Follow Your Different
151 The Man Who Saved Metallica Wants To Save You Too w/ Phil Towle
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Today the legendary performance coach to rock stars, Phil Towle, joins us today to talk about how we can deal with the coronavirus crisis and how we can make a difference. Phil is a sensei among sensei on life coaching and life design. Kirk Hammett, of Metallica, even said, “If Lennon and McCartney had Phil, the Beatles would never have broken up.”
Covid19 Is A Gift
Everyone worldwide is grappling with different issues during this crisis. For Phil, he shares that this challenging situation has forced him to believe that Covid19 is a gift we gave ourselves. This gift forces us to transform a lost, sick and divided society.
“I think that Covid19 is bringing the best out of most of us. I think that we are going to heal ourselves and the only way that we could do it, is to have something that is drastic that makes it more difficult for us to see ourselves as sinners.” – Phil Towle
We Are One Civilization
Phil shares that we ought to at ourselves as one civilization. He encourages everyone to set aside personal differences and review oneself instead. He also mentions that social distancing is appropriate at the moment, but a heartfelt connection is a cure.
“It is really hard for me to be angry at somebody else now because they have a different viewpoint. I saved my anger because I have some for my own contributions to the way society screwed itself up.” – Phil Towle
Making a Difference
Phil shares how Christopher stood as a role model at this crisis. Chris placed prime importance on his thought about how companies react to this crisis will greatly define their brand. He himself has been collecting gloves and distributing it to local hospitals in Santa Cruz, California.
“It’s kind of you to say, Phil. When it became clear if I was a legendary leader, what would I do now and I have tasked myself to answer that question every day and it changes every day. so, I just tried to do and be everything I can.” – Christopher Lochhead
To hear more about Phil and his ideas on making a difference during this crisis, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Phil Towle is a “performance coach”.
He defines “performance coaching” as a proactive psychological strategy that facilitates making your best better.
In addition, Phil works with, “Difference makers” committed to using their God-given talents to fulfill their highest possibilities and those around them…Determined to transform each hardship, setback and self-imposed limitation, into superior achievement…
Sample clients include: Metallica; Dick Vermeil (Superbowl Winning Coach with St. Louis Rams); Bill Romanowski (Professional Athlete); Rascal Flatts; Tom Morello (musician with Rage Against Machine/ Audioslave/ Nightwatchman, and Human Rights Activist)
Links:
Metallica documentary featuring Phil Towle working with the band: “Some Kind of Monster”
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!
150 Hacks for Joy At Work w/ Best selling author & #1 Apple Podcaster Bruce Daisley
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We continue our run of legendary authors with Twitter’s former head of Europe Operations, Bruce Daisley. He’s got a new book out called Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat, He’s also got a great podcast of the same name!
This conversation is fun as we talk about some of his “30 hacks” for more joy at work. Expect a lot of laughter, conversations about digital relationships, walking meetings, Chinese Sci-Fi and a lot more. Also, pay close attention to our discussion about why you should turn off notifications on your phone!
London To California
The conversation with a lot of laughter from the two. They touched on topics such as living in London, how Europeans adjust when they visit the US and the culinary fusion of European dishes. You might also relate to the two who kept on adding movies in their “to watch list” but have never even started watching any on the list.
Bruce also shared how he loved buying books, but never actually find time reading them. This is also the inspiration why he wrote the book Eat, Sleep, Work, Repeat.
Twitter EU
Bruce shares when he joined Twitter, he never expected he would face a great challenge. Initially, Twitter was rated as one of the best places to work for. However, somewhere along the way, employees started to leave one by one. In a year, 40 of his top people left Twitter.
“Might be something I did, something went wrong. The culture went from being the “biggest party that you never wanted to end” to being this “party that you wished you never had left the house to go to.” – Bruce Daisley
He then started commissioning researchers with the hopes of improving workplace and culture. Unfortunately, the people have either not read these papers, or have not implemented it. It was such wasted information so Bruce decided he should write about it.
Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat.
Bruce shares he wrote this book, which is intentionally a very short episodic series of interventions that anyone can stage in their office or workplace. One piece of information he shares is that open offices increase employees’ hate to co-workers by 75%.
“Even if you just read one 10-page chapter and you Xerox it, threw it at your boss, I am hoping that even with that just one intervention might marginally improve people’s work.” – Bruce Daisley
To hear more about Bruce’s ideas on hacks for joy at work and more information about Bruce, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Bruce Daisley was previously Twitter’s most senior employee outside of the United States, in his role of Vice President across Europe, Middle East and Africa.
