The Peaceful Home

Episode 60: A letter to my Child: Leaving Behind a Legacy with Christopher Greco

• Pamela Godbois

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Welcome to The Peaceful Home Podcast. On todays Episode, I threw back to an interview with a dad. I know, so off brand, but the beauty here is that this dad, author and Business Exec, who wrote his a book, 8 Steps to Overcoming Everyday Adversity, as a letter to his kids. 


Traveling for his job, on a plane multiple times a week Christopher decided to write a letter to his son for after he is gone. The lessons and wisdom he believes his son, and then later his daughter, would need from him long after he is no longer here. 


A lovely focus on the legacy we leave behind, the way we lead by example and how your kids can benefit from your wisdom for years to come. 


It’s a quick listen, and the book is a quick read! Check it out and let us know what you think. And if you read the book and write a review on Amazon, let us know and Chris will send you a signed copy! 


Connect with Christopher: https://www.christophergreco.org/


If you’re like “I love listening to Pam chat with guests and share wisdom.” Then head over and write a review! We really appreciate your support and it helps us to keep growing!!  https://pamgodbois.com/ApplePodcast

 


Thank you so much for listening to this week’s episode. Be sure to tune in next week.


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Hey guys. It's Pam. And as we slide into rebranding the podcast to be a little bit more parenting focused. I felt like this episode that I recorded with Christopher Greco, this winter was the perfect episode to start with. Chris wrote this book called. Overcoming everyday adversity. And it began as a letter to his son. Uh, legacy that he could leave behind for when he was no longer here. So the sun could refer to it and later his daughter. To hear his dad's wisdom. Coaching and support. I highly recommend grabbing a copy of the book. Because it really is fantastic. And while you're here, Listen to the conversation that Chris and I had about this journey for him.

Pam:

All right, Christopher, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your willingness to come on the podcast and share your story and

Christopher:

talk about your book. Yeah, so the the book eight Steps, overcoming Everyday Adversity was supposed to it was just supposed to be like a short start out, a short letter to my son when he, when I, it was years ago when I want to leave a emergency brake glass pool. For advice that he would need when he hit a hit his wall. We all do it. And I just started typing away and I was traveling a lot at the time and, after you're stuck in a tube going 500 miles an hour and I was traveling, doing 70, 80 flights a year and I just had the time to go ahead and just write it. So I started as a letter then 5,000 words, 10,000 words. And and I felt I had something. And it began with, my story of losing my dad when I was very young. How I got over that. And I applied, the lessons learned that, turned me into a successful, father, I'd say husband and business executive. And yeah, I've found out there were eight. It came up to be eight. It wasn't I didn't target eight lessons or eight steps, just happened to be. So, got my publisher, I didn't really have a title for the book, and she's like, you know what just say what it is. Eight steps. Overcoming, everyday adversity first, but it's just be adversity. But if you, when you read the book and it's a short read, you can do it on a flight from San Francisco to Kansas City, which was my prime, my primary route for, five, six years. It, the lessons really show how to overcome the small stuff and the big.

Pam:

Yeah. So you are a CEO of a business like you work in the corporate world, right? As opposed to like me, who's a therapist?

Christopher:

Yeah, I just say corporate. I mean, I've worked at corporate. This is, early stage is very different and everybody has everybody on their plate. I was no, I'm not dismissing corporate at all. We have great corporate partners that we depend on. Early stage, you're always conscious of cash and having to grow and and you have to set up a culture and a DNA that brings people over because we we don't have the, we don't pay the salaries right. That, that larger corporations do. So we have to, you have to find some other bent and I think we've done a good job doing that. So

Pam:

I'm curious what kind of thing do you do in that scenario where you're trying to create a culture that makes people go, yeah, I wanna work for you. What's the, what are you doing to do that?

