Episode 228: How to Get More Out of Life with Chip Franks

[INTRODUCTION]

 

Hal: It wasn’t very long ago that Chip Franks was taken out on a stretcher in a middle of a conference for entrepreneurs after just having a stroke. His wife was with him crying and his three children were back in the hotel room alone. The overriding thought that was on Chip’s mind was actually a question. Did I tell them what I wanted to tell them? That led to writing a book, everything he wants his kids to know if he wasn’t around. Something they could take with them and use when the inevitable slings and arrows of life attacked. The result, Life Lessons From Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life (From Someone Who Loves You). Covers it all. It covers everything Chip would ever want his kids to know. In fact, this is a 685-page book and Chip Franks is our guest today on the Achieve Your Goals Podcast. He is a personal friend of mine.

 

Anyone that knows him will tell you that he is just a sweetheart of a human being, one of the best people you’d ever meet. But he’s really an entrepreneur at heart from selling calendars door-to-door as a young boy, selling monster stories to friends and Ms. Robinson’s class in third grade, that was his first paid writing gig, to an illegal nunchuck operation in the sixth grade, selling self-made study guides in the ninth grade, a lawnmowing business throughout high school, selling books door-to-door for 80 hours a week while in college for the summers, and finally, by building and ultimately selling a real estate and property management company after 20 years as a real estate broker.

 

Now, Chip has spoken on the same stages at events with Tony Robbins, Peter Diamandis, Lewis Howes, Daymond John, Simon Sinek. He’s written over 1,000 books. He’s a podcast junkie and a constant student of life with mentors such as Robbins, Jim Rohn, Henry David Thoreau, Seneca, and Joseph Campbell and he specializes in providing easily actionable ways to improve life. And like I said, most recently he became a first-time author of the book. The title again is Life Lessons From Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life (From Someone Who Loves You) and it is my great honor to bring on my good friend, Chip Franks.

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

Hal: Chip, how you doing, buddy?

 

Chip: Oh man, Hal. I’m on top of the world. Thank you so much for having me.

 

Hal: It’s a pleasure, man, and I followed your journey on social media and I saw pictures of you in the hospital. In fact, I don’t know if it was the same time we were going through our hospital journeys, but I think it was pretty close to each other.

 

Chip: Yeah. But I think it’s just slightly after mine.

 

Hal: Right after. Okay. So, take us back to that. Tell us about the stroke. What happened? How did all that go down? And what came out of it?

 

Chip: Yeah. It was a crazy experience and it’s definitely a wakeup call in life. And I always had a conference for Entrepreneurs Archangel which actually we’ve been to together and this one was in Pasadena, California and I was talking to my good friend, Josh, just looking at him in the face and I was trying to ask him which speakers went that morning because I had a really bad flu and I was trying to figure out who we’d still see that day. And I tried to ask him which speakers were out there but the words coming out of my mouth were just gibberish and it was a very weird strange lucid experience. I mean, I knew exactly what was going on and, in my brain, I knew exactly what it was that I wanted to say and I just physically couldn’t say it and my sister who’s a speech pathologist he told me later on that the language and communication part of my brain had been affected and it wouldn’t matter whether I wouldn’t be able to write, I couldn’t type, or any of those things. And it happened luckily with these group of superheroes, so I had two doctors out with me within five minutes and within 30 minutes I was actually in the emergency room.

 

So, that was a pretty surreal experience and my wife was there. She was actually called down from our hotel room at the time and was holding my hand, was extraordinarily worried and, yeah, sometimes I get emotional even thinking about this because the thing that was on my mind as I was being wheeled away on a stretcher was, “Is this it? Is this the end?” and thinking and wondering, “Did I do enough? Or did I leave something for my kids?” And it was a jarring thought and I’d actually had started writing some things down for them earlier but that experience just really put a catalyst under me and eventually I sold my business which was no longer a lot of fun for me and spent this time just researching and heavily getting into all of these things that I wanted my kids to know if I were not around.

