[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to from caving in to crushing it, the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney, and I'm your host.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Today's guest is Chris Lipper. Chris Lipper is the managing member for on the bus, LLC. He is an inventor, author, small business coach and consultant sales trainer, virtual business coach, the mayor of Lipperville, an international virtual conference, Chris helps entrepreneurs and founding business owners succeed and have more fun running their business through coaching, sales training, peer group support, and virtual trade shows. He started on the bus to help small business owners both grow and enjoy their businesses. He's also started, grown, and sold several different businesses. This means he understands the challenges modern business owners face to realize their dreams. Most small business owners don't have a roadmap to get them from where they are now to where they want to be. Franchising, selling, expanding, etcetera. Through coaching, training, and peer group discussions, Chris helps his clients understand their ultimate business outcome and figure out how to get there. Enjoy the show.
[00:01:27] Speaker A: Chris Lipper, so good to see you, my friend. Thanks for coming on.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Thanks, Drew. Good to see you.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I always like to thank the people who introduce me to my guests. And you I met years ago where Gordon marzano said to me, Drew, have you ever been to on the bus? It was your, it was your networking group, virtual, I forget, what do we call it then? It was the virtual Vang virtual area working group. Yep. And I said no, and I went and I got to meet you, and I met a bunch of other people, and at least four of those people I met on that day, I still talk to. So I attribute that to you and indirectly to Gordon Marzano for introducing me to Vang. So I thank him for that. So, you know, Chris, in life, we're taught, growing up that life is linear and with the best intentions. We're taught that if we do the right things, a plus, b plus, d, e is going to happen and life is going to be great. We can do all the right things that we're taught. And life still throws something at us, external circumstances that derail that linear path.
If you could reach back to a moment where you've had a defining moment, that it was either a tap on the shoulder or a two by four upside the head, that I needed to say, oh, my gosh, that life thing is an opportunity to live a better life. I'm going to take that on and be a, be a better Chris Lipper.
If you'd love to start there, and we'll have an awesome conversation.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: So it's interesting, as you say, that I'm thinking back in life as to moments where I didn't do that, and I wish I had. So growing up, I'm dyslexic, and so there was a label on me growing up, and I was asked to leave New York public schools in the third grade and went through a series of private schools. And I remember being in a Montessori school, and I wanted to learn music. I wanted to learn how to play music. And I was told that I couldn't because it was considered a language and that I needed to learn to read and write and to learn English as opposed to learning a language or another language. That was a mistake. If a kid has a passion, you should let them chase the passion. And I wish I had done that later in life. Also. I was an athlete, and I always proved myself on the sports field. And I had an opportunity to do something with tennis, and there was somebody who wanted to coach me privately again at a young age, and my parents said no to that. That wasn't the life they wanted me to live. And that maybe was the right decision at the time for them. I don't know if it was the right decision for me.
No regrets, right? These are just. You ask that question, and that's what gets sparked. But in terms of life being linear, and I view it as a pylon test, almost. You know, I bob and weave and ebb and flow, and if you tell me something can't be done, my reaction is, oh, yeah, watch out. I'll show you.
[00:04:37] Speaker A: I love that fire. Okay. I love that. Yeah. Well, you know that I'm looking at. And now we're going to be on. This is going to be recorded, like, and send out audio first, and then the video is going to go out so that the audience can't see this now. But I'm loving the green bus for your omnibus, and we'll get to your professional life in a few minutes. But it says, don't get left behind on it. And I love that. And I can't help but think about you growing up when they say, no, you can't do this, because, no, you can't. And you're like, oh, yeah, I'm not letting. No one's getting left behind. And I almost feel that that may have something to do with. With driving your bus in.
[00:05:15] Speaker C: Life certainly is a motivator. It is, absolutely. I need to drive my own bus and I think with many entrepreneurs, we're unemployable that we can't really have bosses. We can't, we don't like to ask permission, you know, so that, that's part of that mentality, I guess.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: I love that. So, so after, um, you know, when you got to a point where I'm assuming you did the high school, college, all the things that you were supposed to do, am I right with that?
[00:05:45] Speaker C: Sort of. So.
[00:05:47] Speaker A: All right, tell me. All right, get me off that one. I want to hear about this. Sort of.
