Chris Duffin went from body building to building a business empire. After becoming a superstar in the world of fitness, and one of the most respected strength coaches in the world, he became a best-selling author and has created and turned around companies in multiple industries ranging from shoes and supplements to Aerospace and High-Tech.
Now retired from competing, he uses his MBA, his engineering background, and hands-on knowledge to provide industry-changing innovations and education, entrepreneurial coaching, and leadership.
Listen to this informative Publish Promote Profit episode with Chris Duffin about building a better business and world with a book.
Here are some of the beneficial topics covered on this week’s show:
How large tasks take a certain amount of resilience to accomplish.
Why there is no such thing as a conflict free life and how that’s a good thing.
How it’s important to create time in your day to think and meditate.
Why people need to set standards so they attract the right opportunities.
How it’s vital for people to continue to work on improving themselves.
Connect with Chris:
Links Mentioned:
christopherduffin.com
Guest Contact Info:
Twitter
@KabukiStrength
@ChrisDuffin
Instagram
@mad_scientist_duffin
Facebook
facebook.com/chrisduffinstrong
LinkedIn
linkedin.com/in/christopherduffindotcom
Rob Kosberg:
Hey, welcome everybody. Rob Kosberg here for the Publish, Promote, Profit podcast. Real excited about our guest today. One of the strongest men in the world. So, I need this to go well, okay? I don’t want to mess this one up with my guest Chris. So, let me give you a little bit of information about Chris and then we’re going to dive in and hit our specifics.
So, Chris has built multiple seven-figure-plus brands, which we’ll get into some of that. You built a globally recognized brand in under five years, which is incredible. World record-holding strength athlete, which is just amazing. Deadlifted and squatted a thousand pounds for reps. Holy cow! Very, very interested in hearing more about some of that.
Obviously, you’re on the show because you’re a bestselling author. You’re the bestselling author of Eagle and the Dragon: A Story of Strength and Reinvention. Want to chat about that. Obviously, this isn’t just about your strength, but your strength of character, how you set goals, being the chief visionary officer of your company, et cetera. So, Chris, welcome to the show. Thanks for being on our Publish, Promote, Profit podcast, my friend.
Chris Duffin:
Thanks for having me on. Looking forward to talking.
Rob Kosberg:
I want to dive right in. We like to talk about two different things. We like to talk about your content and why you wrote what you wrote and what’s meaningful about it. Obviously, you’re somebody that take self-improvement very seriously. We’ll also talk about your last book and what it’s done for you. I understand you have a new book upcoming, which we’ll probably chat about that a little bit, too.
Tell me what makes Chris tick. What’s the whole chief visionary guy and self-improvement guy that has motivated you to be the person that you are?
Chris Duffin:
Yeah. I’m really driven by these things around understanding the basic physiology of any living being, which is adaptation. This is what creates life, is to have challenges in front of us, to have stress, to have things that we may take as being negative, as strife, but it is really that adaptation that creates a stronger and better version of ourselves.
I live that in the strength world. People know that they see that, but they may not know this crazy backstory that happened over during the course of my life, and that’s the framework for The Eagle and the Dragon, and how much that really rolls into the more important aspects to me, which are mental or emotional, or maybe even spiritual aspects, of strength. That could be surprising for a lot of people that pick up The Eagle and the Dragon. It’s a book. I might have three pages where I touch on lifting in the book.
Rob Kosberg:
No kidding.
Chris Duffin:
People ask, “Well, I thought that’s what you did?” I say, “Well, that’s one way I express this in the world. I’ve been running companies before doing my own thing for a couple decades, and that’s one thing anybody that has worked in the companies that I’ve done turnarounds on, and they’ll tell you it’s a pain in the ass, but I changed their life because I expect more in people, and it ends up having this really empowering effect, not on just people’s work but on the rest of our life.
People will end up following me from company to company, or now as I start my own gig, it created a great opportunity to really draw, become a magnet for people that really want to live in those same values and do the same thing in the world. That’s what I want to do. I want to leave the world a better place. I want to use my skills and my abilities to do that.
