Your Roots

Watch the episode here:

• Respect your roots
• Don’t forget where you came from
• When you’re in a crisis, people may not be able to help
• Build the relationships before you need them

What’s shakin’? Hey, I’m Rick Jordan. Today, we’re going all in. I was invited to coffee the other day. A gentleman, you may know the name, Chris Gardner. He is. If you’ve ever seen the movie Pursuit of Happiness, Will Smith played Chris Gardner in this movie. And if you want to go follow him, please go follow. It’s the CEO of Happiness on Instagram. And amazing, an amazing guy. I actually reconnected with him, I would say it was coffee. Just an amazing place This dude has it was actually at his penthouse in Chicago. And just an amazing view of the city. When we were there just I actually when I say reconnected with them, I had met him about 15 years ago, because it’s such a small world. And I tell you, you know, you’ve heard a lot like seven degrees of separation. It’s more like one or two likely from you and anybody else on this planet. I think that’s more realistic, especially as you start to network and get out there. 

When I met him 15 years ago, I was actually grown. I grew up in a church with this guy, his name was Rick Carlson. And he played guitar with me in the band at the church. And his wife, Colleen, at the time, had been on staff with the Clintons in the White House. But then she ended up becoming the president of Gardner Rich, which is Chris Gardeners’ company. So I met him a long time ago. And if you’ve ever watched the pursuit of Happiness, you would know, and if you didn’t, please go watch it amazing movie, you would know that Chris used to be homeless. And he used to be, you know, just really down and out. He was trying to sell I think it was bone density scanners way back when if I remember, and just couldn’t make a dime or anything like that. And he even ended up living in a train station with a son, the time with which that’s in the movie, and just really, really hard going for many years of his life. And then he really applied himself and he got an internship to be able to handle investment accounts, you know, and he got into, the capital markets, stocks, bonds, all of that. And there are just a lot of cool elements in the movie and in his life story, even to where there was a bonus that was given to Chris right when he was actually hired by his first firm, to go buy some real suits. And it was cool, because when I actually went to his office in Chicago 1516 years ago, first off his desk was insane. I mean, it was his desk was literally the wing of an airplane, it was just the most badass thing I’d ever seen. 

But then you look over in the corner of his office, and in a glass case, is one of those first two suits that he ever had, you know, just to remind himself of where he came from. And I always appreciated his approach to remembering where you were. And that was a lesson that I learned from him 1516 years ago, is remembering your roots. Like remembering where you started remembering how you got going. I even played a video in my office the other day when we were talking about you know how stupid you can look when you first start doing media and I played my very first TV appearance in Albuquerque, New Mexico. laughing right? And then fast forwarding, you know, as a little NBC affiliate in no man’s land Albuquerque. And then fast forward five years 150 TV appearances, plus more. And on nationwide media late like Newsmax news, nations chatter Bloomberg, and showing one from news nation like it’s a lot different now, isn’t it? But it’s good because I go back similar to Chris with that suit in there. I go back, I even drove by the condo that I first bought when I was 21. You know, when I first got married, and my kids were born there, we had five people in a little condo and a two-bedroom condo, I drove by there the other day, just to remember my roots. 

That was a lesson that Chris taught me just 1516 years ago, I didn’t ask him about it. But it’s like you look at that, there’s no other reason to have that in your office. And just to remember where you came from, and how far you’ve come. That’s a big lesson. And I want to tell you, too, you need to do the same. You absolutely need to do the same. Because in moments when you think that things are going really, really poorly for you. Or you think that you haven’t made any traction. This is so important. When you haven’t made any traction whatsoever. Take a look back, right, you can get excited and motivated by taking a look forward at what you want. But when you’re in those trouble spots, when you’re in a moment of just feeling down and depressed and thinking that things are going nowhere, and you’ve got no traction, you’re spinning your wheels, look back, look back, and see how far you’ve come. Because I guarantee you you are in a different spot today than you were 10 years ago, 10 months ago, 10 days ago, especially when you zoom out like that, keep things around where you can actually go back to those maybe it’s even just photos where you can go back to those and see the movement that you’ve had. 