He joined the company in 2012 having previously run YouTube UK at Google.
He has also worked in the magazine publishing and radio industries having got his first break by mailing a cartoon resume of his life to prospective employers. Bruce’s passion for improving work led to him creating the podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat on making work better. It became a number 1 smash in the UK (also hitting the business top 10 in the US).
Links:
Book – Eat. Sleep. Work. Repeat.
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!
149 What 9/11 Taught Us About Leadership w/ Chris Fussell Navy Seal & President McChrystal Group
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Today, we have a very timely conversation about leadership and crisis management with a highly decorated Navy Seal Chris Fussell. He partnered with 4-star General Stanley McCrystal to retool the US military after 9/11. Chris is a legendary American hero, a servant leader in the military, entrepreneur, and now the President of McCrystal Group.
Chris and Stan consult and advise organizations around the world on leadership and frankly, they helped a lot of organizations deal with this crisis. We also talk about a recent opinion piece that Chris and Stan wrote for the NY Times.
Connected Through Structure
Chris describes that tribes are connected through structure and leadership. It also holds true within industries. He further shares that when the ability of those systems starts to be dismantled through the separation physically or something similar to what is happening to us at the moment, we will end up with a disconnected state.
He further shares how this scenario in relation to them at Washington DC/ Since there is a “disconnected state” the food shortages among families on the other side of DC do not affect Capitol Hill emotionally. He says this is how inequity stats.
Social Cohesion
Chris shares that the “fabric” that holds society together is immediate family, community and socioeconomic circles.
“This is critical that we reach across those boundaries that’s why, institutions—like a workplace that pulls from many different networks, from the executive, down to the frontline folks, or like a public school or a church, that reaches across the boundaries—those create this fabric that pulls us together anytime you see that disrupted at scale for an extended period. If the fabric is unwoven, its really hard to weave them together.” – Chris Fussell
Call For National Level Campaign
Chris took the opportunity to call everyone to action to help out in any way they can. Christopher Lochhead shared that he and his family purchased plastic gloves from a local restaurant supplier and dropped it to local hospitals in Santa Cruz.
“The people at the bottom are those who are gonna suffer more economically. They’re gonna suffer the worst medically as a result of this pandemic. The economically deprived neighborhoods.” – Chris Fussell
To hear more about Chris and how leaders are holding up with this crisis, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Chris Fussell is the President of McChrystal Group.
He is an author of the 2015 New York Times bestseller, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World as well as 2017 Wall Street Journal bestseller, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams.
He joined McChrystal Group as a Partner in 2012.
Chris was commissioned as an Officer in the United States Navy in 1997, and spent the next 15 years on US Navy SEAL Teams, leading SEAL elements in combat zones around the globe.
From war-torn Kosovo, to counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to highly specialized efforts in the troubled areas of the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa, he experienced and led through the modern evolution of the US military’s Special Operations community, first on SEAL Teams Two and Eight, then in the Naval Special Warfare Development Group.
Chris was selected to serve as Aide-de-Camp to then-Lieutenant General Stanley McChrystal during General McChrystal’s final year commanding the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), where they served for a year together in Iraq.
He witnessed first-hand the Special Operations community’s transformation into a successful, agile network.
Chris is also a Senior Fellow for National Security at New America, a Washington, DC-based non-partisan think tank dedicated to understanding the next generation of challenges facing the United States.
Chris is actively involved in several non-profits dedicated to helping veterans and their families, and holds a seat on the Board of Directors for the Navy SEAL Foundation. He is also a lifetime member to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Chris earned a Master of Arts in Irregular Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School, receiving the Pat Tillman Award for highest peer-rated Special Operations Officer in the program.
His thesis work focused on the interagency collaboration and intelligence sharing processes that drove effective, cross-silo collaboration during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Links:
Christopher Fussell – McCrystalGroup
Linkedin – Christopher Fussell
New York Times – What 9/11 Taught Us About Leadership in a Crisis
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!
148 Are You Undervaluing Your Customers? w/ Rob Markey of Bain & Co.
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We speak with Rob Markey of Bain & Co today about his breakthrough piece for Harvard Business Review “Are You Undervaluing Your Customers?”Rob also leads the Net Promoter Score Loyalty Forum and his Firm, Bain, invented the Net Promoter Score (NPS).
