Adrian Chenault

Check out more of Adrian

Homepage: contactmapping.com

Community for entrepreneurs: community.contactmapping.com 

YouTube: /contactmapping 

Facebook: /contactmapping

LinkedIn: /in/adrianchenault

Show Notes

Robert Peterson
Well, Adrian, thank you so much for joining me today. I'm excited to have this conversation. Looking forward to learning about contact mapping.

Adrian Chenault 2:47
Awesome, man. I'm happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me, Robert.

Robert Peterson 2:51
Yeah. So I typically at our guests just share their own entrepreneurial journey and what's led them to, you know, the impact they're making today.

Adrian Chenault 3:00
Cool. Yeah, we'd love to, we'd love to start there. So my entrepreneurial journey really kind of starts in my childhood, in no small part, because the company contact mapping that I have found it today, I actually co founded with my dad. And so he's a big part of my journey, both ultimately, in this company, and from the earliest part of my entrepreneurial journey. So he's been an entrepreneur, basically, forever, certainly, you know, for as long as I can remember. And most of his journey has been in the network marketing or direct sales profession is where he has made his career. And he's been very successful in that world. My parents divorced when I was in first or second grade, so at a really young age. And so you know, I'm bouncing back and forth between my mom and dad's house. And my dad always worked from home, because that was what allowed him to be able to be present to us, even as he was raising his kids. And so he exposed me to entrepreneurial ideas from a really young age. I remember doing work for him as a kid, I remember, he encouraged me, you know, when eBay first came out, I had a little eBay, consignment business and so on. And so it was from those very young ages that this stuff has been instilled into me. But the biggest thing that I learned from my dad that became a huge part of who I am, is the value and the power and the importance of building relationships. And so my dad has been incredible at doing that that's really been his signature that has allowed him to make an incredible living in his own world. And it just got into my DNA. And so I'm the oldest kid. I had no real interest in going into the family business of network marketing. I'm a very sort of measured, not a huge personality, my dad's this kind of big, gregarious sort of guy. And so while I didn't expect to ever go into the family business, I got those values. He was put into me. And so I studied finance in college, ended up going and spent the majority of my early career working in finance for a really high growth tech company. And what I found is that just kind of instinctively, I saw the importance in the value in building real connections with the business I was, I was a finance business partner. And most of my finance business partners did not really want to do the business partnering part, they wanted to do the finance part. And I of course, wanted to do both. But I really saw that that concept of being a partner is really important. And so I started to do that. And what happened next was this incredible unfolding of a really exciting career that took me all over the world working for this company. And it was really all linked back to the ability to build connections and relationships and bridges between groups of people. And so I spent seven years working for that company. And at the end of that run was where this sort of magnificent idea to create a company around helping business owners and entrepreneurs to build stronger connections was born. And so we launched the company in 2017. So that's a quick kind of summary of how I got here. But it's been a, you know, relationships had been the thread through all of that, Robert.

Robert Peterson 6:21
Yeah. So obviously, you understand the value of relationship and the importance of, of connection. And so let's talk a little bit about how connections have helped you, obviously, your connection with your dad, as your partner and your business. But then take that to how does contact mapping, help a business owner, in the same way that you've been able to grow connections organically?

Adrian Chenault 6:46
Yeah, yeah. So if you think about any entrepreneur, think about your career and how you have come to the place that you are in now how your idea came about how the doors opened, that enabled you to get to the place that you are today, I can, I don't even know you. And yet I can, I can guarantee that you have had these really important people who have shown up somehow in your life along the way. And each one of those relationships was this door that opened. And what I find happens with entrepreneurs and I have to battle against this myself, even knowing the things that I know, is that just there's so many things coming at you. And sometimes it's it's easy to get sort of myopic, on the problem that I'm facing, or just keeping this thing going or whatever it is. And to lose sight of these opportunities that may be right there. You know, just if you would just glance to your left or right, that there's this opportunity, there's this, there's this new path, that could be much easier than the path that you're forging your way down. And so what we help entrepreneurs and business owners to do is, is to just create some practice and some system around tapping back into those relationships and creating some space to do that without taking up a whole bunch of time. So that that serendipity and that opportunity in that possibility can flourish, instead of just being so down this sort of like tunnel vision that you're you end up you may be you succeed. But you took a much harder path, because you just were unwilling or unable to kind of look up and look around a little bit.

