The Path of Growth

On April 30th, just a couple of weeks ago, I delivered a talk at Eureka Fest 2022 to a secular business audience - with all the courage I could muster, I spoke freely about my testimony and how Jesus has worked in my life and business.

I decided to share that talk with you today.

The feedback I've been given so far is overwhelmingly positive, and I've been asked to take the talk on tour.

So, if you are reading this, and you are planning your next event (in-person or virtual) and are looking for a dynamic, raw, and convicting talk on growth, I will, at my expense, deliver the talk prayerfully and with abundant in order to serve your audience.

Act 1 - Setup?

Why did you choose to come see me talk??

• Maybe you got an invite from me on LinkedIn directly?
• Maybe you resonated with the topic of growth somehow?
• Maybe you were tired of being inside and wanted to come check out the outside?
• Or…you just wanted to hang out with the cool kids…take a look around…yeah…you’re cool – look over to the person on your right and say…”You’re cool”?

Why should you stick around to the very bitter end??

• I’m going to share with you the exact 3 Act framework that we’ve used to bootstrap a 7-figure company in under 2 years?
• You’re going to walk away armed with new skills and a radical confidence and courage to grow if you’re ready to try something new?
• You might have fun. But no guarantees.?

Let’s get real for a sec. Who here:

→ Experienced a sense of loss at the beginning of 2020?

→ Re-evaluated their job, life, location, attitude?

→ Started a new business, project or their growth multiplied because of the new focus?

• Volunteer Efforts at Church?
• Passion Projects, Hobbies

→ Took the longest vacation of their life and has not truly “gone back to work”

→ Went through something I can’t even imagine and because of that you didn’t hear yourself represented in this list.?

→ Is ready for something new??

→ Is ready to grow?

I know...because I can read your minds…that’s there’s a few kind of people that just reacted differently to that list of things.?

1. You instantly rejected the possibility of you falling into any of those categories because you’re different from everyone else and no one could possibly understand you.?

• I’m asking you to turn that off for a few minutes - we NEED your uniqueness. But we don’t need your judgment?

2. You genuinely had the worst 2 years of your life and you’re tired, burnt out and this event may be the first in-person thing you’ve attended in a long time and you literally forgot how to shake someone’s hand and you’re giving humanity literally one more chance…

• I’m asking you to not let yourself be defined by your pain for 2 minutes. Yes, humanity really sucks sometimes. But let’s all agree, today we’re here to help each other. Are we here to help each other? Yes.?

3. Or, you’re perfectly well adjusted and don’t need to grow because you’ve got it figured out…Teach me your ways! Just kidding everyone needs to grow because you’re either growing or you’re dying.?

• We need people like you now more than ever to teach us how to persevere when things get hard. Challenge us to grow. Find a need and fill it. Introduce someone to someone helpful. Consider making an angel investment into a new project. Help someone find a job. Make it count while you’re here.?

How many of you thought that exercise was a little uncomfortable??

I truly believe that life begins at the end of your comfort zone. To step into a new kind of zone of authenticity, courage and freedom.?

So there’s a decision we need to make today. Are we going to suffer in the pain of staying the same or embrace the journey of the pain of growth??

So I’m going to step outside of my comfort zone and share about the time I hit rock bottom.?

I need to let you know - some of this story does include my journey finding God. Now, I’m not going to bodyslam you with Christian doctrine or try to convert you to anything. But in order for me to share a true authentic story with you, I’m willing to use my own life as an illustration.?

Is everyone ok with that? Can we set aside our differences or similarities for a few moments and see me as a human being with something to share??

My name is Chris Decker?

My mom calls me Christopher Lee Decker?

And for those of you who know me, you might be thinking aren’t you on your 5th name or something??

Let’s just say I’m finally ready to be myself?--

I see a world where people are transformed into their best selves by finally sharing their toughest stories.?

Today, I have a relationship with my Higher Power, Jesus Christ, I’m married to the love of my life, I’m a proud dad of 1 son and a daughter on the way in October - I’m the co-founder and CEO of a podcasting company managing 70 of the top B2B podcasts across 1 million listeners and a full-time team of 15 people that are smarter than me. We are on a mission to connect 100 million people to their story and change how we do sales for good.?

But it wasn’t always this way.?

I dropped out of college to pursue my first real startup, and it was a wild success. As a young leader, I misused the power I was given and adopted a winner takes all mindset.?

I was the bad guy, focusing only on how I could benefit. On the surface, we were making money and I looked successful, but a couple of layers down, I was in it for all the wrong reasons.?

At the same time, I started to organize networking events in the tech community here in Orange County. Hundreds of people started showing up every month and we grew to nearly 8,000 members.?

My life, from the outside looking in, was extraordinary. No one really knew that I was struggling with addictions to alcohol, drugs, money and lust to mask the traumas of my childhood.?

But when I hit my rock bottom, everything changed.?

