Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Christopher Grant Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
To subscribe to the podcast, please use the links below:
Click Here to Subscribe via iTunes
Click Here to Subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed)
If you like the show, we would be so grateful if would consider leaving the show a review in iTunes as well as Stitcher Radio. A couple minutes of your time can help the show immensely! Thank YOU!
Introducing Christopher Grant
Christopher Grant is today’s guest joining us on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots business coaching podcast.
He is a man who knows how to get into a ladies head, and understands what makes a woman tick.
He has become a novelist, who focuses on content written from a females perspective, for women to enjoy.
Growing up in a household that was dominated by strong female characters, he felt that he had been given the perfect education to step into the woman’s world.
As he says “My mother and three aunts, each with their own unique temperament and assortment of quirks, had a profound affect on me as a child”.
How The Dots Joined For Christopher
And so he found his path with his debut novel “Teenie” being met with huge critical acclaim.
But it wasn’t an easy path, as he has worked as an equities trader, beverage salesman, amusement park ride operator, human resources manager, actor, voice actor, chauffeur, and public speaker across the city of New York
So how did Christopher Grant get the realisation that it was time to put pen to paper in a style that I imagine would be quite difficult for a man to create?
And now with his second novel “Genesis” about to be released in 2015 what has he got lined up for the future?
The latest all conquering “Fifty Shades Of Grey” or just more quality writings by a man who knows his stuff?
Well let’s bring onto the show to start joining up dots, as we discuss the words of Steve Jobs in todays Free podcast, with the one and only Mr Christopher Grant
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed with Christopher Grant such weighty topics as:
How he learned at an early age that its better to be a good listener than a good talker, because at least a good listener can remember what is said!
How he was shocked and slightly amused to find “Fifty Shades Of Grey” sitting on his mothers bedside table!
How when on the underground he loves to take off his headphones and listen to the conversations that he hears around him!
How he lives by the quote from Rita Mae Brown “Good judgement comes from experience” and will use that everyday of his life!
And lastly………
Why you should always focus on how food is prepared. If you can see the love that has gone into it, then you can tell the chef has a passion!
How To Connect With Christopher Grant
Return To The Top Of Christopher Grant
If you enjoyed this episode with Christopher Grant why not check out other inspirational chat with Christina Ambubuyog, Shawn Stevenson, Roz Savage and the amazing Jason Lewis
You can also check our extensive podcast archive by clicking here – enjoy
Audio Transcription Of Christopher Grant Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK. David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:26]
Yes, hello there. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to a Join Up Dots. Yes, it’s Episode 159. One of those numbers that kind of your kind of proud because you’re moving towards the two hundreds but he’s in the middle ground. But hopefully you will think that today’s content is worth coming back to time and time again, I’m sure it’s going to be because I’ve had a little bit of a chat with the chap beforehand. And I know we’re going to deliver a good one because that’s what we’re here for. We’re delivering it for you. Today’s guest is a man who knows how to get into a lady’s head and understand what makes it woman tick. He’s become a novelist who focuses on content written from a female’s perspective for women to enjoy. Growing up in a household that was dominated by strong female characters, he felt they’d been given the perfect education to step into the woman’s world. As he says, My mother Winfrey, and each with their own unique temperament and assortment of quirks had a profound effect on me as a child. And so he found his path with the debut novel teeny being met with huge critical acclaim. But it wasn’t an easy path as he has worked as an equities trader, beverage salesman, amusement park, ride operator, human resources manager, actor, voice actor, chauffeur and public speaker across the city of New York. So how did he get the realisation it was time to put pen to paper in a store, but I imagine would be quite difficult for a man to create. And now with the second novel Genesis about to be released in 2015. What is he got lined up for the future? The latest all conquering 50 Shades of Grey, or just more quality writings by a man who knows his stuff? Well, let’s find out as I bring on to the show, to start Join Up Dots. The one and only Mr. Christopher Grant, how are you Christopher?
Christopher Grant [2:06]
I’m great. Thank you so much for having me.
David Ralph [2:08]
It’s lovely to have you on. I’m being honest. That’s 50 Shades of Grey annoy you or or is it something that is just out there in the public domain, and anyone writing a book for women gets kind of tarnished with that brush?
Christopher Grant [2:22]
Wow, I think I think there’s two sides to that storey with 50 Shades of Grey, you have to admire somebody that took a piece of fanfiction. And it became this phenomenon or there’s a market for it. And you can never disparage somebody that works really hard to to get their product out there. But for me, it’s actually funny. You mentioned the storey because I just posted a picture on Instagram. Seeing that book on my mother’s bookshelf is like a shudder. You get like oh no, my mother is reading 50 Shades of Grey. So I never despair, somebody who works hard to get a product out there. And her book happens to come out at the right time when people were looking for that type of material. And as you can see it exploded, it exploded so much in fact that everyone at Random House, which is eventually picked up the 50 shades trilogy, all of them received from what I heard a $5,000 bonus. So every employee at Random House received a $5,000 bonus because of how well Apple did.
David Ralph [3:22]
It’s funny that you say about your mom having it on her bedside table because my my wife read it because it was crazy over here. If you went on holiday, we actually had a game we was in Turkey and we would walk along the beach. And guess if I were reading it, and pretty much you had to stop guessing because you knew that every single person was going to be reading it. And I must admit, I picked it up and I read the first three pages. And then I sort of put it down and hope now I can’t get into this. But she was lending it to all her friends and all her friends were lending it to their friends and all that kind of stuff. And I was okay with that. And then she said, Oh, I’ve lent it to your mom and I went what was you’ve? You’ve given it to my mom, that’s disgusting, what you’re giving it to my mom. And I actually said to my mom, what did you do? You know, did you read it? And she went, well? Yes, I did. But I skipped all the sex bits. And I thought how can you skip this experience? It’s all sex isn’t it?
Christopher Grant [4:16]
Yeah, I’m that I have never done more than look at the cover of it. Just just not my cup of tea. From what I heard of it. And I didn’t even I didn’t even given an opportunity or even a chance I like you know what, I’m not even going to go down that road. I don’t want to be critical. I don’t want to say things about the storey. I’m just going to leave leave that one alone. But there is something there’s something unnerving about knowing that your mother opens that book and flips to it even though obviously they have the knowledge of what’s in there or else we wouldn’t exist. But it definitely unnerved me but to hear your mother skip over the more unsavoury parts of the storey I’m happy to hear that I’m hopefully my mother the same
David Ralph [5:00]
right that’s that’s why I put it down Christopher I read the first three pages there was nothing dirty in it. I thought I could plough through 50 pages waiting for the dirty bits to turn up so that’s that’s turned me off. But I’m your your journey is fascinating. You obviously live in New York City. But for our listeners whereabouts what sort of territory in New York are you living in at the moment?
