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Welcome to Power of the Network. I'm your host, Tim Locker, Vice President of Broadband here at CBM. This week we've got a real special guest, Mr. Chris Barr with Communication Innovators out of Pleasant Hill, Iowa. You know, frankly, we need more people like Chris in this world. His passion in life is mentoring people. He's incredibly positive. He's one of those kinds of people that you're just a better version of yourself when you're around him. So...
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We really appreciate him taking the time to come on and be with us here today. So this is gonna be a real good episode. Stick along with us. Thanks.
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Chris, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm super thrilled that you made the trip down to join us. We appreciate you coming. Let's just, let's start off. You know, recently we've done a couple of episodes, you know, highlighting women in leadership. And, you know, obviously there's immense value in that. And I don't want to take anything away from it, but you've kind of, kind of done a different path and you talk a lot about, you know, bringing up strong men.
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whether it's young men, old men, and helping them on their leadership journey. And so I wanna kind of take that angle today, not really exclude women, but talk about how you've led men moving forward. So describe to me, I've listened to a lot of the things that you've put out, a lot of your speeches and so on, and you talk about this vicious cycle between strong versus weak. Talk to me.
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Talk to me about that cycle. So I've heard you describe that before. I think that's a great way to start off. No, absolutely. And to qualify a little bit too, when we talk about being about women, being all about the fact that I've been called to raise up men and connect hearts of fathers to sons and sons to fathers, that this process from boy to young man to man, this incredible gift of raising up strong men is all about women. Absolutely. And it's an excellent point. I'm glad you brought that up because that's so true.
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Yeah, and I think just in today's world, we need strong men. And I think it's more now than ever. So, I mean, I appreciate what you're doing and your whole mission in life, if you will. It's awesome. Absolutely. But yeah, so that cycle of strong versus weak and easy versus hard, walk us through what you mean with all of that. Absolutely. I mean, the stewardship of our impact and the significance as being a man.
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So I'm engaging cross trainers and leading with power and all pro dad and well, my cross trainers group, we just talked about equipping men with their spiritual maturity so that it can be great in the roles that we're given. So it starts with first our vertical relationship because I mean, that's the power. That if that isn't right, then it's hard. Life's a team sport. So we gather as men, but it's an inside out sport.
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It's really the condition of the heart that melds into everything that we do. One of the things with my four sons, I always say, is what you do and what you say defines who you are, but it reveals who you belong to. And so I just think that in our decision-making as championship men, strong men, that you have to know a good foundation of what's right. And that's really what we focus on from a faith foundation. Yeah, and so I would just say this, as we gather up, we can't do it alone. We have to deal with the stuff below the waterline.
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And then as we strengthen one another, and you can count on me not to tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to hear, and then take you to truth, like a lightning bolt to ground, I gotta take you to truth. And then we hold each other accountable in that walk, because ultimately in every moment, we have to be awesome stewards that a strong man will make great choices that lift up and honor, in specific, what you said with women. Every woman in the presence of a godly strong man should feel honored. It should be something that
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promotes and it helps to flourish. It closes the gap on potential because we are the ones that actually lift up. Go low, serve high. So servant leaders of the hearts of our women is very, very important with honorable men. I like what you said, go low, serve high. Absolutely. That's awesome. Everybody knows you as Coach Barr. For as long as I've known you, that's what everybody calls you.
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And so I think it's awesome. So you're the, I guess, what's the actual title? Coaching on the Grandview University Life Coach? Is that what the? You know, I think it's how they know me. I'm listed in the program as the chaplain of the University of Grandview football team. And I've done that now over seven years, going toward eight years. And I've been with Fellowship of Christian Athletes as a life coach, as a character coach, as a chaplain for now 10 years.
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That's awesome. So how did that come about with the university? Just walking through, you know, your boys' sports and football? Yeah, talk about a gift. So here I was doing it at the high school level in the Des Moines area. And my son, my oldest of four sons, he got recruited on scholarship to play football at Grandview. And in the recruiting process, coach to coach, coach goes, hey, I don't know about this, but I know you selected Noah to impact your team. And what a great selection Noah is. But guess what?