Rob Kosberg:
Let’s talk a little bit about that adaptation you were just referring to. You even alluded to it. That’s obvious when it comes to physical fitness, to-
Chris Duffin:
Yeah.
Rob Kosberg:
Go ahead.
Chris Duffin:
You go in the gym, you curl some weights, and your arm gets bigger, right?
Rob Kosberg:
Right.
Chris Duffin:
But it plays a role in so many other things. Go ahead.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah. So, share that. How does it play a role emotionally? How does it play a role spiritually, for example? What does that look like? What is Chris’ mantra around that?
Chris Duffin:
Well, it’s anything physiological related. So, a number of years ago, they built the biospheres, and protect a subset of the environment and separate it and see what happens. Trees would start growing in there. They’d plant trees. They grow and they’d just reach a certain height and they’d just fall over. They couldn’t figure out what it was. The soil’s the same. It happened to all types of trees. What? What was going on?
The simple fact was there was no wind. There is no struggle that told the wind to grow this strong, root structure, and embedded in the ground to become resilient. That’s what strength is. And so, that’s why I use the word resilience a lot. To stiffen the bark. All just to have these impacts.
And so, the tree didn’t know that it was going to get to a certain height. Then it was going to need that strength just to hold itself up. That’s life. You don’t know what’s going to come at you in the future.
And so, I like to reframe strength as resilience. We need to build resilience for the things that’ll come at us. So, you find people who say, “Oh, I want to find a workplace that is conflict-free.” “I’m going to get to this point where I’m so successful, I’m going to retire on a beach in the Caribbean and just drink mai tais for the rest of my life.”
That is just like putting the same arm that I’m doing curls with, I break it and I put it in a cast. What happens? It gets process of atrophy and leading towards death. That’s what’s going to happen. If we don’t have struggle and strife in our life…
Now obviously too much, if you’re pushing yourself to the level, like people in the Holocaust. They couldn’t eat and were worked to the bone. There’s a point you can’t recover from. You can’t do daily doubles three hours a day, seven days a week at high-intensity levels. It’s going to be too much. It’s a balance, but you must have it to live.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah.
Chris Duffin:
I’m not over speaking, and that’s why I use these examples. This is not ethereal, this is reality, because you try to have a conflict-free life, for example, something’s going to happen at some point and you’re not going to be prepared. You’re going to lock up and the world’s going to move on past you. You’re going to be frozen, unable to take action and do the things that you need to do. You never know what’s going to happen on some random Thursday afternoon.
And so, this is all aspects of our life. This is why we challenge ourselves with reading books and exploring likely avenues of challenging ourselves mentally, because if we don’t, we get soft, we get weak, we lose mental resilience.
So my statement is that we treat these things in life like that, all things in life, and the fact that if you don’t have a challenge, if you’re sitting at a desk all day, you should go to the gym or go for a run or do something, I don’t care what it is, some sort of physical culture in your life.
Well, if you don’t have those other challenges in your life in those arenas, where you’re going to get soft and you get this, something comes up, and man, there’s a scary thing. Maybe it’s a new job. Maybe it’s writing the book that I’ve always wanted to write, right?
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah.
Chris Duffin:
It scares me. If you get that little turn and that twist in your gut just thinking about it, a little bit of fear, a bit of anxiety, that’s your signal. That’s the direction that you need to turn. Now I’m not saying that quitting your job and starting your own company or whatever it’s going to work out. But what I’m saying is that practice is going to work out. That is going to make the best version of yourself.
Rob Kosberg:
Love that. How do you think that is applicable in spirituality? Would that be like meditation or prayer or daily study because obviously it’s simple to think about when it comes to your physical fitness. But you mentioned other things. You mentioned your emotional health, your spiritual health, your mental health. How do you think that applies in something like spirituality, for example?
Chris Duffin:
Spirituality can be a difficult one because so many people have different expressions and views on that.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah.
