WHAT : DE HEK – 12 Questions with Chris Taylor

You’re listening to Danny, on WHAT : DE HEK podcast. This is the place where I share my experience, knowledge and skills.

Transcribed by Otter

Welcome. Hello. Nice to have you here today. I have Chris Taylor. Good friend of mine. How long have we known each other for now, Chris?

Chris Taylor 0:20
Oh, about 100 years, I reckon.

Danny de Hek 0:22
100 years. That’s very good. So I’ve got 12 questions with Danny. I’m going to ask you the one that you’ve already been asked. And the rest of you who don’t know, what is your favourite animal?

Chris Taylor 0:33
Definitely my dog.

Danny de Hek 0:37
star started this podcast about 20 minutes ago, and then I suddenly remembered my dog was in the dog room as Lee had to go pick him up. So we’ve started again. Question number two. If money was no object, what would you do all day long.

Chris Taylor 0:53
If money was no object, I would run a orphanage in Africa for 1000 children.

Danny de Hek 1:08
Yeah. Now have you watched that movie Marcel Marceau

Chris Taylor 1:11
Oh, are we while ago

Danny de Hek 1:15
is one on Netflix. And that said he was helping the orphanages people over the war period. And to keep the kids occupied he started doing his miming, that was really, really good movie, actually. But I didn’t he know how he became Marcel Marceau am I saying that? Right? So yeah, the French French? The French guy. Yeah. Yeah, that’s a really good story. Hunt it if you haven’t seen it, I think it’s relatively new on Netflix. So you might not have seen it.

Chris Taylor 1:44
Fascinating fact about masama. So he wants made a pass at David Bowie. And David Berry, the musician wanted to be a mime artist in the mid 60s. And Marcel fancy David. But David wasn’t having any of it.

Danny de Hek 2:05
Labyrinth is that the right one?

Chris Taylor 2:07
Way before Labyrinth, Danny so when he was finding his feet in the 60s

Danny de Hek 2:13
that right so this is one is probably a little bit not applicable so much with all the COVID stuff going on. But what form of public transportation do you prefer? And it’s given us a multi choice that you can make that let’s go Air, Boat, Train, Bus, Car.

Chris Taylor 2:31
Huh? Probably boss outside. Hmm.

Danny de Hek 2:36
Yeah. I live in Northwood. And there’s always a bus parked down the road and he must sit there for about half an hour before it’s the starting point. You know, just want to jump on the bus and go for a full loop to see just what his his day is like. That’s good. Have you travelled anywhere and taking any long bus trips?

Chris Taylor 2:55
Probably the longest one. Danny was when I was a teen. I’d get the bus from Newcastle to London. Jazz probably about 300 kilometres. Yeah. Used to get on the national express bus and get from the capital of London for about 12 quid or something crazy. I’ve been on a big bus trip and Zed not yet anyway.

Danny de Hek 3:21
They should try one in Bangladesh. It’s amazing. It’s like It’s like a roller coaster. You just along for the ride and you’re gonna die. You’re gonna die. Yeah, and pass with the other crashes that really alarm you.

Chris Taylor 3:35
Yeah.

Danny de Hek 3:36
Okay, so this one, he is more of a business. He sort of question. I’m just taking them off the top of the deck. I have 140 questions, to be honest. What inspires? It’s wrong? Thank you. They see what inspires you about business businesses, and their growth. So what inspiration do you get from watching a business grow?

Chris Taylor 3:57
I think the businesses that have real sort of meaning for humanity, and the whole social enterprise, which I think’s amazing, I think those which are serving a genuine human need, and they’re actually serving the betterment of humans. You know, it could be held for connection, that, you know, businesses that grow in that regard, I really have a lot of time and attention for and not always growth, for God’s sake is a good thing. So I’m really I’m really, you know, keen, keen observer on the social enterprise movement across the world. I think that’s, I think that’s a great, great thing for us right now as humans.

Danny de Hek 4:41
The Kovac staff is certainly bringing the human race closer together at the moment, let’s hope and this year in America, but we’re not talking about that. Okay, so we as you don’t know what you do yet, but this question is, what’s your biggest complaint about your job?