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I want to tell you something about what his dad's doing. And so I've been called into this role to serve the young men, go meet them in the storms, go meet them in the tough, and just walk through them so that they're whole on the inside, so that when they cross the line, their best is given to the moments that require their best. And so he goes, well, if you can get him, you need a bar package deal. And so I ended up getting recruited along with Noah. When he went in as a freshman, Coach Mike at the time, Mike Woodley, he said, hey, what would...
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what would you think about coming over here and being a Viking? And I said, let's go. Let's go. And then he made the mistake of saying, what do you want to do? That it's open door. Yeah. And we've just been serving young men ever since. Are you still doing stuff for the high school too, or you just shifted to the college? You know, this is the first year I've kind of stepped away. I've been able to hand the reins. And I think that's just even whether we're in work and even raising sons.
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But definitely in that space, unless you can have somebody prepared, to continue a legacy of excellence, you really can't step out of something you're called to. So you got to finish what you start. So it's been really hard to cut that umbilical cord to serve in those young men for so long there. But yeah, this year is the first year I've stepped away from the Tigers to some, and now more on the Viking ship. But I imagine you've helped fill that role for the Tigers. Yes, absolutely. That's awesome.
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I've always said, you're one of those people, I mean, I've looked up to you forever. I'll just flat out honest, I always have. But you're one of those people, you've got this energy and this positivity that just glows. And some of the folks last night at dinner were asking me questions about you. I'm like, Chris is one of those guys that he's so good.
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You almost feel bad about yourself because it's like, how can I be that good? So I just, I wanted to give you that compliment, but. Thank you. Obviously it's been a lifelong journey for you, you know, to be a good steward and serve the people that you serve. But, you know, has it always been that way? Have you struggled before and something flipped and made you go that way? Or, you know, how did you get to be as awesome of a person as you are? You know, it's incredible. And thank you for that compliment.
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You're welcome, I mean it, I do. And I will tell you, it's the areas that we see, the deficiencies, the gap that we as men, sometimes we're our hardest critics. Oh, that's me in a nutshell, yeah. When I look at the man in the mirror, I'm really hard on me, and I think that gap that I can turn over when I say, these are the areas that I struggle with, or these are the areas of weakness, is what makes me incredible strong, because I turn it over to Papa. And I'm just like.
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my intimate dependency on all that I need that I don't have that is required in order to be great, stewards of love in a moment. And that is I want my touch to leave spaces and places and people in better condition than when I find them. And I had incredible role models growing up. I mean, my grandfathers, I had strong, strong legacy of men that showed up and served and just incredible work ethic, before the sun went up to the sun went down.
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hardworking men that I watched, I got a quick story if it's okay. Yeah, absolutely. So my dad, I got to watch my father and we ran several businesses that were ag related, but in one particular business that my father ran was in, we had a Goodyear store, small town in Red Oak, Iowa. And there were several people that would roll around town with baskets on their bike and pick up pop cans. And, you know, they were basically people that we just adopted as a community to serve them.
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would come into the store, and I don't care how packed it was, I don't care how busy it was, we could be rolling on a Monday morning, you have four reports to do, Tim, and you don't have any time, and you're taking that call, but you know you're supposed to respond. Well, we had one gentleman that would come in off of his bike, and he'd come into the store, and he claimed that he had like vehicles, and my dad would take this man, and we would walk through and look at tires, and talk through a smorgasbord of different services that we could apply, and he would write out a full quote, and you wouldn't have known that that man wasn't.
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a million dollar customer. So as a son watching my dad wondering what, this guy just walked off the street and there's all this going on and my dad treated him like solid gold. And I think from that standpoint, I always knew what was right. I always knew how to treat people well, but when it flipped, you asked me when it flipped, I would run from God and I stopped. And in brokenness started running to him and with him and for him. And that's when it all, that's when it flipped. That's awesome.
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That is so awesome. Talk to me a little bit, what you're doing with Leading with Power. Leadership is, as I grow up into our organization, leadership is a topic that's very important to me. Tell me about Leading with Power, what they do, what's the mission and your involvement with that.
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Yeah, so Leading with Power is one that I've been a featured speaker. We rotate through and have like four speakers through two different seasons during the year. And it ties right back in collaboratively, as well as it has some connection with my cross trainers on Wednesday morning. So that and Leading with Power are groups that are specifically focused on meeting men where they are.
