All right, welcome back to The Daily Mastermind, everyone. George Wright III with your daily dose of inspiration, motivation, and education. And I'm joined by an amazing guest today. I'm really super excited about this topic and this amazing uncertainty scientist, which I'm going to introduce in a minute here. But Chris Marshall, welcome to the podcast. How are you? I'm really good, Thank you. And thank you so much for having me on. Oh, this is great. No, listen, I know we were coordinating, trying to pull this together. But before we get going, I got to just kind of give a little bit of background. And sometimes I just kind of wing it. But you've got some really interesting stuff here. So I want everyone to know your background. Chris is a behavioral scientist and professional futurist. We're going to talk a little bit about that in a minute here. But he helps CEOs, business leaders, investment professionals, basically navigate the coming era of radical change. And listen, And everybody listening to this knows there's massive change happening. But as a thought leader, he brings not only his wealth of insights from research, but also his personal stories and experience. He had his own burnout, anxiety, stress, stuff that a lot of you I know work with. He's gone from athlete to financial, behavioral finance analyst to now his passion. He wrote a book called Decoding Change, and he's developed the PPM method, which we'll talk about. But the idea here is to help individuals like you, they're listening, CEOs, entrepreneurs, investors, navigate the rapid changing world. And so, Chris, we have a lot of things to dig in, but I wanted to kind of give that intro because it shows that, you know, our initial conversation, people could think, man, this guy just, he's really smart. He's got a lot of, but you really have gone through several different types of, you know, phases in your life. So can you give us maybe just a five minute backdrop of where you came from and how you came to this whole personal mission that you're driving right now? Yeah, absolutely. I'd love to. So for me, I guess kind of it has to start with psychology. That's where it all kind of originates for me. So I was a youth athlete and alpine skiing. And it was actually out in Vermont, in the Green Mountains in Killington, where I came across this incredible sports psychologist when I was about 13 years old. And he just kind of absolutely floored me with this phrase. He just, he sat this group down in front of him. We were all silent, cross-legged on this floor. And he just goes, I want you to understand there's a physical game and there's a mental game. And there's this 13 year old athlete. I just remember sitting there going, oh my word, I'd never even realized this. All I'd done is spent all my time in the gym and on a ski slope. Never even thought about the mental game. I was actually a fairly anxious athlete. So I'm autistic. Not that that necessarily makes me an anxious athlete, but it did. And so this idea of a mental game really transformed my early childhood and certainly that kind of early athlete career. And then it was after that I stopped racing. I had to find a proper job. I ended up in one of the global banks as the financial crisis of 07, 08, 09, 10, 11, as it went on and on. And I kind of naturally gravitated back towards behavioral finance. You know, kind of I loved the world of finance because it was fast paced. It was moving. It was chaotic. It was this kind of this real kind of real life simulation of what people were feeling from a sentiment basis. so behavioral finance grabbed me and then it was I then found futures work or foresight work which is looking out to the far horizon looking at weak signals looking at trends and mega trends and it was here in that stuff so so normally futures work and behavioral science are kind of kept in separate disciplines they'll borrow tools from each other every now and again but in general they're separate and what I wanted to do was bring those two together because I just couldn't see that you can understand change without understanding how we navigate change. I mean, that's kind of crucial, isn't it? There's no point understanding change if you can't survive it. So I love what you said. I want to pause you for a second because I don't want to, I don't want to miss this. The point is you, we have such a parallel. I know we've identified this kind of parallel past. And before you finish your story, I think it's important for people to understand and note that even as an athlete, and it's so funny to me, it's so specific that no matter where you are, business, athlete, whatever it is, that the most successful people know that there's a mental and a physical game. And you caught that on and then more people are trying to pick that up. But you basically went from athlete who noticed that into finance, behavioral finance. And you also, I love the fact that you were aware, sort of consciously aware of where you wanted to go. It kind of seemed like no matter what the field was, you were going where your passion was, you were going kind of where you wanted to go. And so I love that. So keep going with your story. But I think that mental and physical game is so key to a lot of what we're going to be talking about. So I want to point that out to everybody. Yeah, absolutely. And it's so well understood in the sporting arena. It's so well understood in elite military. It's so well understood in, let's say, astronauts, you know, people who are pushing themselves. But in the business arena, very, very few leaders