Chris Duffin:
But I definitely believe that you need to create time to think, to meditate. So, it’s the opposite of some of the other things I’m saying, which is go chase things and challenge yourself. But I’m also not saying the mantra of just do it 24/7. You have to create this space to really sit back and assess what you’re doing in life. How does it fit with who I am as a person? Who am I? Where am I going in this world?
These are some essential things, and that’s actually the process that I drive people through in The Eagle and the Dragon is really this introspection and the values around it. I don’t tell people how to live. I can’t know morality, what’s right or wrong or what direction you should do. But in asking those questions of yourself and making sure that you take the time and really being present to do so, because it’s so essential. People want to know, “How can you do so many things, run so many businesses, be world record, build vehicles, have a family?”
Rob Kosberg:
It sounds like a lot.
Chris Duffin:
“How do you all this? You must not sleep?” No, actually I’m going to look at my sleep metrics. I’ll pull it up on my phone. I have between nine, nine and a half hours a night.
Rob Kosberg:
Good for you.
Chris Duffin:
Well, it’s important for recovery.
Rob Kosberg:
Very true.
Chris Duffin:
It really comes down to getting this alignment, to who you are and how you want to be in this world. When you can cut away the fluff, the extraneous things that aren’t pieces of that and actually build this so that you get all of that. You integrate it. God, I hate those type of words.
Rob Kosberg:
I get it.
Chris Duffin:
But you’ll find that you can actually get so much more if every day you’re actually taking a step towards those things that are important in your life. You can’t do that unless you really fundamentally understand how you want to live in this world and what you want to do. That is the crazy part. It’s not just doing more and accomplishing things. It’s the right things. So, you’re not going to get that without that introspection.
Rob Kosberg:
It sounds like you have a process that you take people through, maybe steps or milestones. Can you lay that out? What does that process look like so somebody listening can go, “Okay. I can start looking at this stuff for me”?
Chris Duffin:
Yeah. There are a couple different ways that I like to look at this one, and the first one’s a pretty simple process a lot of people are familiar with called the five Y’s. So, it’s taking a look at what are those things that you want in life? “I want to be a doctor,” “I want to be an NFL player,” “I want to have a mansion and a nice car,” “I want … ” What are those things, if you were to have to make this bucket list of things?
But they’re all things, and they’re sparkly things that catch your eye. I hate bucket lists, honestly. They’re horrible because of this. But it’s a starting point. The next question is why do I want those things? You just keep peeling back these layers until you get to …
I use the word core values, but I’ll give you some examples of what I’m talking about, so you get a feel. When you get there, they’re not things that you can actually ever have through a way of being and living. So, it could be I want to have challenge in the sense of accomplishment. I want recognition. So, no morality around this stuff. If I’ve done things, I want recognition.
I want to have creative outlets. I want to be continually learning. I want to have a sense of family, community, whatever you want to call it. That is a key thing. Security, maybe the counter of a compliment. Some of these may be counter to each other.
You’re going to get to that. It should be this list of six, seven, eight things. I just gave you five, and those happen to be five of mine. Once we get there, we can understand, oh, hey, I wanted this mansion and a fancy car because I knew if I got that, I must have done really well in my life, accomplished some things.
Rob Kosberg:
I made it. I’m recognized.
Chris Duffin:
I must have security so I know that I can take care of my family. Well, if I don’t understand that, I could actually do the opposite. I could over-leverage myself to get those things that I want and actually create the opposite environment of security, which was my driver for that. So, it’s really important.
Another approach to this is I call it the balance of extremes. So, it’s really taking things that are diametrically one would think opposed. So, let’s take my big squat, for example. I’ll tell somebody, “I want you to put every last bit of effort into this squat, this lift. Nothing, leave nothing on the table,” and I’ll tell somebody, “Okay, I want it to be absolutely perfect. You’re going to chase every last ounce of making this the most perfectly executed squat ever.” They’ll say, “Well, I can’t do that.”
Rob Kosberg:
“I can’t do both.”