Christopher:

So, have you heard the phrase culture eat strategy for breakfast? Yeah. I mean, that it's it's it's very true. We, we found, We had when I came in 2020 as ceo, and I didn't find, I wasn't the founder. Store wise was a company by the name of Retail Software Solutions Group start in 2018. Founder had a great idea to really automate pricing in a grocery store. Saving, time in labor, right? And the number one thing when you walk in a grocery store is like, is the store? Is there, am I getting a value here? Right? And it's the most important thing twice image in a grocery store. So we had a great idea. And there was just an opportunity after the third or fourth a seed round from investors where they wanted to bring someone else in, and I knew one of the institutional investors and I just thought it was a great opportunity to be here in Kansas City, come in as, president, ceo and see if, I could, I could really, make this thing run. And I'll tell you, I didn't really make it run. I just, we, I just had great people to make it. I think that the success has been around recruiting and recruiting the right type of rock stars that are attracted to a company that has a mission and purpose. And that's what people wanna wake, look you're really, showing up to, an office or your laptop or whatever work you. It could, it's an eight to 10 hour a day thing and you're, I have a wife, I have two kids, and like most of us, most of the employees in here. And that's a big deal to, to give up that time with their family to go to work. And if they're gonna do that, it better be on something that's, that has purpose, that's meaningful. And I think that's what we've created here at Storewise. Or, our growth has been, I mean, we've grown almost 400% in the last two.

Pam:

Wow. And you brought this work, cuz you're saying when your son was younger, a while back, you started this book started as a letter to him, essentially. Letter to

Christopher:

Jonathan. Yeah. Okay. So this started, my daughter was born. Yeah. And my daughter was born too. It's just that I could've made let Letter to Jonathan and Amanda. But I just, I just woke up, I said, you know what? I want to document this thing. Cause my dad didn't leave really any, I couldn't read anything. I have some notes, but nothing that, that, I think he'll appreciate it, at least maybe when he is my age, and I think soul shape.

Pam:

Yeah, it's a really cool legacy to leave your kids to actually, I lost my data a few years ago and to have like the stories. And the lessons and the like, the wisdom that you don't appreciate. I remember in his last couple of years of life, I was like, I gotta get all the stories out of him right now. And thankfully I was old enough to do that. But not when we're young, we don't have that insight and that knowing. Right.

Christopher:

You're right. Exactly right.

Pam:

So I was reading a little bit about your book, I'm super curious about, so it's the eight steps to Overcoming Everyday Adversity. And on your website it actually says like, for adults, for teens, like it sounds like it's got some really good information for all of us on the path of like our self journey essentially. Yep. Can you talk

about

Christopher:

that a little bit? I mean, I think the thing that and I was just at my company all hands yesterday, I was just addressing this self doubt is is very expensive, right? I mean, it limit, it, it limits, it's truly a limit on our. And so, part of the things, the things that I, and my brother would say the same thing and my, my sister, is that the thing that my mom instilled in us was, this was a level of confidence. Right after my father passed that, Hey, here's a situation right now. It's gonna suck for a while, but after a while it won't. But here's what we need. And I think that's something that we've, been, we've consistently, I think all three of us, have, have applied that. And I've taken some, I've shared that, I've shared that ex that exact lesson with the company. And so everybody knows what, what they're, getting into coming in here cuz I'm pretty transparent and vulnerable in my book. They know the type of leader they're getting. They're going to work. And the, and even, and the leadership team, right? So, when I came in 2020, I established leadership team. And I think that one of the things that helped me was having this book in hand said, Hey, I know you're giving up a lot where you are right now but you know, and you're coming over here. So just read page 1 0 6 and 1 0 6 is really where the book started. Which are the lessons. And the lessons are there's two categories, lessons on, it's on charact. And then on opportunity and risk and that's it. So I think that the book is really filled with just, a, a steps of, of good advice. Have a self sufficient mindset. Know how to, overcome, uncertainty and doubt. And I don't wanna steal, I don't wanna, give away too much. Cause I'd love for people to, yeah, absolutely. Go to Amazon. It's got it's done fairly well. The book business is very hard, but it's got over 50 review. I, it won, I won an award the Maxi Award in this year, early this year on the book. It was runner up in the self-help and inspirational category, and there are like a thousand books that they read. So I thought that was pretty good. So we'll see where it goes. But again, it's I wrote it. The purpose was so my kids had, would have something later in life. Yeah.