understand it to the degree that they should anyway. So kind of coming back to that story. Yeah, absolutely. So I'd found futures work looking at the horizon. I realized that I really wanted to pull these two fields together. And so that was the research and the kind of the motivation, if you like, behind the book Decoding Change was I wanted to show people how the world was changing. Because again, we've had this conversation where people are very rigid, they live in this silo, the most dangerous phrase in the English language is that this is the way I've always done it. The issue with that phrase is the world around you is always changing. And so if you just do what you've always done, at some point, you're completely disengaged, out of kilter. You're redundant. Not only disconnected, but it causes a mental frustration for you because you are disconnected and you just don't know how to, you don't understand why, right? Absolutely. And we could name loads of businesses which have fallen into this trap, you know, Kduck, BlackBerry, Blockbuster. We just keep going. But if you're not connected, then you simply can't be at the forefront of your business. And so what I wanted to do with decoding change was I wanted to push against the common narrative, which was if you want to know more, you have to dig deeper. You have to read more. You have to, I don't know, cut back on your sleep or whatever you need to do. And because in a fast-changing world, actually it's a shift from being a hyper-specialist to a generalist. It's a shift from being everything right at you just stepping back. So decoding change is actually, it lays out all of these massive trends and megatrends going on around us. They're the real forces behind everything we see changing. It brings in some of the behavioral science as to why we don't see it. So it could be that we're just pinned to the current narrative by mass media or pinned to a very negative narrative by mass media. Or it could be that we're just running with this prior belief, which has no foundation at all, and we just go around finding information to support it. So Decadding Change is this invite to take a massive deep breath, stand back and see how the world's changing. The issue came, it was in the middle of that research, I basically fell down and kind of was like, oh my word, the level of disruption we're about to face, businesses, individuals, households, communities, everything, is not akin to the first industrial revolution. I mean, that was seismic in itself. But what we're about to face is as big a magnitude, in my eyes anyway, from my work, as it was 10,000 years ago when we stopped being hunter-gatherers and we became a settled agrarian society. That's how fundamental I think this disruption period is going to be over the next few decades. Yeah, listen, Chris, this is a huge point that I want to point out to our listeners, because they might be just really understanding and loving what you're saying. But what you're saying and what I think you've done this before, you've asked people, would you agree that things are in a state of change? And I think most people, in fact, I know everyone listening to this podcast will probably say, yeah, there's massive change going on. If you just look at the last two, three years, let alone the trends, massive change. But what you're saying is this is literally one of the biggest changes, for sure, the biggest type of change and trends that's going to happen in your lifetime right now. This is that big is what you're saying. multi-generation lifetimes yeah absolutely it's um sorry i think there's a motorbike going past my my house um but uh but yeah so i mean the the level of change that we're seeing and the pace of change it's not actually just the magnitude it's also the pace and that's very much brought on by the what technologies we have going around us but it's let's bring this back to decoding change And the point was that I kind of, I uncovered this and I saw it with my own eyes, just this level of change of magnitude and disruption and everything else. And then kind of with that rubber band effect, it was almost like, oh my word, I've got to go back towards psychology again, because I've now written the book, which helps people see change, but there's little point in being able to see it if you can't cope with it. Yes. That was then kind of like, OK, let's go back to the let's go back to kind of a blank slate. And now let's devise a program or a process which really just kind of brings people in and teaches them. How do you navigate the most punishing environments? Because I honestly believe that the tools we've been offered previously do not match what we need in the future. it. And that's where the PPM method or pause, play, move method came in. Well, I want to go through that as well. But Chris, one thing I want to point out to everybody listening, and it's very important, as with anything in life, you have to create awareness. You have to understand and recognize what the change is. That's what you've done with your book, Decoding Change, right? But then you realize that we needed strategies and tactics to adapt to that. And I think most people are kind of a little lost right now. They're needing some strategies and tactics to deal with it. And the point you brought up that I want to just really put a note of is that the types of strategies and tactics that have worked to deal with change in the past and uncertainty aren't what work now because of the level and speed of the type of change that's happening So that a critical point people