Did you get the questions in advance?
Some people don't.
I mean, we live in a busy world where podcasting,
you know, like we've got, I mean, I do several per week.
So sometimes I don't see the notes before my shows
and what's there and it's time to just dive in
and wing it.
Other times I'm grateful for,
like if they're asking super profound questions,
like what's the best moment of your entire life?
All right, so now I want some time to think about that one.
But did you get a chance to see ours in advance?
I did, man, and I got some notes here to kind of guide
the conversation and such too,
but I'm ready to take on anything you throw at me.
So I'm ready to rock.
I love that.
I love the leadership.
A lot of people want to poke fun and be like,
oh, he's got notes, you know,
he doesn't know what he's talking about,
doesn't know which direction they're going.
And that is bogus.
People who are, especially,
it depends on the question, right?
You know, if we're on Jeopardy, we don't, you know,
we shouldn't have notes
and looking at the bottom of our sneaker.
But when I'm asking questions,
like profound, deep leadership questions
about your worst leadership experience you've ever had
and the best leadership,
like that's something that I'm really grateful
when the leaders don't try to wing that.
They actually take the time to prepare.
The audience can tell, you know,
when somebody's like, oh, oh, let me,
like, should it be mine or should it be somebody?
And it's like, well, now we know you're not gonna give
the best or the worst.
You just admitted you weren't ready for this question.
So, how many podcasts have you done?
Oh man, I wanna say maybe a couple dozen in my time.
So, not a lot, but not a little.
You know, I've been to a dozen.
I think I'm at the same level.
I don't think I've done more than that.
I might've done one dozen, actually.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, dude.
I host, but going on others is a different story.
So. Oh, I see, I see what you're saying.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, so no, hosting is different
than being put in the hot seat, you know, and going out.
And we didn't, I didn't start actively pursuing that
until January of this year.
So, even though I've been involved in the podcast space
and behind the scenes on interviews for quite some time,
the, I knew that I owed it to the audiences
that I would be talking to, to have a system
and a process that was scalable enough to be able to serve.
And I wasn't gonna rock the mic and leave people hopeless
by, you know, what, signing one person
and leaving everybody else out to try it.
Just, I'm not, I'm not a big fan of that.
So, we got, we got visions though.
Today's all about visions.
It's not necessarily about what is built today,
but what's coming.
And that's the purpose of this show.
And you've got a vision related to health and wellness,
a holistic fitness, nutrition and recovery.
I'm a huge fan of the word.
Some people would say buzzword.
I would say a word that is coming to life.
One that people are starting to appreciate and embrace.
What is holistic fitness, nutrition and recovery?
What does that mean to you?
Man, that's a great question.
You know, wellness in our terms
and how we define it here at Tricor is living your best life
optimally without limitations.
So, you know, whether you are trying to lose body fat
or improve your athletic performance
or improve your cognitive performance,
or your doctor said that your blood work looks like trash
and you need to improve that.
You know, everyone has a personal goal
and our philosophy too is using principles of health,
particularly periodization and looking at, you know,
years of life, like every year is a new periodization block.
You know, myself personally, we're about to have a baby
here in the next couple of weeks.
Congratulations!
Yeah, thank you.
Baby number one?
Baby number one is a boy.
We're super pumped, dude.
Yeah, yeah.
Enjoy your sleep.
That's what everybody's saying.
But like, hey, that's gonna be a new lifestyle
periodization block.
I'm gonna have to manage my health and wellness
completely differently than what I'm doing now.
So, you know, that's kind of how we define it.
And that's been really a, that level of awareness
has really driven myself personally
and what we've done here at TriQuilt too.
Dude, I love that.
It's amazing you have the maturity to see ahead.
It might have to do with the fact that I was 21 or 22
when I became a dad, but yeah,
it's a completely different lifestyle shift.
And having that flexibility to know,
and the wisdom too, to think through like,
okay, what changes can I make here?
Can make that process more enjoyable.
Maybe not even easier, but more enjoyable
and more predictable.
So that's awesome.
And I love that you talk about,
you reminded me of a billboard I saw in Florida
back in like, I think it was 2010, 2011 when I saw it.
And it made such a big impression.
It said, most banks have tellers.
We have listeners.
Oh, that's good.
Oh, I loved it.
I love it, yeah.
Man, that's what I heard you say too,
as you talked about this holistic process of fitness,
that if we as leaders actually listen to what people want
and what they need and what their goals are,
then we can create a path for those individuals
rather than just putting everybody in a cookie cutter box,
or trying to, I don't know, just,
you talked about some depth of listening
that a lot of practitioners
are starting to gravitate towards.
And again, I think that's a fantastic path
for America's health and health worldwide.
So make sure being one of the people
who leads that initiative.
The visionaries and founders that are listening in,
the leaders who are with us today,
we're always interested in resources, right?
What did you do to get to where you are?
What things have helped you understand life?
So to the degree you understand it,
what are three resources that we could all benefit from?
Oh man, let's unpack this.
Number one is the book, Atomic Habits by James Clear,
phenomenal for health, phenomenal for business, right?