Pam:

What was the process of writing the book like for

Christopher:

you? Like anything weren't doing as hard. The i, it took I shouldn't have let it take as long as it did it, it was years. I think I said I was gonna sit down and knock and just knock it out. That was a two year process and that was, I said, you know what, I'm going to I was doing a lot of 6:00 AM flights. I would leave on Monday, probably every other week or every, maybe once a. And I would use that time on the plane at least that one time, then coming back, and then I would just schedule in other, four, 5:00 AM wake ups before anybody was up in the house. And I would spend two hours just drafting the book. I was in Mexico, and I would wake up early and go to the Starbucks on my iPad and just keep typing. Cause I had momentum. And so I think it, it was a two year process from really getting it from just the letter to Jonathan to 10,000 words to let me bring in a rider to help to keep building this, put some structure around it, say, Chris, you should go deep on here. You should eliminate this. You should, you should add this. And from, it was about a two year process. I would say it was probably, more like, five to seven years of thinking before.

Pam:

Yeah, so I love that. I love just hearing that because what you're really speaking to is that when you want something that it's not necessarily like, I want this thing, and there it is. You have to, there's a process to get there.

Christopher:

You have to have a bias to action. I think that's, that, that's critical. Right? And not be afraid of making mistakes and recognizing that, look there, there's no effort without error and. No, and that's a, that's not my quote. That's Teddy Roosevelt from the, from his man in the arena. But I, I think that we got, you gotta, we gotta can't be afraid to act. And, maybe I could have drafted, a chapter or two chapters the book, read it and said, this is terrible. Okay, scrap it, find something else, right? But you, if you really wanna write a book, doesn't, then I would've maybe found another subject. But this one kind of stuck with me. But you gotta have a bias to action. I think that's critical.

Pam:

And speaking of a bias to action, you've also in, in all this other stuff that you're doing, you do things like train for triathlons and race.

Christopher:

Yeah. That was, I don't know why I was a little bit that was tough. My wife, when I told my wife I was gonna do Ironman, and she's like, you're not gonna do that. I did three triathlons. I just had the hitch to do a, a half Iron man. Versus, versus a. And that required, hours. I mean, the weekends I was training for, I probably trained too long. I think I trained for like eight, nine months. I probably could have done in six. But yeah I just I wanted to see what my, how hard I could push myself and it was a six hour event. I cramped up on the run. Got, just got through it and I was, I'm pretty proud of that accomplishment because the, that the Ironman event is one heck of an endurance race. I think. I think it's the heart, the hard, the full Ironman is the hardest. I think there is. Yeah,

Pam:

for sure. And just, I'm just thinking about like all the things that you're talking about and we talk, I looked at the title of your book, overcoming Everyday Adversity, and having been having run half marathons and trained for marathons and all that stuff. I understand like this process of you have to be willing to commit. You've written this book, it took you this long, it started with this idea, this thought of creating a letter, a legacy for your kids. You continue to put action to it to get to the place where you are now. Yeah. And one of the things that you said was that like, self doubt is expensive, right? And like, your mom instilled in you guys some confidence, you and your siblings some confidence, but did you, through these process of whether it's training for the the Iron Man or whether it's writing a book or building businesses or showing up as a father, cuz probably one of the hardest jobs you have in life right? Is like as a human being, not all the other things. Right? All of us, yeah. And have there been times. you did wanna just throw in the towel and be like, oh, I can't, this is

Christopher:

too hard. I think, I mean, I think so, but I think for, I mean, for me, the way I think when I start something I like to finish, that's also, that, that's also could be detrimental. You gotta know when to, stop, stop and move on to something else. I probably would've joined this company earlier than I. Based on the fact that I didn't wanna quit, something else when looking back, I should have. Right. But yeah, I, I like to, I'm pretty conservative. I think that almost to a fault where I really do my due diligence and figure out, is the Ironman right? Is writing this book, right? And, find that, the human potential is pretty, pretty And we can, it's a cliche, but we can really, we can truly do almost whatever we put our minds to.

