Hello, this is Corey. Thank you for listening to the podcast today. Before we get started, If you are a leader who finds yourself, you're stuck. You're listening to a variety of podcasts, including this one. You're reading different books, but yet it's just not connecting. It is not actually allowing for growth for breakthrough and you still find yourself stuck. You are not alone. This year has been a tough year for many, many leaders, but yet my coaching program is helping those have breakthrough to actually take the information and help with implementation. And sometimes all of us, I know I've had coaches numerous times in my life where we just need a guide for a season. So if that is you, I encourage you to go to my website CoreyMCarlson.com and learn more about the coaching program. And hopefully it is helpful for you this season, whether it's a, a couple of months, whether it's a year, but something just to get that momentum going. So on to today's episode. Thank you.
Welcome to the win at home first podcast. I'm your host, Corey Carlson. This podcast is where we talk about how successful business leaders win, not only at work, but also at home. On this podcast, we will go behind the scenes with great leaders to hear stories of how they win. Thank you for listening and on to today's episode.
(01:20): Hello, this is Corey today's episode. Chris Evans is pretty awesome. You will enjoy it. We make references to a guy by the name of a tailor, and he is a co-founder of traffic and funnels with Chris. And I also have Taylor on the podcast a few episodes ago, but this particular episode, Chris is awesome. We talk about ambition. Is it godly or is it selfish? And what does that look like? We talk about really the climb of getting to new levels of our business. Yet there's still a void that we're trying to fill with things with dollars with money. And so it's a great discussion. We also talked the importance of rest, as well as inner peace. We talk about comparing ourselves to others. It's a fantastic episode, and it's also need to learn from someone who is grown businesses to multiple, multiple million dollar levels.
(02:12): So gray stuff, hope you enjoy as much as I do. Thank you very much. Hello. This is Corey Carlson. You're listening to the winter home first podcast. I'm excited to have today's guest Chris Evans. Of many months ago. I invested in scaling, growing my coaching business through a company called traffic and funnels. And one of the co-founders is here, Chris Evans, and he also has multiple other businesses going on, such as wealth cap. And through this program, I've just learned a lot from him, has different insights on business, on family, also the strong man of faith. And so I thought it'd be incredible to have him on the podcast to bring his wisdom and insight to the winter home first audience. So Chris, thank you very much for being here. What is Corey? Oh man. Thanks for you. A you are very welcome. So to kick it off, what is a key trait that leaders need to have to win at home? And when at work peace, love that expands, please.
(03:12): Peace is crucial, man, because I think if you don't have peace, you tend to make bad decisions, not only for yourself, but also decisions that can negatively affect your people, being your family, maybe your close team members. And for quite some time, I operated at a place of fear. And if you're operating from a place of fear, no matter what you think it negatively affects your people. And when I say your people, your, whether it's your wife or spouse, husband, your kids, and then those who are close to you within your organization. And when you're in that placement, you're in a place of survival mode. I guess the mechanism as humans that we have to try to not die, right? And it is just, it can be a dangerous place because, you know, we've talked about just kind of that aggression, dark energy things that not a weird way, but I just I need to not die.
(04:11): I need to do whatever I need to do to survive. And that's a place that are operated from for some time. And it was, it was not healthy. I think there are parts and points of time where you can operate there to kind of get you maybe to the next level or whatever. But I think for long Jevity purpose and the health of you as a leader, whether again, you're, you know, the, the husband or the wife of the home, whatever for longevity sake and health, the best place to operate side inside of his piece, I think you make the best decisions. You show up the best when you're at a place of peace. Now thing it's ultimate health as a leader to be there.
(04:55): No, that's good. I always love asking leaders what, what their thought is, and it's always different, but it's so neat to get these different perspectives. Cause I think altogether it's, I mean, it's just neat to, to see what it all takes for different leaders to succeed. You made a comment you used to operate from fear. What was the transitional moment where you decided they no longer out of fear and maybe scarcity or whatever other kind of words would have been in that moment to then piece, what was that transition?