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And Leading with Power specifically says, okay, from a corporate standpoint, let's bring in these core foundational businesses throughout Iowa, have them come sit with a table with men and bring men up in front that would have testimony and successful business people that would talk about what's the foundation? How and why do we do what we do to have an impact not only on the people that are part of our business.
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but every business and every community that we touch. So leading with power is one where we want to encourage men to be equipped spiritually, so that in the strength of that relationship, that we come together in accountability with other men, and then we go out and make a difference in the workplace, not only to make a difference of significance in the lives that we touch, but one that would connect them, the power to God. So. One thing I've noticed,
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obviously with your name, Coach Barr, but I've noticed one thing, and specifically about your words, because you say, I've got my young men, I've got my old men, talking about the football kids, and then talking about the people that you're mentoring at work and throughout life. But what I like about that statement is how you take ownership of those people.
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And if you would, I guess just talk about that mindset of how you're taking accountability and what accountability means. Absolutely. I think one thing when you look at every stage, we diminish the power that we have vested in young people. I think so many times as the elder men look at the younger generation, they look at them at this slant.
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And at the degree what they do, they diminish the capacity of what our young are capable of. And I think there's a really small box that our young people actually look at themselves and say, can I make a difference? Can I move a mountain? Can I change this world? Can I be great? Am I good? Am I worth it? So I spent a lot of time in my younger men of lifting them up. So they don't look through life at their lens, but through God's lens of how God sees them. And then if they step up and affirm that,
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relationship of who they are and what they were created to be and the purpose and the plan that God has for them. Then take the power and then unleash it. And then here's that relationship. I want to change the way that my older men look at my younger men. And there has to be accountable both to truth. So there's this equivalence where guess what? I can attest to being a father that you know what? God uses our children often to raise a man. And I grew up with my four sons.
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I could go story after story after story of how they, actually when I look at them as valuable, and they don't belong to me, but they've been entrusted to me. God didn't need to knit them into my code to connect us in blood that we call family, but he did. And he did that for a very good reason. But sometimes as a father, we always look like we're coming at them. And that's, yeah, that's a great perspective because I mean, there's a hundred percent truth in that. Yeah. I haven't thought of that myself, but as you mentioned it, I mean, it's so true.
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It's so true that we do look more down upon them and should be more uplifting of them. So I want my young people to explore and ask for big, big stuff. I want them to do really hard stuff. I think we need a rebellion, like in the book called, Do Hard Things. There was a couple of great kids that wrote that book, but do hard things. I want them to have a rebellion against low expectations.
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I need this empowered youth to step up and do big stuff. And I need them to be a fueled, protected resource by my elder men. And then I need a bunch of butts to get off the bench and get in the game of my older men. Because in passivity and in diminished physical strength, they also diminish their impact when they're at the most significant stage of life. My elder men, I need them to jump off the diminishing curve, jump onto the curve that's going up because they have so much wisdom.
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So much treasure and I am around all these young men that are starving for love and for strong men to be in their lives. I mean, it's unbelievable how many homes that don't have a strong man. Yeah. And we need, I need these elder men to step into that space. Our young men need them. That's awesome. Yeah, so let's talk a little bit more about mentorship. And you know, a lot of people maybe don't even know where to start. I think there's a lot of people mentoring.
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others that maybe don't even know they're doing it, but there's not necessarily a step one, step two, step three. How do you help people or how do you suggest people get into mentoring others? Absolutely. So every man that's listening to this, what I would encourage them to do is embrace your superpower. I mean, everybody is different, but this is an all-inclusive program. Every single person can do this. I had a really good friend, Jeff Kasiah.
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And Jeff, he would always say the on ramps to relationship. Because the critical connecting thread is investing in relationship. And that only comes through proximity, that comes in with presence, that's intentional sacrificial time carved out to be together. And so that's what I would just say is that, you know what? You've got people right in your sphere of influence. Could be on your family, could be in your business. It's right there. You don't have to search very far to find the person that's starving for that relationship. So what do they do?
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Go hang out. I love what Jeff said. I don't need a bunch of Holy Joes. I just need some average Joes that'll just show up and spend time with. And a really quick thing I'll tell you on doing that, my character coach role, my chaplain role, my wife calls it my ministry of hugs. And she goes, it takes you 45 minutes to enter the gate all the way to the stands, which I'm rarely in the stands. But if I'm in the stands, she says, it takes you 45 minutes to get to your seat. Why? Because of touch. Embrace.
