Reduced To A Number: Building People, Building Dreams
Daniele Wiseman
Senior Consultant - Afiniti LLP Consultants | Passionate about Making Change Stick
The episode I listened to is all about Chris Dreisbach ‘felon turned real estate business owner’ and this piques my interest. In fact, Chris owns or has interests in 15 businesses which he argues is the result of a sense of purpose he acquired during rehabilitation in a half-way house – a place where he also learned how to receive love.
The Hello Human website describes Chris Dreisbach, felon and entrepreneur, as marrying ‘personal growth and business acumen.’ They acknowledge his ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ and in fact the article on the website goes much further than I do to examine the achievements and particularly the motivators for Chris Dreisbach.
The message
The really strong message, which Chris communicates with little prompting from host Stacy B. is that as a felon, or an addict or at any point when life has gone to hell, you have a hole which needs to be filled with a sense of purpose and with love. Chris wants to help others fill that hole in the way his has been, and help them see the potential to turn things around. His business Blueprint for Addiction Recovery helps others find their way. Wow!
Success in business
Chris struggles to list his collection of businesses on the podcast, and is prompted by Stacy B. who points out the branding on his sweatshirt and hat - he is literally wearing his latest businesses:
The breadth of Chris’s initiatives is drawn together with a single thread, Chris’s belief that purpose is the key, and his compassion for those who he can help.
The key to business success he says is the people who work for him. These are passion projects, developed with people who are as passionate as he, and who are working to achieve their dreams. Chris identifies the people working with him as having ‘passion and heart’, and he looks for these characteristics when he interviews them. In return, he treats them well, pays them well and elevates them, helping them fill their ‘hole’ ?with passion and purpose.
Chris admits to being a bit of a financial wizard. He has an innate business sense and is confident in generating ideas, using his people skills to follow wherever his interests take him. There’s a whole other podcast I’d like to hear about how Chris’s businesses work and any failures or real obstacles encountered along the way.
There is not a hint of resentment or frustration in Chris’s voice about how his life worked out before his success as a changemaker or about society’s views of the people he employs. The same with prison.?
Chris describes his experience of prison in very mundane terms. Nothing terrible happened to him in prison he says, but he describes the experience as dehumanising. His name was taken from him and he was given a number (apparently this is no longer the practice) Chris describes feeling stripped of his identity and being locked away like an animal in a cage. Prison meant ‘dehumanisation and shame’ to Chris and he believes it sets prisoners up for failure when they leave. Chris describes his experience in prison not as a set back, but as an experience which propelled him forward establishing him on his crusade to give others back a sense of purpose and passion.
And that is what he did, through Blueprints for Addiction Recovery, and working with law enforcement to make changes to the criminal justice system. For example, Chris worked with Lancaster County police and the District Attorney to move beyond punitive measures and recognise those in need help. As a result, when police officers stop addicts they take them to a treatment centre instead of to jail.
The origin story
Chris’s prison time was the result of heroin addiction. He describes holding a lady up at gunpoint to steal clean needles. He defines addiction as not being able to go for a day without feeding your addiction. As an addict, he says, you are purposeless and disinterested. That’s the hole. Chris remembers the judge who referred him to a treatment centre and the social worker who gave him his jumper recognising his need. Chris describes this simple act as the first time he had received love, that he loved his parents, but this resonated with him.
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At the halfway house Chris describes feeling peace, happiness and comfort. He says he didn’t have a great desire to change, he just did the work, and found there was a better way. He found purpose and love. Something that would fill that hole.
Reflecting back to move forward
Chris clearly believes that purpose is the key to recovery from addiction or any situation where there is a hole which needs to be filled. He talks about ‘Repurposed’ (Bobbaconda Productions) a celebrity in recovery podcast which Chris describes as ‘life affirming’ listing the four subjects who shared with him their ‘path to purpose’:
“run a pretty good gamut.”
Reflecting back, Chris feels he has “run a pretty good gamut.” He has full life, a baby son and a difficult decision for him is which business should he go to on a particular morning. He is genuine in his invitation for anyone struggling right now to look him up, reach out and he will talk to them. He urges listeners to improve their lives if they’re not where they want to be. He genuinely wants to connect with others and drive positive change. The ‘small empire’ he has built is a collection of companies who put ‘people first’ and can effect societal change.
Thoughts
This podcast certainly fulfils the wider brief of expanding the listeners world view and shares an interesting and uplifting story/perspective. There was a sense that the direction was just allowed to fall out of the conversation and the host was very ‘hands off’ in interviewing or asking questions. I felt Stacy B. could have shaped the podcast a little more, especially at the end where it needed to pan out and relate the life Chris had described, of purpose and love, and inviting contributions and contact from listeners, to the wider brief and HelloHuman.global desire to build a community of changemakers. There’s an opportunity for clearer messaging there.
At a time where anyone can watch pretty much anything on You Tube or multiple TV and satellite channels, there is a more competitive landscape for podcasts such as these. The link between the individual podcast and overarching message just needs to be articulated a little bit more clearly. I quick look at the other podcasts in the series, shows that these stories of individual changemakers work quite nicely as a testament to the ?endeavours of each of us to ‘be the change that you wish to see in the world.’ [Mahatma Gandhi]
‘be the change that you wish to see in the world.’ [Mahatma Gandhi]
Thank you for asking me to review.
I’ve done a few of these reviews now. They are independent reviews and to retain that independence, it has not been seen by the person who asked me prior to publishing, however, for factual errors I may make small corrections post publication.
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Host of If By Chance podcast, Founder at HelloHuman.global
10 个月A follow-up might be in order, Christopher Dreisbach.