Episode 39 - How to Raise Money-Smart Kids with Chris Baden
Are you working hard to build a better life but worried you’re sacrificing what matters most?
In this episode, Chris Baden shares how he reshaped success around faith, family, and intentional entrepreneurship. As a husband, homeschool dad of three, and CEO of FlowChat, Chris brings wisdom from both the boardroom and the breakfast table.
Here’s what you will learn:
✅ How to raise financially confident kids without pressure or perfection
✅ The power of a family mission statement
✅ The “roots and wings” framework for raising grounded, independent kids
✅ How to shift from burnout to alignment by redefining your priorities
✅ Why cultivating skills is more important than forcing chores
Whether you're parenting young kids or teens, running a business, or just trying to keep your head above water, this episode offers practical encouragement and meaningful mindset shifts.
🎧 Listen now and discover how to build a family legacy that lasts.
Episode Highlights
(00:20) Prioritizing Focus and Balance
(04:04) Creating Wealth Across Generations
(09:16) Building a Lifelong Marriage and Business
(14:03) Teaching Problem-Solving and Leadership to Kids
(19:49) Youth Media Company Financial Education
(29:27) Lessons Learned From Business Failures
(33:17) Entrepreneurship Challenges and Resilience
Connect with Chris Baden
Website: FlowChat.com
Instagram: @chrisbaden
Connect with Deb Meyer
Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel
Website: WorthyNest.com/podcast
Full transcript
Deb Meyer (00:00.355)
I'm so excited to introduce today's guest, Chris Baden. His passion is building multi-million dollar companies. As the current CEO and co-founder of FlowChat, Chris's focus in recent years is business to business software as a service companies, or SAS. Here's another fun fact: He's competed on the TV show, American Ninja Warriors, for three seasons. Is that right, Chris? Three?
Chris Baden (00:25.524)
It's true, seasons three, four, and six.
Deb Meyer (00:28.289)
Wow, awesome! Well, thank you so much for being on the show. You and I recently connected on LinkedIn, and I think what first caught my eye was your byline, because a lot of people on LinkedIn are very professional, and they're focused solely on their company title. But yours is unique. It says, “Building a lifelong marriage, world-impacting family, and a nine-figure tech company, in that order.
So Chris, which of these three things do you think is most important, or are they all equally important?
Chris Baden (00:59.726)
Well, the way that I look at it is, you know, I think of, you know, what is my intention? Like, what am I most focused on? What am I building? And then the second piece of that is, what's the cadence? Like the daily, weekly cadence that, because we only have so much time, focus and energy. So I'm going to give it all I got. Well, cool. That's not going to ever be more than 24 hours a day. So all of us have limits and it's like, well, if you work 24 hours a day, you'll also burn out really fast.
So that doesn't work. Okay, I'm not. You just, started thinking about it practically and I, I frankly had to do this because my body started to fall apart. I was getting, I started to get some, some smaller minor ulcers and also my heart wasn't beating properly. And, and turns out as the doctor was giving him my blood work back that my blood work was great. I was actually very healthy. I've been very athletic and eaten well, you know, decent my whole life and taking care of myself in that way. So he was like, Chris, you're stressed. And I look back at him, you know, with my eye twitching being like, what are you talking about? I'm not stressed. And so there's kind of this epiphany moment where things shifted from this is years ago at this point, but it shifted to where I'm like, like I need to think about this a lot different.
Chris Baden (02:25.582)
And it introduced questions I can share with you right now in the audience with you right now that really changed my life. And these questions were, okay, here are my goals. I need to create an outcome that is double, triple, quadruple the levels that I'm currently at and I have to do it in half the amount of time. And so the question became, how do I do that?
poor mind says you can't afford this, you can't afford that, you're stuck here, you're stuck there, you can never do this, you can never do that. The wealthy mind has the same set of problems, but asks, how can I, how can I do? And not just one time, you might ask that question 100 times a day and do it 200 times the next day. But when you keep asking the brain that's, you know, questions over and over, it prompts it for an answer and define more and more answers or more deeper nuances. And, you know, for this part of our conversation,
It led me to, you know what, what are my priorities and what are my values? Well, business has come and go. I've already built multiple companies and have one exit and grateful for all that. But you know, my intention is to build a lifelong marriage. And so that's my whole life. That's priority number one. And then priority number two is in a world impacting family.
