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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, our guest Al Ramadan talks about what’s at stake when it comes to category battles, how you can spot the category challengers who can become category kings and queens, and what they need to become category leaders that earn 76% of the economics.

There comes a time in every startup’s life, where they face an epic, typically 18-to-36-month category battle. As we reported in our first book Play Bigger, the company that wins that battle earns 76% of the total value created in the category as measured by the market caps for public companies and valuations for private companies. What that means is, in any space, one company earns two thirds of the economics, which makes that category battle, which is typically 18 to 36 months long, arguably the highest stakes game in business.

This episode will be available on both Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different and Lochhead on Marketing, because we think it is that important that everyone must hear about it. So without further ado, let’s dive into this dialogue.

Play Bigger: Looking back, and its impact today

Al Ramadan comes into the conversation bearing data about the businesses and companies we’ve observed when writing Play Bigger, as well as some new players that have achieve the same feat since then.

To recap, Al Ramadan and Christopher Lochhead wrote a book back in 2014 called Play Bigger, which talks about category design and how it can make you become a category leader in your chosen space. One of the things they’ve found out in the course of their research is that Category Leaders tend to corner 76% of the value of said space.

Though when they wrote Play Bigger, the world was nowhere near as digitized as it is today. So a lot of the research was based on tech companies back then. But now, as more and more categories are behaving like tech categories due to digital scalability and digital reach, these findings are becoming true for every category.

Category Kings to Category Leaders

Al Ramadan shares that he and his team looked into the 35 Category Kings that they have observed back in Play Bigger, and check on their current situation in the market sphere.

In Play Bigger, we originally published a set of research and tracked 35 Category Kings in the tech space and their market caps at the time were 465 billion and those same companies today are now worth 1.9 trillion.

“If you track what happened to those 35 kings, as we call them back then, between the year of 2014 to the year of 2021. You want to know what the numbers are? At the time in 2014, the entire pool of the 35 category kings were valued at 465 billion. They are now valued at 1.9 trillion. That is, they’ve created more than $1,000,001.5 in market cap and the annual for those people who care about this stuff like Investors and Financial people. The compound interest growth rate of those kings. Market cap wise, is 22.46%.” – Al Ramadan

Given this data, it begs the question of how many understand that this is the new dynamic, and how many entrepreneurs and marketers still think that it’s a big leap of faith to follow.

To hear more from Al Ramadan and how Category Kings can become legendary Category Leaders, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Al Ramadan is a co-founding partner of Play Bigger Advisors and coauthor of the book, Play Bigger. He also co-founded Quokka Sports, which revolutionized the way people experience sport online.

Al then joined Macromedia and Adobe, where he spent almost ten years changing the way people think about great digital experiences. At Adobe, Al led teams that created the Rich Internet Applications category and helped develop the discipline of experience design.

In the early ‘90s he applied data science to Australia’s Americas Cup — an innovation in sports performance analytics. His work in sailing led directly to the idea for Quokka. He lives in Santa Cruz, California.

Links

Connect with Al Ramadan!

Play Bigger | LinkedIn | Category Contenders

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, our guest Alexander Rose asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. We go deep into that question, and a myriad of other topics in today’s dialogue.

Alexander Rose is the executive director of the Long Now Foundation. And their mission is to foster long-time, long-term thinking. And they’re probably most known for the building of this massive 10,000-year clock with the support of Jeff Bezos.

If you are anyone who cares about products, if you’re an engineer, a product leader, or frankly, anyone else who cares about creating products, or a different future, you’re going to love this conversation.

Alexander Rose on The Long Now Foundation

The conversation starts off with Alexander describing the purpose of The Long Now Foundation and The Long Now Idea itself. It was started by a set of both technologist and artists, who are part of the earlier generation of Silicon Valley.

“It was a group of people that were realizing that by the kind of fetishization of speed that was happening, especially around Silicon Valley, in technology, circles, that we were taking a lot of things off the table. So things like climate change, if you were only given a few years to solve something like that, you basically won’t even start. But if you are willing to think about something, at least in terms of centuries or generations, you could imagine how you might solve these large challenges that humanity is now facing.” – Alexander Rose

Brian Eno, one of the founders of the Long Now Foundation, coined the term, and he really stretched it out to the 10,000 years we’ve had, to the 10,000 years in the future, making it a 20,000-year story.

Humanity 10,000 Years into the Future

The focus then shifts into the story of what will happen 10,000 years into the future. For Alexander, he believes that humanity will still be there, but it depends on what we do today if they are thriving or struggling by then.