[00:05:50] Speaker C: So with dyslexic kids in the seventies, if your parents had money, what happened with many of us, and I'm not saying this is a negative or something happened to me, it's just my story, we are sent to boarding school. So at ten years old, I was in boarding school and maybe I was eleven, but whatever, it was 6th grade, I started in boarding school and it was year round because being dyslexic, they didn't want you to forget in the summer and have too much time off. So it was summer school and so I was home intermittently and most of the time away at a school somewhere through up to college.
[00:06:33] Speaker A: Wow, okay.
[00:06:34] Speaker C: And by the time I got to college, you know, I had been away.
We had people in college, they were homesick, they, you know, they, whatever. It was like, dude, I've been away since I'm ten, you know, but there was too much freedom for me in college and I didn't have a lot of respect for the teachers and I wanted to get on with life. And so I went to college. I never graduated. I don't view that as a bad thing either.
But I wanted to work and, you know, I started working on Wall Street. I had my series seven when I was 20 years old.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: Wow. Okay.
[00:07:10] Speaker C: So, you know, I was on the floor of the exchange, I was upstairs on trading desks and got to experience that. I got a lot of life experience versus sitting in institutions. Very true, you know?
[00:07:23] Speaker A: Yep, absolutely. So the life experiences on Wall street, I've heard many stories, I've had guests on who worked on Wall street. What were some positive experiences that helped shape, you know, gave you some wisdom that helped you in life that you learned on Wall street?
[00:07:41] Speaker C: Well, one thing on Wall street that's very apparent, first of all, the senses of humor are great and the quick wit is amazing and just so much fun to be around.
But your word is your bond. On Wall street, if you say you're going to do something, you do something. Trades are done with hand signals, trades are done with phone calls and big numbers, and there's never a question on whether or not. Well, I didn't mean that. I didn't say that. Your word is your bond. And so that is a very unique situation these days, and not all industries have that.
[00:08:16] Speaker A: Sure. You know, I love that. And that's something I did not know. And that, and, you know, Wall street gets a bad rap on, you know, just the mainstream media. And I know some wonderful human beings who have been on Wall street, you being one of them. And that's a nice lesson to learn, that there's always some, some pros and cons, no matter what you do in life. And I'm glad you were able to share that pro about the men and women on Wall street.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: And I was never on the retail side, and that might be a whole other thing. I was more on the institutional side, on the mechanical side, getting stuff done.
[00:08:48] Speaker A: Got it, got it. So after you left Wall street, what happened then?
[00:08:53] Speaker C: I sold advertising for magazines and sponsorships for conferences, and they were always around the financial industry. And then I worked for a very large embroidery company and was a tangible product, and I like selling tangibles and in many situations. And I had started a few companies as well, repping companies.
I had a sports repping company called CSL Sports. I had a marketing company called Marketing plus, where I was repping, you know, newspapers and magazines and tv stations and things like that.
But when I was working throughout my career, one of the problems was I sold more than companies could make. And that sounds like a good thing, what happens is then the manufacturing side starts fabricating and saying they can do things that maybe they can't do. And me being the salesperson, I parrot that to the client, and it turns out not to work out. And I hate that. And your word is your bond. And when deliveries can't be made or mistakes happen and stuff does happen, but it's a communication thing. It's how it's handled. I didn't like that. So then I started inventing professionally, and I was a professional inventor for 15 years.
[00:10:20] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:10:22] Speaker C: So it started with a bit of a resentment and an idea, and that.
[00:10:26] Speaker A: Fueled me and invention, what type of invention, Chris?
[00:10:32] Speaker C: My first invention was a hang tag. In the apparel industry, that's the thing you cut off and throw away. But ours incorporated a removable tattoo as a gift with purchase. So gwps, gift with purchase were a big deal. And the way the apparel industry works, and it's all in this book, is you find a commodity and dress it up with images or designs where you can sell it for more than the commodity value. So that's the bare essence of it. Right?
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Right.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: So I wanted an inexpensive GWP gift with purchase that we could put an image on, and tattoos made sense, and they were becoming popular. Dennis Rodman was, you know, in, you know, the media all the time, and it was a thing, so we went with that. And it was a struggle in the beginning. Okay, there's some great stories there. But then we landed some big accounts and, like, keds alone.
[00:11:32] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:11:33] Speaker C: Ordering 100 million of these things a year. And then we had sketchers and all kinds of brands, and it took off, and it did well. And then I came up with the next idea and the next idea, and I ended up with a dozen different patented products.