Chris Taylor 4:57
Well, as you know, Danny, I don’t have a job. That’s a pretty good say my last full time job. When I was an engineer, I had a, I had a, what I would describe as a blocker boss that he was like a point guard, that’s basketball, whatever was said and done, that person would would just block. So that was that was a little bit frustrating at the time. Was that complaint about the job? The job was fine. You know, as an engineer, I was quite good at it, you know, well paid secure, but fundamentally, you know, boring.

Yeah. So I think if I flip into leadership is having leaders that are, you know, vulnerable and transparent, and those who want to have those around you grow as well. And I wasn’t growing under that boss at that time.

Danny de Hek 5:49
And that was a nine to five job.

Chris Taylor 5:51
Yeah, full time employee for a consulting firm. Yeah. The firm was good. You know, it’s a good company.

Danny de Hek 5:59
Yeah, yeah. My Hello, my partner and I, we worked yesterday and we thought, Oh, this is great. We’re getting time and a half and a day loot. You don’t get it when you work for yourself do

Chris Taylor 6:14
A day, a day in the toilet!

Danny de Hek 6:16
In the loo instead. How do you view your competitors?

Chris Taylor 6:24
Don’t really Danny. I mean, obviously, you know, you know, we’ve known each other for seven or eight years is the truth The first question. I don’t I don’t pay any attention to them whatsoever. That could be a flaw. I think we should focus on our own on our own selves and our own game Generally, if you’re in business, I focus on your strengths.

Danny de Hek 6:45
I guess that’s an old fashioned word competitors your opposition or you know, I don’t think I don’t think it’s so relevant today. But is it

Chris Taylor 6:53
Well it’s interesting Danny you running ELITE : SIX for many years and then going to the you know, multi multi trade meetings and you know, you get some people just turn pale and green at the thought of being in a room with somebody from the same train I think ends at is a little bit there. I say behind and just thinking well, you know, we can collaborate and share and grow together. Hmm. And but you’ve got to get the values established at the front end. So that works in a team. But as a coach, I didn’t see there’s one other guy and in Christ, really right you and I know him, he’s more of a trainer than coach and he would be that one person who is not a competitor because he’s a friend and I’d go for hikes with him. But I don’t really pay much attention to competitors, Danny.

Danny de Hek 7:43
Yeah, I think everyone’s got something to share. Like with the business networking it’s always funny having five real estate agents from different companies in the same room but I see the view guys really worked it out put yourself on one table, you’d always help each other grow.

Chris Taylor 8:00
Danny absolutely 1000 sam the tricky it’s all a mindset thing around you know, so the level of self orientation you know, pursuing your own paddock and then sharing for the community and growing the pie thing our experiences doing what we’ve done in most of yourself with at least six you’re just going to some people are never going to get it they’re never going to get it doesn’t matter if you’ve got a blackboard and a neon light that you know sharing and collaboration we can all grow. Hmm. It’s like talking. You know, Japanese visitors won’t understand it. So I think yeah,

Danny de Hek 8:37
Totally agree on that one. All right. How would your friends describe you?

Chris Taylor 8:45
What friends.. What friend’s

Danny de Hek 8:49
Dog, we’re gonna say

Chris Taylor 8:52
That’s a great question, Danny. I would like to think so. fun guy. Does not take like you seriously.

Danny de Hek 9:03
It doesn’t say how would you like your friends? How would your friends? Yeah. It’s a tricky question. I love these questions are so random. And every time I get them I had chuckle to myself. I’ve had a roomful of people when we’ve actually asked the same question. To 20 people, and I’ve got 20 different answers.

Chris Taylor 9:23
Yeah, it is. It is. I think with all my close friends, I think I’ve probably got six or seven closers out what they think of me I think, I think I would hope this I care about them and their interest you know, if they’re in if they’re in a spot of bother a bit, or whatever, financially, relationship wise, I’d like to, I love them to think that they can reach out as a friend but for just as a board. and I’m.

