“Designing Your Best Life: A Conversation with Eric McGee, Founder of YouTopia[The CJ Moneyway Show]

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.

Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Network, the podcast that brings you stories behind the success. Today we have on the show author and life coach Eric McGee. How you doing, E?

How's it going? Thank you for having me on, CJ.

Oh man, I appreciate you taking the time out your day, man, to join us today. So Eric, man, tell us a little bit about yourself and about your background.

Well, you know, I started off as a writing coach that kind of like segued into life coaching because back in the day when I was younger, I always felt a little left out. Not really in terms of friends. I always had people around me, but sometimes I felt like maybe my values weren't necessarily the same as their values. And so I got really into personality types and learning about how people are different. And after researching that for quite a bit, I started my own education company. I ran that for about a decade where I was able to study and research and create my own personality typing methodology. And that's when I wrote a book about it. And, you know, that's where I am right now is, you know, trying to share, spread the word and, you know, basically promote my book. And also I coach students for that same reason, too, like writing and life coaching.

And to mention, we got to put it out there for you guys that don't know, Magic Johnson is our number one player of all time. And so it's good to meet a fellow Laker Nation person, but he's actually out there living it. He's out there now. So big shout out to you, E. So I'm jealous. So, uh, so E, tell us, man, how was it for you as a student growing up, and how did that, you know, create or influence your career path?

As a student, I was not the greatest student. You know, I was one— I mean, maybe this is typical of a lot of kids, like, if I was really into something, I would want to learn it, and like, I would study. But for the most part, if I wasn't into something, then it was very difficult. My brother likes to describe me once as someone who, if I don't want to do something and it takes longer than 15 minutes, then I'm not going to do it. And that can be difficult. And that's why learning about my personality was so vital, because what I realized is we all have differences in that we're not always going to be that steady person. I mean, you mentioned basketball. You look at different athletes and different players, they all have various styles of play. Some are streakier than others. Some are that, like, Moses Malone, get down and dirty, rebound, physical, grind you out. Or, like, Karl Malone might be like that, right? But then you have the flashier players who take a lot more risks, take more chances. They might get more turnovers, but they might pull off something really fantastic, like Magic. You know, I realized that with different personalities comes different strengths and weaknesses. And I feel like instead of fighting that and trying to be something you're not, what helped me was learning what my strengths were so I could kind of play to those. And that's helped me get to where I am so far.

Yeah, you know, that's just like with me. Sometimes you gotta know your lane, you know what I'm saying? Like you gotta know where you fit in at because I wasn't a great shooter. I like how you said you had a flat shot. Mine was flat too, but I couldn't hit a shot. So I practiced what I knew I can do. I can drive to the basket, you know, and I practiced passing, things of that nature, having good court vision. And I wasn't a shooter, so I didn't shoot jump shots. You know, that's just like some of the NBA players today. Some of them don't need to shoot jump shots because they can't shoot.

Yeah, I 100% agree with that. There's no reason Karl-Anthony Towns, who's 7 feet tall, should be out shooting 3-pointers. He should be like down on the block.

I don't know. Well, I don't know, different personality types. It's called— we can go back to, oh, he's 7 foot, he, he not a Shaq, you know what I'm saying? Like Shaq was one of the most dominant players ever to play the game. But at the— called at the, uh, uh, uh, Towns, he can actually hit that shot. That's the thing, you know what I'm saying? With him, he can actually hit that. But I, I agree with you too, he should in that block, but he got a different personality type. We just gonna leave it at that.

Yeah.

Hey, I want to see how he gonna do out there in New York now though, man. I think, I don't know, that was a big trade, man. That was real big.

It was. I was surprised, you know, that, I mean, before it was Minnesota. Well, I guess now that Minnesota's got Ant, right? Then now they're like, no, this is our future. We like his personality, right?

He's aggressive and, uh, you know, just, yeah, yeah, something must happen behind the scenes that we really don't know because all, you know, Anthony Towns had over $100 million something on his contract and, yeah, and, uh, you know, he was a vital part. He could have been the Batman with what, the, the Robin to, to Batman, you know. But so you know how things go, man, you know what I'm saying, locker room chatter or I'm the alpha dog, you know. Everybody want to be the alpha dog. Somebody got to step back, you know, and, and play that supporting role like, uh, like Wade did when LeBron came to Miami, you know. He said I had to step back. But, you know, personality, like you was talking about, personality-wise, when I'm the alpha dog and when I've been the man my whole career, I want to take that step back. You take a step back, you know. So you know how that is, man. So, uh, So, can you tell us, uh, tell us about the education company that you founded and what inspired you to start that?

