“Chaos to Clarity: Steve Huff on Purpose-Driven Living”

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Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show podcast, the podcast show where we unlock potential one dream at a time. Today we have another guest whose journey is truly worth hearing. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the Moneyway experience.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Network. Where we dive into stories of resilience, creativity, and innovation. I'm your host CJ Moneyway Johnson, and in today's episode, it's all about embracing chaos, not just surviving it, but learning how to strive in it. Our guest today is Steve Huff, an innovator, storyteller, humanitarian, and recovering tech entrepreneur. Steve is the author of Life is Chaos and All Is Well, a book that offers practical insights on finding peace and purpose in the midst of life's uncertainties. With over two decades of experience in organizational development, consulting for Fortune 100, 500 companies, and founding successful startups, Steve's unique perspective on turning chaos into opportunity is something that we all can learn from. Steve, welcome to the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show, man. Excited to have you today.

Thank you, CJ. It's such a privilege to be here, man, with you. I'm really looking forward to our talk.

Oh man, thank you for taking the time out today to join us, man. So Steve, your career spans everything from Fortune 100 companies, 500 companies, to, uh, refuge camps in Africa. Can you share a bit about your journey and how did you go from studying history to becoming a global thought leader in chaos management?

All right, well, thanks, CJ. That's a great question. So my background, I, I was born in Charlotte, North Carolina. I grew up in Asheville, up in the mountains, and then in my early 30s I moved over to Australia. I married an Australian and I got involved with tech companies, started working in the startup world. I've got about a dozen startup tech companies to my name. Some have been pretty successful. Some have been complete failures, which is a part of the journey.

Yeah.

Uh, and throughout that time, I found myself working with a lot of executives and different corporations around the world, not only in the tech side but also in terms of how do we go from here to here, not only in terms of increasing our profit, in terms of being successful, but how do we be successful as individuals. And along the way, as you and I were chatting earlier, you know, I've got some battle scars. I had a divorce, survived cancer, went through some interesting experiences in the business world. And after COVID, I was thinking, you know, I really want to do something different and I really want to focus my energy on living my best life, but I didn't know what that meant. So my wife Jackie and I decided we were going to hit the road. We became digital nomads and started traveling around. The US and Europe and different places around the world. And I started doing some writing, but at the time I was working on a business and it was a great business and I was so excited about it. It was with some really dear friends. We were working very closely together. And then like so many things in our life, it became chaos and it fell apart overnight. I was left with a tremendous debt. I was ghosted by these people who were almost like family. There was no way to resolve anything. It was just there. It was just crap. And I found myself questioning a lot of my own values, my own ways of working and figuring out, well, what did I do wrong? Why did this fall apart? I've done it successfully so many times. And then I remembered something that my brother and I had worked on years ago called Life is Chaos and All Is Well. And we had done this kind of as a little think piece, a little one-page document. And I started thinking about that, and I'm like, how do I reconcile the stuff in my life that doesn't go well, whether it's trauma, whether it's grief, whether it's toxic people, which I was dealing with, whether it's anger or conflict or hatred or any of these things that we experience in chaos, and how do I reconcile that and still live my best life and find joy and find happiness and find success. And so I started a company called Winning Chaos and I published this book and I'm working on some others around this whole idea of how do we find that balance. So yeah, that's kind of a quick journey for me.