Danny de Hek 9:53
think a verse describe you I’d say you really do care about people. And I don’t think there is many people that generally Do they say but they don’t do? And I think that’s one of your phrases actually you which these, you get tired of people who say and don’t do.

Chris Taylor 10:09
Oh, yes. Oh, that’s a hobby horse isn’t that Danny I think I blogged on that with you years ago. You know, people who say I’ll give you a call, you know that

Danny de Hek 10:20
That’s amazes me, I just don’t even know how they survive. You know, that’s a real weird one. That one because statistically speaking, hand on hand, I recommend 5% of people really do care. Yeah, you know, there is just seem to say it and, and it’s a big statistic.

Chris Taylor 10:36
Yeah. I think it’s what I’ve learned, you know, just inauthenticity and where we’re all wired to pick up on inauthenticity about people. It’s just how we read people. And that lack of, you know, lack of humility. People pick up on that, and it affects trust. Yeah. So absolutely be listening here. It just do, you know, follow through on what you say, because that helps you build trust, whether it’s in a family, whether it’s in a business. Yeah. You know, follow through every time. I’m

Danny de Hek 11:13
like it. We’ve got about four more, maybe five more. That was when I had the power to pass a question about networking, which I’m sort of Okay, how about this? Have you ever had a nickname in Why?

Chris Taylor 11:28
Yes, yes. At school hours called tea found keto. If you get the ads in New Zealand, there is Danny for the white word company. Te fi these were these were still do they make, you know, sort of cookers and pressure cookers and toasters and appliances. Well, they have this ad campaign where these eggheads in laboratories that were white coats with, they had these enormous, elevated foreheads. Yeah. Because they were kind of geeks in their heads. And I’ve been privileged with a fairly significant forehead. So when I was out, I know in my teens, they’d call me t foul.

Danny de Hek 12:05
I don’t even get it.

Chris Taylor 12:06
What’s really good to me. Well, this is ad campaign. These guys walking around. You can YouTube it after this if you like. And there’s just these guys in a laboratory wandering around, but they’ve got these huge prosthetic foreheads,

Danny de Hek 12:17
Right? Yeah,

Chris Taylor 12:18
Yeah. Yeah, so they call me t phone.

Danny de Hek 12:21
Yeah, I’ve always wanted to have a lot I’ve had my forehead for because well, he’s getting shorter, like kind of thing when I can’t remember when it was down here. Yeah. Things you hold AJ, I think we’re both the same age on you.

Chris Taylor 12:34
Yeah. Oh, this year 1970. Boys. I think Danny, I reckon

Danny de Hek 12:38
I’ve got that extra month gave me so much more wisdom. Okay, how many languages do you speak?

Chris Taylor 12:45
Well, I speak English as we are doing on this. We podcast and a little bit of French. French

Danny de Hek 12:55
Ask that question to David Clarkson. What’s your know? And he said, Everyone speaks two languages.

Chris Taylor 13:01
French, right. That’s the phone.

Danny de Hek 13:04
And I said, funny technology on the phone, and then gets you on the computer. And I said to him, he goes, yes, everyone his body language.

Chris Taylor 13:14
Yeah, it was quite good. That’s, that’s, that’s eminently sage and wise outcome comment from David’s Yeah, sure.

Danny de Hek 13:22
All right, this one’s probably for the ladies. But how many pairs of shoes do you own?

Chris Taylor 13:27
Shoes, including sneakers and down?

Danny de Hek 13:30
It’s an interesting question for both because they might have waders for fishing. They could have gumboots tells people that they’re out Dory. Even to get thinking about it. You think about it do have an old pair of sneakers for the garden or whatever it is.

Chris Taylor 13:42
Yeah, I’ve probably been influenced by Angela, my lovely wife on having more shoes than I need. I’ve probably got it. Let’s just think about shoes. They’re not sneakers or outdoorsy legend stuff. Probably 12 past 15 maybe, if you got a shiny ones.

Yeah, a few years ago, when I got into the speaking game, I bought some shiny shoes, which are now collecting dust upstairs.