Robert Peterson 8:39
Nice. So obviously, contact mapping is helping somebody create their network, improve their network. So explain a little bit more how it works, how, what's the value? What's the value for an entrepreneur that's listening to consider using? Is it a software as a service?

Adrian Chenault 8:58
And abdomen? Yeah, yeah, it's both of those things. So so we have an app, and the desktop version. So everything is integrated together. And we actually we started off Robert, you know, pre pandemic, we were mobile only. And one of the things that I think was really key to the way that we designed contact mapping at the outset, was that it was designed to be able to be this companion, and this intelligent assistant for you. That would be with you wherever you go. Because inevitably, you have, you know, I met Robert and I've got I know, I've got notes on him somewhere. But they're in that notebook or, you know, I think I had a visit you know, everything. Nothing is where you need it, except your phone is always with you. And so we wanted to have this thing with you. And so it's in your phone, it's also on your computer, and it's like a sec, it's like this second brain that allows you to be able to tap into a more comprehensive version of your own experience, to be able to unlock opportunities and connections and more so All right. And so how does that work? It works where, you know, Robert and I met through a recent guest on this podcast, Brandon Barnum, who's a good friend of mine, he and Robert met recently, when Brandon was in town to speak at a conference, and they hit it off. And so they connected. And then Brandon and I had been friends for several years now I said, Hey, you know, you are so good at getting yourself out there. And, you know, constantly sharing your message, like, I'd love to just learn from you on that he goes, Well, I have somebody that helps me. But I also, you know, like, I meet people all the time, who should know you, you know, Roberts, one of them, I'm going to connect you to Robert. And so there's this thing constantly happening, where I'm tapping into these connections. And I do it through just building this really simple practice. So Robert, and I spoke on the phone just after Brandon and I connected, Robert told me some really amazing things about his story and his wife Noel and the experience that they've had together that's led them to now getting to work together on entrepreneurial ventures, and Noel is doing her own thing and all these different threads of connection. And if I hadn't just had a few moments to capture, I call it brain dump the things that I wanted to remember about that conversation in the moment when we talked about a month ago, there's a lot of that, that I wouldn't remember anymore. But instead, just before I sat down on this call, I literally pulled up my contact mapping, and I went Oh, that's right. Okay, Robert, you know, he lived in Bogota, he did all these different things, right. And I've got all these touch points on him, that allow me to be more present and more connectional in conversation, or I get somebody that goes, Hey, who do you know who does this, and I can google my own memory. And so for an entrepreneur, having that resourcefulness, number one, and then having the ability to stay connected with people who you enjoy who you genuinely want to stay connected to. But you struggle to do so because there's too many things coming at you. And maybe you don't know what to talk about, or whatever. This gives you. The easy way to be able to go, hey, you know, Robert, I was thinking about you today want to check in how you're doing. And I can ask him about something really specific. that pertains to a conversation that we've had in the past. And it's right there at my fingertips. So it's not a lot of work for me to be able to be connectional in that way.

Robert Peterson 12:15
So now are you competing in the in the CRM space, or is this something to work alongside a CRM,

Adrian Chenault 12:22
for the most part, we work along CRM alongside CRM, if you think about CRM, for anybody who doesn't know stands for customer relationship management, and so that might be a HubSpot or a Zoho, and five zillion other things that exist out there that all are called CRMs. And CRMs started off much closer to what contact mapping is, what CRMs have evolved, or I might say D evolved into today is they're really, they're kind of two big things. They're a marketing automation tool. And they are a sort of pipeline management almost sort of project management tool. So I need to know, you know, I need to be able to send these people emails in track, if they open them and do all this automation, whiz bang sort of stuff, I need to know what my deal pipeline is. And those are kind of the two big things and contacts are, of course in there, because contacts are part of that whole thing. But they're really buried. Contact mapping is all about that relationship. And so we like to say CRMs have forgotten about the R. And that's it. That's the entirety of who we are. So for some people, contact mapping works amazing in concert with a CRM, because you need those other things. For many entrepreneurs, they actually don't need that stuff in it kind of becomes a distraction. And so contact mapping, which we call a relationship development system, might be really all you do need, because you don't need so much of that kind of, I'm not building a gigantic list of contacts, and whatever. That's not the way I want to do business. I just need to be making sure that I'm tapping into the people that are most important. And so for some, that's all they need.