Christopher Grant [5:25]
I currently live in Brooklyn. I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I spent about 10 years of my life living in Manhattan in Harlem. And about a year living in the Bronx, which is another borrow in New York City. So it was a three boroughs in New York City that I mentioned. But I’m born and raised in Brooklyn, and I’m ecstatic to be back in Brooklyn.
David Ralph [5:42]
I spent a week living in Harlem going down to that in Hatton or up to Manta I get very confused whether it’s up or down. I was always getting lost on the underground over there. Because I had this thing about you remember the old Billy Joel song Uptown Girl? Yes. Now to me up 10. He’s polish. She was polish. And so I kept on thinking uptown was like Manhattan area. But that’s like downtown. Is that right?
Christopher Grant [6:08]
Well, I would say Billy Joel with from downtown, the Lower East Side, which was back in those days is considered like a like a seedy area. And Midtown was called uptown even though that’s in the 50s. And there’s probably like, 200 more blocks of real estate above that. So Harlem is beyond uptown. So the Uptown that he was speaking about, was posh Midtown area like Upper East Side, Upper West Side. And that’s what Billy Joel was singing about. What he’s probably from the Lower East Side, which is the bottom of man near the bridges.
David Ralph [6:40]
Oh, very confusing, isn’t it? Oh, very confusing for an Englishman finding his way around.
Christopher Grant [6:45]
It’s confusing to me sometimes. So but I’ve obviously been living here I’ve become indoctrinated and how, what avenues go which way and knowing the best thing to do is to try to find the Freedom Tower and then means that self so if you’re outside and looking solid, the seat of Freedom Tower, okay, I need to go north or east west, you can use that as a frame of reference.
David Ralph [7:08]
So if you haven’t always been a New Yorker been
Christopher Grant [7:12]
born and raised in Brooklyn, I’ve always I’ve lived here my entire life.
David Ralph [7:15]
Oh, wow. Okay, so so Brooklyn, for those who don’t know, the area just give us a sort of flavour of what it is because I know from the United Kingdom, people just think New York is Manhattan. And that’s it. So what’s the kind of difference of the vibe in Brooklyn?
Christopher Grant [7:31]
Well, what happens is Manhattan, you would consider the epicentre of New York City. So as, as the real estate or rental prices increase, you have like this increased sphere of influence. So you’ll have some people moving over to Jersey City, New Jersey was just just across the water across the Hudson River. And then the outer boroughs, which is the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn, and Brooklyn, in particular has seen an explosion in a resurgence in, in property development in cultural development in the beyond the buzzword that people hate the gentrification of Brooklyn. So you’re seeing a lot of people getting pushed out, that would have been there and trends for generation are not being pushed out by young folks whose parents moved from Brooklyn, their children are now returning to Brooklyn. So you’re seeing a lot of restaurants, a lot of new development, these enormous buildings coming up places where I used to frequent when I was in high school, they are almost unrecognisable now. But there is for me one positive I love, I love eating out of restaurants, and a lot of great restaurants coming up. But I do, I do feel bad for badly for folks that have been lived in that area for certain years that can no longer afford to live there. Because some young 20 year old 25 year old with a roommate comes in willing to pay three times as much rent to the property,
David Ralph [8:50]
you can understand that con you that that’s that’s progress everywhere with with the expansion of the population, they’ve got to find somewhere to live. So they are going to sort of move around. Well, we see that in the United Kingdom. So many people back in the 50s moved out from London to the areas that I live. And then now they’re kind of moving back into London because Dockland and industrial areas that you could never have lived in, they’ve now sort of demolished them and created these condos and these nice apartments and stuff. So it’s a kind of re establishing where people originally lived, but in a nicer format
Christopher Grant [9:28]
is a nicer format. But I, I would never try to say that I have a plan for how to do it. It’s just the the way that people are displaced, and how quickly it happens. I think that’s unfortunate. And it has to be some some way to find a balance where you do have progress in a neighbourhood where now it’s important for the trash to be picked up on time. And But still, people who have been there still have an opportunity to enjoy those benefits that they weren’t receiving five years prior until it became a popular destination.
David Ralph [10:00]
So you you haven’t got a plan you the area that you live in. But with Join Up Dots, we’re going to sort of Delve back into your past life and bring you up to date and then send you back in time like a young Marty McFly, to have a one on one with yourself at the very end of the show. So have you had a plan because I have only just met you. But when I was looking at your top history, and I saw an equities trader, okay, I can go with that beverage salesman, okay, amusement park ride operator, how did all these kind of things come out? Because there’s a lot of times I speak to people who’ve had many different jobs, but there’s a theme running through them and you can kind of group them. But with yours. I can’t quite see the theme. I’ll be honest.
Christopher Grant [10:42]
Well, I’ll tell you if you read my storeys. There a lot of times, people will read a storey I’m like, how’s it going to tie this all together at the end. And that’s pretty much how my life has been. I would say my first major job out of school out of college after grad school was an equities trader. I did that for 10 to 12 years. And prior to that I take summer jobs like at the age of 14, I was an amusement park ride operator in in like a really predominantly Italian neighbourhood. So I’d be coming home at one o’clock in the morning say, Okay, let me just get on this bus. Because there were some issues with race relations back then. And going forward was just, it was just, it was just what what can I do? What, what what opportunities are available to me. So that was 114 years old working as an amusement ride ride operator. But just fast forward to the major career that I had was my equities trading. My friend told me that he was he was trading, he was making a lot of money. And I had no idea what I wanted to do leave in college. So I went and I checked out what he was doing. I mean, they were they were really killing it in there. And I thought it was they were calling people and building them out of their money. And oh, I got this great stock that I wanted no part of that. They were they were giving their own account, and they were managed account and their own discretion. And I like that. So I did that for 12 years ahead. repeats three value three valleys, and it just became a position where there was no fulfilment other than making money. And it my life, I wanted my life to be more than that. So while I was while I was as a lad, during my trading days, I was dating a woman who was reading something called Chiclets, I’m sure it’s popular in Britain as well. And I was flipping through it and know this, and not to disparage an author because I know how difficult it is to write, flipping through it. And I said, this is okay. And she challenged me. She said, Well, if you if you think you can do better, then why don’t you write something up? I will. Now that book didn’t get published. But what it did do was introduced me to somebody who asked me if I can run young adult, which is what teeny is. So this is a journey that took I started writing my first book, probably No, I don’t want to date myself a long time ago. And then I’ll a little less long ago, I started working on teeny. And over the course of three years I took a writing class, I didn’t do my assignment. And in no way shape or form, do I endorse not doing your work. But I had written two chapters of teeny, and I handed it into the classroom, expecting them to rip it to shreds. But the instructor and my classmates loved it. And my instructor pulled me aside and said, If you finish this, it’ll get published. Within a year, I was able to get an agent through a friend of a friend of a friend. So that’s one thing I want to stress. People talk about working hard in school. Yes, absolutely. Make sure you do well in school, that is something that that you should always strive to do. Something that we don’t learn is to cultivate the importance of is the cultivation of relationships. If you can cultivate a relationship and maintain strong ties with someone, you can, you can move yourself along in your career. So because I was able to learn how to do that, cultivating relationships, that friend of a friend of a friend became my agent. And then within six months, a two book deal with the biggest publishing house in the world.