You know, I was actually just tutoring on the side as a job. Well, I guess as a side job and, you know, like I just started to really love it. And, um, the company that I was working for was not a particularly good company. And so that way I could see some of the flaws., and some of the pitfalls that can come from owning an education company. And then I just decided to start my own, um, based on what I learned. And the cool thing was like, I have a very set philosophy in terms of like treating people and working with students differently. Um, and that actually, I used to coach basketball as well, and that came from the coaching background or my coaching background as well, which is like everybody's different. Everyone has their own role to play. Some people, like you said, are not the alpha dog., and it's okay, you know, that there's roles for everybody on a team. And I feel like that's true in the entire world. Like there's roles for all of us. And with different personalities, once again, comes different strengths. And I started the education company because I wanted to teach teachers not to necessarily bias their teaching methods based on their own, like, you know, I guess bias, right? And to work with every student individually with what works best with that student. Versus what works best for you. And that's why I started it. And yeah, I ran it for about a decade and that was great.

Listening to you say how you deal with people individually, and it made me think about, you know, the good book where it say that there's a lot of parts, you know, the body has a lot of parts, but all of them play different parts, but it's all needed though. The eye is different than the nose, but you need both of them because I need my eyes to see and I need my nose to smell and need my mouth to taste. They all play different roles in your life, but they all need it. And that's how it is in life too. Like you were saying, is that all have different roles. You know, like you basketball team, I might have somebody that's the score, they can go out there and get me buckets, but he don't play defense though. James Harden type player, something like that, you know. But then I got somebody that cover you on defense And they don't need the ball. Dennis Rodman type player, you know, that's gonna go out there and get rebounds and do all the other things that you need to be done and not necessarily need the ball to score. So it's always different roles for different things, man. I like the way you brought that out. That same way in life too, you know, we all play a part into doing something special, man. And everybody got their own unique skills, their own unique talents, man. And if you can put it all together and then it can make a beautiful community. What you're doing or was doing in that aspect too, man. So E, you've impacted over 20-some thousand lives through your method. So how have you been able to achieve such a wide reach?

You know, well, first, like, just owning the education company, we worked a lot of different school districts. So we worked with maybe like 40+ school districts. And through that, you know, we'd have like maybe 1,000 to Yeah, 1,000 students a year. And so with those students comes the parents and meeting the parents, and we would go into their homes, you know, work with them individually. Um, so just over the course of time, right, of 10 years, you know, and meeting tons of different people who maybe didn't sign up with us and didn't hire us, but we still, you know, interviewed them, talked to them. Um, I was able to kind of like get that out there. And also through teaching my teachers this method, that was also a really cool way to kind of spread the word about how to use this method to improve how you work with kids or work with people in general, not just work with kids. And then I also push that into the professional realm in terms of companies. I've talked to a lot of different companies and helped them in terms of working with their teams and teaching their teams how to understand each other better. And I think that's what it comes down to at the end of the day is communication, right? We're talking about on a basketball team, it's okay to have that person who's not going to shoot and is going to like get all the rebounds. And you have the person who maybe is going to shoot maybe like 30 shots a game and maybe need some help like on the defensive side of the ball. As long as teammates communicate with each other, right. And understand that. But if you're expecting something else from someone and they're not giving you that, I think that's where the problem becomes. Or yeah.

And like what you said, like last statement that you made, like it's not just in sports, but that's in life. And so as you was saying that too, like communication, that's just not in sports, that's in relationship. I mean marriages, you know, girlfriend, boyfriend relationship, communication with your children, any type relationship that you have, communication is the most viable thing that you can have because without communication, I don't know what you want, you don't know what I want, I don't know what to expect from you, you don't know what to expect from me. And so I agree with you on that, man. The most viable thing is communication in whatever you doing. Without communication, it's just gonna fall apart. Because like you said, I'm thinking that this is where I should be on the defensive end, but we ain't communicating. Switch, switch, you know. So communication is vital. So E, what is the Utopia website project, man, and the overall mission?

