thing that happened way over there, and that's happening
in my neighborhood, and then in my house, I start
making up these mental stories that the world's falling apart,
and look at this way over there. But if I
go out of my door and I talk to Christian,
I'm like, wow, he was pretty nice. He's a good guy.
(38:44):
And I talked to this next guy, I'm like, wow,
he's a pretty good guy. Well she's a great lady. Wow,
look at that. She just didn't know something nice for
a stranger. Sometimes we get sold this narrative that does
not match the world any of us live in exactly.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, And I think some of those ideologies are imported
from the places I grew up in. And that's sort
of one of the things that I that I mentioned
in the in the chapter that the only negative thing
is a little bit of a warning at the end
of each chapter about Okay, this is very valuable, this
is not normal, and you can lose it in like
one generation basically, right. But but you know, to to
(39:23):
I think what you said is actually super super super important. Yes,
people always, it's very deeply human for us to categorize
other people according to like two or three characteristics, just
put them in one bucket. I think that's just like
(39:43):
a brain actually, like a neural brain function. Your brain
is trying to conserve energy. So you look at somebody
you know in the mall and just by half a
second that you will put him in a bucket. You know, rich, poor, educated,
not educated, this and that. You know, whatever, you will
you because you're trying to label everything that you're trying
(40:04):
to make sense of your environment. So that's very primal,
that's universal. It's everywhere, always will be, et cetera. That's fine,
right if you if you're if you're if you're an involved,
mature individual, you'll realize that it's just a label. It
means nothing, right. But on top of that, there are
ideologies that actually enhance that and make it into literally
(40:26):
the new normal. So the Marxist ideology is basically something
that mutates into new environments to create more of that,
like ten times a thousand, and that's what caused a
lot of the division, I think. Right. So Karl Marx
basically was, you know, writing in London, and he was like, okay,
(40:47):
there's a lot of people from the farms moving to
the two factories. The industrial revolution started there. It was
massive shifts in life, like it's like the fire that
everything changes. It's almost like what's happened now with the ai, right,
very similar, I think. And he was looking at that
stuff and going, oh, I'm going, oh my gosh. All
these people are getting super rich because their own factories.
(41:10):
All these farmers are living in terrible conditions. Okay, so
here's how we solve the problem. He basically said, Okay,
the world there's oppressors and the oppressed. So the world
became binary. And then the solution, which which is sort
of a self evident thing, meaning yeah, some people were
rich and some people were poor, and the poor were
(41:30):
not in good conditions. And then he was like, okay,
so here's how we solve it. First of all, God
doesn't exist, right, so that's not going to be part
of the solution. So you can't solve that from the
inside out, like, for example, a factory owner would become
more humane, invest in their workers, educate their children given
(41:53):
better conditions, Like none of that was on the table
for him, you know. And then and and here's here's
the It's a little nuance, but it matters. So Charles
Dickens wrote the Christmas Carol around the same time about
the same things in the same place in London. His
(42:13):
answer was that Scrooge, right, was it Scrooge. It was
changed from the inside out. So his solution is that
you can be redeemed and changed and transformed and become
a better person. Karl Marx was like, you know, you
can't become a better person. All of them are evil.
We're going to kill them all. We're gonna take their
stuff and going to distribute them. Well, who's going to
(42:35):
distribute everything? The government? Right, That's it's that simple. So
then you take that ideology because it's so basic, it's
so basic, and it's and it It usually starts with saying,
can't you see the problem, and people go, yeah, we
see the problem. Okay, here's the solution. You know, there's
(42:56):
the oppress, there's the oppressor. We're gonna crush the oppressor,
and we're gonna help be oppressed. Who's going to crash
the oppressed and the oppress that that benevolent savior, the
enlightened person, who is basically is the state makes a
state into a god, you know, you worship the state,
(43:16):
and then you can transplant that into Okay, who's the
oppressed Latinos, who's the oppressor? The white people? And you
literally rinse and repeat male, female, color of the skin, geography, whatever,
and you can transplant, rinse, and repeat and then infuse
(43:36):
that into the education system. And that's going to cause violence, Yeah,
cause violence, you know. And and but the Americans, I
think part of the reason is Americans don't see the
root of that. And I grew up in that. It's
actually I wrote papers on call works. So when something
(43:57):
that pops up in like teen vogue for example, something
like that, right, yeah, I would like, what on earth
are you talking about? You know, what tree did you
fall from? Right? And so I see it. But the
average American doesn't know the root of it because they
didn't grow up in it. Right, So I'm like, this
is evil. This is actually evil, you know. And when politicians,
(44:18):
mainstream politicians start basically saying socialism, socialism, like, I'm like,
my brain explodes, and so does the brain of every
I promise you, every immigrant from any ex Soviet X
socialist block, all of our brains are exploding when we
see that, and we go, what is wrong with you people?
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Right? So basically, yeah, no, I agree. Drecent is that
is that one of the messages you hope to get
across to people by reading your book is like just
start like looking at things and sharing that perspective.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's a very optimistic book about America,
but it's a very sort of I would say it's
it's easy, it's easy right reading, but it's very it
goes deep into the causes, right of oppression, of of
of the mindset and the ideology and how it infects people.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah. Yeah, I want to shift gears with you, Christian.
You said something earlier that I think is super important
and it's been something that I've been given a lot
of thoughts too, and that is you said you're a
contemplative person, like you give yourself time to really think
about things. Yeah, how do you? You're a busy guy too, right,
Like you're you're doing a lot of things. So how
(45:36):
do you create time in your your day to allow
yourself to just be to think, to dive deeper into
whatever's on your mind.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
You sort of have to make it happen basically, like
and I think the way make it happen is you
understand why it's important first, right, Because new habits don't
form just randomly. They they it's too we're too busy
to create new new habits. So if you want to
lose weight. You need to understand. At some point there's
an emotional a deep emotional shift where you go, this
(46:09):
can't go I can't do this. This is going to
cost me, This is going to cost me on so
many levels. I'm gonna I'm gonna hit the gym, I'm
going to do this whatever. Right, So it's sort of
the same thing, is what it's going to What is
it costing you? Now? The question is the fact that
you can be stressed out, anxious, and essentially always underwater
(46:30):
a little bit emotionally. Yeah, what is it costing you
right now? How how long have you been in that
a year, two years, a decade? What kind of loss
of opportunity, of health, of relationships, of joy, of even
career creativity opportunities are not there because you're in that
(46:53):
state of survival. You're in survival mode. So that's the
Those are the questions I think that triggered that. Right.