David Ralph [14:03]
So so let’s just pause you there. Because that is a fascinating statement that you’ve made cultivating relationships, we talk about the power of networking, especially for the people who haven’t quite found their path. And they are frightened to reach out especially to reach out to successful people and strangers. And I keep them re emphasising time and time again, but you can’t do it on your own. You’ve got to be able to reach out to people and ask for help and get networking going and get email addresses and all that kind of stuff. Was that just something that naturally was in you? Or did you go Hang on a moment, I realised I’ve got to learn this. And I’ve really got to take maybe the sort of inherent strengths I’ve got, but fine tune them, that people will engage with me and remember me,
Christopher Grant [14:54]
I think with anything that’s new. So networking was new for me, there’s this a certain amount of fear involved in trying something well, why don’t what if the person doesn’t like me, okay, they might not like you, you move on to the next one. And once I was able to overcome that, then I realised I had a natural ability to relate to people. And that comes with with is something that my, my American Studies teacher told me his name is Mr. Basketball that every time every chance I get I give this guy is a is just to actually have a character and teeny based on him. And he said, you want to be that type of person that can always continue a conversation at a cocktail party. So you might not know everything, but you know enough to be able to, to navigate through things. And I that always stuck with me, there’s something that I learned in high school, it’s like, you know, I want to be that guy, not to say that I only know the topical surface issues, but I can carry on a conversation and and to do that you have to be well read, you have to be aware of what’s going on in the world. And I really make an effort to do that, to some degree. I mean, certain things as I’ve gotten older that I’m more focused on. But it’s important to be able to relate to people. And the only way you can do that is to have a wide breadth of topics to be able to jump in and out.
David Ralph [16:10]
I don’t know if I totally agree with that. Because I since what since my first, well, no, my fourth child came along, I’ve hardly looked at the news once. And on the grand scheme of things. I have this kind of logic now. But if something big happens, I’m going to know about it. But all the kind of other stuff, I just don’t really need to know. But I kind of think that the connexion part, the networking part is more about not having a breath, but having the ability to listen. And if you can listen to what somebody saying, you can phrase questions which can actually take the conversation into the next area. I’ve had the greatest conversations I’ve ever had with people. And to be honest, I know nothing about what they’re doing. But people like to talk about themselves, people like to have a conversation with somebody who’s interested. So I think what you’re saying, it’s more important to have the listening skills, buying tuned, so that you can then chip in with that sort of knowledge that you have gained. But I don’t actually believe that you need such a breadth of it to become a good communicator and a good networker.
Christopher Grant [17:20]
I make perhaps perhaps some error in how I’m describing what I’m doing. I think you need to, you need to be well read. And I would be I’d be shocked if anybody would argue against that. Like you, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a whole bunch of different things. As I said, as I as I’ve gotten older, I figured out what is most important to me. But being a good listener is obviously a huge deal. I can remember my godfather telling me it’s better to be a good listener than a good talker, because at least a good listener can remember what was said. So and actually, I boot, I think that’s in teeny somewhere, I might it might actually be my first line if I’m not mistaken. So um, I understand the importance of being a good listener, because you can then move the conversation to a position of strength for yourself with you is it this is like a fine balance. You don’t want to seem like you’re trying too hard. But it’s all about your communication skills. And that comes with being practised. And it also comes with I think, with being well read.
David Ralph [18:23]
So did you become practice because you was in a household over women. Because I live in a household of women, it’s me and my son and my wife, and daughters. And basically, it’s a different way of communicating. There’s a lot of emotion that flows around, there’s a lot of slamming doors, there’s a lot of I suppose, I would class it a rational conversation. But I develop my ability to listen, and so that I can dip in when I’m needed and not dip in just because I feel like I’m needed. Did you do know what I’m saying it? Will women living in a household of women? Did you develop the skills of interaction when it’s right to interact?
Christopher Grant [19:09]
I don’t know so much of it was that I kind of kept to myself, but I was always what I was listening to, was not when I was supposed to chime in, I was just I was fascinated by the interactions. I was fascinated by how much watching my mother and her sisters make large dinner. And everybody working on one thing, they never bumped into each other, they all be on the same stove, and listening to how they communicating and watching the body language. That’s what fascinated me, it wasn’t necessarily me learning when I should chime in, or when I should give my two cents because I grew up in a West Indian family. You know, as a child, you just make sure you stay out of the way and nobody really wants to hear your opinion unless you you’re making voices and telling jokes or whatever. But I was fascinated by how they interact with each other, the hierarchy of of the sisterhood if you will. And and just just I just love the colourful language that they use. So that’s what I that’s how I learned to listen because it was just so many things, things floating around. I think one thing I’ve been blessed with is having a pretty decent memory. Even though I’m messed up the first line of my book, that’s actually an old draught one of the one of the storey I told you about being a good listener, I pride myself on having an arm thankful that I have a good memory because those interactions and seeing them and watching them. I think I’ve been blessed to be able to remember them and then also to translate them onto paper where people can can read them and relate to them.
David Ralph [20:36]
So So when your girlfriend said you go on, if you think you can do better, you right? Did you instantly go right? Okay, I’m going to reflect on my childhood? Or did you just sit there with a blank sheet of paper, start writing and it just started flooding out. But basically, it was your memories that started to form the book.
Christopher Grant [20:58]
The first book, the book that she chose, I was me to write was an adult novel, and it was based largely on myself. So I added some little hooks and whatever. And she read the outline of it. And she’s like, wow, this is pretty good. That book.
David Ralph [21:13]
Was she annoyed, but she challenged you and you actually came up Trumps.