 

Hal: Wow. Man, and I can relate on a few different fronts, one, being diagnosed to cancer and being in the hospital but for me, I told my wife, I said, of course, because I was also kind of it was very touching whether or not I was going to live and that was my one instruction. I said, “Ursula, please have the kids read the Miracle Morning every year,” and actually I told her to have them read Taking Life Head On and The Miracle Morning. I said, “Starting when they’re old enough to start reading those kinds of books, please have them read each of those books.” I said, “Pay them $10 or whatever you got to do,” but I said that’s the greatest wisdom that I have that I would want to impart on them as a father and if I’m not here, that’s where it’s contained. So, yeah, the fact that you went and did it is fantastic and I really think that everybody has a book in them and for at the very least for the reason of passing on your wisdom and your knowledge and life experience to your kids or if you don’t have kids, the relatives, friends, family members, or the strangers that are going to come after you, yeah, man, so really, really cool.

 

Now, so this is 685 pages and I didn’t know that until you just told me and held up the book over the video camera and we were getting ready for today. Well, first, let me ask you this, I know why you wrote the book. I just kind of shared that when I was introducing you, but I want to hear you share like what were the types of things that were so important for you to be able to put in writing to share with your kids? And by the way, how many kids do you have? What are the ages? And then you go and answering why you wrote what you wanted them to know.

 

Chip: Sure. Well, I have three children. The first is Mandy. She’s 18 years old and she’s going into her second year of college now. Then I have Allie who is a secluded genius. She’s wonderful. She is 14 years old and she goes to Acton Academy. I believe like your kids as well.

 

Hal: Yeah. That’s great.

 

Chip: Awesome place. And then we have a six-year-old amazing Alec and he was born with Down Syndrome and I know you follow him on Facebook. You’ve seen him, He is just ray of light from God. I mean that boy just makes everybody that he meets a better person.

 

Hal: Wow. Yeah. I follow you and his journey. You’re always posting pictures and videos of Alec and you out there doing fun stuff together. All right. So, that’s your kids and then, yeah, so in your words, what were the types of things that you wanted to in the wisdom that you wanted to impart, lessons you want to leave them with?

 

Chip: You know what, there are a lot. Obviously, I mean 685 pages. And literally what’s funny is I wrote until I felt it was time to stop and that literally happened to be on 101 lessons and it wasn’t planned, it wasn’t controlled, whatever, to be a marketing title or anything like that which is kind of strange.

 

Hal: Yeah.

 

Chip: But what I did is I divided it up into four sections and that is the heart, mind, body, and soul and they’ve been the very best advice that I have but not really just me that in fact what I consider myself and probably my unique genius on this is to be a curator and to take the best information from the masters and from the people that have walked before us and have accomplished life in a very high level, the spiritual masters, the people that have mastered the money world that have gotten in phenomenal shape and health and in fact, of course, you are mentioned in the book heavily. You did the foreword, of course, but doing the indispensable practice of the Miracle Morning is one of the pieces of life advice. So, what I wanted to do is basically take everything that I could that was useful that helps build a better life for an adult because this actually it is an adult book and people ask if it was a kids’ book. No, it is specifically made for people that are going into adulthood and that are in adulthood and it’s meant to be kind of a handbook for life.

 

So, for instance, some of the pieces of advice are actively appreciate it all and I think I know you’re one of the most grateful people that I know, and this is like one of the biggest best lessons that I could tell anybody is that if you’re filled with anxiety or fear or what’s even worse is entitlement. If you think that the world owes you something or that thing should go according to plan because you plan them or whatever that the act of appreciation, of stepping back just being truly and profoundly appreciative for all the blessings in our life is one of the biggest, best lessons I could tell anyone.

 

Hal: Now, do you have any practice like any practical strategy for how you do that meaning do you do any kind of appreciation or gratitude journaling? Do you incorporate it in meditation? Is it part of prayers? More than one of those like, I mean, just curious how you because it’s one thing to help it appreciate because I think anyone would go, “Yeah, of course, we should be appreciative.” But do you have any kind of tangible practices that help you facilitate a deeper sense for appreciation?