So Steve, man, you said a couple of things there that made me think about something. I remember Back in the day, me and a friend, back, you know, we used to go out and hang out in the neighborhood or whatever. And we used to try to rap. We was trying to be rappers, right? And we used to have this title. It made me think what you said about you and your brother. Had this title and it say, "You got your eyes wide open, but you still can't see." And so I say that because later on in life, I published a book called "Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut." And as I thought about it, resonated to what we were doing years ago. Years prior to where I came up with that title, you know what I'm saying? Because now I can pull back and draw off of that. And yeah, another thing that you said that made me think about some things, I was just talking about that on another podcast, that sometimes other people can derail your dreams if we allow it. If we allow them to derail our dreams, it can happen. Because as you said, I started having self-doubt, I started not believing in myself. And I'm a true believer that, you know, as I was telling her, I'm a true believer that sometimes, man, God removes people out of our way for a reason. Because some people can be a hindrance to what we're trying to do. And it's just a point too. It's just a point whether you're in a relationship or friends or whatever. God may open a door for you and it's open for you, but you're trying to bring other people through the door that's not meant to go through that door. And so you can't go through it either, you know what I'm saying? Like, wait a minute, because Sometimes you got to drop some people off and you like, wow, now you started, you know, your company now and you drop some baggage off. And so now that door is wide open with minus some of the people that, you know what I'm saying, derailed the first business. And that's just how life go, man. Life is chaos. But how do you deal with it?

Oh yeah. Oh, that's a great point, man. That's a great point. I think one of the wild things about this, this journey has taught me that you're right. There are people who come in and out of our lives and some of them have great meaning my children, my wife, my good friends, family. And I've had business colleagues that I still am really connected with. We had a great run. We made some money together. I've had other business colleagues I don't talk to anymore. And it's a really interesting thing. How do we find that, that balance? And here's one of the things I learned. I used to operate under this illusion that just because I'm involved with something, Therefore, I sort of am responsible for it, or I have some kind of influence over what's going to happen, or my opinion should really matter. And I'm a successful guy, so that's important for me to go in there and set goals and achieve and get it done. But what I've learned in this journey is that I have to learn to let go of this stuff, and I have to realize that while I work with different people, I'm responsible to them, but I'm not responsible for them.

For them.

Mm-hmm. And the other thing is, and this is one of the things we were talking about my mom earlier and our mothers, uh, when we were chatting earlier, one of the things my mom taught me, she gave me some zingers, but the best one was own your own shit. Mm-hmm. And that's just been one of these mantras that I kept with me all of my life. I'm responsible for me. When I'm in a, when I'm in a relationship and it breaks down, as you said, there's an opportunity for both of us to walk through the door together, but that person is only responsible for themselves and they may choose not to walk through that door with me. I gotta let that go because if I try to hold on tight and drag them through the door, it's going to be more chaos. So letting go, I think, and then with the letting go, being responsible for ourselves That's where it's hard, but I think that's where the rubber hits the road.

It is. And we can have a whole nother conversation on that responsibility, accountability. So, Steve, your book is called Life Is Chaos and All Is Well. Can you elaborate on a moment in your life when you truly embraced this paradox and how did it help you move forward?

Well, I think there have been a number of times when this happened. And I think the model for me that really hits, because we're all— the chaos in our lives will not go away. It's there. I mean, we all experience it. Some of us every day, some of us, you know, occasionally, but we've all experienced it. We've all had trauma. We've had grief. We've had broken relationships. Look at our state of the world right now. It doesn't even matter what politically where you're at, there's chaos in the world. I mean, there are wars, there's homelessness, there's, there's just wild stuff happening. And it's happening so fast. I mean, the rate at which we're changing and evolving is exciting on the one hand, but it's also very frightening. So when we have all of this chaos, how do we find the balance? And for me, I used to try to work the chaos. I used to try to manage the chaos. I used to try to problem solve and set my goals and do what I'm supposed to do as a good operator. And I act without fear and favor. I try to be authentic. I try to act with integrity, but I didn't find that I was getting anywhere. The chaos would always derail me. I was thinking, why? I'm doing everything right. I read the self-help book. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. Set my goals, I get up in the morning, I do my intentions. I'm a good man. I'm not a jerk. I'm not trying to screw people out of their stuff. So, why does it happen? Why do I get derailed and this stuff come along? And I had to come to the realization that chaos is a part of all of our lives and it's constant. So, knowing that, where do I put my energy? And so, What I've learned is what you count is what you get. If I count the chaos and I put my energy and effort into reacting and dealing with that, then I'm going to be in that place.

Mm-hmm.