We have a riveting conversation about why companies with high levels of customer loyalty grow 2.5 times as fast as their peers, how companies should re-orient around customers and why Customer Loyalty is a shareholder priority and more. If you care about customers and growth, I think you’re going to love this dialogue.
Pressure To Deliver Earnings
Rob shares how his write up started as a source of frustration and curiosity. He shares that the clients he has worked with over the years still abandoned customer-centric companies. He further shares that companies ultimately face pressure to deliver earnings.
“The investors put pressure on management teams, who then are forced to squeeze out every last dollar in order to make a goal. That is just a short term goal.” – Rob Markey
Rob also says the importance for companies to have a visionary CEO, those who are willing to sacrifice short term earnings for long term gains. Investors should support these kinds of CEOs.
Standardized Metrics
Christopher asked if there should be a standardized metric to look at this matter in the context of a quarterly earnings call. Rob shares that it is one way to do this, however, he also says the world is a much more complicated place and it is hard to put a finger on just one metric that will lead you in the right way.
Net Promoter Score
Christopher asked Rob if NPS is the answer for companies. He shares it was just one of the objective function that they used when they were searching around for the right question to ask
“NPS is the best single question metric we have that enables you to see how an individual customer or a set of customers feel about the business in ways that then align with lifetime value.” – Rob Markey
There are lots of ways to collect a net promoter score. It can be after an interaction with a customer or as part of a relationship. It can even be a mode of market research, where the researcher can conduct double-blind research to acquire very reliable apples-to-apples comparison among different companies.
To hear more about Rob and why customer loyalty is a shareholder priority and more, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Founder and former leader of Bain & Company’s Customer Strategy & Marketing practice. Customer experience podcast host. Architected customer experience transformations, employee engagement improvement, marketing and sales capabilities development for dozens of the world’s largest companies.
Co-authored The Ultimate Question 2.0 (Harvard Business Review Press, 2011), and numerous other publications. Keynote speaker, leader of the NPS Loyalty Forum, and podcaster on customer and employee experience. Creator of the Net Promoter System.
Specialties: Customer experience; customer strategy and marketing; customer loyalty; employee loyalty; customer segmentation; new product development; direct marketing; brand management; service operations; digital transformation
Links:
Are You Undervaluing Your Customers?
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!
147 How Coronavirus Really Started? w/ #1 Tech Analyst R “Ray” Wang, Chairman, Constellation Research
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Today, #1 technology analyst, author of the smash hit, “Disrupting Digital Business” and founder of Constellation Research, Ray Wang is back. To add to our list of controversial episodes, Ray shares his thoughts on how Coronavirus really started, It’s impact on society and why we better be ready for a new normal. This is a fantastic, thought-provoking dialogue!
The New Normal
As we are currently facing a pandemic, Ray shares the new normal that we should all be prepared for. He shares there will be mass testing, so the health officials can compare the figures versus the mortality rates. Governments will also impose the suspension of business operations and will strictly enforce home quarantines and lockdowns.
“If you look at the 2019-2020 flu season, we had 15 million cases, 140,000 hospitalizations, and 8200 deaths. We can handle 140,000 hospitalizations over 8 to 10 weeks, that’s not an issue. This is the surge in the hospitalization, that occurs all at once. We can’t handle 140,000 a week, that would just blow up the entire hospital bed capacity.” – Ray Wang
Initial Containment
Ray refreshes our memory during January, where several reports circulated about a new strain of flu that is affecting China. He spoke with several colleagues from the Chinese scientific community who said they were prohibited to use messaging apps to discuss this. The Chinese Communist Party members decided to play the issue down.
“Even if those numbers are not accurate, a lot of people were saying, contain, shut down, all travel in and out of China. If they had done that, we weren’t here today. It’s not “blame game time,” but that’s how we contain a crisis.” – Ray Wang
Viral Research Gone Wrong
Ray shares some provocative information that he received from several scientists in China. Apparently, in a viral laboratory near Wuhan, some scientists are modifying bat genomes. For some reason, there must have been a breach in safety protocols, which ended in spreading the virus through patient zero in Wuhan Wet Market.
“Nobody wanted to talk about it because there was a dual-use lab. If you’re a government, you don’t want to hurt your own people either. Today, what’s actually happening is they are trying to cover up for that.” – Ray Wang
To hear more about Ray and about coronavirus and its impact on the society, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
R “Ray” Wang (pronounced WAHNG) is the Principal Analyst, Founder, and Chairman of Silicon Valley based Constellation Research, Inc.
