Chris Harris: [00:00:00] I think that was probably my first really big lesson in perspective. So both of my sisters, you know, their life did not turn out well and, and in fact they both died way earlier than they should have. But they both followed in the same footsteps as my mother, uh, with the drug addiction and, um, and all the things that came with that. But if you would've asked one of my sisters when they were still living their lives turned out r- really horrible, um, they would've looked you in the eye and with all the passion and conviction of their faith, they would've said that my life turned out so terribly because my mother was a drug addict and a drug dealer If the same person would turn and look at me and say, "Chris, your life turned out pretty well. How'd it turn out so great?" Well, I would square them in the eye and with all the passion and conviction of my faith, I would say, "Well, that's easy. My mother was a drug addict and a [00:01:00] drug dealer." So, the three of us grew up in the same home, you know, same circumstances, same point in time, and but the biggest differentiator as far as the outcome of our lives the perspective that we chose. And perspective is a choice, and they chose one of entitlement and unforgiveness and debt as if somebody owes them something. Um, and I chose a different perspective.
[00:02:00]
Riley: Today I have Chris Harris. He is a keynote speaker and author. He's a martial artist. The, uh, if you, if you get online and do, do some, uh, oh, search on mindset and his name, Chris Harris, there's a lot of information out there. And Chris, uh, Chris is on the show today because he's, he's written a, well, a bunch of books.
Gosh, is it 10, 12, 14 books? Something like that, Chris?
Chris Harris: 14
Riley: 14 to date. Yeah. And,
Chris Harris: years
Riley: yeah. So he's got a, a long track record there of, of just putting information and content out there, mainly about mindset, but about... There's, there's quite a few different subjects. I was looking through the list of books. I was like, "Man, you've covered a lot of ground over the years, man."
But Chris, welcome to the show
Chris Harris: Thank you very much. Look forward to the conversation
Riley: Yeah, man. Well, tell us who you are, where you came from, what life was like as a kid
Chris Harris: Well, from Dayton, Ohio. And, um [00:03:00] At 10 years old, my life got very interesting. My mom was a heroin addict and a, a heroin dealer, and at 10 years old they took her to prison. Um, didn't know who my father was. Had two sisters, one was 11 and 12, on that day that they took my mother away, um, in handcuffs, they took my sisters in two separate cars uh, they went with Child Protective Services one direction, I went t- with Child Protective Services in another direction. that kind of was the beginning of a, a difficult, a challenging time that gave me a lot of perspective and, uh, I grew a lot from it. But I, I think that was probably my first really big lesson in perspective. So both of my sisters, you know, their life did not turn out well and, and in fact they both died way earlier than they should have. But they both followed in the same [00:04:00] footsteps as my mother, uh, with the drug addiction and, um, and all the things that came with that. But if you would've asked one of my sisters when they were still living their lives turned out r- really horrible, um, they would've looked you in the eye and with all the passion and conviction of their faith, they would've said that my life turned out so terribly because my mother was a drug addict and a drug dealer If the same person would turn and look at me and say, "Chris, your life turned out pretty well. How'd it turn out so great?" Well, I would square them in the eye and with all the passion and conviction of my faith, I would say, "Well, that's easy. My mother was a drug addict and a drug dealer." So, the three of us grew up in the same home, you know, same circumstances, same point in time, and but the biggest differentiator as far as the [00:05:00] outcome of our lives the perspective that we chose. And perspective is a choice, and they chose one of entitlement and unforgiveness and debt as if somebody owes them something. Um, and I chose a different perspective. Uh, I chose one of, gratitude and I chose a perspective of, you know, wow, these are gonna be some very valuable life skills one day. Now, I think the million-dollar question, and I can't answer this, it's been asked to me many times over the years, you know, w- what do you think made a 10-year-old boy choose grati- you know, and his 11 and 12-year-old sisters, you know, choose self-pity and entitlement?
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: Th- that's the million-dollar question. That's probably the billion-dollar question. Uh, I do know that's the difference, between why they went the direction they went and I went the direction I went. What I don't know is what [00:06:00] caused a 10-year-old boy to make, You know, a, a decision that really required a, a much higher emotional intelligence than I had at the time.
Riley: You had, there was one of the, one of the little paragraphs I read in, in a, in a write-up I found online about you was... It, it kind of talked about that at an early age being able to make some of those hard decisions, right? To, to learn from other people's mistakes and, and basically take the silver lining of what was happening there and say, "You know what?
I can see this behavior, but I don't have to mimic it. I can learn, I can see the, the consequences in life it caused and do something different with it."
Chris Harris: You know, I would say I was never a silver lining guy. I, I have been somebody who's always tried to extract the best possible thing, uh, out of the worst possible thing. And I guess you could say That's looking for the silver lining. But I've always [00:07:00] looked at it from a, different perspective. know, I'm a big fan of, uh, Carl Jung, uh, you know, famous psychologist, and but he writes a lot about the human psyche and... But he writes about our shadow work, you know? And, and to me, when I read that, yeah, I mean, you can't be heavily, deeply invested into the subconscious mind and, and not have read something of Carl Jung. I mean, he's kind of the father of all that. But you know, when he, when he talks about shadow work, to me, he's talking about our demons, or our ego, or our inner rivals, wh- whatever you wanna name it.
Name it whatever you want to. But I've never really been interested in finding the silver lining as much as I've been interested in sure I put those son of bitches to work. You know, they work, they work for me. I'm the CEO. work for me, [00:08:00] and I'm not gonna bow down to them, and I'm not let them gonna rule my life.
I'm, my life is not gonna be dictated by something that happened to me when I was 12 or 13 or 14 years old. So every morning I wake up and I make a conscious decision to throw a saddle on them, I've got reins in one hand and a, and a whip in the other, and I ride those demons like Seabiscuit. I put them to work.
They pay rent. I monetize them I guess
Riley: a cool perspective
Chris Harris: I, I guess we could say I'm looking for the silver lining. I'm gonna make them find the silver lining
Riley: That's a cool perspective, man, 'cause you're, you're, uh... I like the differentiation, 'cause yeah, maybe silver lining is not the right word, but it is that. It's like, crap, man, if I'm gonna go through this, this, this kind of bull crap, I'm gonna, I am gonna make use of it. Let's, that's, that's a rad way to say it
Chris Harris: Well, look, take, take a-- I'll give you an example. I spent twenty-five years you know, tier one special forces around the world. [00:09:00] And to get to that level, you gotta be pretty good at your, at your craft. And doing an interview a while back and, and the interviewer, she, she did a phenomenal job, but she used to train Olympic athletes and NCAA Division One head coach, and just...
A very accomplished athlete and created very accomplished athletes. And she's like: Look, I know what it takes to get to that level. she said: What drove you to become so good to where, you know, you're training Delta? And I said: Well, put my demons to work. And she goes: Well, give me an example. I said: Well, for example, growing up, I never had any love. Nobody ever showed me acceptance. Nobody ever made me feel like I was wanted. I mean, I was born in adversity, but I was raised by rejection. And so growing up, more than anything, I wanted the praise of man. I wanted [00:10:00] approval. I wanted recognition. And when I was 10 years old, a, uh, a pastor from a local church... You know, I lived in the government housing, the projects, as we called it. And, uh, he was at a church walking distance from our and he knew that, know, the boys that lived in the projects didn't have father figures. he was a black belt in martial arts, and he's like, "Hey, I'm..." He worked out a deal with the, uh, with the complex where he was gonna come by on Saturdays and use the rec center, and he was gonna teach us karate. Well, I'm 10 years old. I don't even own a pair of socks, let alone am I good at anything. And, you know, my mom's a heroin addict, and, you know, I was getting beat up every day. It felt like every day. And all of a sudden, this guy's teaching me martial arts, me and the other boys there in the community, and I realized very quickly I had a gift for it. And when you take someone who's got nothing [00:11:00] and all of a sudden they realize they got a gift for something. And... But I learned very young, I learned at 10 years old, that men respect men that are dangerous. And the better I became, the more dangerous they perceived me. And the more they perceived me as being dangerous, and the more dangerous I actually was, I mean, I could prove it, I could back it up, the more they respected me. And that wasn't something that as I got older, you know, men kinda changed. As I got older, it
became even more, uh, true. I mean, the, you know, the, as I got bigger in stature and put on a little muscle and earned more belts and higher rank and became more skillful at, at close quarters combat, um, the more they respected me.
The, the... Men just respect a dangerous man. And So [00:12:00] my insecurity drove me to become so good at martial arts. My insecurity. So over off to the side, I look like this 6'3", 250 pound, know, uh, you, know, trained killer, so to speak. And really, I was just a scared little boy hiding in the corner who wanted to be recognized, the way that I accomplished that was I put that demon to work
Riley: So you, you say scared little boy who wanted to be recognized. At, at what point in that journey did you start to realize that was what was really going on?
Chris Harris: In
Riley: we've all seen it. We've all seen those tough guys that we respect, and like you said, we, we respect a dangerous man. But that's often the case, right?
Where, man, deep inside there's some insecurity there, and there's that, that little boy wanting to be recognized
Chris Harris: I, I, I figured it out in my 20s, and, you know, I realized that my motives were completely wrong. [00:13:00] I mean, whacked. But here's what I did. I didn't stop pursuing excellence in combatives. I didn't hang up my belt. I just changed my motives, and now I'm, you know, no longer doing it to be recognized
I'm now doing it because my why is I'm here to safeguard the innocent and protect the helpless. I changed my why
Riley: Say safeguard the innocent and protect the helpless. Go into that a little bit, man
Chris Harris: Pro- protect the innocent, safeguard the helpless. Look, we, we need a why for what we do. If we don't have a strong, compelling why for what we do, and, and, and, and for your listeners, if you don't have a why for what you do, make one up You know, be creative. but he- here's the problem. Everybody wants to talk about resilience [00:14:00] and that indomitable spirit and grit, grind, and hustle, and how to overcome adversity, and everybody wants to talk about that. Well, you can't be any of those things or have any of those things if you don't have a strong why, some passion behind the what. I mean, that's what grit and resilience latch its teeth onto when shit gets hard. So if you don't know your why and you're on this journey that's gonna cost you dearly between now and when you actually cross the finish line, you better know what your why is because that's what's gonna get you through the obstacles, and there will be obstacles. If there's no obstacles, you probably chose the wrong path
Riley: Do you feel like obstacles seem smaller when you have that why?
