Episode 117 – Chris DT Gordon
Welcome to another episode of The HERO Show. I am your host Richard Matthews, (@AKATheAlchemist) and you are listening to Episode 117 with Chris DT Gordon – Choosing The Attitude of Gratitude
Chris is a faithful husband, father of three online MS SPED teacher, a runner, a Taekwondo student, and a pop culture geek. He is also a necrotizing fasciitis (NF) survivor. NF is a flesh-eating disease that causes the death of parts of the body’s soft tissue. It’s a serious disease that spreads rapidly in the body with symptoms that include fever, severe pain, vomiting, and discoloration of the skin in the affected area.
Here’s just a taste of what we talked about today:
- How the attitude of gratitude helped Chris set him up for success despite his severe illness.
- The two sides of appreciation, why it’s good for you and the person you give it to.
- Misconception about satisfaction. Catch this part of their conversation in today’s episode, it’s another perspective on how to be happy.
- The common success factor behind prosperous CEOs, saying “No”.
- Nothing beats a positive mindset and how it can catapult you in achieving your heart’s desires.
- Chris’ version of playing TAG – T, Think about all the good things in your life. A, Acknowledge and appreciate. Let someone know that you appreciate them and why. G, Give someone else the reason to be grateful.
- Lastly, “Pass on Perfection, and GO for GREATNESS!”
Recommended Media:
Chris mentioned the following series on the show.
The HERO Challenge
Today on the show, Chris challenged Ben Eden to be a guest on The HERO Show. Chris thinks that Ben is a fantastic interview because he has a great story to tell that would really serve the audience of the Hero Show.
How To Stay Connected With Chris
Want to stay connected with Chris? Please check out their social profiles below.
- Website: ChrisDTGordon.com
- LinkedIn: Linkedin.com/in/chris-dt-gordon
- Facebook: Facebook.com/Chris-DT-Gordon
- YouTube: Youtube.com/channel/ChrisDTGordon
- Instagram: @chrisdtgordon
With that… let’s get to listening to the episode…
Automated Transcription
Chris DT Gordon 0:00
We all have things that we can be grateful for. When I was in the hospital, I had a choice to make. I can either wallow in my pity, and be a downtrodden and depressed about how my life has turned so dramatically or I can look at all the positive things in my life and be thankful for them. And that’s what I chose. I chose the attitude of gratitude. And by doing that, I have not only set myself up for future success, but I have also motivated and inspired others to do the same. Because when we think about it, even in this pandemic, you can look around and you can find things that you like. And when you think about it, things that you like, or things that you appreciate and that you are grateful for. It all comes down to choosing to be grateful for all the big things and little things that you have.
Richard Matthews 1:03
… 3-2-1
Hello and welcome back to The Hero Show. My name is Richard Matthews and I’m live on the line today with Chris DT Gordon. Chris, are you there?
Chris DT Gordon 2:06
I am, Richard, how are you today?
Richard Matthews 2:08
I am doing super awesome. Glad to have you here. You’re coming in from Minnesota. And for those of you who’ve been following along with our travels, we are still stuck for our COVID crisis in Florida. Hopefully that won’t last too much longer, because we’ve been here since April. But how have you guys been doing up there and in Minnesota, despite all of our global crisis stuff?
Chris DT Gordon 2:30
We are in a rather rural area of Minnesota. So the pandemic hasn’t hit us as badly. So we’ve actually been able to do a little bit of traveling. I have family in Michigan, where I’m originally from, and so we went to visit them for a week and a half, and we kept pretty secluded from other people. When the beaches got too busy we left. We went to visit places that had we’re either outside or had very few, very few people. And we always matched up on it when we were indoors. So we’re just making the most of it.
Richard Matthews 3:12
… We’re all doing Right, exactly. Making the most of our pandemic. So I have a couple of things before we get into your introduction that I just wanted to point out because we talked about these a little bit before we got on the show. The first one was, you have four names. So Christie DT Gordon, and you had a fun reason for that. I wanted to share that real quick. So I thought it was pretty hilarious.
Chris DT Gordon 3:32
Well, thank you. Well, my parents were very forward thinking when they named me and they didn’t want me to end up in jail, as many assassins have three, middle three names. And so they gave me the name Christopher Daniel Thomas Gordon. So I would stay out of jail.
Richard Matthews 3:51
So, you wouldn’t become an assassin particularly.
Chris DT Gordon 3:54
Exactly. When you have the last name Gordon, which is a first name you’re kind of setting yourself up so they offset that by giving me two middle names.
Richard Matthews 4:02
That makes sense and just you know for clarity sake you haven’t become an assassin right, so it’s worked out?
Chris DT Gordon 4:07
Well, not that you know of.
Richard Matthews 4:10
Nothing we know of, nothing you share either way.
Chris DT Gordon 4:12
Yes.
Richard Matthews 4:13
And the other thing was you – You are our first guests so far on The Hero Show has showed up in a hero’s outfit. What’s the outfit that you’re wearing here?
Chris DT Gordon 4:21
Yes, I am dressed as One Punch Man who is famous in the Japanese manga and anime worlds. His real name is Sai Toma. And what makes him special is that he has the powers of Superman, or Superman and the Hulk. Closer to the Hulk. Unlimited strength. He can’t be beaten. But he can’t catch a break. He’s like, he has Hulk strength and Spider Man luck. No one knows who he is. Everyone gets the credit for his victories. And even when he tries to do something right. It’s somehow turned sideways on him. And some of the funniest moments are when he’s not upset by an attack from a villain. But by when he’s gonna miss a good sale at the grocery store. It’s a brilliant satire if you’re into that.