Danny de Hek 14:13
You have to polish them off for a long time. And I’ve got some shiny patent leather shoes, which I love wearing my suit. And they’re all dusty in my best go to shoes is actually from instals just up down down the road. And he really liked them. And they’re actually kind of like a sneaker, but I’m using them as a dressing shoe, which is sort of Yeah, we’re changing as we didn’t know that. Yeah. All right. I think we’ve got I’ll give you three more questions. And then I’m going to ask you more about you and what you do. Where in the world would you travel to next?

Chris Taylor 14:49
Wow, I’m gonna travel to

Danny de Hek 14:51
It’s an interesting question that’s changed lately.

Chris Taylor 14:54
I’m going to go from Mauritius.

Mauritius, the island nation, and Mauritius and they got the beautiful beaches white sand on Sally why Danny on that Wellington apology and none of those immersion there, and I was like 21, and he painted this paradise picture that he was from a wealthy family owning all the hotels on the island. And ever since I thought I’d love to go to Mauritius. Yeah, I’ve got commercials.

Danny de Hek 15:23
Excellent. Let’s look it up and look up some photos. Okay, so what do you cherish the most about being here today? And I’m not talking about in here. But I mean, just being alive today. What do you cherish the most?

Chris Taylor 15:36
I think the good fortune of Health and Family without a doubt. I mean, primarily health. Danny, I see if we’ve got that we’ve got everything in a sense. And I’ve been very lucky. I am lucky. So health family.

So good fortune in that regard.

Danny de Hek 15:58
Huh?

Chris Taylor 15:58
Yeah. Yeah. So that that’s number one

Danny de Hek 16:02
Think we got our priorities right. We’ve locked down didn’t we really got to me it come down to food, shelter, friends and family. And it’s all we need?

Chris Taylor 16:11
Absolutely.

Danny de Hek 16:12
Yeah. I think the world slowed down. I mean, at the moment is a lot of sadness going around the world at the moment. You know, the rush for being a success and having a business that brings in millions of dollars, or whatever it is, you know?

Chris Taylor 16:25
Well, I hope we learn from the COVID experience. I really do environmentally business relationships, doing less. I mean, you talked about travel a moment ago about air travel. And I said to Angela, you know, if air travel declines, you know, the benefit environment will be terrific.

Danny de Hek 16:46
Apple’s new phones coming out and doing away with the charger, because it’s gonna save so much tonnage being flown for the year and I’m thinking, yeah, well, what about us humans? I agree.

Chris Taylor 16:57
Yeah. Well, I love the apple bring out founders or 10 year life, you know, because I’ve got, I’ve got my success here. And I got some I was at Udemy the other week. So you know, what is that? It’s, it’s only about four years old. You know, you getting looks over the shoulder.

Danny de Hek 17:17
They upgrade the lows when you think Do I need it? And I’m trying to justify it. And then I looked at it and the one I want is about $2,400 for phone. You know, baby Sally? Oh, one four around about a grain. It’s not too bad. Last wonderful question. What was your favourite subject at school? Ah, that’s an easy one. That was economics.

Chris Taylor 17:41
Oh, yeah. Yeah, I did. In fact, my eldest daughters have picked economics at school. And I wanted to economics at university but didn’t quite get the grades.

Yeah, yeah. I loved economics and I felt it had a real world meaning, you know, and but yeah. Yeah.

Danny de Hek 18:06
Economics. Yeah. Brilliant. Well, thanks for coming along. So tell us, Chris, tell me now a little bit more about you. So who are you? And what are you currently doing at the moment, Chris? in life?

Chris Taylor 18:16
Thanks, Danny. So the moment I’m writing, I’m getting into authoring, which is off the back of the eight, nine year private business in coaching. And just collecting stories, Danny, so I’ve got 100 story challenge on the way with a sort of author coach there to 100 stories and 90 days. And that’s, that’s what I’m doing. I’m just about did a short to the short LinkedIn blog. I think you commented on it just today down around the bottom of the fly. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that the the metaphor, the flight, as you know, everyone’s buzzing around flying around, there’s so much stuff in the connect in the world is actually focusing on just creating content and writing the next, you know, getting your stories from your mind into paper, or in this case on a computer.