Christopher Grant [21:17]
No, she smiled, and you know, her eyebrow went up like oh, I wasn’t expecting that. And I, I was writing for me was always was easy, but it was always term papers. So I didn’t know I had any talent for creative writing. So I have to thank Desiree, thank you so much. If you listening I appreciate you. challenging me to the left to right teeny. See me write my first book and, and do better than what you were reading. I appreciate you always.
David Ralph [21:45]
Well, what’s what’s I said? I’m giving a big name, check.
Christopher Grant [21:48]
Deseret meet us.
David Ralph [21:50]
There you go. If she’s listening, will she remember you? Are you still in contact?
Christopher Grant [21:55]
She better I spoke the other day.
David Ralph [21:58]
So it’s not so bad that she’ll be joining us and she suddenly crash a car? Because you’re you’re no, it wouldn’t be anything like that. Hopefully not. And so you might miss this storey that’s based around you, loosely an adult storey? And was there a moment because in everyone’s journey to success, there seems to be a starting point, but they’re doing it to prove something, then there’s an area of doubt when I think this isn’t gonna work, this isn’t gonna work. And then a gradual sort of dawning realisation of our I’m actually pretty good at this. I think this might be my thing did you have that was was there several stages to writing that that you went through before you got to the finished article?
Christopher Grant [22:42]
Absolutely. With teeny, it was a 10 year process, because there were gaps in there, where I met a woman who who liked the premise behind teeny, but she moved on to from the publishing house, she was working on working. So I’m thinking here, I’ll go on the fast track, I don’t only an agent, I’m going to be in Oprah’s couch, within six months, I’m already visualising how the my career arc is going to just explode like a parabola. So she moved on, and she left my work with her assistant and assistant was supposed to communicate with me. And you know, it didn’t work out, she wouldn’t return my call, she wouldn’t return my emails. I wish I would have tried to try to use that trick that mentioned in our pre discussion about just switching around email addresses until you get the one for the person that really makes all the decisions. Genius. Genius. Yeah, I didn’t think of that. So I, I took it as a sign that that I wasn’t good enough. So I actually you know what, maybe this isn’t for me. And I put I put a teeny down and I stopped, I stopped working on it. And then another girlfriend after desert, he read some of my my short storeys write some word, my first novel and encouraged me to take a writing class. And I so that was probably two years ago after I had stopped working or stopped working on it. And I took it to the writing class. As I mentioned earlier in our discussion, the instructor and the my classmates they loved it is like how do you get into this girl’s head? How are you able to catch it capture the voice of a 14 year old girl? And I continue to work on it. They could push
David Ralph [24:20]
the bows and dig deep? Could you answer it when they asked those questions? Or did you just go out the other? No, I just kind of night
Christopher Grant [24:27]
How? Well I think I was with growing up around a lot of women and seeing how they interacted with each other. And not only that I had a niece who is teeny is loosely based on. But the number one thing for me being able to capture the voice of a teenager is riding the New York City subway, and you hear these teens get on some of the things that come out of their mouth, just truly amazing. So people most times when teenage girls come on the journey are young teenagers come on to the subway, you’ll see people put their headphones on and try to raise the volume. So you don’t have to listen to them. I take my headphones off. Because that dialogue, it drives everything, especially in this social media age with Instagram and Facebook. Everybody wants to know what these teens are interested in, what they’re saying what they’re wearing, what they’re eating, where they’re going. So that conversation and that dialogue flow is nowhere like that. Because you’re getting not not just teenagers are getting Polish women, you’re getting an old British man, you’re getting some, some an African guy, you’re getting West Indian banter. There’s no place in the world where you get that collection of culture and dialogue and real talk. So that’s me that’s like manna from heaven. So I think that allows me to capture not only the voice of a teenage girl, but I can get into the head of a man, a Sikh man from India,
David Ralph [25:51]
because that is a real talent, what you’re talking about there is a God given talent, isn’t it? Because I don’t think I could do that. I don’t think I could listen to something buddy. And basically become a chameleon. So that their nuances and their vibe and their vocabulary just starts to naturally come out of what I would write, I think that is incredibly hard to do. I mean, I think you’re blessed.
Christopher Grant [26:16]
I have to say that I’m thankful for that. And, and I’ve learned later on in life, that I can use that talent to, to kind of mimic folks. I can use it. And I can do voices as well. So that’s something I did as a little kid. So one of the first ones I picked up, was a lot of the guys in my neighbourhood would he’s tough Italian Brooklyn guy. So I you know, it’s just really easy for me to jump into that character, you know what I’m saying? So that that’s something that I realised translates in all the areas not just with writing, but I can actually do their voices. And that’s become like a blossoming career for me to being a voice artist now.
David Ralph [26:51]
So we are actually finding that theme that runs through your work, that ability to connect and understand people.
Christopher Grant [27:01]
Yeah, and I didn’t realise that now that it’s always sometimes somebody from the outside observing can find what that what that that grain, or that that that scene running through your life when the while everything attaches. Because as I’ve worked as a chauffeur, I did well, because I could connect to the people. If I get in the car, someone gets in the car, and I realised you know what this person doesn’t want to talk. They just want to know that they’re getting to their destination safely. And I always knew whether I’d get a tip as a chauffeur based on I say, a horrible joke, like, Hi, good afternoon. My name is Chris, please let me know if it gets too warm in here for you. My family’s from the West Indies. So I like it. The most people, they laughed at that horrible joke is probably a 90% chance I’m going to get a tip. If they just went gave a little grunt, then I know they didn’t want to talk. And I did what I was supposed to do. I took him to where I needed to go. But I I would say how everything ties in now being a chauffeur, I actually have my own car now. So I’ll be doing working with this company. I’m sure you have heard of them in England. But that has equipped me with even more storeys. So when I took that job, it was like, Okay, I just need to make sure that things are squared while I’m working on my second book, and then actually equipped me with more storeys, I have a whole new set of things that I’m going to be working on. As soon as I finished putting efficient touches on Genesis is my second novel.
David Ralph [28:23]
Yeah, it’s fascinating that you are already you start something with a suppose you were pushed into it, your girlfriend said, you know, She challenged you to do it, then you discover that actually, I’m pretty good at this. And once you get that kind of peer group recognition, where your writing teacher was saying, This is pretty good, it’s pretty good. You suddenly had that kind of fire burn into you. And then once you start to get that momentum going, you find that the opportunities start coming to you. And you’re looking at these conversations, you’re hearing these conversations, and you’re thinking I could use this, I could take that. And it becomes easier because you’ve built up that momentum.