Robert Peterson 14:02
Absolutely. So I guess the big piece is, how does somebody use this alongside their CRM along? How do we make sure that to cooperate and aren't just another piece of frustrating software I have to deal with?

Adrian Chenault 14:18
Yeah, yeah. No, that's a fantastic question. So the way that when we work with folks who use a CRM alongside contact mapping, the way that we talk about it in the way that they find the most value is you think about contact mapping, as the place where all of the content of the relationship lives, right. So HubSpot, Zoho, these things, they have notes, but they're buried and they're not easy to search for. And it takes like, I have to search for Robert and then I have to click through three different things. And I never, you know, there's the notes. So don't bother putting the notes in your CRM because you're not going to be able to find them anyway. Just don't put that stuff there. So contact mapping is the place where the one on one relationship stuff lives, it's where I set the reminders to stay in touch one on one, it's about that, that human being and our connection, then, as that person gets to a place where they belong on my marketing list, or where there's an opportunity associated to that person in their company, or whatever, now they move across from the CRM from the contact mapping into my CRM, and I can track those activities there. And we're working on some pieces where in the future, we may be able to offer some automation components to that as well. But even so, it's a pretty easy process of the one on one relationships, my notes, it replaces my notebook and so on, and allows me to be far more relational and connectional. And then when that person belongs in a CRM, where they're into a more formal marketing flow, then I move them across and have them there as well.

Robert Peterson 15:53
Nice. So obviously, we talked a little bit about the value of relationship in, in developing and making this transition from financial services into creating, you know, this contact mapping to essentially take your dad's system and make it usable by other people. Right. Yeah. So obviously, your dad was a big mentor in your life. How else have mentors served you in your business growth journey? And in this entrepreneurial? Chaos?

Adrian Chenault 16:28
Yeah, yeah. You know, tremendous tremendously. And I, I only came to fully appreciate just how much recently because I, you know, when you're going through these things, you're, you're just, you're in it, right? And so sometimes you miss reflecting back on those things. And I was doing a training recently talking about mentorship. And I had this like, kind of epiphany, that literally every moment like every big door that has opened along my journey, could tie directly back to one or a handful of mentors in my life, where some huge thing opened up, and they really helped me so I had an adjunct college professor who was actually a CEO of a local investment banking firm in San Antonio, Texas, where I went to college. And he was really the instrumental door opener that got me into this company Rackspace, where I went on to have this amazing career. And unbeknownst to me at the time, they were on a hiring freeze when they hired me. And he was friends with the chairman of the board. And so he emails Graham Weston, who was his name, and it said, emails, Graham, hey, this guy's really good. He's one of the best students I've ever had. You should really talk to him and see if you can find a place for him at Rackspace. So Graham is emails the CFO and he's like, Hey, you should hire this guy. And they're like, Dude, you just told me we're in a hiring freeze, like, but you want me to hire this guy? And he's like, yep, basically. And so I went in there. And like, it was kind of this weird interview process. But I didn't realize like, I didn't know why. Because I had no idea of any of this. And, you know, they were like, Okay, well, here's, you know, here's Graham's guy, or whatever. But, you know, and I think they were a little suspicious of, like, you know, is this guy just like, you know, his mom and dad have a connection or whatever, but like, you know, so then it all worked out. And all these things happen. But you know, that door would have just been a closed door, if it wasn't for a mentor. And each step of the way, I see that having happened. And, you know, on the entrepreneurial journey, like this is, you know, that, for me, this is my first barbecue, right? Like, I haven't done this before, there's so many things that I've had to do along the way, that, you know, there's, there's simultaneously way too much information and no guidebook. And that's really hard. And so finding people that you can trust, who are in your corner to support you is essential. And I the right, people have continually shown up in my life, and supported me along the way. And I think that part of that is a function of cultivating and be making myself available to relationship because I think a lot of times the, you know, the, the sort of the hand, the sort of offer of support is extended to you. And you're too busy running that you you run right past it as an entrepreneur. And so one of the lessons that I don't always learn that I don't always remember but that I work hard to is to, to actually take that offer of help, because there's people there that want to help you.