“I very much believe that humanity is going to be around for the next 10,000 years. The question is, are we making decisions that are going to help those future generations right now? As Jonas Salk originally asked: Are we being good ancestors, or are we being bad ancestors? And how can we be better ones?” – Alexander Rose

Alexander then proceeds to discuss our ongoing report card on the matter.

Alexander Rose on Thinking of the “Good Old Days”

Talking about the past, particularly the notion of the good old days, Alexander firmly thinks that we definitely have it better today than in the distant past. It is just that, we are used to modern comforts and the ever-growing technology at the palm of our hands, that we take those things for granted and focus on the bad things todays and reminisce on the good memories from the past.

Alexander describes it like a pendulum swinging back and forth. While there are swings on both directions, the momentum for the forward / positive swing is oftentimes bigger than the backwards or negative one.  Though granted in today’s climate, it’s hard to see the positives than the negatives.

While the past would be nice to visit, a person from this time would find it a horrendous place to live in, minus the comforts that they have been accustomed to.

To learn more about Alexander Rose and The Long Now Foundation and mindset, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Alexander Rose

Links

Connect with Alexander Rose!

The 10,000-year clock

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Today’s episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is a love letter to our military and veterans. Our guest Christian Anschuetz shares his story of how he looked up to these brave heroes growing up, and how he became one of the heroes that serve our country.

Christian Anschuetz retired from the U.S. military as a Marine Captain. After his service, he had a long and successful career as both an entrepreneur and an S&P 500, Senior C-level executive. After hanging up his uniform as and executive and advisor, he continues to serve as one of the leaders of the organization called Project RELO and will be spearheading an upcoming endeavor called Task Force Tribute.

If you are interested in his story, and the story of thousands of active military and veterans who have served our country, stay tuned to this episode.

Christian Anschuetz & the Legendary Humans of the US Military

Imagine being 12 years old at home with your dad, as you watch a strange car pull up in front of your house. Two men in uniform get out, and one’s a chaplain. This is an experience only Goldstar families know. This was also the moment a 12-year-old Christian Anschuetz, learned that his older brother and hero, Norman, had died serving his country.

Years later, Christian finds himself joining the military himself. He did so to honor the memory of his brother, and the love of country in his heart. He eventually became a Marine Captain and went to serve for several years.

We often forget that military service in our country is completely voluntary. So it takes a tough and brave soul to go through all the harsh training, and eventually deploy to dangerous and unknown territories. To sacrifice so much to serve speaks volumes to their love and loyalty to our country.

After Christian retired from service, he found himself in the entrepreneurial side of things, where he utilized his expertise in advising and training business leaders and executives on how to hone their leadership skills.

Project RELO

Christian talks about Project RELO, a veteran non-profit that he founded. He provides a quick description of what they do, and how they help hone the nation’s top CEOs and management teams to think different.

“What we do is we take some of the nation’s top executive leadership of fortune 500, CEOs and their management teams, and we provide leadership training to them. But what we do is we actually go on to military bases, and we conduct full military operations for three days. We do everything from convoy operations, communications, weapons handling, etc.” – Christian Anschuetz

The beauty of Project RELO is that the people teaching these leadership training are transitioning military members. So it not only trains future business leaders to focus and learn leadership skills from another perspective, it also helps these transitioning military members and veterans have an idea on how they can use their previous experience to find work, or even build up new careers.

Task Force Tribute

Christian then talks about Task Force Tribute, which is a huge undertaking that Project RELO will be undertaking soon.

One thing he pointed out was that not a lot of people know that people they mingle with on a day-to-day basics is a veteran, or is serving in some capacity in the military. Part of it is the depiction of what military does in the media. So when they eventually leave the service, there are certain preconceptions on what they could do for a career or business moving forward.

As said earlier, Project RELO helps shine a light to both business leaders and military members that these military members’ skills are not just confined to military-related activities. They are well-equipped with other talents and skills, plus the military discipline that has been trained to them for years.

Task Force Tribute aims to tell their story in a more elaborate way. They want to tell the story of these legendary people, both active and veterans alike, and share their perspectives to those who they have protected and served.

To learn more about Christian Anschuetz, Project RELO, and Task Force Tribute, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Christian Anschuetz, Marine Captain (retd.), Executive Leadership Advisor

Executive leader and advisor in art and science of ‘strategy activation,’ Christian Anschuetz helps industry leaders re-imagine and re-invent how their companies do business. His unique blend of market-shaping vision and leading-edge tech savvy coupled with a strong belief in the power of service over self helps leaders step beyond conventional thinking.