(05:24): It was a process and it was through just having to be confronted with my own decisions, both with team members and also my family, where I would bring that intensity home. I'll kind of bring that, that vibe of fear home. And I had to deal with some issues with my kids, man, honestly, and it's, it's not you know, the home should be a Haven and it should be a place where it's safe and it's a refuge. And as leaders who, you know, we deal with a lot as entrepreneurs, we're growing, we're dealing with all kinds of things in the economy and, you know, team members and all their issues and things going on. And so coming home, I shouldn't be bringing that stuff from dealing with. So just having to be confronted with some of the results of me being in a place of fear with one of my kids, specifically, who he had fear issues, and I believe it was directly tied to me as the leader as really the covering of the house, right.
(06:27): Especially with him, he's really a feeler and he kind of takes on emotions of other people. And so I wasn't in a place of health to be able to guard his emotions. And so he'd hear conversations and how I was just showing up. And he kind of took that on and he dealt with a lot of fear, things that, I mean, it was a confrontation of my actions, like me being confronted by what my son was dealing with because of me and then employees just confronting them or going at them based out of fear versus base out a piece. And because I felt maybe scarcity whatever about the business that I would drive people to from a place that was not healthy. Right? Of course, if you, if you are around our business now at this point, you see that we've you look inside our business.
(07:17): We have very high standards, very high expectations, but it's from a healthy place versus a place of fear where, you know, we just, especially me would break people. And I mean, I've got a body count of people. I didn't, I didn't, you know, I, I didn't approach situations with team members and employees correctly, you know, from a healthy place. And so now I've had to go back honestly and apologize to some team members who are not with me anymore is a man. How I have handled that situation. I don't believe it was right. And I think a good leader is someone who recognizes the limitations of their people to know how much and how far they can push them, like what is actually good for them. And so for some of those people, it wasn't good or appropriate for me to push them like I did. And so a good leader, I think recognizes that in the people that they're with, whether it's in the business, their family members, like whatever it is, if we're all aiming to get better and grow, it's knowing what their limit is. And I just push people too far, but it wasn't necessarily always about them. A lot of it was about me and what
(08:37): Your own issues, your own baggage that you're bringing in situation a hundred percent. I like how you brought in the example of your son, because I think so many people push blame on their kid's behavior kind of on their kid. But most of the time, if not all the kids, majority of kids are just mirroring what they're seen in, in, through, through us. And so I think that's a great example. Have you seen, since you made that change, your son has also came along with you in that chain
(09:06): A hundred percent. Yeah. It's been a radical difference or honestly, man, he had nightmares and just like all kinds of fear issues that he was dealing with that yes, it's been like night and day and I'd say it's really been over the last year and a half that changes happened with me and then with him. So we are a steward for the atmosphere that we create in our house. Like we are responsible. Right, right. And so I want someone to walk into my house or walk into my life and feel that peace dude, there is no doubt that I am ambitious and I am driven and I push and I have high standards and I expect a lot from people. But the thing that I've had to learn in the last couple of years is how to balance that intensity and that aggression and all that kind of stuff, but also with joy and peace and love this things that are very, very crucial, this difficult man. But the end of the day, my first priority is my family, my household. And so that is the challenge that I've had to kind of find that, you know, that in between. And sometimes it is putting on a different hat, you know, and showing up different at home than I do at work or at our events where I'm speaking or whatever it might be. I've got to tap into something a little bit different for whatever is before me, you know, as a steward, as a leader, as the one ultimately responsible.