Chris Harris: No. think, I don't, I don't think they're any smaller or any bigger. I, just think they become less important, less significant. I, I
Riley: I think it's something, Chris, when, when I [00:15:00] have, when I have a strong purpose behind something, when there's that, whether it be a goal or, you know, just some way I'm thinking about it in a non-entitled... I, I'm not viewing myself as like, "Oh, this is hard." I'm, I'm viewing it like, "There's a goal that I'm just gonna get to it."
Um, things do seem easier. You know, not some... It's not that there's not up days and down days and those sort of things, but I'm, I'm kind of hearkening back to this. I, I remember one lesson I learned one day. I was on my mountain bike, and there was this, this hill that I had climbed many times that always seemed hard.
But because I had taken some time before, in the months prior to that, getting in shape for specifically that thing, when I hit that hill that day, I was able to be up four gears higher on my bike, and the f- the hill just didn't seem that big and that hard because I was prepared and I had this, this larger goal that that was a small obstacle in and it, in pr- in, in, uh, proportion to.
And, and I remember that [00:16:00] feeling of like, this doesn't seem that big a deal today, where, you know, a few months ago or a year ago it was a big deal
Chris Harris: Yeah. Look, your perspective of the hill changed because of your passion, your why. But I mean, if we're just talking straight up physics and geology here,
Riley: Yeah, same hill.
Chris Harris: it's same hill.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, it's the seem, the word seem, you know, does it seem smaller? And it did seem smaller that day. In comparison to the big picture, it seemed like, "Oh, this is just a little thing I gotta get up and-"
Chris Harris: Yeah, so I would say, yeah, it certainly seems smaller. Obstacles seem smaller when you've got a bigger why, they're not smaller.
Riley: They're not. That's right
Chris Harris: if you, if you get a note on your door saying, "Pay your rent by tomorrow or you're out," same note.
Riley: Mm-hmm But if you got, if you got 10 grand in the bank, that same note's not a big deal, right?
Chris Harris: Not as big of a deal
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. So you-- in, in one of your, [00:17:00] uh, one of the articles I read on the little, little write-ups was talking about you bouncing around a lot as a kid in, I, I think you said 13 public schools in this, this little blurb I read.
Chris Harris: the eighth grade, Yeah.
Riley: Yeah. So what was causing that move? Was it the foster system that you were, that was moving you around?
Chris Harris: Yeah, the foster care and, um You know, plus I had some, some of my mom's, you know, well-meaning friends, you know, before she, uh, you know, went to prison. She, she had people she drank with and smoked pot with and, know, shot heroin with and... And, you know, I think some of them just kind of felt compelled, you know, "Hey, Mary's off in jail.
Might be the right thing to do to in her kids for a while," you know? So, but, you know, nobody, nobody took me in because they loved me and they wanted me and, you know, they wanted to [00:18:00] adopt me. It was nothing like that. Um, so between foster care and between some of my mom's, uh, party buddies, uh, bounced around quite a bit, but that ended up being a tremendous blessing because I lived in the, in the inner city of Dayton, Ohio, so you could pretty much walk just about anywhere. And man, I played the orphan card. I, I literally absolutely played the orphan card. So no matter what family I moved with, I would find a martial arts school that I could either walk to or ride my bike to, and I'd just walk in and drop that orphan card, say, "Hey, I, I just moved in. I don't know how long I'm gonna be here.
It could be days, weeks, but I'm willing to do whatever work you will let me do to pay off some training." And, and I meant it. I mean, I didn't want anything for free, but, you know, I'd scrub the floors, paint walls, it, uh, clean toilets. It didn't matter. And not one of these school owners ever said no. And, I worked hard.
I, [00:19:00] I, I earned my dues. But you think about different homes, you know, up until the time I hit the eighth grade, and then I finally stayed with one family through high school. Well, that's all... That's a lot of different martial arts schools.
Riley: Mm-hmm
Chris Harris: That's a lot of different systems, a lot of different instructors, a lot of different styles and methodologies of teaching. by the time I turned 18, on my 18th birthday, I was still in high school. I was a senior in high school. And so I turned 18 in January, but I didn't graduate until that spring. So my birthday gift to myself was I went and enlisted into the military, and then, you know, a few months after, afterwards, I, you know, as soon as I graduated high school, I was off to boot camp. So now I'm 18 years old, and I'm living away from Dayton, Ohio for the first time in my life, and I got skills. I got... not just I learned, You, know, six different styles from six different [00:20:00] schools, but I practiced really hard because I was driven by the approval and praise of man who, you know, when they figured out I was dangerous, blah, blah, blah. And so, so now you're adding the diversity of the different martial arts styles and systems and, uh, instructors. And so by the time I got in the military, um, you know- I, I had a really strong foundation
Riley: You, you mentioned in the, in the martial arts journey and all these, these different, um, methodologies you experienced, extracting the stuff that was valuable from each one, right? And I think that's a, that seems to be a common theme in your life where you extracted what was valuable from, from a tumultuous growing up and used the things to your advantage that you could and kinda discarded the rest, right?
Chris Harris: I would recommend that everybody does that, um, with just about anything you do. I don't... Look, [00:21:00] I do a lot of keynote speaking, I've spoken in probably more than 60 countries, or at least spoken to audiences of more than 60 countries. Some of them I did virtually online. But, um, can tell you that as a keynote speaker, there's two things that you better accomplish before you drop the mic. One, you better leave everybody with one, at least one key takeaway Hopefully more. two, you need to challenge them with at least one action item. Um, so I mean, that's what I would do with these martial arts systems. It's the same way if I, if I read an Audible or listen to an Audible book. I don't read books, but I listen to them on Audible. At the end of that book, if I can't list a couple of key takeaways and maybe one or two action items, I'm not recommending that book to anybody. And if y- if you have to sit into a long, [00:22:00] boring corporate meeting, know, that's 90 minutes or two hours or half a day, or it's your one, you know, your, your company's annual, you know, big corporate retreat, you better be looking for action items and takeaways. And because otherwise you're just wasting your time. And so anytime I would train in a system, that's what I was looking for. What's that one thing that make you, makes you special? What's that one thing that you do better than any other system or any other instructor? know, like with, with aikido, uh, you know, it was, it was using another person's energy against them, right?
Harmonizing with their energy. Muay Thai, it was knees and elbows. Um, you know, with TaeKwonDo it was, it was just very dynamic kicks, you know? So every one of these systems had something that made them, you know, very unique. With, you know, with kung fu, it was just kind of b- very fluid, moving like water. you know, never really staying still and always just [00:23:00] controlling the space and the distance. So every one of those systems kind of had their key takeaway, right? And so I would recommend that if, you know, if you're gonna read a book or take an online seminar or listen to a podcast or whatever, you should be listening watching takeaways and action items, because at the end of the day, that's all that you're gonna remember anyway.
You're not gonna remember the whole, know, one-hour podcast. What do you remember?
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: Be- because that's what you were there for, really, was the, the thing that impacted you. What's that one thing you remembered? if you just read an 11-hour, listened to an 11-hour Audible book, and you can't tell me two or three key takeaways, that book was probably a waste of your time.
Riley: Yeah. No, that's a fact, man. I, I, w- I was talking about that, um, with a previous guest on the podcast about how, you know, there's been a lot of books I've read. There's some of them that y- I just put down 'cause e- exactly what you're saying. I, I'm getting halfway [00:24:00] through this thing, I'm like, "It's... I'm just not getting anything out of this.
There's no nuggets in there." But I've had other ones where I can remember some old books, um, old Charles Dickens stuff. Like, I read, um, oh, what's the, the name of it? The Please, Sir, May I Have Some More? Um, Oliver Twist, okay?
Chris Harris: Yep. Oliver
Riley: was a great book. Um, so but it was... Man, it's a long read, and it's Old, Old English, and it's kind of a, a trudge to get through.
But it's really interesting on the life perspectives and, you know, just some of the stuff that was going on there, that I took a lot of nuggets out of that book, and I, I really enjoyed it. Even though it was effort to read, it wasn't an easy read for me You know, do you... It, it, it sounds like that's sort of what you're saying, right?
You can, you can spend the time, and as long as you have takeaways, it's worth it
Chris Harris: Yeah. If, if I, if... I'll give, I'll give just about any Audible book, um, and I listen to quite a few of them, but I'll give them about 30 minutes. And after the first 30 minutes, [00:25:00] if I, if I haven't taken something away in the first 30 minutes, I'm, I'm turning it
off. I'm done
Riley: Do you have, uh... Give me an example of something that you, you view as a, a strong takeaway
Chris Harris: Well, I'd say first and foremost, anything that's new information, something that's just not recycled information that I've heard 100 times and everybody else is saying it. Um, so is it new? And then secondly, is it useful to me? I it may be great information and new information, but it's not useful to me. Um, you know, and then I think, can I leverage it? You know, is that something I could actually leverage it? Is it, is it something I could leverage using the tools that I already possess? You know, or do I have to go out and buy the next book or take a class or, you know, buy a whatever for my garage? it's something that like right here, right now, I can leverage that information, I- [00:26:00] it's useful, it's appropriate. you know, I, I love things that are convicting. Man, anything that convicts me, like I gotta stop and pause it and say, "Holy cow, I need to... I'm gonna listen to that again when I'm home in front of my notepad." Um, yeah, like the first time I learned about metacognition, you know? Uh, uh, I mean, it was like I, I was scrolling, you know, doing like social media, just micro-learning, you know, watching little shorts. And you know, I love it when, you know, social media kinda gets dialed into what, you know, what you're really thinking about right now, what you're really studying right now. And so like right now I'm on a big quick, uh, uh, my, I'm on my quantum kick, you know, quantum physics, quantum entanglement, quantum, mechanics, you know.
So I'm on my quantum kick right now, quantum computing. And, and so like social media knows that, so I'm just constantly getting these little shorts and, you know, but if, [00:27:00] if it's one, you know, these are only 30 seconds, 60 seconds long, but if it's one that makes me, hold on," then I'll, I'll, I'll literally text that link, know, f- to that short, I'll text it to myself and watch it later. If, if whatever you just said in that 30 seconds made me stop, copy, paste, send it to myself, that, that's an impact
Riley: Mm-hmm. So you're gonna pursue maybe the long-form video of that or maybe a book that, that, that guy may have written more content from that source, huh?