The result? Envisioning and executing future-proofing market strategies that lead to competitive edge, rapid growth, and lasting digital transformation.

Christian has held C-level and executive leadership positions at top global firms in the advertising, cyber security, global safety and supply-chain arenas, and is known for success in case studies by Microsoft, Intel, HP, and Oracle.

He is also a professor of Strategic Marketing in the MBA program at UNC in Chapel Hill.

As a proud member of the US Marine Corps, he founded and heads Project RELO, a nonprofit that helps veterans transition from military service to corporate careers through partnerships with executive business leaders.

You can catch him regularly on Cloud Wars Live with Bob Evans, “Anschuetz on Leadership,” or applying contemporary technologies to farming as cultivates his organic, sustainable lavender fields.

Links

Connect with Christian Anschuetz!

LinkedIn | Project RELO | Task Force Tribute

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how ordinary people do legendary things and push ourselves to go beyond ourselves with our guest, Colin O’Brady.

Colin O’Brady is an extraordinary extreme athlete. He has summited Everest twice, and he is the first person ever to solo trek across Antarctica. And he’s a 10-time world record breaking explorer and adventurer, and is considered to be one of the most legendary endurance athletes on the planet.

Yet Colin considers himself a regular dude, and will share his story on how we can all do some serious legendary things in our lives.

Colin O’Brady on his reasons for doing what he does

The conversation starts off with the question of why Colin does what he does.

“Why do I do what I do? Yeah, it’s an easy question as you’re like, “Why would somebody walk alone across Antarctica for 54 days, dragging a 375-pound sled by themselves?” I asked myself that question sometimes.” – Colin O’Brady

That said, Colin is very happy with his achievements, especially with his wife as his number one supporter. They have built their business together, and she has helped Colin with these world record expeditions and how to execute them. And they don’t forget to have fun while doing so.

“I remember calling her around day 35 and in a sadly scrapped crackly sat phone connection I said to her, “Hey, if I ever tell you I want to do this again. Make sure to remind me that I don’t.”” – Colin O’Brady

Type 2 Fun

Colin asks if we are familiar with the phrase, type 2 fun.

“So type one fun is like fun. We you know, normal fun. You know, you’re drinking with your buddies, you’re dancing, you’re partying, you’re hanging out with your wife and are watching a beautiful sunset. It’s just fun, just fun for fun. Type two fun is it’s not super fun.” – Colin O’Brady

For Colin, type 2 fun is the fulfillment one gets from pushing their body to the limits, and exploring the human potential. Not just in the physical sense, but also emotional and mental sense.

The Desire to be outside is part of our DNA

We talk about our outdoor trips, and while it is not as extreme as Colin’s adventures, we do get that exhilaration and joy of exploring the outdoors.

Colin agrees with this, and remarks that as human, it is in our DNA to explore the outdoors.

“I think it’s in our DNA to be outside in nature. Like you said, kind of those moments where after a busy week, or a busy month, you look up and you kind of watch the clouds go pass for a second, or something like that. There’s something very grounding in those experiences.” – Colin O’Brady

To hear more from Colin O’Brady and how to do the impossible, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Colin O’Brady is a 10-time world record breaking explorer and one of the world’s best endurance athletes.

He isn’t your typical adventurer despite his unmatched athletic accomplishments including a world-first solo crossing of Antarctica, a world-first ocean row across Drake Passage (from South America to Antarctica), and summiting Mt. Everest twice. Colin is an expert on mindset, a highly sought-after keynote speaker and a New York Times bestselling author.

Colin is also a television host, an executive producer and an entrepreneur who has built and sold companies. And, he’s done it all after overcoming a devastating accident – that nearly left him unable to walk – to prove that anything is possible.

Links

Connect with Colin O’Brady!

Website | Youtube

Check out his new book:  12 Hour Walk: Invest One Day, Conquer Your Mind, and Unlock Your Best Life

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how we can create & design your life, and overcome anything with our guest, Chris Duffin.

Chris Duffin is the world record holder in 1000-pound deadlifts and squats. He is one of the strongest men on planet Earth, which is a very legendary achievement. He’s also an author of a fascinating riveting book called The Eagle and the Dragon, a story of Strength and Reinvention.

Those achievement on themselves are amazing, but when you hear more about his background, it becomes a whole new level of legendary.

