Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of Vision Pros with today's very special guest,
Chad E. Cooper of Marcus Ulysses Wisdom, which is such a cool business name. Can't wait to learn
more about what Marcus Ulysses Wisdom is all about. And so without further ado, my first question to
you, Chad, is tell us about your story. What do you want us to know about you and and your company,
Marcus Ulysses Wisdom? Well, Barbara Ann, thank you for a great question out of the gate and one
that is, Morphing as we speak, I have built a career off of mining, really. And I retired from
a small computer company, probably never heard of when I was 35 called Microsoft. You may have heard
of, they've done okay for themselves. But I didn't retire from the typical what you would think. Yes,
the stock awards made a big difference, but I saved more than I spent. And as a child at,
I want to say probably 18, 19 years old, I went into the Marine Corps. And I started listening to
this guy named Tony Robbins, personal power. And that really helped shape my life along with in
tandem being in the Marine Corps helped really me to understand our mental fortitude is what often
stops us. We're, we're, we're able to do 20 times more than what our mind believes that it can do.
Long story short, I have walked away from the corporate world in order to be the primary
and caregiver for our son. And did that spectacularly had a really powerful identity
as super dad. And he is now in his third year at university and I have a lot of time on my hands
as an empty nester. In that time, I found myself really wanting to be an example really wanting
to serve and I've done that since I was really quite young. And so I got into doing a few
various things, one of which was professional life coaching. And I had the fortunate privilege of
being the number one coach for the number one coaching organization in the world, working with
billionaires, working with professional athletes. I'm the guy you never saw behind the scenes
that was there for title fights and world series and in, you know, World Cups, those kinds of things.
And then working with the Olympians. So what does that have to do with Marcus Ulysses wisdom?
You collect along the way, if you're fortunate to surround yourself with some amazing people and I
have experiences and those experiences are usually achieved through screwing up and making mistakes.
Don't do that again. Hopefully you can learn from the errors of friends and family and peers
and not make them yourself, but you're going to. And then hopefully along the way, Barbara,
we can have a collection of things that allow us to serve ourselves, serve our community,
serve and mentor others. And I've reached a point where my business partner and I said,
we need to be the shepherd. And I choose the word shepherd very carefully to help share the message
with the world. And so we're looking at going global with this at a ridiculously affordable price
in sharing this out to the world. But I said, you know, when Tony Robbins, for example, dies,
his empire is probably going to crumble because it's based on one individual. And so I started
looking at Mark Twain, who has always been a great mentor for me, you know, with his writings that
he's left behind. And that was really the point. Mark Twain is really Samuel Clemens. Dr. Seuss
is not really Dr. Seuss. And so in order for the message, that wisdom to be able to transcend
the flaws of me as a human being, as a messenger, we've decided to go the path of Marcus Ulysses.
Marcus Ulysses and all of those different identities that I've served in life
were really empowering identities. Marine Corps, right? Regimental Marine of the Year,
you have to have a really empowering identity in other things that I've done. So Marcus Ulysses is
Marcus Aurelius, one of the greatest emperors in all of time. Ulysses S. Grant, who was an amazing
general and right hand to President Lincoln and president. Ulysses and the Iliad and the Odyssey.
And then Marcus Luttrell, who is a former Navy SEAL that you'd known by the movie Lone Survivor.
And so I took a collection of four, the best characteristics and qualities. And we decided
that the message needs to stand on its own and not under the ego of an individual. And so Marcus
Ulysses is just a really kick ass name to represent the caliber of the work that we're working to put
out in the world. So there's a really stupid long answer for you. There's no stupid. I don't believe
in stupid. Well, mostly. But as John Wayne said, you can't fix stupid, but you can put duct tape
over their mouth. True. So that's it. You know, it's interesting because I put up the title,
you know, what's the story behind your why, because that kind of led up to it. And gee,
you get this all the time. But, you know, with sincerity, thank you for the service that you
provided to our country. And so with all of that said, what exactly would you say is your why?
Well, the one word that serves that is shepherd. And so that journey, I grew up with a very large,
large family, Barbara Ann, and in that you learn to survive. You learn to get along, you learn
diplomacy, you learn trauma, and all kinds of things. And in the military, as you just mentioned,
my time in the service, you know, freedom isn't free. And so I chose to go with arguably what I
would say is the world's best, the Marine Corps. And that was about understanding that there has
to be a price to pay. Hopefully, I don't have to make that ultimate sacrifice, but I was willing to.
Coaching, being a father and being Mr. Mom before it was pioneered and considered appropriate or
acceptable was about being able to be of service to my family and saying, my wife was far better
in diplomatic and successful in the corporate world than I was. Made my money, got out, right?