[00:28:00]
Chris Harris: absolutely. love stuff that just really challenges me. And, um, you know, like, but, uh, metacognition, you know, it's, it's the art or, and/or the, the science of just thinking about what you're thinking. It's, it's not self-awareness. Self-awareness is down here. Metacognition, thinking about what you're thinking is up here now what you're doing is you're disrupting that automation that's running your life. So 95% of what's going on in the course of your day is all self-automated. You know, you're, you're inhaling, you're exhaling, you're blinking, you're holding your [00:29:00] bladder. You know, you're... There's thoughts that are randomly going on right now. And that, that automated, that 95% of who you are that's being ran through the operating system called your subconscious mind, it's never gonna change if you don't disrupt it. So when you stop and think about what you're thinking, you're, you're basically pausing the movie. And neuro- neuroscientists, a, a, lot of them believe that metacognition is probably one of the highest forms of intelligence because you can your life real time. You can break old habits real time. You can create new habits real time. And, uh, you know, but like the first time I was micro scrolling and I heard about meta- metacognition, and next thing you know, I'm, know, watching everything I can watch on it, and then I'm downloading white papers, and next thing you know, I'm writing a chapter about it in my last book. know, that's the kinda stuff that I look for, stuff that stops me in my tracks
Riley: That's a really interesting thing, man, 'cause there's... I remember, [00:30:00] uh, there's a Bible verse talks about, um, taking your thoughts captive, right? And it sounds like that's sort of what you're talking about. It's like, what are, what are... I'm thinking about what I'm thinking about, is the way you phrased it, right?
It's what's going through my head that are these, like, loops that are
Chris Harris: uh, I think it was a scripture about Jesus. I, um, I think that it said that he was able to bring every thought into captivity.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, he's kind of telling us to do that
Chris Harris: yeah, so I, I think about that scripture and I think, you know, like our house, uh, my wife and I, we've been married 30 years. We live in Fort Worth. But our house, when you walk in, kind of a little foyer area, you know, that you kinda gotta come through the foyer area before you enter into the kitchen and living room, and then, you know, further back is the bedrooms and all that. And to me, you know, when, when... And, and I don't know if it was Jesus that
said it or not, but, uh, you know, the bring every thought into captivity, to me that means keep it in the foyer. Shake its hand. [00:31:00] Get to know who he or she is. a formal introduction before you say, "All right. Come on back. I'm gonna show you the, the kitchen."
Riley: Mm-hmm. Yeah, get to know that thing, man. That's, that's good 'cause that thought may not be a healthy thing, right? You may wanna kick that one back out the door and, and I think we do that a lot. I, I know, crap, man, some of the stuff that wanders through, through my head, I, I have to shake my head sometimes like, "Why, why are you even entertaining that, dude?"
So you, um... So talk about, I wanna, I wanna change the subject a little bit here to the martial arts and, and you creating your own system. So, um, help me with the words. It's, is it Roku Ju- Jitsu? Is that... How do you pronounce it?
Chris Harris: Ro- Roku, R-O-K-U, which is just a Japanese word that means the number six. And then Jutsu, J-U-T-S-U-E. Uh, not, not Jitsu. Jitsu
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: Jitsu is more like an art. [00:32:00] Uh, Jutsu, J-U-T-S-U-E, is more like a methodology, uh, especially as, as it relates to war. So it's Roku Jutsu. I tr- I trained in six different styles, and I just, I just took the, the badass greatest hits highlights and, uh, put them together and created my own system, and that's what I trained Special Forces.
Riley: Mm-hmm. Now when you say your own system, is it a, do you, do you do it as a, like a f- a curriculum? It sounded like you have, your belt rankings are based on, on mastery of s- different techniques
Chris Harris: Oh yeah, I think, yeah, there's six belts, and you have to perform the techniques, you know, correctly. And they have to be efficient and accurate and, um, instinctive and all that. But yeah, I've got... I don't know the exact number, but I think I got, like, 28 black belts in, in my system, Roku Jutsu black belts. Um, but I, I'd, I'd have to think of the exact number because I've got black belts now who have promoted [00:33:00] people to black belt. uh, but my claim to fame, y- you know, the reason the government liked to use me, wasn't because I was the best. I mean, I, I was definitely good. I could hold my own. but what made me so unique, and, and when I say unique, like, I charged double. Like, if they put out a bid, you know, or a request for quote, you know, for me and a couple of other experts that specialized in what we specialized in, like I was a, a big central nervous system guy, right? weapons of opportunity guy, and things like that. But I, I was very niche, but there, there were only a handful of people in the world that could do that niche at that level. And, but I... My, my quote was double. Like, if, if one of my competitors said, "Yeah, I'll do it. I'll train, you know, your six-man special forces team specific to that mission, blah, blah, blah. do it for 50 grand." I'd come in and say 100, and I'd win. And I'm just making some numbers up just to give you some, some [00:34:00] relative space here. Um, but the reason I would win is because I didn't teach through muscle memory. Everybody else did. Muscle memory takes time. It takes a lot of time and a lot of repetition, then not only that, but it, it's, it's use it or lose it.
If you don't keep practicing, you'll, you'll, you'll lose those skills. I'm like, "Hey, you know, that guy's gonna charge you 50 grand, but it's gonna take him three weeks with your team. I'm gonna charge you 100 grand, and I'm gonna do it in three days, and they'll never have to practice." Because I'm gonna create new involuntary, instinctive, involuntary reactions.
I'm gonna create new basically responses. I'm gonna create a stimulus response. I'm gonna create involuntary reactions to where they can never forget it. I'm gonna upload this information into their CNS, into their central nervous system, if they ever need it 20 years from now, it'll be there, and they'll never forget it, be able to do it in days, not weeks
Riley: Differentiate that between muscle memory and [00:35:00] involuntary actions, 'cause to me as an outsider, that sounds like the same thing
Chris Harris: Well, at, at the end of the day, the outcome is the same. But if, if you're learning it through muscle memory, I mean, how long does it take to get proficient at doing that block or that kick? You gotta do it hundreds, thousands of times? Well, if I'm going to teach you through uploading the information into your central nervous system, I can do that in minutes or hours
Riley: Give me an example
Chris Harris: Okay. So, um, well, there's only a- about 12 ways somebody can really hurt you with their bare hands. I mean, uh, no weapons, just bare hands, okay? You know, we think there's this infinite number of ways. Well, there's about 12. They can throw straights, hooks, uppercuts. They can tackle you, charge you, choke, push, grab, you know, whatever. Um, [00:36:00] and so, so here, here's what mindset is as I teach mindset, okay? Most people don't know what mindset is because the internet doesn't really know what mindset is. If you Google mindset and read three different articles, they all have a different idea. Like, one of
Riley: That's
Chris Harris: talking about mindset, but it's really talking about attitudes or beliefs. You know? So what's the difference between mindset, attitude, and beliefs? Well, Google 10 websites, and you'll get 10 different answers. So here's my definition of mindset as I teach it. There is a space that lives within you And it's the space that lives between a stimulus and your response or reaction to that stimulus. So from the moment you wake up, the alarm goes off, That's
a stimulus. Alarm, alarm went off, stimulus. What do I do?
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: Do I push snooze? [00:37:00] Do I lay there for a few minutes and then get my ass out of bed, or do I hit the ground running? Well, the alarm is the stimulus, and then somewhere between that alarm going off and then you deciding how you're gonna react or respond to that stimulus, that space is mindset, and that's the space that we own. So if I'm going to make you mentally tough, if I'm gonna t- help you and strengthen and equip your mindset, what I'm really gonna do is I'm gonna help you master the space between the thousand stimuli that we're faced with a day. I don't know how many stimuli there are in the course of a day. I mean, look, y- y- you try to merge onto the highway, somebody didn't let you in.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: cut, somebody cuts you off. You know, you're right in the middle of a, a, a, a tremendous workflow and you're typing this email and all of a sudden you get a spam call. Uh, this is all stimuli, stimuli, stimuli, stimuli. [00:38:00] And mastering the space between stimulus and response is mindset
Riley: It's an interesting definition Yeah, because that, that's, that's where procrastination lives. That's where,
Chris Harris: Doubt,
Riley: where decisive action lives. That's all those things are right in that, that zone, right?
Chris Harris: All the bullshit lives right there.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: When you master that space, bullshit's gotta pack its bags and move out
Riley: That's a great, that's a great way to put it, man. I, I, I dig it. You're, uh, making my wheels turn 'cause you're... That is where we talk ourselves out of doing great things. It's where we, it's where we give into fears. It's all that stuff is right in that zone you're talking about
Chris Harris: It's, it's where you're arm wrestling with your ego
Riley: Mm-hmm Yeah, I can think of the hesitations I've had, [00:39:00] had at certain times, and had I pulled the trigger right when I-- right at that moment, it would've turned out better for me, but I didn't. I hesitated. I put it off, and next thing I know, the opportunity's gone, and whoops, I've screwed that up, right?
Chris Harris: Mm-hmm.
Riley: Chris, you've got, um, you know, back a- again to the martial arts part of things in the, the authorship of these books you write.
You've got one called The Idiot's Guide to Self-Defense. Um, or the Com- it's Complete Idiot's Guide to Self-Defense, if I remember the, the exact title. But when you're talking about self-defense, there's some curious things I have. I don't, I don't know if you know, but I'm a, I'm a, a Brazilian jujitsu black belt, and there's this, this thing where I'll get requests from people who, who want to bring me into that self-defense sphere and, and go teach a, teach a women's self-defense class or a kids' self-defense or...
But they want it in one lesson, you know, one, one hour and a half [00:40:00] lesson. And what can I teach them to defeat the bigger, stronger, older, you know, opponent? So when you have this Idiot's Guide to Self-Defense, what, what's your thoughts on that?
Chris Harris: Well, if, if you've got somebody that wants you to teach them, you know, in a short amount of time with limited effort on their part, and maybe even limited money or investment on their part, all you can really do is focus on the things that you can tell them,
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: right? It's, it's nothing I can show you. It's nothing I can have you practice.