Pam:

Yeah. The power of the mind is pretty.

Christopher:

Yes. Amazing. Yes. You've read the, so you're a therapist. You read, you've read the book growth Mindset by Carol Dweck. Are you familiar with it? Yes. Yep. Yeah, so that we do culture training. I the leadership team has gimme feedback. Every time we have a few new hires they go through storewide. This has gone from just me talking to a full blown deck and one of the things we go deep into is fix versus growth mindset. And I think one of the most important, aspects and growth mindset is that's celebrating success of. That that when you have a comp, when you have a company where people are genuinely happy, they're not envious or jealous of somebody else's success, especially in our company where one of our, one of our aspirational values is that success merit face. We're a meritocracy, not a democracy. Totally different. That they applaud those who are, are being successful. I told the company, I said, look, you. Especially on the sales team. When we were growing, I said, look if I have to reward the same salesperson based on performance every week, that's what I'm gonna do, because that is performance. And and they, and they embrace that. So I think the idea of a meritocracy understanding, that performance is, is important. And really celebrating the success of others as part of a growth mindset has really been help, has really been part of our dna.

Pam:

That's amazing. And I'd love to hear when companies bring in some of these, some of the psychological research and teachings into creating the culture.

Christopher:

It's important. You guys are doing good work. I mean, it's the mind is a is a compelling study. So I think we should do more to seek to understand.

Pam:

Yeah. I agree. I'm all and that's part of the beauty, and it sounds like part of the beauty of doing the work that I do and when I've been involved in research is like this opportunity for curiosity. But what I'm hearing in the stuff that you're doing is what has what kind of starts the process in things is a genuine curiosity for, like, I wonder if I can, I wonder what it would be like to train and do an Ironman. Huh? Yeah. I wonder if I can make that happen like that. This, that you have this, like that your brain just goes to that place like what could we do with this? How can we make this work?

Christopher:

Well, I can tell you that before I did the the half Ironman, I did two. Sprint triathlons, which are much, they're sprint. You can do, you can finish it in under an hour. And I said, God, I mean, that, that is a long distance. The swim, the run, the bike. And then, fast forward, five, six years later you're doing a half. And maybe one day I'll do a full, I mean, my wife might kill me, but who knows, right? who knows. But I, yeah, I think the, again the human, we, I don't, we shouldn't, we should never under. The human potential. It's, it is just amazing.

Pam:

I've also heard that you do some work in your local community, your fam, you and your family, do some work in the, in your local community to help people maybe tap into that, understand their potential.

Christopher:

Yeah. Their school, the so we were part of the, Right up until I joined Storewide, just cause we are was part of a, an education fund that generated scholarships for underprivileged Catholic schools. And and these are schools that are in underperforming public school districts. So, and these are parents who want you. They understand the value of education. And so we have a fund that's been going now for almost 12 years that that gives kids, and this is primarily a through 12. The majority of'em are elementary schools. I mean, some of these schools have, they, they have fourth and fifth grade combined. Imagine that. I mean, I. It, I mean, my kids have gone or go to a, great private school, but I can tell you if that if our private school said we're combining fourth and fifth grade, the parents would riot! Okay. right. So, I mean, they're full blown line out the principals door. So, we fund these schools and we give them, we help with, teacher salaries, supplies and it get it. We enable the parents to do use tuition. And we've negotiated a discounted rate at H one, these schools. Plus we we help with, salary supplies. And bottom line is that since this program has started, the number of the number of students going through the schools has vastly increased. So, and again, I'm not, it's not, I'm not being I'm not saying the public schools aren't, They could be doing better. That's just in my opinion, but we know that these schools that are in these districts that we fund are very, are having a major impact. I mean, we had one student, their parents never went to college immigrants. And when she graduated, she got off. She got a scholarship full blown to go to Yale. I mean, think about that. No college now, she's 20 Yale, you're talk the only thing that that changes generational poverty. The only thing, there's one thing is education. That's it. It's education. So I spent probably almost probably eight years. I've been in Kansas City now 16 years with the Catholic Education Foundation that has done a really good job. We support, 20 schools. That's, part of my way of giving back. Yeah.