But when I put my energy in action and my beliefs, my philosophy into joy, into helping other people, into being thankful, into gratitude, into love and kindness, then I start to transform And the chaos is still there, but it means less to me. So I think many men and women have gone through a divorce, a broken relationship. Doesn't have to be a divorce. It could just be a relationship that's broken up. And there's pain on both sides. And when my marriage, first marriage, broke up, it was horrible. It was painful. That's one of the stories I talk about in my book because what happened for me is I thought I was enlightened and I was going to be able to handle it, but I needed a lot of help. I needed friends around me to support me and hold me up and remind me that I'm okay. Because when we're in that place, when the chaos is all around us and it's pushing in on us, we start to question ourselves. We question, "Am I all right?" You know, "What did I do? What could I have done?" And you know what? You are all right.. And it's fine. The chaos doesn't define you. It just doesn't. You're defined by something different. So put your energy into that. So that's one example in my divorce. In the book, I talk about many different examples. There's lots of stories in there from my own life, friends' lives, colleagues. And the goal is to kind of share that information and just let folks know that they're fine. You know, you're fine, man. CJ, you're awesome. I'm awesome, you know? You know what I mean? And we got to believe that. We got to live into that.

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When you are hiring, we at ZipRecruiter know you can feel frustrated, forlorn, even like your efforts are futile. And you can spend a fortune trying to find fabulous people only to get flooded with candidates who are just fine. Fortunately, ZipRecruiter figured out how to fix all that. And right now you can try ZipRecruiter for free. At ziprecruiter.com/zip. With ZipRecruiter, you can forget your frustrations because we find the right people for your roles fast, which is our absolute favorite F-word. In fact, 4 out of 5 employers who post on ZipRecruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Fantastic! So whether you need to hire 4, 40, or 400 people, get ready to meet first-rate talent. Just go to ziprecruiter.com Go to ziprecruiter.com/zip to try ZipRecruiter for free. Don't forget, that's ziprecruiter.com/zip. Finally, that's ziprecruiter.com/zip.

And that's where I think for me, that's just one of the examples. And many people have gone through that. I'm not special. You know, I'm just a dude and trying to make it in the world. But that realization was very liberating for me. Is I gotta let go of it.

Yeah, I hear you, Steve. And you know, something that you said that made me think about it, you said when chaos going all around you, you know, you trying to deal with it. And it was something that you said that made me think to the point where a lot of that time things are, you know, internally. So once we become at peace inwardly, it helps us on our outwardly. So the things that's going on around us Yeah, it's going on, but I'm at peace. You know what I'm saying? Within me, because I'm at peace with what God has placed me at this moment and what I'm trying to do. And so I'm not conforming to this or that or trying to handle this situation and that situation. The battle is not mine to fight. And a lot of times too, as you were saying about accountability and responsibility, Steve, is that A lot of times too, we bring chaos with us. If you want a peaceful home, whether a man or a woman, if you want a peaceful home, you got to bring peace to the home. You can't bring chaos to the home and then expecting to have a peaceful situation. It don't happen like that. And that comes from inward.

It does. And, and what we often do then when we're in chaos, we're looking for someone else to blame. Right? So when I bring chaos into the home and I feel it, then I'll start, you know, critiquing Jackie and say— my wife— and saying, you know, why are you doing this? Why are you doing that? She's like, I'm not doing anything. You brought this into the conversation. And it's kind of like, oh, okay. So here's the wild thing: I can't be responsible or accountable unless I surround my people, myself, with people who are going to be honest with me. And they got to hold up the mirror to me. Now, holding up the mirror is a dangerous thing because when you look in that mirror, you're going to see things that you don't like about yourself that other people may see. But it's also a beautiful thing because you also get to see the good stuff about you. And that's, again, one of these paradoxes. So, being accountable and being responsible requires you to be intentional about wanting to do that. And you're right, it comes from inward. You have to decide, based on my values, based on what's important to me, do I really want to go in this journey of being more self-aware? Do I really want to look in the mirror? Do I really want to have people give me feedback and help me course correct when I'm off? Or do I just want to go through blindly? It's easier. It's easier to go through life asleep and unaware and go through blindly, but I find that it's less fulfilling. Because even though there's chaos and there's crap in the world and there's stuff going on, I find that when I can get to a place when I'm truly letting go and living into gratitude and loving kindness, man, my heart is full.