It's just stuff I can tell you. So for example, you know, if someone comes up and starts choking you, take your left thumb and press it into their eyeball until they let go. All right? I've told you that, and y- you might not ever forget that. You know? Someone's... If somebody's choking you, hands around your throat, squeezing, take your left thumb, not your right thumb, your left thumb. Why, why the left [00:41:00] thumb? Because I want you to remember it, if I said thumb, you might not remember it, but if I said left thumb, you'll never forget it. And, you know, and then I want you to push in that eyeball in fact, take the other hand, take the right hand and put it behind their head so they can't get away. And whoever lets go first wins So I would focus on stuff that I could tell you
Riley: Yeah. It's, it's cool you say that because that's, that's the approach I've taken whenever in those situations is, is the tactics of more than the technique of, you know? It's the, the way I've phrased it is don't go stupid places with stupid people at stupid times and do stupid things, and you're gonna avoid 99% of the problems that would cause you to have to defend yourself, you know?
So it's, uh, what I tell them more than what I can show them, right?
Chris Harris: People can stay out of... Pe- people can avoid 90-plus percent of the bullshit in their life if they just [00:42:00] look at it and say, "Is that my circus, and is that my monkey?"
Riley: I like that term.
Chris Harris: Not
Riley: like it a lot, man.
Chris Harris: my monkey
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. What do you think, um, what do you think are some of the myths and misunderstandings about self-defense?
Chris Harris: Well, I think, you know, the whole, you know, keychain bullshit, you know? Give me a break. Um, you know, uh, women thinking that, you know, they could h- hit a man in the chest, you know? Um, y- you know, there, there's, there's just so much stuff that's taught in a self-defense course that is... it's just bull. Uh, it, it wouldn't work. If you're talking about, an angry man, especially a, a large or strong angry man, especially a large or strong angry man who, uh, has a very [00:43:00] specific desired outcome that he wants, and, you know, you think because you've learned an outward block and a couple katas, you know, it, it's just... it, it ain't happening. and I, I think... look, I think the majority of what is taught, like in a really good martial arts school with a firm foundation that's got a process, you know, that's how you really learn to fight. I think that a- anybody that thinks they're gonna teach you how to fight, you know, in a couple of hours in a group environment, it ain't gonna happen.
Riley: Yeah. We
Chris Harris: pointers. I mean, like, if I'm teaching a self-defense class, the very first thing I say is this: "You have 10 weapons. Let's talk about your 10 weapons. You have two feet, two knees, two elbows, hands. You have teeth, and you have a head." If anybody ever restrains you, person restraining you [00:44:00] one-on-one, the fastest way to escape is to run through your checklist of your 10, because you will always have at least one that is available. Because if they are restraining you, you've gotta find one of your 10 that's not being restrained, that's the one that you use. So just go, start going through your check. Oh, guess what? My teeth are available. You know? So, uh, you're laying down on the ground and they got you in an arm bar, oh, wait, my teeth are right by their calf muscle. Got it. So,
Riley: Tool. Yep
Chris Harris: You know, then what? Well, bite their calf. Well, That's illegal. Not on the street.
Riley: That's right
Chris Harris: And so I, I focus on stuff like that
Riley: Oh, that's beautiful, man. So, so here, here now you've, you've taken this self-defense career. You've, you've brought it into the Special Forces where you, you could train some of this stuff with these guys. But you had mentioned this, um, [00:45:00] oh, how did you put it? Nervous system guy. You're a nervous system guy is the way you phrased that.
Talk about that to me a little bit, 'cause that... I'm, I'm not... I'm a little slow, man. I'm, I'm not catching on quite what you mean by it
Chris Harris: So I, I would upload... So, yeah, I, I said there's about 12 different ways somebody can hurt you with their bare hands. So one of those ways, so they, say they throw a straight, okay? That's, that's a cue. All right? That's a stimulus. They throw a hook. That's a stimulus. They try to push you. That's a stimulus. So for each stimulus that someone can do one-on-one with their bare hands, I will assign the reaction, that when you, when somebody comes at you with that stimulus, I'm going to show you what the best reaction is, but we're not gonna learn that reaction through muscle memory. I am going to upload that reaction to you to where, just like if you were [00:46:00] talking to me right now and we're doing this podcast, and you've got your face up by your microphone, and all of a sudden a big-ass yellow jacket start- started flying right by your face, what would you do? You know what you would do. That's an involuntary reaction. It's already programmed into your CNS. Well, I'm gonna give you 12 of those, and I'm gonna upload them into your central nervous system very quickly. the way you do that is everybody has... E- learns, you know, through kinesthetic, y- you know, touch, doing, uh, we learn visually, we learn through audible, we learn through emotional based, you know, learning.
Somebody yelled at me when they taught me that lesson, "Don't ever do that shit again." You know, whatever. But we all have a, a, we all have these ways we learn, but everybody has one of those learning styles that is their dominant learning style. Okay? And so when you transfer the information, when I transfer to [00:47:00] you, here is the reaction that I want you to basically instinctively do anytime there's this stimulus, a hook, a straight, a push, a choke, then what I have to make sure I do is I teach you or transfer that information on what that reaction or response is by delivering it with all the learning styles surrounding it. And that's what makes it involun- uh, that's what gets it into your subconscious mind. When we say make it instinctive, I'm putting it
I'm getting it past your, uh, analytical mind, and I'm getting it down into your subconscious mind. So I'll give you an example. All right? is called an upward block. right?
So go ahead and show me an upward block
Riley: Yeah, we used to do taekwondo where we would...
Chris Harris: Okay, great.
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, and, uh, it
Chris Harris: now this time when you do it
Riley, I want you to do it as I do it, so follow me, and as you do it, I want you to say, "Upwards." [00:48:00]
Riley: Airport?
Chris Harris: Okay, so now we've introduced visual and we've introduced audible. Riley, as you do it, I want you to take your other hand and make it the weapon, and I want you to say upward, and I want you to block your own hand
Riley: Um, I'm gonna get in the microphone whacking here in a second, but yeah, I see what you're... Yeah.
Chris Harris: Okay. Oh, now we're bringing
Riley: So
Chris Harris: into it
Riley: blocking as if I'm throwing a punch at myself is what you're saying?
Chris Harris: but what I'm doing is I'm showing you how I'm delivering this information, and I'm adding audible, then I'm adding kinesthetic, then I'm adding emotional, then I'm adding visual. And, and but when you have all of those surrounding that information, that's how it gets into the subconscious
Riley: No, that's really interesting, Chris, because I, I... My son was asking me one day, so he, he trains jujitsu with me, and he was, um... Well, we've always trained the ground part of it, um, but he hadn't been to any of the stand-up, um, classes yet. He was still very new in it. But he was getting fairly [00:49:00] proficient on the ground, right?
And he and his, his buddies decided one day that they wanted to go in the backyard and box. Well, one of the friends was a boxer. He had, he had had a year or two of boxing experience. And so my son Danny gets out there and, and finds out fairly quickly that these are two very, um, distinct skill sets, right?
And he got tagged a couple times where it buckled his knees, and he, he came to me later and said, "What do I do in that situation?" 'Cause I-- the rule set wasn't, you know, in the sport situation, it wasn't such that he could, he could grapple with this kid. And so then we started talking about distance management and just that be all the way out or all the way in principle.
And then if- without knowing it, I probably went through a lot of those same steps you're talking about, those same stages of, "Hey, man, here's the principle. Now, if he steps towards you, just step away. And if he, he, uh, steps away from you, you can let that distance just remain far enough away where [00:50:00] he can't hit you.
But if he comes in with intent, we're just gonna close the distance. You're gonna get a hold of him, take him down." And there's that... It sounds very similar to what you're saying. I just didn't put it into these, these steps of learning, right?
Do you have a
What do you see happen there? What, what was the... Do you see it the same way as I'm seeing it?
Chris Harris: Yeah, absolutely
Chris, when, when you're developing these, these teaching systems and you wanna create these steps of learning, what is, what's your approach?
Chris Harris: Well, I build all, all curriculum under three assumptions. Assumption number one is I assume that the person I'm gonna be teaching this to has never been exposed to this information ever in their lifetime. I make that assumption. The second assumption is I assume that they will never exposed to this [00:51:00] information ever again. This is it. It's a one and done.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: And then the third assumption I write my curriculum around is whatever I teach them, they will never practice.
Riley: Hmm, that's good
Chris Harris: exposed to it before, they'll never be exposed to it again, and they will never practice. All right, now let the curriculum begin
Riley: Those are great assumptions, man, 'cause I think about from firearms training, you know, the amount of people who will practice it. Um, I've been a Dave Ramsey financial, um, guy for a lot of years and hosted a lot of his classes and, and I think about all the, the training people get in there and then they don't practice it, right?
So yeah, man, that's, that's fantastic. So if you come with those assumptions now, what does that cause you to do?
Chris Harris: Well, it causes me to teach a lot differently, and it, it causes me to be very careful about the information that I transfer. You know, I'm not gonna teach a, a three-point arm [00:52:00] bar, know, to a three-hour women's self-defense class
Riley: Yeah, for sure. For sure. Well, you- you've taken this into to, um, well, Special Forces training, but also sales training, right? That's a big part of your world
Chris Harris: Yeah. Um, I, you know, I, I was a private contractor teaching the, you know, the Department of Defense for 25 years. And when I got out of that, I had to pivot and find something else to do with my life, something else that could pay my rent and I could keep my autonomy and still have a little bit of fun.
And so I pivoted into corporate America and I got into tech sales, selling high-end technology, like stuff that, y- you know, literally costs like a million dollars. um, it was extremely competitive and a lot to learn. But what I was selling, I, I became number one in the world
selling it. [00:53:00] But I was just leveraging the same mental toughness and mindset principles, You know, that I'd been teaching to Special Forces for 25 years.
I had a significant advantage
Riley: You wouldn't think on the surface that those, those worlds would be, would overlap as much as they do, but that, you know, you're, you're, um, you go by the kind of moniker the Warrior Maker, right? And I- it's easy to go, okay, he trains self-defense guys. He's a martial artist. He's, he's obviously a warrior maker.
But when you take that into the sales or the executive world, man, you're... We don't always think of those principles as the same, but they very much overlap, don't they?