need to understand So you develop this PPM method Explain to me what the PPM method is and maybe a real strategic or high level What is the PPM method Okay. So the PPM method just stands for pause, play, move, which is a three-step process. I believe that most of our focus over the past few hundred years, certainly within business, has been on the move, that we've developed KPIs and goals and efficiency, and we work these hours and we do this. That's all the move, okay? And we can juice out efficiency, and that's amazing. It's done some great things. But as soon as you start adding in chaos, ambiguity, uncertainty, complexity, then actually it's the bit you feed into the move which matters more than the move. is not just about, okay, well, we're seeing disruption, we need to now work harder. If you look at the stats of workplace burnout, if you look at the stats on anxiety, stress, overwhelm, job satisfaction, all of these are actually pivotal moments. They have been rising massively since the 80s, and they're not slowing. In fact, we see it certainly in the younger generation. And this is a real issue, because I'm sure we're going to touch on what happens when you're stressed in terms of relationships, decision-making, creativity, outlook, everything changes when you're stressed. Yeah. And I do want to point out and agree wholeheartedly with what you're saying, because most people listening to this podcast and most high achievers, we'll call them high achievers, entrepreneurs, CEOs, they know that success, at least to this point, success likes speed. They like to move. They like to create, like just keep going, get the grind, and get the KPIs, movement, movement, movement. And what you're saying is due to the magnitude of the speed, as you're developing this PPM method, you're saying it's not just about continuing to move. It's what you do going into that move, which are these other two steps, right? And I agree with that because the problem is when you move, move, move, and chaos gets introduced or change at a high speed, one degree can go wrong really quickly, right? And so that's why I think even though you might be moving and going, you're right. stress levels are higher, anxiety levels are higher, and levels of mental uncertainty are higher because you're moving super fast, but now you're like really uncertain as to what's going on. So I think that's a really, really significant point. So take us now, keep going through what you bring into that move step. I think the easiest way, just at a high level to kind of tell you kind of what those two components, those before we get to the move do. And so often when I'm speaking to an audience, if it's a live audience anyway, I basically just say, raise your hand when I say the location where you have your best thinking. And I always play a little bit of a trick on them. And I kind of say the first place, the office. And nobody puts their hand up. Yeah, no, no. Unless they're sat next to the boss. And then you kind of see them shyly, shyly do it because they don't want to be out of favor. But as soon as you then start saying, in fact, you've probably got a location already in your mind. Oh, yeah. And as soon as you say shower. I was going to just say shower. There you go. It's the number one place. Best ideas I've ever had. Yeah. Now, the point I tell you this, because this is all about this pause phase. What you're demonstrating to yourself here, what you've just figured out, something has probably just clicked. And I'm going to kind of dial that up even more, is it's got nothing to do with the location. There is nothing magic about your shower. there is nothing magical in the water dripping down on you that's giving you these kind of incredible breakthrough aha moments. It's all to do with the state you're in. And so this is where we start looking at stress. Because when we're in a very low stress state, scientifically we call it joy. That's the opposite of stressed out. When we're in a state of joy, we are not only able to access breakthroughs creative thinking abstract thinking but we are also able to engage with others we're able to be intimate not just social but actually intimate if you look at kind of how we see the world our our outlook completely changes we can go when we're stressed out we're typically pessimistic because that's really good from an evolutionary point of view right you If we were facing a lion or a bear or a trombusman with a club, it didn't really pay you and me to be optimistic. It paid us to be pessimistic. Yeah, right. For sure. Yeah. Wired that way. Yeah, absolutely. Let's see this as a threat. If we bring that to the modern world, though, if you're operating from a point of stress, you're seeing threats, not opportunities. I mean, this is really basic stuff and I'm whizzing through it. But this is the point of the pause. we're not taught to pause because we focus so much on efficiency at the other end at speed actually if you go back to the very early time management that was kind of brought out in the late 1800s a part of the industrial revolution there was this whole move to kind of say that if you weren't maxing out if you weren't working as hard as you possibly could you were lazy yeah Yeah, you'd feel guilty. Yeah, absolutely. Culture and society has run with that. But that's fine when the world isn't going at 3 million miles an hour around us. When it is, you need that pause to take stock, to find a new perspective of what's going on, to actually gain multiple perspectives and to reduce that stress level down. So it's about self-mastery, that first pause, because there is no point going any further in a decision if you're in a stress state. So the pause is all about recognizing an opportunity to change your state. Absolutely. Because then you're more prepared to be able to deal with the change, correct? Got it. