MKJ (00:00.804)
Welcome back to the conversation, CEO of Mischief Makers, MKJ here, and my incredible guest, Mr. Chris Doris. All right, Chris. So if you haven’t listened to that first conversation Chris and I had about mindset shifts, you really need to go listen to that because that’s going to start the whole process for what we’re talking about now, which is I consider it the messy middle. So Chris, if you kind of bear with me a little bit into this messy middle.

impact and innovation. So number one, if I could ask you who specifically do you want to impact the most in the work that you do now?

Chris Dorris (00:44.103)
That’s a question, Mary.

Chris Dorris (00:49.687)
And you broke up a little bit, want to make sure I heard the question, who do I most want to impact these days in work?

Ahem.

Chris Dorris (01:02.409)
Most of my clients now are in the world of sales.

And I didn’t pick that, okay? Like I’m working in the enterprise sales industry. I didn’t even know that was a combination of terms. Enterprise sales just means you sell big expensive stuff, like big things, big deals. So it’s a of software for big companies. But, yeah, that happened serendipitously, right? It happened by me continuing to follow my path and do the one thing, which is serve, serve, serve, help people, and it just evolved, you know, like we talked about in the first segment.

MKJ (01:18.133)
you

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Dorris (01:37.237)
evolving from social work into, then I was a licensed therapist, then I was a sports psychologist, and now I’m an executive coach. So who do I want to serve? I want to serve everybody. I want to serve, you know, here’s a good answer for it is whenever I do these workshops, you know, so I’ll do a lot of one -on -one coaching and I do a lot of one -to -many coaching, right? So we get these workshops, get hundreds and hundreds of people on calls, and we do surveys. I do surveys afterwards.

And invariably, invariably, when people are answering the question, what stood out, what was most valuable for you, you know what they say? I’m use this with my kids.

MKJ (02:20.314)
So that’s it.

Chris Dorris (02:20.491)
So it’s still the work, the work that I’m doing now, even though it looks on the outside like I’m helping people sell real expensive stuff and make a lot of money. Yeah, that’s part of it. But what’s really happened is I’m helping people eliminate unnecessary suffering.

MKJ (02:37.4)
in many areas of their life, not just in sales. Yeah. Yeah. Wow.

Chris Dorris (02:40.021)
in all areas.

Because that’s a training ground. like, know, when I tell, when we, you know, I create agreements with my coach. I don’t assign homework as a coach. used to, but I learned a much more effective tool, which is we co -create agreements at the end of each coaching session where we agree on some things that they might do between not might do, will do between now and our next session. And,

Where was I going with that?

MKJ (03:08.986)
the agreements because it’s impacting many areas in your life.

Chris Dorris (03:13.417)
yeah, yeah, right, right, thanks. Thank you, good tracking. So I just remind, I remind all the clients that what, know, the agreements of the work that they’re gonna go do, that your training ground is your life.

And I use another mantra, well I use a million mantras, one of them is no seconds off. And now that sounds a little neurotic, but it’s not. It’s actually what I mean by that is I take no seconds off from living in a state of inquiry where I’m thinking, asking myself questions like, how’s my mood right now? Could it use an upgrade? Like what kind of emotional state am I thinking my way into in this moment? Am I choosing it? Is it serving me? Is it intelligent? Is it pleasant?

Right, so that’s your training ground. So where’s your training ground? Now, and now, and now.

MKJ (04:01.06)
now. Yes, I love that because that is the number one shift I’ve made in my life to make my life happier, make my life more joyful, make my life more living on purpose. All the words we’ve heard people use to describe whatever whatever cliche you want to talk about. It’s not a cliche. It’s a fact. This is it. This is it. So right now we are choosing

to share a conversation about some pretty impactful things, at least I think they’re impactful for life. And you can take those and micro commit them to a particular part of your business, to a particular part of a relationship, to a particular part of a success journey you’re on. It doesn’t matter. You can take, or you can look at the whole and say, where am I right now? Where am I choosing to be?

spiritually, physically, mentally, whatever other E you want to add in there. It is so true. is now. And I love how you said that. No seconds off because in life you don’t get any extra seconds. So why would you take any off? Why would you not be present for any of them? Because you’re going to end sometime.