Deb Meyer (03:46.615)
Yeah.
Chris Baden (03:51.918)
legacy and success is my kids far exceeding me. fun fact in terms of like finance and business, did you know whatever you build, what I'm gonna build from, I'm building for my, and I was in this mindset prior, I was in this mindset of I'm building for my family and like I'm not sleeping and I'm working hard and because someday it's gonna be better and it's gonna be different. Well that years later, that day just never came. I was burned out.
Deb Meyer (03:59.085)
Hmm.
Deb Meyer (04:20.387)
Mm.
Chris Baden (04:21.582)
I was putting out level 10 energy and getting back level two results. That was frustrating. It was a great way to run myself right. Now, the thing is, whatever I ended up building, statistically, like 80, 90 plus percent of wealth creation within one generation is lost, like completely lost by the second or third generation.
Deb Meyer (04:46.701)
I know. The statistics are really sad.
Chris Baden (04:50.554)
It's so, so I happened to find myself in, in, I was like, this is a problem. I don't have the answers. And so what I typically do is I find, who does, and how do I be friends with them? And so I, I made some friends over this last year, Deb. I found myself in a room where, you know, to give him a shout out, the guy that, you know, running and leading is Scott Donald and he has, he's 37.
Chris Baden (05:18.828)
He's got four kids. He has three exits, one of them being an IPO, and he comes from four generations deep of entrepreneurship. Every generation has generated. He's also met with 100 of the most wealthy families, not like the vanguards or fidelity, the ones that wealthy meaning they're two, three, four, five generations deep.
in wealth creation and when I say wealth, yes finances, but also mentally, emotionally, spiritually as well.
Deb Meyer (05:56.397)
They still like each other when they show up at Thanksgiving. Right?
Chris Baden (05:59.022)
Yeah, exactly. no, no. So one of the frameworks that we talked through on some of this stuff is roots and wings. See, if you have roots, you have a good foundation and your family, you know, come, you know, comes back. But if you don't have wings, and you have roots, then your kids will grow up and never leave your home. So they want to have the foundation and the roots like the heritage, where there's connection and unity, but also the roots where they have the self confidence.
capability and skills to soar and fly higher than you have. And if you don't have roots, but you have wings, then they're soaring and flying and never looking back. They're not coming home for holidays. You don't get to see the grandkids. so being surround, this is like, this is a big important topic for anyone listening, watching. If you care even an ounce about family, I realized, shoot.
I am on a one way road to the wrong direction. My ladder's on, you know, mounted up wrong on the wrong building. Because number one, I'm working really, really hard sacrificing relationship today, which is actually a higher priority for quote, a better tomorrow. And number two, even when I'm building isn't gonna last because it's not about what I leave to my kids, but what I leave in them.
It's not about inheritance, it's about heritage. And so what does it mean to be a Baden? So we started writing out a mission and a vision statement for our marriage and our family. One of them, just to share, to be a Baden, Badens don't back down. Badens leave a place better than they found it. So what does that mean? just to have to share a fun, like quick story, we were at a restaurant and we were about to leave.
And the table was a mess. And I said, I stopped my kids, said, hey, where are you going? Like, we're done, leaving. I was like, is the table better than how we found it? and it's like, there's also a couple of things on the ground. Well, we didn't do that. Or are we leaving it equal or better than we found it? This is a value. This is a principle. Now that's just physical. There's actually three forms of value that, know, connecting with somebody and leaving a place better than you found it.
Chris Baden (08:22.414)
Emotionally is the second. That's knowing the waiter or waitress's name, addressing them by name, smiling, acknowledging them, making a friend, sharing a compliment. You're raising the emotional energy level. They feel better generally because you are around. That's emotional value, short version of it. And then there's spiritual value. Now, for us, we're a family of faith. Sometimes we will pray with others or support them in other ways.
But for anyone listening that's not maybe as religious or spiritual, spiritual value could be simply stated as unity. It's acknowledging that people matter and kind of the bigger picture. I really appreciate the work that you're doing today. It makes for a much better experience in this restaurant. It's like your position and your role. And for anyone listening on the business side, right?