 

Chip: Absolutely. In fact, I feel good about that one because my appreciation game is strong. The thing about the book and the way it’s designed is it does have the life lesson like actively appreciate it all. And it goes into like to even the word origin of appreciates and what that means and why it’s important and the fact that you’re not just born an appreciative person or not an appreciative person but it’s something that you can become very good at through practice and that’s the type of life lesson that it is. But then the second part of it is the part that we call the advice in practice section and it’s never, it’s always practice because you’re always getting better at it and there’s always room for improvements but the advice in practice is how do you do it. And just like you did the Miracle Morning where it wasn’t just saying, “Hey, dude, the Life SAVERS. It’s like this is how you do it,” and it was a book designed not just to give someone knowledge. I know you and I have talked about that. Most books and most authors just say, “Here’s the information. Have fun with it. Good luck. See you later.”

 

And this one and the Miracle Morning, of course, the phenomenon that it is it actually changes people’s behavior and that’s what I wanted with the book is for people to be able to take the blessings, the things that resonate the most with them, and give them a practical plan of how to accomplish it. So, with that said, you’d ask about appreciation and what we do to appreciate. The first thing that I do when I wake up in the morning and it’s when you’re kind of semi-conscious and you’re just like almost in a dream state, I have a five-minute journal that I use with that and one of the first things that it does is it asks you, what are three things that you’re grateful for? And I do that pretty religiously. I don’t miss too many mornings of it. And what I find is that that primes the pump for the whole day and it gets your antenna up for appreciation and the first one I do it’s whatever happens to be on my mind like, “Oh my gosh, the weather is beautiful outside,” or it could be, “My son and the way he greeted me yesterday,” that was on my list this morning.

 

And then I do something that’s kind of obscure that’s maybe not as in-your-face blessing, something you kind of have to search for a little bit like running warm water for instance. I mean, it’s something we take for granted. I mean, a few hundred years ago that would be a dream to even think it and here we have it on demand, we turn it on, and it’s there and we just don’t even think about it. I mean it’s such a blessing. And then the last one is either it can be – and I switch up on this sometimes, but it can be either something that is an obstacle or a challenge or something that’s causing me pain in life because I think that if you really you are acing this appreciation game and acing the game of life really if you can be grateful and appreciative even for the obstacles and the things that are in your way. So, that’s one and then the other thing is that gratitude and being appreciative for the things that are to come.

 

So, this morning I was grateful for our interview and how well it went. So, that’s my appreciation practice for the morning and then even going on throughout the day, I think you were there, I talked about this at the Archangel Conference in 2016 but I put a penny in my shoe and one of my friends, Dr. Scott Law, he taught me this and anytime I feel that penny move which I’m going on over three years now doing this and you never ever get used to a penny being in your shoe. Every time it shifts it reminds me to be mindful and that is to appreciate and also to show kindness and actually, man, I don’t mean to sound religious or anything like this but to allow God to show me my actions and that is any time that every time that penny in my shoe causes it and it’s a trigger. It’s a trigger effect which I tell people to do in the book is to have that trigger something in your environment that makes you appreciative with it.

 

Hal: So, you had a penny in your shoe for three years?

 

Chip: Yes.

 

Hal: That’s awesome.

 

Chip: Today I wore open-toed shoes, so the penny isn’t there today but generally it is and where five fingers all at one time so that penny is not real comfortable in it but that’s just my little reminder to be mindful throughout the day and it’s crazy effective.

 

Hal: That’s a great metaphor that even when life’s uncomfortable there’s always something to be appreciative of. So, that’s actually a good metaphor there.

 

Chip: Yeah. Absolutely. Then the last thing and I know I’m killing this but and going overboard on it but, yeah, I think it’s one of the biggest back bones that we can have as human beings is to appreciate it all. It’s just right before I go to bed. I also have a practice of writing down my wins, of saving progress for the day, and then also the things that I appreciate. So, I try and get good bookends and I have it throughout the day as well. And actually, I said lastly but at 7 PM and my alarm goes off the iPhone and it plays What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong and every day it says, “Remember you are blessed,” and I just close my eyes as long as I’m not driving and just take literally 30 seconds, 60 seconds to breathe deep and just think of what a miracle it all is. And that’s the kind of thing that’s in the book and the kind of things that I want to pass on to my children.

 

Hal: That’s beautiful. So, you’re saying the book’s formatted in that way where the 101 lessons in there, each lesson is at the end there’s an actionable practice to implement lessons. Is that what I’m understanding?