I can't tell you how many times I have it stacked
in just like my daily routine.
So therefore I can be as productive as I can in business
every single day.
I just got out of a consultation with a new client
we're onboarding right now,
brought the book up in that conversation too, man.
So-
And yesterday my guest, Andrea Johnson,
one of her three was Atomic Habits, go James Clear.
It's a killer, man.
If you haven't read it,
go watch the TED talk or the YouTube video
and then go read it too or listen to it.
Yeah, I'm an audio book guy.
So I just, I crank on audio whenever I can.
Resource number two that, you know,
in my earlier days of business was the 10X rule
by Grant Cardone.
Man, that motivated me and got me to think differently
about massive action and having an omnipresence
and, you know, doing things to get out there in the world
and outworking your components
or your competitors essentially and stuff.
And, you know, that was a huge shift for me mentally
was 10X rule.
Third one is the podcast, The Game by Alex Hermosi.
Man, I've listened to that for a long time
and I love where he's going now.
I continually look back and listen back
on some of his earlier stuff too.
The talks about when he was still at GymLaunch
and some of the earlier fitness days,
transitioning into what he's doing now.
But gold, I mean, those three things there
have catapulted my mindset, my business,
you know, got me to think differently,
you know, have had me to make some pivots
and have some self-reflection on, you know,
not chasing shiny objects and staying in my lane
and really it's gotten us to a place of growth and success.
So I'd say those three, take a look everybody,
take a look, yeah.
Dude, I love it.
I'm gonna honor Alex Hermosi
and we'll see what I do with the other one in just a minute.
But Alex Hermosi, yeah, I read that $100 million offer.
Well, I listened to it.
I was heading from Cacherville to Kirk, to Kerrville.
I was able to listen to the whole thing, right?
And that one trip pretty much.
And man, that guy, his breakdown of offers
and the grand slam offers
and why we do it as entrepreneurs
and we're on midway through the book
and he starts talking about Lloyd
from the newspaper industry.
And that was my first startup.
I was the first sales rep hired for that startup.
So I was like, that's crazy.
This is weird.
And he told that story in a way
that was interesting to me.
I look forward to talking to Alex someday about that
and seeing like, wait a second,
because we have two different versions of Lloyd
and why Lloyd is doing what he was doing.
But the principles that he leads with and speaks with,
his guys, if you look up his YouTube,
took him on YouTube and like, I don't know,
how Alex scales, you'll probably find this 45 minute thing.
And I found it like 1.30 in the morning on accident.
I was like, oh no, not 1.30 in the morning.
Not, I was like, I'll listen to two minutes.
I listened to the whole thing.
And man, he is just so open and transparent
about what he's doing.
And he launched his podcast very similar to how we did,
just like, no, we're going, we're gonna do this 10 years.
We're gonna do everything we can to make it awesome.
And we'll go from there.
So he is very good at doing the hard work,
talking honestly about things.
And I would say in that regard,
the complete opposite of Grant Cardone.
And so while he is very good at coercing
and manipulating and pressuring
and using scarcity and urgency
to trick anybody in to do anything.
I used to be a lot like Grant Cardone.
I used to control people's visions and create sheeple.
And my caution to anybody out there is,
can you learn lessons from him?
Yes, of course you can.
And I was grateful when Eli Wilde,
he was talking about posturing.
Another great lesson for everybody in here.
This changed the way I show up and speak to people.
Talked about how we can speak
from a position of superiority.
We can speak from a position of being equal.
And we can speak from a position of inferiority,
where we're lesser than.
And he's a people like Grant Cardone,
who speak at you and tell you what to do
and are constantly speaking in that superior voice.
They only attract people
who are willing to be subordinate to them.
And man, I was already on a shift to say,
you know what, I want better healthy relationships in that.
So does he teach great principles?
I do believe he teaches great principles.
And that's the value of one last resource, my friends.
I love this book, As a Man Thinketh,
where James Allen long before the internet
in 1830 or 1820 something,
taught us that all success comes from principles of virtue.
And when we can learn to recognize the virtues
within the people that are achieving success,
whether it's in their family or in business,
and apply the virtues to our lives,
then we can win at greater degrees.
So actually, I love Grant Cardone as a human being.
I absolutely despise the way he leads.
And I hope that he makes a pivot and a shift as well,
to honor those that he serves,
because he is a great mathematician, right?
He's a great professor.
He's a great teacher of how things can work.
But I hope one day he responds to this,
and owns it, or maybe he'll just be like,
what does that guy know?
He's only got such and such followers
and just solidify my point a little bit further.
But no, thank you for bringing up the resource.
And again, Atomic Habits,
the gain phenomenal, what Grant Cardone is giving
can be phenomenal, but keep your own visions intact too,
my friends, trust your gut instincts,
your heart and your mind.
You are visionaries capable of building amazing things.
And we're gonna come right back after these messages.
We're gonna talk about what Chris Edwards has built
with Tricor Wellness.
And now he's on a mission to help people
with fitness, nutrition, and recovery.
And we're all gonna learn from this process.
So we'll see you guys on the other side.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up everybody?