Chris Dorris (05:19.915)
Well, it’s like I…

Chris Dorris (05:27.221)
Yeah, I said that it sounds like no seconds off sounds like it could be it could sound overwhelming, but it’s not. It could sound exhausting, but it isn’t. It’s the opposite because what I mean by taking those seconds off of unnecessary suffering is what I’m saying. Taking those seconds off of paying attention to my inner world experience in this moment so I can upgrade it if I’d like to. And that’s not exhausting. It’s invigorating. What’s exhausting?

is spending so much time struggling against and fighting reality. That is exhausting. Having a problem with what is. And I don’t promote complacency. In fact, I say the less of a problem that I have with the problem, the more capable I am of solving it. So I bring enthusiasm. bring enthusiasm. You know, the word enthusiasm is such a cool word because it actually comes from the Greek word entheos.

MKJ (06:15.898)
Yes. Yes. Yes.

Chris Dorris (06:26.281)
which translates into the creator within.

Chris Dorris (06:31.893)
So when I choose enthusiasm, I’m activating creative genius. So not only do I feel good, but I am being better, but only always and only at everything. So enthusiasm is a great mistake. And here’s a little takeaway for everyone. this is a profound practice and it sounds so simple. Start eliminating complaining, start reducing the frequency of complaints. Seriously, complaining is just dumb.

It’s an extremely popular stupid habit because it literally deactivates intelligence. Because I’m fighting reality and that’s a battle that I will lose 100 % of the time. So I don’t want to engage in that battle. I want to be able to work with, like Bruce Lee said, be like water, flow, which is synonymous with the zone, the flow state. So that’s an invitation for whoever is listening to this to

MKJ (07:20.688)
Yeah. Yep. Yes.

Chris Dorris (07:31.109)
Start eliminating complaining as a behavior. So heighten your awareness to the frequency. You know, it’s amazing Mary there were scientists did this research I don’t know how they did this but this is pretty wild They could take a guess on how frequently human beings on average complain

MKJ (07:49.634)
as a percentage of the time they’re awake, I would say more than.

Chris Dorris (07:53.133)
Well, how often do you think of… Once every 11 seconds is what these scientists come up with.

MKJ (07:59.92)
my goodness. Yeah, I was going to say more than 70%.

Chris Dorris (08:08.299)
Well, yeah, so that’s like, right, almost six times a minute. That’s full size, five times a minute. And that’s amazing, right? So start paying attention to it. Most of our complaints happen silently inside of ourselves. We even make it into the spoken world. We’re just having a problem with something. Coffee being cold or your stomach growling.

you’re doing a podcast interview. All the millions of things. I’m not talking about war or sex trafficking. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about pay attention to all the problems that you’re having with life. I was listening actually to a book by Eckhart Tolle one time and it was the one he wrote after The Power of Now. It’s called The New Earth.

MKJ (08:38.99)
Yeah.

MKJ (08:46.66)
Right, major.

MKJ (09:04.56)
you

Chris Dorris (09:06.145)
The Power of Now is his, I think it was the first huge, at least hugely famous book that he wrote, and that was about how much more powerful we are when we are present. And then The New Earth is how different we humans are collectively when we practice being more present.

And he asked a question that stopped me in my tracks, is, what percentage of your life do you spend in a state of wishing things were different?

I thought, wow, wow. If I’m be honest with myself about that, you know what? The answer is a lot. And I don’t want it to be. So I’ll reiterate the invitation to your audience, which is to start paying attention, seriously heighten your awareness to the frequency with which you complain, and turn those complaints around, literally.