 

Chip: Absolutely. Yes. It’s like for appreciation, for example, it says set at least one alarm to go off every single day on your phone for the sole purpose of appreciation and counting your blessings. Think of all the things that you love, think of the special people in your life, think of the incredible circumstances and serendipity that has brought you to this very point in life. Savor it and thank God for it. That’s just one of the action items for appreciation for instance.

 

Hal: I love it. I mean, A, I feel like we could stop the interview now and like that’s such value that you just shared because I really believe that the quality of our life in terms of our internal life, our mental and emotional well-being is directly in proportion to the quality of gratitude or using the word appreciation that we are present to. Because in life, there are a million things you can complain about it at any given moment and there are a million things that you could be so grateful for. You are in tears if you chose to be that present to how miraculous and what a blessing these things are and to me, like the fact that you’ve got not just one gratitude practice or appreciation practice but you got like three, four, five every day, from the morning journaling, the evening journaling, the penny in the shoe to remind you to be mindful and appreciative, the 7:00 alarm going off with What A Wonderful World. I mean, you’re not just bookending but you’re bookending and infusing your day with so many automated reminders for appreciationship that that’s why I’d imagine you’re such a happy, grateful, thankful human being.

 

Chip: Well, yes. And you know I think you know this, a lot of our entrepreneur friends and myself included, we tend to be people that are almost I don’t know what the word is but maybe manic like we can have very high highs and extremely low lows and a lot of our friends are capable and have had depressive episodes and I’ve been one of those. In fact, after my stroke, the doctor said that I would be more prone to high emotions and depression. Oh my gosh, geez, I already showed my emotions on my sleeve as it is. And, man, that really happened, and I think that those practices, those appreciation practices and quite honestly, the Miracle Morning and doing the scribing and the journaling and the affirmations, those are what really pulled me through and got me to a better place. So, I mean, the stuff really works.

 

Hal: Got it. Share one more. What would you say the other of all the lessons that you share in the book, what’s another really big one or one that you feel like is really universally applicable that could help add value to all of our lives?

 

Chip: Sure. You know what, obviously again there are a lot but I’m going to go with Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It.

 

Hal: I love that.

 

Chip: And that one is a title of a book by Kamal Ravikant which is fantastic.

 

Hal: Love that book. Absolutely.

 

Chip: It’s great. It’s like 57 pages. Unlike mine, you can read it in one sitting and here’s the thing, I think that loving yourself, that’s not something that’s very easy and it’s not something that’s very talked about and I think that so much in life depends on that and we are constantly so much harder on ourselves than we are on other people and if you think about the self-talk that most people have, I mean, you and I consciously try to train the negative self-talk out of ourselves. We balance it with all of our affirmations and our sessions of appreciation and all of that, but most people would never tolerate a friend talking to them like our inner voice talks to us and the big thing about this is, yeah, I think that self-love and self-worth and feeling like you deserve a better future is so important that it’s really the backbone of self-development. It’s the backbone of feeling like you even deserve to have a great life. It determines what you will attempt in life and how many people you will try and serve and impact because if you don’t feel good about yourself, you’re not going to feel good about spreading a great message or you’re not going to go to the gym or you’re not going to read the book or you’re not going to journal or partake in your Miracle Morning practice or read life lessons from dad if you don’t feel like you’re worth it at some poor level. So, yeah, I really think that your self-worth really puts a cap on how much you can appreciate and get out of life.

 

Hal: Yeah. I couldn’t agree more, and I read that book while I had cancer and I was like on this high of self-love and teaching it at our – I run a mastermind a couple of times a year. I was teaching it at the mastermind and, in fact, one of our masterminds I bought mirrors for everybody like these little hand mirrors and everybody got like they pulled it out and I had them do some self-love in the mirror and talking to themselves. I’d love to hear the tangible like is it affirmations or how do you actually implement? How does somebody listening practice self-love because it’s kind of, A, it’s definitely a soft topic, it’s a lovey topic, but how do you actually do it? How do you facilitate self-love in a way that’s impactful?