Go do the things where I can serve and that light me up and I can create impact. And so I made the
really silly mistake of one day having a conversation with God and said, I want to go
on a mission trip. And he goes, great, you get to lead it. And I was like, what? The team leader,
he quit, had no paperwork processes or operational understanding. And I got thrown in. And it's been
now almost 20 years. We've actually got a compound that we've bought in, it's over probably 800,000
U.S. and can support 48 missionaries, has an apartment for sabbatical, has medical outpatient
facility, does all kinds of amazing work in serving widowed women with children. We build houses for
them along with a lot of other things, medical, et cetera. But that began with a, as I would say,
Robert F. Kennedy said, some people see things as they are and ask why. Others dream of things that
have never been and ask why not. And so my life, my why has really been led by why not. And as a
shepherd, you're a constant herder, constant nomad. No mad, nomad-er. I think you understand.
But if you look at the characteristics of a shepherd, they are there to protect the flock.
They are there to feed the flock. They're the flock. They're there to take the wool from the
flock and help create a revenue stream. It's an ecosystem within itself. And my why is as a
shepherd, they represent everything from humanity in nurturing and caring to capitalism to
protecting, right? They have to ward off the threats, the wolves in sheep clothing.
And that staff, while it helps them walk, also can be used as a very powerful weapon. So my why I
learned some time ago is to be a shepherd to others, specifically and explicitly how to be,
how to identify healthy and normal in our life. Because most people living in the United States
or other Western parts of the world, we live in a toxic society. And many people have never actually
seen what normal is. And so by taking people into indigenous parts of the world, they may for the
first time actually put down technology, have a relationship that they discover for themselves,
and identify, oh, this is what normal is. And they go, oh my gosh, this is magical. Oh my gosh,
it's so spiritual. It's like, no, this is normal. You've just never experienced it. So that's my why
is to be a shepherd, to help people understand the message of what normal and healthy is.
That is so amazing on so many levels. And it intertwines everything from servant leadership
to healthy relationships, whether it be with God, nature, other humans, so forth and so on,
all of the things that so much about, interestingly, the entity that you retired from and others
have really kind of led us away from. And so you've touched on bits and pieces, but I really want to
hyper-focus in on where this vision of what you're doing came from. So...
Yeah, I would say the vision didn't come all at once. In fact, it's continuously still unfolding.
And that's really about my relationship with whatever you want to call that higher power,
I call God. And Abraham, religions, whether you're Islamic, Jewish, or Christian, all call the same
God, God. So we'll just call that person God, whatever you or entity God, call whatever you want.
It's not a text where I'm in trouble, I send a, I need help, get me out. It's an ongoing conversation.
It's still unfolding. But in that process, what I learned is I left the IT world, I left Microsoft
on really good terms, because what I saw was that when Bill Gates and I retired on the same day,
and I always say, when Bill found out that I was retiring, he's like, I can't do it without Chad,
I'm out, right? People are like, seriously? I'm like, no, not seriously.
That's an awesome part of your sense of humor. Oh my gosh, I love it.
Like, wow, I'm not that big of a, you know, of a narcissist to think that, but it is funny.
But what I realized is, is that we go through life with these extremes of this or that, right,
spiritual or tangible material. You know, it, and what I realized was that it's more like improv,
where you have to say yes and, and when we open up to yes and, then the vision says yes and.
And so what I realized is like technology, as you mentioned, can lead us away, but we don't want to
throw the baby out with the bath water. So that vision is a yes and technology that serves and
supports our outcome, compliments us where it clashes and competes is where we have to draw the
line. And so that vision is about really, it was about learning how to create healthy boundaries.
And of course, that's a lifelong journey. It's about where we have to make space for
the spiritual and the material, right? We are spiritual entities in a material world.
And you have to have the responsibility to say, if you don't play by the rules,
of the material world, you're going to experience some, some, some difficulties.
And it also that vision was very clear early on that God did not want me in a church serving as
an example. He wanted me out in the field to be out as a shepherd, helping the, those that were in
need. And so that vision was just little bits and pieces about really having a relationship, an
intimate relationship in listening to that voice. And some might call it intuition or what have you.
And Carl Jung has a whole, you know, explanation on that, but it was really about the, the,
the trust and certainty in that there's something bigger. And if I had to tune into that,
it could be a great guide. And it gives me as an African proverb says, walk as far as you can see.
And when you get there, you'll be able to see further.
And that's really, I think often what a vision is for many people is it continues to unfold and
will till the day I die, but it guides me in, in, in is my North compass to continue to, to unfold
on a regular basis. But the values and the moral compass are solid in a foundation. And that's
what keeps me, you know, on a solid platform. 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 going to 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 your vision and
becoming a vision for yourself.