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I love the way you put that too. I love the way you put it, not just because people, I've interviewed a lot of individuals, Tony Robbins talks about changing your state, right? And there's ways to change your state. And I think sometimes we proactively try to change our state. But the word pause for me, that is such a great word because it's a universal word that also indicates changing your state. Like take a pause, you know, take a moment. I love that. And it also kind of from a linguistic point of view, it signifies that there's action going to come. If not stopped. Yeah. You've chosen just to step back. And in a fast moving world where businesses are being disrupted by AI, machine learning, cultural change, natural environment, other kind of competitors rising up, that stepping back is one of the most important things any entrepreneur, business leader, decision maker can ever master. And we're never taught it. I mean, that's actually the really sad thing is we're never taught it. We're taught the opposite, that when things get tough, go faster. especially as a leader i think you i love that you mentioned mentioned that because most people listening to this podcast you might be you know in your home your relationship your business whatever but most people they're in a leadership type role so there's a level of responsibility that comes a level of expectation that comes so the stress levels are already a lot higher and so there's there's a feeling of i can't pause i can't break i can't stop but then there's also this other side of that, which is you need to be an effective leader. And to do that, you've got to be able to take a step back. And the challenge, Chris, I agree with you. I think sometimes people feel like the challenge is, is that going to slow me down and set me back? Is a pause going to set me back? And so it is a mind shift you've got to do where you start to recognize personal development, personal growth mastery, that's not just taking breaks. It's about pushing forward and it's about more growth, but it requires you to do that. I talk to several people all the time, not to disrupt our thought process here, but they always say, I always feel like I'm taking two steps forward, one step back. And I said, maybe you need to take two steps back to take three steps forward. And then they go, whoa, I never thought about that. So anyway, I love that. I love how you're doing this and tagging it to leaders. So keep going on the pause. Yeah. So we describe in the PPM method course, we describe this pause as the paradox of pausing to address that very point, because we do. We have this intellectual fight back against it. It's not even something conscious with most people. They're just scared that if they do pause, as you say, well, what happens? I'll stop achieving. I'll stop being successful. I'll stop moving forward and you're like absolutely not the opposite will happen and you've just got to trust the process so i mean we've just spent like five minutes going through that pause we in the course we spend like well kind of a session and a half which three hours or so kind of digging into that because what's important here is is people have they also understand the patterns that stop them pausing we all run with scripts if you think that we're just like this yeah kind of we we pick up these narratives and beliefs yes subconsciously as a child Some of them come from culture. Some of them come from our parents. Some come from teachers. Some come from our early work life. And unless we go in and challenge those, there's very, very hard to actually make lasting habitual change. So change our habits. And if we think about moving forward, often that's just a habit. And people don't recognize it as well, right? Like they don't recognize. I have people tell me all the time that I think this, I think this. I go, yeah, but if your actions aren't matching what you're saying, then it's doubtful you believe it. And it's your beliefs that drive your actions. And so if they don't recognize it, I think you're right. That's a huge point. Yeah. And so, I mean, one of the beautiful things that comes out of this is as people learn to pause, is they actually, their awareness grows. And this is one of the things which is so phenomenal to see is they actually start to, I mean, let's go to Pareto's 80-20 law. they start to live that. And they start to realize that they've probably kind of gone, oh, well, yeah, I know that 80% of my work isn't going to be the most productive and 20% is going to bring me 80% of my profits away. But when you actually start bringing it into self-mastery and self-energy, so kind of the energy you're putting into your work, you start to see where the 20% is, the 20% that you should be focusing on. You're killing me with this, brother. I got to tell you, But you, I podcast yesterday was literally on two rules, the 80-20 Pareto and Parkinson's law. And it's so, I mean, it's just serendipitous that we're talking, but I, and this won't be like back to back in the podcast, but I love that you brought that up because that could be something everyone that's listened to this podcast has heard in the past, but why are they not doing it? Why do they not recognize it? And awareness is