(10:37): Yeah. I know. As I was building my coaching business, there were times where I would ask my wife, Hey, do you want to put on my coaching hat? Or my husband had in this situation and I think 99.9% of time, she says the husband hat, unfortunately until I started asking that question or even thinking that way, I was always bringing the coach and that didn't go very well. It doesn't at all. You brought up ambition. And when we were together in Nashville at that last live event, which was, which was awesome to pages and pages of notes and still unpacking some of those pieces and definitely implementing some things. But you and I had a great off the stage conversation about ambition, because I was just curious how you have done it, of balancing that selfish ambition versus a godly ambition. So I'd love to just kind of revisit some of that and even expand on it. More of you have kind of went from the entrepreneur, just kind of freelancer, if you will, to then growing traffic and funnels. And then now it's diversified into wealth cap and does other things, but there's almost like you just, you keep going, but you're doing a healthy way. So how are you balancing that drive that ambition, but yet staying healthy,
(11:50): Removing it from my identity, right? I mean,
(11:54): If we can talk spiritually,
(11:55): I think pretty much everybody, you know, we are created in the likeness and image of God. And so that creates a void when we don't have that connection. And so you see a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people who are successful, the reason why they are that way aside from being created in the likeness of God, right. Being creators, just like our father, right. Is not having that connection to fill that void. And so we fill that up with exotic cars, millions of dollars growing businesses like that voice, whatever that thing is that I'm missing. I need to always be trying to fill that. Right. And so the point that I eventually came to from men, I was a missionary for years and I was in ministry and I went really hard after that to having success and having a lot of money, not having to worry about money ever again, essentially having to like, like having all these cool, amazing things, right. Being on that side of success and still being like, there's still that void there. I got an amazing, I need to like, just make sure I'm locked in on that because no matter what, man, and you, you can go and you can read stories and articles about celebrities and billionaires and all this kind of stuff. And you'll hear the same story that, that stuff ultimately does not satisfy and make people happy. And that was putting us intentionally that need for connection, the created with the creator.
(13:36): So to bring it
(13:38): All back, I think that, man, it really is just understanding that ultimately beyond my ability to do I'm here to be in alignment and partnership with the Lord. That's the connection, that's the identity that I'm attached to. So no matter what happens in business or my personal life in regards to quote success, that's not where my value comes from. My value comes from who I was created to be all right. Like that's already been established, right. I think we're at a place in society now where it's, it's a shame where we look to devalue constantly people in life. And you look at the politics and be like, what's going on. Like, you know, just devalue in people's opinions. And so it's pretty radical, you know, this idea where it's like, man, we already have value that's people.
(14:42): No, that's good. So when you guys started growing the business, so it was, Hey, let's try and make a million dollars a year. Then it became a million a month and now million a week. And then eventually it's gonna be a million a day. And so for you, knowing that, that drive can, if it's just the money and it's just that they still become so unhealthy for you, how are you consistently just checking your heart and checking where you're at in that? I mean, is it quiet time, morning formula, kind of, what is those pieces for you that help you get back to safe ground if you will.
(15:19): And I, I think it's multiple things. I think one it's not being, it's being detached from the results. That's huge. And having someone like my wife, right.
(15:35): That's great.
(15:39): She has, she has no qualms in telling me how she feels.
(15:48): My, my wife is very supportive, but also very, she humbles me quite well.
(15:53): It is having just people that I've known for years and years like that in my life as well. I've got really good guys in my life who I consistently meet with. And ultimately, dude, I think that there is a practice of this, you know, Jesus said in Matthew five, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. It's pretty fascinating that phrase. Yup. And it, it, it comes to a realization that without God I'm bankrupt. And so it's almost like, I mean, we're, we're pretty, we've got a pretty made here in America, in the Western world. Even someone who is lower middle class, like compared to most of the people on this earth, you're doing very, very well. And so even those people, it's like, I mean, we have access to capital. We have access to loans. We have access to banks.
(16:45): We have access to a grocery store. I mean, you can say on the street corner, down the road here and getting money from people for food, right? So compared to a lot of people in and around the earth who are really, really poor, you know, it's a challenge that we have is so much abundance where we don't, we're not required to have a reliance on God. And so I think that for me, man, it's almost like a practice of that. Like a recognition of my poverty in spirit without ultimately the creator it's me. It all goes back to that dude. Like, so my identity is not tied into me growing a business. That's worth a hundred million dollars because ultimately like I've been confronted and faced with the reality of life as a human being, being all over the world. I've, I've been literally all over the world in huts man and mansions and jets and all I've seen enough tasted of everything that life has to give. The only thing that's ever satisfied me is Jesus. And without Jesus, I am completely bankrupt. I am poor. So there's something so fascinating in that, that verse that I believe is true is us having that as human beings, that no matter what kingdoms we build, we're still poor. And having that and walking into that and practicing that, obviously the promises you will inherit the kingdom of heaven so that, I don't know if you want to go this deep on it, bro, but this is where I'm going. So
(18:24): I love it. That's good. I'm glad that the questions and just the conversation you know, took you there cause that's super helpful. And, and it's helpful for all of us as we're building businesses, no matter who's listening, whether a business owner or they are just that executive is that ambition just gets in the way. And then the other piece of that is comparison. So when you were first starting to build the business, you're comparing yourself to just you know, people say at this level and now, I mean, you're hanging out with people in mastermind groups at a whole nother level than what you could ever imagine. And so it's still keeping yourself grounded that many listeners have to do. You know, I see myself as I grow my coaching business and it's like, Oh, I wanna, I wanna, I wish I was there. And then you grow it to there. It's like, man, I wish I was there. And so it's just constant. And so I know in your travels and who you're now spending time with that comparison can get in the way as well.