Welcome into another episode of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Callum,
founder and CEO of FDL.
And I'm your host, Chris Edwards.
Founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I'm excited to have Chris Edwards with me today.
It's fun to have visionaries who, you know,
are at the entrepreneurial vein,
but are also really big into health and wellness.
It's like an oxymoron for most entrepreneurs
to care about health and to also
care about growth in business.
And he's one of those superstars
who's working on leading in both of those categories.
Nice guy, Peyton, who did the first interview with Chris.
You guys may have seen that already.
If not, check that out.
I mean, I absolutely loved who he is.
And Peyton also is somebody who I really value
his judge of character.
So we're gonna dive in as deeply as we can
into what Chris is building.
We're also gonna have a discussion
about fitness and nutrition and recovery.
And we're open to you guys participating as well.
Any questions you wanna throw away,
any resources you want us to take a look at.
We do take all comments to heart.
And it would be awesome to see what other
fitness professionals and health gurus out there
wanna chime into this type of conversation.
Maybe we'll even do a panel someday.
We're gathering enough leaders
in this space to potentially do that.
So if you want that as well,
if you'd love to see a panel of health experts,
go at it and debate.
I am that type of guy who likes to create the debate,
not some frou-frou panel of venture capitalists
who all agree with each other.
That's bull crap.
We need the real stuff.
So moving forward, sponsors.
Dave Morrow, speaking of health guru
of the Hard to Kill podcast.
I'm looking forward to getting Chris in touch with him.
Hardtokill.org is helping 100,000 veterans
lose two million pounds collectively.
And Dave just launched a brand new community,
the Hard to Kill community that is open access
for anybody who respects military principles,
such as civilians like myself to benefit from.
So I've been in there working on my health.
I'm up to 100 pushups per day
and my back feels better than it's felt
since the year after my surgery, like eight years now.
And so I give him a lot of credit for that,
for his motivation.
He's got one of the best podcasts out there
for military personnel.
And he's just a great guy to get to know,
which is why we joined forces with him.
Now there's also, I wanna move fast
to opportunities for Latinos.
I'll keep it short today.
You can listen to the last episode
if you wanna hear all about the program.
But our ultimate vision is to bridge the economic gap
between the United States, rather North America,
South America and rest of world.
And this is our free job training program
where we help virtual assistants
learn how to be awesome at what they do.
And we connect Latinos to our podcasts
so that they can come on and share their story
and inspire other Latinos
to see that there's opportunity out there.
A lot of these individuals,
they don't even know that LinkedIn exists
or Canva or Upwork or Fiverr.
Can you imagine that?
If you in 2024 did not know that those resources existed,
we have so much impact that we can do for good here.
So if you are interested in helping us
on that initiative, definitely reach out and contact us.
Then there's the water project.
I am a little bit thirsty right now.
I did some yard work right before coming up for the podcast
and I have never truly been thirsty in my life.
So when I found out about this initiative
and found out there's millions of people
who do not have access to clean drinking water,
I just chose not to forget about it.
I chose to start thinking about it more and more often.
I contributed to it.
I saw that when you give even just $5
to one of these campaigns,
they run it kind of like Kickstarter.
They actually send you the proof
that the initiative got completed.
You get to see the borehole well or the sand dam.
You get to see how the community comes together
to help with the process of building it.
And then I highly recommend taking some time
to meditate and think through
what type of generational impact that you just make
by helping that water well come to fruition.
These kids, they celebrate water
like my kids celebrate Christmas day.
So on a day like 9-11, where our thoughts and prayers
are with those who lost loved ones,
and there's a lot of causes and awareness
to seek out there.
I hope that if you're in a position
to give to this financially, then please do so.
And if you're not, then please share this with a friend
because you never know who will donate what
and how they can help.
And we got 8 billion people to help in this world.
So my hope is that we all step up to do a little bit more
and experience the joy of giving back.
Without further ado, Chris Edwards,
welcome to Vision Pros Live.
What's going on, Jackson?
How you doing, sir?
Dude, I'm happy to be here.
I'm happy to dive in and talk fitness, nutrition,
and recovery and finally not be the skinny fat guy
in the conversation.
So.
Oh man.
I'm pumped about this.
I appreciate the opportunity for coming on, man.
And I'm ready to dive in when you are.
Let's do this thing.
Absolutely.
So let's talk about your vision for those that you serve.
You know, and I'm gonna tee up a little bit more with that.
Let me just go back to the term that I saw you use for us.
You talked about how you've got a program,
integrative coaching model,
and that combining the in-person health experience
with the virtual and an app-based coaching tool resource
as well, right?
Talk to me about that model.
What does that mean to you
and why is that beneficial for us?
Yeah, the integrative coaching model was really something
that we wanted to make sure that the clients
that we worked with for our health coaching clients
had access to professional coaching, health data,
and information and services no matter where they are.
And I'll give some examples.
So that way the audience can relate to this, you know,
and why we have leaned so hard
into having three different delivery mechanisms
to be able to support fitness, nutrition,
and recovery coaching services.