Chris Baden (09:15.354)
If I'm talking to someone that has, maybe it's like the lowest-paying position in the company. Hey, can I just tell you how much I appreciate what you do? And here's why. Do you realize if you don't complete these tasks, here's everything that breaks in the company. This does not function and run, as nearly effectively without you. And I just appreciate you showing up, with your best. That's unity. That's bringing others together to where one plus one equals 11.
so, all right. I'm, know I'm on my soapbox here, but I'm doing my best to, just share, share helpful frameworks and stories that have radically shifted my marriage, as you described, lifelong marriage, building, building a lifelong marriage. I don't have a lifelong marriage. I'm building one. We got all kinds of problems. We've got all types of emotions and all emotions are welcome. Not all behaviors are welcome.
There's all kinds of things we need to grow through and work through, but that is the mission and vision of what we are building and building a world impacting family and then, know, nine-figure, multiple million dollar businesses, nine-figure tech company, all those things, you know, in that order.
Deb Meyer (10:26.037)
love that. Thank you so much for sharing those stories. That's really, it's a different mindset, as you said. I like to, I think when you were giving the example of the poor mindset versus wealthy mindset, I use the words scarcity and abundance, right? Same kind of idea where you're really trying to take, you know, same set of circumstances, but just see it in a drastically different way. And,
Yeah, I'm glad that you touched on your family. So could you share a little bit more just about family dynamics, how long you've been married, how many kids you have, and kind of what that's looked like, especially for you and your wife as you've tried to instill positive habits in your kids, how you've gone about doing that.
Chris Baden (11:11.458)
Yeah, and we're definitely learning along the journey. But yeah, so we celebrate 11 years of marriage this year. And we've been together. Yeah, thank you. Yeah, we've been together 17 years as of two days ago. And we have three kids, eight, seven and four. We've gone the homeschool path,
Deb Meyer (11:16.354)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (11:21.411)
Congrats.
Chris Baden (11:38.094)
I didn't know we were going to go that direction, but we are taking it year by year. so in our kind of household and model, you know, we're able to go that direction and it is, yeah, there's so many thoughts there, but I know in terms of family and our daily dynamic, I mean, reading, writing, math, there's some of the basics.
it's, we're not really doing school at home in terms of a family. for example, I, I, there was a speaking engagement, you know, a few weeks ago in Texas and I'll bring my kids with me. and so I brought one with me on that particular trip and, I was like, all right, I'm it, you're coming up on stage and, here's what we're gonna, he's already so in, like, he, just, he's just always in to meet people and.
do think anyway, so I get we practice a little part and he runs up on stage and you know, now he did his first, know, what was class today? It was like, well, it's public speaking class, you know, so there's just certain environments that I'm just really grateful to go, I don't know, experience go through. I'll tell you this, that's such a good hack is I got to do business. got to it's this category. I got to go over here. I got to put on my business owner hat and take off my dad hat.
Deb Meyer (12:36.195)
Bye.
Chris Baden (13:00.11)
Because I've been called a lot of things in my life. One of my favorite though is being called dad, and I'm a dad 24 seven. And so I look at that I'm like, man, this is gonna be quality time on the plane. mean, if you have 10 minutes of quality time on a plane sitting next to each other is worth like one to two hours of quality time just being at home hanging out before you go to bed. Because the because you're on adventure, like the emotions are higher.
Deb Meyer (13:24.365)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (13:29.08)
questions, the stimulation, creativity, thoughts, like interactions, the memories that are being created. Just so much, I just started kind of doing this and I love it. I'm like immediately planning out 2025 to be like, all right, okay, you guys get these trips, like, you you get these trips and so it's really great for one-on-one time.
Deb Meyer (13:52.195)
Can you share also a little bit about your kids? I know you shared with me privately that you have some budding entrepreneurs in the family. I'm just curious about some of those business endeavors and kind of what that's really shaped in terms of your family dynamics, what they're learning about money at such a young age.
Chris Baden (14:14.25)
man, this is such a big one. So there's a lot of things in homeschool I won't or will fail miserably at teaching them. Among the ones that I will not fail at are sales, marketing, finance. Because I'm like, this is how I've survived and navigated the world. You know, I've been commissioned only basically my whole life and the marketplace has beat me to the ground.
multiple times. So many times where I'm like, there's, yeah, there's so there's no way I make it through this. And, you know, I've somehow been able to continue to survive and get to play this game of business and thrive and, and all this being said, the best stuff that works the best for us, who are we going to share it with first? The people that we love the most. So heck yeah, I'm going to be teaching Mike. Here's a story for you. So
I'm in my home office now and we're recording this. son, when he was three and a half at the time, kicks in my door and he's like, dad, I want to get a toy. And I was like, my gosh, like, is he okay? he just wants a toy. Okay. And of course, you know, there's just like this little three and a half year old silhouette of a boy in his, you know, underwear, basically like many Tarzans looking at me and he's just...