Robert Peterson 19:30
Yeah, so valuable. All right, now we're gonna dig a little. So obviously, you decided not to go into the family business, but you still partnered with your dad in this business. So what's the level of relationship with your dad and what's it like working with him building this business?

Adrian Chenault 19:49
It's been room it's been amazing. And I was not sure that that would be the case. Right? I know you and your dad have a really special relationship and we talked to little bit about that and how influential he's been in your life. And you just don't know what it's gonna be like with your dad, my dad is very renowned in his world, he's been very successful. He has a very, you know, he's he has a voice that when he talks people listen. And it would, it could have been easy for it to have been a situation where I felt like he was always kind of overruling me or whatever it is. And I really, you know, I go back to my upbringing, and reflecting back on this, and I think this is how I kind of knew that it would be good and that it would be safe. I feel like my dad has always like, he has certainly been a dad to me in all the ways. But he also, like he never, he always has treated me as an equal, even though he's also my dad and my mentor, and all those other things. And, again, I've only recently started to really appreciate how special it is that He has given me that space and given me that trust and you and thought well enough of me to like allow me to make my own mistakes. And I think that was, that's something that I've always really appreciated about my dad is that he, not only did he allow me to make my own mistakes, I think, you know, I don't like making mistakes very much. I'm very, I'm very, like I measure, I measure 17 times and cut once. And sometimes he just like, grabbed the scissors and like, runs them through the middle. Because he's like, Dude, you just gotta like, let it go a little bit. And he has really helped me to be able to do that. And I'm really great.

Robert Peterson 21:44
It's always good to hear like, you know that even later in a relationship that you can partner together and still continue to grow and learn from each other.

Adrian Chenault 22:45
Yeah, yeah, I think we've learned a lot from each other, that

Robert Peterson 22:49
the idea of being treated as an equal, I think was something our fathers had in common is my dad always has treated me as an equal. And that's been valuable in adulthood for sure. But looking back on childhood when, you know, I guess he's just always tried to be a positive influence. And that was that's powerful. Yeah. All right. So one of the big things I like to encourage entrepreneurs is designing the life that they want, and then building their business to support it. Can you speak into the design of your business and the lifestyle that you're seeking to, to build and support with your business?

Adrian Chenault 23:33
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. And something that I continue to, I think, have to re examine and rework on over over the time through the journey. So we have three young kids, my oldest is about to turn 12. And then we have a 10, and a seven year old. And prior to starting this company, I was working for that tech company that I mentioned before. And we got we ended up getting the chance to move all over the world, which was an incredible experience. So we lived in London, in Sydney, and in Zurich, while I was working for them. And it was an incredible experience. It was cool because they the kids, my oldest was born in Texas, the second one was born in England, and then we went to Australia and then the third one was born in Switzerland. And to have had, you know, to had that experience and to have our kids even at that young age get to experience that was so special. However, one of the big downsides of working a big corporate job and living in a big city is that I was you know, I was 40 minutes each way on the train every day. I would leave really early, you know, I would walk the kids the older to, to school in the morning, and then go walk and get on the train. And most days, you know, so I'd have breakfast, take them to school. And then most days by the time I got home, they were already in bed or maybe I made it in time just to give them a kiss. Goodnight And that was hard, it was incredibly hard and really hard on my wife, obviously, you know, for her to have to carry so much of that weight. And I knew when starting this thing that I that was a critical thing to have be different. And so I'm sitting in our office in Longmont, Colorado right now, which is a five minute drive door to door from my house, I can work at home when I want to which I love. And I walk our kids to school every morning, I am coaching baseball, for my seven year old little boy right now, I don't miss sporting events, you know, I get to be an integral part of their life, and to have that flexibility that I don't have to ask someone to do your, I don't have to have somebody's permission to do those things. And I and I have cultivated that, you know, that's not because I'm the boss, right? We've cultivated that into the culture of our company. And so, you know, many of our teammates have kids, and I'm all for you know, go pick up the kids from school, and then jump online afterwards, you know, like, we get to, like, Let's live our life, and, and figure out how to be highly successful in what we do around it, instead of having those two things be at odds. And so I think that's the biggest thing that has been core to building this thing is instilling maintaining those values for myself, and instilling them into the culture of the company.