He’s also the author of the popular business strategy and technology blog “A Software Insider’s Point of View”.
With viewership in the 10’s of millions of page views a year, his blog provides insight into how disruptive technologies and new business models such as digital transformation impact brands, enterprises, and organizations.
Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and Johns Hopkins Hospital.
His new best selling book Disrupting Digital Business, published by Harvard Business Review Press and now globally available provides insights on why 52% of the Fortune 500 have been merged, acquired, gone bankrupt, or fallen off the list since 2000.
In fact, this impact of digital disruption is real. However, it’s not the technologies that drive this change. It’s a shift in how new business models are created.
Wang has held executive roles in product, marketing, strategy, and consulting at companies such as Forrester Research, Oracle, PeopleSoft, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, Personify, and Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is a prominent and dynamic keynote speaker and research analyst working with clients on digital, innovation, business model design, engagement strategies, customer experience, matrix commerce, and big data. Hiring a professional photographer to capture the proposal has become popular in recent years, but is it right for you? Here https://proposal007.com/proposal-photography/ the pros and cons.
His Silicon Valley research firm, Constellation Research, Inc., advises Global 2000 companies on the future, business strategy, and disruptive technology adoption.
Ray is a regular contributor to Harvard Business Review and well quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Bloomberg, CNBC TV, Reuters, IDG News Service, and other global media outlets. Wang has thrice won the prestigious Institute of Industry Analyst Relations (IIAR) Analyst of the Year Award.
Links:
Constellation.com – R Ray Wang
Understanding Case Fatality Rates For #COVID19 #CoronaVirus
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!
146 Keep Calm & Carry on w/ Security Expert Morgan Wright
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Today, we have Security Guru Morgan Wright, a distinguished professional in law enforcement and an internationally recognized expert on cybersecurity, cyberterrorism, and privacy. We talk all things security: how to deal with fear, scams, self-defense and most importantly why Morgan is optimistic about our future. This is a fantastic dialogue!
Morgan Wright
We have conversed with Morgan several times in the past. He talked about Security in episode 84. He was known for his landmark testimony before Congress on Healthcare.gov that changed how the government collected personally identifiable information.
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs
Morgan shares about Dave Grossman, an author who has written excellent books and theory on warfare and mindset. Dave, in his writing, says that in every society there are 3 kinds of people: there are sheep, there are wolves and there are sheepdogs.
“If you’re a sheep, that’s okay, but recognize you’re a sheep.If you are a sheepdog, that’s the only thing that stands between the sheep and the wolves. Less than 1% of the population in the US, whether its the military or firefighters, says I will stand up and be that sheepdog.” Morgan Wright on Dave Grossman’s Writing
However, Morgan believes that when the time is ripe, many “sheeps” are willing to step up and become “sheepdogs.” He narrates how several life-changing events that happened in the US changed the mindset of Americans. Those are the 9/11 attack, Hurricanes, and others.
“Just when we think we have been tested, nature has its own way of testing you again.” – Morgan Wright
Keep Calm & Carry On
Morgan further shares some insights on how to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. He stresses the importance of keeping calm. He says that there is no amount of panic that can change the situation. In fact, it worsens the current situation.
He also shares about expecting nothing and accepting everything. He also quotes Teddy Roosevelt saying “do what you can, with who you are, with what you have.”
To hear more about Morgan Wright, how to deal with fear, scams, self-defense and most importantly why Morgan is optimistic about our future, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Morgan is an internationally recognized expert on cybersecurity strategy, cyberterrorism, identity theft and privacy.
He is President and Chief Development Officer for RadiusAI.
He currently serves as a Senior Fellow at The Center for Digital Government, and is a national security opinion contributor to TheHill.com.
Morgan’s landmark testimony before Congress on Healthcare.gov changed how the government collected personally identifiable information.
He’s made hundreds of appearances on national news, radio, print and web including CNBC, Fox News, Fox Business, CNN, ABC, NPR, NBC and more. Previously Morgan was a Senior Advisor in the US State Department Antiterrorism Assistance Program and Senior Law Enforcement Advisor for the 2012 Republican National Convention. In addition to 18 years in state and local law enforcement as a highly decorated state trooper and detective, Morgan has developed solutions in defense, justice and intelligence for the largest technology companies in the world including SAIC, Unisys, Alcatel-Lucent and Cisco.