He's a definitely a leader and very alpha. and so, all this, all this is coming at me he's like, can we get a toy? was like, of course we can get a toy. And he's like, well, can we go now? I was like, well, we can, but you need money. And he's like, money. Well, how do I get money? I was like, well you solve problems for other people and then they give you money. This is what came out of me at the time. This is years ago now he's eight now, right? But
But it shifted things for us and I think it's really helpful for everyone to hear it's like some people look at me cross-eyed They're like what you told your three-year-old he needs to work and get money I'm like I didn't make up how the world works am I gonna hide that from them Am I gonna tell him what am I gonna tell them them am I gonna tell them? well, you're too small You're too young. You're too stupid. You're too tall. You're too skinny. You're too fat. The world talks like that.
Chris Baden (16:32.59)
That will not, that, that voice, those words will never come out of my mouth. Speaking over, my kids, my team, my partner, anyone under my care, those it's just, that's not welcome. So he asked me my three and a half year, it looks at me confused. He's like, well, dad, how do I solve problems for others? And immediately I felt some of the, well, I can't, or you can, and I immediately threw it out. And I was like, son,
I don't know, but we're gonna figure it out. So as it would, before the end of today, that day, we started his first business and it was a keychain business. We couldn't find our keys and I had this image of a giant keychain flash in my head and I was like, Emmet, if we had a giant keychain, then we could help other people not lose their keys like we just experienced.
It's solving our own pain and our own problems first and sharing that with others. The best businesses are the simplest ones. It's where you're just simply serving other people. That's the role, that's the call. And so we skipped our errand and of course my wife has a leather making kit that I never knew about for a year. I was like, where did this come from? We've known each other for like so, anyway.
She's the artist, brings the color into my world, and so we're off, you know, they make this big leather key chain and he paints on it and it looks beautiful. Actually, I'm just kidding. It looks terrible. It looks like a three-year-old scribbled on leather. Okay. So it wasn't a perfect product, right? How many of our products or services aren't perfect? But his passion, and is he right? Almost all of them. But his passion and his focus to serve and solve was there. And so was like, I guess we're doing this. He needs a pitch.
Deb Meyer (18:11.009)
Many.
Chris Baden (18:22.966)
And so we talked through it back and forth and, and, we got it to, I'm Emmett and I help you not lose keys. And then he shows the key chain and that was his pitch. And we went door to door and we didn't go to neighbors where it was like, that's adorable. Here's money. That's not how the world works. So we went, we went to a close neighborhood, he had his little wagon and, and we went, we went door to door and there's like a whole nother half of the story that I have in.
Deb Meyer (18:40.929)
You just went to strangers.
Yeah.
Chris Baden (18:52.108)
multiple different places, but the, the, he did end up getting his first sale that day after multiple rejections. People do reject three and a half year olds, apparently. And we talked through that. And, so it's just been really fun to shape those things. And since. Fast forward to today, his desire, not just his, but you know, his brothers as well, their desires and the idea grow. Cause when I'm instilling.
our systems, I'm instilling thinking, I'm instilling values and principles. And it's the simple principle of my creator created me to create. I get to innovate and generate and I get to ask how every single day with the life that was first given to me. And so when you have some of that thinking and belief and principle, when you're faced, everyone faces rejection.
Everyone faces objections, but when you have that foundation, you have an unfair advantage, frankly. You get access to wisdom and things that are not common. Common sense is only common to those that have it. So I'm good, I've done this and I start that. I could talk about me, but the reality is...
A lot of the innovation and idea was first given to me too. And it's my role to listen and to steward that. And that has led to a lot more align and way less stress as I did it different ways in the past and my body falls apart. Now I'm doing multiples more of what I did prior with less than half of the output. There's a multiplication by nature.
built in love doesn't come back void type of hook. So it feels like I'm putting out level two energy, but I'm getting back level 10 result. So just a couple other bullet points that might be useful and helpful on this from a parenting perspective. Fast forward today, a couple of few months ago, my son comes in the door with $15 cash in his hand. I was like, where'd you get the money? He was like, dad,
Deb Meyer (20:48.182)
Mm-hmm.