Chris Duffin:
Or do I put no weight on the table to make it look perfect? No, I really do want both. If you chase these diametrically opposed things, you’ll find this beauty in the center. Hey, if I put just a bar, a plate on the bar, and try to make this beautiful-looking squat, I won’t find where I breakdown at. I won’t find the faults that I need to continue to progress so that I can actually make my technique truly perfect. I can’t push myself to the absolute max if I’ve got these leaks in energy, these opportunities that I’m leaving on the table.
And so, you end up chasing two things that are complete opposites, people would think. Let’s take work-life balance. There’s another one. I can tell you the same story about how I’ve done that in my life and created … I went from wondering what I was going to do in my life because my kids were getting older, they were going to get into sports. I was turning around aerospace and automotive manufacturing companies. I had my projects; I had my hobbies. I had my gym on the side where I was training at that level. Something’s got to give. I get home and it’s time to eat dinner and put the kids to bed.
And so, what gave was my standard career. I created this environment where the values, the things, and way that I want to live drew the people to me that would be my friends, the people I want to spend time with. My training became part of my work. Now I work more than I’ve ever worked in my life, yet I probably spend about four hours a day more a day, four to five hours more a day with my family than I did before.
Rob Kosberg:
Beautiful. That’s wonderful.
Chris Duffin:
And that’s by chasing these things that people say are extremes, that you can’t do this. So, the beauty, though, is here it forces you into the introspection. It forces you to truly identify are these the things that I want in my life. Because it’s going to be all in, and the other things are going to fall by the wayside. You’re going to find out what you truly can give and not give and what’s important in your life, so you think, “Oh, this really wasn’t that important. I’m not willing to let these other pieces or aspects go. They must be a higher priority or they’re not.”
I squat. I ended up achieving this beautiful thing that no one else has ever been able to do by chasing it to this level. And so, those are just a couple different ways to extrapolate this, but in the end, it forces you to find and make those decisions about what’s important and what’s not in your life.
So, a lot of different tools like that, my personal philosophy. The Eagle and the Dragon is a storyline book. I use this story of my life to articulate, and every chapter has this theme. It goes through and it covers that. My next book is going to be very focused and just very specific on these philosophies and how you put them in place in your business and life.
But the Eagle and the Dragon, I use this story. I grew up homeless in the wilderness literally foraging for food, killing animals, heating up jugs of water in the sun so you could bathe, and dealing with murderers and drug running and human trafficking and all sorts of really crazy stuff.
Rob Kosberg:
Holy cow.
Chris Duffin:
Ended up putting myself through college while raising my three younger siblings. I took custody of my three younger sisters and I raised all them while I worked on my dual engineering degree, my MBA, and advanced my career to change. Things were not good. I had to step up and deal with that.
I became a corporate executive where I came in and was doing turnarounds for high-level companies, growing them from regional to national, to international presence, that sort of thing. Then that’s the first half of the book.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah. So, Chris, do you tell that whole story in The Eagle and the-
Chris Duffin:
Yes. Oh, I tell that whole story.
Rob Kosberg:
You’ve got to get that book.
Chris Duffin:
It’s a crazy ride to … It’s just standalone, but I wanted to write it for the reader. What can I drive people to learn from this by not telling them, but to walk that? Then the second half of the book is I walked away from all that success that I’d achieved to deciding specifically who I wanted to be in the world and becoming that. I walked away from basically every aspect of my life and recreated it over the last five years.
You mentioned some of the accolades and things that I’ve done. But that’s what The Eagle and the Dragon’s about. So, if you want some inspiration, you want some direction on … Walk in some of this process, it’s an incredible read. The feedback is phenomenal. Anyway, check it out.
Rob Kosberg:
I can’t wait to do that. I want to shift gears just for a minute, though, if we could.
Chris Duffin:
Yeah.
Rob Kosberg:
The Eagle the Dragon, your first book. You have a new one coming out. We’ll talk about that in a second. But we like, at least on this podcast, to talk about our books and the message we want to get and how we want to help people. But truth be told, our books help us. The books that I’ve written have made a difference in my life, not just because I’ve written them but because others have read them. Tell me a little bit about what your book has done for you, how it has put you on the map, how it has served you. I would like to hear about that.