Oh Over the course of however many years in your life now you fast forward 15 years ago, I didn’t keep in touch with him, I did not have a relationship with Chris back then I just met him real briefly said hello, you know, I actually had the relationship with the president of this company is Colleen because of the church, you know, and we would hang out, I would go hunting with her husband at the time, Rick, his name was Rick two, as I said, and that’s where my relationship was. So really, I was like one degree of separation, it turns out, I ended up being another just single degree of separation with Chris when I was invited to have coffee with him at his penthouse in Chicago, and it was just an amazing conversation here in him, because we’re looking around, we’re joking. I mean, I’m looking down, I’m like, bro, you’re double resting. And he’s, he’s laughing. He’s like, Yeah, he’s like, I just want to make sure that I’m on time, he had a huge blow on one arm, and a Rolex on another, you know, and it’s just, it was just an amazing fashion statement to I actually tried it for a little while with an Apple Watch. And then, you know, like a hue blow or my, one of my tag lawyers or something like that. 

But it was, it just didn’t work well for me, but on him and looked good, look real sweet on him just the way he was wearing it. So I’m listening to him, we’re talking. And he’s looking around because where his penthouse is, is right across from a bunch of other skyscrapers and office buildings in the city. And he’s saying he’s like, you know, I look over there. And I see ever since things happen three years ago, with a pandemic, he’s like, things are really bad in the cities right now. And I’m thinking he might be talking about the homeless, or whether he’s like, No, he’s like, take a look at that. He’s like, I only see one single person in that building every single day. And it’s the woman that cleans it. He’s like, talking about job security. You know, she’s gonna have that forever. As long as the building exists. He’s like, Well, what are we going to do with the space? He’s like, first off, the problem right now with the economy is that it’s like a catch-22 is that we need to fill the space to bring vibrancy back to the cities in order to feed all the other businesses that exist, right? Because when there are office buildings full of people, you actually have other ancillary needs around that, like restaurants, like places to meet different meeting places. And there are all these thriving businesses that exist when people are there, not so much when they’re at home. Right. 

So it’s, it’s a total shift in the economics and the landscape of things right now. He’s like, but that one woman, she’s got job security. And she is the hardest worker I’ve ever seen. Because she’s there every single day wiping off the desks, vacuuming, doing everything that she needs to do, you know, she’s probably getting paid pretty well, too, because it’s just every single day. And she’s got so much to do in that building. I mean, it’s another high rise. But when he’s talking about that, I was like, Man, how do we get this back to the point to where these things are vibrant again, you know, and I’ve been in New York, a lot ever since that took place too. And I’m telling you, New York is not the same ever since three years ago. It’s like the vacancy is so sky-high. A lot of the retail stores that existed, which is another one of those, and ciliary businesses just aren’t there anymore. empty storefronts, right or pop-up stores have taken and it’s kind of a cool trend. But the reason why they work right now is a reason for failure and sadness, because of all the other businesses that can’t thrive anymore because these office buildings are empty. Right. And there’s, there’s something to be said about that. I know Elon Musk was recently in the media saying that it’s immoral to work remotely and all that, you know, I can actually see that. 

And then Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank actually started going head to head with them on that, and, you know, tried to disprove them and everything, I actually feel like I’m somewhere in the middle of the road on that. I feel that roles where deep collaboration has to take place should be in the office and be in the same place. And that’s a lot of roles. That absolutely is anybody who’s creating anybody who’s in service, anybody who works with customers, you know, there’s good things to collaborate. When you’re right there in person, it’s very difficult to create, collectively, unless you’re right there with that person, the energy is insane. I have a new controller who started my company, and he’s one that’s been doing hybrid, right, or just 100% of remotes. And the crazy thing is, is that he’s in finance. And to me, that’s actually a role that can work remotely most of the time, because there’s not a lot of collaboration when you’re doing balance sheets, right with Him there actually is because we’re doing pro formas because of where we’re going with the company, raising capital, all of that. And that’s the collaborative part of it, but it’s not every day all day. So he works remotely, most of the time, finance it makes sense. But all of those other areas in business where it’s creative, and creating and collaborative, any kind of collaborative, I’m telling you if you have a company right now, you will have productivity soar back up again because you are bringing those people together and they can actually feel the energy of each other and bow. 