I got hit with a massive lawsuit for wrongful business practices I had engaged in while in college, and at the same time, my wife discovered just how bad my addictions really were. Life came crashing in. The jig was up. There was nowhere to hide.?

I felt like a fraud.?

I felt like a failure.?

I felt like a hypocrite on stage, sharing advice on how to make money in business and how to live your best life, but inside I was broken, lost and alone.?

There was no way I was going to be like my father who went to jail for violent crimes - my son would never see me being dragged into a police cruiser in handcuffs like I’d seen my father.?

I spent my early childhood raised in and out of my mom’s meth dealer’s home as she struggled to find her own footing in life with 3 children from 2 different fathers.?

I now found myself repeating those same dysfunctional patterns from childhood, even though I had become “successful” by the world’s standards.?

There was no way I was going to repeat those patterns with my own family.?

I was introduced to a God who forgave me and loved me despite what I had done in the past. I got on my knees and prayed, I sought recovery, sobriety and a new life.?

God brought me to Celebrate Recovery, a Christ-centered 12 step program, and began the work of healing from the past.?

Newly sober, with a commitment to bettering my life, I was given an office and a chance to start my career over.?

In my recovery groups, I heard people sharing their stories and how they had found God, gotten sober and improved their lives. Their stories made it feel possible.?

I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to sharing these stories from people in all walks of life.?

In early 2019, with $30 podcast mics, and a logitech webcam, I started to capture stories and share them on a podcast.?

It was no longer about me.?

I had always wanted the spotlight, but now, I couldn’t care less. I wanted my life to mean something and be in service to others.?

Through struggle, I began to learn what it meant to have integrity in business. I am deeply sorry to everyone who had to put up with me in that process of getting on my feet. I was…difficult. I know there are several of you here today who remember this time and I’m extremely grateful for your support.?

As I shared more and more of my story online and the stories of others, my network and world began to expand. As I became more trustworthy, so I was trusted with more.?

God started blessing my life the less selfish I got. The more I shared my story, the more I gained influence in an authentic way.?

I was embraced back here at my business home at Eureka Building and Peter Polydor gave me an opportunity to build a formal podcast studio using everything I’d learned here in the hub. A guy named Rick agreed to produce his podcast with 100,000 listeners a month in the studio and together we figured out how to livestream and produce high quality studio content.?

My friend John mentored and consulted me on how to properly steward business resources and do what’s right for the customer. John helped me learn the hard way how to put the pieces together.?

Mentors like Steve taught me self awareness and concepts like how to receive and give valuable feedback?

Friends and collaborators like Ash who has been one of my best friends and confidantes through the pandemic?

Orange County spiritual leaders like Pastors Rick Warren of Saddleback, Eric Geiger of Mariners, and Jay Haizlip of Sanctuary helped keep my focus eternal and my soul at rest.?

My 12 step sponsor and co-host of The Recovery Lifestyle Podcast, John who has unknowingly saved my life more than once.?

My wife Taylor who has endured my manic depressive, feast or famine entrepreneurial journey.?

My son Luke who literally is the pure essence of Joy

– Ok, you get the picture - there’s hundreds of people to recognize here. The point is, it really does take a village, and my support network has gotten me through some very difficult times -?

But here’s the point. I stayed uncomfortable and I kept sharing the story online through podcasts and LinkedIn.

This little studio became like an underground refuge for people that needed to share their story, even when the world said it was illegal to get together with someone outside of my household.?

In short, people caught on. One such person that reached out because of the content I was sharing was Collin. I asked him to come on my podcast after hearing part of his recovery story. We’d had similar upbringings and shared a passion for building businesses almost like an athlete can’t help but stay in their sport.?

Long story short, he asked if I could help him launch his podcast. We worked insanely well together and started Salescast in May of 2020. We’re laser focused and committed to helping people build new relationships with their ideal clients, serve their community through impactful content and drive more ethical sales in their organization through podcasting.?

I believe because God is at the wheel, and because of our relentless commitment to service that we have bootstrapped Salescast to annual 7-figure revenues in under 2 years.?

God willing, we get to continue this work and serve more people.?

But in all this, I realized something extremely important.?

I no longer cared about getting millions of followers or becoming famous.?

I care about the amount of people that I could call if times ever got tough. I cared about the number of people I could call to celebrate the good times. I cared about the relationships in my Rolodex I now keep on my desk to help remind me of the people that make life extraordinary.?

When I’m not serving our employees or clients here at Salescast, I enjoy continuing to make art everyday and recording my podcast here at my studio at Eureka.?

We’re now at Act 2 in our journey - THE PROBLEM…

In order for you to understand the problem, I have to introduce a framework to you about Growth. This may be familiar to some, but to others, it may be brand new, so bear with me…

The rest of Act 2 and Act 3 are available at the following slides (I didn't script this part and delivered from the content on the slides:

Godspeed,

Chris Decker