Chris Duffin:
Yeah. It’s been a really valuable tool. I say that is a tool because that was part of my intent. Obviously, there’s the altruistic piece of I wanted to reach out and connect and have an impact on people, and it does that.
But the second piece of that is my businesses are around the physical nature of improving oneself. And so, this book is written on other areas entirely. But what it does is it allows me the framework to book appearances in media, to be on TV, to do radio ads, to do top podcasts on a regular basis every week by doing this stuff, because you can get on, tell your story, and it’s about finding people that to me it doesn’t have to be necessarily exactly an ad, a pitch, selling people.
I haven’t talked about anything that I actually produced, and I don’t need to. If you connect with the messages, you’re going to do a little bit of research and find some of the stuff. Maybe some of it’ll fit your direction or not. But it allows me to get into these areas and actually do a pitch and an ad. A lot of times I’ll get into some specific discussions on this as well to my business.
But anybody that’s interested in self-improvement is going to also look at what I’m doing. So even when I don’t talk biomechanics in foot and spine mechanics and how we’re going to help people get out of pain and live a better quality of life, but I just did, you have the opportunity to do this in mediums that people aren’t going to have you on to do an ad.
It also allows me to really get people to understand where I’m coming from and why I’m doing it. So, my long-term customer value is significantly enhanced. So, people that read the book, they’re going to be customers for life. Every new product that I drop, boom!
So, my average order value is about $600. It’s just going to keep rolling year over year, and that’s exactly what we’ve seen, is people now they identify with you and your brand. People buy from people. They buy for emotional reasons. That’s what your book has the opportunity to do. So, there’s several different avenues.
Then my next book is … To refrain myself, everyone is a little bit about a branding exercise. So, my next book, Create Shit, Do Shit, Live Beyond the Limits, is going to be a business and self-improvement book. But, again, I’m going to go after attacking and reaching a broader set of people that are interested in self-improvement, but not necessarily researching. They probably have a home gym or a trainer or something like that. They’re going to be more affluent. But they’re not researching training methodologies and tools and other stuff. But now I want to capture them.
Positioning my first book, my second one is to go through a large publishing house. Usually there’s not a whole lot of value with that, but I’ve got a huge authenticated social media platform. I could use my prior book. I’ve got a movie, because The Eagle and the dragon was great branding about a story. So, there’s a Netflix documentary that’s probably going to be coming out later this year around my grand goals, this thousand-pound squat journey.
Rob Kosberg:
Fantastic.
Chris Duffin:
Also covering the backstory of The Eagle and the Dragon. So, all of this stuff just works together. They’re different pieces of the puzzle. This written medium is just really powerful for framing who you are, what value you add, right?
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah.
Chris Duffin:
It’s really great for guerrilla marketing, for being able to book these things that normally getting on TV. I’ve probably been on TV half a dozen times recently. They’re not going to get you on the news to talk about selling your product or selling your service, but here you are. If I scroll in fitness podcasts, all the top rankings, I’d probably hit 80% of the podcasts that have all booked me on.
And so, they’re not going to have you on to pitch services and pitch ads. Then again, it’s that connections, that long-term value for your customers. So those are the angles, and that’s what the book has provided for me – business purpose, without a doubt.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah, that’s brilliant. Of course. Look, it’s hard to write a book. I don’t have to tell you that. You probably struggled through it.
Chris Duffin:
You have to create money to do the change that you want to do in the world. Money is the fluency. So, you have to be able to generate this or you’re not going to be able to have that impact.
Rob Kosberg:
That’s right. That’s exactly right.
Chris Duffin:
It’s plain and simple.
Rob Kosberg:
You’ll have to go and get a job and you’ll leave your dream and the thing that you can really make an impact on the world with, unless you monetize. We like to talk about creating with your book income and impact. You can reverse those either way. You’ve obviously done that. I love what you’ve done with your first book because it really fed into everything that you do.
The second book, you’re going a little broader. You’re going more into the self-help. You’re not selling anything now, I understand that. But is there going to be an offer connected with that, or are you branching out into maybe more coaching or consulting or something at a different level? What’s that look like for Chris down the road?