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I'm going to tell you how many times just to show somebody that you love, it's not always what you say, it's what you do. So I think that hanging out, that going and doing things with and being present, it's also, I will say you in the trauma, everybody's got stuff. So if you take the person that's in your sphere of influence and you figure out what is it below the waterline that they're struggling with, go meet a minute.
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You don't have to solve it. You don't have to cure it. You don't have to have special words. You just got to be willing to go into the storm and walk in through and out of with them. That authenticity of just being you and being present, that's the first step. Talk about that sphere of influence, and especially with your young men, the importance of being around and associated with the right people.
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I mean, that's influential for everybody. All right, this is gonna come down to a perfect story from my oldest son. When you stop as a father, always trying to instruct as the authority, and then you start to listen, I was going to do a short chapel with all of the coaches there at Grandview. And I said, Noah, you were a player, you were the student president, you were in ministry, you were in camp, I mean, all these different roles. And I said, what should I tell them?
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And he said, dad, so many times when we're coaching, and this is in parenting, this is in my workplace with a manager to a subordinate, all these different roles, he goes, dad, they need to know what you want for them, not from them. And so many times if somebody's on the field and they do something wrong, they know they did something wrong. But how many times as coach, they just pounce right on it like a crouching tiger in the grass. And then they come out and there's like, and next thing you know is all they needed to know.
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was that, you know what, you saw them, that you just saw them. So the same thing could happen where I just come in and I just say, Tim, hey, that moment, ah, man, the next time that moment comes, you're gonna nail it. You've got everything that you need to do. You're fully equipped. You got the skills. I wouldn't let you cross the line if I didn't already know. I was fully confident that you can do what you need to do to have a great moment for you. This next time is gonna be a great moment for you.
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Otherwise, as you know, the other coaching method, I can't believe you didn't take that step. I can't believe you didn't make the play. And that's in life and that's in work. So many times our people that are closest to us, those that we count on to be a great team member, do they want to be on your team? Do they know what you want for them, not from them? That's so insightful. Thank you for that.
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What makes CBM different? First and foremost, I believe it's our ESOP. Employee owners make different decisions. They value our customers, they value our manufacturers, and we're going to do what's right for each of them. So they behave in a different manner. We represent different lines in commercial industrial market, utility market.
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and also the communication market. These markets are overlapping more and more every day and the ESOP and the way we're structured actually allows us to be more flexible and cover those markets and put our expertise where they need to be. So if you're looking for a manufacturer's rep, high quality sales staff, good relationships, look no further than CBM. You can find us right here at cbmrep.com.
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Let's tie this into business a little bit. So, how is this, first of all, so I don't even entirely understand your position. It's customer relations basically, right? What's your actual title? You know, I actually removed all my titles off my card. Just Chris. I did, it's Chris Barr, Communication Innovators, and it's 20 years I've been there. That's awesome. And so when I came into it, as I tell my young men when they're going to find a career, I said, you've got to look.
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beyond the shiny to figure out who it is that you're gonna work for and with, and what's the culture, and what is it that collectively you're gonna sacrifice parts of your time, all your talents and resources you're gonna invest it in and pour it into this business. Why do they do what they do? What kind of impact, what kind of value will you get from investing into them?
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But it's not always about what you're going to get, but the mission of what you're going to do when you get there. And so for me, I started with, I was early on. I mean, we've been around 35 years, but I started in the game when we were just emerging. And I went there because there was a couple things that Stan at the time, owner, he said, you know what, we're going to develop lifelong customers. And if you think about a consumer in this fickle world of what you can get somebody consistently to always invest in you, always trust you, always.
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invest every dollar into what you do to get your service and relationship with them, that sounded like something I could invest into. That we weren't short-term, we were long-term. Just like in our faith walk, we live for eternity, not for temporal. And so our business was grounded on that, how we were gonna treat people. And then, you know, Stan was like, we're gonna do what the other guy doesn't do, we're always gonna do with what was right. And I witnessed.
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the integrity of what they said and what they did because I actually served them before I joined them. So now what's my role? I carry everybody's books to school. I do some design work, I do some account management, I do business development. And after 20 years, you flipped a lot of hats, but I'm an ambassador of the heart of our company and serving our customers. Yeah, now that's awesome. We were just recently at a national sales meeting for one of our manufacturers and the gentleman put it very...