So if you go, if you think about it, and
you go, yeah, I can't really, I can't really create
a new future if I'm in survival mode. There's no way, right,
you can't even imagine it. Your mind is so limited, right,
you're so pessimistic you're so you're, you're, you're, you're just
(47:16):
barely keeping on right. And I'm telling you, the most
brilliant leader, CEOs, founders, doctors, lawyers, people that are brilliant people.
So many of them are that's their normal. And imagine
that and imagine this. How much How much of a
loss is that for the world, of this level of
(47:38):
talent and brilliance not achieving their potential, you know, So
that's that's the big question, I think, right, And then
how to do it is actually secondary because you'll make
it happen once you're convinced, right, So you know, you know,
And I have like a I teach the stuff right
and basically, look, how you start your morning. It's how
(48:00):
you spend your day and how you start the morning.
I do basically three things. I go, Look, I need
you to contemplate, so pray, meditate, journal, be still, be
in touch with how you're feeling. Why are you're feeling
this way? So it's called metacognition, right. Metacognition is thinking
about your thinking, being able to self regulate, you know,
(48:22):
all of those things. Then you move your body because
you are a biological, physical being and your brain and
your body are interconnected one hundred percent. So you're not
wired to sit in front of a monitor for eight
hours a day, right, Like you you know, so you
move your body, so you lift weights, you walk, you
(48:44):
run whatever. Right, And then the third thing you do,
and this is every morning, is you learn a new skill.
You spend twenty thirty minutes. What is the lowest hanging
for it? What's the thing that keeps you from taking
the next step? Right? What is that skill? It could
be everything. It could be public speaking, it could be sales,
it could be a mariage, marriage, it could be parenting,
(49:08):
it could be marketing. Right, pick a lane and then
move a little bit towards that goal every single day,
even if it's half an hour to an hour. I mean,
there's all kinds of evidence to the fact that if
you do something consistently you're like, you don't have the
skill in the beginning. You do an hour day, fo
(49:28):
one hundred days, you're going to be basically in the
top twenty five percent in that skill just because you
didn't dabble. You just kept its consistency. That's all that is, right. Yeah,
So there's an art to it, there's a science to it,
but essentially, that's the thing that I do personally. I
coach people in that three things every morning, and it
becomes a new habit and changes your life basically.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
And we're blessed that we can create new lives for
ourselves by being here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Right, seriously, Like it's like for the most of your history,
you are you were born a peasant, you die a peasant.
You're born whatever, in the military, you die in the military.
I mean, it's it's all bucket. I mean for literally
thousands of years and then two hundred years ago, and
(50:18):
that's a revolution. You can maybe change change your family
trajectory in one generation. Like you go a farmer, you
you are a poor, poor farmer. You go to that
London that Carl Marks wrote about. By the way, they
went there voluntarily, no one made them because always better
than when they were where they were. You go there,
(50:39):
you work at a factory. Maybe your kid can go
to a school, get an education. In one generation, you
upgrade your your family's fortunes. Then it accelerates, right maybe
in a few years with the information revolution, especially right
and now with AI forget about it, man, a few months,
(51:01):
a few months, that's it. Man, Wow, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
I'll be honest. I was skeptical at first, but it
helps me a great deal on my business, so I'm
a big believer in utilizing it under scopes. However, I
have no idea where it ends up. I don't know
where the story goes.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
I know me, neither, no one knows.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
I think you're right, Christian, has been awesome having you
on the show, My friend, your book, the Little Book
of Big Reasons to Love America. Where can our audience
get it? Where can they join your community to follow
along with all the things you have going on.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
You can just go to Amazon and put in my
name Christian ray Flores or the long titled Little Book
of Big Reasons to Love America either or you know,
or you can go to and if you want to
sort of stay in touch. Christian Rayflores dot com is
my newsletter and basically I write all things about personal
branding and all kinds of really cool insights. There put
(51:51):
a lot of effort in it. We have like twelve
thousand subscribers as of today. Okay, and it's a really
good resource, so I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Awesome, Christian, thanks so much, my friends. A pleasure getting
to share your story with our community. Thanks for having join,
and remember team life is far too short to live
any other way than on purpose. We'll see you all
again next week.
You are listening to the On Purpose podcast, your guide
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founded by retired law enforcement officer Jeff Wolfgang and his
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It's their way of giving back to the first responder
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Visit Honor the Brave dot com. We've got your six.
What's up, everybody? Welcome to this week's edition of the
On Purpose podcast, where it's our pleasure to show up
with you each and every week. Get your mind working,
get your body moving, get you maybe living life a
little more curious. I'm excited this week, especially, you know,
(01:03):
right around the fourth of julyst well era, I think
the eleventh of July, so we're kind of in a
patriotic time as far as the calendar goes. We're also
in the time of turmoil and some a lot of
political divisiveness and just unsettled time here for the United States.
And I thought, what a great timing for this guest
(01:24):
who's an author and entrepreneur, amongst other things, who wrote
a book called The Little Book of Big Reasons to
Love America Christian Ray Flores, and his journey is nothing
short of extraordinary. He's born in Chile, raised amongst political turmoil,
and witnessed first hand to fall of the Soviet Union,
(01:45):
bringing us a global perspective of freedom, resilience, and opportunity.
His book is a powerful tribute to the values that
make America unique, blending personal experience, historical insights, and cultural
reflections to highlight our names strengths. Through his work, challenge
or Christian challenges you to see the bigger picture, appreciate
(02:06):
our freedoms that we often take for granted, and cultivate
a deeper sense of gratitude for the opportunities available to us.
So this week, I'm excited to sit down with Christian
and learn more about his perspective, learn more about his
views and what's going on and how he recommends we
handle it. How from his view, we're still lucky to
(02:27):
be alive today and here. So before we get to
this conversation, please do me a favorite get over, like subscribe,
share this podcast wherever you're consuming. If you've already done that,
thank you so much. If you haven't, just take a
moment and help us win the battle to algorithms to
get out and reach more people around the world to
fulfill our mission, which is to be one of the
(02:49):
most impactful podcasts in the world. That means we're a
podcast that creates momentum and ripples and gets people living
life with more purpose. So do that and then sit
back and enjoy this week's conversation with Christian Ray Flores.
Christian my newest friend. Welcome to the On Purpose podcast.