the key. You hit it right on the head. Yeah. And if we don stop and pause and step back we can ever hope to see where those things fit in our own lives we very good actually at seeing them in a business sense i 20 of my profits come from this department but when it comes to the inner game the inner working we're terrible we just push forward and just hope that we hit the 20 somewhere and just expend all our energy on the 80 percent um so so then kind of what happens typically and this is where again it kind of goes up another level is you start to see people just go oh my word i i can actually see my values like i i thought i had them and but now they've they've they're in color that they were previously in black and white and it's these kind of things which they sound very soft skills but when they become so real and tangible. They become the biggest motivators that make you push through anything. So that's kind of the pause phase, which then blends into kind of the play phase. And playfulness, I mean, if we think pausing has been neglected, adult playfulness, it's almost non-existent for most high-end consumers. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's the opposite. We're told as kids, well playfulness to kids is second nature we just get up we play we play with anything playfulness teaches kids to be resilient it teaches them to go outside the comfort zone it teaches them to cooperate with others and then as soon as you become an adult society dictates to you that oh you should stop playing because that's what kids do and as an adult if you want to be successful well you should be stressed and serious and guess what everybody buys into it and as soon as we've already talked a little bit about stress and as soon as you adopt that mantra and you just go well i'm stressed because that's what successful people are then you have started to write this pattern in you which is self-defeating the playfulness attitude and this is kind of where recent research thankfully is starting to catch up we've been researching playfulness and kids for decades. We've completely neglected it in adults. But what we see is playfulness as an attitude. And I have to be careful here. And I'll just kind of clarify exactly what I mean. Being playful as an adult in work isn't being silly. It isn't being irreverent. It isn't taking problems less seriously. It's taking yourself less seriously. And you're thinking less seriously. And so what you find is playful individuals they arrive at a problem and they tend to smile because they just go okay this is a challenge this is a game i can't quite see the solution yet but i'm going to keep turning this around until i see it from every perspective and what you find is playfulness actually brings in some amazing qualities which the very best businesses out there thrive on And these are encouraging curiosity, encouraging collaboration, encouraging experimentation. And businesses, which we go about it, businesses try and do that by going, oh, well, just send them on a team building day and they'll come back and they'll be reinvigorated. But it's not. It's a mindset. And you can teach yourself to have this mindset. And it comes from, for us to be playful from a neurological level, we have to feel safety. If we feel threat, we can't be playful because playful only occurs in a safe state. This is where the pause precedes playfulness. So in business, you need to go through this in this particular order because this is neuroscience based now. I love how you do that, by the way, the science and the thinking. the thinking and the science and people, and you hate to have to do that, but I think by doing that, people feel more understood and secure with these concepts. And I think you're right. It's a frame of mind playfulness. It's not the activity itself. I love that. Keep going. Yeah, absolutely. And so when you kind of realize that this is coming from research, this isn't just kind of, oh, it's a lovely idea to sit back and pause and then be playful and life will be good. You go, no, no, like the science backs this up and when you start seeing the business leaders who really embrace this there are business leaders out there by the way who naturally get this yeah um you know you could name some of the most creative several yeah like richard branson for me is always one that comes to comes to mind he's very very good at pausing naturally observing and being playful just kind of going you say i can't do it yeah i'll show you and that's a game you know those kind of things The other is actually when we look at adventurers. So if we look at some of the kind of Sir Ernest Shackleton, to kind of paint the picture if you don't know who he is, he was obviously the captain of the ill-fated voyage into Antarctica. His ship got caught in the ice. I mean, him and his crew were trapped on this kind of ice field with the ship frozen stuck for 10 months before the ship then sunk. I mean, it's absolutely... And then they had to get one of the little lifeboats and row 800 miles across some of the roughest oceans in the world and what is one of the most incredible rescue missions of all time. Shackleton said that the way I pick my crew is I look for optimism. Now, optimism is important, but it's different to playfulness. But I think if Shackleton was alive now, remember he was speaking 100 years ago, He wouldn't actually use that word optimism. He's not using it in our current day definition. Optimism in our current day is obviously we have a sunny disposition that we might see something is okay if it's