Richard Matthews 5:25
Sounds like something I would enjoy quite a bit. We’ll see if we can find some links for it and put those in the show notes when we finish this episode, if you’re interested in watching it, I know I am. So what I want to do real quick is do an intro to you before we get into your story so our audience knows who you are. So Chris DT Gordon is a faithful husband, father of three online Middle School special education teachers, a runner, a Taekwondo student and a pop culture geek obviously. And you’re also a survivor of necrotizing fasciitis, which is flesh eating bacteria and you use your story and message to inspire others to adopt the attitude of gratitude and to positively affect their lives. So you do a lot of speaking engagements and stuff on those in those areas. So what I want to find out from you sort of is what you’re known for now, right? So what’s your business, like? Who do you serve? Like, you know, what kind of audience do you speak to? And like, what’s the primary message that you’re trying to get out there?
Chris DT Gordon 6:21
Well, what I’m trying to get out there, Richard is that we all have things that we can be grateful for. When I was in the hospital, I had a choice to make. I could either wallow in my pity, and be a downtrodden and depressed about how my life has turned so dramatically. Or I can look at all the positive things in my life and be thankful for them. And that’s what I chose. I chose the attitude of gratitude. And by doing that, I have not only set myself up for future success. But I have also motivated and inspired others to do the same. Because when we think about it, even in this pandemic, you can look around, and you can find things that you like. And when you think about it, things that you like, or things that you appreciate and that you are grateful for. So, you know, it could be basically how your shoes feel when you put them on. So as a runner, I love my running shoes. And so I love the field, my running shoes, I love taking a big drink of water after a long run. I appreciate that. I’m grateful for that. And it’s you know, even down to you know how it feels to watch a favorite show or a favorite podcast. And so, yeah, it all comes down to choosing to be grateful for all the big things and little things that you have
Richard Matthews 7:57
Reminded me of one of the things you know I mentioned earlier, we’re still stuck in Florida. And Florida in the summertime is famous for their mosquitoes that’ll come and take you away if you’re not careful. And I decided that the way that I needed to look at that over the summer was that it’s my contribution to a green earth is that I am supplying the food for an entire neighborhood’s worth of mosquitoes all by myself.
Chris DT Gordon 8:21
There you go. You know, it’s the circle of life. It all comes back to Disney. Disney runs everything.
Richard Matthews 8:27
They probably do at this point. So, what I want to find out then is your origin story, right? Every good comic book hero has an origin story. It’s the thing that made them into the hero they are today. Right? We wanna hear that story. Were you born a hero or in your case, perhaps a bit by a radioactive spider that made you want to get into the speaking business? Or did you start a job and eventually moved to becoming an entrepreneur and basically want to know where you came from. And I know your story is probably got a little bit more pain in it than most people’s stories. So I would love to sort of hear how You got to where you are now.
Chris DT Gordon 9:02
Well, I wasn’t bitten by a radioactive bug. I was scratched by a bacteria laden wall. When, in March 2015, I was helping my wife one morning, take the kids down to the garage, we have a detached garage and walk them to the van where she could take them to school. My wife is a teacher, a high school teacher at the local high school, and she would drop the kids off at daycare and the kindergarten school. My oldest son was in kindergarten at a time and our twins went to daycare. And so as flying my younger son, Seth, back and forth to try to get him into the van, I went too far to the right, and scratched my right hand on the garage wall. I didn’t think anything of it. I put him in the car seat. I wish everyone goodbye. And then when they left, I went back back into the house, cleaned up the wound and started my day as an online school teacher. Three days later, I wake up and I have a lacrosse ball size bump on my right elbow. I go into the walk-in clinic here in town, and the doctor there takes a look at it and says, well, it might be bursitis once you keep an eye on it, and let us know if anything happens. Well, 10 hours later, that ball, that bump had transformed my arm into basically a giant sausage. It was triple the size of my left arm. For a comic book analogy, I was the Incredible Hulk and the transformation. My wife then took me to the emergency room after we secured a babysitter for the kids. And at that time, when they have started taking my blood pressure. They couldn’t get a reading. I had gotten septic. And if you’re not sure what sepsis is, it’s basically an overreaction of the body to an infection or to some kind of foreign element. And it basically poisons the body to try to get rid of that infection. So fast forward a little bit to the next morning, I’m still in the hospital. The attending doctor at that time comes up to my gurney and says, “Mr. Gordon, this is beyond us. We can do nothing for you here. Where do you want to go?” Immediately, I told them that Mayo Clinic for two reasons. First of all, it’s the Mayo Clinic when you’re in the north in the Midwest, you go to the Mayo Clinic if you can, it’s only two hours away from where I live. Secondly, my in-laws live in Rochester where the Mayo Clinic is, and my father in law at the time was a chaplain there. And so I knew I would have family there. And I’d have, you know, someone watching over me spiritually and physically and my wife and kids would have some place to stay for the sure few days it would take to handle this situation. Spoiler alert, it wasn’t a few days. It took a little longer than 65 to be in fact, that was in the hospital. And the first five of those I spent in a coma basically, because they had to fillet me and I use that term literally, they had to take the skin off my right arm, shoulder, chest and back. And, the effects you hear me show you a bit of what I’m talking about here. So you can see. See that maybe you can see how the infection starts here at my hand and goes down, and then goes all the way through this area here. I even lost a nipple. So when I have my shirt off it always looks like I’m winking. And then all the way through my back, an infection went so far into my right arm that at first the doctors thought I would have to have it amputated. But the occupational therapist who was in attendance, saw that I still had hand function. So what they did was they took a 15-inch by four inch flap of skin from my left thigh and placed it on my right hand. And since it’s my thigh on my hand, I call it my thand.