Pam:

Yeah. I mean, I really looking at the work that you're doing that, that you're first and foremost you're living your teachings, right? The things that you are teaching in your book, the things that you're teaching in your company, the things that you're teaching to your children, you're living those

Christopher:

teachings. I try to, we're all flawed, right? No one's perfect. Of course, I try to, yeah. I, the thing when you become, when you become a parent, I think things really change for you because you're your kids pick up more than, much, more than you think. And you want to be an example. I think the, my, my wife, she's she's the product of of Cuban immigrants that fled, Castro, the revolution in the 60. At, you two educated people that, you know, one, and one became a chamber made to get by. When she got to the US she had no, wasn't given a dollar. And another, this, had to, valet, cars to get by and I then my in-laws, I love'em. And they've done they're an amazing example of hard work and underdog grit. And so I think the blessing that we have is we're both our kids a. Better life. They're earning it though. I mean, we're not, you can't just give it to'em. They have to earn it. But it's a, it's great to see that we're able to, provide that type of, foundation for our children.

Pam:

Yeah. How are you asking or how are you. Requesting or requiring of your children to be, to earn it. Just curious. It's one of the, one of the large demographics that listens to my podcast is parents that are like, like, how do we do this?

Christopher:

Yeah. Well, the, my son wanted to go, so he's in the best private school in Kansas City and I told him it's expensive. I said, you have to make the grade because the schools, the public school system here weren't Overland Park, Kansas. It's very good, very. And but he really wanted to go to Rockhurst High School. And I said to him, you gotta, you have to make the grade. And and he's aware of, he said to me last night, he is like, he's in honor. He has a couple honors classes, which is impressive. And he said to me, the stories you were told about grandma, my mother never really resonated until now that I'm getting up at 6:00 AM going to, hockey practice, then having a full day of school. Then going to conditioning training and then having, three, four hours of homework and then figuring out how, cuz he mos lawns, how I mow lawns before it gets dark here at five 30 and Right. I said yeah. Grandma did that on like four hours of sleep for like 15 years. Right. So, again, that probably wasn't healthy. Again, human potential. We have much more. I think with David Goggins, he wrote that book Can't Hurt me, and he says that that, I think it's instilled in Navy SEAL training when you, when your body is telling yourself you have nothing more to give, there's data that, there's data I believe that says you really have 20, 30% more. That's just incredible.

Pam:

Yeah. It's a protective mechanism in the brain actually that is trying to communicate to your body to stop so it can preserve like

Christopher:

effort and energy. Yeah. So he says, well, then your mind needs to good negotiate with your body to give more. I think that's compelling. That's compelling.

Pam:

Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. And it goes back to that whole like the power of the mind.

Christopher:

Yep. Big deal. It's a big.

Pam:

It is a big deal. And I think also just having the understanding and you keep referencing this, that the, that how much potential we have as human beings, us as individuals, our children and how we can instill that or continue to say that, but we tend to walk around going, I suck instead of being like, I have so much potential where like, oh, I suck cuz I mess up on this thing, or whatever the case may be.

Christopher:

Well, if you look at the industry that's, that Storewise serves the, it is the Independent Grocers, right? So you have a, it's a the supermarket industry is is a trillion dollars, right? You have the Big five, Walmart, Amazon, whole Foods Kro, RS, all the Trader Joe's Dollar General, they control 75%. They're the Goliath. Then you have the, these 21,000 independent grocery stores that most of them started out generations ago as like produce. And you think about all of the headwinds they, they have had, especially, most people don't know this, but Walmart's, 56% of Walmart's revenue is grocery. More than half is food. So this is the largest retailer arguing large companies in the world. And these independents that my company Storewise serve. They're surviving and in a lot of cases thriving against them. So, how do they do that? I think that it's a mindset. It's being, maniacal about business, processes and, I respect, what, what, what they've done and what they've accomplished. But it goes back to. The underpinning of belief and the human potential and also the potential of the thing that matters to you, whether that's your family, your business, or your personal life.