Down here in Southwest Florida,
we're in the Vanita Springs, Fort Myers, Naples area.
It's extremely seasonal, right?
We have snowbirds that come down from October to May.
After that point, they leave, they go back up north,
Ohio, Michigan, you know, wherever they are up north, right?
And to be able to generate reoccurring revenue
as a fitness professional down here
in a very seasonal location,
you have to meet people where they're at.
And if they leave for six months of the year,
your revenue traditionally would drop
for six months of the year, okay?
So right then and there,
and we'll talk about like my story
and my pains and stuff too,
this is an immediate solve for my pains
to be able to have virtual and app-based experiences,
particularly a membership model with an app-based experience
to keep my revenue going year round,
but at the same time, keeping in touch with our clients
so they could have the correct coaching services
and information they need to stay on track.
You know, part of that reason
why we developed this model too,
was we saw every single year,
and as we know in the health and wellness world,
having some cycles in making some health improvements
at six months of the year,
and then actually going backwards
and regaining body fat, not good, okay?
And having issues in blood pressure and blood sugar
on a cyclical year-by-year basis,
not good long-term for health and longevity.
So not only was this model helping people,
this was also helping the professionals
that are serving the people
that are a part of trichorol wellness.
Absolutely, and here's the reality.
If we don't help the health and wellness professionals,
if they don't have something sustainable,
they can't provide nearly as effective service
to those that they're trying to help.
You've got to put your oxygen mask on
in order to help others.
And one industry that,
there's a lot of industries that relate to this,
but one in particular that comes to mind
is the ski resort industry, right?
That's a very seasonal reality,
and it's an important opportunity
to think through diversification, right?
And knowing, all right, well, how do I either diversify
the services that I'm offering,
or as you've talked about,
just diversifying the abilities of how you offer it
and where you offer it.
So it's an important model that's beneficial to everybody,
and the abundant mindset knows that
the more I give, the more I get.
So I know I'm kind of reaching
by tying that without knowing where you're going with this
and how it works.
But talk to me about the idea,
like where are you headed with this vision
and how are you guys gonna help more people?
Do you have the app developed?
I didn't see the app yet.
So talk to me about where you guys are at with it.
Yeah, I think, if you don't mind,
I think the vision is gonna lead right into my story
and my pains, my personal pains,
so you can kind of like come along on this journey,
if you don't mind.
So in 2008, at that time of the early 2000s
when the market crashed, I graduated college, right?
And so I got out with a business degree,
and in college, I ended up being the head personal trainer,
the power lifting club president,
we took the team to nationals,
I dove right into fitness certifications
and scientific knowledge,
plus my business degree in business management
with a concentration in sports management.
And down here again in Southwest Florida Naples,
the economy wasn't hit as hard.
So I took that fitness and business experience
and got into personal training.
Dude, I was, hold on, I just gotta say how bright I was.
I had no idea about that background,
and here I am like, well, he's a business and a health guy,
like you legitimately are, that's weird.
Yeah, dude.
You got good vision.
You got good vision, Jackson.
Yeah.
Oh man, I don't know, I put him away for right now,
they're over here.
But no, man, so, you know,
that's what really got me into the industry.
And I got into private personal training
in a private studio, starting building a book of clients.
And, you know, they were having very limited results, right?
I was giving them a one delivery method
at the time in person,
and I was only giving them one dimension of wellness,
which was fitness, right?
But they come in every week,
oh, I got, you know, drink too much wine,
eat too much spaghetti, you know, their body weight.
And at the time, you know,
their fat mass was up and such too.
So I was like, man, this is BS.
I'm not really giving them what they need.
I'm not providing them a holistic approach to wellness
because, and also, like, I couldn't keep in touch with them
to hold them accountable on the times
that I did not see them two or three times a week, right?
So as I built out and basically stacked my book of business,
you know, Monday through Saturday, all day,
a couple clients even on Sunday mornings and such too,
I also had that pain in my income
where if I took a vacation or I took time off,
I lost all that business.
And at the same time too, it wasn't year round
because we talked about the seasonality component
of being down here too.
So right away, I had to solve problems for my clients,
help more people, make more money,
develop a model that was gonna be sustainable year round.
And that's really where the pain came from
into developing this integrated coaching model right away.
So as the years go by in 2016,
to address the app question,
we got connected and partnered
with a company called Trainerize.
And I was actually an early adopter in that
Trainerize platform.
So 2016, they were just getting going.
I think they launched it, rebranded the name of Trainerize
in like 14, got going and I started bugging the developers.
And I was like, hey, I want this and I want that.
And you know, I'm gonna do this with the app.
I'm gonna do this with the app.
And at the time, you know, they were just getting started.
They came back and were like, hey, you know,
what are you doing with this?
Like, this is not a traditional, you know, online trainer
or online fitness professional.
And cause I was using integrated connected health devices.
I was, you know, developing meal consultation services,
really driving habit reminders and things of that nature.
So that way I could leverage this membership model,
you know, for the clients that I was working with.
So long story short, the CEO, the head product developer,
they all start reaching out to me and they're like,
hey, can you train me?