I’m waiting for them to come back on that or the copyright rather. So they and then they started doing skin graft, harvesting and placement surgeries and I’m not sure if you’ve ever seen a skin graft being taken. Imagine a souped up cheese grater, running across your skin, pulling off the top layer of skin. And then they put that on the tray and later on they place it somewhere on your body.
Richard Matthews 14:20
And that sounds horrifying.
Chris DT Gordon 14:22
It felt like Frankenstein’s monster. And speaking of Frankenstein’s monster, when they took the 15 inch by four inch flap of skin out of my left leg, they had to install knobs on either side of the wound, and then use a Jacob’s Ladder type shoelace pattern to tighten up the wound. And as a runner, I have somewhat large thighs. They had to take out a muscle. They removed my vastus lateralis from my left quadricep. So my quadricep was now a tri. Turned my quad into a tri. And I have my thand and I’m looking like a discount Deadpool, basically.
Richard Matthews 15:08
Yeah, my brother got a tri on his left quad from a motorcycle accident.
Chris DT Gordon 15:14
Oh, does he okay.
Richard Matthews 15:15
So I’ve actually seen what that looks like when you’re missing that muscle.
Chris DT Gordon 15:21
It’s a little weird when you’re wearing like tights because there’s a little divot there. But it makes a really cool scar. That you see.
Richard Matthews 15:33
So the necrotizing fasciitis is eating the muscle under your skin, is that right?
Chris DT Gordon 15:39
It’s eating the tissue and the skin that is the underlying tissue and some muscle. It really didn’t affect any of my muscles so much as it did the skin and the fascia underneath the skin.
Richard Matthews 15:56
So just because I’m curious, did you have to have the house come and inspected to remove whatever the like so you don’t have this problem happen again?
Chris DT Gordon 16:05
You know, they found out that what it was caused by strep, Group A strep. And the bacteria that was caught is called streptococcus pyogenes. So it wasn’t that we had to have the house fumigated. We just had to make sure the strep was out of the, you know, out of the system and, we didn’t have it sprayed. That’s a very good question. No one’s ever asked me that before. But it was really rare that it happened because usually people who contract an F are people with immunodeficiency syndromes, people with diabetes. People who don’t run five K’s in less than 20 minutes, which is what I was able to do the week before I got sick. In fact, my plastic surgeon told me when I asked him, “What were my limits?”, he said, “Well, Chris, you’re the first marathon runner that’s ever had this. So you tell us.” And so that told me that I was basically in a rare category.
Richard Matthews 17:21
So, you know, fast forward to today, what’s your 5K time?
Chris DT Gordon 17:27
It’s actually that was one of the one of the times that I went up the personal records the prs that I set I have since my discharge I have set or tied for all time personal records or prs. And the 5K was one of them. Under 19 minutes, in fact, I’ve also done an attempt to
Richard Matthews 17:50
You do that with only only a tri on your on one of your –
Chris DT Gordon 17:52
With only a tri and a thand. So, also the 10k, the 10 mile half marathon. I eventually would like to qualify for Boston, but I am horrible at the marathon. It’s always been a race. I’ve never comparatively done it, done well in. Now, some people, I would tell them my time and they’re like, “I would kill for that.” And I say first of all, “don’t. It’s not worth it.” Secondly, I understand –
Richard Matthews 18:25
– first names though become an assassin.
Chris DT Gordon 18:26
I know exactly. But I would dishonor my parents greatly. But secondly, you know, when you compare, you know, my other race times to the marathon, you would think I would run fast and that’s why I’m going from. I’m not speaking from an area of egotism. Yeah, I just feel that Well, on these races. You know, if I do well, on these distances, I should do well, on this one. Well, it’s not the case. I have to work a little harder on it. And I’m used to hard work, so that’s okay.
Richard Matthews 19:00
Makes sense. So that’s a super fascinating origin story. And of course, so you’ve used that story now to become a speaker where you’re teaching other people how to sort of have gratitude in the midst of, you know, incredibly difficult situations. Right?
Chris DT Gordon 19:17
Yes, sir.
Richard Matthews 19:19
what I want to talk about then is sort of how you’ve developed your superpowers in this space, right? So we say every iconic hero has a superpower, whether that’s a fancy flying suit, or in your case, perhaps a fan, then, you know, in the real world, heroes have what I call a zone of genius. It’s a skill or it’s a set of skills that either you were born with, or you developed over time that energize all your other skills, right? This superpower is what sets you apart and allows you to help people to slay their villains and come out on top on their journeys. So through all of this, what do you think your superpower is, and it’s something that you were born with or that you’ve developed since your accident? Those kinds of things.
Chris DT Gordon 19:59
I believe mine, Richard, is the attitude of gratitude. And I have always tried to be a grateful person. And that was instilled by my parents, who also didn’t want me to be an assassin.
Richard Matthews 20:11
That is an important bit.
Chris DT Gordon 20:13
It’s huge.