And it's a, it's a great thing because now we're not leaning into our own understanding, but we letting the Lord direct our path. And it's totally different is when I'm trying to do things on my own and just letting it go and say, Lord, you got the ship, you know what I'm saying? And take me to where you want me to be instead of me trying to guide it and not knowing or have a direction of where I'm trying to go. And speaking of direction, let me ask you this, Steve. You talk about using chaos as a catalyst for creativity and innovation. Can you share a specific an instant where chaos led you to an innovation solution, whether in your personal life, as you was talking about with your divorce, or your professional project?

Well, you know, one of the great things was this book. Chaos was the catalyst for me actually writing the book. I mean, I was hurting. I was in pain. I didn't know what to do. I was almost broke. I was like sitting here going, what's going on? And that chaos, you know, gave me an opportunity to do it. Another example I talk about in the book, I was in 7th grade and I never could do tests in school. You know, you have these standardized tests and I don't know, maybe I'm dyslexic. I'm sure I've got something going on in my brain, but I never could take these tests. And, you know, my classroom work was okay and I was a smart kid, but I could never figure it out. I remember after some standardized tests after 6th grade, I came to school in 7th grade and I went to class and they said, "No, you're in this other class now." I walked in and it was special class. Now, back in the early '80s in Charlotte, North Carolina, the special class, it was everybody. I mean, you had autistic kids, you had Down syndrome kids, you had kids with physical disabilities, and you had a whole range. You had the boat kids from Vietnam and Laos who didn't speak English. They were in that class. So it was just that any kid who was different was put into this class. And I walked in there, I'm like, "Oh no, no, no, this is— there's a mistake. You know, I'm not— I don't belong with these kids. What's going on?" And my parents were really clever and they said, "Okay." And they went and talked to the principal and they said, "Well, you know, we'll work on it, but it's going to, you know, he's got to be there for at least a semester and figure out these tests or whatever." And they said, well, look, this is where you are. You can live with it. You can deal with it, but you can't leave. So you got to get on with it. And they kind of pushed it back to me because I was, you know, typical young, I was 14, you know, I was kind of like, the world is at my, you know, it's not my fault. They look at what they've done to me. I was playing the victim, right?

Yeah.

And my parents said, well, you know, we know you're smart. We know you're a good guy, but That's life. Deal with it. And it was a great lesson. And so that's what I did. I kind of dive deep. I started hanging out with these kids and stopped being afraid of them. You know, they were goofy. They looked different. They acted different. They talked different. But what I realized is they had the same needs and wants and dreams and ideas that I had. You know, they just wanted to be accepted. They just wanted to be a part of something. And, uh, it was probably the best year I ever had. But it was— the chaos was there and I had a choice. I could live with it. I could try to engage with it or I could leave. Well, my choices were limited. I couldn't leave because I was in school. I couldn't just walk away. I mean, I guess I could, but I'd be in real strife. So I had to figure out what to do with that. So my choices were I had to either live with it and I couldn't live with it because it was driving me nuts. So I engaged. And I dove deep and it was a great year. I made friends that I'd never imagined I would make. I improved my grades. Everything just clicked because I engaged in it, but I engaged in not the chaos and all that had happened to me. You know, look at all this stuff that happened to me. They put me in this crazy class. You know, look at all this, you know, oh, woe is me. No, I didn't do that. I dove into how to make it better. And that's what you do.

And you know, I know from, like you say, back in our day when we was in school, that was like a separate entity. It wasn't like how they got choices now and you, you know what I'm saying, people. No, when you was in a class like that, everybody knew that this is the class that you was in. And so, you know, it's the mental aspect as well. I can imagine that you went through, you know, with your friends that you live in the neighborhood with. Oh yeah, talking about, you know, say, oh, Steven, special ed and things. So it's the mental aspect too that you have to deal with going through that, man. So I give you kudos for, you know, taking it. Like you said, I couldn't go nowhere. It ain't like I could just quit school, you know. Then I would hear my daddy cuss.