Can you do, you know, nutrition and this and that
with the platform that we have?
And I said, absolutely.
Okay. So now I'm starting to train like all the C levels
of trainer eyes and this, I want to say like 17 era,
so 2017 ish.
And soon after that, they're like, hey, can you do this
for all of our employees worldwide?
And I was like, absolutely, let's rock and roll.
So then I developed an employee wellness program
that not only tapped into all of the employees worldwide,
so Canada, US, Mexico, Europe, I think at the time,
somewhere in Asia, I mean, all over the world.
So now, I mean, for me and my vision and stuff too,
for helping more people and making more money,
we now had online health coaching services.
We had a scalable employee wellness model.
You know, I was taking people in person.
I was driving fitness, nutrition,
and habit change principles and all that kind of stuff.
At that same time, this is where the expanded wellness
services came into play, dude.
So now, now we have me developing in 2016 and 17,
clinical nutrition and blood testing
because they needed that.
We had food sensitivity issues.
We had micronutrient deficiencies.
You know, people were not getting their blood work.
So I set up with a cash-based lab
and because they may have not had a doctor set up,
whatever, we're actually running lab work
with our clinical nutritionists
and developing clinical nutrition programs
to get people dialed in on their internal health
in conjunction with, at the time,
still in-person fitness, online health coaching,
using connected health devices
to grab their health data, the whole package.
You can see how this is forming.
I'll hit the fast forward button here real quick.
2019, we developed physical therapy model
with integrated coaching experience.
2020 hits and now we had businesses coming to us
and saying, hey, we're scrambling.
How do we do this?
How do we get online?
So now we pivoted and also opened up
a business consulting division
that basically teaches people how to do what we're doing
with their own business model in niche market.
2021, obviously there was an issue
with mental health and mental wellness.
So we brought that program in
and integrated that into the model.
And for the last three years or so now,
we've really doing a lot more work
in the B2B solutions at Tri-Corp Business Solutions
and helping other fitness businesses and professionals,
health clubs do the same and really pivot
through all those pain points that I had originally
and really developing this integrated model
to serve their markets too.
So that's the story, the pain, the tech question.
What do you got?
Love it.
Well, I got what I got out of it.
And the most important thing to me
and all you visionary leaders out there
is if you can't feel the fire
that comes from Chris Edwards eyes right now,
like his passion, his authenticity, the sincerity,
the dedication of what he's doing,
this is honestly the number one thing that I look for
and visionary leaders that I'm looking to invest in
that I'm looking to partner with,
that I'm looking to work with
because that's exactly what Lloyd had at Unlocal.
That's exactly what Adam Christopher had
at Restaurant Connect.
That's exactly what Jake Larson had at Video Power Marketing.
It's exactly what Dr. Eric Berg had.
These are the types of individuals
that they've all gone past the 10-year mark
with their ventures,
which is the death nail for most entrepreneurs.
96% fell within 10 years, 4% barely survive.
And I'm curious, Chris,
have you ever had friends or family
ask you to read The One Thing by Gary Keller?
The One Thing, no.
No, I haven't.
I'm trying it down, The One Thing.
No, you don't need to.
Normally, it's because you have your degrees,
but normally people love to be like,
well, have you ever thought about just focusing in
and doing one thing?
And I'm like, you know,
there was a reporter who once told LeBron James,
why don't you shut up and dribble?
And it ruined that reporter's career.
And talking to a man who's got a portfolio of companies
in addition to all the accolades he's made in his sport.
So The One Thing can suck it.
But no, Gary Keller's also an amazing founder.
But you're like a Disney man.
Like you really have this gift of pure vision
about what you're up to.
I can see why Peyton fanboyed you.
I'm like, all right, cool.
He's got the actual draw for this.
Like he's got it all right here.
And a lot of it developed now.
And I mean, Thomas Edison had to have been doing
and saying the same types of things in his day.
So man, well done on dedication.
And again, authenticity, sincerity,
putting in the work to move this forward.
I'm excited to see where all you go with it.
Again, visionary leaders,
if your vision doesn't drive you to this type of energy,
then I'm also grateful for Tom
who I interviewed yesterday.
He said, Jackson, when you're asking people
about how do you fund a vision,
he said, you're not asking the right question first.
Is the first you gotta ask, how do you find your vision?
And I changed our whole model based on it.
I was like, okay, we're gonna start asking that
moving forward.
Like, thank you, 500 something episodes in,
you get somebody who gives you that type of wisdom.
You just gotta be like, yes.
So yeah, so I'm gonna take the time right now.
How the heck did you find this vision?
What led to it?
Pain and frustration, okay?
A lot of people, and again,
coming back to the Hormozi component and stuff too,
and he does a lot of podcasting and book writing on this
and stuff too, is finding that internal drive
and that motivation that makes you want to change.
And we even go back further.
I'm gonna go back further.
I agree with you.
I know the pain and the motivation is,
that's like the easy component
that is gonna get anybody to move eventually.
But was it pain and frustration
that led you to get the degrees?
Or what was it before?
Going back maybe even 10 years beyond that.