But when I woke, you know, the first few days after my coma, I started taking stock of all the things that had happened. And like I said, Before, I had two paths to travel, I could either go down the depressed path, and, you know, basically act in a way that would be a slap in the face to anyone who’s helped me in this endeavor. Because many people stepped up to help me and my family. People donated food, they donated toys to my kids. I have several colleagues from my school who actually live in the area and they drove to my in-laws house and dropped off a ridiculous amount of toys to my kids. And which is incredibly kind. I had people donating to a GoFundMe account that a friend of my wife set up, and which actually helped offset some lost wages because I had run out of sick days. There are so many instances of people showing me kindness, that if I were to become depressed or develop a woe-is-me attitude, that it would be disrespectful to them. And so I chose instead to look at all the great things I had in my life, you know, obviously my family, my friends, my faith, my job, my house, but I started looking at the small things. I really enjoy the fact that at this time, the first season of Daredevil was released on Netflix, actually while I was in the hospital. So I could enjoy that whenever I wanted to. I enjoyed the ridiculously good pizza they had at the hospital. You wouldn’t think a hospital would have good food, but man, their pizza was spectacular. I don’t know if it’s because I hadn’t had pizza in weeks. At the time I was eating it. It was really good. I took appreciation of the fact that when the sun had was going through its daily travels, yeah, that it wouldn’t shine in my face, you know, because my bed was situated in a way where the sun was was going to glare and my, you know, my peepers at two o’clock in the afternoon.
It’s all those little things that we take for granted usually, that I started keeping track of. And the more that I found that like I explained before I was grateful for and I’ve turned that into a message to share with people that, you know, first take count of all the great things you have in your life because when you think about it, you have some pretty awesome things that keep you happy, that keep you from climbing the walls. And you know, you have to not overwork those.
And then we talk about, you know, acknowledging the appreciated you know, let people know why you appreciate them, whether it’s your wife for cooking a fantastic meal, or is it the person who held the door for you as you’re walking through it with your hands full of groceries, by letting people know that you appreciate them that not only makes you feel better, as studies have shown, but it also helps them out because they could be having a bad day too and just that “thank you” can make them feel better themselves. And then finally, you know, giving someone else something to be grateful for doing something else for someone that could maybe you know, could be costing a few bucks or zero bucks. Last couple weeks ago, our neighbors just had twins. And as a father of twins, I know exactly what they’re going through. And so I mowed their lawn. It costs me nothing. And I actually have an electric mower. So it didn’t cost me any gas. But it helped them out greatly because it was one fewer thing they had to worry about.
Richard Matthews 24:38
One of the things that I’ve always especially, you know, I would imagine it’s even more true when you’re looking towards healing from something as traumatic is necrotizing fasciitis is that I talked about a lot in the business sense that, hey, you have to learn to be content where you are, but you have to know where you’re going. I call it contented ambition, like it’s if you don’t learn how to be content with what you have and what you’re doing and where you’re at in your business or in your life, then it’s really difficult to go somewhere. And at the same point, if you don’t have a destination, if you don’t know where you’re going, it’s also really hard to go anywhere. So you sort of have to have both. You have to have that contentment and that gratitude for where you are and what you have. I mean, you have to have a destination, right? You have to be like, I’m looking forward to healing my body and getting to the end of this journey, right? And learning how to do those things. So anyways, it’s really fascinating to sort of see how those that same mental game has to be played, even when you’re talking about health as it does when you’re talking about other aspects of your life.
Chris DT Gordon 25:45
Yes. And it’s funny, you mentioned that because I was listening to a podcast called the Brendon Show, which is hosted by Brendon Burchard. I’m not sure if you know-
Richard Matthews 25:55
I do.
Chris DT Gordon 25:57
A fact that he talks about one of his podcasts was talking about being happy. And he said that you can be satisfied with what you’re doing and still want to improve it. You know, at the time, he was talking at a seminar he was giving, and he said, I am totally satisfied with how this is going. There are so many things that could be better. So, you know, being satisfied, doesn’t mean that everything’s perfect. Being satisfied is you’re happy with what is going on now. But you still want to make it better.
Richard Matthews 26:36
Absolutely right. You have a contented ambition, your content where you are, and you know where you want to go, right. You know, what you can improve and how you want to get better. And I assume the same thing applies. You said you’re a marathon runner, I would say you know, you can be satisfied with your time but know hey, I can shave a couple of seconds off that next time we go around.
Chris DT Gordon 26:54
Exactly.
Richard Matthews 26:55
So, you know, the flipside then of your superpower, right if your superpower is the attitude of gratitude, that is the fatal flaw, right? So every Superman has their kryptonite, right? Or Wonder Woman can’t remove her bracelets of victory without going mad. I’m kind of curious what the One Fist Guy is and what his weakness is? So maybe you can share that in a minute. But, you know, you probably have a flaw that’s held you back in your new career as a speaker. You know, something you’ve struggled with, maybe it’s perfectionism, something I struggled with keeps me from shipping or lack of self care that, you know, lets your clients walk all over you. It’s another thing that I struggled with as I built my business. But more important than sort of what the flaw is, is how you’ve been working on fixing it yourself. So you can overcome it. And people who might be listening to us who’ve suffered from the same thing might learn a little bit from your experience there.
Chris DT Gordon 27:42
Definitely. Well, I have to tell you that one thing, wait on what. Shiny objects are my kryptonite. I have goals. I have ambition. I have dreams. But once in a while, you’ll get those shiny objects that catch your eye. And you want to check them out. You think that this will help you get to another level, but then there’s another shiny object and another one and another one. Ah, those drive me batty. And so what I’ve been really working on is trying to focus on five vital functions right there that I need to do to move my progress forward. And if something doesn’t fit into one of those five categories, hmm, it’s out of there. And so that that would have to be it. If I want it you know, there are a few things I want to do well, but there’s so many other things that you know that look good, or they sound good, but if they’re not working in those five categories, I need to be better at saying no. You know, many, many thought leaders have said that the most successful people are the ones that say no most often.