Chris Harris: Yeah. Like for example, if you're competing against me, um, if you're a sales guy in my territory and you sell a competitive product, um You're not gonna beat me I mean, look, I'm either going... I, I will either [00:54:00] win or I will learn. I will either make a way or I will find a way. You're just not gonna beat me. And what happens is eventually I beat you on enough deals over and over to where I don't have to convince you you're not gonna beat me. You're gonna find out you're competing against me, and you're gonna go, "Ah, shit, not beating this guy." And that's... O- once that happens... Look, when I know I'm gonna beat you, that's mindset. When the competition knows they can't beat you, that's called relative superiority
Riley: Expand on that
Chris Harris: Relative superiority. Our, our special forces are built around that, that, that premise. It's like the fact that the enemy knows that the Navy SEALs are on their way and they piss their pants
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: because they know w- w- we're not beating them. That's relative superiority, when your opponent or enemy knows they can't beat you.
Riley: It's that psychological part of warfare
Chris Harris: Well, [00:55:00] Yeah. but it's earned. It's earned from winning and time and time and time and time again. It's earned.
Riley: Yeah.
Chris Harris: It's not a
Riley: Yeah, that's, that's really interesting, man. So, so when you take this into... What, what... Let me ask you this: What are you, are you training in that technology sector mostly for your sales training, or do you, do you do more broad scope than that?
[00:56:00]
Chris Harris: I don't, I don't care what you sell. care if you sell a- advanced manufacturing or hairbrushes, the same principles apply
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. Do you, uh [00:57:00] Speak to this a little bit, Chris, 'cause I, I know in my sales experience, right, I've sold back in the, my window and siding days, uh, my door-to-door in-home sales, my average ticket was $20,000. And my, today I, I own, you know, a supplement company and then a mobile oil change company. And in each of those, uh, you know, say my mobile oil change average ticket's around 400, $500.
And, and now in the, in the electrolyte company it's 50 bucks, 60 bucks, right? Um, but all the same sale, sales steps happen. You know, the customer has to become aware, then they have to find out the benefits. And then, you know, there's always this, uh, these things that take place. But in the smaller ticket, I've found it's very much harder to identify than it is in big stuff like you're talking about, million-dollar sales.
That sales process is, well, it's longer, but it's, it's very m- I, I've always felt like the higher ticket, it was more defined. Does that, that seem accurate to you?[00:58:00]
Chris Harris: I mean, it could be. Um, you know, look, at the end of the day, it's, it's about relationships. And, you know, so when, when you're listening to someone, when someone's talking to you, what's going through your mind? If someone is telling you, uh, uh, the... I mean, let's just say they're, they're, they're possibly going to spend some money with you or with one of your products or with one of your companies, and they're talking to you, what's going through your mind when that person, who might be a customer, might become a customer, is talking to you? I can, I can tell you, I mean, statistics prove that we're usually thinking about, "Well, as soon as they shut up, here's what I'm going to say." That's u- that's usually what's going through our mind. But, like, the first thing I would teach is this. When somebody's talking to you?
your only objective is to figure out which one of the three Hs they are speaking from at this very moment. [00:59:00] Because when people speak to you, one of three Hs that they're speaking from, and your only job is to figure out which one of those three Hs they're speaking from. H number one, they wanna be helped. And by the way, this, same thing if you're married and your spouse is telling you about their day.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: Hs are they talking from? One, they wanna be helped. Two, they just wanna be heard. Or three, metaphorically, they really just wanna be hugged. It's been a shit day. And so, like, if, if, if you're married, you know, stop your spouse and say, "Okay, hey, great story, but before I respond, I just wanna ask, you wanting some help? Are you just wanting to be heard? Or are you metaphor- metaphorically wanting me to hold you or, or hug you?" And [01:00:00] when we listen, we should always listen with the intent of solving for that H. if you pick the wrong H in your response, you've already lost the deal
Riley: Oh, man. And I, and I can think of 100 times when that's happened. Um, definitely sometimes in my marriage where I- I'm a, I'm a dude and I'm a problem solver and I'm a, you know, I just have that delegation type mindset, and my wife comes to me with a thing she's dealing with, and man, I'll fix that crap. But yeah, she just wanted to be hugged, and now all of a sudden I've transgressed and and I've stuff- I've done a bad thing somehow, and I...
Yeah, it's hard to know that. So what tips do you have for me, man?
Chris Harris: Listen with your heart.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: turn this crap off
Riley: How do you, uh, how do you translate that into the, like a sales relationship with a, with a business prospect?
Chris Harris: I forget about, you know, who [01:01:00] they're with or how much money they're worth or, you know, the potential of this. Look, I went to a, a deal last night. Let's give you an example. And, uh, my wife and I are, were members of a country club, and our country club had its annual whatever have once a year, and they had it h- here in Fort Worth. And, you know, it, it, a lot of really good food, self-serve, you know, a couple bars, all you want. And I grabbed my plate and I just went over and picked a, a, an available seat. I, I didn't have to go sit by somebody I knew. just picked an available seat. And I just start talking to the guy that's sitting next to me. I don't know who he is. I have no idea who he is. Well, apparently he was a pretty big deal because later everybody told me what a big deal... Y- you know who that was. I don't know who that was. Um, [01:02:00] but he and I formed a tremendous connection, and he asked me for my business card. I said, "I, I don't really carry, you know, business cards to stuff like this." You know? Uh, I said, "But, you know, uh, you know, if, if you want, just Google the Warrior Maker. You know, I'll, I'll, I'll come up pretty quick." And he's like, "Well, hold on, I think I might have one. Sometimes I have one business card in my wallet." And he digs around through his wallet and he's got one business card, like where a credit card should be, and it looks like it's been in there for 20 years, right?
So
Riley: Yeah.
Chris Harris: doesn't carry bus- And, and he gives me his business card, and I, I texted him this morning and, know, "Hey, it was great meeting you," and, um, you know, "Let's, let's go grab a bourbon sometime." That's it. Well, we connected at a very deep level very quickly. And it was because of the questions I was asking, and two, it was because I was listening [01:03:00] with my heart. And y- you know, of course today I Googled him. I mean, it's a Pretty big deal.
Riley: Pretty big deal.
Chris Harris: but, but like I... We're sitting there and I, and, and he's, he's telling me something and, you know, small talk. You know, let's talk about sports, the weather, the condition of the roads, you know, bullshit. And I stopped him, I go, "No, no, no, I wanna really get to know you.
We only got a few minutes here. I wanna really get to know you." He goes, "Well, how are you gonna do that?" I said, "What's your favorite movie?" He goes, "My favorite movie?" I said, "Yeah, all time." He goes, "True Grit." I said, "Which one?" He's like, "There's only one version,
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: Wayne version." I said, "I know everything I need to know about you." He goes, "Oh Yeah
Tell me what you think you know about me, because my favorite movie is the original John Wayne version of True Grit." And I just give him the list, man. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. No nonsense, get it done, [01:04:00] justice prevails. You know, if we start something, we're gonna finish it, it takes, you know.
And I just went through my list, and he just, like he just puts his fork down, pushes his plate in front of him. And, you know, but that was the beginning of a relationship. Look, I don't need anything from this guy. I got nothing to sell this guy. I'm not looking to borrow money or anything like that. But my point is, we connected, and we connected the conversation was real, it was genuine, it was authentic, and it was about him, not me. And that is sales. That's sales
Riley: So I always, when I'm talking to my team about sales, right? I talk about the nobility of a, of a good salesman, and if he does it correctly, and if he's authentic like you're talking about and really tries to solve a problem that we have, it doesn't feel like he's selling [01:05:00] us. It feels like a relationship.
You had mentioned that before, right? It's, it's about our, our relationships, and I, I think of this. My daughter is a, is a pretty high-level fiddle player, travels the country competing and does, does this stuff. And she... There was this guy in a music store, and, well, David is his name, and he... Best salesman I've ever seen in my life, man.
This guy was relationally, he's just amazing. We, we, we walked in there. It was the first fiddle my daughter had ever bought. She was a little girl, and she had her own money, and, and he walked her through this process of informing her and teaching her the, the things she needed to know in order to make a wise decision on one of these, one of these fiddles, right?
Um, and then he went through the whole process again for the bow and then the whole process again for the case to carry it in and, and, man, we walked out of there, we felt served, not sold, and it was a, it was a, the best example I've ever seen of it. It sounds like that's what you're saying.
Chris Harris: Yeah
I mean, look, don't, don't assume that whoever you're talking to has a [01:06:00] problem that they want to solve. Don't assume that. There's a whole lot of reasons people can talk, be talking to you. Uh, and m- maybe they have a problem they want to solve, they don't have any problem to solve at all. Maybe they just have an advantage they want to gain. People buy for desire for gain just as much as they buy out of fear of loss. Maybe they don't have some- a problem they want to solve or a- an advantage they want to gain. Maybe they're just bored and they need a new project. I mean, uh, man, I, I love projects, maybe the project is just, I think I'm gonna buy this, and now I gotta hunt, I gotta hunt, I gotta hunt.
I gotta find the best one. I gotta do my research. And then once I find the best one, I gotta find the best deal. I mean, you know, maybe they're giving themselves a task. Um, you know, maybe they just love the hunt, and, and then eventually at the end of the day, the kill. You know, I find ... You know, it's like when I decided w- look, I'm gonna put a piece of cardiovascular equipment in my home.
I don't want a home gym. I, I have a gym I go to, but I would like to have [01:07:00] a piece of cardio equipment in my gym, and so what is that gonna be? You know, is it gonna be a stepper? Is it gonna be a treadmill? Is it gonna be a rower? You know. And I do my research, and I come up with, okay, here is by far, you know, uh, the treadmill.
The treadmill actually touches about 70% of the, the muscles in your body. Okay, great. So it's ... You know, and, and, and then okay, well, do I want the, the air? Do I want the magnetic? Do I want the strap? You know. And I absolutely lo- and I, and I finally bought one. I loved that journey. Sometimes people are just on that journey.
Let them be on that journey. But we immediately think we gotta find the problem they gotta solve, or we gotta find the benefit they want to gain. Or we gotta understand that they're just on a journey because they're bored, and they needed a project. It ... The point is, listen
Riley: Yeah. That auth- authentic listening, I think that is a big deal. 'Cause you were right y- when you said, [01:08:00] you know, we're looking in, for the next thing we're gonna say when they finally shut up, right? That's a, that's a terrible way to go, but yep, guilty as charged in a lot of cases, so there we are. Um, Chris, I want you to talk about mindset now, 'cause you, you have a book.
Is it, is it titled Mindset? Is that
Chris Harris: The Book of Mindset?