Let me give you an example.
I was 14 years old in the middle of football season.
My brother-in-law, brand new brother-in-law,
gives me a chiropractic adjustment.
Changed my life.
I read this book at 14 years old, Chiropractic First.
I decided I wanted to be a chiropractor for a while.
Went into pre-med, if you will,
went into classes in school for medical work,
did a farm, ENT place,
and went to the pharmacology program.
But point being, like that really had an impact
on my desire to go
to National Youth Leadership Forum for Medicine,
start to learn about health and wellness
and consider the path of being a doctor,
pediatrician, something along those lines.
So is there something further back
that drove and motivated you to go that route?
Wow, that's a really good question.
And I can see where you're going with that.
And I don't think I've ever actually
put this out in the world ever before.
And this is something of self-realization.
No, seriously, self-realization about myself
that I've had to personally discover too,
to keep the fire burning
as I've grown this business at the same time.
And I'm gonna prelude this statement by saying,
nothing against my family at all.
I love all of my family and stuff,
but I came from a divorced household.
And a lot of my family was divorced.
My parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, almost everybody.
And it was, I had a great childhood,
don't get me wrong, right?
But for myself, I felt that drive
to create something for myself and a legacy, right?
And that's what I'm doing with my family right now too.
And I'm super confident about this
and where we're going with the business
and also my family and home life too,
is I wanna build something, a legacy.
I wanna create something
that is gonna have long lasting components
of helping people along the way
so they can create career paths and education
and success for their own personal families as well.
So I would say legacy really is really kind of stemming
from that original, original pain and frustration
outside of the market, pain and frustration
that I experienced college post-college.
Yeah, I love that.
And it's a hard line to walk, right?
And we wanna honor our families
and we wanna also be able to help people see
what it is that's happening so that they can be inspired
and you can help, you know what your story can do
for so many people out there who are in similar situations.
I think of that book, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.
They turned it into a Netflix movie
which makes it way easier to consume
and really live and feel his dad.
This is a kid in Africa who found a book
on electricity and windmills and he became obsessed
and he took his dad's bike apart, right?
And used that as part of making this windmill.
And it doesn't show his dad beat him,
but you know, they probably did their best
to honor that situation too, but his dad was not happy.
He was constantly telling him,
stop doing this, you're wasting your time.
And the kid ends up going to MIT,
after making it happen for the village
and changing an entire nation.
The kid in October sky, rocket launching.
His dad hated that he was doing that.
And at the same time, like at the end of these stories,
there was an Olympian, I watched that movie.
I can't remember the name of the Olympian,
but he went to the Olympic games,
I believe it was in Germany.
And with the racial segregation, all that was a challenge,
but in the early days, his dad did not support him in track
because he should have been focused on earning money
for the family or whatever else.
There's a trend that exists here.
And those visionaries honored their families
by pursuing those legacies and making those things happen.
So I'm super grateful for you sharing that with us today.
And I know the difficult nature,
I have pissed many people in my family off
by trying to share vulnerably with the world,
like, look, this is the chronological order of events.
These are the things that happened.
And these are the things that helped me see
what I want for my life
and what I want to help others realize there's hope
in situations where things are difficult.
So again, thanks for diving deeply into that.
Those visionary leaders out there,
I hope you're starting to write down too,
where did the turning points come
for getting you to the point of pursuing your vision
and seeing that you wanted to pursue something
a little bit crazy, a little bit dreamy,
a little bit different than what others are saying
in your life.
There's great power in exploring and meditating on that.
So let's dive into,
what's your worst?
What's the worst leadership experience that you've ever had?
Man, so I would say the worst is not clarifying my vision
in the new hire process.
Oh, I laugh out of my own, oh, that hurts.
You know what I'm saying though, right?
It's like, it's, and this is something that you learn
as you grow as a business professional too,
is whatever the situation, whatever the thing may be,
is making sure that that person that you're hiring
in your company has as much as a close related vision
as you with the concept
and where you wanna go with the company.
And if there's any hesitation in that whatsoever,
but yet you still hire them and go through the onboarding
and spend the time and spend the money and do that.
And then you're like six months later,
like you knew it in your gut,
but you still did it anyway
because you wanted to fill the spot
because you needed some things done.
It's just a waste of time.
And that was the biggest pain that I had.
And I've had a couple of times in my early career too.
And that was a huge learning curve.
And as a leader, as a business owner,
that was a bad experience that I've now kind of learned
and hopefully I'm doing better now.
So you're talking about it like you learned in the past.
I'm looking at it and saying,
I've done this many, many, many, many, many times wrong.
And I'm still looking at the learning curve going,
okay, we have a long way to go on this,
but if I could put a message on repeat
for entrepreneurs to listen to daily,
talked about that.
Now here's the thing I believe in because I've felt it
and I've had it and love it first sight.
Right, and that does not always have to be romantic.
I'm right, the bromance situations can exist too.
The passion of, oh wow,
we're both designed for this project.
And that can be one of the most amazing recipes of all time.
It could also be one of the most toxic atomic bomb
experiences of all time too.