[00:11:52] Speaker A: You know, that doesn't surprise me, because knowing you now with your on the bus publications, which I'm going to want you to speak about right now, you have. It's a different type of invention, and you are a sales. You're amazing in the sales world, and I love that you are a relationships salesperson rather than some of the other ways. I've learned from the ways that I weren't comfortable in my skin. I love the way that you coach in sales. So based on all your experiences and what you've gone through in life, what has shaped you to start on the bus and write those books and tell us a little about on the bus and everything you're doing right now?
[00:12:36] Speaker C: All right, so let's take it a step back, and I'll tell you. And this is a pivoting moment, because you had asked me about what pivoting moments I might have had.
[00:12:42] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:12:43] Speaker C: So my last invention, my last formal one, the ideas don't stop. Like, I have an idea for a self squeegee shower door and some other things that I'm not going to do. If anybody wants that run with it, it's fine.
But I took the removable tattoos, and I turned them into transdermal delivery systems that delivered drugs and vitamins, and the image on the tattoo would change as the drug was delivered. So if we were doing birth control for a woman with a one week time release, we could have a picture of a rose with seven petals, and it would lose a petal a day. And so it was big, and we were, you know, I was self funding and hiring chemists and doing cadaver studies, and, you know, then we had to hire toxicologists, and it's big numbers, big money going out and the hang tag business was funding all this.
[00:13:40] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:13:40] Speaker C: And the FDA got involved, my boy. And they asked me to apply for a pre ind meeting. Now I'm working out of my basement in New Jersey. Right, right. And so they want me to go down to Washington where pharmaceutical companies have to wait a long time to get these appointments. We were in within a month. Wow. And we go down there and they start. And I go down and there's 40 guys in white coats and they've got my patents on screens up on the walls. Now, I didn't give those to them. They got those somehow.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:18] Speaker C: And they start whispering in my ear, we want you to do fentanyl.
And I'm like, not doing fentanyl now. This is like 19, 94, 95. We don't really even know what this is yet. But I knew because they told me as synthetic heroin, basically, I was like, not going to do it. And they said, well, you don't understand. We're the FDA and we need you to do this. We need the visual indication that the drug is getting in. And I said, well, you don't understand. I'm the inventor and this is my product and I'm not doing fentanyl.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Good for you.
[00:14:51] Speaker C: Let us get our feet wet. From that day to this day, I've never had a patent issue again.
So somehow something happened there and there was a pivot. And so by saying no to the FDA, and I can't prove this and I don't know this, but it seems like a coincidence to me. And that patent didn't issue. It issued internationally, but it didn't issue in the US.
[00:15:17] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:15:18] Speaker C: And they found some nonsense and I decided it wasn't my fight to have, and we were going to license it to pharmaceutical companies.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:27] Speaker C: But without the patent, it became hard to do and it all became difficult. And then there was an act called the Dshea act, and it was. I had to file NDAs new drug applications. It became a big hassle and it just wasn't meant to be.
So I decided, okay, what do I do now?
And I had been coaching, and I had been a part of a coaching system that I enjoyed.
So we started on the bus.
[00:15:56] Speaker A: Wow, that is a pivotal moment. And I'm not going to leave this without saying that it's a shame that you, working in your basement or garage in Jersey, came up with something that was going to help so many human beings and you get the powers that be in this country to shut it down.
[00:16:13] Speaker C: That one cost me a million bucks. A home in a marriage.
[00:16:17] Speaker A: Unbelievable. You know, do it again. Chris, I commend you, man. You stuck with your integrity. There's a lot of that going on. It's a shame. And this stuff's still happening now with the elite crushing the man and woman who want to make a difference in the world. I will get off my soapbox, and let's talk more about Chris Lipper. So you start on the bus.
Bring me into that, because this is.
[00:16:42] Speaker C: A.
I was working for a franchise called the alternative board, and I also, I had already started on the bus, and so what we were doing, we're helping some of the members of the other company get leads, and it was really a sales assist type situation.
And then the guy who owned the franchise died, and I bought the franchise from the estate.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow.
[00:17:04] Speaker C: And that was great. For a while, the franchisor and I never saw eye to eye, and it just wasn't a fit. They're a great organization. They do great things, but I wasn't the right fit for them, and they weren't the right fit for me. And we parted ways, and I kept going with on the bus. And so what on the bus does is we have a multiple of platforms and modalities, and it features mastermind groups that are now virtual, all virtual. I've moved a number of times. I'm in southern California now, in San Diego, and can do this anywhere. So why not do it in paradise? Right?
