Never Settle for Less
Things I learned while hanging out with Chris Do
It’s interesting how much you can learn in a weekend just by hanging out with a certain individual. Luckily, that cetain individual I got to hang out with is Chris Do of The Futur. (If you haven’t heard of him or the company yet, do check out their Youtube channel)
Although I absorbed a hefty amount of info already from both him and from the channel, I hope that the things I’ve listed down here will be of use to you. 🍻
Starting with ourselves
The workshop started off by getting a consensus of what topics we could discuss over the next 4 hours and one of the main topics was improving ourselves mentally and emotionally.
Chris talked about changing our mentality and how that shift happens by starting with ourselves. Like many of us, he also had struggles in his life but he found refuge in doing graphic design and that alone made himself feel better along the way.
“If I don’t love me, who’s gonna love me?” — Chris Do
He also acknowledges how difficult it is for some of us to change what we’re used to and how it will occur differently with each individual but if we want great things to happen to us, we have to treat ourselves better first and foremost. It’s only different when you think different.
Rebooting our brains
Chris mentions how he had a hard time digging through his past because he does his best to rewire his mentality and look forward to the future. He believes that dwelling in the past produces unnecessary brainpower where you could use that energy to reflect instead of hoarding the thoughts in your mind.
This also applies to learning something new where we sometimes need to unlearn certain thoughts and habits we’ve become comforatble of in order to make room for new and better functions for our brain.
The thought of rebooting and rewiring our mental operating system definitely sounds like a daunting job but as humanity progresses, so should our way of thinking.
One step at a time
I’m a huge fan of the concept of scaffolding. It’s like slicing a slab of steak to enjoy every single bite. Chris is master of reverse engineering whatever information we threw at him and turns everything into something a 5 year old can understand; literally.
The main principle of scaffolding is we do our best to dissect information and understand it in little bite-sized pieces. For doing big projects, it’s to narrow down the requirements into small and actionable tasks in order to achieve a larger goal.
Big, hairy, a.. audacious goal
Having a huge goal can be daunting especially if it seems unreachable. One tip that Chris gave is to make sure that you have a big but clear goal in your mind of where you want to be in your life whether if it’s for your personal brand or for your business.
I’m personally in the process of listing down that things that I want to achieve for my own but the first step to achieving it is to set your goal in stone, set a date for it, make your huge goal into smaller goals that are actionable and see what happens when the time comes.
Read and apply
During the workshop and, briefly, during the conference, Chris talked about how he gained his knowledge and expertise; it’s through reading a lot of books. Reading is easy while applying them in your process is a different matter.
He explains how he doesn’t usually read books from cover to cover; he gets the important information out to apply it to his process immediately. However, I’d like to believe that it’s more effective with reference and non-fiction books.
Here’s his book list for you to check out:
Embrace then pivot
I was introduced to the concept of embracing then pivoting through watching those iconic roleplay videos from The Futur channel. It sounds easy but it’s a tactic that I’m still learning to master especially when facing clients.
Looking at how Brooks Gibbs handled the confrontation in the video, the core of the dialogue is to accept whatever people are throwing at you and to shift the situation smoothly. It’ll take some time to quickly shrug the negativity off your shoulders but if people like me can practice doing it, so can you.
Embracing the situation will make the people you’re talking to, whether with clients or with friends, realize that you’re acknowledging their side while pivoting the conversation shows that you want to make the things better. If all else fails (especially with talking to clients), that means you and the person you’re talking to aren’t a good fit — at least for now.
“What do you think?”
One of the biggest takeaways that I got from Chris is this speech pattern I kept noticing whenever we get into chatting with different people…
I think/believe <insert opinion here>, what do you think?
I have to emphasize this manner of speaking because asking those four words — What do you think? — can really drive conversations way further and sometimes deeper than the occasional small talk. You’ll get to see another person’s perspective on just about anything compared to the usual one answer statements.
I’ve been using the question a lot after noticing the pattern and it has worked wonders for me already whether with friends, colleagues, and family. Try it out and lemme know what you think! (See what I did there? 😂)
Your spare time
There were a few times when I heard Chris asking people what they do in their free time and it’s amazing how he can easily catch a glimpse of your progress towards your personal goal just by knowing what you do during your spare time.
I agree with his opinion on how expensive of a currency time is that spending it on something that won’t make you better is like throwing your life away. (I exaggerated on that life throwing part but you get the point.)
As a person who’s currently working full time for a company in a city where traffic robs your of your time, I try my best to work on my goals for my personal brand and take time to reflect on what I do whenever I’m free. I know a lot of people who are very successful with their personal businesses and brands despite working a 9 hour corporate job; mad respect to them!
(Check out this video with a different approach to convince to work in whenever you have time to spare.)
Bringing value to others
Chris is very keen on talking to those who approached him and takes his time to process their queries even after the workshop. His dedication to bringing value to other people is unprecedented and it’s really admiring to see someone successful sharing his knowledge to anyone without hesitation.
In every occurrence, Chris always frames his stories and insights in the context of his audience and not on or about himself. He uses his stories as a leverage to address a question or concern that was asked to give an analogy while making it more relatable.
Above it all, you bring more value to your audience by becoming the mentor through sharing and teaching what you know as opposed to keeping the information to yourself. On the flipside, people will inevitebly consider you as an expert on the things you’re trying to share or teach.
The time that I hung out with Chris was short but nonetheless sweet. Not only did I meet my mentor, I was able to sponge up a lot of insight from him while accompanying him during breaks and post-event. It’s too bad we couldn’t find a balut vendor near the area. At least, we got to munch some Jollibee. ✌️
Notes: I did my best to write this as a reference article but it turned into a inspirational type of thing. I need to improve my writing! 😅
Did I hit or miss anything? Let’s talk about it in the comment section!