So as ideas off each other in real-time, right there in person, while they’re all looking at the same thing, Zoom does not freaking cut it for something like that as screen share. Sorry, not as valuable as having that one on one or one on 20 Right there in person. But then there are rules like finance to where it actually kind of makes sense. So I feel somewhere in the middle. So Chris, coming back to Chris Gardiner, as he’s looking at this, he’s explaining this, I’m like, Dude, that makes a lot of sense. I’m like, so how can we do this? He’s like, I don’t know. We’re just gonna have to see what shakes down. So I’m thinking like, bro, I’m, like, certain roles that I have. I tell him my theory. It’s like I have in the office because they collaborate. And then people are making friends that way, too. Absolutely. There was one thing in the conversation, though, that I really want to draw attention to today. And it’s something that hit me square in the face. It’s something that’s been true in my life. And I’ve seen this, right? I’ve even seen this, on the receiving end of something like this. And it has to do with friendships, right? It has to do with like collaborations, whether it’s in business or mobile, a lot of business, that was really what the context was when he was talking about this. And his statement was this. 

The best time to make friends is before you need them. He’s like, Doesn’t come to me when it’s a crisis, when everything’s on fire, because I can’t really help you right, then. It’s like, the only thing we need. And I’ve said, this is like, the only thing we can do to fix it right now is to get a time machine. You know, that’s the perspective I’ve always had when something comes to you in crisis mode. Now, there are a lot of miracles, if you want to call them that that can be worked if you hustle, but it’s 10 to 100 times 1000 times harder, right there at the moment. And you’re gonna find a lot of people that just can’t help you when you only go to them in a crisis mode. So when he said this, I’m like, Man, that is so true because I see that the best time to make friends, is before you need them. build relationships. I don’t know if I’ve told the story at all on here, before but I have a dude on my board, Kevin Harrington. And maybe I have but this was just so true to what Chris was saying. Kevin and I built a friendship way prior to before he joined my board. And we started in business together. You know, and I started building that friendship because right when I asked him, you know, I wasn’t in a crisis mode. 

But I was planning for the future. And it was literally like this. It’s like, I walked up to him. We were both at the same events. He knew of me, I knew of him, of course. And I walk over, he’s just by himself eating breakfast. I’m like, can I give you some company? You know, I didn’t ask him. And that’s a good point to hear right now. I didn’t say, Hey, would you like some company? Right? I took it from my perspective, because of what I was saying, say, can I give you some company? See the difference? The subtle difference in that? It’s like, Yeah, sure. Sit down. So we start talking, and I start telling them what I’m doing with Reachout. And we’re, I’m taking it, I want to take it public. And I’m acquiring IT companies and everything. And so I’m in cybersecurity is like Rick, I don’t get in anything. I don’t get involved in anything that I don’t know. And he said no to me. He actually said no, for the next two years. But during that two years, we would have breakfast, once a quarter at the same events just started to build a friendship. 

Then we started talking, when we weren’t together at that event, and just started bouncing ideas off of him. I remember one specific time, he wasn’t even on board right? With me yet. But I just call him like, dude, I’m facing this right now. And this was about a year and a half in. And this comes back to what Chris was saying. The best time to make friends is before you need them. A year and a half into my friendship with Kevin. I was facing a decision. And I needed to sign a document for this deal. And I’m like, How do you have a couple of minutes? He’s like, Yeah, sure what’s going on? So I start just giving us all of them like I need your advice. And I lay out the whole scenario, Tim, we were actually on the phone for about 45 minutes. And he just poured into me. And it’s because we had already built a friendship and I am so grateful for that friendship. My house wasn’t on fire. I didn’t come to him in that scenario. I actually came to him with an established relationship already and established friendship for the last year and a half to where he was like, of course, you know, and I always would back him and promote him at the same time. I mean, we started thinking about doing some collaborations together and some other areas. 

But then that led to this. And then it was about a year afterward where he said, You know what, Rick, I like what you’re doing, and I’m on board. One of the nicest things he ever said about me as if it was from the stage when he introduced me was everything that Rick said was going to happen happened and get this. He also said I’ve been watching him for three years. That’s insane. And that is valuable. The best time to make friends is before you need them. I cherish the time that I had with Chris at his penthouse. over coffee. We’re staying connected and I can’t wait to hear to do the same thing with him that I did with Kevin because these friendships mean so much to me and they should mean so much to you when you build them at the right times when you don’t need something from that person because that, my friends is genuine friendship.

Go ALL IN.