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Precisely, he said it was Eneresis Batteries, their sales meeting, the guy says, I used to sell batteries, now I sell you all. And I think he put it right, we gotta have an ambassador for the company, and you're clearly that, so you've done a great job with that. Let's talk about accountability, I guess. So how do you hold people accountable? I mean, obviously, you talked about a manager and supportants and the chain of command and all the things, but...
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you know, when somebody doesn't step up to the plate and there is a failure, you know, how do you keep people accountable in that positive way and not, you know, how do you keep that balance of pushing them down and propping them up? Yeah. You know, early on, when we first started, Sam was coming out of the breakup of the divergence, and we started with a lot of very mature project managers in very large accounts.
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And so when the business started that way, I would have to say it was kind of organic. We just kind of allowed these very trusted pieces of our business to do what they do with their expertise and with their wisdom. And it was all life on life, it was all relational. And we had embedded, highly skilled, from engineering to quoting to service, customer service. I mean, it was a one-stop shop for the level of people we put in front of those accounts.
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Today's time, how do we do that accountability process? It's process. I think when you mature, the only way you can do it is right out of the gate, is allowing everybody that's going to be impacted by jobs to have a vested interest in what we produce. For example, if the PM that's going to have to do it out in the field has some kind of input and some kind of investment in what we present, that we are going to commit to doing. So if I say, I'm going to do this, my key pieces are having some kind of touch.
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into the beginning origination of what we say we're going to do. And then those who carry it out, then you have to have process. Documentation, clarity of communication, you have to have visibility and transparency. And I think that's the one thing that when you look at our customer base and we serve some of the largest companies in the Midwest and we travel the globe for them, they trust us because of that kind of integrity that we have in how we treat our own people and then how we treat them.
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But yes, if something doesn't go right, it is not one under the spotlight. There is a collaboration of all of our resources that own it. And there's joint accountability and everything. When you get that built into the culture, then everybody wants everybody to do well that way. Yeah. So let's talk about a mission statement. Obviously your business, our business, most businesses have a mission statement. But I've also heard you speak about having a mission statement for yourself personally.
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Talk to me about those, the purpose for each. Are they the same? Are they different? What's the critical elements of that in your personal and business mission statements? Yeah, in a mission statement, I think they're very distinct and they're very different, but they're complimentary. And I think they're essential. So many times, when you are part of a company, the company will say what our mission is and they'll write it out there. And I know that you know.
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with communication innovators, what our mission is. And we talk about the expertise, and we talk about what we do in the marketplace, and how we want to be viewed, and the excellence we want to the customer. But I want you to wipe that off today. Because behind the veil of that, which was very specific to function, specific to market, was specific to how we want to be viewed as an expert in what we do, but the bottom line is there's one tagline. And I mentioned, I think, just a few minutes ago, but it's develop a lifelong customer.
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Because no matter what we say in the do of what we do, all it's about the relationship side of it, essentially. It's empty without the value of the relationship. The relationship within our company, that we say the word family is an empty word unless we live it and we love it and we do it. And we forgive it and we walk through it and we go through all the battles and we own it together and we lock arms and we do significant things. And then we celebrate everybody when there's something good that happens.
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You can say a word, but you got to live it to have the integrity of having power and value. And so for us, you read our mission statement, but if I take you behind the scenes, developing a lifelong customer will always be our mission statement. The root of it, yeah. Because that's how you love. And talk to me about the importance of just repeating that over and over and over and over. Yeah, it's incredible. And one of my good friends, John Severson, he's in the financial industry and he's part of Iowa Christian Generosity Council.
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And he has all these people and he says, we are never going to allow mission drift. And I think every organization should never allow mission drift. Missions can change. You have to address it on a regular basis. But if it is honed in like light to a laser that travels down our fiber, I'll just tell you right now, you have to state it over and over and over. It's like the first breath of my day is used on my knees because I want to be aligned.
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and I want to move with intentionality. In our businesses should be the same thing. There should be alignment and intentionality. If I'm going to go into a meeting, why would we not start by saying what our mission statement is so that everyone and everything we say and everything we do is held to the accountability of who we say we are. And I think that's really, really important. So that's on the business mission. On the person, try to look at anything you've been a part of, Tim. Business or in person, it could be a team, but we have to be whole outside of it.