MKJ (09:49.37)
Yeah, no.

Chris Dorris (10:02.445)
And this can’t be fake. It’s not hokey. This is not looking at life through rose -colored glasses. This is not putting a silver lining on things. This is shifting the way you’re experiencing reality from weak to powerful.

So stay with the thing that you’re complaining about and see if you can do the work, and this is real work, to shift your thinking about the thing that you’re having a problem with. Let’s just take traffic as a simple example of something very, very popular for people to come have a problem with. So the next time you find yourself in traffic and you’re going, this sucks. Actually, whenever you say this sucks, I encourage you to

to break, to follow it up with this. Say to yourself, unless it doesn’t. So you’re breaking a habit there. This sucks, unless it doesn’t. And now you’re opening up to, maybe let’s not have it be that. Maybe let’s not have traffic be such a pain in the ass. Look, I’m the authority of my life, I author my stories. So what story do I want to put on this one that’s going to be better? Well, first of all, I’m pretty pumped about the fact that I have a car.

MKJ (10:51.354)
Yeah. Unless. Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Dorris (11:16.193)
Like I don’t have to ride the bus. I don’t have to use public transportation. And there are roads that are amazing. They’re amazing. You know, I’ve traveled the world and we have the greatest roads. Some of them. You know, and thank you to all the people that went into building them for us. You know, and thank you for radio technology so I can listen to ESPN radio as I…

sit around or thank you for cell phones so could actually have a meeting while I’m sitting in traffic. But I don’t have to. I could. So just shifting into different practicing, seeing the world differently. And again, we really want to emphasize, it’s very important to me to emphasize this is not looking at life through rose -colored glasses. In fact, it’s actually taking the glasses, the distortion glasses off. The lenses that would have us experience reality.

MKJ (11:50.586)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Dorris (12:11.781)
problematically. I learned that. Take those off. So I free myself from the conditioning of my past so that I can experience reality as it is and I’m convinced that reality as it is, is nice.

MKJ (12:25.154)
It’s amazing. that so that in terms of this whole messy middle of innovation, that’s exactly what you’ve done. You’re you’re you haven’t just said, Okay, I’m going to be a coach and I’m going to coach people through their their whatever’s I’m going to help them with be better leaders, I’m going to help them with the life coach, I’m going to help them with a sports coach. You didn’t you didn’t

box yourself into those definitions and you’re broadening it. That’s why you answered when I asked who you’re impacting, anyone, everyone and anyone because you’re broadening this to anyone who has an inner life that is affecting their outer experience is the person you can impact.

Chris Dorris (13:04.193)
Yeah.

MKJ (13:06.8)
And that’s your innovation asking those questions like you ended our last conversation talking about that curiosity of what else is possible. That’s what you just said, unless it isn’t what else and that can be applied to everything we do. Quick story, my husband and I, we’ve been married 40 years and we raised our two sons for 27 of those years in a in a beautiful little subdivision, nice little cul -de -sac, cute little house.

Chris Dorris (13:07.639)
Yeah.

MKJ (13:36.144)
Kids are grown now 22 and 25 and we’re like, all right, I don’t want to die in this house. I want to go out and experience more of the world. So we sold our house. We sold all our possessions, anything that didn’t fit in a 10 by five storage unit.

And we temporarily moved in with my father -in -law with the intent to use his house as our base. He invited us to do so as our base to find out where our next home was going to be. And as we start traveling, we went to Florence. I want to get my Italian citizenship so I can go live anywhere in the EU and experience other cultures. And so we traveled a few different places, Switzerland, Norway, blah, blah, blah. Well, we found out when we got here that things were quite right. And my father -in -law has Alzheimer’s.

Chris Dorris (14:13.985)
Nice.

MKJ (14:20.656)
And so we have a choice. Are we going to continue on that path? Or are we going to help him live out his last years in his home and make sure that he’s comfortable? He just turned 90. So at first, when we thought about this, I thought, I’m stuck. I’m stuck here. Well, gee, I don’t think so. I’m not stuck anywhere. This is a choice.