Richard Matthews 29:13
Yeah, absolutely.
Chris DT Gordon 29:14
Because when you say yes, you’re saying no to something else, if you say yes, too much, you’re going to find yourself not making any progress.
Richard Matthews 29:26
Yeah, I have a friend of mine who worked with fortune 500 companies on their CEOs and said one of the things that was very, very common amongst the multi millionaire CEOs of big companies was they knew what their one thing was. And they said no to everything else. And it’s a classic like success. And I know for me, like when I’m early in my entrepreneurial career, the first four or five years, one of the things that I struggled with a lot was that shiny object syndrome. And it wasn’t until, like I had defined this idea early in my career, but it wasn’t until I started running everything that I had that came in front of me by this idea that I started to actually, like, overcome it. And for me, it was that I wanted, I wanted everything that I did my business to support my ability to spend lunch time with my kids. Right? That was like, my big goal. I’m not gonna, I’m not sure what’s gonna happen once they all grow old and move out of my house. But for the time being I want to be the kind of dad who could have lunch with my kids every time and I remember thinking that to myself when I just had my first son who’s going to be 11 here in a couple of months. It took me a few years to like, actually start doing that, but it’s the same kind of thing, right? You said you had five things. Mine was like this one rule is like, does this help me have more lunch with my kids? Or does it not help me have more lunch with my kids? And that’s like the question I asked myself for every shiny object that comes my way and allows me to say no, a lot more often than I used to. Because I used to say yes to all sorts of things. And now I say no a lot more often. And as a result, I am wealthier and my business is growing more. And it’s much, I enjoy my life more. So anyways, it’s an important skill to learn how to say no.
Chris DT Gordon 31:12
Yes, yes, it is ironic when you say no.
Richard Matthews 31:17
I know it’s weird, right? It’s, you say yes to saying no. So, my next question for you then is about your common enemy. Right and your case, I want to put this in context of the audience’s that you speak to, but every superhero has an arch nemesis, right? It’s the thing that they constantly have to fight against their world, right. So in the world of business, it takes on many forms, but generally speaking, it’s in the context of your clients. So for you, the people that you speak to when you get up on stage, or I guess now in the midst of the Coronavirus when you get on Zoom calls or with groups of people, right? It’s the mindset or a blog that you’re constantly having to fight to overcome so that the people who hear you can get better results, you know, oh, are cheaper results or faster results or a higher degree of results? What’s that one mindset that you’re always seeing seeming to run into with me seeing people struggle with the things that you teach?
Chris DT Gordon 32:09
I think it’s the naysayer, and that, you know, you can say, Well, I like you know, be thankful for all that you have. But you know, and I really haven’t run across this yet but I just imagined someone was saying, “Well, everything around my life sucks.” Yeah. And you get bring up. “Would you like to eat?” I don’t like anything, you know, is that person that’s choosing.
Richard Matthews 32:37
– People like that.
Chris DT Gordon 32:38
Not to do that? Yes, exactly. And you know, and at some point, you have to understand that I can either, you know, spent all my energies on this one person who is choosing to do to do that or I can, you know, take a line from Star Trek and say the ways the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, especially when this person is choosing that. However, I could also say, well, you must like being negative, so there’s something you can be thankful for being negative. And so, you know, there’s always a way
Richard Matthews 33:19
… Turn it around on him.
Chris DT Gordon 33:21
Yes, you know, so you could always find a way to defeat a villain, but thankfully, I haven’t run across that yet. Um, but, you know, I just think that there’s always, like I just showed, there’s always a way to work around or through a problem.
Richard Matthews 33:40
Well, then I think probably a more interesting question to answer would be the flip side of your common enemy, which is your driving force, right? If your common enemies, something you fight against your driving force is something that you fight for. So just like Spider Man fights to save New York or Batman fights to save Gotham, or Google fights to indexing categorize all the world’s information, what is it that you’re fighting for in your new speaking career,
Chris DT Gordon 34:02
Well to speak, I guess broadly is to make a better world. But to be more specific, I would say, to have people develop a more positive outlook. Because when you have a positive outlook, you have a positive life.
And so by seeing things more positively, that gives you the options to explore other avenues, you know, because if you, if you’re saying that, oh, everything is bad, everything is bad, you’re going to have that negative mindset, oh, nothing will be good for me. But say, for example, you’re trying to lose weight, I say well, you know, I have these running, I have these walking shoes that are very comfortable. You know, why don’t you use them, go walk, you know, go walk in them. And you know, and appreciate how far you can walk, and then maybe extend that little further. extend that a little further. When I started running after my hospitalization, I ran one mile. And it was the worst miles of my life. And I needed to get that one under my belt. Now, because the worst is always the first is always the worst. But after I did that, I realized, well, I’m gonna have to break this up. And so I started running one mile running one block, walking one block. And at that time, my running was a little more like glorified walking, but I had to start somewhere. So I would walk, run, walk, run a block each, and then I started running two blocks, and then walking one and then three, and then four, and then five. And so it had I come out of that first mile. And said while never doing that again. That was horrible. I wouldn’t have been able to accomplish all that I have. But by looking at and saying, “Wow, I just did a mile after not running for three months.” It was horrible. But I know you’re having your lighter miles. I mean, there are better miles ahead of me now.