[00:17:39] Speaker A: There you go. Enjoy.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: And I love it here.
So we have a four hour mastermind group once a month called buses. And we have different buses for different sized companies where owners come and share challenges and opportunities, and they get feedback from the other owners, and they get held accountable to making a change by the next month's meeting.
They get one to one coaching in between, and a first meeting with me when we're getting them ready to join starts with the meditation, and we go out to their exit, and then we're always working backwards from the exit.
And 44 of our owners have sold their businesses while they've been members of on the bus, and that was their exit plan. So it works. We have sales training. I've written a couple of books that you can see behind me. The one on the far right was our sales training book, and we listened to the audible copy of a chapter and then have a group discussion. We have the entrepreneurs big book featuring the twelve steps of entrepreneurship, where eleven entrepreneurs shared their stories in there and what life and business was like before they got on the bus, what changes they made, and what life and business is like now beautiful. And they come to those meetings. So when we hear their story, they're there and we can say, hey, what happened after the book was published? And that's fascinating.
[00:19:02] Speaker A: You know, I love that. I love that you get the follow up, too. We're able to see the before and the after and how on the bus has transformed or helped transform a lot of these individuals to live the life that they want to live.
[00:19:14] Speaker C: And then we have a couple events that you've been to are networking groups that we used to call Vang, virtual area networking group that we now call the Hub. We hired a new marketing company and they said, listen, you've got this great thing going with the bus. Let's stick with bus themes with everything, and call it the Hub.
[00:19:31] Speaker A: I love it.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: There you go.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: The hub. I love that.
[00:19:34] Speaker C: All right, so on Mondays we meet in the metaverse. On Thursdays we meet on Zoom. Zoom is much more popular for this crowd because we've done it for four or five years.
[00:19:43] Speaker A: Sure, absolutely.
[00:19:44] Speaker C: And they don't want to change, but we're promoting the metaverse because we, we're about to have our 22nd conference, trade show, if you will, in the metaverse. And it's exciting, it's interesting, it's a different way of doing business, and it works so well.
[00:20:00] Speaker A: You know, I would love to dive into that because many people aren't aware of the metaverse as you have. And you were one of the, I think I want to call you the founding, one of the founding fathers of bringing this out into the public, because I had the opportunity of having a table at your trade show and then attending. And it was fascinating back then. You're talking about three years ago, when no one's ever heard of this. And Chris got into it. Can you kind of explain what your convention or your trade show is like and what people who come to visit as a guest, what the experience is, and also to have a table, what the experience is.
[00:20:35] Speaker C: So I didn't invent the metaverse. I didn't create virtual trade shows or anything like that. We are just fortunate that we've had a lot of success with them and we get a lot of traffic, so there's different ways of doing it. And I don't want to get too into the weeds, but we are a web based platform. We are a web based metaverse experience, so there's no goggles needed. It's a link you click on and you're in.
It's taken a while to get to that, it being that simple. Right. And the metaverse is an evolving thing, and it has nothing to do with Facebook. That's a different thing. That's meta to do with them.
[00:21:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:21:14] Speaker C: Right. So. And I could show you. I don't know if you want me to do that here. I know this is an audio thing, but you had mentioned that there might be a video content, so I'm happy to share that if you want.
[00:21:27] Speaker A: Let's do. Let's do about just 30 seconds to give people a glimpse. So when this is video, they can see.
[00:21:32] Speaker C: Okay, so I got a.
[00:21:34] Speaker A: Let me, let me give you shares. And this is the first, everybody. It's the first time I've ever given shared capability on the podcast. So let's see.
[00:21:43] Speaker C: This is our show floor for our June 13 show.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Wow. And this has developed, man, this is definitely, definitely grown since I showed up.
[00:21:55] Speaker C: Wow. So this will be our 22nd show. And most of these people like effective hiring. This is their 8th show.
Delaine law. That's their fourth or fifth. We have two booths available there. We have a golf company here.
You'll see a lot of multi level people.
All these people are coming back time after time. David Quick, I think this is his favorite.
[00:22:16] Speaker A: David. Yeah, this is wonderful.