Robert Peterson 26:26
That's so valuable. So let's take that a step further. What what is the further blessings of owning your own business and raising your family?

Adrian Chenault 26:38
I think it's, it's wonderful to have the kids really see me build this thing. You know, I think so many kids, and I think this is that's a transference or a transfer of that blessing that I received from my dad, right? So many kids watch mom, and usually mom and dad these days, you know, I get dropped off, they go away, I don't really know what they do. And they come home with big or small bags of money. And I don't really understand how that whole thing works. That's just what mom and dad do. And for the most part, I'm just bummed because I feel like they're never around. That's, that is most kids experience of what it looks like growing up with a traditional family. And like, that's not to knock that like that lifestyle at all. Because we got to you know, we that's that's how most people need to make a living. It's a great way to make living, and I did it for a long time. And who knows, maybe someday I'll do it again. But to have the kids really like, you know, like, if somebody asked them what dad does, they could kind of tell them even my seven year old, like, you know, and it's like, one of the sweetest moments of my life is he we were driving, actually to baseball practice. This was last season. And he goes dad, you know, someday I want to be a contact mapping, man. And I was like, you know, like, that's incredible. What a cool thing to have your kids say to you. And so I you know, I think just to have them see the hard work, see the heartache, right, like they've seen they know that this is not without its stresses that it's not all roses. And I think again, like, I think to have them see that is better than for them to just have no conception at all of what hard work is or what it takes to be an entrepreneur.

Robert Peterson 28:35
Absolutely. So obviously, you've had some success, things are going well. Let's talk a little bit about what's your biggest challenge?

Adrian Chenault 28:46
Yeah, you know, it's when we talk about what contact mapping is and what it does, and how it can help. Entrepreneurs lean in, they get excited, because they understand the value and the power of what exists here. The flip side of that equation is that there's a reason why the like, what we show people and help them to do is stuff that they know they should have been doing anyway, and yet have gotten oftentimes a long time without and maybe have a lot of sort of relational debt. That is that they just feel like oh, this is a mess. And there's this, sometimes this, they feel a need to like clean it all up at once. And that isn't going to work, especially if you if it's a big mess, it's just not going to work, right, you're gonna have to sort of chip away at it in order to move forward. And so I think the biggest challenge is just helping our clients to stick with it. It's like the gym membership, right? Like the first time I go to the gym, like, I feel great for 10 minutes. And then the next day, I'm like, I can't freaking walk. And the trick is you got to go back to the gym while you're still sore, where you're like, you'll, if you don't do that, you're going to be sore for five days, if you go back to the gym, while you're still sore, you're actually going to feel better later that day, and you're going to get stronger, and it's going to repeat. And so it's those same, I think those same principles apply, of helping them to get across that little chasm of whatever their limiting beliefs and the things that have had them stuck up until now, so that they can break through to what exists on the other side. And many do, and, you know, realistically, many more do not even with our product. And so just like anything else in entrepreneurship, it takes you saying I'm going to see this thing through in order for it to really happen.

Robert Peterson 30:57
Nice. So let's dig into the power of a dream. And maybe that plays into what it takes for somebody to stick with it. Yeah. So so for you How was the dream I was a vision of something bigger, greater. The bigger impact driven you.