He’s a contributing author for the 4th Edition Computer Security Handbook, and has been quoted in 2 New York Times best sellers (Sharyl Attkisson: Stonewalled and Carmine Gallow: Talk Like TED).
Links:
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!
145 Tucker Max, The Coronavirus & The Dawn of a New Golden Age
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Our guest today has written four New York Times Best Sellers, three of which, hit #1. He was America’s favorite bad boy, turned entrepreneur and philosopher-king, Tucker Max.
We have a fantastic conversation about the coronavirus, what he and his family are doing to hunker down and try to stay healthy. We touch on the idea of radical generosity in business and what he and his company scribe are doing to lead during this crisis. Most, you’ll find out why Tucker thinks the virus is going to lead to a new golden age!
Humor, Next to Grief
Tucker Max had such a huge impact on our culture. He’ s only the fourth writer (along with Malcolm Gladwell Brene Brown and Michael Lewis) to have three books on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at once. Time Magazine has called him one of the 100 most influential people.
He shares in this episode the importance of humor to go through our current pandemic. He thinks that society created certain people, those who are “progressive, social justice warrior and driven by a certain extreme toxic brand of “feminism” who are humorless and are too stern with their beliefs.
“Laughter is next to grief in terms of how emotions are processed. The sadness and suffering are the core part of life and the way you deal with it, one of the ways is to laugh about it. People who are humorless don’t get that.” – Tucker Max
Radical Generosity
Christopher shares about companies who are winning in the age of the coronavirus are those who are practicing radical generosity. Companies must have a certain “do-good mission” to be able to claim their title as category kings and queen.
Tucker shares how he agrees to this move of several companies. He also urges companies to give away information for free. He gives out comments to individuals who sell their downloadable PDFs and monetizes it.
Outlook For The Future
Christopher believes we will see a huge cultural, societal and business shift. The three that immediately come to mind is office work in general, retail and telemedicine and digital medicine.
Tucker chimed in with his outlook for the near future:
“I am really happy I’m not in commercial real estate, because I think what’s gonna happen over the next 2 weeks is: everyone is gonna realize how bullshit offices are, how much more work they get done at home or how much they like working from home more. I think long term, we’ve just seen the top long term secular decline in commercial real estate and I think its a big one.” – Tucker Max
To hear more about Tucker Max, the coronavirus and how he is coping with it and the golden age that will rise after this pandemic, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Tucker Max is the co-founder of Scribe Media, a company that helps you write, publish, and market your book.
He’s written four New York Times Best Sellers (three that hit #1), which have sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. He’s credited with being the originator of the literary genre, “fratire,” and is only the fourth writer (along with Malcolm Gladwell, Brene Brown and Michael Lewis) to have three books on the New York Times Nonfiction Best Seller List at one time. He was nominated to the Time Magazine 100 Most Influential List in 2009.
He received his BA from the University of Chicago in 1998, and his JD from Duke Law School in 2001. He currently lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife Veronica and three children.
Links:
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!
144 Dushka Zapata, Coronavirus Acts of Kindness
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We continue our run of legendary authors. Today, one of the most prolific and important writers in the world, Dushka Zapata. Her work has been viewed over 157 million times on question & answer site Quora.
In this episode, we get right into how she’s dealing with the coronavirus. Dushka has a powerful point of view on Social Distancing and why we should be conducting our selves as if we already had it. She also touches on why we need to learn to become “elastic” and how we’re all connected.
Living in Uncertainty
Dushka is exactly what we all need right now! She shares how to deal with uncertainty, especially in the present time. People have been looking outwardly too much and she says this is not helping them.
“We are looking for answers in other people and the fact is, no one has the answers. I think that’s really interesting because you forget that you can look within for certain things. Like managing your anxiety and managing the fear of scarcity, which is one of the things that, we are wired to be fearful of.” – Dushka Zapata
Acts of Kindness
Dushka reads to us something that she wrote on Quora about acts of kindness in times of coronavirus.
“In my first supermarket visit, the shelves that carried cans, crackers, toilet paper, were completely empty
People around me were clearly on edge. Stressed, anxious, haphazardly grabbing things from shelves and throwing them into their carts.
I wanted to buy dishwasher detergent and there was one left but I couldn’t reach it. I suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness rise inside of me.
That’s when I saw that the box I had been reaching for was right in front of my eyes. I took it, then realized a very tall person was handing it to me.
“It looks like you wanted this, yes?” he says this to me very gently.