This is a choice I’m making and I’m only 60. So I got plenty of time ahead of me right now. This is much more important. So now my mantra, whenever I find myself thinking, because Alzheimer’s is not fun. Anytime I find myself thinking of woe is me, I say to myself, no, you know what? You’re blooming where you’re planted. You’re planted right here and you’re going to bloom. You, you live in a beautiful home by the ocean.

Chris Dorris (14:45.547)
Hmm. Hmm.

Chris Dorris (15:00.214)
Mmm.

MKJ (15:15.628)
could this it’s not bad it’s amazing I get to experience the joy of listening to my father -in -law tell some stories of his life in the 1930s and the places he

Chris Dorris (15:30.219)
Mmm. Mmm.

MKJ (15:32.388)
He swam in these ponds and he drove a Model T with no floorboards, right? And just the amazing stories of life that I have never experienced. So guess what? My goal of experiencing other cultures and other places is happening right here.

Chris Dorris (15:51.831)
Hmm.

MKJ (15:55.318)
If I was upset and still saying I’m stuck and why and all these things, I wouldn’t experience that. So I’m, I’m, I’m getting exactly what I wanted, which is different experiences than I have. And, yeah, it’s not fun sometimes. Yeah, it’s difficult sometimes. but that’s life. Nothing is always perfectly the way you think, but if you open,

and you’re curious and you ask what else is possible, it actually is what you think. It is joyous. It is incredible. And that took quite a long time to get to. But thank you for allowing, because that realization of what I just said about experiencing other cultures and then now experiencing my father -in -law’s culture, I didn’t understand that until this minute. I said I was blooming where I was planted.

Chris Dorris (16:51.073)
Hmm.

MKJ (16:52.228)
but I didn’t realize it at that depth.

Chris Dorris (16:59.457)
Beautiful.

MKJ (17:01.274)
So thank you. Through our conversation, you allowed me to see that. How now, because the last time we talked, you also talked about the children that you helped with golf and their parents and now in sales. How are you, and you thought for a moment when I asked who you impacted and you said, well, I’m mostly working in sales, but how, what’s your next step?

in this journey, in this innovation.

Chris Dorris (17:32.353)
Hmm scaling so so I’m using technology I Met a guy I was in an event over in Portugal and I met this young man brilliant young man and he ended up going to work for a company that does cloning for coaches and And they were they were just starting out

and they asked if they could use me as a beta test to clone me. wouldn’t cost me anything. So I said, of course. Why would I say no to that? It sounds fun and exciting. And that was now a couple years ago, and it has evolved into this phenomenal product. So I can reach so many more people. Now, at first, I thought it was terrible. I was very skeptical about it. Well, it sucked, unless it didn’t. But I wouldn’t have used it at the beginning.

MKJ (18:09.637)
you

MKJ (18:26.746)
Yeah.

Chris Dorris (18:32.759)
But the technology is so fascinating and I know nothing about it, but I know enough to know that you can really improve. So this AI -generated clone, it’s like Coach Chris Doris’ clone. And over time, we educate it or train it. We put all of my books into it, all of my podcast interviews as a host and a guest.

All of my, I’ve got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of videos out, everything from my YouTube page, and we just put it into the clone, and the clone learns. And now, it’s really good, and it’s at a point where it’s usable. So, that is gonna help me scale tremendously, and in addition to that, I’m recording hundreds of more videos.

for sales leaders and for sales people and the world in general. It’s like the mental toughness toolbox. It’ll be like a hundred something videos of all these different exercises and practices that we can use. It’s basically the masterclass that we could have had in grade school and high school and college on how to strengthen the inner world. So that’s like my next move is to use technology to scale the heck out of myself and reach tons more people.

at a significantly lower rate than you would pay to hire me.