Adrian Chenault 31:16
Yeah, in a huge way. I'll start with the original moment of vision that happened for context mapping. So I mentioned that I was working for this tech company, I had risen through the ranks really quickly. I was 32 years old at the time. And I was in charge of all of the finance group for everything outside the US, which was about 40% of a pretty big publicly traded companies business. And i dotted line reporting to the CFO in San Antonio, I direct line reported to the VP of international who ran that whole p&l, and I had, so I had San Antonio reporting line, I had London, Amsterdam, Zurich, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Sydney teams, which meant that literally, it was a 24 hour a day job, basically. And it got to be really heavy. And we had our third son in Zurich, and I'm working all the time, and I got really ground down and really burned out. And there's a whole other heap of stuff going on there. But the short version is, in November of that year, my wife and I went to dinner and she was like, you are going to make a change to our life, or I am going to make a change to our life. And I promise it will be better if you make a change in our life. Because you're not happy, you're stressed out all the time, you're not present, you're not, you're not physically present a lot of the time, and you're not emotionally present, even when you are and like why are we doing this if you're this ground down and unhappy. And she was right, as wives almost always are, especially when it comes to those things. And it was November and I said, Hey, we're going back to Colorado to visit family at Christmas, like, give me until then I just like I'm up to my eyeballs and alligators. And I don't know what to do. And I can't figure it out between here and there. Let's get back to the States. And we'll catch our breath. And we'll figure it out. And so we came back to visit family that Christmas and my dad had just turned 65. And he and I had kind of been in this separate conversation about him and his legacy. And you know, who? What do you want to do? Like, are you going to retire from network marketing? What do you want the rest of your life to look like? And this idea of contact mapping is a concept that he had coined 20 years ago to just to help people go, how do you do what you do? And he goes, Well, I like it's contact mapping. This is how I do it. And so we were having this conversation and he was like, you know, I think that how I want to be remembered as not as a successful network marketer. How I want to be remembered is as somebody that created a world that does this thing called contact mapping, and then I showed others how to do it. And so that was percolating, and there was this moment of, literally, I felt like it was like a lightning bolt from God. It was on Christmas Eve 2016. I was at my mom's house, my parents, my hooks are divorced. So at my mom's house, dad's an hour away. And I was in God's phone booth, aka the shower. And I literally had this like download of, oh my gosh, we need to build a company around contact mapping because contact mapping is who I am. And it's really everything that I have done up until this point is really centered around that and it certainly is who he is, and this is the thing. And it was clear as day. I jumped out the shower, threw a towel on went and wrote him this email that I have posted on the wall in the office next door and it was like this is it and I had this moment So that was the vision was to create a world that is operated around entrepreneurs who are connectional. And who see the value in doing that. And if we can do more of that, that that that's that's all about Win Win, instead of win lose, right? We're going to make the world a better place. So that's the vision. Now, fast forward. And there have been high highs in this journey. And there have been the lowest of lows, just like for any entrepreneur. And one of the things that really hit me hard recently, Robert, is that I, I received that vision. So clearly in that moment, that in faith is really important to me. And along the way, as it's gotten hard. One of the things that I have done many times as I've leaned on that moment, and that vision that I received back there in the past, and I've essentially said, God, I know you gave me this vision, which I still no clear as day. And that vision has not come to fruition yet. And so it isn't over. And I'm leaning on that promise. And that's really great. Except that really what I've been saying is God, you told me it was going to be easier. You told me it was going to work out, neither of which he said, And why hasn't that happened yet? And like, could you kind of move this process on a lot faster. And so what I've had this like, pretty powerful realization in the last six months is that that vision is evolving. And that vision will continue to evolve. And that I that it's not about holding on to this fixed point in time, that it's about staying true to where this is going. And it's staying true to the values. And it's allowing, just like I talked about, right, that was that was a tunnel vision way of thinking about the vision that I'm saying it's this way, and it has to look like that. And I'm going to just stay this course. And what if over here, God's going, we'll hold on, like, there's an exit ramp right there, that I'm taking you on a place that's, you know, someplace far better. And until you know, I just won't, I won't turn. And so that's been a big part of my journey recently, is allowing myself to open up to something that I can't control in and to not only relinquish control, but to embrace this sense of possibility that exists beyond what I might know or understand in the moment.

Robert Peterson 37:46
So powerful. So you mentioned your values, obviously, you mentioned family is part of the culture of the company. But now you're talking about values in regards to the vision and the direction. So now that you have an understanding of values as more important than then a specific image. Yeah, share a little bit about establishing those values and making sure that those values guide the decisions, rather than that, that little point in time.