Well, it's funny because my brothers, my brothers still call me Special Steve, and that's their nickname for me. So they've been calling me that since I was 14. I tell you what, I got nicknames for them which I won't repeat, but yeah. Special Steve.

Special ass, I guess. Okay, so, so Steve, man, let me ask you, man, you've worked with organizations and leaders around the world.

Sure.

How does your approach to chaos management apply to both personal development and organizational change?

Well, I think the, the big thing for me in both personal development, leadership development, organizational change is authenticity. And when we're in chaos and we're focused on that, first of all, as an organization, when we have chaos in our organization, whether it be bullying or toxic work environment or unclear expectations or poor communication or politics or any of the stuff that we've all experienced in organizations, any of that crazy stuff, out-of-bounds behavior, when that happens, We have people that are less happy, and therefore, we now know that we're less profitable. So, it affects our bottom line in an organization when we have chaos. So, one of the things I typically do with organizations is a bit of a chaos audit when we go in. And I have a tool that we use where different people in the organization will answer a range of questions around what they're doing, their workflows, how conflict is dealt with, how communication happens, what's toxicity like, all these different things. And we do a bit of an inventory to assess where they are and where the chaos is so they can start to address it. The other thing is, for a leader, one of the things is being authentic. It's trying to figure out how you walk the talk. How do we act with integrity? Now, integrity means we integrate what we say and what we believe. There's a lot of people out there who just learn the technique. You know, they just learn what I need to do to get by, and I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna do my job. And when you have a leader who does that, then they're not inspiring and bringing their team with them, because the job of a leader is to say, here's our problem, here's our job, here's our team, we need to go address that and move from here to here. That's what a leader does. Good leaders lead from the front, and people will go with them. Instead of just telling people what to do, but integrating what you say and what you believe is important. And I think there are 3 things we do when we're authentic as leaders. First of all, we got to develop rapport. We've got to develop trust. We have to listen and we have to support our people. Because without that, then how do we know if we're going to bring them with us? The other thing we have to do, and we talked about this earlier, is we have to hold up the mirror to our people. We have to challenge them. We have to have discipline. Discipline, that word from discipleship, which means to teach, right? And so, we have to teach and learn with our employees. We have to stretch. We have to reach our goals. We have to be very clear. But the final thing we have to do as a leader, and I think this is where a lot of we've missed this in our classic approach to management and leadership training. We learn the technique. We learn how to communicate, support. We learn how to challenge and do performance and hold up the mirror. But I think the third thing is we got to learn to let go. And this is what we talked about earlier because, as a leader, my job is to be responsible to my team and provide them what they need, but I'm not responsible for them. They've got to own their own shit. They've gotta rise to the occasion and be responsible. And once you start building a culture of authenticity and integrity, where you're walking the talk and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and you're delivering, then your organization goes forward in leaps and bounds. And I've been a part of companies that do that. I've been a part of companies that don't. I've worked with companies to help them address those things and really develop a plan to move forward. And it's exciting when you see that. I mean, I have people who I worked with 25 years ago who come up to me and they'll say to me, you got to own your own shit. And I'm like, yeah, you sure do. And that's a really important thing is authenticity.

I got you. Hey, say Mama taught you something and it stuck with you and now you're teaching others the same thing. Gotta own your it. Hey, that's it. Hey, so speaking about helping other people, other companies integrate these programs and things of that nature, you founded multiple startups and working with some of the largest organization. What's the biggest misconception about entrepreneurship that you like to debunk for our listeners?