How are you today?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Thanks for having me, Jared, I'm good man, I'm excited,
excited for the talk.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I want to thank you for sharing your story. Man,
I want to thank you for doing what you're doing
and putting that story out in the world. I think
too many times we don't find value in our old story,
or we compare it to everybody else as we keep
it to ourselves. But nobody can learn from a story
unless it's told.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
Yeah, I think so. I mean it took me, I
don't know, a decade to even write what I knew
what I knew should be written, So you know it
takes me a while.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
Yeah, but I think that's good, right, Like I think
sometimes we're too big a hurry to move on from things.
We don't let that masterpiece marinate a little bit and
really gain the perspective that comes with getting past the
moment and looking back to it.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
Yeah, I think. I mean, I think for me it
was not even a masterpiece. I think it's just what
you said first, is that I didn't think it was
valuable enough. Right, So you sort of have it in you,
you know, I think every single person has a book
at least one book in them, right. But then people
tell you, hey, you should write it down, you should
write it that, you should write it down. Who's going
(04:19):
to read that? And it's a lot of work, you know,
that kind of thing. So eventually, eventually sort of there's
a critical mass where you go, yeah, I should write
it that.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
All right, before we jump into your story, Christian, I
like to have a warm up for you. I have
to think of this as like a mental warm up
to get the mind and body ready to go. You
ready for your warm up?
Speaker 2 (04:37):
Yeah, go for it all right, here we go.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
You get to have one word to describe you. What
word do you choose?
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Refugee?
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Oh? That ties in good to your story?
Speaker 2 (04:50):
It does? Yeah? Yeah, what do you want me to
unpack that? Or yeah?
Speaker 1 (04:56):
Tell me why that comes to mind?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
You know, I shoul because I had one word, I
said refugee. I would say leader of refugees if I
would had more like three words. And the reason that
is I went through this exercise just recently. I don't
remember where I heard it, but somebody said, look, what
are some of the things that you've, like like a
shadow word that you would use about your life, something
(05:22):
that doesn't that's not a fond memory, right, And and
I was thinking, I was like, this is a great
this is I think refugee is the word. And then
he said, find a way to frame it so that
you can be so that it actually feeds into the
edge that you have in this world, how you can
(05:42):
be a service to other people. And that really helped
me because I thought, you know what, I've always I've
never liked big institutions because of that sort of origin
story of being a refugee at age five, and it's
sort of I never thought of it that way that
I've always had avocated for essentially a rebellion against orthocracy,
(06:07):
against sort of anything that's hyper hierarchical, oppressive and removes
your freedom. Every single even career path, I had that
thing on in me and I never noticed that that's
a pattern. Right, So I'm like, you know what, I
think this is how I reframe it. I'm a leader
(06:28):
of refugees. I'm a leader of people who want to
get you know, get out of the machine, get out
of the matrix, you know, and that's my band, right,
So I think it's I think it's something something was
there instilled in me that it helps me now. Right.
For example, I do coaching right right now, I do
personal brand coaching for people, for people who want to
(06:49):
be known for something. And people have asked me so
many times why don't you do that? For like, why
don't you do corporate coaching? Because that's where the money is, right,
Corporate just have money. They send their people to coaches
to do the stuff, and I never ever wanted to
do that. And the reason because I just don't like
big corporations just as a as a as an environment
(07:10):
for me. It might be great for some people, it's
not good for me. Like I would run away from
a corporation if I was in a situation like that, right,
because too much bureaucracy, too much hierarchy, too much rigidity.
And so even in my professional expression, I shy away
from the thing that that sort of communicates to me,
(07:32):
this could be oppressive, you know what I'm saying. So anyway,
it's too long of an answer. I'm sorry, but you
asked the question, right, what's the what's the what's the word?
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Yeah? I love it all right? What's a favorite quote
that kind of sticks with you throughout life?
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I have a few? I mean, okay, so too, can
I do too?
Speaker 1 (07:51):
For sure?
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Okay, So, mother Teresa, there are not great things. There's
only little things done with great love. I'm probably butchering
it a little bit, but sort of the essence of it.
That's one. Uh, and then James Clear and I'm butchering
both of them. Oh my gosh, terrible memory for like
(08:12):
word for word. Basically, James clear is you will not
race to race to the level of your of your aspirations.
You will fall to the level of your habits.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
Right.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
So those those two things, and now that I say it,
I'll go, oh my gosh, I think they're saying the
same thing, you know, if you think about it, right.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, all right, Christian, your your life has a theme song?
What would your song be?
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Theme song?
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Oh?
Speaker 2 (08:42):
My gosh, I would say Our Generation? Okay, yeah, that's
the theme song. Nice?
Speaker 1 (08:52):
So what brings that? What memory comes up with that?
Speaker 2 (08:56):
Well, I'm cheating a little bit because basically, our Generation
was the name of the of one of my biggest
hits in my previous career as an artist, and the
and the and the and the chorus went, where we
are our generation, We're a sign of liberation. And it
was basically the song that Boris Yelton used in his
(09:19):
presidential campaign against the communists, and the song was all
about freedom. So and they literally used that song as
the anthem for the presidential campaign. So I'm cheating a
little bit because I sort of know what the theme
song is, but in a broader in a broader sense,
you know, it actually feeds into the lifestyle. The stuff
(09:44):
that I do, how I do it right. So it's
really a sign of liberation kind of stuff. Love it.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
It's a favorite book or a book you're currently reading.
You can answer either way.
Speaker 2 (09:54):
Okay, so book that I'm reading, I'm reading that Native
Act by Rick Rubin. Uh, and again I might be
butchering the title. It's either the creative act or the
creative lifestyle or something like that. Yeah, okay, the producer
of the music, the epic music producer, Rick Rubin, right stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, okay, one last question, Christian. You get to have
dinner with one person they could have passed on or
still been be with us. Who would you have dinner
with and what would you want to ask them?
Speaker 2 (10:28):
I would have dinner with the apostle Paul and ask him,
how did you how do how did you even imagine
the life that you led after being a complete enemy
of Jesus to becoming the apostle who wrote half the
New Testament? And how how do you start a movement
(10:50):
like that? From nothing?
Speaker 1 (10:54):
That's interesting? That's got a lot of layers too, right,
because it's also like one of the things that comes
to mind hearing that is that he had to kind
of move past who had been to create who's new.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Yeah, yeah, huge, I mean it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
The story is amazing, right, and so many people in
today's society are so beholden to who they've been they
refuse to grow or change into anything new.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Yeah. That's a that's a that's a very good point.
Speaker 1 (11:21):
Yeah, that'd be interesting conversation. All right, you feeling warmed up? Christian?