You know, it started like almost a decade ago and it was basically a site where we had guests on writing about their own personality type and their own experiences within that personality type. There's also an assessment on the website that allows people to take it and figure out what I use animals to represent my personality type so they can figure out what animal personality type you are. Once again, though, I always recommend people not just because you have to buy the book, but The way I wrote the book was as a replacement for the test, because I do think that online tests for the most part are pretty cookie cutter. No matter how customized you make it, you can't customize it for every single person who's going to take the test. So the way I wrote the book was to teach people to become the test, so thus they would understand the methodology and they would be able to type people better and fully understand people. Because I think some of the problem, or one of the problems with a lot of these personality book because there's a lot of them. They have this test in the beginning of the book, but, you know, tests can be wrong. So like the whole book is filled on— it's filled with prescriptions. But if you have all these prescriptions for the wrong diagnosis, then that can be a bit harmful, right? So I think really my website, the Utopia Project, was created to give people greater understanding of personality types. And then once they have that, then they can know how to use them.

So Utopia, the website, so we can just go utopia. .com and take an assessment test, or—

Yeah, Utopia Project. UtopiaProject.com. And that's Y-O-U, like YouTube. Like, so don't spell— so it's misspelled essentially, but it's Y-O-U-topia. UtopiaProject.com.

Okay. Yeah, I wanna, I wanna see what type of animal I am. A silverback. That's what I—

Everybody wants to be the alpha, you know. Everybody wants to be the alpha, and then they get— which is okay. That's the beauty of the test, is that there's strengths for everything, you know. Superman is not an alpha personality, right? Superman is like the quiet, shy— he's not domineering, but he's like the strongest superhero. So, you know, everyone has— I think sometimes we equate aggressiveness with strength, and that's not always the case.

Don't miss out on CJ Moneyway's book Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut, and get ready to preorder his upcoming release The Issues of Life, coming soon. Moneyway Aiming to Inspire.

Uh, yeah, I'm laughing about it. I might mess around and be— I might be the soft one, want to eat honey. So, uh, yeah, man, I'mma check that out. I want to check that out. Sound interesting. So, Eric, man, your coaching company has worked with some major brands like Hulu and Disney. What makes your coaching method so effective and unique?

Well, you know, I think it's basically the fact that, you know, I mean, I'm sure every coaching method Treats everyone individually, right? But I think because it's based on less on theory and more on practicality and practical experience, I think oftentimes people have a very set, like, okay, this is my method and this is what I'm always going to do. But, you know, it's also open to change, right? Like, I know I went to— I worked with a dental office and I gave a presentation there and I guess a workshop, really. And the personalities in that dental office were going to be very different than the teams that I worked with, um, or spread the word with on Hulu, right? Which were engineering teams or software engineering teams. Very different personalities. You got to express your, your ideas in a different way, um, for them to like have buy-in. And I think that's how my method probably differs, is that I'll adjust based on who I'm talking to in a good way.

Yeah, I get it. You know, I was just talking to engineer that worked for Meta and Oracle, and he was saying how when you go into these places and you start working. Sometimes you may be smart and you feel out of place because you got all these smart people that, and like we say, that everybody has a part to play. My skill set may not be your skill set. And I can imagine, as you were saying, going to sell yourself or sell your product to these people, you probably have to do a lot of storytelling to add, to implement your facts with it.

Yeah, I love stories. That's how people connect, right? So like we mentioned, like Magic Johnson, like I will type actual people or fictional characters to help. Like, I'll give them personality types or say, tell people what their personality type is because it's a really easy connect, right? Like if I told you Magic Johnson was a peacock personality type, I think people are like, oh, I totally see how he's a peacock. Like, right, you know, he's showy, he's flashy, he's loud, he's really fun. You know, if I told you, oh, Magic Johnson is a peacock. Jack Black is a peacock. You'd be like, oh yeah, they all do both seem very similar in a lot of ways, really like full of life and energy, right? You know?

Yeah.

Whereas I don't think Michael Jordan fits into that personality type. So, you know, like, and I think we can see that Magic and Jordan, different people, you know?

Yeah. And Kobe and Magic and just different people. Like I said, I couldn't imagine Kobe being a peacock either, you know what I'm saying?

Oh yeah, I know. Kobe and Michael Jordan have the same personality type, which I think we can see. And obviously Kobe idolized Michael Jordan, but they're both sharks. They would be the shark personality type, which is very narrow focus and very aggressive and very like shoot to kill, stab you in the front kind of person. And I think we can see that with the way they play, right?

What about Shaq? I can see him being a peacock, but I can see him being something else too, because like you said, He's not as loud as like Magic, but he got a fun personality like that. So what would you— what type of personality type would Shaq be?

