Chris Sparks: Productivity Multiplier For Entrepreneurs

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Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner and today I have Chris Sparks with us. He is a productivity multiplier for digital entrepreneurs. So welcome to the show, Chris.

Awesome, great to be here. Thanks, Tyler.

Awesome to have you here as well and we will dive in, Chris. The first question I have for you is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

Spanish. All right. Well, I'm most known as a professional poker player, and I had a very eventful day where I woke up and my chosen profession was no longer legal, and half of my net worth had been seized by the US government.

And as much as I would like to think that I would respond really quickly to the situation, it was more like a deer in headlights.

And realizing the importance of this reorientation, the ability to face reality, however unexpected and inconvenient it is, and reorienting to that new reality so you can take decisive action.

And that experience taught me that this ability is what separates.

I call these moments inflection points, where our trajectory changes on multiple dimensions in an instant.

And now what I do is I try to treat—

try to teach clients these frameworks so that they can recognize and proactively generate these inflection points in their own life.

And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

Sure.

So I would say my expertise is productivity. And I don't think that most people realize that productivity is not an entertainment business. I think everyone looks for productivity hacks and tips, and they spend far too much time and effort trying to optimize their tools and their systems.

The thing is that we are the common denominator in all of our problems, productivity included. And if we can shift our habits and our mental frameworks, our approach to everything we do changes. Any small improvement we can make to our approach is is extremely high leverage because this is a process that repeats many times each day, and any small gain that we make compounds infinitely as we grow older.

And what is your best piece of overall business advice, so not necessarily industry-specific?

So every entrepreneur that I work with, I try to instill in them this idea of operating in serial rather than parallel.

So we are moving too many directions at the same time, and it's almost like that medieval torture where you get drawn and quartered, where 4 horses are riding off with each one of your limbs in opposite directions. And this getting pulled in several directions causes many of us to be effectively standing still. My advice is to do fewer projects of higher average importance and leverage with a higher level of presence and dedication, operating in serial rather than parallel. The fact is that most of our efforts are actually wasted because they don't address a current bottleneck.

And by making sure that we're working on the right things and bringing the right time and attention to them, that's how progress is made.

And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Only one piece?

Uh, I would tell myself to operate out of a stance of love rather than fear.

I think I would tell myself that no one is paying close attention and that the only critic that matters is you.

I think I was running away from things that I didn't want rather than thinking, what do I really want? Or even better, what do I want to want?

And creating the conditions to make that possible.

And now I try to use fear more as my compass, as an indicator of what compels me despite my outdated evolutionary programming.

That fear is not something to be avoided, but to be cultivated.

And in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?

Well, my key insight here is that most people confuse happiness and fulfillment.

So there is overlap there, but about 50% of each is actually counter to one another. So I think about happiness and fulfillment on a continuum where I try to maintain a constant awareness of where I am on that continuum.

So on the one far side where I'm completely pursuing fulfillment, I risk burning out. On the other side where I'm completely pursuing happiness, you know, the old hedonic treadmill, I worry about getting bored, that the things that I'm pursuing have diminishing marginal returns.

So understanding that this is a constant oscillation between these two extremes, I can keep an eye on where I am at any given point and rebalance that whenever I have an opportunity to reflect, thereby avoiding burnout and boredom. Uh, I think that understanding that both happiness and fulfillment both originate inside myself, I can reinterpret my own mental narrative in any way that best serves me in the way I take action.

That is an incredible answer. Thank you, man. And what is the best book that you've read? I know it's tough. And what was the number one thing you learned from that?

My answer to this is always the current book that I'm reading, because I always try to make what I'm currently reading the best book that I've ever read, or at least treat it like it has the possibility to do so. Right now, I'm really loving Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell.

For those of you guys who aren't familiar with his work, he basically spent his entire life diving into the myths, usually of old and ancient or indigenous cultures, and trying to find that what are the universal stories that are replicated across these cultures who have never met, and trying to determine what do these patterns tell us about What are the universal things that we need to understand to grow up, to become human, to reconcile with our condition? And this book so far has had two pretty transformational lessons that I'd love to share. On a personal level, where what I do is try to inspire others to action, I realize that behavioral change happens not through facts, but through creating a narrative where the possibility of change is believed, right? That shifting the way that someone views their position in the world and their ability to act.

And on a personal level, for me, I'm trying to activate this idea of mythic mode, that every setback I have can be reframed into essential character growth, right?

I'm constantly on my own hero's journey And any experience that I've had, no matter how painful or embarrassing, has gotten me to where I am. And looking at all of these as essential experiences for where I need to go.

And what is your favorite quote and why?

So I would say my favorite quote is, "You improve what you measure." And I actually like to rewrite this a little bit.

As you measure and you will improve. I think this is a really core insight that I've had from my years as a productivity coach, is that even if you don't have a stated goal around something, if you improve it, it's because you measured it, right? Never underestimate the power of increasing integer.

Just by directing our attention towards something, we'll automatically notice opportunities to improve it.

On the other hand, if you aren't measuring something, you have no way of knowing whether it's improving.

And we are so good at fooling ourselves of, you know, the ego exists to convince ourselves that what we're doing is great.

And without these objective metrics to look upon, it's very easy to think that we're improving at something when we're really standing still or even regressing.

So yeah, I always encourage people to follow the advice of If something is important to you, put a number on it.

Thank you so much for coming on, man. Very valuable show. And the last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find you online?

Sure. My website for coaching is theforcingfunction.com. If anything I said today jumped out to you, please send me an email.

I'd love to hear what—

happy to answer any follow-up questions. Email is chris@theforcingfunction.com. I'm also putting out chapters of my book Inflection Point on my Medium page. That's medium.com/sparksremarks. So my last name rhymed. Sparks Remarks is also my social media handle if you want to connect. Would love to follow up. It's been awesome having you on the podcast. Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Of course, man. And thank you for coming on. We appreciate it.

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