Chris Duffin:
Yeah. Well, we do coaching and consulting as a company. So, I’ve got a team of people and we do education seminars, all that. But, again, it’s not in that world. And no there’s not. But if it’s going to be tied to launching a podcast around self-improvement and using the network that I’ve developed to bring on people that have been really successful and leaders in leadership, entrepreneurship, athleticism, all these. So, it’s to get those figures on the podcast. So, to have something that is like a Joe Rogan, a Tim Ferriss type level. With the book, with my existing things that I’ve done to leverage with that, I have these connections to do this. Maybe there’s some monetization that comes with that, whatever. I’m not worried about that.
Rob Kosberg:
But you’ll probably draw in people into your coaching, right?
Chris Duffin:
But that is it. So, I’m not going to be doing business coaching or anything like that personally. I certainly could do that really easily if I wanted to offer this approach. That’s just not my interest.
Rob Kosberg:
Easily.
Chris Duffin:
I’ve got an eight-figure company that’s rolling into nine figures here in the next little bit. I’m going to feed this monster and then I’ve got my other two companies growing. To me, it’s about getting these big figures, getting them connected, and using their media platforms now to enhance my exposure again around these themes that are going to be people that are focused on, again, the self-improvement, and there’s always a physical component of it. We’re continuing to grow this line of products and services in that environment that meets basically as many of those needs as possible.
And so, it’s really getting into the general consciousness. Think about it as just raising this level of awareness within the consciousness around the world. The more that I can do that, be like this Elon Musk-ish type personality, the more people are going to find what you’re doing. It’s a separate discussion, but it’s along the same lines, is I have probably the highest level … I don’t know, not probably, clinically backed scientific advisory board in my industry, and those relationships and those people standing with my company creates credibility and authenticity for the brand.
And so, the same thing happens is I get connected with these other larger figures out there and end up on their medium because they’re promoting it, because it helps them. Again, it creates this authority, authenticity, all these sorts of things around my brand and what I’m doing. So that’s the angle.
Now if I wanted to sell … People come at me trying to engage for some of those services already pretty regularly. And so, I could do that if I wanted. That’s just not of an interest because I know exactly what I want to do and the impact I want to have in the world. That isn’t in that mix.
Rob Kosberg:
Love it. Chris.
Chris Duffin:
I coach the leaders in the companies in my portfolio.
Rob Kosberg:
Yeah. I love your passion. I love what you’ve shared about your book. Can’t wait to read it myself. I’ve not done that yet, but I will.
Chris Duffin:
It’s on audio, too. If you go to ChrisDuffin.com, one, there’s a link to my companies, but there’s a free audio download for my book on there. Obviously, if you’ve got Audible, it’s just a credit. But if you don’t, you can sign up through that link and get a free book and another book as well. So, it’s a great deal. Obviously, I’d get some sort of kick back there, but I promote it because it is a great deal. I love Audible myself for busy people.
Rob Kosberg:
Great. So, is that the best place that people can learn more, go to ChrisDuffin.com? Where else can we find you, find information? Where’s the best place?
Chris Duffin:
Yeah. People are probably listening to this on their device in their hands. If you go to the search feature and type in Chris Duffin, I’ll come up. If you go to your favorite social media platform and type in my name, I’ll come up. I’ve got one of those little blue check things there. But Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Instagram and LinkedIn would probably be the areas that I engage the most in. Easy to find.
Kabuki Strength is what I do. But if you want to find the other companies, Chris Duffin is an easy thing. But I’m not going to overcomplicate it and give you handles and stuff to remember. Chris Duffin. It’s like muffin but with a D. You’re going to find me. It’s not hard.
Rob Kosberg:
Beautiful, beautiful. Chris loved having you on. Thanks for sharing your passion and all the success. Can’t wait to read the book. Go check out ChrisDuffin.com. Look for Chris, connect with him. Your life will be different because of it. Great to have you on, brother.
Chris Duffin:
Been a good talk, man.
Rob Kosberg:
Fantastic. Thanks, bro.