[00:22:18] Speaker C: This is an accounting firm in Atlanta.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: So people on audio, what we're looking at. And I want you to. When the video comes out, it's just the metaverse. It's different. It's like a trade show. Like you're walking up and down a trade show, but it looks more animated but realistic kind of thing.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: Right. And you're an avatar with a screen. So it's like these zoom rooms get legs. And up top we have presentation areas where all the exhibitors get a half hour to give presentations. So it just works.
I'll stop sharing now.
[00:22:51] Speaker A: Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, so definitely when. When we get to that, I think you guys definitely should attend one of these virtual trade shows. They're fascinating. So, Chris, anything else you'd want the audience to know that we haven't touched on about what else you're doing?
[00:23:06] Speaker C: Yeah. So the metaverse becomes very shiny. Right. And we all lose sight as to what I really do. That's not what I do. That's like an 8th of my time. Right. I don't. I'm not an author, even though I write books. That's not what I do.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Right.
[00:23:18] Speaker C: What I do is coach small business owners. Right. And the way we coach is by community. So if you're a small business owner, the best advice I could give any small business owner is find a community where you're going to get honest feedback. So these aren't your employees, these aren't your accountants. They're not people on the payroll. Find a group of other owners that you can talk to and say, hey, what have you done in this situation? How should I handle this?
And that is the most important thing we've done. And our owner's success is embarrassingly good.
[00:23:54] Speaker A: Now you. More sales. Do sales coaching more so, or is.
[00:23:57] Speaker C: It bigger than not so much anymore? That's just part of the mix.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. That's good to know. So that, so it's more than, more than the sales. It's really the, the whole process, per se.
[00:24:10] Speaker C: Right. And we're now licensing the brand so we have multiple locations.
[00:24:15] Speaker A: Okay, good to know. Good to know.
[00:24:16] Speaker C: So we're looking to meet other coaches that don't want to build networking events and don't want to build metaverse platforms and don't want to have to create lunch and learns and all the things we have in place or write the books. They just want to coach. They would be a great on the bus licensee.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: Beautiful. That, that's, that's. Thank you for sharing that because I didn't, I wasn't aware of that's where you're at and that's why you're on. So we could promote that. So, Chris, now the audience has gotten to know the essence of Chris, Chris Lipper. And, hey, folks, you're going to want to reach out to him. So Chris's website is on the bus dot biz. And what Chris is offering to all of you is to, he's inviting you to come to the June 13 next conference in the metaverse, and at no charge to you. And right on his website, you can click and register, and it'll be an awesome experience. Trust me on that.
So, Chris, I want to give you two questions.
[00:25:15] Speaker C: Sure.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: To end this, I'm going to give you an opportunity to sit down with young seven to ten year old Chris Lipper, and you want to give him advice about life. What are you going to tell young seven to ten year old Chris?
[00:25:29] Speaker C: Follow your dreams. Make time for the dreams. Pick up that guitar. Learn how to play the keyboard, whatever it was. Follow your dreams with sports, with the things that you're good at. Don't only focus on the things that you need to work on, but focus on your passions and what you're good at, what you want to be good at.
And just know that in the end, not that I'm at the end. But I'm now 60.
That it works out okay. Better than okay. Beyond my wildest dreams.
[00:26:00] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:01] Speaker C: Just hold on to that.
[00:26:03] Speaker A: I love that. Beautiful. Okay, different hat. Now you're sitting down with young Chris, the young entrepreneur, young businessman, and you want to give him advice about business. What piece of advice will you give him?
[00:26:16] Speaker C: Find people you can learn from.
Find people that you'll listen to and be able to say, I don't know what to do in front of.
[00:26:26] Speaker A: Well, I love that Chris.
Men and women out there, please reach out to Chris. He's got a lot to offer the world. Chris, thank you for being on the show. Thank you for coming into my life and giving me the opportunity to call you my friend. Very grateful for you. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a good man and you're providing a wonderful service to the people you serve. Sir.
[00:26:48] Speaker C: True. And thank you very much. It's been a pleasure to watch you evolve and see where you've gotten to in your journey. So thank you for all that and thanks for being in my life.
[00:26:56] Speaker A: Absolutely, my friend. It's my pleasure. Take care, everybody. Take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question. Are you living the life you want to live, or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second, because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my website at www.prophetcompassion.com.
feel free to also email
[email protected]. dot I'd love to have a conversation with you. Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for.