Richard Matthews 36:22
Reminds me of something I started doing a couple years ago now but started doing what I call it a calisthenics, like bodyweight training. Yep. And started with push ups. Like push up training and, uh, you know, they had all these things like, Hey, you could do push ups and sit ups and squats and all these other things. And I was like, you know, I just want to get back in shape. So I just started with push ups. And I remember it was like, you know, they were like, do 50 push ups. I was like, this is … I’m not able to do 50 push ups. So I said, I was like, the first day I was like, I could do five. And you know, the next day I did, I did six. And the next day, I was like, Yeah, I could do 10 and it was amazing. By the time I get to like three months in, I can do 100 pushups a day no problem like in a row. And you know, and you get to the point where you’re like I’m doing 25 you know, narrow push ups and 25 wide push ups and 25 Spider Man push ups and 25 something else and it was like it just your body responds so quickly to those kind of things when you when you when you break it up and give it some time to grow. You know, if you start off with it, I’m gonna do 100 push ups today from nothing, it’s very, very difficult to achieve that.
Chris DT Gordon 37:31
I always think of what about Bob baby steps you know, just gotta take it easy and you know, and give yourself time to grow. But it’s like, you know, getting back to you know, that positive mindset can set you up to accomplish so many things. I was yesterday. In fact, I received word that I achieved my recommended black belt in Taekwondo. And I had started.
Richard Matthews 38:04
Congratulations.
Chris DT Gordon 38:04
Thank you. Thank you. I started after my hospitalization and my son’s joined in the fall of 2015. And I told him, I told my wife, if he sticks with it for a year, I’m going to ask them if I can join. Because I had been in Taekwondo when I was younger, but like a stupid kid, I quit. But it’s always been my secret desire to always earn a black belt. And over the years, I’ve become more increasingly goal driven. And so when that year came around and he was still in it, I asked him if I could join and he said, Yes. And so our master graciously allowed me to join in with him because of my prior experience. And so we’ve been doing it for a number of years now and he still has to do one kick to get his but I just received word I received my recommended black belt. And it’s because I had that positive outlook, that you know what? It doesn’t matter that I’m in my 40s It doesn’t matter that I almost died. And I have fewer muscles than I did when I, than I did a few years ago. Doesn’t matter that I look like a discount Deadpool. You know, I have all these other things going for me, and I’m going to use them as well as I can. And thankfully I have achieved a lot.
Richard Matthews 39:34
That’s really cool. So just out of curiosity, how old is your son now?
Chris DT Gordon 39:37
He’s 11. He’s a little older than your son.
Richard Matthews 39:41
Yeah, that’s cool. How’s he doing with the Taekwondo is one of the things I’ve been talking a little bit about maybe doing some sort of Taekwondo or martial arts or some sort, something he really enjoyed.
Chris DT Gordon 39:52
Yeah, he really likes it. He, it’s been really weird during the pandemic, we haven’t been able to go to a lot of classes but they’ve started classes up again. And so we’re gonna get back on that horse so he can get his kick done. It’s a slow motion front kick that I had to work on. When you’re 46 years old and you’re a runner, your hip flexors aren’t very flexi. So I spent a lot of this pandemic, working on my flexibility, and you know, doing lots of different stretches, and thankfully, it came through for me. So I’ll get back into it, and we’ll be able to accomplish that goal pretty soon here.
Richard Matthews 40:35
Yeah, my son and I are talking about potentially, as we’ve talked a little bit of martial arts and the other thing we’re talking about is potentially learning some sailing stuff. So we’re talking about getting a little like 11 foot like they call it a skiff. I believe it’s a little almost like a flat boat with a you can pop a sail into it. We can put on top of our car and take it with us when we travel. And we could learn to sail on that. We think that’d be a fun, athletic hobby to get into.
Chris DT Gordon 40:59
Yeah Yeah sailing’s a lot of fun. I haven’t done a lot of it, but when I have it’s always been challenging but always a good time.
Richard Matthews 41:07
So anyway, so you know, we’re in the process of trying to decide what kind of things can we do? Well, we travel. So anyways, I want to talk a little bit about some practical things right, so I call this section of the Hero’s Tool Belt. And just like every superhero has a Tool Belt with awesome gadgets like batterrangs, or web slingers, or laser eyes or a big magical hammer or you know, or one punch fists. I want to talk a little bit about something that you know, for you. Something that’s a practical tool our audience might be able to use for working on or getting that attitude of gratitude to help grow their organization or their business, some things that they can practice or do on a daily basis that would help them you know, achieve that attitude.
Chris DT Gordon 41:54
Well, you can take the word or take the phrase, the attitude of gratitude and short it to the game, to the word tag. And we’ve all played tag before. And you can exercise the attitude of gratitude by playing tag. You could pretend that you’re it. And you first think about all you know some good things in your life. I know we could go with the big the big ones, but you could also go with the small ones. Like, I like how well these gloves fit on my hands. I really appreciate that picture of Ninja Turtles, with Deadpool. You know, you can look at those small things that you can seemingly overlook but take appreciation of them. And then the A is you acknowledge appreciated you let someone know that you appreciate them and why you appreciate them. And you can start building that gratitude within them as well. And then there’s the G you give someone else a reason to be grateful. Like for I mentioned before I mowed my neighbor’s lawn when they were busy with their babies. My other neighbor was gone for a couple weeks. So I mowed his lawn so it didn’t look like the house was vacant. Whenever I go for a run, I usually try to pick up as much trash as I can on my way. You know, I talk with the people at the store at the restaurant, when you can go to restaurants safely, and I let them know how much I appreciate their hard work. And when I give when I have a chance to tell them I say hey, you know what you’re IT now. I want you to think of some things that are good in your life. You know, let people know how you appreciate them and give someone else a chance to be grateful. And so by playing tag in that manner, you can spread the add to the gratitude out more and more and hopefully, it will catch on as well as COVID-19 honestly with many, hopefully fewer painful, you know, side effects.