Riley: The Book of Mindset? There's some things that happens there, you know, where we've all experienced it, where we, we're either intimidated by a situation or we are, we're just in what we kind of term in the meta out there, the funk. You know, you're just in a, you're just in a funk.
Your mindset's not right. You're... You almost don't have that belief that you can do something or become something or be part of some, you know, some event. But talk about mindset and how you would switch it, you know, when you're in that funk
Chris Harris: Well, first and foremost, embrace the funk. You know, the funk's part of the [01:09:00] journey. And, you know, I don't know if you've ever read Viktor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning, but the funk
is part of the journey. Embrace it. And, you know, why do you gotta get out of the funk? I mean, obviously you don't wanna stay in the funk too long But some of our greatest lessons that we've learned in life is during the funk.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: I mean, it's during the suck. It's during the struggle. Why are we trying to get away from the part that provides the greatest growth? So I think acknowledge that I'm in a funk, and then be accountable because it, it... Look, accountability requires two things One, you have to very, be very clear in articulating what the desired outcome is. Okay? So there can be [01:10:00] no accountability unless there's two things. One, I am gonna be very clear about what the desired outcome is gonna- because when you state your de- desired outcome to others, started the process of accountability.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: You know, like, uh, people who th- one day they're gonna write a book, but they're not gonna tell anyone that one day they're gonna write a book. Okay? Well, when you start telling people one day you're gonna write a book, you start, you, the ball is rolling of accountability. then the second thing that has to be present for there to be true accountability is you have to say, "And I am willing to take full ownership of the outcome of circumstances."
Riley: Mm.
Chris Harris: When you have those two things, you've got accountability. So if you're in a funk The only way you're gonna get out of the funk is, first of all, you have to be aware of the fact that you're in a funk. If, if you're not aware of the fact that you're in a funk, [01:11:00] I can't help you. right? So and then... And now what, what's, where's the accountability piece? What are you going to do to change or achieve this desired outcome? What is the desired outcome? The desired outcome is to get out of the damn funk. Okay, well, for it really to be accountability, it's gotta be time-bound and measurable. So how would you define getting out of this funk? "Well, I hate the shitty neighborhood I live in." "My wife hates the shitty neighborhood I live in, you know, just we're, we're gonna move." "All right, when are you gonna move by?" "Well, you know, I gotta save a little money, and I gotta put in my notice where I'm at, and blah, blah. We're gonna move in 90 days." All right, great. Look at this whole accountability thing getting you out of the funk. It's just a process, but first you have to acknowledge and admit and own the fact that you're in the [01:12:00] funk, and then you gotta, you gotta state the desired outcomes. They gotta be time-bound, they gotta be measurable, and next thing you know, you wake up one day and you're in a new neighborhood
Riley: So do you feel like, um, you know, having a specific goal... 'Cause that's one of those things, the SMART goals, right? We've, we've heard that forever, the, the specific and measurable and attainable and, uh, maybe you remember the rest. Um, I, losing the last couple of them, but this, I've always found that when I feel like I'm making progress or I'm being productive in a, in a thing, that it's way easier to stay out of that funk.
I don't get that kind of depression that happens or that, um... I just feel productive, man. I feel like I'm getting crap done and it, it, it's easier to avoid the funk. What do you have to say about that?
Chris Harris: Uh, say if, if you don't have any goals, I don't know how you're not in a funk
Riley: Yeah [01:13:00] Yeah
It's such a
Makes sense when you say it that way, man
Chris Harris: Life is two things. Life is current position and it's future trajectory. So if you don't have any goals, then there's no future trajectory. There's just current position
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: That would suck to be you
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: Where's the hope in your life?
Riley: Is there any tr-
Chris Harris: is, to me, is life with no hope
Riley: I agree. I, yeah, I totally agree. And it, it's, uh... When I'm, you know, we've, I've discussed on this podcast before where the, uh, when you reach a goal, if you don't set another one fairly quickly, there's that limbo in between where you just kinda, man, you hit the mountaintop, and now if you, if you aren't ready to go onto the [01:14:00] next thing, there's, there can be a dip on the other side of that that's, that's never fun
Chris Harris: Look, the name of your podcast is not Go Get Your SALT.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: It's not Go Take Your SALT. It's Go Earn Your SALT,
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: do the work. If
Riley: That's right, man
Chris Harris: you're gonna have to do the work, man
Riley: Yeah. Yes. Chris, is there any truth to the statement, "Fake it till you make it"?
Chris Harris: Um, yeah, I think so. I mean, in, in the sense of just how the mind works. You know, they say, "Well, I'll, I'll believe it when I see it. I'll believe it when I see it." Well, I think that's bullshit because it- you got it backwards. No, you'll actually see it when you've believed it long enough. So "Fake it till you make it"?
yeah, if fake it means [01:15:00] I'm gonna believe that I've achieved this, and I'm gonna think as if I've already achieved this, and I'm going to think from the standpoint of there's No, way I lose. I either win or I learn. I either make a way or I find a way. And so if fake it till you make it means best case scenario adhere every day of the circumstances, and then eventually you will have it. from that perspective, yeah. I would say change the word fake to think. Think it until you make it
Riley: No, I think you're, you're totally correct in that because there's, there's-- I've seen that kinda taken too far where guys are like, "Well, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna believe I'm gonna be wealthy, and so I'm gonna buy the Rolls-Royce and the Rolex watch first." It's like, well, no, you're just gonna go into debt and sabotage the whole process.
But there's that mindset part that you're, you're talking about that, that is true. I, I really do [01:16:00] think you're, you're right on the-- hit the nail on the head because you're... If you don't think you can do something, you're just gonna be discouraged and not even try
Chris Harris: No
Riley: Do you... I read a part of a chapter of, uh, in your book of Mindset And you, you have this quote, man, I just thought it was kinda cool. It says, "Whatever ex- is experienced most often and felt most strongly begins to feel true regardless of whether it's accurate or objectively accurate." And I want you to talk about that a little bit because that, that idea of it begins to feel true even if it's not accurate, I think plagues a lot of people
Chris Harris: Well, the subconscious mind, it could care less if it's true or not.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: It, it... in fact, it doesn't know the difference between fantasy, a lie, reality. It, it doesn't know the difference. [01:17:00] It... subconscious, not, mind responds to, to a couple of things. One is repetition. It loves repetition. And two, it loves emotionally charged, anything that's emotionally charged. So if you have emotionally charged repetition, you can, you can lie to yourself all day long and your, your subconscious mind will believe you. It takes you literally for your word, and it doesn't fact check you. You know, it takes just as much energy- To consistently imagine best case scenario as the amount of energy it takes for you to consistently imagine worst case scenario. Like, neither one of them take any more or less energy than the other. And your subconscious mind, whether you imagine best case scenario or imagine worst case scenario, that's the one it's gonna go with It doesn't have to be true. [01:18:00] It just has to be repetitive, and it has to be emotional. That's the critical faculty lets past that's the firewall and get down into the subconscious level
Riley: You know, I think of all these conversations I've had with people over the years and about social media, right? We get on there and there's an echo chamber of just bull crap. And, and one of the ones that really stands out to me is that idea that, you know, our nation's almost in a civil war. We're gonna have a civil war, and it's just, it's like, how about we walk outside and go talk to our neighbor and find out that that crap that's happening online, that you see these, these crazy reels and crazy little videos really isn't happening out there on the streets the same way.
Like, I've got friends of every political persuasion and lots of religious persuasions, and i- we all get along in person, right? It's n- never as bad out there as it seems [01:19:00] when you're stuck in that social media echo chamber, right?
Chris Harris: I, I go one step further, you know, and I'll give you an example using your Civil War thing. Because, you know, my son's in the military. He's in the, uh, Army. He's a sniper. And, you know, he, he'll say something like that to me. He'll say, "Hey, Dad," and he just got back from, you know, he was over in Europe on deployment, and he just got back. So a lot of questions. And he's like, "Dad, are you worried about our, you know, us going into, like, a civil war?" And I said, "Why would I worry about something that's out of my control?" And he goes, "Okay, well," he said, "well, what if we did go to a civil war?" I said, "Well, then I will adapt, improvise, and overcome." And he's like, "Oh, is this this mindset thing, Dad?" I said, "Look, son, mindset, it is the mindset thing. It is." I [01:20:00] said, "But look, mindset does not mean for a moment that I walk around believing that everything's gonna be okay." I said, "Mindset believing that no matter what happens, I'm going to be okay." I said, "So Civil War or no Civil War, I'm going to be okay because I will either find a way or I will make a way." I will either win or I will learn. That's mindset. It's not that everything's gonna be okay. It's that I'm going to be okay. So if you want to know, do I believe there's a chance that our country could go to civil war? I said, "Or are you wanting to know if I'm worried about us going to civil war?"
Riley: Yeah, two different questions, right?
'
[01:21:00]
Chris Harris: Cause if your, your question is am I worried about it, well absolutely not. Because if I've got shit living rent-free that's out of my control, I get it out. I kick it, I evict it I don't ruminate on stuff that's out of my control
Riley: Yeah, it's worthless energy
Chris Harris: Yeah. it's either fear or anxiety
Riley: Yeah. Yeah. [01:22:00]
Chris Harris: And, and not only that, but it's an irrational fear because, uh, what makes a fear irrational is if it has a low probability of happening. what else makes a fear irrational is maybe it does have a, a decent likelihood of happening, but you're not taking any action change the outcome. So if it's got a low probability of happening or it has a re- a real probability of happening but you're not taking any action to change the outcome, Well
it's an irrational fear. Throw it to the curb
Riley: Yeah. Things we're truly afraid of are, we definitely take actions toward fixing, right?
Chris Harris: Well, I mean, the whole power of fear is it's supposed to motivate you
Riley: Keep going on that
Chris Harris: Well, fear is supposed to be your counselor, not your jailer. Fear is a
Riley: Oh my gosh, dude
Chris Harris: Fear is a gift. Fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. [01:23:00] Well then, how can fear be bad?
Riley: That's, that's really, that's a really good way to say that, man. It needs to be, it needs to motivate you, not be your jailer. 'Cause there is that
Chris Harris: fear of the Lord motivates me to want to get to know him and have a relationship with him.
Riley: Yes
Chris Harris: beginning of all wisdom
Riley: God. Beautifully said. On that, Chris, can we switch gears and go into some get to know you questions and as we close this thing out? You've dropped some wisdom nuggets, man. I'm just loving it. Loving every second of it. So, um, normally I ask my guests, when you hear the phrase goer in your salt, what does it mean to you?