I think one of the things people think being an entrepreneur is, oh, well, I can just go and do it. But it, first of all, most of what happens in a successful entrepreneur, I believe happens in the first year. And it takes incredible energy. It takes new ideas, new ways of thinking, innovation, but at the same time, you're having to backfill some systems and processes. And when you don't do that, you won't be successful. The successful entrepreneurs we see in our world didn't just get there because they were smart and had a high IQ and they had a clever idea. They worked incredibly hard. So I think one of the things people say to me, "Well, I want to be an entrepreneur." And I'm like, "Well—" I had a guy from MIT tell me once that unless you're sitting over your toilet bowl at 2 in the morning vomiting your own blood because you can't make payroll the next day, you have no idea what it means to be an entrepreneur. And I think that's, that's one of the misconceptions is that we can just go out and become it. Well, I've seen this person do it and this person, the internet's filled with it, but the amount of work is really important and you gotta be prepared to do the hard yards. Now that's a wild thing because by doing that, you also gotta find your own balance. I remember, uh, being in Silicon Valley. And having a meeting with some potential partners on a company I was running. And at the time I was living in Australia and they said, well, you know, you need to move here. And I said, well, I'm not moving my wife and my kids. So my kids were very young. I'm not going to do that. And they said, I said, my wife, she doesn't want to move. And the response was, we'll get a new wife. Wow. And I was like, what is wrong with you people? Right. Because that didn't go for my values. So, the challenge for an entrepreneur is you do work long hours, you do have to invest a lot of yourself, but you also got to be able to find that balance and keep your values of what's important to you. My family, my friends, how do I treat people with the respect that I want to be treated with? How do I show love and compassion even in the midst of trying to make money and win? And I think you can do both, but it also means you have to be, as you said, that internal drive, you have to have that and want that. So I think the biggest misconception is that I can just go and do it. It takes a lot of hard work. And I think the other thing to be aware of is finding that balance, just like anything in life, takes intention and it takes you focusing on finding that balance. Mm-hmm.

A lot of hard work. And you're going to spend a lot of your own money. Believe it.

Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh, I mean, you're going to go broke a few times and you're going to, you're going to win and lose. I mean, you know, that's a part of it. And some people love that. I love the creation part of being an entrepreneur. I love the early stage, the first year and two, that's where I thrive. But after two years in a company, you do not want me running your company. You want me on the board hanging out, and you want other people who are gonna really manage those systems and processes and drive it. So learning what you're good at is also really important. Now, some entrepreneurs can do it all. I mean, you know, some of these guys and women, they're just amazing. I look at them, I'm like, man, you got some serious skill. You can do the startup piece and you can do the, the other piece, and good for you. Uh, me, I'm a startup guy. I hang out in that world.

Uh, so, uh, Special Steve say, I know my lanes. Exactly, that's right. Exactly. So Steve, I only got a few more questions for you, man. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your truth with us today. Yeah, absolutely. You presented to audience of 500+ and delivered a TEDx talk. What's the most controversial idea you've presented and how did the audience react?

I think one of the things I did, I actually did this in a TEDx talk. I don't know if you ever saw those Monty Python— it was the British comedy series back in the '60s— and there's— they did a movie about kind of a parody on King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. And there's a scene in there where it was the plague and the Black Death scene, and they come across these people, and that there's a guy, and it's really kind of a gross, macabre scene. He's going and picking up dead bodies in the street and putting them on their cart, and he's pulling the cart down saying, "Bring out your dead! Bring out your dead!" And they put them on the cart, and he's gonna go bury them. And they put this one guy on the cart, and he goes, "But I'm not dead yet!" And, uh, and the other guy says, well, he soon will be. And, and he goes, I think I'm feeling better. And he gets up and walks away. And it's kind of a funny little scene, but that idea that I'm not dead yet really resonated with me. And I think that's one of those mantras we got to remind ourselves, you know, in the face of chaos, in the face of all this, we have to remind ourselves Remember. And remember, the word remember literally means to put back together. Dismember means we pull it apart, but remembering means we put it back together. So when we remember, we focus on what's really important. And one of the things I remind myself of when I get up in the morning is I'm not dead yet. I still have an opportunity. Hope is still possible in the world. Love is still possible in the world. Our opportunity to live into this world as the people that we're meant to be and make the world a better place is still there. But in order to do that, I have to remind myself I'm not dead yet. And that's one of the things I think that I, I really enjoy talking to groups about, is reminding them of that and seeing the look on people's faces when they're going, yeah, I can still do this. That's, that's cool. You know, I like that terminology.