Speaker 2 (11:27):
I am man, all right, so talk to me.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
I want to kick off first the title of your book,
Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America. I want
to talk to you about where did that come from
and what made you decide to write that.
Speaker 2 (11:42):
So the title, actually I stole the title, uh, sort
of creatively stole when I was again, you know what,
it's so cool the theme. Right, this was maybe twenty
or maybe eighteen years ago. My children, my two youngest daughters,
(12:04):
were in school. I did not like how their education
situation was gone. And then my wife brought me this
little booklet and it's a little I mean I could
read it probably in a couple hours max. It was
called The Little Book of Big Reasons to Homeschool. And
I read that book and we decided to homeschool our
(12:26):
two youngest daughters, and we homeschooled all the way through
high school. And it's one of my best decisions ever. Right,
So that's so put a pin on that. And how
the book happened itself is that I was a fan
of America my whole life, right, And I grew up
overseas Latin America, Africa, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and I
(12:49):
became sort of I sort of was attuned to the frequency.
So I was sort of a student of the American
culture in the American way, et cetera. And then I
married an American. Then I moved to America. I was
thirty five years old. And when I moved to America,
I was I noticed things that most American take takes
(13:10):
take for granted, and I was excited about it. And
I would point, and it's not just things that are
sort of on the surface, right, Wow, there's people here
have let's say, more safety, more freedom, more abundance, et cetera. No,
it was a lot more nuanced than that, right, infrastructure, culture, faith, charity,
(13:33):
things like that, Right, And I would say that, of course,
the person who hears me the most is my wife
so my wife Dad would go, you keep saying those things, right,
and you should write it down somewhere, because I think
people don't have that perspective. So she'd said that for
a long time and then eventually, you know, we're going
on a walk here near our house. We have these
beautiful trails, and she said, you know that it was
(13:57):
it was maybe it was election, you know, the last
election cycle, so the one where you know, we're electing
the president, et cetera. And things got real ugly, right,
really really ugly, and deb was like, and it was
it was not the election yet, but it was pre
election like it was sort of ongoing, slow rolling. It
wasn't it wasn't near because the book came out before
(14:20):
the election, actually before the results. And so in the
beginning of the year she was like, you know, the
thing that you tell me about America, you're so excited
about it, you should write this down. I mean, look
at this ugliness, you know. And basically that's how I
ended up writing a book. It was ten chapters, ten
reasons so of America. And then I stole the title
creatively stole the title from the homeschooling book and go,
(14:41):
that's kind of a nice title to it, Little Book
of Big Green Still America's so simple. It communicates that
it's short. You can read it in about three hours.
And then I added my creative layers to it. So
I added colory illustrations, AI illustrations, archival pictures, QR codes
to videos, and quotes from like every chapter has quotes
from notable figures who speak about the thing of that chapter.
(15:06):
So I sort of added some layers to it later,
but that's how it came about.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
So talk to me about your childhood and just your
earlier life going through political up here. He was on
Chile to see in the collapse of the Soviet Union.
How did that shape your perspective?
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Well, I saw a lot of I think, I think
I just saw so much oppression right in. I saw
oppression in like in literally three continents, slightly different even
brands of oppression, but the results were all, you know,
you know, terrible. So the I was five years old,
(15:46):
we moved to Chile from Russia. My mom's Russian, but
we moved when I was a baby. So I was
five years old when there was a coup in Chile
and tens of thousands of people got arrested, they overthrow
the government, and they put people in concentration camps. My
dad was in and one they put people in these
big state like soccer stadium because they ran out of space,
(16:07):
so they were put him on soccerams a large They
can put a lot of people there, right, and they
would literally torture kill a bunch of people. A lot
of people disappeared without trace to this day that we
don't know where they are. So it's a famous story.
It was a big, big, big thing. We were smack
in the middle of it. My parents were Marxists, so
(16:28):
they were supporting the president that was overthrown. The president
that was overthrown was a socialist, so it's an interesting
sort of dilemma that sort of comes full circle later
when I campaigned against the Communist as at a big
pop star in Russia. But at the time I was
five years old. My first memory was standing outside of
that concentration camp that my dad was held in and
my mom was trying to pass food through the guards
(16:51):
to him, which never made it to him, by the way,
and I remember just being scared. We ended up being
in a refugee facility for a few months, and you know,
with a bunch of families under the protection of the
United Nations. And then we got asylum in Germany, so
we were basically refugees, revugee like Munich, you know. We
got off the plane, they the Germans were very, very hospitable,
(17:14):
actually incredible, just incredible. They took care of us, like
the mayor was at the airport meeting us, which it
was amazing. So so eventually we made it back to
the Soviet Union because Mom was socill shocked, she wanted
to go back home. It was worse. We ended up
in a communal apartment, you know, like when you share
like a hallway in a kitchen and a bathroom with
(17:36):
another family. It was horrible, right, like right, you know,
terrible terror, it's cold, everything sucks basically right. So, like
I have such bad memories of that, you know, like trump,
I was sick all the time, almost died there. I
had pneumonia back to back to back bronchitis, pneumonia, bronchitis, pneumonia.
So I was in the hospital a lot. And then
(17:58):
my dad gets a job in Africa, in Mozambique. So
Mozambique just got hit its independence from the Portuguese sort
of that whole wave of independence movements in Africa in
the sixties and seventies. And we end up in Mosamique, Mozambique,
as I'm seven years old. This is literally my fourth country,
(18:21):
my third continent, and I'm seven years old. Wow, like
completely different languages, you know, so like you talk about
massive changes, like back to back to back in Then
a year after we landed there, there was a civil
war that started there. It was mostly up north, but
we got bombings, we got all kinds of things, food, shortgages,
(18:41):
you know, we had ration cards for some stuff, and
so it's just a very strange existence. But it was
a very happy actually childhood because there was so much
freedom there. Like as a child, it was amazing, right.
So we ended up doing that and went back to
the Soviet Union when I was now a teenager after
my parents divorced, and I was back in the sort
(19:03):
of the land of mediocrity, right, Entrepreneurship is illegal, Okay,
censorship is absolute. We lived in a one bedroom apartment.
I slept in the kitchen. We were not hungry, ever,
but everybody was poor. So we were middle class in
the sense that everybody's poor, and that's it no car,
(19:27):
no restaurants, you know, not hungry. But that's why I say,
it's a land of mediocrity. You exchange freedom for mediocrity.
And I saw the whole thing collapse basically, you know.