(19:16): Yeah, man, I think it all has to do with, you know, I talked about this at the event a little bit. I think it all has to do with us a lot of times trying to serve or maintain an identity that is not healthy because we as human beings, we have that insecurity in that lack, in that void. And so a lot of times, listen, I don't think ambition is bad at all. I think ambition is part of it is let's take entrepreneurs. For example, I think it's a gift. I think it's part of how we're created. The problem is when we put that ahead of other people, right? And, and we try to take versus give to serve something that won't last and that isn't good being my ego issue, my identity issues, whatever it might be. Right. And so the thing that I had to reconcile was that, you know, a lot of the reasons why we grew the business so fast was out of necessity of me being in fear, Taylor, being a fear of scarcity, not wanting dude almost lost my house years ago, being a young father, you know, when I was working a job, lost the job, couldn't pay the mortgage.
(20:30): And it was to a point where, you know, we were almost on the streets. So that's a part of my journey, my story, where I never wanted to face that again, I wanted to get as far away from that ever possibly happening ever again. So that's where a part of my driving ambition has come. Although even my whole life, dude, I've been an ambitious right. And whatever, like my sights have been set on, like nobody's telling me no, nobody's taken it from me. I believe that's part of who I was created to be. But now it's how do I steward that for impact and change and good and growing things in a healthy and proper way. I think that's the game ultimately. So it's not, man, I shouldn't be ambitious or, Oh, it's bad, ambitious ambition or whatever. It's not, dude. I think it's great as good as stewarding it properly for the benefit of people.
(21:21): Right? Yeah. I talked about this at the event. People I think operating in one of three modes, survival, thriving and impact. So this is what their health physically, spiritually financial health and relational health. And I've asked people this like, Hey, we just take this. Where do you think you operate in most of these areas in your life? Most people talk to you in survival, you're living day to day. Right? Right. And so I was in that place for sure. And got to, to thriving towards like, okay, we're I can breathe. And things are pretty good. Now it's impact to where there's so much abundance in life. And now it's just duplication of that with other people in my leaders and those that are in my charge. And I think when a leader, an entrepreneur can get to that place and that recognition really, ultimately it's not about them because they have the ability to create and produce to impact others.
(22:18): That's where it's like, okay. I found like my calling, if you will. And this kind of the sweet spot man, and it feels good. I just posted this in the client kit group. I don't know if you saw this, but yeah. So I've seen quite a bit of stuff, but I don't know. We'll wait and see what you say. So I've had a, I've had a goal mine for awhile to buy my dad a truck. My dad did, we were, we were probably middle to lower middle-class. He was in the military. Most of my life growing up, dude, just grinded. He worked had work ethic, just worked hard. My whole life. We didn't have much, if I wanted anything really I'd have to go out and work for it and bust my butt for it. So nothing was ever given to me growing up. And, but they always supported me even through this journey as an entrepreneur, like always a support supported my dreams and my crazy ideas, which I've have a lot of fun. So, so any, and he's been driving as beater for years, man. And I know he's wanted a a truck for some time. So the, I just went out, talked to my wife, said, Hey, what would you think about buying my dad a truck? And she's like, yeah, let's do it. So we got it last week. I mean just a bad-ass rock dude.