better. Positivity, yeah. He actually said, I'm looking for people who can laugh in the face of thirst. You know, laughter in the face of literally life consequence of being dehydrated and thirsty. That's not optimism. That's playfulness. I mean, and when you kind of look at this and you start studying kind of the people who push themselves to the extremes, the people who really break through and make a difference, the people who lead the best teams out there, the people who find the most creative things in business, you start to see that they naturally embody this. But it's not something you're born with. It's something that's programmed into you. So are you saying, so what is it? I mean, I love the fact that you could utilize this to identify great leaders within your organization and outside your organization, but this is something that an organization or a leader can also instill in the culture and teach and train and put people into it. It's not like people are going to be, like we all think of people that, oh, that guy's playful and that gal's playful. What you're saying is what you're, the characteristic you're talking about. And correct me if I'm wrong, this is something that can be learned and instilled, not just identified, correct? Absolutely. Yeah, completely. I honestly believe that all of these things we can be taught, we can develop and we can cultivate them is a nice word to use. What are strategies that you can do to cultivate in yourself as a leader playfulness? Like what would you, I mean, I'm just trying to get a frame of reference so people don't think of it, like you said is I take time off and I work hard and I play hard. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about the way you view perspective. And by the way, I think it's an amazing effect you would have on the ability to deal with failure, right? Because your perspective, if it's playful, you view failure differently. You view it as a game. You view it as something you got to do to get to the end goal. What would you recommend, Chris, for people, because I really love this topic, to cultivate playfulness specifically? Help me neurologically. How do you cultivate that? Yeah, so it has, let's kind of just take this through the process. It has to start with a feeling of safety. It has to start with that pause. Okay, until you've got that, there's no point actually even trying. If you're completely stressed out and you just go, I want to be playful, you're just going to get your mind just going, I can't be playful. This isn't the time to be playful. There's too many threats around. There's this to do, there's that to do. I haven't even finished my to-do list. So I can think of a couple examples. So help me know if I'm on the right track here. I can think of leaders that create a high stress environment, but then they go try to do a team building thing to get people to relax. Or they go try to this and that. But these people are like, bro, I'm going to relax for a day, but I know exactly what you're going to do tomorrow. So I'm not going to relax too much. And you're saying without that safety, playfulness never gets cultivated. Yeah, absolutely. And actually, so that's the first step. This is why in that PPM method, pause, then play, then move. Got it. Actually, once you've mastered that, once you've been able to bring somebody to the point where they can control their stress state a lot better, where they can kind of bring themselves down. Because that's, to be honest, I know we had this conversation before we started recording. But in our modern world, the threats we are detecting are not typically life-threatening, immediate danger. That's what our stress response was built for. emotions are meant to last like 90 seconds yeah that's all and then they're meant to go and they're meant to be like these signals that go i've detected something dangerous in 250 000 years ago when we were kind of uh kind of living in caves and on the serengeti plane this stress response is what kept you and me alive what kept our ancestors alive and why we're here today and so the stress response is incredible but it's about physical threat it's about when you meet a lion or a tiger or a tribesman with a club it's not when you get this angry email yeah or you get a boss who is like kind of just being quiet within you like oh what's wrong maybe he doesn't like me or i don't fit into this group those aren't immediate physical threats but that body takes it in as threats so in the pause move this is why actually learning to control that stress state and what it's not saying that there aren't physical threats out there absolutely unfortunately people do experience those things yeah but it's when it's not an immediate life-threatening threat then that's where we can take control of this and bring ourselves down then we can start looking at playfulness now this is where it gets interesting and this is where the kind of a group environment that the ppm method is taught in is so amazing because you get so many different ideas when you start to go to people how do you think you could be playful in work without being silly without kind of just going i'm not gonna give this task my all and i've seen everything from people going okay well i'm gonna designate 10 minutes every day i don't want anybody in the office to know so this is like now a stealth mission um if it's in a meeting and i'm right-handed i'm gonna take all my notes in my left hand or it doesn matter it actually doesn matter what you doing what What you doing is disrupting the status quo And inwardly you feel that