But you addressed that here just a, a few minutes ago and what that term means to you. But was there anything else you had to say about that, the name of this podcast, Goer in Your Salt podcast?
Chris Harris: What it communicates to me is nobody owes me [01:24:00] anything and nobody's coming to rescue me
Riley: Mm-hmm
Chris Harris: Nobody owes me anything and nobody's coming to rescue me. Therefore, I will either find a way or I will make a way. Go earn your salt. Every time I moved in with a new family as a kid, the first thing I would do is I would go find a new martial arts school and say, "Hey, how can I earn my salt?" To train under you.
I don't have any money, but I got a really strong work ethic and I follow orders very well, sir. How can I earn my SALT?
Riley: Christopher, you, you talked about entitlement early on in the episode, right? And you, you, you talk about earning your keep with these martial arts schools, right? Um, one of the things I noticed over the years, I told you I, I did the financial, uh, Dave Ramsey stuff [01:25:00] for a lot of years, and the church would give people sometimes they call a scholarship.
They'd give them a free, uh, membership to the class, right? And they, these people would come into these classes and, and the people who got it for free, for legitimate free, never fulfilled the, the class. They, they would come to two or three sessions and never come back. They just didn't value it. And you're talking about going to these martial arts schools, and y- you, you said kind of, "I played the orphan card," which was a great introduction, but, but you really didn't feel entitled.
You went in and did work for your, your fees, right? You, you, you made that happen. So there wasn't that entitlement thing there. But do you see that out, out in the world the same way as I do, where if there's no skin in the game, there's no value placed on something and it's just-
Chris Harris: The reason I played the orphan card was because I didn't want them to sit down and try to sell me a membership.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: I just started right off with, "Hey, I know I just [01:26:00] walked through your door and you're thinking there's a new student. I'm gonna get that off the table right now. I don't even own a pair of socks. I don't know where my next meal's coming from. In fact, I'm probably going to be dumpster diving later for, for dinner. So I just wanted to get it off the table right now. I am not a future paying student. I wanna be respectful of your time. But let me tell you what I am. really hard worker, and I'm ready to earn my SALT." I played the orphan card not for pity or empathy, so that we didn't waste each other time with you give-- showing me the brochure on my three different choices for membership
Riley: Yeah
Yeah. you use to get, to get past the fluff and get to the point just to, for that transparency
Chris, what is... We're in these get to know you questions. What's your favorite pastime?[01:27:00]
Chris Harris: Spending time with my wife
Riley: Yeah. Do you have something you do together?
Chris Harris: Just, just, yeah, we've got a, had a pool put in and a hot tub. We, know, my wife's a- an executive here in Fort Worth, so she usually gets home around 6:00. You know, works long days, long... I, I mean, she, she's up at 5:00, she's at the gym by 6:00. She gets home at 6:00. And, uh, but I just love spending time with her, you know?
She's my best friend, my soulmate. Just had our 30th anniversary. Um, but I, I just, uh, I absolutely just enjoy her company. My wife is my favorite pastime
Riley: Chris, do you have a favorite naughty food?
Chris Harris: Yeah. Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies, man. Just, just give me the whole box and turn, turn away. Look away, man [01:28:00]
Riley: Lickaway. I love it. I love it. Some of those little suckers are good, man. Some of those little Debbie treats. Um, Chris, do you have a, do you have a nickname?
Chris Harris: Uh, the Warrior Maker. I mean, I got that nickname in Saudi Arabia decades ago. I was in a bare-handed contest trying to win a contract to train Special Forces over there. And, uh, you know, they stopped the fight. I won the contract, and they said, "You, you are the, the maker of warriors." And, you know, if you Google Chris Harris, I'll probably maybe be on the 10th page. There's so many famous Chris Harrises. But if you Google The Warrior Maker, that- that's me, pages one through five. So, um, so a lot of my friends just call me Warrior
Riley: Pretty cool, man, 'cause it's sort of a, in the, in the jujitsu gym some guys earn fight names, right? And it sounds like that's kind of what happened to you. You earned your fight name[01:29:00]
Chris, what's the scariest moment of your life?
Chris Harris: Oh, it was, two months ago. Um, called my wife at work and I said, "Hey, you need to come home." said, "Something ain't right," and hung up, and next thing I know, man I, I wake up, I don't know, a day or two later, know, with surgeons over me and medical staff laying over me, holding me down. I was restrained to a bed. Um, apparently what, what happened, was, I don't know, eight or nine weeks ago. Um, but when I called her, I'm like, "Something's not right. Get home." Well, when she came home, I, I was having a seizure, and I had had multiple seizures, and I've never had seizures before. So anyway, she revives me, you know, with CPR while the [01:30:00] ambulance is coming. Uh, get in the ambulance, they have to intubate me, you know, to keep me breathing. Uh, they, they do an MRI and they find a big-ass brain tumor. Emergency craniotomy, took it out, and I'm, I'm good now. healed. I mean, they found it. It wasn't cancerous. They got it out, but that's what caused the seizures.
And because I had multiple seizures from the time I had that one until the time they actually took the, uh, the tumor out. But, you know, waking up being... I'm very claustrophobic, you know, and having a staff, you know, of and female nurses, you know, laying over me because off, you know, the sedation I'm immediately bound to a bed, and I got these staffers laying over me because I'm trying to break the straps and pull the, the tubes out, would've killed [01:31:00] me. Um, and so that was pretty scary
Riley: Yeah.
Chris Harris: I had to
Riley: Dang
Chris Harris: talk again. Um, talk for a while. Had to learn how to stand without a cane. You know, just cognitive. know, just cognitive. But I just got up every morning and did the work, and, uh, we- we're good to go now.
Riley: That's good news, man. I...
Chris Harris: down the back of my head
Riley: I was gonna ask if the headphones are bugging you
Chris Harris: No, it's right, right down the, from the top center, just right down the back center. It was in the occipital region. So cut out a piece of the skull and the robots go in and get all that out. It's about the size of a golf ball
Riley: Wow. Well, thank God you're doing okay, man. That's, that's, that's pretty recent. Yeah, when you said eight or nine weeks ago, and [01:32:00] you're, you're on here today talking perfectly clear. That's, that's impressive. Impressive. Um, Chris, what's the, what's the most valuable learning experience you've ever had?
Chris Harris: You know, I think, I think teaching, know, uh, tier one special forces for 25 years, you know, um, I learned much more from them than I ever taught them. You know? The- there's something very special about them to be that, you know, 1% of 1% that make it all the way through and, you know, they, they... And, you know, and they earn their trident or earn their, the patch or whatever. They're just a very unique group of human beings. I mean, they're, you know... And to see them day, day after day in their natural habitat, you know? Um, I mean, look, when you think about mindset or mental toughness, I mean, they're the epitome of it, right? SEAL Team Six and Delta and Rangers and Green Berets, I mean, they're just, [01:33:00] there's something very special about them. And, you know, every, every time I was gearing up, you know, for, for a trip, I was always so excited just because I was just getting ready to, to, to spend time with these, these winners. Winners. You know? Um, you know, losers focus on... What is that saying? Um- Winners focus on winning and losers focus on the winners. Uh, guys, they were winners. They focused on winning. That's what they focused on. And, and I think they just, what made them so special was their shared purpose. That's, that's their secret sauce. But that was, that, that was just a, a very beautiful 25 years. Time well spent
Riley: What is the best advice you've ever received?[01:34:00]
Chris Harris: I think a quote from Alan Watts, uh, I like to watch A- Alan Watts' stuff on YouTube, um, British philosopher, 1970s But a quote from him, and I, I, I say it to myself multiple times a day, "You are under no obligation to remain the same version of yourself you were five minutes ago
Riley: Expand on that. What does that mean to you?
Chris Harris: Get over it. Stand up. Grow up. Own it. Move on. Never stop transforming. Never stop throwing down the rope Forward, deposited forward mo- movement. Look, failure, failure is, it's a bruise. It is not a [01:35:00] tattoo
Riley: Such a cool, such a cool quote, man, because it has that kind of connotation that, you know how sometimes we'll, we wanna win an argument, so we'll just buckle down on some stupid thing we said. We know we're wrong. We've been proven wrong already, but we'll just, we're gonna argue for the sake of arguing, and then it almost gives you that permission just to like, no, you don't have to be that person you, you're, you're kind of contending to be.
You know, you're, you're arguing for. You can... It's okay to change your mind is, is... That's a, that's a cool quote. Say it one more time
Chris Harris: You are under no obligation to remain the same version of yourself that you were five minutes ago
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome
Chris Harris: "No, you don't understand. My parents got divorced when I was young. You don't understand. Uh, I'm bipolar. You know, you don't [01:36:00] understand. I have ADHD. You don't understand. You know, my dad died when I was only 11." You know, whatever
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, you had mentioned that early on with your, if you had asked your sisters what they would make excuses versus asking you about your growing up and you would, uh, ride those demons, as you put it, make them pay rent.
Chris Harris: Saddle 'em up
Riley: That's it, man. Uh, Chris, who, who in this world has influenced you the most?
Chris Harris: I, I would say go back to my wife. she's just a, she's a good person. You know, doing what I've done for 25 years just working with the military, I, I, you know, I've seen, seen some shit. And, you know, you, you see enough bad guys, you know, with [01:37:00] in- the intent of evil and great harm, and you, it, you can start to lose your hope in mankind. You can start to lose your hope in society. You can start to lose your hope in our country. You know, have, have we lost our moral fabric and fiber that made us great? And, you know, and you, you, you can go there if you see enough bad stuff for a long enough period of time and it's not balanced, you know, with the good stuff. But, you know, my wife is, she's the good stuff, know? She always thinks the best. She looks for the best. She finds the best. She focuses on the best, you know? Her yes means yes, her no means no. Um, you know, she says the hard stuff, but she says it with love and kindness. And so she's probably had the greatest...
Not probably. She has had the greatest impact on me. Um, I mean, look, sh- I, I, I could [01:38:00] have very easily went the mercenary route Went for the money. I had the skill, I had the connections, I had the tenure. You know? she's kept me honest
Riley: Chris, what's an item on your bucket list, something you wanna do before it's all over?