(23:34): It's sick. Yeah. It's a truck that I would drive, send steel and black rims. And it's just looks mean and four by four. So me and my wife and the kids, we took my dad mom out to dinner
(23:46): On Thursday night and surprise them with it. Yeah. Both crying. And they just, so just to be at a place of health and abundance yeah. As a producer and creator, to be able to have that kind of impact, obviously that's something physical is a material thing. Even beyond that, you know, that's the power that we have and the opportunity that we have as entrepreneurs, if we steward our stuff, our time, our resources, our investments properly, I think that it is completely possible to scale our impact to crazy Heights, crazy Heights. So we do a lot of cool things we're working on. So some of the stories you were saying you were saying at that live event, not to disclose all of those dreams, cause I don't know what it is confidential, but some of that, that those things are pretty darn cool, but even surviving thriving impact, we could all get there quicker and not, and it's not tied to a dollar amount.
(24:42): I mean, surviving's that mindset. If we could shift to that impact quicker, even just hearing you talk, I mean, I'm not at your financial level, but there are things that I can do now to bless others, whether it's time town or treasures that just in this conversation is that reminder need to get to it. And he just started hustling there's we don't need to wait for that particular moment or that number in the bank account to begin the impact. And it it's just cool to hear you talk about that. That it's it's time to start shifting into that soon. Yeah. If not now, today I challenge you and everybody listened to this podcast to find something or someone
(25:19): You can give something to. Hello. This is Corey Carlson. Thank you very much for listening to this podcast. I greatly appreciate it. If things that we're saying or you're hearing what the guests are talking about and you want to see how it can apply to your life and you want to dive deeper into the content. And I invite you to visit my website at Cory M Carlson, to learn more about my coaching program, what I'm doing for clients like you and how it can help you start winning boat at home and at work and living in life to the full. So thank you very much for listening and back to today's episode. Thank you. It's time to give
(25:58): Today because I think giving creates a necessity Of that.
(26:03): So yeah, this, this morning, yesterday morning, this morning in my quiet time, I'm reading through acts and on acts eight and nine, both are the story of where Philip is obedient and hears. And he goes and talks to the, the, the the unit and, and talks to him. And then the next one is where Nina's a Niaz whatever his name is, goes, talks to salt. And that's what the conversion of Saul DePaul, but both of those back to back to what jumped out at me and maybe it's so cool all the time. And over the years, my conversation is both those individuals Niaz and Philip were obedient. They actually something, I think for all of us as we're listening and even just getting your challenge, Chris is just be obedient to what we're being called to go help and serve.
(26:51): And maybe it's by this or give your time here or mow your neighbor's yard. I, I don't know what it is, but it's just, when we hear that prompting to actually be obedient and have the courage to take action. So that's pretty cool here. And you just talk about it because we don't have to wait until a certain dollar amount or bank account. I saw, I listened to listen to all your different recordings, but about a year ago, you posted one where it talks about if you're about to go into a huge, crazy busy season, tell your family, just give them the heads up that, Hey, almost this idea back to ambition, back to your competitive, Hey, it's okay. Business leaders to have these heavy seasons. We're all going to do it even, you know, you do still now, even though you've got some great balance and attention out of your home, you also have times where it's all in a business, but as long as you're upfront communicating to your spouse, to your kids of, Hey, you know, maybe it's a pray for me. I'm going to be busy. The next couple of weeks I've got live events, I've got things happening. And I, it was so refreshing to hear that. And so I guess to expand on that, what does that look like for your family when you're about to hit that heavy season of deadlines and travel?
(28:03): You know, one of the things that we've worked on to, to great effort is, and I just read this quote, it's kind of been our ethos. I read this quote this weekend that I shared with our, all of our leaders. This is kind of been what we have really pushed to build. And it's the ability to accomplish much with little effort. That's kind of the season that we're in now. And so understanding the priority with family and stuff is that they are first. And sometimes that might mean I'll give you this quote. And just a second. Sometimes that might mean a season where you're building so that they can be prioritized long-term. So the situation is communicating there, essentially outcome in my time, invested in, in my push and whatever my grind, right. To build whatever it is for the family, whether it's a house or to be able to take vacations or spend more time together.
(29:06): And so I think that the important thing is that communication obviously with the spouse and then the kids and having their attachment and buy in on that whole process where I think the mistake that entrepreneurs are making a lot of times is they're just gone. They're just absent, don't have any communication with their family. And so whether, you know, we're going, we usually do a December trip as a family every year. So this year we were going to go to Costa Rica, but they're really hardcore on coronavirus standards. So we're not going there. We're going to Mexico. And I'm bringing my kids back to when I'm working while I'm working is for things like that. And obviously the involve them and giving that truck to my dad. And, and when we're donating money to orphanages or anti-human trafficking causes, or, you know, we support kids that we feed in different countries.