Christopher Grant [29:04]
Absolutely, absolutely. And I in your formative years, you need to be encouraged to to do things or learn or to try new things until you figure out what it is that you like to do. And as you get older, you still like to hear accolades. I mean, look at this, look at CEOs. They love people blowing smoke up their butt and telling them that they’re God’s gift to Earth. But you need you need that encouragement. Because if I if I wasn’t encouraged, if I wasn’t if I wasn’t challenged, my mother always challenged me to work hard so and she stressed education. So I wasn’t challenged. And I wouldn’t have been paying attention to school, I wouldn’t have caught the eye of my American Studies teacher who told me he was the first person that told me, You know what, you have a talent for writing. And I’m like that whatever, dude. But as you continue to go on, I start to hear that more often. So when you hear it enough, and you when I go back and read some of the things that I’ve written, like, you know what, I actually, I’m pretty good at this. Maybe this is something that I want to pursue. For me when I realised that it was something I wanted to pursue was my I had a conversation with one of my friends. And he This is when I was trading I was I was doing really well. And he said do you love your job isn’t Yeah, I love my job is great. And I could do whatever I want whenever I want to. He’s like, do you love it? Like Yeah, said would you do it for free? was like No way. So and there’s no way I would do that for free. He said whether you don’t love your job, and I was like, I’ll shut up. You don’t know what you’re talking about. But he was right. I love writing what I do it for free? Yes, I would. Because it’s my passion. It’s my love what I do voices voiceovers free. And because I like to make people laugh. Yes, it’s a passion. Now, if you’re able to find your passion, and then monetize your passion, there’s nothing better in the world and being able to be paid for what you love to do. Nothing better.
David Ralph [30:46]
So so where you as a small Christopher ground, we use somebody that was all of them going around doing voices of TV presenters and cartoon characters and things like that.
Christopher Grant [30:59]
It was more me imitating people’s accents. So my father was Jamaican. So you know, it’s really easy for me, to me, I cannot can become the father did come from Jamaica. And you know, I had an Indian teacher, his name was Mr. diva. And I said, you are going to put the period here. And so he was like, if you
David Ralph [31:16]
can open a call centre, you’d be perfect.
Christopher Grant [31:19]
That’s not right. It’s hard. Well, I’m not gonna cosign today. And I told you about the Italian guys in my neighbourhood, a grant come over and show this ball over there. And it just is something that I was able to pick up on. I don’t know what it is. But I was just listen to it. Oh, I can I can do that voice. And this is how it’s helped me now I have a little blossoming new career. It’s funny because I went into voice work to do animation. And I ended up getting commercial getting commercial gigs, like so it’s more of the straight laced. Hi, my name is Christopher grant. And this is Sony TV. Like that kind of stuff. I didn’t expect it to go that way. But people will Oh, you can do commercial like I can. Okay, sure. Let’s try it. And then something that as I’ve, as I’ve gotten as I mature, I don’t want to say gotten older, because I feel like I’m in better shape now than I was a few years ago. Sure.
David Ralph [32:09]
I’m 3737. So i, you and i each way you should, I should I get told off the same shirt. Most people would have expected you to find your place.
Christopher Grant [32:21]
What and I think I think my place is is, is being amorphous is moving around and doing different things. I’m at my happiest when I’m trying new things. And I didn’t learn that until very recently, I was stuck in trading. And doing something that I didn’t enjoy doing. That was just, it was just eating me up inside. I would not I was fortunate to have an outlet to have writing, writing became an outlet for me. And now it’s something that’s carried me through Florida. And while I’m learning to do other things, becoming a show for something that I never thought I would do in becoming a top show for my company now to the point where I’m moving on going out on my own. Moving on to voice working and branching out and trying different things. And that’s something that I learned later on like you, you don’t necessarily have to be good at one thing. You can also you can just try. It’s healthy. you exercise your mind by trying new things. Everybody wants to work out and I work out I go to the gym, I workout, you have to train your body. But if you want to train your mind, you have to try new things, you have to challenge yourself, you’re never going to know what you’re capable of doing until you challenge yourself.
David Ralph [33:24]
So if we jump back to sort of equities trader Christopher ground was bad. Like most of us, we go into a job because we think it looks good. There’s kudos, there’s going to be good money. Was that a path that was kind of expected of you to go into the corporate world?
Christopher Grant [33:43]
Oh, it was a little different than the corporate because when I went into the office, this is the.com eight.com era where guys are are rollerblading into the lobby the elephant out of the building, and then taking it taking it having no shoes on and going up an elevator having shorts and throwing a football around the office. And I was a I was a college athlete. So I wasn’t as mature as I as some of my classmates were because I had been coddled for 10 years like, Oh, you have here’s your here’s what time you eat. Here’s what time you go to the practice. And here’s your class schedule. And so I had been coddled, so I was a little bit stunted in that, in that sense, I understood the the benefits of working hard and being singular in your focus. But I, I was not as good as season that some of my other classmates and not as mature. Now, the thing is, is with equity trading. I when I went to the interview, the guy asked me if I was good at video games, I was like Is this some kind of joke, like what kind of job requires you to be good at video games. So we want people that make quick decisions that are able to force foreshadow foresee what’s about to happen, and to kind of anticipate a move, because I can do that. And it turns out that I actually wasn’t pretty good at it. But it wasn’t fulfilling. The only time you felt great was when you made a few thousand dollar 10 grand whatever it was, I wasn’t the top trader, but I did enough for me to do well. And but when you had a bad day, I felt like the biggest loser in the world. Now some people manage that emotion, those are their emotions better than I did. And those are the probably two out of 1000 people that are still trading 20 years later. But I wasn’t that person. And I realised that this is not for me, if I’m so emotionally invested that if I have a bad day, I need to go home and sleep for three hours on this, that’s just not me. So I need I understood even though I was there, because it was lucrative, you can make a lot of money in a short amount of time. And once that became a battle that was too intense, and it was just too difficult to extract the money from it, it just it just wasn’t worth it because I didn’t enjoy what I was doing. And thankfully, I had an outlet of writing, which is like, you know, I enjoy doing this, this is this is fun, this is something that I love to do, I love to make people laugh, I love to share my thoughts and tell storeys and, and weave together these seemingly unrelated pieces of information and make it work. And that’s something that that I had to learn by, by by exploring something different by doing something that was not, I didn’t have any training in writing. I took one writing classes school when I was in college, but it’s just something that I learned was, was a gift. And I think it’s a sin not to explore your gifts.