Deb Meyer (20:55.843)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (21:13.88)
There's cherries on the tree out front. He went and picked the cherries and went door to door and sold them and came back with $50. was like, I'm creating an animal. is like, I'm proud and like, okay, wait, we got, okay. But you can't just like, I just imagine these kid hands with like half squished cherries being sold. I was like, okay, we got to work on presentation a little bit, but we're learning. We're going the right direction. Okay, this is good. Yeah, they have a media company. edit.
Deb Meyer (21:19.779)
Wow.
Deb Meyer (21:24.515)
That's good. Hey!
Chris Baden (21:43.631)
eight videos a month and eight thumbnails a month, they make $200. And I think another fun parenting note is when they, so there's two brothers that are doing it. So they each make $100 a month with their client and they have multiple clients. They have a wait list actually now, but they're, you know, we've got a healthy balance of how much they're focused on typing and editing and CapCut and, you know, learning these skills. And so when they're ready for more,
Deb Meyer (21:57.229)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (22:12.236)
They have more clients and they can make more. But all this being said, when they get the hundred dollars and there's a big parenting thing and they realize that they don't actually get to use all the hundred dollars. Well, dad, what do you mean? That's my hundred dollars. was like, son, son, son, son, you never get all the dollars you make. I haven't even talked to him about taxes yet, but.
Deb Meyer (22:25.877)
You
Deb Meyer (22:37.611)
Yeah, I was gonna ask, do you have like a side category for taxes?
Chris Baden (22:42.136)
But it's coming, right? But what we do talk about in our household is we have the share jar, the spend jar, and the savings jar. And we've recently added on the investing jar. it's like the share jar is for others, the spend jar is for us, the save jar is for emergencies, and the invest jar is to grow. And so we, like, mean, anyone listening, watching can play with their own allocation, but
Deb Meyer (22:49.037)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (23:12.296)
we actually were going to change ours, but what it's been has they get 50 % of what they, they create to spend on what they like. I want a new video game. I want, another toy I want. Yeah. Like enjoy, you know, the fruits of your labor to some extent, the, in our household, the first dollars go to share, which should be tithed and we're giving, those are separate functions, but
It's certainly in that vein. So in ours, there's tithe and give, but I'd highly recommend giving. Giving is a great principle that protects you from all kinds of things. Despite belief or worldviews, it's just a really, really helpful thing that makes life a lot more peaceful. The second one is saving. best thing, best wealth tip ever is pay yourself first.
Deb Meyer (24:06.465)
Hehehehe
Chris Baden (24:07.862)
Charlie Munger, Warren Buffett, pick anyone that has money and is good with it. This is like the basics of financial best practices. And then we have the investing and we're learning to go where this is a fun story, parenting conversation for everyone listening, watching. If your kids are like, I want a toy, I want a toy, I want a toy, and you're maybe sitting outside in the parking lot in front of Target, this was fun. I was like, well, we could go inside and
Deb Meyer (24:09.385)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (24:36.482)
buy toys, but what if you bought the whole store?" And he's like, what? He's like, you can buy Target. I can buy Target? Yeah, they're called shares. And he's like, why can't, so now he's like, I own a piece of that company, I own a piece of that company. And why is this special? Because it's thinking. That seed watered and grown over time turns into what?
It turns into an 18 year old, a 21 year old, a 25 year old that owns property, that owns money and understands the true difference between an asset and a liability. My kids know that. What's a liability? Things that take money out of your pocket. What's an asset? Things that put money in your pocket. So if we spend all the money on toys, what happens? It all disappears.
Deb Meyer (25:09.897)
knows how to handle money well.
Chris Baden (25:32.64)
If we spend money on your business or like a new camera or something that helps you edit twice the amount, what happens? it's an asset because it generates, but money in your pocket. we're anyway, having these parenting conversations, this is kind in our house. You know, we don't talk about this all the time. Yes, there's plenty of, you know, farts and poop jokes and boogers on the wall and what, you know, it's like we've got three kids. It's insane.
Deb Meyer (26:01.059)
I have three boys, so I get it. Mine are a little older, but still.