Pam:

So if I'm somebody listening and just oh yes, I wanna make changes, but I don't know where to start. Any suggestions? Like what would be your go-to? Yeah. Start here.

Christopher:

Suggest. We'll first Google the Shameless plug, Google A Steps adversity and you'll, that will bring you to the Amazon site and you can purchase my book and I will say this, anybo any of your listeners doing that, if they do that and they read it and gimme any feedback, I will send them a signed copy and then they can take the one they purchased and pay it forward to somebody who feels that needs it. So I'll, I'll do that. That's, and I would just go through the steps in the book reading. I never, I did not read a lot when I was, I know that in elementary school, I think I can remember my sixth grade grades, given my daughter is in fifth grade now. But, after, during college, I really picked up reading quite a bit. And then after and they say successful, CEO's read dozens of books a year and you have to, and I read everything. Opinions in the Wall Street Journal to I, yeah. Audible a lot. But, educating oneself, I think, again it's critical to answer your question, it's all about, education. And also it's good to benchmark what others are doing because we, cause we think what we think's impossible, we see like, a million people a year doing doing some level of triathlon. I think half a million actually does a half iron. It's just compelling. It says, wow, well, if they can do it, then so can I.

Pam:

I feel like we're seeing a lot that a lot in the running community, at least we were before Covid, there was, I know a lot of people, a lot of like, everyday runners that are like, oh, I just run at the gym a little bit. Deciding that they're gonna run well in this area, the Boston Marathon, like, I'm gonna raise funds and run the Boston.

Christopher:

That's a big deal. So you have to qualify for that, right?

Pam:

Well, if not, if you're doing fundraising. So you have to qualify. So you can qualify or you can start a fundraising team and the funds that you raise is like, I know it's like$20,000 or something. It's a big amount of money's. It's a big but after the whole, like Boston Marathon bombing, there were so many people, there were so many runners that I know that were just. I run 5k. You could run a marathon. Yeah. And when you just that idea of like, I could do that. I could try that, I could, I mean, what's the worst that's gonna happen? I'm gonna cramp up, I'm gonna puke. Like have we been through worst things in life? Yeah. Who've been through things in life.

Christopher:

So, so there's, so, so let me ask, so the following year when there was a big resurgence, yes. That's great. Well, that's that's what America's all about. Yeah. Totally. Right. Never quit a fight. Yeah,

Pam:

I love that. Yeah, I love that. So where can people find you so they can find your book? Are there other places that you hang out online or places that they can get to know you a little bit more? Yeah, I'm on,

Christopher:

I'm on LinkedIn. They'll find me on LinkedIn. Okay. They can go to my website, christopher greco.org, then go to storewise.io. And easily get in touch with me. If anybody wants to email me directly to, to have more. It's my chris storewise.io. I'll be happy to go ahead and, happy to go ahead and respond to them. So that's probably the, that's probably the best way to find me. But I, I'm very active on LinkedIn. So, okay. Feel free to, make connection and we'll go.

Pam:

Cool. I love that. Well, I really appreciate, this has been fun. I like, love hearing the story and I'm gonna go buy your book right now, by the way. Thank you. And

Christopher:

remember I'll pay it forward. So Okay. Perfect.

Pam:

I love it. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, for sharing your story. I love the. Where the book started, like that just, I have a 13 year old and like, I think about that all the time. Like, what can I leave? What's the legacy I can leave for her?

Christopher:

Absolutely that's what you gotta do. So

Pam:

I love that so much. So good. Thank you again, you gotta, Pam, I really enjoyed it. Yeah, I appreciate it.

Hey guys. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. Any questions, comments or things that you would like to share? Please do. So you can hop on over to Instagram and share them with me there. I look forward to seeing you all soon. Take care.

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