(29:59): Like my kids are involved in that process. And so the, the, I think the thing that we want to do as entrepreneurs is attach our families to that, that tangible for them. So the issue that entrepreneurs have is they just keep going and going and going, never stop, never stop. And that's, that's not, that's actually not biblical first. A lot of people don't honor Sabbath. And when you have the creator who rested on the seventh day, you know, again, a lot of that comes from our ego. It's like, Oh, we're, we're bad asses. I can just grind. I can just go. I can just push, you know, but creator of the universe rested right. And said that we should rest. So whatever it is, you know, that's something that is not in our culture, it's it actually is in the Jewish culture today. I was in Israel a couple years ago.
(30:54): It was with a family. And I mean, all of Israel shuts down, you know, a day a week, essentially. So anyways, it's not just Chick-fil-A, but everything that, everything, every family, a hundred percent, because do this, there's so much value in rest. There's some of that pain that I've been talking about a lot. And so whether it's you're, you're scheduling something to have you physically disconnect with your normalcy of the grind or whatever. I think you need to build that in. So communicating that, bringing your family in on that process, having them attached to what the outcome is, is really important. But so this is the quote, the greatest achievement of good executives is to get things done through other people, not themselves as Warren buffet. That's awesome. So it does, here's the thing success in great Heights does not require losing your family does not require breaking people.
(31:57): That's all bad leadership, good leadership is identifying, how can I accomplish this stay? You want to get your business to a million dollars a year. How, how can I accomplish that at 30% profit margin, only working 40 hours a week, being able to go on vacation once every six weeks or three months or whatever, or attending my kids' games or whatever it might be. And you're smart. You're a brilliant person. You can work yourself backwards from that. But a lot of times we just grind grind grind, because maybe we're just trying to get out of the hole. Maybe we are trying to serve our ego or our identity issues or that thing, that issue is never going to change. She going to newer levels. And that's what it was for us initially, versus it was just getting out survival. Then it was just chasing the service of our egos and our identity issues.
(32:52): Yeah. And that's where we broke people. Cause like, Oh dude, no, we're going to do a hundred. No, we should do 250 a month or 500 a month. Right. Right. And it wasn't healthy. It wasn't rooted in health. And so, you know, there was collateral damage that was bad collateral damage. Yeah. I found that to be helpful. You guys have shared that instead of just the climb is figuring out that goal and work your way backwards and goals with constraints was it was another piece that kind of mindset shifts that you guys helped me with. Those pretty helpful. Absolutely good. Anything in particular God's talking to you about right now in this season impact, man, just, you know, how to be a good steward with everything that we have and how do we keep pressing, you know, how do I get my companies to do in 250 million a year?
(33:43): Right. Right. And how do we take that and translate that into impacting and building the kingdom. And so that's just a process that I'm going through and working on and it's awesome. Well, great. Well, thank you so much, Chris. I keep talking and asking questions. It's been fun, but definitely you got some businesses to run. So how can listeners get ahold of you? Whether it's, you know, it's personally or it's traveling and funnels as wealth gap, what's the best way for people to reach out? Yeah. I think people should check out the podcast tracking traffic and funnels podcasts. And then Taylor has a podcast called daily mind medicine, highly recommended. It's awesome. Of course we have a Facebook group traveling funnels.
(34:25): So we're all over.
(34:27): Yes you are. And once you click you're all over, especially cause then the Facebook ads show up. You'll know. It's great. It's great. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Chris greatly appreciate it.
(34:38): You got to Corey. I want to thank you for listening to my podcast. When at home first I am so grateful to hear from listeners like you, that this content has been helpful. So now I would love for you to pay it forward. I want to get this message in the hands of more listeners. We need leaders to be winning both at home and at work, especially during this time. So please take a minute to share this episode with somebody you think would find value in it, as well as rate and subscribe as a thank you, please visit my website corymcarlson.com to download a free resource that people are finding value in. Thank you very much.
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