Liquid Courage

The conversation starts on the topic of alcohol, and how it helps take down the defenses that people normally have with strangers or on speaking in public.

Chris Duffin follows up with a related piece that he wrote about drinking back in 2014, which was called Whiskey and Deadlifts.

“It actually talks about how alcohol can be used as a performance enhancer. And I talked about the history of it actually being used as that which a lot of people aren’t aware of.” – Chris Duffin

It’s certainly not an endorsement of excessive alcohol drinking by any means. But it gives a good glimpse on the world of powerlifting. Chris also says that he might update it soon, so look out for that.

Chris Duffin on his journey

The conversation shifts to Chris’ life story, which he admits took him a while to tell it comfortably. For him, it shows how you can move the needle in life with the right approaches from a mental aspect. For Chris, it’s not exactly a “woe is me” story, as he has created what he wants to do with his life now, and moving forward.

The story is actually opening from his book, The Eagle and the Dragon. It starts when he was six years old and living in the wilderness. Not just for camping and vacationing, but full-on living in the wilds, exposed to deadly animals and the like.

“On that first story, I was being taught how to handle and capture live rattlesnakes, we were killing them, so that we could sell the skins and try to make ends meet. But also, I was being taught at six years old, because that was the environment we lived in. And then I needed to have that for my safety.” – Chris Duffin

Creating His Own Path

Other stories in Chris’ childhood involved other dangerous elements in their life, in this case it was traffickers and serial killers.

To be exposed to such situations at such a young age, it was not an environment that someone should be exposed to growing out. Which is why Chris found himself gravitating to sports, trying to bring in some money to help the family, and he also found comfort in doing athletic activities.

Due to his efforts, he eventually got a full-ride academic scholarship to go to a school for a dual engineering degree, and eventually worked on his MBA. As he was working and studying away from his family most of the while, it apparently got worse on the home situation. So much that he had to take custody of his little sisters, so he could help and guide them towards better choices in life, and help heal the trauma that they have been through as well.

To hear more about Chris Duffin and how to overcome anything in your life, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Chris Duffin

Links

Connect with Chris Duffin!

Website | Instagram | Linkedin | Facebook | Youtube

Check out his book, The Eagle and the Dragon, a story of Strength and Reinvention

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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The turmoil in the economy and stock market has created massive turmoil not only in Fiat currencies, but also in Cryptocurrency. As such, Silicon Valley tech entrepreneurs are bracing for tough times. Today at Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we are here to make sense of it all with Sequoia Partner Michelle Bailhe.

As you know, Sequoia is one of the giants of venture tech in Silicon Valley, and I have known and worked with the folks at Sequoia for over 20 years. Today, we get to hear from one of their partners and learn what advice Sequoia is currently giving to their entrepreneurs and much more.

Michelle Bailhe and I go deep on what’s really going on with the crypto markets as they face their first meaningful downturn. Why bad times tend to yield great entrepreneurs and startups, and what we can learn from the 1600s.

Michelle Bailhe on the crypto market

The conversation starts off on the topic of the crypto markets. Michelle shares that she thinks crypto is in a very interesting moment, for a lot of reasons.

While crypto has its own problems, on top of the current economic conditions, Michelle thinks it can weather the situation.

“Crypto has been through a lot of bear and bull markets, or winters and summers. And so there’s a sense of, well this is winter, and we have been here before. We know what it’s like, and we know how to build through it.” – Michelle Bailhe

Though according to Michelle, it’s worth noting that what lies in the future may be way different than before. For one thing, valuation will be unlike before when crypto was on the rise, and investors are savvier than before. So it’s all a matter of how crypto will adapt and integrate itself into the market in the long run.

Crypto’s first downturn

When asked when the first downturn was for crypto, Michelle explains that crypto has had its ups and downs over the years. As to why it went unnoticed, it was mostly due to the issues being with crypto itself, and not due to external factors.

As for whether Covid had anything to do with it, 2020 was actually an explosion of new cryptos due to people taking an interest in investing and growing their current funds. Though it wasn’t all for the better. Much like the tech boom in 2000, where there was a hunger for new tech, but not enough focus on quality. So a lot of new cryptocurrencies were minted, only to collapse on themselves in a few months.

What’s different this 2022 is that crypto, along with other markets, is going through a global macro issue. As it becomes more ingrained in other sectors, companies, and markets, it also incurs the problems those systems have. That will be the fundamental difference between the winters before and the upcoming one now.