And I graduated from university ninety one masters in economics,
(19:50):
and the whole thing collapses, you know. And I basically
all my friends go to banking and trade and everything,
and I went into music like I was the one idiot,
A chose something that has almost zero success rates. Right, So,
but I was very lucky and successful. I was good, right,
and I became basically one of the top pop stars
in all of that territory of fifteen different countries, and
(20:13):
basically the rest is history.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
When did it come to your attention, if you go
to America you have a chance at a completely different life.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Well, well I knew. I always knew that, Like I
hadn't I never had I never even hoped to go
in America when I was a kid, right, my first
glimpses were I was a Now, I mean, think about this,
this is one of the poorest countries in the world,
Mozambique at the time seventies. There's no television, My like
three years, I and my dad builds this big tower.
Wer we get the signal from South African television and
(20:45):
they showed these American shows. And we were in a
country where and we were in a privileged position where expats, right,
still pretty basic like for us, it wouldn't be for Americans.
Now it's nothing, but we made but more than seventy
percent of the population makes it lives on under two
(21:06):
dollars a day in that country and still today, right
like let that sink in. So we're in that place
and I see shows where people go and cruises and
the high rises in New York and the beautiful American cars,
and it's like it just seems like a like a
different planet basically right at the time. But then eventually, obviously,
(21:31):
you know, I became famous, I got a fame and fortune.
I traveled to America quite a bit, so I became
very acquainted with it. I didn't really want to move
because now I have a brand in like all of
that territory, right Like, if I go to America, I
need to start over. Nobody cares who I am there, right, so,
you know, So we would go back and forth to
(21:52):
visit my wife's parents and stuff like that. Right, So
she's American, she's from Wisconsin, and and so I didn't
really want I admired the culture, and I almost like
subscribed to the signal, right, to the signal of freedom,
even in everywhere I went. I had that sort of
(22:15):
rebellious streak, right, entrepreneurial, street, creative streak, all of those things.
But I really didn't want to move to America because
I had sort of made it in somewhere else, right,
So going to America was not an aspiration from me.
It was just an inspiration more than an aspiration. And
we ended up moving to America only because my wife,
(22:35):
who has some uterimmune issues, was getting sicker and sicker
with the climate.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
And where was that at? The climate in Russia?
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, the climate sucks in Russia, very cold,
there's no sun. You know.
Speaker 1 (22:49):
Did you ever share these ideas with your mom? How
receptive was she to you come into America?
Speaker 2 (22:56):
She was fine with it. Well, she was sad because
I was leaving, but my sister had already gone to America,
she was already lived there, so she was sort of okay,
I guess, so you know, then she she sort of
went back and forth. She would go back and forth.
She's an American citizen now she goes back and forth
and back and forth still. But yeah, so she was
she was fine with it.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
And one of the themes in your book is the
power of gratitude, right, being grateful for the opportunities we
have and m hmm, kind of reminding yourself that even
our problems are better than a lot of places in
the world.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Yeah, How did you develop that mindset to be grateful
for your challenges? And how would you say that more
of us can do that with intention, be more purposeful
to looking for the gratitude piece.
Speaker 2 (23:46):
It's actually one of the things one of the things
that I when I that I coach people in is
that it's sort of in the morning routine. You can
it's very simple. You can just have a journal a
piece of paper and you can say, hey, just write
down five things every day that you're great for, like
in the immediate sort of vicinity of last week, for example, right,
just small things notice or people, and you can vary it, right,
(24:08):
so it doesn't get old. It could be people, it
could be long term, it could be short term, it
could be present, it could be even gratitude for the future. Yeah,
that sort of thing. But are because our brain bends
towards the negative because it's sort of prime primed to
to help us survive, not thrive. Doing something like that
(24:29):
intentionally really really helps, right, But I think so there's
definitely ways to nurture that quality in you. The other
thing is being in environments that are that have that
kind of cultural trait, right, So a community, a church,
a coaching group, whatever, right where people are like that,
(24:51):
So you become sort of the average of the closest
five people that you're around all the time. So you
put yourself in a situation where people are generally grateful,
you're more grateful. Like if you put yourself in a
situation where most of the people around you complain, you're
going to complain more. So it's just not complicated. But
I would say for me, there was definitely an added
layer of optimism and gratitude throughout And to me, I
(25:18):
don't know why that happened, but it was there. So
it's a mystery to me, honestly. But it comes to
like a baseline. I think everybody has a baseline, And
you know, I've talked to some of the top researchers
on for example, joy and happiness, and basically what research
shows is that about fifty percent of its genetic, not
just genetic naturally, but nurturing. Like for example, if your
(25:40):
parents were a bit negative and sort of not present
and not joyful, you probably have a lower baseline, but
it's just fifty percent, which means you can double your
joy just by practicing certain things and being around the
right people and learning certain skills. Right. So to me,
I am definitely my baseline was high.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
How did you handle that? How did you? How did
you manage to keep that baseline high? When you're seeing
what you're seeing? When you're you got the up here,
you move it in and out because it's.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
It's crazy, right, yeah, right, I think I get that
all the time. But there, I mean, people like look
at me and go, how are you? How are you
not bitter? Basically right like? And I honestly don't know.
I can't really like I wish I have theories, but
I don't have an answer. I think it's a mystery.
And my theory is that you can reframe something negative
(26:37):
and what what how it who? It made you? Right?
So I'll give you might be two or three examples, right,
So one is this, I'll give you three specific examples
how I reframed it. But my point is, well, how
do you get there to reframe it? I don't know,
you know. But so one is this, if you went
(26:59):
through some rough time times and it's there's a pattern
of that and you're okay after that, you can say
I have more strength than most people realize. I know
I have more strength. Most people think they may have strength.
I know I have more strength and resilience because I've
actually experienced that and most people have not, which basically
(27:19):
means I'm much more like I'm much more unafraid of
suffering and anything good in life. If you're an entrepreneur,
if you want to become get in shape, if you
want to build a good relationship or learn something new,
that is all suffering, Like, you can't not suffer and
get there. So if you're unafraid of suffering, you'll probably
(27:41):
try more things and actually do better right long term.
So that's one. That's one thing. That's one way to
reframe it. The other one is this was actually a
recent realization because I practice a lot of sort of contemplation, right,
because you need to understand yourself. Is that I because
(28:01):
I was a foreigner. I was an outsider everywhere I've
been in like literally everywhere. I literally don't belong anywhere
because of all those things. Right, So in Chile, you know,
I look Chilean. I blend in real well visually, but
then I start talking and I speak Spanish, but my
jargon is not there. It's slightly different. Right, I'm fluent,
(28:22):
but it's not. They know that I've been I've spent
time in other places, right, and I am actual and
accent and everything, but it's the vocabulary that is different.