David Ralph [36:30]
Well, you didn’t have to learn it as such, yes, you had to fine tune it, you had to become more professional at it. But one of the things that comes out in this show time and time and time again. And we used to talk about it a lot in the early episodes, when people used to say, find your passion, find your passion, you would never work again. And you said, Oh, I don’t know what my passion is, you know, just tell me what my passion is. But what came out was the tagline connecting our past to build our future. And everything you’re talking about now, but you love doing the things that you would do, even if you weren’t paid for I kind of the things that as we see time and time again, are the things that we would do as youngsters when we would do when we didn’t get paid for them. And we would run home from school every day to do these things because we just loved doing them. And it seems to be a kind of a gap between ages eight, up to 19, where we’re when suddenly, in that path of you gotta go to school, you got to get your education, you got to get a career, you got to get a job. And the end of it, you’ve only got two years now. And then you’ll be out in the big wide world and you’ve got to get a job. And we’re so kind of pushed into this path, we forget the things that we love. Now with my kids, I went to London for years and years and years. And I can’t say I hated all of it. But it certainly wasn’t playing to my strengths. It was just a job. And I say to my kids Now, remember what you love. Remember what you love at this age, because that’s the things you’ve got to remember for when you come out at the upper end of this conveyor belt. And that’s the ones that you’ve got to look at building income based around the things that you love doing because my son obsessed with cars, he loves cars, and he likes to know what’s happening with him. So at the end of it, if he comes out and he wants to become a mechanic, or more likely he wants to become a TV presenter talking about cars, then that will be playing to the strengths that he’s demonstrating at the moment. And he’s got a head start from the rest of us that go into a job, think we want a career keep moving forward. And suddenly 10 years later, we think Hang on, this isn’t for us, happened to me. And it seemed to happen to you as well. CRISPR
Christopher Grant [38:37]
Absolutely. I completely agree with you. That that, that that child innocence, that that that unbridled joy, where it’s frowned upon from that age of eight, eight to 19, we need to figure out all you need to focus on school. Yes, you do need to be do well in school, we also need to be well rounded. And if you’re able to figure out what you like to do early on, you have not cloud Gladwell talks about 10,000 hours, you can figure that out early, then you can master that, from the age of 10 years old people figure out, no, I enjoy doing this. And they and they’re able to jump into that earlier in their life, they have a head start, they don’t waste I don’t want to say waste, because should never look at what you do as your experiences and the things that you work on as a waste. But you you spend time doing things that you don’t really enjoy doing, when you could be focusing on on what makes you happy. The same time. We live in an expensive world. And I know Great Britain is an expensive country, New York City is one of the most expensive cities in the world, you do have to make money to in order to survive. So what I the model that I’ve adopted, which is carried me through for the past three or four years, is you do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do.
David Ralph [39:48]
I think that’s spot on. And I’m going to play a motivational speech but ties into that beautifully. This is Jim Carrey, have a listen to this.
Unknown Speaker [39:55]
My father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [40:21]
How powerful
Christopher Grant [40:24]
people don’t give that man of credit, he silly mixes those all these crazy voices, and he’s jack gesticulation. He’s actually very intelligent. And that’s that’s spot on. You might as well try it, you you got most of the things you try to do, you might not end up liking them. But now you can eliminate that from what you’re doing. But you’re still finding yourself and figuring out what you want to do and not listening to what someone else is telling you to do. I think that’s brilliant, what you said,
David Ralph [40:48]
No, I think he’s spot on. Because when I left my nine to five gig, I took a huge hit on my salary, I was earning just enough to pay the bills, by sort of working behind the scenes doing other things, you know, not not what I want to do. But I now know what I want to do. And I want to grow this show into something that is, is a brand. It’s something that people will look to go to to find the motivation, the inspiration, and I feel strongly and as you say, I’ve been doing this for what, four months now five months, and I haven’t earned a penny. I love doing it, though. You know, I’m doing 17 hour days, and I’m not getting paid for it. Do I think it’s going to come to me in the long run? Yes, I do. Do I think it’s worth doing? Yes, I do. Is it like slave labour? Well, definitely, it’s like slave labour because I’m not getting paid for it. But you I’m willing to do other stuff to get to my end goal. And that’s what you’re saying. That’s what Jim Carrey saying you’ve got to take a risk, you’ve got to try things. And it is not a straight A to B, you’re not going to leave a job and being go into instantly your own successful business, you’re not going to leave a job and you’re going to go straight into another job that he’s just like, like a glove, he just fits you perfectly more often than not, it’s a squiggly journey that you’re going to go on.
Christopher Grant [42:07]
There’s a particular quote, I try to post different quotes every Friday. And there’s one quote from a woman named Rita Mae Brown, which ties right into this. And she says, good judgement comes from bad. It’s good judgement comes from experience. And experience comes from bad judgement. So you have to make mistakes, in order to really fine tune what you’re looking for what you need, what makes you happy. And the only way you’re going to do that is to try different things. I was on that straight and narrow. I was a traitor. Yes. Must watching this. Watching a for certain formations, looking for a flag, flag and and it will sit there for for half an hour, and then it’ll go up another 40% or whatever it was. And that’s what I did and that I wasn’t happy doing that. And when I started doing different things, taking a writing class started doing yoga, like I can’t, I wouldn’t you couldn’t pay me to yoga, like I’ve never, I don’t need to do that I’m a football player, football player does yoga, I wish I would have done yoga, when I was playing college football, because your body becomes so much more limber. And it would have translated on the field so much better. So doing different things and say, Well, I want to try that. riding my bike 3040 miles in a day. I never thought I would ever do that. But it’s something I was like, You know what, let me try this, this is something different. Maybe I’ll enjoy it. And I did enjoy it. And that comes from trying things from from wanting the experience and not being afraid to fail or understanding. Yes. I might not feel so good when I fail. But there’s something to be gained from that. And I’ve changed my perspective on how I look at I fit at failure and it doesn’t it doesn’t inhibit me the way it did when I was younger.
David Ralph [43:44]
So you just think that no experience is wasted?
Christopher Grant [43:47]
No, I mean, you don’t want to go doing stuff like, I’m going to play chicken and ride on a subway like surf on a subway right? I’m talking about things like that will put your life in danger. I think there’s there’s there’s there’s something to be gained from everything you go through. And if you’re able to take that perspective on it, then you don’t dwell on it. And you don’t allow it to govern, or make you fearful of enjoying your life of moving forward of just cultivating your mind.