Adrian Chenault 38:18
Yeah, yeah. So the values are about contributing into the lives of the people who use whatever it is that we have to offer. And having them experience a new way of being, or to, to really tap more deeply into like, I think they have this inside of them, but to tap back into this core sense of being that operates in this space, of connection, and contribution to others. So we want to embody that first, to our customers and our users. But really the sign that we're doing that well, and that we are doing something that is meaningful, is when we see them in turn, as a result of the experiences that we create for them doing that in their own lives and passing it on to others. That's the sort of virtuous cycle that we're looking to create. And so it's about seeing people and really being present in a conversation where I'm not just in my own head count, you know, in agenda in sales pitch in whatever, but that I actually that I'm first seeing the other person in their humanity and in their wholeness as a person that I'm caring enough to document and to remember that person in a way that I can tap back into who they are. And that that then I am staying in relationship. Because when I stay in relationship when I stay in a place of connection, whether it's once a year Whether it's once a quarter or whether it's once a month, whatever that looks like for you, it's going to be different for different relationships, that when I can do that, I stay in this place of contribution. And as a result of that, I stay in this place of being able and ready and open to receive, because so often, if I show up from a place of giving, if I show up from a place of desiring to contribute, what ends up happening, lo and behold, I end up receiving something that I would never have even known was a possibility, because I showed up that day. So those are the values. And those are the things that we look to create to embody to our customers, and then help them to in turn embody in their own lives so that they can get that experience.

Robert Peterson 40:44
So we've talked a lot throughout this episode about connection. And now you just touched on the value of contribution. So share a little bit more about contribution as a, as an entrepreneur, contribution as a human, and why that's so important.

Adrian Chenault 41:02
Yeah, yeah. So I believe that contribution can be with a little c and or a big C, so to speak, right contribution could be, you know, these magnanimous gestures or, you know, some huge thing that I'm bringing out into the world. And that's great. I think contributions so often, though, is really about those tiny little things that we do along the way, where we just open ourselves to being in a place to bless somebody, whatever that might look like. And that could literally be a simple text message saying, Hey, I was thinking about you, that could be a simple, I read an article and I sent it to you, that could be a birthday message that could that could be all these tiny little things that then create these little openings of opportunity, and of possibility that exist, and emanate from that. And so as an entrepreneur, yes, you are building an offering, you're building these things. But so so often, and you see this, you know, there's a guy named Paul Graham, who's who's kind of a big tech sort of thinker, he was the founder of a copy of a fund called Y Combinator. And he talks about, like, just the beginning phases of being an entrepreneur, or you have to go talk to customers or potential customers, they talk, he talks about doing things that don't scale, like all of these things are about this idea of like, Sunday, you're going to have to make choices at scale, because you're going to be so big that you have no choice, that the beginning part of an entrepreneurial journey is not the right time to do that. It's the right time to lean into loving the people and contributing to the lives of the people who you're who you're there to see who you're there to support. And that's what it's all about. And so, I think we get grandiose, as entrepreneurs sometimes, and we think it has to be this big thing. And I think it's really about the accumulation of the little things. And that's what contribution means in the biggest way to be.

Robert Peterson 43:20
Nice. All right, we end every episode with our guests sharing their words of wisdom for our entrepreneurial audience. What would you share? Adrian?

Adrian Chenault 43:28
You know, I would share that entrepreneurship can be a very lonely journey, if you allow it to be. Because you go out there and you you're caught, you are in this place of the right answer to the question for most people that ask it to you is, it's going great. And a lot of time, it's not going great. And you will, you will do yourself a tremendous favor, by finding one or two or five or 10 people in your life that are that know how it really is going. And then it's safe for you to do that. And so don't forget to take care of yourself along the journey. And I think that starts with having a small inner circle of people, that that you really can share the experience and can be sounding boards and can help to pick you up when you're down and can help to protect you from the challenge the challenges that will inevitably come on the entrepreneurial journey.

Robert Peterson 44:40
So smart. Adrienne, thank you so much for joining me, Dave, what a great conversation. What a great tool that you've created to honor your father's legacy, but really to equip entrepreneurs to continue that legacy in making connections and contributing just to the well being of Humans.

Adrian Chenault 45:02
Robert, thanks so much for having me. I can feel your heart and the impact that you're having in the world. And so it's it's been really fun to have this conversation. Thanks again.