The If I go to Africa, they call me white.
If I go to Russia, they call me colored, right
or whatever. Brown. I just never fit in. If I'm
in America, you talk to me for five minutes, you
(28:44):
detect an accent, you detect some things, right, and people
will go like, so where are you from? Exactly right? So,
and it's not all bad, it's just is so that primal,
our primal desire to fit in. I was sort of
divorced from that illusion since the beginning. I couldn't fit in.
(29:05):
So what do you do when you when you you
what do you do when you can't fit in even
if you want to. Well, then you stand out. And
if you think about it, every success in every area,
in every industry is about actually not blending in it. It's
about standing out. It's about finding that edge, what makes
you different, what makes you better, what makes you competitive,
(29:27):
what makes you solve a problem in particular way. So
emotionally speaking, I'm primed for that. Yeah, I'm like, I
don't don't. I don't mind it all standing out. I've
never blended in anyway, you know, So it makes me
makes me more creative basically, So I can go on
and on. But my point is you can find things
like that to to reframe it and then turn it
(29:49):
into some sort of superpower strength.
Speaker 1 (29:52):
I love it. The first part of what I heard
there that just came to mind because you said you suffered, right,
and you weren't afraid of us suffering because you'd experience
it and you knew like you could power through it.
The first thing that comes to mind there is you're
being tested, right, like you said, some people think we're strong,
some people think we're fast, something, people think I would
do this in that situation. Until you're tested, you really
(30:15):
don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Right, you were tested, so you knew you were practicing
resilience because you're being tested by life.
Speaker 2 (30:22):
Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah, I mean we're taking massive risks,
all kinds of risks throughout my life.
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Right, And here's what I love about that. When we're tested,
we build confidence. Yeah, when you're afraid of the test,
when you avoid the test, it all costs. When you
steer clear of it, Oh my god, I might fail.
I'm not going to even do it. You will never
get the confidence. And on the other side, whether you're
successful or not, but you got to get involved in
(30:48):
the doing of it.
Speaker 2 (30:50):
Yeah. Yeah, there's no shortcut at all. Ok. Here's the
third one, because, as you know, we crave some thing predictable,
something structured that I I want to know that the
sky's not gonna fall tomorrow, right, that things are going
to be stable. It's very, very human, very you know. Well,
(31:13):
if you go from from being in a military coup,
a civil war, and then the collapse literally of a
whole empire right before your eyes, the illusion of stability
goes away, you know. So, and the the upside of
that is, well, if nothing is certain, then everything is possible.
M hm, and I literally that's how I thought. I'm like,
(31:38):
why would I go do banking It's so predictable. I'm
gonna go do music. It's super high risk, probably going
to fail, but everything is possible. Yeah, basically right. Yeah,
so that's kind of a reframe as well.
Speaker 1 (31:53):
Yeah, it's so funny listening to you Christians. You're you're
you're talking and you're sharing your stories. I'm hearing all
this goes back to your word, which is ye of
refugee dot. You didn't belong anywhere, so you relieved yourself
of the pressure of fitting in and just accepted that
I'm going to stand out no matter where I go.
So I'm going to stand out on my terms.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Exactly, and then naturally, like now, I mean, I've changed
five different careers. Now I do personal brand coaching, which
is literally helping people first of all, believe that they
can stand out, that they should stand out, actually yeah,
and then tell them how to stand out and how
to not be afraid of it. And then obviously there's
a lot of strategy and tactics there, but my point
(32:34):
is it really helping someone going screw this, like, why
am I a cognitive machine? Love it. I'm more than
this basically. That's so it's very it's a very rebellious
kind of service. Like I'm a leader of refugees, you know,
so no, but.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I look at what you're doing. That's exactly like your
stories revolve around this, and I think one of the
craziest things. And here's what I love about just life
and sharing stories, right is you found the power in
your stories at a young age. You found the power
in going, wait, I don't have to be I'm not
like everybody else. So I'm not even gonna pretend to
be like everybody else. I'm gonna go one hundred percent
(33:12):
into who I want to be. And I think Christian. Unfortunately,
a lot of people, a lot of people don't find
that realization or go that deep into their own psyche
their own emotions until they're near death, right and there
at the end of their life. And like, wait a second,
I spent so much of my life fitting in doing
shit I didn't want to do, being unhappy because everybody
(33:33):
expected me to do this that I'm leaving a lot
of my gifts are gonna get buried with me. I
didn't share them.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
Yeah, oh totally. And it's it's it's crazy. And to me,
that's part of the reason why I have a passionate
about this is that we'll live. I live, you and
I live in the in the most free, prosperous country
in the history of humanity. Yes, and in the in
the in the country that you're not told what to do,
(34:03):
that no one's going to come and arrest you in
the middle of the night. The censorship is very low,
thank you, and hopefully they'll they'll keep it that way,
that you will not be punished for initiative and entrepreneurship.
Way too many people are settling for the status quo. Seriously,
where do you live? You live in America? You know,
(34:24):
start stop settling, you know, find find you the gifts
that you have in you and go serve the world.
I mean that it means literally the best place on
earth to do that.
Speaker 1 (34:33):
So I think you hit on something that's so key there, right,
And that is sometimes we feel like if we follow
our gifts, we're being selfish. But the reality is you
serve people by sharing your gifts.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
Oh yeah, yeah at a higher level. I mean, people
want that in you, but we just don't believe. And
gifts are so familiar to us, they don't feel valuable.
That's basically one of the big obstacles that people have.
Speaker 1 (34:58):
Well, we get caught up in comparing, right, like, oh,
I can't sing as good as Christian, or I don't
I don't have this as good as Christians. So I
won't even do my thing because Christian is so good
at it over here. But yet, what my unique talent
is somebody's waiting for somebody's waiting to hear the unique
view I have exactly.
Speaker 2 (35:15):
Yeah. The word there is there are thousands of people
out there, everybody who want exactly what you have to offer.