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to be whole inside of it. So we have to care about our people that when they come across the threshold, we understand that we have to serve both sides of the fence. I want people to have that kind of purpose and vision and mission in their life. They should be aspiring so that when they get to the finish line of life, whenever that might be, that they hear well done because they were so intentional with their steps that they were aligned with who they professed to be, that's their identity. I mean, so personal mission statement, that's...
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self-stuff, that's the inside. And then how you then aspire to take your personal mission into feeding into the company mission, that's when it really becomes special. You know, and I've used this example before, but you know, my son, he's in his senior year at Iowa State, you know, trying to figure things out, still doesn't really know what he wants to do. You know, and I'm careful, like I don't want to push him into what I've done. He doesn't need to repeat.
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what I've done, but how do you help a young kid like that figure out what's important? What's the right, there's so many different ways you can go, I think a lot of times fear just holds you back because well, what if I don't make the right choice? So how do you coach a kid like that to figure that out? Because it's such a big step. First thing I would do is kind of go back to, remember we talked about in the essence of the beginning.
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So first thing I want to do is he just accomplished something. So first we're going to celebrate that he's just crossed the finish line, he's getting ready to launch. And that's how I need him to view it. There is all this, there's no finish line yet. This is a launch pad. So let's take what you've done so far, the body of work.
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There's some things that were very applicable. There was some things that you did really good. There's some stuff we could kick the curb and take to the landfill. But bottom line, I want him to celebrate and feel empowered by what he's done. Now let's look at his superpowers. What are the things that he has just got skills and he's giftedness? And then how do we turn that into the passions? And then the other thing is, is have perspective. Every person at Communication Innovators that's in our top leadership all started driving trucks.
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cleaned in the bathroom. I mean, we grew up in the industry to lead because first we served, first we were doers. And so I think that's something for him to understand that sometimes we think we need to go right to a specific something, otherwise I won't be accomplished or valued or I wasted something or that's the next thing I would say, is just getting in something that would open a door, it's okay to start in the ground level because it really is where the greatest start.
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place value in that path moving on. Oh, absolutely. And then the leverage of the relationships. I would be asking you, my dad, if it has any connection, who do you know and who do you know? Because that's the way we live life. Yeah. Well, and frankly, you know, obviously I know plenty of people in the industry and you know, it probably wouldn't be that hard to, you know, set him up on a path, but I also want it to be his path, you know, and not my path, so.
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You know, a really great behavior for him too. If he's not getting interviews or if he's not right into his major and he's having a really hard time, I would sit down and equip an interview like you're doing with me. And I would put all these professional questions that I'd want him to go to the CEO or whatever hiring authority. And then I would call and ask for an interview based on a new grad coming out of his institution of Iowa State University. And they'll give it to him every time. If he asks, they'll give it to him. Go interview him.
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interview them like, is that somebody I would want to go work for, not them interviewing me on whether they want me to come work for them. I'd flip it. I'd flip the script. That door would get kicked wide open. That's a great perspective. And I'd thought of that. I've honestly used that. My whole path moving up is, yeah, it's great if they want me to work for them, but why do I want to work for them? That's the kind of... Yeah.
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affirmation that you want and confidence that you want part of your team. That's gonna make your team better. Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. That is awesome. Who is, I mean, obviously you spend a lot of time mentoring people of all ages, but who's been one of the most impactful mentors for you? That was- We talked about your dad and your grandpa, but- Oh yeah, so I had strong men modeling. And then of course in my faith, Jesus is.
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what I aspire to, but in my walk here in this physical life, I would have to say Gary Rossberg. It's one of those, oh man, whew. I got so many, but it's the men I told you that would tell you what you need to hear. And the ones that would call you to a standard to say, hey, I'm going to audit to see if you are who you say you are. I'm going to see if you have integrity. Show me your balance sheet on what you invest into.
33:19
Because if you say you're this man, then your balance sheet on the resources should mirror that to validate with integrity. He'd say, well, how do you use your time? How do you use the margin of your extra time? Are you growth oriented? Are you always seeking betterment? Okay, if you're going to have a great marriage, so how many marriage conferences have you gone to in the last year? How much time have you spent digging in and improving your communication skills? How many times have you done something selflessly for her in servant leadership in your home and you want a great marriage?