Is when we make assumptions
that we're on the same page with somebody,
there's so many relationship realities
that can affect or disrupt that situation
that it's wise to make sure.
And I like how you talked about it,
defining your vision more clearly, right?
So that it's easier for the other person
to see what they're actually committing to.
What it is that their role would look like in this.
If you don't, I was the guy who was constantly hired,
who would see other people's visions.
And this is where that Grant Cardone reference
where I feel reverence for it.
I would come in, see somebody's vision
and immediately take control over that vision.
And I would then I'd wanna own it
because you have an ownership mentality, right?
And so I had that, but they didn't have the ability
as leaders to harness my superpowers
and to help me get in line with what they were doing.
I was too obnoxiously self-assured,
maybe arrogant and cocky, I don't know.
But I know it was difficult in the early days.
And that can be avoided when we clarify our visions enough
to set healthy boundaries that help people realize
I'm really not actually a good fit
for what you're trying to do.
And that's a very hard discipline to work through,
but it's one that all of us can work on.
Oh, we don't necessarily need a guru
to figure that out for us, but we should be exploring it.
Let's go to the opposite side.
What's the best leadership experience you've ever had?
Man, I would say the complete opposite
of hiring the right people.
And ultimately too, it takes time to learn.
I've been lucky to have some great business mentors
that I've been able to bounce ideas off.
And obviously as you build a company
and as you build a team,
having the right people on your team that compliments
say your weak points or is a compliment
to what your skillsets are at the same time too.
Hiring that right person, making sure they are a fit,
making sure they are on the same vision of you
is extremely satisfying.
And it makes you feel motivated, charged up.
And if they believe in the vision for you and the company
and such too, I mean, it just makes you feel fulfilled
as a leader that you have confidence in your team
and you know that at the end of the day,
they're on the same page and you don't have to say anything
and they're just gonna execute.
So I would say it's the complete opposite,
hiring the right people and feeling confident
with your team that you fired.
Yeah, I'd second that.
That's absolutely one of the most wonderful feelings.
When you have the right people working on your team,
what I found as a founder
is it feels like your birthday every day.
When you come into the office, it's like just a celebration.
Everybody's showing up, everybody's excited to be there.
Everybody's in harmony or even if somebody has a bad day
or something tragic happens in their lives,
we're all there for each other on that.
So there's just this feeling of family
that can ultimately exist in those situations
that family in its purest form,
what I think a lot of us long and seek for.
So I love that on your page,
you do have your leadership page
where your honoring individual is there.
I'm gonna share a little secret.
It's kind of a coaching tip for you, Chris.
I know you don't need that from me,
but it's for the whole world in this regard.
I wish more entrepreneurs understood the value
of doing this in the front end.
One of the fastest and easiest ways for me to evaluate
whether a company is actually scaling or not
is if they have a careers page
and if they have a join our team tab,
something along those lines.
And so it's very hard to attract all stars
when all stars aren't invited to be part of a process.
And that's by no means,
if all you visionary leaders listening in are like,
oh my gosh, I don't have that page, I'm a failure.
No, you're not.
Not many people know to look for that.
It's like the individuals in the hiring process that ask,
tell me about a time that you failed.
Most companies don't even know why they ask that question.
But the Elon Musk's of the world know
that it's to detect the liars.
It's to see who's gonna hide.
There's shortcomings or point blame
and fingers of other people
and try to make themselves look good.
There's these subconscious or subtle realities that exist.
And are there massive companies
that don't have their career pages and join a team?
Yes, they are.
Are there companies that honor their people
and have a great recruiting process without that?
Yes, there are.
I said it's the easiest way, not the most,
not the always way.
And so if you as a visionary leader out there,
if you think you're gonna pull the vision off by yourself,
good luck.
I've never seen a solo entrepreneur successful.
I love that you honor your people, Chris,
and you've got the people who are working with you.
It looks like one of the individuals
who you're working with, by the way,
is that your spouse?
Yes, Kristen.
That's a hard dynamic to pull off.
And I don't wanna dive into the details on that,
but I wanna honor the fact that you guys have found
enough of alignment to be able to align
on one of the things you guys probably dedicate
a lot of your time to, which is your business.
That is absolutely awesome, dangerously amazing.
And most of the best things in life,
like creating a child,
are dangerously amazing opportunities.
So I wish you guys the best.
I pray for you,
because it would be amazing to see you guys
40 years from now, still having your company together
and moving.
I hate when people say,
well, couples who work together get divorced.
Everybody gets divorced.
Have you not looked at the world?
That's not a variable that is worth.
What do you want?
You want a relationship
where you don't talk about politics,
you don't talk about sports,
you don't talk about religion,
you don't work together.
Where the heck is the relationship after that?
What wisdom can you share with those
who are maybe in the same shoes,
or maybe are considering,
can I work with my spouse or not?
Another really good question.
You've been doing this a couple of times, haven't you?
I've twice divorced my friends,
so I've been through the painful reality of losing mine.
Gosh, I'm sorry to hear that.
Thank you.