If you have just the courage to even yourself acknowledge
here's my here's the way I can solve a problem. Yeah,
and then publish it and share it with the world
so people can find you. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Ah. So let me ask this though, Christians. So when
this we're recording right now, we've got riots in LA
we got some big upheaval about the political climate president
not president all that, how do you continue to share
your view of the strength of America even though we're
gonna be flawed? Right, every country is flawed, every human
is flawed. H How do we get people to not
(35:59):
focus on so much of everything is different. But come
back to like, wait a second, we're grateful we can
have opposing views, we can have opposing opinions, we can vote,
and even fifty to fifty half people like the president
half don't like them in every election for most of
the last decade at least. Yeah, but there's space for
(36:19):
all of us. Yeah, So what would you say to
those people are like, no, look at this, this is crazy,
that's crazy, America's falling apart.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Well, I mean here's what I would say. Are people
coming in the middle of the night to arrest you
for your views? No? Are people putting you in jail
for something you posted on Facebook? No, there's a risk
of that. You know that we're trying we need to avoid. Yeah, no,
(36:51):
do you do you not have work? The I think
the unemployment rate in America right now it's somewhere between
four and six percent.
Speaker 1 (37:03):
And that's usually like we get to six that's like
world that's like record highs.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
Yeah, yeah, which basically means that ninety four out of
one hundred people can eat and have a roof over
their head if they want to. Yeah, you know how
insane that is? Like, just just do a quick Google
search on the unemployment rates in other places, including sort
of the some of the prosperous places. Right, the whole
(37:35):
idea of ideological brain brainwashing when it comes to things
that are just not true, Right, we have the least
We are definitely at risk of getting more of that.
But we're definitely the least infected culture in the in this,
in the civilized world for sure. You know. I can
(37:59):
go on and on and on.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Yeah, well, we're at risk, Christian when we don't think
for ourselves. When I automatically just assume whatever scrolls up
on social media or the news media, I just assume
everybody else is telling me the truth, and I don't go,
wait a second, let me talk to Christian about this.
Let me see why he thinks this. Let me listen
to Christian and see what his views on this are.
The Other thing that always strikes me, Christian is when
(38:23):
we sometimes we have too much information, right, and I
can sit and go, oh, my God, look at that
terrible thing that happened way over there, and that's happening
in my neighborhood, and then in my house, I start
making up these mental stories that the world's falling apart,
and look at this way over there. But if I
go out of my door and I talk to Christian,
I'm like, wow, he was pretty nice. He's a good guy.
(38:44):
And I talked to this next guy, I'm like, wow,
he's a pretty good guy. Well she's a great lady. Wow,
look at that. She just didn't know something nice for
a stranger. Sometimes we get sold this narrative that does
not match the world any of us live in exactly.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Yeah, And I think some of those ideologies are imported
from the places I grew up in. And that's sort
of one of the things that I that I mentioned
in the in the chapter that the only negative thing
is a little bit of a warning at the end
of each chapter about Okay, this is very valuable, this
is not normal, and you can lose it in like
one generation basically, right. But but you know, to to
(39:23):
I think what you said is actually super super super important. Yes,
people always, it's very deeply human for us to categorize
other people according to like two or three characteristics, just
put them in one bucket. I think that's just like
(39:43):
a brain actually, like a neural brain function. Your brain
is trying to conserve energy. So you look at somebody
you know in the mall and just by half a
second that you will put him in a bucket. You know, rich, poor, educated,
not educated, this and that. You know, whatever, you will
you because you're trying to label everything that you're trying
(40:04):
to make sense of your environment. So that's very primal,
that's universal. It's everywhere, always will be, et cetera. That's fine,
right if you if you're if you're if you're an involved,
mature individual, you'll realize that it's just a label. It
means nothing, right. But on top of that, there are
ideologies that actually enhance that and make it into literally
(40:26):
the new normal. So the Marxist ideology is basically something
that mutates into new environments to create more of that,
like ten times a thousand, and that's what caused a
lot of the division, I think. Right. So Karl Marx
basically was, you know, writing in London, and he was like, okay,
(40:47):
there's a lot of people from the farms moving to
the two factories. The industrial revolution started there. It was
massive shifts in life, like it's like the fire that
everything changes. It's almost like what's happened now with the ai, right,
very similar, I think. And he was looking at that
stuff and going, oh, I'm going, oh my gosh. All
these people are getting super rich because their own factories.
(41:10):
All these farmers are living in terrible conditions. Okay, so
here's how we solve the problem. He basically said, Okay,
the world there's oppressors and the oppressed. So the world
became binary. And then the solution, which which is sort
of a self evident thing, meaning yeah, some people were
rich and some people were poor, and the poor were
(41:30):
not in good conditions. And then he was like, okay,
so here's how we solve it. First of all, God
doesn't exist, right, so that's not going to be part
of the solution. So you can't solve that from the
inside out, like, for example, a factory owner would become
more humane, invest in their workers, educate their children given
(41:53):
better conditions, Like none of that was on the table
for him, you know. And then and and here's here's
the It's a little nuance, but it matters. So Charles
Dickens wrote the Christmas Carol around the same time about
the same things in the same place in London. His
(42:13):
answer was that Scrooge, right, was it Scrooge. It was
changed from the inside out. So his solution is that
you can be redeemed and changed and transformed and become
a better person. Karl Marx was like, you know, you
can't become a better person. All of them are evil.
We're going to kill them all. We're gonna take their
stuff and going to distribute them. Well, who's going to
(42:35):
distribute everything? The government? Right, That's it's that simple. So
then you take that ideology because it's so basic, it's
so basic, and it's and it It usually starts with saying,
can't you see the problem, and people go, yeah, we
see the problem. Okay, here's the solution. You know, there's
(42:56):
the oppress, there's the oppressor. We're gonna crush the oppressor,
and we're gonna help be oppressed. Who's going to crash
the oppressed and the oppress that that benevolent savior, the
enlightened person, who is basically is the state makes a
state into a god, you know, you worship the state,
(43:16):
and then you can transplant that into Okay, who's the
oppressed Latinos, who's the oppressor? The white people? And you
literally rinse and repeat male, female, color of the skin, geography, whatever,
and you can transplant, rinse, and repeat and then infuse
(43:36):
that into the education system. And that's going to cause violence, Yeah,
cause violence, you know. And and but the Americans, I
think part of the reason is Americans don't see the
root of that. And I grew up in that. It's
actually I wrote papers on call works. So when something
(43:57):
that pops up in like teen vogue for example, something
like that, right, yeah, I would like, what on earth
are you talking about? You know, what tree did you
fall from? Right? And so I see it. But the
average American doesn't know the root of it because they
didn't grow up in it. Right, So I'm like, this
is evil. This is actually evil, you know. And when politicians,
(44:18):
mainstream politicians start basically saying socialism, socialism, like, I'm like,
my brain explodes, and so does the brain of every
I promise you, every immigrant from any ex Soviet X
socialist block, all of our brains are exploding when we
see that, and we go, what is wrong with you people?