33:49
How can you say you want a great marriage if you're not even doing the right things to have one? That's the kind of man that every man needs in your life. And that is for every area of your life, professionally and personally. How much of that do you think just comes with maturity? Because I look at myself and my friend group and the people that I run with, and I see as we get older, a dynamic of change where
34:16
You know, I'm probably the worst because, you know, you kind of rib your best buddies, you know, you kind of pick on them, you know, and sometimes you don't necessarily think of that impact. But as we've gotten older, and I think it just comes with more maturity, where we're actually able to say, you know, why are we not lifting each other up? We're trying to bring each other down out of fun or humor or whatever, but why are we doing that? Why not lift each other up?
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You just, that's a million dollar question right there. And what it is you're taking relationships that you have fun with and you've spent a lot of time with and you've enjoyed. So many men never want to go into the deep end of the pool. Yeah. They never want to go into the dangerous area where it gets emotional and it's difficult and it's messy. And I want you to view me in a certain perspective. I care what you think of me, but if you knew this maybe you wouldn't think the same. And I don't know if I'm feel that safe or that courageous.
35:13
to overcome that fear to go where we need to go in order to have a full relationship, a really deep accountable one. So you just said what every man needs to take that journey to walk from the shallow of walking in the stairs, to walk into the other side and jumping in the deep end. And we all must do that. And we need to do that in order to be great men, especially for our younger generation. I mean, you just mentioned the toughest thing to do. It is, it's been a challenge for sure, but I, you know, it's.
35:40
It's nice to be on the other side of that too and see the value in that. Because we've learned so much more about each other than we would have. So think about serving the customer, Tim. We're always told you go in, you got to find the need to meet the need. You got to find the need to meet the need. But we don't do it in the intimate personal relationships, man to man. If I don't know where your greatest need is, I don't know what makes you cry. I don't know what makes you celebrate. I don't know the deep things. How can I meet you and love you well in our friendship?
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if I don't know where to meet you at. And so I think it takes the courageousness of say, you leading them in a good relationship that goes great. Yep, that's such a great point. That's awesome. Any final thoughts as we wrap this up? Anything we didn't touch on you wanna hit on or? Don't take for granted one day. Last, okay, quick story.
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Last week in my role as chaplain, one of my really close friends across the street, watching him lead his family, a young man, three young kids, and he's battling the last days of stage four cancer. And he was our honorary captain, his name's Luke Miller, we call him the positive warrior, here's what I would say, one of the greatest traits in every area of our life as men is how we respond to adversity. God builds men through the hammer adversity, and he shapes us through the chisel of discipline.
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But when the storms come, are you one that runs from it or to it? Do you persevere through it? This is a guy that in the most treacherous battle showed optimism, encouragement, show up even when it felt like you wouldn't want to do anything. I've watched him be our positive warrior. And so I think for us, he stood in front of my football team and said, don't take anything for granted.
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And he said, you younger ones, you need to play with everything you got as a thank you to the ones that have gone before you. So those seniors- That's incredible. Play as the younger ones. So many times, think in our business, the green, the newbies, they come in and they feel so small. They need to feel empowered, like they are mountain movers and they're so important. And everything matters. Their tasks matter, their interaction with people, their relationships.
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everything we do matters and don't take anything for granted. That's awesome. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you so much. Appreciate you coming. Yeah, I'm thankful for my CI family. I'm thankful for you. Can I say one more thing real quick? Absolutely. Okay, first thing I want to say is this moment right here, I just want to tell you how much I appreciate it. This only happens because you were intentional that you reached out and invited me here. But I want to tell you how thankful our family of communication innovators is for you.
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Because when I go into a customer and I tell them what they're investing in us and what the value proposition is, it's the full delivery, it's the full circle. When they know that you'll show up and you support what you represent as part of what our team locks arms with you with, we are one team and you make us better. And I'm really thankful for that. Oh, thank you. That means a lot. Yeah. Thank you, Tim.
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Thanks again to Chris for joining us today. Hopefully some of his positivity, has rubbed off on our viewers here. He's such an inspiration, super thankful that he came down and joined us today on the show. So thanks again, Chris. And just a reminder, if you need representation for a product from such a great sales team, look no further than CBM. You can find us here at cbmrep.com. Thanks again for joining us on Power of the Network. Please like, comment, subscribe, and we'll see you next time.