Hedging against Inflation

There has been a prevailing thought that crypto would be a good hedge against inflation, particularly around the time when Bitcoin has more or less stabilized. While Michelle thinks of it as a novel idea and has heard the arguments for it, crypto has never been created and traded as a hedge against inflation.

“Bitcoin has not at all traded as a hedge against inflation. It has been extremely correlated to technology stocks, and it looks much more like an unprofitable technology stock, partly because money people are still wrapping their heads around how to think about it: Do I think about it like equity? Do I think about it like a commodity? What are the demand and supply drivers?” – Michelle Bailhe

As for whether you should invest in crypto or not, Michelle Bailhe gives her thought on the matter. So download the episode and continue to listen.

Bio

Michelle Bailhe is a Partner at Sequoia, a leader in technology venture capital. She focuses on crypto, fintech & software.

Learn more about Michelle Bailhe.

Links

Connect with Michelle Bailhe!

LinkedIn | Twitter

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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Welcome to the second part of a two-part series on neuro-diversity and mental health. If you happened to miss the first one, you can check out our dialogue with M.E. Thomas on psychopathy (FYD 277). On this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk about how to improve your mental health. And who better to have that conversation but with Sarah Fay, PhD.

Sarah Fay is a bestselling author, and her new book is called Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses. Apple books said Sarah’s new book is “a powerful memoir by a deeply compelling person and a fantastic writer.”

Whether you are curious about neuro-diversity, or looking for ways to improve your mental health, you can’t go wrong with listening to this episode.

The world that Sarah Fay lives in

The conversation starts off on the topic of how Sarah is processing the world we live in today.

As someone who was in the vacuum of the academe for a while, one might not even notice the world outside. Sarah admits that she pretty much missed the Obama administration while she was working on her PhD.

There is a certain appeal of the academe of being away from the world and being surrounded by actual books, and being in pursuit of knowledge. That is, until the world comes calling.

How things have changed

Sarah shares that she has been writing about how different things have changed for her and how she saw herself. One of the things she has noticed is the change in her mental health, and how it has changed for the better.

“I was writing about how different things have changed for me and how I see myself. Now as someone who had a mental illness, I believe I’ve been cured. There’s no evidence to suggest that we cannot fully heal from mental illness, even serious mental illness like what I had.” – Sarah Fay

Sarah finds the notion that mental illness only lies dormant at times very pessimistic, as it sets the precedent that it could never be fully healed.

The Metaphor of Mental Illness

Sarah shares the metaphor of mental illness that she absolutely loves, which is much like breaking a bone.

“When you break a bone after it heals (which I didn’t know, this is in physical medicine), the point of the break becomes the strongest part. And so if we think of mental illness, or some sort of psychosis as a break, then we heal stronger.” – Sarah Fay

And if you look how resilient and strong people are who have recovered from mental illness, it makes a whole lot of sense for Sarah.

To hear more from Sarah Fay and how to improve your mental health, download and listen to this episode.

 Bio

Sarah Fay (Ph.D., MFA) is an award-winning author and mental health advocate working to improve how we think and talk about our mental health.

Her experience of being diagnosed with six different mental health disorders and finding no relief led her to write her journalistic memoir Pathological: The True Story of Six Misdiagnoses, an Apple Best Books pick that was hailed in The New York Times as a “fiery manifesto of a memoir.”

Sarah has shared her story on NPR’s 1A, Oprah Daily, Salon, NPR’s KERA/Think, The Rumpus, in The Los Angeles Times, and more.

Pathological has been featured in Forbes, mindbodygreen, Thrive Global, Lit Hub, Psychology Today, and others.

Links

Connect with Sarah Fay!

Website | Instagram

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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This episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different is a love letter to America.

I recently posted something on LinkedIn and on social media about the court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade, and I wanted to share that with you and reflect on it with you for a moment.

So, let’s talk about America.

Roe v. Wade

People are saying this ruling put abortion back in the hands of the states.

Sort of, but not really.

It puts it back where it belongs in our hands. You and me get to decide what the future will be by voting.

A poll with 235,613 responses says that 58% support women’s rights to choose. Now, if the Democrats pick up seats in November, it will in large part demonstrate what Americans think about some combination of the abortion issue. And broadly, the Democratic agenda and how the Democrats have been performing in the White House and in Washington.

With Biden at 38% approval, it seems very likely that the Dems will pick up seats in November. If the predicted red wave hits Washington, it will for sure tell us that some combination of dislike for Biden, the GOP’s ideas resonating. and pro-life momentum are things that Americans are focused on.