Shaq and LeBron actually, I believe, share the same personality type, and that's called an elephant, which is like you said, very similar to peacock, like very friendly, warm, but not necessarily as like loud, which is weird because, you know, Shaq is like, look at me, look at me. But they're a lot more like bringing people into their family kind of type. And you think about, they both have huge entourages. They're both very, like, seem like very cool people to hang out with. You're like, oh, yeah, I'd like to hang out with them. I don't necessarily know if I'd want to hang out with Michael Jordan, to be honest. No offense to Michael Jordan, but it doesn't seem as much fun, at least. Whereas you hang out with LeBron or Shaq, you're probably going to have a good time and feel like part of the family, right? And that's why I call them elephant personality types, because elephants are herders in general. And they tend to be sturdy and strong and like very hardworking. So, hmm.

Yeah, see, I definitely got to go to utopiaproject.com. I want to, I want to check this out. Sound interesting. So Shaq and LeBron elephants, huh? So that's cool. Hey, so let's get to the point of the hour right here, man. So tell us about your book, man, The Power of Personality. And what inspired you to write this book?

Well, you know, the funny thing is I didn't— I, at the time, I was working in— well, because I'm in LA, right? I was trying to write screenplays and, and pilots and trying to get those sold. And I joined a writing group, um, which was great, and I met a lot of great friends there. And one night at the bar, because we'd always go to the bar after we'd work, we'd write, um, I mentioned the personality typing and people got really into it. And a friend of mine was like, like, you should really write a book on this. Look at how many people are talking about this and they're genuinely interested in this topic. And I was like, no, I'm going to continue writing my pilots. I don't know why, but I was not enthusiastic about the idea. And then she took some of the ideas, changed them a little bit, modified them, and put it on the TV show that she was writing for, for one of the episodes. I was like, wow, if it's good enough for that show, it was on Apple TV. I probably should write a book on it. And then I just, that's what started my, or that was the impetus for me writing the book. It was it just being on TV and that's how I pitched it. And yeah, and at that point then I found an agent and a publisher and it was published earlier this year in April, so.

Oh man, congratulations on that, man. Wish you much success, you know, with your book and go on to be a number one bestseller on Amazon, national number one bestseller. You know, uh, and so on, on that note, uh, E, what are some of the key points you want readers to take away from The Power of Personality?

I think number one would be find your anchor first. Find who you are, know that your values are different than others, and once you have that value system and know what you want, then pursue that.

Mm. That's it. So, say, that's it. Uh, just that in a nutshell. I hate—

yeah, you know what I'm saying?

Yeah, plain and simple. Uh, that's what I wanted to ask you. So where can we find the book at?

Oh, you can find it on anywhere. I guess they always say anywhere you can buy books. Um, Amazon, of course, if you want to give Jeff Bezos your money, but it's also on Barnes Noble. Um, and yeah, you go to any independent bookstore and order it as well. So, um, if you want to support your local stores, that's a perfect way to do it.

Okay, cool, cool. Uh, another one, social media handle, and what can we follow you at?

Oh, I'm not great with social media, but I do have handles. I, I just learned what that word meant. That makes me sound old, but yes, I just learned what a social media handle is. Um, you can find me on Instagram at The Power of Personality. Um, yeah, that's, that's probably the one I use the most.

Okay, cool. Uh, so just got a couple more questions for you, Eman, then I'll let you go. Appreciate you coming on today. So how can understanding your personality type help you in relationship— in romantic relationships?

Oh, that's the number one question I always get asked when I do talks on this, is like, it can be the most serious talk and people are just like, okay, so who should I hook up with though? That's what's important to me, you know. Or it's like, I get like someone who's already in a relationship and they're like, wait, so, uh, what's the perfect type for me? And I'm like, wait, are you just trying to like, you just want me to theoretically tell you that you're not right for the person you're with? Like, that doesn't make sense. I'm always just like, look, that's all theory. But I think the best thing that we can learn from it is that if you are this type of personality and you're with this type of personality, you're going to get along a certain way and you are not going to get along a certain way. And that's probably going to be consistent based on what your two personality types are. And you just have to be okay with that, because if you're not, you probably shouldn't be in that relationship, um, because it's not healthy to try to change the person, right? Like, if you try to— if you are yourself are an organized, structured person, and those types of people do tend to be attractive to people who are more spontaneous, more flexible, and you get into that relationship and then you realize, oh my gosh, the spontaneous person is also a bit flaky, It's like, well, yeah, of course, that both come from each other, right? Yeah, that makes a whole lot of sense. And you can't try to change them because if you try to change them from not being flaky, you know, you can't make them as structured as you are because that's turning them to something they're not. You know, maybe you can make them a little more responsible. That's a little different. But, um, I think that's how it can really help in relationships, is just understanding that conflict is inevitable and you have to be okay with that conflict, or you might as well be with someone else.