 

Chip: Well, thank you for that. Naturally, there’s a couple of quick ways but first I just want to say that a lot of times and this has been my inner critic is that I don’t always feel worthy or deserving of true success and that was an inner critic that taught me for years and even when I accomplished as some pretty significant things in my life, there would always be that chirping inner critic at the back. So, the first thing that I think that people should know and understand is that you are worthy and you are deserving and this is a philosophical thing that I go into deeply in the book but one of my friends talked to me about this and he said, “You know, Chip,” and we were talking about this whole inner critic and not feeling worthy and he said, “Tell me something. Did you love your son when he was born?” And I was like, “Gosh, of course. I almost tear up every time I mention his name,” and he says, “Well, let me ask you, did he do anything to deserve that?” And the answer is accomplishing something or doing something or whatever, and the answer to that is no. I mean other than being a creation of God, a spectacular creation of God which is another listen in itself, but he is deserving of love because of who he is.

 

And I think that’s something that all of us, gosh, I mean, every single one of us human beings are seeking self-validation and seeking to feel good and the thing is you deserve that, and it is part of your birthright as just being a human and divine creature of God and I’ll use the word, God. Some people can say universe or whatever but that is one of the biggest concepts that you have to get out as far as the self-worth part. So, yes, you put that in your affirmations. You say that I am a spectacular creation of God and you repeat that, and you have it every morning that you read to try and introduce it into your psyche so that is definitely one of them. Another tangible tactical thing that I would say is to actually write yourself a love letter and these are the things that you do and get as specific as you can, and it doesn’t have to be about accomplishment. In fact, it really shouldn’t because you don’t want your self-worth is contingent upon, “Did I accomplish this, this, or this?” No, I mean, it is divine and it’s inside of you already but write that love letter just as you would write it to a spouse or a child that you truly love.

 

Another thing that I would do is create an idealist and that’s something that is also another life lesson but that has come up with as many ways to show self-love as you can and that can be to schedule a massage. It could be to take a day off during the week because, dang, you deserve it and you should sharpen the saw and you should take some time off to be sharper, yes, but also because you’re worth doing that. So, those are the types of things that you can do and then, of course, the last part is actually read the book by Kamal that we talked about. He’s got things in there, the meditation, the self-love meditation, talking in the mirror, so all of those are good wonderful things. Yeah. I know we only talked about 1/50th of the book but it’s in there and I really strongly believe those are probably the two most important life lessons that we can learn and that we can implement in our life to have a better experience of life.

 

Hal: And at the end, that’s the funny thing is that none of those lessons were, “Go make a bunch of money,” and I know that you have lessons in the book on that on earning money and that sort of thing. But the two most important lessons they’re internal because at the end of the day, how many people that make a lot of money, that are very wealthy, that are unhappy. Why are they unhappy? Because they don’t focus on appreciation and they don’t focus on self-love. At the end of the day, I’m glad you chose those two out of 101 lessons in the book because at the end of the day, those are two of maybe a handful of things that I would say would be the most important areas of focus but it all kind of hinges on how your self-worth and/or self-love and then your degree of appreciation that you are aware and present in your life. So, I want to touch on just one more thing. I know you mentioned the morning routines. I’m kind of big on those.

 

Chip: Yes. Absolutely.

 

Hal: Now, you’re big on the night time routines too. Can you expand on night time routines?

 

Chip: Yeah. Absolutely. And that’s more the tactical type of things that are in the book, but morning routines are fantastic. I’ve been doing the Miracle Morning for over three years now so thank you for that. That really had a profound impact on my life and in more recently, the nighttime routines. And my high school wrestling coach had a saying and it was that, “The will to win is not so important as the will to prepare to win,” because no matter how much you want to win a wrestling match, if you haven’t trained and you’re not in shape and you don’t know the moves, you have your butt handed to you.

 

Hal: That’s a great point.

 

Chip: Yeah. So, preparing for it is the best thing and to have a great morning, how to just actually having a great evening that prepares for it, and that’s just a philosophical type thing. So, one of the biggest things is shut down complete and that is a digital sunset where you turn off the electrical things in your home or if you are addicted to your phone or the Internet or your television which I think that most of us are, at the very least you wear your…

 

Hal: Guilty.

 

Chip: Yeah. Your blue blocking glasses to help that and help your circadian rhythm. So, that’s one of the things. And I talked briefly about the shutdown routine. I do appreciation at night and that’s something that really helps to get the anxiety out of your head and replaces it with gratitude and appreciation.