David Ralph [44:13]
Because I’m looking at your list. As you’re talking. I’m reading the introduction time and time again. So I can think of questions to spin off. And I’m just looking at it there. And I think Yeah, he lives in New York. he’s a he’s a writer, he’s an actor, he’s a voice actor wouldn’t? Or has he ever thought you considered putting those together to actually write a play or something, because I think you’d be brilliant. If you could write something and actually act in it and push it in a certain way. I hear time and time again, for actors, but they love being directed by other actors. They don’t like the ones that just say go off and do it, you know, you’re an actor, it’s up to you to sort of form it, they like to have direction, would that be something that would interest you in the long term?
Christopher Grant [44:56]
Absolutely, I that’s I have ideas of things that I would like to do goes back to my motto of do what you have to do until you can do what you want to do. So a lot of people will always concerned about, I need to make more money, I need to make more money. My issue is I’m not concerned with the monetary wealth, as much as I am with my time wealth, I want to be able to do what I want to do. And I believe that if I invest in myself, whether it’s creating new projects, as I mentioned, something that I’m looking to work on with my experiences as a chauffeur, I need to free up time to be able to write that. So that may involve me acting in something or but definitely writing and writing a screenplay of some sort. So that’s something that I have in my head, that will will, will be my next project. So yes, everything does tie together it does, I’m really looking forward to free to this new freed up time that I have to be able to create more, because that’s what I want to do. That’s what I enjoy doing.
David Ralph [45:52]
I mentioned this a lot in the shows because it really struck a chord with me. And it’s funny, I’ve mentioned this chapter twice now in this episode, Billy Joe, many, many years ago, I heard an interview and he the interviewer said, you know, what has success given you? And he just said, time is just time if I wake up in the morning, I don’t want to do something I don’t do it. I choose. And I just thought to myself, yes, that’s going to be right. And I’m on a journey now that you know people say to me are would you like it? If you weren’t a squishy and pounds? I went? Well,
Unknown Speaker [46:23]
it depends.
David Ralph [46:24]
It depends. If I’m working 100 hours a week, and I’ve got a squealing and pounds Ben No, I don’t want it I’d rather be able to choose to go and pick my kids up from school. And I’d rather be able to direct my work at times, that’s convenient to me, I’m totally in what you’re saying there. That money is wonderful. But if you play to your passions, and you play to your strengths, and you love doing it, and you’re providing value to people, I think money will come back to you anyway, I think that’s just a natural gift that gets given to you. If you are providing that value.
Christopher Grant [46:58]
I I agree with you hundred percent. I feel like I’m starting to believe that I have something to share with people. And I’m doing myself a disservice. And in my little band of followers, my friends that not all enjoy my storeys. I’m doing them a disservice because I’m not creating, you wouldn’t believe how many times a day I get messages. When is when is are you going to write a sequel for teeny? When is Genesis coming out? Why haven’t you made any new videos actually made one? Like a dancehall song about the we have an issue though alternate side of the street parking where you have to move your card certain days. So I made a little video about that, what are you going to make another crazy video like that. So I feel not only am I doing myself a disservice, as I mentioned earlier, believing that it’s a sin not to cultivate and use your talent. But I have people that my friends that are looking forward to me making new content, so I’m doing them a disservice because I’m not sharing that with them. And the only way I can share things with them is to is to is to create and carve out time to to do what I need to do to get my world done to get more to write my next book, to write the next screenplay. So that’s why time is more important to me the money you know, obviously you need money to be able to eat and have shelter and clothing. But I’m not driven by some of the images that unfortunately, we see on TV where I need to add this enormous House of 17 cars or I don’t, that doesn’t interest me a good that’s what drives you and more power to you and strive for that just don’t crush everybody in the process. What drives me is being happy and being with in my in my own zone, which is creating content, which is writing, which is which is making people laugh at my voices, which is the things like that just creating content that not only move somebody from a comedic perspective, but makes them think about like, wow, you know, I never even thought about how a young black girl what what type of issue she would have going growing up in Brooklyn, I know that never even occurred to me, maybe to be able to develop a connexion with somebody or just just to open your eyes to some different. That’s what drives me.
David Ralph [49:02]
And what’s interesting, what you’re saying is, when you start something, you really are just going by your inner gut your intuition. But once you get a certain profile, you get a certain momentum going, your audience, your followers actually tell you what they want. I’m finding that in the show now, people are emailing me and going, wouldn’t it be great if you got this person on the show? Wouldn’t it be great if you did bad, and all the kind of decision making but I was doing at the beginning kind of gets taken over by your your followers? And the fact that they’re saying to you, why don’t you make these new videos? Why don’t you write this one thing do that, that will lead to providing you with opportunities to make money by telling you what they loved? And that is hugely powerful, isn’t it?
Christopher Grant [49:49]
Absolutely. I when you first initially start with you, you, obviously your first thing is to get the recognition. So you have friends, you have people that look at your work and people that comment it, then it becomes kind of a symbiotic relationship where they’re saying, well, they’re making suggestions, and maybe you hadn’t even hadn’t even occurred to you to take a storey in that direction. Or, or to, as you said to me, why don’t you write your own piece where you’re acting in it and producing and directing this things that that I would like to do. But you know, maybe you’re right, maybe I should look into that more carefully. So you never know. So that relationship with your audience, it becomes like a symbiotic type, type type type deal where they’re kind of helping you along as your, because they’ve seen things in your storey that are resonating with them. And like, well, maybe you could do this. So it becomes like a like a mutually beneficial thing.
David Ralph [50:38]
And what we’re saying to the listeners here, Christopher is, when you start something that you are passionate about, you’re not going to be lonely for very long, suddenly, you will find that one person becomes two people and two people becomes 10. And 10 becomes 100. And then suddenly, you know, I was looking at my stats for my show yesterday. And you know, I’m getting 20,000 plus, which is unbelievable. I was just hoping for 2000 when I started. And now it’s going up and up and up. And it’s going really quickly up as well. Am I delivering anything better? Well, hopefully I’ve got better actually doing it. Hopefully the performance that the questions are better just out of experience. But I’m doing something I love. And then suddenly having these people listening in their thousands, you kind of think this is this is mind blowing, where can it go? And really, where can it go, the sky’s the limit. Because once you you get out of being lonely, and you’ve got these people that believe in you, but really you’re cooking on gas,
Christopher Grant [51:39]
I think something where when you create good content, and your love the passion that you have for it comes through, when you go and eat a meal, you can tell when this love in the preparation of that meal. And I can always tell when when like a company has, has gotten or restaurants gotten too popular to where it’s just about getting the plates out. As opposed to putting attention to detail and love into the meal. When you put love into your content. People can feel that they can they can taste it, they can read it, they can see it and it resonates with them. So anybody that’s passionate about doing something, you really put your the work into you pay attention to the to the work, you pay attention to the details, and you just you just stay true to the work. And it It shows it shows when you make good content. And there’s love in there, people will see it, they’ll feel it.
