Chris Wise is a lifelong entrepreneur. He started his first business (in chainsaw sharpening) when he was just 12 years old. At 16, he founded Wise Enterprises, which he later left college to pursue full-time. For him, this decision turned out to be a success; he was a millionaire by the age of 21. Since then, he has coauthored three books and a movie with key business and personal development leaders Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, and Bob Proctor.

In this conversation, though, we focus less on his impressive business and entrepreneurial skills and successes. Instead, Chris shares an incredible amount about who he is, his perspective on life, and how he used his beliefs and perspective to navigate his way through his time in prison.

Find Out More About Chris Here:

Chris Wise on LinkedInChrisRWise on Facebook

In This Episode:

• [02:01] - Chris starts us off by telling us some of his life story. We hear about how he was living a dream life, then was arrested on a plane and handed off to the Secret Service. He then talks about his prison experience, offering fascinating insight into how the prison mentality functions.
• [08:48] - Chris steps back a couple years, describing work he did with his spiritual mentor.
• [11:14] - About six months before the prison incident, Chris had a desire that prison later unexpectedly fulfilled.
• [11:53] - Having shared these other events, Chris returns to the story he was telling about one of his experiences in prison.
• [13:07] - The story he just shared wasn’t the only run-in with violence that Chris had during his time in prison. He talks about another one that didn’t turn out as well as the last. His reaction to this second incident of violence was his defining in prison.
• [15:54] - Stephan shares a story of his own about responding to darkness with light or love.
• [18:10] - Returning to the story of his second violent run-in, Chris discusses some of the aftermath.
• [19:45] - While meditating after this incident, Chris had what he describes as “a direct experience with God.” From this, he gained three essential elements: 1. “Life is a gift.” 2. “I cannot be destroyed.” 3. “I will follow my heart, no matter what, even until death.”
• [22:09] - After this experience, how long did Chris have left in his situation of being alienated from his former group in prison?
• [24:34] - Chris clarifies that, while he’s in a body, he himself is the consciousness that enlivens that body. He then talks about state-changing as it relates to his prison experience, as well as the fundamental flaw in that technique.
• [26:54] - Stephan and Chris discuss the importance of letting yourself feel emotions rather than suppressing or resisting them.
• [28:09] - We hear about Chris’ first night in prison.
• [30:46] - “Life is too perfect to be fair,” Chris said a moment ago. Here, he expands on that. He and Stephan then talk about the relation between the concept of “fairness” and expectation of a certain outcome.
• [32:26] - Encountering a situation where you feel you’re being treated unfairly is an opportunity to step into a deeper level of faith and trust, Chris explains.
• [33:55] - Chris clarifies what he had said before about his parents. He then talks more about how his childhood experiences and relationship with his parents have contributed to his later experiences.
• [37:17] - Chris shares more of what has occurred for him. Most powerfully, he has become his own source of happiness and satisfaction in a way that allows him to let go of control of outcomes.
• [40:19] - We hear Chris’ thoughts on the integration of masculine and feminine energies that has occurred in his body after he was released from prison.
• [40:56] - What’s the benefit of integrating masculine and feminine energy?
• [44:13] - Chris elaborates on the role of Krav Maga in his life and his experience of masculinity. He then talks about how experience his prison experience might have been if he hadn’t studied Krav Maga.
• [47:12] - Stephan asks whether Chris was tempted to say a more casual, “I love you, man” during the previous prison experience he mentioned, as this would be less vulnerable. Here, Chris responds.
• [48:00] - How is Chris putting all this love into action these days? He talks about his current interest in working with conscious leaders. Within profitability, there needs to be concern for treatment of customers, employees, vendors, the community, and society, he tells us.
• [50:46] - There are eight building blocks that Chris looks at when he’s scaling a company, with the first four as follows: 1. How their teams are structured. 2. Their actual cash management plan. 3. How they’re executing inside their organization. 4. Their growth methodology.
• [52:23]- How would someone reach Chris if they’re interested in working with him? He explains that he generally works with companies that are doing at least $1 million in revenue and want to scale beyond $10 million. He then discusses the complimentary strategy sessions he offers. If you’re interested, you can email him at [email protected] with “Strategy Session” in the subject line.

Get Optimized!

1. Visualize your inner child, and say to him or her for five minutes at a time, “I love you.” Repeat this daily for at least a week.
2. The next time you have the opportunity to do so, respond to anger or aggression with love. This may be as simple as saying “I love you” to an angry spouse rather than reacting with anger.
3. Identify one relationship in your life that is defined by darkness. Write down three potential ways to fill it with light from your end, and then follow through with one of them.

Links and Resources:

Chris Wise on LinkedInChrisRWise on Facebook[email protected]Brian TracyZig ZiglarBob ProctorKrav Maga