 

So, that’s a big one and then the wins for the day or I believe our friend, Jesse Elder, says, “Saving your progress,” and that is writing down the things that you did today that you’re proud of or that moves the ball forward or whatever and that gets you feeling pretty good. And for me, like I used to wake up in the middle of the night 3 AM sweating and wondering what am I doing with my life and that is like almost all but eliminated all of that kind of anxiety. So, that’s part of it and then I also take a magnesium supplement before I go to sleep. Obviously, brush my teeth and I have a ritual that I do with my son and help him brush his teeth at the same time which is a little bonding and family time. I hug my family. I turned the temperature down to 68 degrees, so I sleep a lot better when it’s cold and generally have something to read right beforehand that’s not on a glowing screen. That basically sends me off to sleep in a good way.

 

Hal: What do usually read before bed?

 

Chip: There’s a couple of things. It’s usually fiction because I find if I read something self-development or businesswise, my brain…

 

Hal: Brain’s racing.

 

Chip: Yeah. Then have to get out of bed and journal for the next day. So, that’s usually what I do.

 

Hal: I love it. That’s a question that I wanted to ask you that because I know you’re big on the evening routines and it’s one that I get – because I don’t have one. I could say I have one. I definitely say goodnight to the kids. I’ll usually read them a story or a quick paragraph, but I don’t have like a Miracle Morning type evening routine and I get asked a lot about what evening ritual people should be doing instead of the Miracle Morning and I would just say, “Do the SAVERS at night.”

 

Chip: You know what, just something, I know we’re out of time here but just real quick, I do have a life lesson on create your ideal schedule for the week…

 

Hal: Yeah. Share that.

 

Chip: And ideal weekly schedule and that encompasses the Miracle Morning for the mornings and evening routines for dads, a weekly check-in at I like to do mine in Sunday’s afternoon where you kind of see where you are in life and you check on who you’re showing up as a person and all of those being scheduled in of course with your deep work times and the time where you take to yourself and that you replenish and do all of that. I mean, that’s one of the life lessons and actually, I have that in the course on the free companion course with the book.

 

Hal: Okay. And where is that? Where can people get that?

 

Chip: They can get that by going to LifeLessonsBonus.com and in it, it’s, gosh, I think the course is about six or seven hours. Don’t let that scare you because you can’t take from it like just like the book, it can be a buffet. If you’re not feeling good on your self-worth, go to that section. If you need to know how to get every job you ever wanted, go to that section. If you need to know how to start outsourcing things in your life, I mean there’s a lesson on all of these and you can just pick and choose which ones apply to you and which ones can make the most difference in your life.

 

Hal: Awesome, man. I know you’re sending me a copy of the book. I’m anxiously waiting, and it just sounds like you did what any parent would and should do which is just to encapsulate all of the lessons and I don’t know. You must just have more wisdom than most because I don’t know how many – I couldn’t fill a 685-page book, Chip, so I’m impressed. I think it’s beautiful what you’re doing, not just for your family but for the world. I mean, like this isn’t just a book for your kids. This is a book for everyone to engage in these life lessons and I love some of the ones that you mentioned, how to get any job you want. Obviously, you’re extraordinarily successful, as I mentioned in your introduction, in terms of business. You always have been. So, I think this book is going to do a lot of good for a lot of people and again if you’re listening, you want to go get the book. I’m guessing by the way, is Amazon the best place to get it or where should people go?

 

Chip: Absolutely. Yes, it’s exclusively on Amazon for the first 90 days.

 

[CLOSING]

 

Hal: Perfect. The book again, everybody, is Life Lessons From Dad: 101 Ways to Get More From Life (From Someone Who Loves You) and it is by my friend here, the one and only, Chip Franks and, Chip, thank you, my friend. It’s really been a fun time to talk to you today.

 

Chip: Hal, I love talking to you, I love you, and I’ve told you this but you’re the single most inspiring person that I know so thank you for what you do in the world.

 

Hal: Dude, that means a ton coming from you especially because you’re up there too for me, my friend. Goal achievers, thank you for tuning in. I hope you enjoy this conversation with Chip Franks as much as I did. He is a beautiful human being. I hope to go get his book on Amazon and at the very least go get the bonuses at LifeLessonsBonus.com and I love you, I appreciate you, and I will talk to you next week, everybody. Take care.

 

[END]