Speaker 1 (44:38):
Right? So basically, yeah, no, I agree. Drecent is that
is that one of the messages you hope to get
across to people by reading your book is like just
start like looking at things and sharing that perspective.
Speaker 2 (44:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, So it's a very optimistic book about America,
but it's a very sort of I would say it's
it's easy, it's easy right reading, but it's very it
goes deep into the causes, right of oppression, of of
of the mindset and the ideology and how it infects people.
Speaker 1 (45:16):
Yeah. Yeah, I want to shift gears with you, Christian.
You said something earlier that I think is super important
and it's been something that I've been given a lot
of thoughts too, and that is you said you're a
contemplative person, like you give yourself time to really think
about things. Yeah, how do you? You're a busy guy too, right,
Like you're you're doing a lot of things. So how
(45:36):
do you create time in your your day to allow
yourself to just be to think, to dive deeper into
whatever's on your mind.
Speaker 2 (45:48):
You sort of have to make it happen basically, like
and I think the way make it happen is you
understand why it's important first, right, Because new habits don't
form just randomly. They they it's too we're too busy
to create new new habits. So if you want to
lose weight. You need to understand. At some point there's
an emotional a deep emotional shift where you go, this
(46:09):
can't go I can't do this. This is going to
cost me, This is going to cost me on so
many levels. I'm gonna I'm gonna hit the gym, I'm
going to do this whatever. Right, So it's sort of
the same thing, is what it's going to What is
it costing you? Now? The question is the fact that
you can be stressed out, anxious, and essentially always underwater
(46:30):
a little bit emotionally. Yeah, what is it costing you
right now? How how long have you been in that
a year, two years, a decade? What kind of loss
of opportunity, of health, of relationships, of joy, of even
career creativity opportunities are not there because you're in that
(46:53):
state of survival. You're in survival mode. So that's the
Those are the questions I think that triggered that. Right.
So if you go, if you think about it, and
you go, yeah, I can't really, I can't really create
a new future if I'm in survival mode. There's no way, right,
you can't even imagine it. Your mind is so limited, right,
you're so pessimistic you're so you're, you're, you're, you're just
(47:16):
barely keeping on right. And I'm telling you, the most
brilliant leader, CEOs, founders, doctors, lawyers, people that are brilliant people.
So many of them are that's their normal. And imagine
that and imagine this. How much How much of a
loss is that for the world, of this level of
(47:38):
talent and brilliance not achieving their potential, you know, So
that's that's the big question, I think, right, And then
how to do it is actually secondary because you'll make
it happen once you're convinced, right, So you know, you know,
And I have like a I teach the stuff right
and basically, look, how you start your morning. It's how
(48:00):
you spend your day and how you start the morning.
I do basically three things. I go, Look, I need
you to contemplate, so pray, meditate, journal, be still, be
in touch with how you're feeling. Why are you're feeling
this way? So it's called metacognition, right. Metacognition is thinking
about your thinking, being able to self regulate, you know,
(48:22):
all of those things. Then you move your body because
you are a biological, physical being and your brain and
your body are interconnected one hundred percent. So you're not
wired to sit in front of a monitor for eight
hours a day, right, Like you you know, so you
move your body, so you lift weights, you walk, you
(48:44):
run whatever. Right, And then the third thing you do,
and this is every morning, is you learn a new skill.
You spend twenty thirty minutes. What is the lowest hanging
for it? What's the thing that keeps you from taking
the next step? Right? What is that skill? It could
be everything. It could be public speaking, it could be sales,
it could be a mariage, marriage, it could be parenting,
(49:08):
it could be marketing. Right, pick a lane and then
move a little bit towards that goal every single day,
even if it's half an hour to an hour. I mean,
there's all kinds of evidence to the fact that if
you do something consistently you're like, you don't have the
skill in the beginning. You do an hour day, fo
(49:28):
one hundred days, you're going to be basically in the
top twenty five percent in that skill just because you
didn't dabble. You just kept its consistency. That's all that is, right. Yeah,
So there's an art to it, there's a science to it,
but essentially, that's the thing that I do personally. I
coach people in that three things every morning, and it
becomes a new habit and changes your life basically.
Speaker 1 (49:51):
And we're blessed that we can create new lives for
ourselves by being here in the United States.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Right, seriously, Like it's like for the most of your history,
you are you were born a peasant, you die a peasant.
You're born whatever, in the military, you die in the military.
I mean, it's it's all bucket. I mean for literally
thousands of years and then two hundred years ago, and
(50:18):
that's a revolution. You can maybe change change your family
trajectory in one generation. Like you go a farmer, you
you are a poor, poor farmer. You go to that
London that Carl Marks wrote about. By the way, they
went there voluntarily, no one made them because always better
than when they were where they were. You go there,
(50:39):
you work at a factory. Maybe your kid can go
to a school, get an education. In one generation, you
upgrade your your family's fortunes. Then it accelerates, right maybe
in a few years with the information revolution, especially right
and now with AI forget about it, man, a few months,
(51:01):
a few months, that's it. Man, Wow, it's crazy.
Speaker 1 (51:04):
I'll be honest. I was skeptical at first, but it
helps me a great deal on my business, so I'm
a big believer in utilizing it under scopes. However, I
have no idea where it ends up. I don't know
where the story goes.
Speaker 2 (51:16):
I know me, neither, no one knows.
Speaker 1 (51:17):
I think you're right, Christian, has been awesome having you
on the show, My friend, your book, the Little Book
of Big Reasons to Love America. Where can our audience
get it? Where can they join your community to follow
along with all the things you have going on.
Speaker 2 (51:29):
You can just go to Amazon and put in my
name Christian ray Flores or the long titled Little Book
of Big Reasons to Love America either or you know,
or you can go to and if you want to
sort of stay in touch. Christian Rayflores dot com is
my newsletter and basically I write all things about personal
branding and all kinds of really cool insights. There put
(51:51):
a lot of effort in it. We have like twelve
thousand subscribers as of today. Okay, and it's a really
good resource, so I highly recommend it.
Speaker 1 (51:58):
Awesome, Christian, thanks so much, my friends. A pleasure getting
to share your story with our community. Thanks for having join,
and remember team life is far too short to live
any other way than on purpose. We'll see you all
again next week.
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