I turn and we just stand there looking at each other, a pause in the middle of a frenzy spinning around us. He smiles at me. His smile feels like someone just dropped a sturdy anchor in the middle of a turbulent ocean.
The times we are living in are surreal. Please, stop and be nice to someone.” – Dushka Zapata
Kindness and Elasticity
Dushka thinks the current pandemic has enabled people to show their best and worst. She cites how people have frenzied over grocery stocks while some other people have also been extra careful and friendly to others.
“One of the things that fascinate me about these kinds of times: one is kindness, that I want to talk about and just like thinking of other people and the other is, the ability to be elastic, flexible. How are you adapting what you’re doing to survive.” – Dushka Zapata
To hear more about kindness and elasticity and Dushka’s point of view on social distancing, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Dushka Zapata is one of the most prolific and popular writers working today.
On question and answer site Quora her work has been viewed over 157 million times.
She’s the author of eight best-selling books.
Dushka has over 20 years experience as a senior communications executive in Silicon Valley.
When she’s not writing, she works as a serves as communications executive in San Fransciso.
Links:
Love Yourself: and Other Insurgent Acts That Recast Everything
You Belong Everywhere: and Other Things You’ll Have to See for Yourself
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!
143 Why Less Is So Much More w/ Courtney Carver Project 333 Author
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We continue our run of legendary authors with Courtney Carver, author of Soulful Simplicity and the brand new Project 333.
We talk about The Project 333 Challenge, wearing only 33 items of clothing for three months. People who do this report less anxiety and more clarity and focus. We also talk about how to live a more simple life, why having tons of stuff doesn’t make us happy and how easy it is to slide into the mentality of buying stuff that doesn’t make us happy.
You Are What You Wear
Courtney starts off sharing how both men and women give a lot of attention to their wardrobes. She taps on people who have either overshopped or have thought about other people judging them based on what they wear.
“Whatever it is, we all have this connection to our clothes.” – Courtney Carver
Christopher shares that although he doesn’t pay much attention to his wardrobe, he does have a 20 year old Prada suit sitting around in the closet. He is unsure of the reason why he is still keeping it but reading Courtney’s book made him think about it.
Fueling Anxieties
Courtney shares in one way or another, most of us have purchased clothing to make us look successful or to fit into a specific circle. In fact, in one social activity, Courtney asks for a show of hands asking about their clothes with tags. Half of the room says they do own some unworn and brand new, with tags.
“I think it comes from an obsession with getting a great deal. So we might buy something just because its a good deal when the only good part of the deal is the money part. We never really wanted it in the first place. We might also buy it because we think we need it or should have it, to measure up to the people around us, and our work, and in our day to day lives.” – Courtney Carver
Project 333
Courtney described Project 333 as a “fascinating, emotional ride, digging into closets and wardrobes.” It initially started as a personal challenge to mix and match 33 articles of clothing for 3 months. A few fashion bloggers participated in the challenge and it went viral. Soon enough, Associated Press picked up the story.
“I had no idea until I got rid of most of my stuff. I had no idea how emotional it was for me because I was just really used to it all the time. I was used to seeing tags, I was used to understanding at some level that I spent way too much money on things that I don’t wear or enjoy and they were making me feel bad every single day.” – Courtney Carver
To hear more about Project 333 and how a life-changing disease became a catalyst for radical, positive change in Courtney’s life, download and listen to this episode.
Bio:
Courtney Carver was an Ad Sales Director for a group of luxury magazines. She was in debt, she worked all the time and she was stressed out.
Then, in 2006, she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and was forced to look at her life habits.
She started by changing her diet and ended by quitting her job and getting rid of the vast majority of her belongings.
The results: She is happier, calmer and hasn’t had any MS symptoms in the last four years.
Courtney Carver is the writer and founder of Be More with Less. The 43-year-old wife and mother launched her blog in May 2010 to share a message of hope in simplicity.
She left a 15-year career in sales and marketing in September 2011 to focus on writing, develop new ways to teach others to live more simply, and live a simpler life herself.
In addition to bemorewithless.com, she created bemorewithless.com/business to encourage business owners and entrepreneurs to focus on the essential instead of getting lost in busy work.
Courtney was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 2006 and attributes her healthy lifestyle to simplifying every part of her life, from diet to debt.
She moved from New England in 2004 to Salt Lake City where she lives with her husband and 17-year-old daughter.
Links:
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!