Danny de Hek 19:15
You go with to put them into a book.

Chris Taylor 19:17
Yeah, yeah, it’ll be a compilation. But it’s just going to emerge and flow. It’s a bit like, it’s a journey of discovery. So I’m just going to create, create the content and then see, see what framing it’ll go into and could be a life manual could be, yeah, it could be something else. And I’m very lucky to be able to do that. I’m fortunate to not have you know, the financial crashes per se, to necessitate having to work or maybe go back to employment. So I am, I’m very lucky. But I’ve also got four daughters and I’ve got a quite busy domestic or daughters. Yeah, there’s an old saying

Danny de Hek 19:59
About him. have a daughter versus a son. And I think if you have a son, you only have one dick to worry about. Obviously, daughter’s every dick to worry about.

Chris Taylor 20:15
Yeah

Danny de Hek 20:16
Don’t know if you can say that on the interweb, but we just did

Chris Taylor 20:21
BEEP

Danny de Hek 20:21
We can think we can blur it, blur it

Chris Taylor 20:23
Yeah. So I share care with my older daughter. So no, no days this thing and yeah, so but I did the I mentioned before we want to nail down something a little bit of coaching. So I’ve got, I don’t know, five or six. So coaching clients and like so commercials and non commercial. I do quite a bit of youth mentoring Danny. Yeah, just see some some mentioning some young guys in their 20s. And just a bit last moment. So a bit of life coaching.

Danny de Hek 20:58
That’s pretty good. Friend of mine, his daughter was going off the rails a wee bit. And we hired a young lady who was I think she was 26. And she did some coaching to her daughter was 19 or 20. And really made a difference. It’s really good stuff. Because I think the age, youth are really looking for direction. I remember when I was it, they age, I just didn’t know how to get lifestyle.

Chris Taylor 21:21
Yeah, it’s a real challenging time, Danny, you know, young people right now. I mean, I run in the paper last weekend, that was you know, the but the mental health crises and school students are queuing up for counselling. And, you know, the social trauma they’re faced with, you know, you’ve mentioned COVID there, but we, you know, we’ve got things like climate change, we’ve got smartphone addiction, your fear of employment and the whole job market changing, you know, ai coupled with, you know, family disruption and divorce rates going sky high for a young person. I, you know, I can see looking ahead as it being, you know, quite intimidating the future. If you look at the world as a massive swimming pool, all those problems and the the young persons have to dive into the world. And it’s kind of like,

Danny de Hek 22:08
What am I diving into here? Yeah, I mean, hiding behind a video game. I think. That’s right. You can make a living out of it now. Miss my opportunity. Do you get Arizona?

Chris Taylor 22:22
Yeah. Yeah. So that’s Yeah, I work from home. Now Danny, if you call it work.

Danny de Hek 22:29
Looks like you’re working from the garge their Chris in the background?

Chris Taylor 22:31
Yeah, yeah, I’m in my wee geringe. And I have an office for about three and a half years in 10. Yeah, double COVID. I let that go.

Danny de Hek 22:46
Helen, and I were working in a shared office space, which we did find quite good. And we hit that social environment. I think that’s the the level of we’re business networking was going for me as people now working together independently as one, rather than just getting together in a business group that I’d code that we went back home. And we said, we actually quite liked it. And then we thought, Well, I’m not going to feel guilty about doing what I like, I’m actually going to do what I want for a change.

Chris Taylor 23:10
Yeah

Danny de Hek 23:11
Conforming, and all that sort of stuff. And it is what it is, you know, and a lot of people want to still get together face to face. And I said, Well, here’s a ZOOM link. And they go, I don’t like that. And I go, Well, that’s how I roll.

Chris Taylor 23:25
Yeah, I think Danny, we all, you know, evolve and emerge and grow and change. And like, I worked at home initially when I was coaching, and honestly, it didn’t work family, then I had the office and I’m back home. So it’s whatever works for you really, and I both co working spaces can be really cool. And a lot of buzz and energy and synergy, which is great. And if that’s right for you, or whoever’s listening to this, go for it.