Chris Harris: Man, I've, I've done s- so much. Um, I really have. I mean, I've, I've traveled the world a few times, my books, some pretty big goals. But, you know, if we're talking about something that I would like to do that I haven't done You know, I thought about this, you know, as, as I was laying in that hospital bed, you know? And, uh, you know, after the, the brain tumor and all that and, [01:39:00] know, I mean, it was a pretty high likelihood I wasn't gonna... Like, w- when they go in for brain surgery to remove a tumor you know, there's a lot of things that can go wrong. And, you know, um, but you know, laying in that hospital bed for a few days before they could release me, you know, I, I did a lot of thinking about, know, have I said everything that I wanna say? Have I done everything that I wanna do? You know, 'cause I'm very fortunate, you know, that I came through all that. And I think for me, the biggest thing is it's, it's, it's... Maslow, you know, wrote his famous paper, I think in the '40s, Abraham Maslow, but, you know, the hierarchy of needs. You know, the hi- the hierarchy of human motivation, you know. And he says, you know, we're all motivated kind of at the base level by things like, you know, survival [01:40:00] and safety, know.
And then we go into kinda security, and then we go into relationships, and then we go into kinda being recognized, right? Yeah. Titles and a little more money and all that. But at the end, he said it was self-actualization. And self-actualization was what we're all really striving for, and that's, you know, when we kinda got three circles overlapping, you know.
And one is, you know, we love what we do- The second thing is that we're, we're compensated fairly for what we do. And the third is we're really good at what we do. So if you can get to a place to where you love what you do, you're paid fairly or compensated... It doesn't even have to be paid. The compensation can be just fulfillment, you know?
So you love what you do, you're compensated fairly for what you do, and you're really good at what you do, and now you're in that self-actualization. You know, and, and what made A- Maslow's paper so special was he didn't focus on the sick or the infirm. [01:41:00] He focused on the world's most successful people at the time. And, you know, I've achieved that. I've achieved self-actualization a couple times in my life. And but I didn't know this, but, you know, after he died, family members turned over his journals. They found his journals. And h- he had written more, and he said, I... Like, "I, I wish I hadn't ended it with self-actualization, because there's something that's beyond that, and it's like transcendent self-actualization, and I wish I would've taught more on this." And, like, when you hit that place of self-actualization, he's like, "Okay, but now you have to share that. Now you have to throw down the rope. You know, it can't be that you got there. That's the starting point, not the ending point. Now that you got there, what are [01:42:00] you going to do help others get there?" And so, you know, I've had a lot of success and a lot of joy and a lot of fulfillment in my life. So you asked me, like, the bucket list thing. How many people can I help get to where I've made it to? Between now and my last breath, many people can I help reach the summit with what I've learned along the way? And I think that's, know, that's probably my mind's at these days.
Riley: It's interesting, man, 'cause that, that brings up the whole
Chris Harris: I'm not helping anybody who's not gonna do the work.
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: I'm gonna throw down the rope, I'm gonna hold it firmly, and I'm gonna encourage you hand over hand, but I'm not pulling it
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: 'Cause every, if I pull it, I cheat you. I rob you
Riley: It's such an interesting thing, man, 'cause the overlap there with, you know, the, the gospel of Christ and the, the [01:43:00] good news there. Preaching the gospel, right? And that there's that, like, that's what you're doing, is you've, you've attained this relationship with God to the point where you're putting that rope down saying, "Here's the way, guys."
That... It's awesome, dude
Chris Harris: Yeah. and then, and then Christ told the disciples that if you get to a town and you give them everything that you got, and it's not enough, don't wanna do the work, he said, "Bang the dust off your sandals and head on down the road."
Riley: Yeah. Yeah, that overlap is, is wild. I have never really thought of it in that, um, that light. So Chris, uh, what's your favorite book of all time? Something somebody should, everyone should read
Chris Harris: Yeah, The Warrior Ethos, Pressfield.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: Small, small book. You can listen to it on Audible in an hour. But it's, it's just, it's about honor. I [01:44:00] mean, the, the need for honor, the importance of honor. What is honor? Where does it come from? Why is it so invaluable, in the lives of young men? Um, but it's a, it's a very quick read. The Book of E- uh, the, The Warrior's Ethos, but I could read that book, you know, once a week. It's, it's an hour long. I could read it once a week, honestly
Riley: I'll have to check that one out. That's one I have not read, so let's,
Chris Harris: I mean, I, I mean, to me, you know, what is a man without honor? I, I, I don't wanna be around him.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: He ain't gonna be in my tribe
Riley: Well, Chris, what's, what's next for you, man? What's the next challenge? Where are you going from here?
Chris Harris: I don't know. I'm trying to figure that out. I'm, I'm, I'm in between, uh, I'm in between I'm looking for my next noble mission I'm a guy who, I set my mind to a thing and I [01:45:00] know the formula for achieving it, and I'm willing to do the work. So I've got the map, I've got the compass, I'm willing to do the work. Um, and e- either have the resources or I know people that have the resources, so I've got the connections. I've got the, the emotional equity with people that can help me along the way in exchange for something that I could, know, do, to do to pay my way or pay my salt or earn my salt along that, in that relationship.
So I'm not wanting anything for free. So, you know, for me, I ha- I'm to the point in my life now that I have to be very careful about what goals I create or set. Because now I have to look at it from the standpoint of if I, if I set a goal and it's time-bound and it's measurable, I'm gonna achieve it. I will either find a way or I will make a way.
So I have to now really count the cost of, you know, work, work-life balance. What's it gonna cost my wife or my kids? Um, you know, if, if I achieve this goal, like what is, what is [01:46:00] the cost to those around me? And, and I have to really sit down and talk to them and say, "Hey, are you willing to pay this price?"
Riley: Yeah
Chris Harris: You know, and so I don't know what that next thing is. I just... You know, I've had a lot of really big ones and I've achieved them and, and the process for achieving success, and success in its simplest definition is the attainment of a goal. Um, so now I'm just trying to be very intentional and very careful and very thoughtful, you know, about what that's going to be and who all has to pay, you know, for me to get there and really have that conversation with them. Are, are you okay with paying this price? And the price may be, you know, I'm traveling the world, or I'm pulling money from savings, or, you know, or you're home, but, you know, I'm up till 1:00 in the morning working on a manuscript, or, you know, y- you're, you're off on the weekend, but I'm [01:47:00] working all weekend because of this big goal.
You know, whatever. I, I think it, I'm to the point in my life now to where I really have to weigh the cost of those goals around me as well.
Riley: That's, that's well said, man, 'cause that, that was something that, uh, you know, 13 years ago when I decided I wanted to pursue that jujitsu black belt, it was... Man, there was a lot of, lot of schedule sacrifice that my family had to take, right? I was coming home late in the evening now where I wasn't before, and there was a lot of nights when my wife would go to bed by herself because I just wasn't there on those evenings, right?
And there, there was some cost there. There's obviously financial stuff and, um, you know, the physical toll it takes on the body and that. But, um, yeah, that's a real consideration for sure with any goal and I, again, well said.
Chris Harris: Hmm. I know this, you know [01:48:00] Whatever it is, it has to be something to where I feel useful. You know, I just, I, I, I've, I've learned a lot along the way. I'm 59, uh
you know, be 60 in January, and I'm to the point to where I'm looking... In everything that I do, I'm looking for the economy of motion. The economy of motion.
And, you know, you think about rolling on the mat, you know, you better find your economy of motion, especially if you're, you know, rolling around with some guy who's got much better cardio than you, right? You know, so you, you gotta find the economy of motion. what is th- what is that economy of motion between where I'm at, current position, and future trajectory?
I, I just, I wanna be useful. I wanna throw down the rope. I wanna make sure that the cost, you know, the price is not too high for my family. You know, so I'm looking at all the criteria. But at the end [01:49:00] of the day, you know, when you're almost 60 years old, you almost died a few months ago, I think the thing that I'm really looking at today, right now, here on this podcast, is really, it's not about achievement, it's about legacy
Riley: Mm-hmm. I th- I think that realizing this was that transition point, right? Because 20 years ago Earlier in your martial arts career, like you're, you're, you're a pretty physical dude, right? You're, you're strong, you're, you're, um, you're able to still compete with the younger guys for the most part. There's this whole...
But there's this thing that changes, right? As, as we age and we become more of that, that coaching role, and you've used that term lowering the rope to help other people. In, in that, that mental transition we have to make from being, you know, I was the toughest guy on the mat to I'm not the toughest guy anymore, but I still have the wisdom and the [01:50:00] knowledge to help other people achieve their goals, and I think that's cool as crap to how you're weaving that into this whole thing, right?
It's that mindset of being able to, to transition those roles and be okay with it
Chris Harris: I'll let you down
Riley: Yeah, man. Well, Chris, tell us where you can be found
Chris Harris: Thewarriormaker.com or just Google The Warrior Maker
Riley: Yeah. Do you have an Instagram? Is it The Warrior Maker on Instagram?
Chris Harris: Yeah. Uh, YouTube, The Warrior Maker. Facebook, The Warrior Maker. Um, LinkedIn, The Warrior Maker.
Riley: Mm-hmm.
Chris Harris: Uh, pretty easy to find. If, if you type in The Warrior Maker, you're gonna have to go quite a ways to something else other than me. Um, you know, it's just, it's a, it's a name that's, it's been branded and no one else has used it. And so, um, if, if, if somebody wants to find me, uh, [01:51:00] AI will help you
Riley: Beautiful, man. Well, Chris, appreciate you coming on the show, dude. It was an honor to talk to you. A lot of stuff I learned on here, so I've got my own takeaways from, from today. Um, it's gonna be really easy to produce clips.
Chris Harris: And at
Riley: At least one action item. Yep, uh, at least one. Probably, probably five or six I could think of pretty quickly.
So dude, it was a great conversation. I appreciate you. I'm, I, uh, I'm impressed with your recovery. You're looking great for eight weeks ago having brain surgery, so well done there. And
Chris Harris: And now I'm
Riley: Chris,
Chris Harris: eat some Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies.
Riley: Oh, enjoy those things, man. Enjoy it. I love it
Chris Harris: I, I won't. I my, I, I tell my wife, "Do not put those in these, in this house." she goes, "I never put them in the house. You put them in the house."
Riley: I love it. I love it. Awesome, man. Well, Chris, go earn your salt, my friend
Chris Harris: All right, I will.
[01:52:00]