David Ralph [52:31]
But let’s play the words of somebody that that really changed the world with his passion and his belief in providing quality content and quality products. This is the words of Steve Jobs.
Unknown Speaker [52:42]
Of course, it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leaves you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference.
David Ralph [53:17]
But I think we found the theme I think we found but dots that run through your life. But is there a big.is there a moment that you look back and go Yes. If it wasn’t for that moment, and a lot of times I asked the guests this. Sometimes it’s a dreadful part their life and they go oh my god, that was awful. But thank God I went through it to get to now. But is there a big.in your life that you can go? Yes, I totally agree with what Steve Jobs is saying. And without that one, Christopher grant that I am today wouldn’t be here.
Christopher Grant [53:54]
As one in particular, I don’t know how comfortable I feel discussing it. But I’m sure it’s I keep talking about come out. went through a very difficult divorce. And I would say it changed my perspective on on how I view myself, how I interact with other people. And what’s important to me. And if I don’t, I learned a lot from this woman I I don’t wish any ill will on her. I learned a lot from her. We just weren’t compatible. And I realised that I was subjugating who I was to try to make something work that it just just wasn’t, wasn’t right. I have found new pathways when I started focusing on myself. like Wow, I didn’t know that I could do this. I didn’t know I could do voice work. I didn’t know that I could could push this storey to spot where it’s getting recognition, not just from my friends, but from publications. Just past summer, teeny was added to the New York Public Library summer reading list. And I never would have anticipated someone else recognising the work like that was because I got out there and started investing in investing in myself and pushing my my agenda and pushing that ahead. So if I had to pick one life changing experience, is that there was a lot of pain that came out of that and a wish that it didn’t go the way it went. But that’s life and that’s hot that you in one of those experiences where I can’t go back and change change it. I can just learn from it and use the experiences and use the positive things that happened from that relationship and move forward. Because that’s the only thing. Another great saying from my dad, I’m sure he got this from someone else, I think is Marcus Garvey forward ever backward? Never.
David Ralph [55:45]
Simple, isn’t it simple, but hugely powerful. Did you hear a lot of your dad in you?
Christopher Grant [55:54]
Oh, my father was very stoic. He was not as involved in my life as I would have liked him to be. But he did deliver some nuggets sometimes. And that was probably the one that resonated with me the most was you can’t go back and change the past. the only the only thing we can do is use the past as a governor for how we how we live our lives in the future, or in the present and what it how it takes us towards the future. So that’s, it took me a long time to understand that and to embrace that because I was always Oh, I wish I would have done this. I wish I had done that. I don’t have a DeLorean like Back to the Future. I can’t go back and change things. And if I did, who knows if I’d end up where I am now, if I change something in the back in the past, I don’t know. But I am I I used the life lessons that I’ve learned. And I I don’t I don’t let let my fear because that’s your natural, your natural reptile brain response is the avoidance of pain. And I just look at what has happened to me in the past of what I’ve gone through, not just looking to all this work last time, so I’m gonna do it again, because that’s insanity. But to use my life lessons to say, Okay, I enjoyed doing this, or I didn’t enjoy doing this. And just navigating through life, and not being fearful. I use my experiences to help me to try to gain new experiences and, and try new things. That’s what I’m all about now.
David Ralph [57:17]
Well, I haven’t got a DeLorean I ever but I have got an affinity for time travel. And this is the part that we call the Sermon on the mic. And when I play the theme tune, you’re going to be transported back in time to have a one on one with your younger self. And if you could go in a room and meet the young Christopher gland, what age would you choose? And what words would you tell him? So we’re going to find out because this is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [57:45]
We go with the best of the show.
Unknown Speaker [58:02]
Chris,
Christopher Grant [58:04]
Chris, get up, man. It’s one o’clock in the afternoon. You shouldn’t still be sleeping. Nobody told you to stay up all night watching, watching Monday Night Raw Hulk Hogan wrestling. Get up and go read a book and do something be productive. You spend so much time just chillin on the couch doing nothing or chilling outside of your friend what is chilling Nina? I now this age, I don’t understand what chilling is. It’s just, it’s just idle, you just not doing anything. Get up off your butt and go read a book and just be productive. Because you’re going to find your path. Don’t worry about things not working out. Don’t be afraid of not taking chances. Just go for it. Because this period of your life. You’ll never be able to get this back, you’ll never be able to dunk again. Can you imagine that because you won’t keep practising you have to keep working on keep working at a jump shot. Because when you go to the gym, in your mid 30s you can hit the side of a barn. Keep working hard. Don’t ever let anybody discourage you. Don’t let I’ll tell you to stop speaking French. Because you should be fluent. Don’t let your brother out. Make fun of you for playing the violin. Because you should you should be really continued to be really good at it. Never let someone derail you from what you love to do. Because at the end, you’re the one that has to do it. Don’t listen to them only. only work on yourself, work on work on work on yourself. Always read always take care of yourself. always focus on on what needs to be done now. Don’t put it off until tomorrow. I stopped sleep until one o’clock at night because I’m going to come back and kick you out of the bed.
David Ralph [59:33]
Chris, how can our audience connect with you sir?
Christopher Grant [59:37]
You can find me on Instagram, Twitter at NYC subway writer. My website is Christopher dash grant. com.
David Ralph [59:47]
We’ll have all those links on the show notes. Christopher has been such a delight having you on the show today. I could personally listen to your Indian accent. Time and time again. I found that very amusing. Thank you so much spending time with us today joining up those dots. And please come back again when you have more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining those dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Christopher grant. Thank you so much. Thank you.
Outro [1:00:14]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up Dots.com to download this amazing guide for free. And we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
David Ralph [1:00:40]
Yes, hello there. Do you know during the show, I was looking through the iTunes reviews that everyone’s left. Oh, I’ve had some amazing ones. Well, every single one is amazing. They’ve all five star Why will they not be five star? Because it’s a five star show. But I haven’t seen one from you. Is it something I’ve said? Is it is it me? Please tell me Is it me? Well, if it’s just not oversight, please make amends by going over to iTunes and looking for Join Up Dots with David Ralph. And if you could find a few moments to leave a five star rating and review our be absolutely amazing and it will really push my show further up the rankings and make it more of a show that I want to deliver to you on a daily basis. So if you could do that, thank you so much and I’ll tell you what, I might even come and mow your lawn this Sunday.