smile That kind of like okay I playing here And we all know it. I think the biggest thing for most people is just giving them permission or giving ourselves permission, I should say. Because we've been taught so long that as an adult in work, you shouldn't play. And as soon as you say, actually, it's okay for me to approach my tasks in a playful manner. Well, and as a leader, as a leader, giving permission is really a key. I mean, I just, I was just talking to a gentleman the other day that was, he disrupted a $1 billion lottery fraud. He's a very well-known guy that helped pioneer the cable industry, Terry Rich. And he said that he always implemented in his companies a little process he called COT. which is whenever I have a new idea, consider or trash. As a leader, I'm just giving you permission to consider it or throw it away. Because most people, you give ideas out to your subordinates and they're like, man, I'm going to make, of course, I love all your ideas, right? It's like, but you can't be, you know, hey, consider a threat. That's giving permission, but also being playful for like a certain type of personality, right? Would that qualify? Is that what? Completely, because you're encouraging people is a game. You know, you've actually created a game around decision-making And it doesn't make that decision making any worse. In fact, you've already highlighted it's likely to encourage people to be truthful. Ah, nice. I like it. And so all of a sudden, you're now getting better decisions because people are playing a game with it. I've seen companies kind of go, okay, well, once a year, we'll give every employee 200 pounds, $300, whatever. And we want them to go and learn something, but it can be nothing to do with your job. Yeah, outside your comfort. Yeah. yeah and just you've got to come back and and tell everybody what you've learned what skills you've developed um it could be anything from bread baking to rowing um but it's it's that kind of making work an environment of play so that's where it's different to team building which is like okay we stop work tomorrow and we go over here and we play and then we'll come back into this toxic environment yeah um it's about actually embracing and i truly believe the reason that the PPM method is targeted at entrepreneurs and leaders and CEOs is they are the ones that hold the key to show their people. And it filters down. If the people at the top are stressed out and just target driven, guess what? Nobody under them is playing. Yeah, I agree with that. And I think one of the things you're hitting on really well is, and I love that, by the way, great job. I love this. This is one of the most, man, this is going to make a big impact. This topic right here, this is one of the best topics that we've covered on our show. I got to tell you, I love not just the thinking and the process behind it because it ties so many things we're doing, but the neuroscience and the detail. I mean, there's obviously so much more level of detail in the PPM method that people can explore, but I really love how you put it because what we want to do here is we want to create lasting change. We don't want to create trends and fads. Everybody's worked with an organization or brought in this corporate trainer or this corporate program, and it's the flavor of the week and this and that. I really think it goes back to pausing, but coming back to a fundamental awareness of needing something different, strategies and tactics that are different, but are based in what we are wired to do. And it understands those things. So let me ask you this, because I know we're kind of short on time, but where can people kind of find and get in touch with you? I mean, we're going to give them all your contact links in our show notes, but what is the best place for someone to start? If they want to create awareness, maybe it's learning the PPM method or whatnot, but what is the best way, something strategic or tactical, someone can do to say, all right, where do I start with this? because I got an organization or I'm an individual and I'm starting and I see what you're saying, where do I start? So, I mean, probably the best place to start is just if you head over to either my website, which is just chrismarshall.uk. I mean, that has everything from decoding change, the PPM method, to the podcast like this I'm on, to blog posts, to, you know, I kind of write and put everything on it. If people are really interested in the PPM method stuff, well, there's links from that site, or they can just go straight to ppmmethod.com. And as I said, that's kind of a deep dive, a group-based thing. And what you were saying just a minute ago is really important. It's not about just giving somebody some information and then just throwing them out the door, because we're human. We snap back to old habits very easily. And this is one of the major benefits of a group is that when you finish that program with the others, with these other entrepreneurs and CEOs and leaders and decision makers, is that then quite often they stay in contact. And it's the alumni of the PPM method where you see some of these incredible things. But yeah, in terms of information, those two sites are probably the best. I'm fairly active on LinkedIn. People can just find me on Chris Marshall. I'll put those in the show notes. I'll definitely put those links, but I think you made a good point that I want to make sure I, our audience listens to. And that is, yeah, Chris and I were talking about this prior to the, prior to the podcast is that, you know, information is