Chris Baden (26:02.208)
Okay, so you get yeah, like I'm not, know, so, but you've been through this this phase. So I'm not trying to pretend like it's all sunshine and rainbows over here. these are some of the fun conversations that, you know, the highlight reel that have actually created some impact and the change has been were, man, there's so much here. We're having the conversations.
We're actually exchanging and transacting. We're practicing thinking and, I don't like doing this or, I don't feel like working today. Well, let's talk through that. Why not? Well, what else are we doing? So like, my neighbors, this is another fun one. My neighbors look at me crazy. There's like this house and there's like these three or four boys, they're like mid-20s or something. like, wait, did you just say your kids did laundry and done it? It's like, I can't even get my roommates to do all this stuff. They're like looking at us weird like.
How do you get them? And this is what they asked me then. They say, how do you get your kids to do chores? And my response, we don't do chores in this house, but we do build skills. See, a lot of the language that we use and what we emote is like, we're emoting, have to, you should hate, I'm non-verbally telling you, you should actually hate chores. And then I'm training you.
Deb Meyer (27:24.515)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (27:26.702)
to ignore and numb what you're feeling and receiving, lie to yourself and say that I have to do this thing and when I get it done, I still don't feel any better. It's a very confusing process for kids. And then households wonder like, why, I guess my kid just doesn't or he's just being a kid. They write all this off. Listen, from the time my kids were like three or four, they were doing logic. Now not like.
all of it all of the time. But some of it in here, but here's what's shifted. Hey, let's practice laundry skills today. skills. What are we learning? I think they want to be invited. They hate being told what to do. But they love to be invited to be independent, to grow and learn. Look at me. I did it myself. The this is what they desire, right? Naturally. So if we really think about this, at least like in America, what is laundry?
Chris Baden (28:23.914)
Is it taking clothes out of a basket and throwing it in a machine and pushing two buttons? Yes, of course my three and four, they push buttons on toys, they push all kinds of buttons they're not supposed to all the time. So they can manage. There we go, that's all I'm saying. And so when we shift away from this weird verbal and nonverbal vomit of chores and we completely transform.
Deb Meyer (28:35.811)
Why not have them push the good buttons?
Chris Baden (28:48.918)
into building skills and inviting them into independence and thinking and creativity and conquering something, then it's game on. Even my daughter's like, dad, let's go. There's buy-in, we do it together. And then when you dry them, there's four steps to laundry, by the way, wash, dry, sort, and put away. And so you simplify the process, you define definition of, non-definition of success, and...
You break it down step by step. all these things, you know, so they wonder, but we're operating with different principles. We're operating with, with different values that work. And it's not, and it's not that I'm special. It's just happened to be using the ones that produce those types of outcomes.
So those are some kid things in our household, like world impacting family, the foundations.
Deb Meyer (29:39.748)
Yeah, I love it. I learned something. I have, like I said, much older kids, but I don't know. guess the reframing how you're saying it and giving them that sense of really independence, not being told what to mean, that's just a game changer, not being told what to do, but like getting the opportunity invited in to do something.
Chris Baden (30:07.534)
it becomes an act of service. we look at, let's flip back into business mode. Let's talk sales conversation. Do any of us, like telling isn't selling, right? Deb, you have to get this. Let me convince you about this. I'm gonna influence you and persuade you here and this is why you need to do it and the deal's going away in 24 hour. How does that feel? But when I'm like, Deb,
Deb Meyer (30:08.001)
Independently. No, it doesn't feel good at all.
Chris Baden (30:36.834)
You're a parent and you're looking for new solutions here. Have you considered this? I've never thought about that before. Well, how would that change things for you? do this and that, it'd be that much better. It's like, how do I get more of this? Well, now you're asking me to buy. No, don't sell parent. I run a software company. But that path, if you say it, it's true. If I say it, I'm convincing you.
Deb Meyer (30:55.445)
Right.
Chris Baden (31:06.222)
And it's no different with kids. So I've been conditioned and wrecked in mostly a great way. Sales is one of the number one life skills because it's listening to, you're really, my opinion, if you're the best sales people, professionals, and this is how I, my own kind of thinking and frame of my years of doing it is three things. One, listening first, practicing empathy number two.
and creatively solving problems. Anyone listening, watching what you have in your business that nobody else has is you're able to see other people's businesses and other people's lives for the first time and they'll never have that ever again. And so you can creatively think through and solve problems and serve them in ways that they typically just it's not top of mind to them. What's common and easy for you, because it's your superpower, is not common to most of the world.