I had a pastor in Detroit one time, he said, son, if I died today, he say, whatever I was looking for yesterday, I'm not gonna get. He say, but if the Lord wakes me up today, whatever I was looking for yesterday, I can possibly get it today. But if I'm not here, whatever I was looking for that day I'm not going to get it, like you said, hope. But as long as he opened my eyes up for the next day, whatever I was looking for yesterday, it's hope that it's possible that I can get it today, and so forth and so forth, so forth. As long as he opened up our eyes, we may not got it yesterday, but as long as he opened up our eyes, there's still a possibility that we can reach and get to where we want to be. But we got to be here. We got to be here in order to see it. And so I like how you brought that. I like how you brought that in. So let me ask you this, Steve, with your book, with your book, and I'm going to ask you one more question after that about your book. What would you like readers to take away from your book?

Yeah, that's a great question because I think a lot of writers write out of their own experience and what's important to them. So this was an incredibly cathartic experience for me to write this book. And what I took away from it was it's okay. First of all, I'm not dead yet. I'm fine. Second of all, the chaos is real. I can't deny it. I can't hide it. I can't try to make it go away. It's going to be a part of my life, but through love and kindness, through gratitude, through focusing on those values to be authentic within those ideas, then I truly live my best life. The chaos is still there. It doesn't go away, but it doesn't have its hooks in me. It doesn't pull me down as much as it used to. So that's what I would like readers to take away, is that in the midst of your pain, your grief, you're dealing with the crap in your life, which is real, it's okay, that you can still find this true joy, this true liberation by practicing loving kindness and by living into, you know, who we're really supposed to be, which is not just about me, it's about us. And that's what I want people to take away. I like that.

You know, like you say, it don't have a grip on me like it used to, you know, it's mine. It's because at times you become more disciplined in certain situations and certain things in life. Things that I, when I was undisciplined, I was running to, you know. Oh yeah, going head first, uh, being Special Steve out there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, man. Hey, but when you start getting— I'm sorry, folks.

Hey, I gotta get some t-shirts, man. I gotta— I'll send you one. I'm with Special Steve. Oh man, you gotta get the helmet too.

All right, man.

Hey, don't knock the helmet.

I get down with Steve. But anyway, sorry folks. Hey, but, uh, so Steve, you've had an impressive career, man, filled with meaningful projects. What's next for you? Any new ventures, books, or events on the horizon?

Yeah, so working on a couple of things. I am working on a new book really around when you ask the question about organizations and leadership, and it's really about how do we lead in chaos. And so, I've already started working on that and hopefully, that'll be out by the end of the year. I'll let you know when that pops up. But I'm working on that. I'm continuing to do some speaking and consulting with organizations. And really, that's been exciting because that's not just in the States or in Europe, it's also in Australia. I've been able to continue to travel and work with some really amazing people, and that's been really fun. I really enjoy that aspect of working now, is engaging, whether it's with young entrepreneurs or with Fortune 500 companies or with executives, and really trying to figure out how do we deal with all this chaos and be better individuals, but also better companies. That's what I'm really getting joy out of right now.

Nice, Steve, man. Keep doing what you doing, man. Providing the great content like that to the world, man. Really appreciate you. So thanks again, Steve, for joining us on the CJ Moneyway Show. And to our listeners, thank you for tuning in. If you found today's episode valuable, please leave a review, subscribe, and share it with someone who might need help navigating life's chaos. Make sure to visit stevehuff.com and use the exclusive code provided in the show notes for a discount on Steve's book. Until next time, stay curious, stay resilient, and remember, all is well even when life feels chaotic. This is your boy CJ Moneyway signing off. We outta here.

Peace. Peace. Thank you for listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. Don't forget to to share this episode with your friends, leave a comment, and drop a review. Be sure to tune in every Tuesday and Friday for more inspiring journeys. Who knows, your story might be next. Mm-hmm.