Continue to have Meaningful Dialogue

Whether you’re currently celebrating or reverberating over the road decision. It’s important to underscore this is how it’s supposed to work.

We argue, we debate and hopefully we even listen radical idea, right? to each other. We come to our own conclusions, and we vote for candidates who most reflect our beliefs. Hating someone because they disagree with you might be the biggest stupid of all.

Now, to be clear, I am pro-choice. And I could tell you why if you cared, and I respect that pro-life people truly believe they are doing what’s best what’s right. And I know and love people who I know to be legendary, very good people who are pro-life. I just disagree with them. That’s okay. Steel sharpens steel. This is how it’s supposed to work. Please participate in thoughtful dialogue. And let’s all do some thinking, then let’s vote.

So that was the post and it seems to have blown up and hopefully caused some thought for a conversation. Some people have commented No, this is not how it’s supposed to work. And they have an opinion about why that’s the case. They might be right. But at a very high level.

The difference between democracy and insanity is we dialogue. We vote. We create leaders and create laws and then we live by them. What we don’t do is hate each other. And we don’t fight with each other physically. That’s called anarchy. And so I think what this tells all of us is, democracy is a participation sport.

To hear more of Christopher Lochhead’s love letter to the United States of America, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

Christopher Lochhead 

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different™! Christopher loves hearing from his listeners. Feel free to email him, connect on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and subscribe on iTunes!

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On this remarkable episode of Christopher Lochhead: Follow Your Different, we talk with M.E. Thomas about psychopathy, and how you can be in a relationship that works with a psychopath.

M.E. Thomas is a pseudonym of the bestselling author of Confessions of a Sociopath. She’s a lawyer, musician, and now a teacher. She is among the first psychopaths or sociopaths to come out of the closet, and share her life and experience.

This episode will have you thinking deeply about your identity, relationships, and the masks that we all wear. So stay tuned.

M.E. Thomas on Knowing she was “Different”

The conversation started with the question of identity. Specifically, about when M.E. Thomas found out she was “Different”.

“I always knew that I was different. But I had so many things that they’d be different, I just assumed it was one those – like, I was raised in a big Mormon family, so I grew up with five siblings. We just had weird idiosyncrasies. My dad was kind of a crazy guy. Even now, they call him Einstein because he wears his hair, kind of like white and crazy, and his eyebrows were long and curly. He says, he thinks that makes him look distinguished.” – M.E. Thomas

Aside from this, there were a lot of things that people would think weird about her. But it came off most of the times as precocious and charming as a child, and cool and collected growing up.

M.E. Thomas on Not Experiencing the Same Things

Another way M.E. Thomas knew she was different from others was when she and the other kids her age hit puberty. Simply put, she wasn’t experiencing the same things that others were being self-conscious or worried about.

“During puberty, everybody was kind of losing their collective minds. And I was just like, “I don’t get it”. I didn’t get the self-consciousness, and I didn’t get the awkwardness. And I didn’t get the kind of like, “we’re going through some sort of new identity”. I kind of didn’t get that, although I got it in a way because I would kind of choose a new identity every day for whatever situation I was in.” – M.E. Thomas

Looking back, M.E. Thomas was kind of relieved that she didn’t go through all that, citing a Reddit page that showed teenagers and all the stupid things they did and wear growing up.

How to Work the Social System

M.E. Thomas muses that she was glad that she didn’t go through the same experience, as she’s heard stories of how people were both very happy and unhappy during those times in their life. She particularly calls out peer pressure, which is probably the number one reason teenagers do stupid things for stupid reasons.

She herself wasn’t subjected to peer pressure, because she admits that she already knew how to work the social system even then. Given the cool demeanor she portrays, she was easily part of every social circle and friends with different groups. Though she does say that being that much of a social butterfly should’ve been an indicator of a personality disorder.  

To learn more about M.E. Thomas and her experiences growing up, download and listen to this episode.

Bio

M. E. Thomas (a pseudonym) is the author of Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight. (Penguin Random House)

She is a former law professor who has written extensively on music copyright issues, a current California attorney, and the founder of a non-profit. She is also, most recently, a professional musician.

Links

Connect with M.E. Thomas!

Website | Twitter | More about the Author

More about M.E. Thomas

NYTimes: Confessions of a Sociopath

Slate: American Psychopath’s Patrick Bateman Reviews M.E. Thomas’ Confession of a Sociopath

YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What is your background?

YouTube: Ask a Psychopath – What are some things you’ve done?

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