And that is your value prop. And when you understand that you have that and you come from a place of service, people start coming from the woodworks chasing you down and it takes way less energy and it's a lot more fun. So yeah.
Deb Meyer (32:21.347)
True, very true. Awesome. So I know this isn't your first entrepreneurial rodeo. You've, I'm sure, had some failures along the way or things that hadn't quite gone as good as you had originally hoped. Could you shed any light on lessons learned from some of those difficult times in building businesses?
Chris Baden (32:33.87)
What are you talking about, Deb?
Chris Baden (32:43.874)
Yeah, fortunately and unfortunately I can pretty easily, Deb. So let's go to, there's two I can share with you. The first one, man, I was in the payment technology industry and here's the fast way of saying it. In my second month, in my entrepreneurial career, this is like almost 15 years ago, second month of commission only sales.
Chris Baden (33:14.99)
I'm working 70 plus hours a week easily. Every single week. First one, their last one will leave. No one's gonna touch me. At the end of that month, however, guess how much I made.
Deb Meyer (33:27.363)
I have no idea.
Chris Baden (33:29.998)
800 bucks.
Deb Meyer (33:31.145)
Okay, something low, yeah. After all that work.
Chris Baden (33:33.696)
Yeah, so that was depressing. I sucked at sales. I had never sold before. I don't need to take all the personality tests. I don't even fit the sales personality rock stars or whatever. So I had to really use my howl brain. But something shifted in me. There's a huge transformation in that second month. I was mad and frustrated. Why? Well, I'm outworking everyone.
I deserve this, I deserve that. How come people don't see my value? Has anyone ever felt that way before? What shifted for me is, wait a minute. I don't get paid to work. I get paid to produce results. And so I was like, well, if I get paid to produce results, how do I produce results for others? Well, if I don't know what result they want, then I certainly have not.
a very low probability of actually figuring it out. So that's where listening came in. And to be one of the best listeners, you become an excellent question asker. So the quality of questions that you ask allows you to now listen to the right answers, all the answers to the test. And instead of first, I listen to them. And then second, I don't speak yet. I practice empathy. I'm thinking like what like just for half a second, think about what it would be like to
to be them, what increases the standard of their living? What stresses them out or keeps them up at night? And what does it actually like to feel like this person? That's empathy, it's a very powerful thing, use properly. And then apply creative thinking and solving. Well, we try this, we try that, try, ooh, there it is. Yes, I'm all in on that. All right, there's all the buying signals. So I learned that's kind of the process that I had to go through.
And unfortunately, took me, I mean, for the first eight months, Deb, I felt like I was gonna vomit every single day. I watched over 40 people get fired or come and go and not make it. And believe me, I did not want to be there either. It was a very high pressure environment and I hate it. But inside, I was like, I'm definitely leaving like everyone else, but I'm leaving on my own terms. And so it was one of those like grudge, like I hate losing so hard.
Chris Baden (35:56.302)
And I was like, so I'm just not going to lose. And so I like, probably for not the best reasons, I stayed and I was like, I'm going to figure this stupid thing out. And it took me three years. But the first year I made like 26 grand on my tax return. The second year is 44 grand. The third year was 107 grand. And I'm like mid 20s at this point. And I was like, huh, I thought this would feel a lot different.
My first thought was like, holy crap, it happened. The second thought is why the heck did I pick a hundred grand? If this is how this works, why didn't I pick quarter million dollars? I still feel very tired and broke and I was grateful for it all, but like bills and fans, was like, dude, this frigging gets eaten up fast. So, so the second thing that I'll share in terms of failures is I ran an insurance agency, small team of five, sold over a million bucks a year in premium. but two.
Deb Meyer (36:35.747)
Mm-hmm.
Chris Baden (36:54.286)
three months before my first son was born. The agency short version has got shut down. We hit all the goals to this day, I have no idea why the contracts were ended. and, but that's how life goes. Sometimes you get crap happens even even if you do all the right things doesn't matter. And I was pretty angry. And but I didn't really have time to process.
We hadn't been paying myself, pay yourself first. I had learned that later in life, unfortunately. So wasn't paying myself a ton. I was making sure everyone was taken care of because that's the good business owner thing to do. And then I had to go home to my six month pregnant wife and say, well, now the business is gone. What are we going to do? I don't know. And as a man, like, dude, failing to protect and provide is like...