And I try to honor the mothers of my children
the best I can,
but it's not a trophy case for me of like,
look at how many times I can get married.
In fact, the opposite.
It's I honor the sacred nature of family and marriage
and my story, let it be a warning.
And I got my own podcast stuff to do
where I talk about that and help people with that reality.
But it's individuals like you that have yours
where I have a sacred appreciation for,
I am rooting for you so strongly.
Thank you.
Thank you, man.
Yeah, I think ultimately it's been time management,
using time blocking strategies
and dedicating time for each other.
I am a self-proclaimed workaholic.
I had a problem, I'm not gonna lie.
Go figure, who would have voted against Chris on that?
Yeah, I had a problem.
I'm a hyper-focused type A individual,
and I put my business first for many, many years.
We've definitely had some conversations
and some discussions, my wife and I,
especially when she transitioned into the business.
And I had to do a lot of self-reflection, honestly,
and really take a look at my schedule,
dial things back a little bit.
You know, just chatting with one of my team members
this morning, you know, he's asking about the phrase,
when, what's important now.
It's kind of like the same thing with Stephen Covey,
first things first.
And, you know, as we've kind of looped in
some of the beginning conversation too
about purification of life, you know,
obviously getting pregnant, having a kid,
doing all those things,
is I have to prioritize time for family,
and I have to prioritize time for other people
and things and events now.
So time management and time management strategies
have been the saving grace
on how we've been able to work together
to segment when we're on in the business
and when we are off.
And I'm not gonna say I'm the best at it,
I'm still working on it because I love, you know,
my vision in Tricor and what we stand for in this world
and what we're trying to do to change this world.
But it's actually given me a lot of mental health
and it's given me a lot of mental relaxation
to kind of turn off a little bit more.
And what it's also done too,
is it's made me focus on more important things
in the business as well,
and stop chasing little tiny shining objects
and really focus on the core vision of the company
and prioritize what's most important
so that I can take that time off
and spend it time with my wife, family, things like that.
So time management for sure, man.
I love it.
And that's, you know, time managers
or people who are conscious of their time,
and I'm gonna call it the less productive world.
You know, people who tend to get bored,
or people who tend to stay busy instead of productive,
they undervalue the time management principle
because they think, oh man,
you're putting constraints on your life.
You know, you're getting all rigid.
It's the exact opposite, right?
And we've become time managers.
We've become far more free and selective.
It become intentional with how we're utilizing our time.
And we're able to do more that we love
because we're not wasting time on accidental like,
uh-oh, now what do I do with my time?
I haven't felt that since I was like 18.
And so again, thank you for the insight on that.
And, you know, some of you guys know
that I am that first-class business
is a 44% equity holder in AbleHealth.us.
You know, so why bring somebody
who could easily be looked at as my direct competitor, right?
My, onto my platform?
Well, a big reason is I don't believe in enemies.
If somebody wants,
like I believe that people can see me as an enemy, right?
But I don't have that same view and judgment.
Tribal leadership, 2% of companies
reach a stage of life is abundant.
And life is abundant is no longer,
we are great and they are not,
or I am great and you are not.
And so I'm always looking for great leaders.
And AbleHealth will not be able to become
what it's meant to become
without finding other great leaders
and strategic partners out there
and combining forces of visions.
I don't know, maybe someday it'll be merged and acquired.
Maybe someday it will merge and acquire other companies.
There's so much possibility that exists with that.
But I can say like this conversation,
while we didn't talk about Tricor Wellness
and like what it does at large,
we didn't dive into the app.
The best of the best visionaries and leaders in the world
will appreciate the fact that we just got to know
the founder himself for who he is,
what you're up to, what you stand for.
And that's what ultimately drives me
to want to connect with a brand and say,
you know what, I'm all about this brand.
I wanna see you succeed
and I wanna see the people that you're bringing in succeed.
So Chris, I really appreciate you coming on today.
We're gonna be, for those of you who wanna learn more,
of course, in the action steps on the landing page,
we'll be putting the links of how to connect with Chris
and where to find him on social media
and also how to leverage the resources that he has.
Chris, any resources that you feel are a great starting point,
we'll talk about those after the show a little bit.
We'll make sure that we get those organized
so that we honor the vision
and help people take the next step.
And then down below that,
everybody will have the resources that we talked about,
the books that we talked about,
some of the other leaders that we've talked about as well.
We'll make sure to link to those.
And the last call to action on that page you'll see
is in the top right corner.
It says, be our guest.
If you wanna be a guest on this show
and talk about your vision,
as long as you're out to help other people
or you're a good leader who's striving
to become a better leader
and you're about helping people.
It doesn't have to be business related.
It doesn't have to be health related.
It can be everything from a stay at home parent
to somebody who walks dogs for their local neighborhood.
I'm not here to judge that.
It's not about scale for everybody.
It's about service and helping others.
And if that's your vision, you wanna come and share it,
then don't hesitate to come on to Vision Pros Live.
So without further ado,
we will see you guys on the next episode.
Chris Edwards, thanks for being here today.
You got it.
Thanks Jackson. Appreciate it.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is gonna get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out.