Richard Matthews 44:03
Experiences. So let me just recap that real quick. So the T is basically like take, you know, take what they call it, like inventory of something that’s that you appreciate. And so then the A is acknowledged by someone, someone else. Yeah. And then someone else gives it to someone to be grateful, right?
Chris DT Gordon 44:24
Yes.
Richard Matthews 44:24
The last one. Is that right?
Chris DT Gordon 44:25
Yes.
Richard Matthews 44:26
That’s a cool little cool little pneumonic for helping people. And this is something that you practice every day and you recommend other people do the same kind of thing?
Chris DT Gordon 44:33
Yes. And it’s basically what my talk is about is using that.
Richard Matthews 44:41
So just for people who might be what would the word be skeptical of what the attitude of gratitude might do for them, what kind of what kind of actual life results happen as a result of learning to have that kind of gratitude and learning how to do these kinds of things and practice them on a daily basis?
Chris DT Gordon 45:02
Well, personally, I look at myself and I have to be honest, um, you know, I have achieved some pretty cool things the last five years, I don’t try to focus too much on it because I don’t want to become egotistical, but at the same time, you know, I have surpassed the, the prognoses that I was given. I mean, I was told in the hospital that I would basically be able to feed myself with my arm and that’s it. And now I can do at least 25 you know, when I’m feeling good 25 pull ups on you know, go all the way down as far as I can because this arm doesn’t stretch as well as this one because skin grafts are tight. But I use myself as an example. You know, when I was in the hospital. If I had become morose and negative, I wouldn’t have thought of what was possible because a negative person does not think of the positive possible. So, you know, right there, I am an example. And you could also point to numerous studies that show gratitude has positive effects on not only the body, physically, but the mind, psychologically, it’s been like, for example, it’s a 2006 study that showed that gratitude reversed or at least delayed the effects of PTSD in Vietnam veterans. And, and so you can, like you say, go to Google, and just type in the benefits of gratitude and you’ll find numerous studies. But you know, talking about the benefits of practicing that positive outlook and being grateful for what you have
Richard Matthews 47:00
Absolutely, um, you know, I can speak to the same thing for those those once you you sort of learn how to be grateful for what you have and sorry we’re in the middle of a lightning storm that just started and we just lost power for a couple of seconds so it came down and came back up. I connected to my cell phone for a second hopefully this uh, it’ll continue working. But, you know, Florida has this whole thing with the storms but yeah, one of the things I’ve been really just I’ve been impressed with is how well I’ve been able to grow my business by learning how to have that same attitude of gratitude, essentially.
…
So it’s a … skill. So my next question for you, though, is about your own personal heroes, right? So every hero has their mentors, right? Frodo had Gandalf, Luke had Obi Wan Kenobi. Spider man had his uncle Ben. So I want to know if for some of your heroes, were they real life mentors, speakers or authors, maybe peers who were just a couple of years ahead of you, and how important were they to what you have accomplished so far in getting your speaking career going?
Chris DT Gordon 49:42
No, I always credit my parents, especially my dad with helping me develop the person that I have become. He was always very kind to people and hard working and showed me – overtly and covertly how I should treat others and treat myself. For speaking, I looked at the teachings of Brendon Burchard, whom Richard I referenced earlier, and also Darren Hardy, he’s the author of the Compound Effect. And, you know, I take teachings and try to use them to guide my actions not only professionally, you know, as a speaker, but also as a teacher, but and also as a husband and a father, you know, to make sure I’m hitting on all cylinders there. There are other people specifically that I look towards as heroes but, you know, you always try to look for resonant actions over a broad spectrum. So I just look for, you know, the actions that people have tried to take that have proven well for them as a group and try to adopt those. Like, for example, when I’m finished with a speaking engagement, you know, writing a thank you note to someone and I would always say thank you and and drop into email but like writing our handwritten thank you note to the to the event provider or the event the event coordinator and so those are some of my heroes.
Richard Matthews 51:38
I love that idea of writing thank you notes. I’m in the process of learning how to do some like letter calligraphy so I can add some more handwriting like thank you stuff to the work that I do, which I think will be a benefit for a couple of reasons. One because I think it’s a fun little piece of, you know, skilled art to learn but also because there’s a lot to be said for showing The people that do business with you how grateful you are they chose to work with you. Yeah, more shows, have you speak or chose to, you know, come on your podcast, those kinds of things. So I want to talk about one more thing before we end this interview. And that’s your guiding principles, right? So one of the things that makes heroes heroic, um, so they live by a code. For instance, Batman never kills his enemies, he always brings them to Arkham Asylum. So as we wrap up the interview, I’m going to talk about the top one or two principles that you use in your life regularly that, that really help you grow your business and help you you know, get onto more stages or get into more virtual Zoom, you know, zero speaking engagements in the middle of our pandemic. What are those principles for you?