Mm, that's a good point right there because like you say, you can't— that's the one thing that, especially women, I hope y'all listening, you cannot change a man. If he gonna be what he gonna be, you know what I'm saying? He gonna be that when you met him. And me and my wife, I know for sure we got different personality types and we do a lot of agreeing to disagree. Before I get into a full-blown argument, anything, we'll just be like, I see I check gonna change her mind and she not gonna change my mind. We just be like, you know what, we gonna agree to disagree and then just let it go, you know, because that's a different personality type thing that, that, that, that taking place. Matter of fact, I'mma have her to go on that too and, and check her personality. I want to know she, uh, what, what type of animal I'm dealing with, right? Around here, man. My last question for you, man. Um, how can understanding— I asked that already. So I'm curious, can you— now that we talking about it, I'm curious, can you tell me, the host, and share a bit about some, uh, aspects my personality based on your method?

Hmm.

So basically, can I figure out what personality type you are based on how you talk? Oh, that's a, that's a tough one. I would probably say definitely something warm, friendly. You're out, you seem to be more outgoing. So the question I would ask is, why did you start the podcast?

I want to inspire people. I want to be an inspiration to, to others. Uh, you know, I just always got a love for people, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm, I'm stern, but on the inside, I, I— especially me, because I want men— I want us as men to grow to our full potential and be who we were created to be, because I think it men get in place as a whole, then we can live in a much better society because, you know what I'm saying, just things would be in order. But I think so many of us are out of position right now, and that's why a lot of things going haywire. And that's just one thing that inspired me to do what I'm doing.

I, I'm, you know, I, I would guess two animals. I would either guess an elephant, once again, that, that's like Shaq and, uh, LeBron's first personality, you know, like warm, friendly, wanting structure, some sense of order, but wanting people to get along, right? It's all for them, it's all about like, hey, let's all— we're all part of the same family, you know, so we should all like get along. Yeah, that actually would probably be my guess is the elephant. Um, the other one I was going to say was the dolphin, but I would go elephant first.

Hey, wait a minute, let's go back to the dolphin, because you told me what the elephant is. You told me they're strong and, you know, they want to gather people, corral people around because they got love. Now On, on, on the end note right here, I can't let you go without telling you, what, what does a dolphin represent, man?

The dolphin is more like, they tend to be more like the community organizer type, so they'll get people together, but they're also about bringing people together and like having each individual grow separately but as part of a team. Um, so yeah, but, uh, yeah, so it's very, they can appear very similar, the elephant and the dolphin, but You know, at the end of the day, the elephant values safety and security and making people feel— making the world feel safe, whereas the dolphin values self-knowledge. So they're more about finding out about themselves throughout their life. So that would be the big difference.

I guess it can be because, you know, that's a good point. See, because I'm thinking about the dolphin jumping in and out of the water, being, uh, being a big show Yeah, the show dolphin, you know, where they come and people watch them do they, you know what I'm saying, do they thing or whatever. Matter of fact, that was Magic on the basketball court. Magic, you a peacock and a dolphin.

Magic was a great leader, right? Like, and look at him as a businessman, you know, like.

Oh man, you gotta love him, man. You gotta love him. You gotta love him. So, man, come on, man. Dodgers. I think he does invest in some team in Washington, you know what I'm saying, or whatever. Just, you know, Starbucks, the movie theaters, man, his portfolio just crazy. But yeah, so E-Man, I appreciate you coming on, man. Is there anything else that you would like to share? Any future endeavors that we can look forward to that, you know, that you got on the horizon?

Well, you know, I'm looking to write another book specifically about romantic coupling and like how each personality type matches with each one. So, um, you know, that's probably going to be the next thing I'm writing, but that's not on the near horizon. So the more books I sell, the more likely that is going to be, uh, on the near horizon. So please, uh, you know, if you want to find out about yourself, go to the website, figure out what animal you are. But really, if you really want to understand it, um, please purchase the book. And, uh, that goes more in depth.

You heard it right, man, on the CJ Moneyway Show. And go purchase my man's ebook. Power Personality. If you want to know your type of personality and the type of personality of the person that you're dealing with, check out his book. If you want to know what type of animal you are through the personality challenge, go check out utopiaproject.com. My man E got some good stuff on there. I'm gonna go check it out myself. Today you have been listening to the CJ Moneyway Show. We out of here. Peace.

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