not enough, but information and the content and go in and checking this out and learning more and connecting. I highly recommend connecting with Chris on his website. Information will help you to create the awareness. Awareness is the first step, but, and then, and then learning strategies is important too, but it's creating long-term change. And sometimes, you know, I'm a big advocate that you'll create the long-term change when you both recognize your habits, recognize your beliefs and deconstruct them. But then you also put yourself in a place, whether it's a group or whether it's applying these principles or whether it's networking with other people, that you'll learn to start implementing them. Because, you know, we talk about this concept of neuroplasticity where it's like, you know, you have to rewire through repetition and consistency, the process that we're talking about. So guys, listen, I highly recommend you go check this out. And if you're part of our academy, we'll probably do a deeper dive with Chris. Like I said, I always try to be cognizant and respectful of your time and we're about where we're at, but I'm gonna put some things in the show notes. So let me just, one more thing, Chris, and I wanna let you, if you have a last thought or something that you wanna add, but also, and or a strategy or tip that you could kind of, people could walk away with this on, not just where to contact, but like a strategy, a tip or anything last minute you want to say, I'd love for you to add something else here. So I think the only thought that kind of is going through my head and it's really a kind of why people need to pay attention to this sort of stuff right now, whether they do the PPM method or they find some of the program, it's about bringing humanity forward. We have some real hurdles up ahead as a race, we really do. But we are the most adaptable, innovative and creative creatures who have ever walked this planet when we're not stressed out, by the way. When we can find those moments of joy. And this is really the massive thing. This is often the thing that wins people over when they are kind of sat on the fence of do I do this kind of personal development work or not? When we're talking about businesses, you know, as we can see in stats that there's raising anxiety, stress, burnout, overwhelm, all these things. but what we don't talk about is what impact does that have on a workplace environment and the impact it has is we become disengaged we it becomes toxic it becomes where imposter syndrome and things like this start rearing its head because nobody can communicate anymore that's now a dysfunctional workplace in an era of change you cannot afford to have a dysfunctional workplace and so even if it's doing it for the team initially and not even yourself then that is often worth its weight in gold um often along the way those individuals who are sat on the fence going i i wanted to improve the culture or the workplace environment they come back and they go i found myself wow i i get it um so that's kind of the the last point i'll make is just that we do have hurdles and for me this is part of the passion is i want to just help as many individuals as i can i often i often say and really do truly believe that these people in the positions of leadership and decision making and managerial positions they hold the key um they are the ones which set the tone and if they can set the right tone and if i can help them do that then we become we we we become playful, which is the optimal state of a human being. I think you couldn't, I mean, I couldn't have said it any better. And I love that message. I know there's people, I know if you're listening to this podcast, listening to this episode, you're dealing with things like uncertainty and stress and anxiety. But the level of responsibility you can have, not just for impact in your organization, but the topic that I wish we had more time to talk about is that the ultimate tangible and intangible result of everything we've been talking about is cultivating happiness and life that you want to live. I mean, the whole mantra, the whole mission behind the Daily Mastermind is, I believe it's never too late to start living the life you were meant to live, your best life, your best self, personal mastery. And ultimately, we're all just looking for those emotions in life, all the things, they just create emotions. Ultimately, we're all looking for emotions of happiness, fulfillment, connection, but they don't just come from strategies. You've got to dissect and deconstruct those. And so this PPM method, I think, has been a very, very specific neuroscience and thinking way of outlining it. So I appreciate you being here, guys. If you would do me a favor, share this show. Let me know what your thoughts are. Hit me up on The Daily Mastermind on Facebook, Instagram. I'm going to put in the show notes so you can connect with Chris. but thank you again, buddy. I appreciate you being here. We're going to look forward to having you back because there's so much we could talk about. We couldn't squeeze it all in, but this was amazing. I think it's going to create a lot of awareness and a lot of impact overall. Thank you for being here. Well, thank you. And thank you for inviting me on. And yeah, we scratched the surface. Yeah. And that's sometimes what you got to do. You got to scratch the surface. Listen, guys, have an amazing day. Have an amazing weekend. I will look forward to talking with you more tomorrow. Once again, my name's George Wright III. This is The Daily Mastermind. you