Chris DT Gordon 52:42
Well, I think first is the attitude of gratitude. You know, that that just guides my actions not only as a speaker, but as a person. So practicing that every day, but also, it’s the phrase that I use to end all my podcasts which is, “pass on perfection and go for greatness.” You know our society is so obsessed with getting things just right with getting, with being perfect all the time. But when you look at the grades we look at Michael Jordan. He took and missed over 9000 shots in his career. Yet he is hailed as the greatest basketball player of all time by many people who are correct. Sorry, LeBron. You look at, you know so many other people who they weren’t perfect but they were great. And having and taking the monkey of perfection off your back. You are free to get to do your best and if you are perfect, like if you are a bowler and you throw out 300 games once in a while. Awesome, but being able to throw a, you know, 295 or 297, that’s still great. You know, you’re still better than 99% of the bowlers out there. And so by pursuing greatness by trying to be as good as you can be without worrying about being perfect, you might reach that perfection once in a while, but by being consistent in your attempts, you will attain greatness. And that will ultimately give you more happiness than if you try to be perfect all the time.
Richard Matthews 54:37
I struggled with the whole perfectionism thing for a long time in my own life. And it was something that a good friend of mine said to me once was that perfectionism is the lowest standard you can hold yourself to, because it’s unattainable, right? It’s not a real thing. So, if perfectionism is the lowest standard, you’re hoping you can hold yourself to you want to hold yourself to high standards, you need to pick a new standard, right? You’d have a difference you’re holding yourself to and, you know, so for me, it was learning how to in my case, you know, for my business is learning how to ship a product that got the result that I wanted, right? And you know, not every little pixel had to be right on the sales page, not every word in your book has to be perfect, right? Like it’s, you know, you have to get it to the point where it’s good enough to do the job, right, it’s good enough to do the job and then you can iterate and become better and if you can consistently get good at in my case and shipping a good product then you know, it helps you grow your business a lot. So I love to pass on perfection and shoot for greatness. Is that right?
Chris DT Gordon 55:46
Yeah. And go for greatness. I’m a huge fan of a …. So I just like that. Yeah, I like that alliteration of pass on perfection and go for greatness.
Richard Matthews 55:56
I love it. So pass on perfection and go for greatness. So I basically wrapped up our interview. But I do finish every interview off with a simple challenge that I call the Hero’s challenge. And I do this, it’s a selfish thing personally to get access to new stories that I might not find on my own. So my question is simple. Do you have someone in your life or in your network that you think has a cool entrepreneurial story? Who are they? First names are fine and why do you think they should come share their story here on our show?
Chris DT Gordon 56:24
I think my friend Ben comes to mind. I’ve met him within the podcast world on – you and I are on the same podcast Facebook group, correct?
Richard Matthews 56:42
That’s probably my, my, my assistant, who runs this podcast does all that for me so probably.
Chris DT Gordon 56:49
Okay, well, I met Ben through that podcast group and or at least, I met him and that got him into it. But we’ve been connecting ever since. And he has a great story. And I think he would really serve your audience. Well, his name is Ben Eden.
Richard Matthews 57:11
Awesome. Well, we’ll see if we can reach out afterwards and get – see if get Ben to come on the show and share his story. And I think so that’s a wrap on an interview. But in comic books, there’s always the crowd who said, you know, who, who’s there to cheer on the acts of heroism and clap for the audience. So as we close, what I want to know is where can people find you? Right? If they want to hire you to speak to their group? Or if they want to see some of the things that you teach? I know, you were saying you were working on a program, where can they find you? You know, where can they light up the bat signal, so to speak, and say, “Hey, Chris, I need your help.” And more important than that, who are the right types of people to reach out right, like what kind of audiences do you like to speak to? Is it schools? Is it businesses who are the right type of people is …I would love to have Chris come and teach a little bit about the attitude of gratitude to our audience.
Chris DT Gordon 57:57
Thanks for asking Richard. Right now, I’m focusing on speaking to students. Being a teacher, I find that I have a natural ability to connect with kids. And so I am reaching out to students K12, and also colleges. But I’ve also been told that corporations, and you know, the corporate world might also appreciate my story. So, I might start reaching out in that realm, as well. But people can find me at https://chrisdtgordon.com/ and that’s where they can find out about my speaking and coaching opportunities. They can also find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Instagram at Chris DT Gordon, G-O-R-D-O-N. I try to keep it as simple as I can. And there’s also my podcast called Scar Bearers not bears the scars though. That is Visually awesome. It’s called Scar Bearers. And where I talk about my experience with NF, and I interview people to talk about their physical and sometimes emotional scars and how they’ve recovered from them. And you can find that on Apple podcast, Google podcasts, Spotify anchor, all a lot of the podcast places and you recognize it because I use the Star Wars font.
Richard Matthews 59:30
Nice. Awesome. So thank you so much for coming on the show today, Chris. Really appreciate it. And if you’re in our audience and you’re looking you haven’t a group of students who might benefit from hearing Chris speak make sure you reach out to him. It’s https://chrisdtgordon.com/, we’ll make sure the links are in the show notes. And Chris before we hit that stop record button, you have any final words of wisdom for our audience.
Chris DT Gordon 59:50
I wish I could think of something brand new to say but I would just say, pass on perfection and go for greatness!
Richard Matthews 1:00:01
I love it. I love the superhero outfit too. We’ll see if we can find the link to that show and put it in the show notes as well for being in what do you call it? He’s the One punch, man. There we go. One punch. One punch, man. Awesome. Thank you very much, Chris, for coming on the show.
Chris DT Gordon 1:00:21
Well, thank you for having me, Richard. I really enjoyed it.
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Richard Matthews
Would You Like To Have A Content Marketing Machine Like “The HERO Show” For Your Business?
The HERO Show is produced and managed by PushButtonPodcasts a done-for-you service that will help get your show out every single week without you lifting a finger after you’ve pushed that “stop record” button.
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