All right, like, I mean, wanna push my fear button and like the worst thing ever. So that sucked. yeah, by the way, we still have a two year lease agreement and just took on almost 50 grand in debt. So here we, yay entrepreneurship. But here's how I know that I'm a founder by blood and not by title. What I did, I wasn't thinking, I was just trying to survive. I've been trying to survive most of the time up until, I don't know, maybe like seven years ago.
And I still am fighting to survive, but it's very, different than what it was. And so in some moments like that, I wasn't like, okay, I better, I guess I better get a job. I just, I didn't even think that way. What I did is started selling the furniture in my office. And I came up with another like six, seven grand really quickly. And then I started my next business. And then I started finding better partners or yeah, just quality partners. And
Deb Meyer (38:37.452)
Okay.
Chris Baden (38:48.962)
There's no way I've been able to accomplish. Like I say, to accomplish something greater than yourself, it takes more than yourself. Like in anything. In business, I don't even want to be married to myself. And so it's like, you're not gonna be married alone. I've yet to meet a family of one person. And so to accomplish something greater than yourself, it takes more than yourself. And I realized my finite wisdom, energy, love,
Deb Meyer (38:58.307)
True.
Chris Baden (39:19.5)
That runs out really quick. Like I know my head and my heart. I've made some quality choices in life, but I'm not always on point. But the mission and the vision and the purpose that I get to be a part of, more on the faith side of my life, I'm part of why things flow and go the way they do is because I'm a part of a greater work that's beyond me. And it doesn't come from me, it comes from a different source. So all this being said,
That was a big, hard moment of when my back's up against the wall, you get to learn more about who you are. And that part sucks. But going through it, it's like I know that I know that I know that I'm functioning and I'm at where I'm supposed to be at, at least for this season of life.
And going through that, it's really humbling. so anytime, you know, in conversations like this, Deb, like you or any other founders, parents listing, it's like, now my heart, I am you. My heart goes out to you. And yeah, it's not easy, but you're not alone. It's lonely, but you don't have to do it alone. you know, there is hope. There are others. There are principles and wisdom that we don't know about yet. There's levels to this thing.
And so it's just hopefully encouraging. Lean in, don't stop. You do matter. And things can change as you keep leaning in.
Deb Meyer (40:57.517)
Thank you. That's such a great message. And I know we have to wrap up here just being shorter on time, but I really just enjoyed this conversation tremendously. This has been really, really helpful, Chris. Thank you.
Chris Baden (41:11.758)
Yeah, well, thanks for putting all this on and for hosting and for doing all the work, Deb, because if you weren't doing all this, this wouldn't be happening.
Deb Meyer (41:17.269)
Hahaha
Deb Meyer (41:21.923)
Well, again, thank you. You've been a wonderful guest. I guess if listeners are interested in connecting with you or finding out more about FlowChat, where's the best way to reach you?
Chris Baden (41:32.013)
Yeah, I'm on all the socials. Flowchat.com is the current software company that we're building. It's a sales tool that helps businesses sell more of their product or service is the short answer. Leveraging organic social media strategies and stuff. then, Instagram, Facebook, just Chris Baden. My email is chris at flowchat.com. I don't know. It's crazy on...
Deb Meyer (41:59.363)
There's so many avenues, I know.
Chris Baden (42:01.046)
Okay, email, text me, know, teleport me, go on the there's like a million channels. I don't try to be on all of them. So whatever people like, they can just go there. Yeah.
Deb Meyer (42:11.043)
Sounds good. All right. The social media guy being on social media is pretty good. We'd be worried if you were like, no, I don't do any of that social media.
Chris Baden (42:16.942)
Yeah
Chris Baden (42:21.174)
You're like, yeah, like, your whole company. yeah, I don't do anything the company talks about. No, that'd be crazy. No, yeah, we definitely eat our own cooking. So we use our own we use our own tool to grow our own company. Actually, we've done zero paid ads. We've done zero from a growth standpoint. no, there's there's Yeah, it's definitely solid.
Deb Meyer (42:33.987)
Wow. Okay. Awesome. Alright, well thank you again. This is wonderful.
Chris Baden (42:45.102)
Yeah, thanks.