Danny de Hek 23:53
The most inspirational thing I’ve probably done with yourself probably would have been the St. James Trek. That was just amazed. And we I did that three times in a year once in a race. I think you might have done it a couple of times. Did you do the race as well? Yeah. Yeah. And I can’t believe when we think about that we hit that there was there was five of us in stew. Who was the guy everyone on this company, for some reason pulled out. And our friend Mike decided that he needed a few minutes.

Chris Taylor 24:22
Yeah. And I

Danny de Hek 24:23
And that was a hard Yak.

Chris Taylor 24:26
You did really well. I think you did beat me on the mountain bike, which I mean, get over but I did do get over it. You said that. That’d be about five years ago, dummy. You?

Danny de Hek 24:39
Oh, it was amazing. I did as a race originally. And I remember talking about competitors. One of my competitors turned up on this fainting NC bike is it one, one gear and then at the end of it is at the bottom of this, because I’ve done it previously is at the bottom of the part that you had to climb your bike up and he’s just about dying. And I remember giving him my last and my water, you know, and then there was this young whippersnappers on the race and he was well ahead of me. But unfortunately, he got a flat tire. And as I’m going past my sis, are you okay with it? Do you need a hand? Oh, good. Great. I think it is all back. It was great. Yeah.

Chris Taylor 25:20
Funny enough, Mike and I are going to do we’re going to walk it. We’re talking about Mike there. In January, we went in three days. St James just the tramp.

Danny de Hek 25:29
Yeah, I’m gonna go into the boy hat.

Chris Taylor 25:32
Yeah, that’s what we’re meeting Danny. We’re meeting Boyle village. Yeah, word was

Danny de Hek 25:36
Was in Rotary. And they are my rotary issue. They look after their hat. That’s the one of the charity things and it’s a Rangiora Rotary?

Chris Taylor 25:46
My interesting Daddy,

Danny de Hek 25:47
I’ve actually never been to their hat even though I say that.

Chris Taylor 25:51
Yeah,

Danny de Hek 25:52
That’s good. stuff, I think I think was people miss the business side of it, that you need to do stuff like that. Because that now it’s to hit five punches. And I think when we were all as we’re all coached minded people, and we were all helping you along the way using a different strategy. And even though it was taking a toll on ourselves, when we did it the first time, we still had enough energy to help somebody else out.

Chris Taylor 26:15
Yeah, this is a great point, Danny, in coaching, when you’re outdoors, you’re on a different plane of thinking. So I’ve done a lot of walking, talk coaching still do actually really reference and yeah, this is influenced a lot from Mike gets out. This is Mike Catton, by the way for anyone who’s listening to the podcast, and so yeah, predominantly, I’m either doing Rapaki or Hagley Park, because I think you find, I don’t know his bark, biochemically, or Neurochemically. People tend to detach themselves from the humdrum and the madness when they’re walking or exercising or mountain biking, hmm. And you can often get a deeper level of it of curiosity and Inquisition in the mind. Which can be can be quite impactful. So definitely walking and talking for coaching is fabulous.

Danny de Hek 27:07
I agree. Alan, and I, we make a point of doing something physical every day. So we’ve got this walk that we do, and it takes us and our dog loves it. Yeah, like tonight, we on a Tuesday, we he hired a personal trainer. And he’s helped me build up my core muscles and my back at the moment that we’ll see whatever we do in business or life, we’re going to make sure we do something every day. Even if it’s in the middle of the day, at 12 o’clock, and you’re thinking you should be working, we just get up and go out and do a walk or something.

Chris Taylor 27:37
Danny, I couldn’t agree more, man. It’s it’s just the lifeblood of you know, keep keeping active, keeping your blood flowing. And if you’re going out with with your partner, fantastic. It’s quality time. It’s investing in your health. And yeah, 100% for everyone listening.

Danny de Hek 27:56
You get your priorities, excellent, Chris, thank you for coming along. And being on my podcast. I’ll gonna turn this into a blog and share it as a podcast. And also I’m going to upload it to YouTube so people can watch it as well. So it’s been nice me long. Thanks for joining us today. All right. Cheers Danny

Transcribed by Otter

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