Tagline
Your trauma can bring out the best in you.
Bio for Chris Clews
Meet Chris Clews, the 80s Pop Culture guy who is an author and keynote speaker. He has over 20 years of leadership experience in corporate marketing, and knows three things very well: 80s pop culture, business and this crazy thing we call life. There isn’t any period trivia about the 80’s he can’t retrieve and explain at will, along with connections and contacts that helped trends, songs, and movies become hits. He has an amazing memory!
One day in his mid-40s, he was on the couch having a self-pity party and decided this wasn’t working for him. He flipped the channels and started to think about the 80s. He heard Johnny Cade, who inspired him to start his corporate career of 20-plus years and create a popular book series, “What 80s pop culture teaches us about today’s workplace”.
Episode highlight
Chris grew up right outside of Baltimore, Maryland. He went to school in North Carolina. Their neighborhood consisted of children from different walks of life who spent most of their night playing until curfew.
In the 80s, Chris’ parents separated but the separation was a blessing in disguise for Chris. He spent a lot of time alone, which made him discover some of his talents and allowed him to understand other children who seemed to cherish being alone.
In this episode, Chris walks us through his life and career journey. He shares how different experiences shaped him into who he is today and how post-trauma transformation can boost your life.
His 80’s pop culture lessons demonstrate how we can apply popular culture wisdom of an era to develop work culture and leadership skill.
Links
- Website: https://chrisclews.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisclews’80s/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrisclews ’80s
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisclews/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/80spopculture
Quotes
- “An important lesson that I think sometimes people miss with sports is that you see the person who was third string, become second string, become first string, a starter, and then be the best player on the team.”
- “When there’s a lot of competition, people are given opportunities that they may not have been given in another area of life.”
- “I try to look at the positives, I’m a pretty optimistic person. Sometimes the positives are learning from the negatives.”
- “What’s important to me as a speaker is that when I leave, that everyone looks around and says, we made a great investment, whether it was time, money, or the stress of putting an event in a conference together.”
Takeaways
Childhood Incidents
Teachers play a huge role in children’s lives. Chris remembers their gym teacher as one of the most influential people he had growing up. Their teacher, Mr. Dwayne, always had a closet full of shoes to help children who needed them. His board up on the wall displayed the children’s performances.
When parents divorce, children have a lot to handle. Chris became an introvert but found that spent time alone allowed him to learn about himself.
Influential groups
For Chris, the most influential groups have been sports. He carries a lot of lessons from individual and group sports. In sports, there is healthy competition, and everybody tries to win. In team sports, team members support one another to grow. Chris says that’s how life should be. We should be willing to bring out the best in one another.
Temperament and Personality Influences
There are things that we go through in life that affect our temperament and personality. When Chris’ parents divorced, he became impatient, so patience is one thing he always worked on developing.
Cultural Epiphanies
Chris is forever grateful for his opportunities to travel to different places and experience different cultures. He recalls times when he was in Portugal and Spain. The language barrier was challenging since he never spoke or understood Portuguese or Spanish but people still found a way to communicate.
Thriving Moments
When you hire Chris, be assured he will deliver 150%. His goal is always to leave a mark wherever he goes. He wants people to look back and say he was a worthy investment.
Soap Box Moment
Chris invites us to purchase and read the books he has authored and also follow him on his social channels.
Extro
Chris Clews is an 80s Pop Culture guru. There isn’t any trivia about the era he can’t retrieve and explain at will, along with connections and contacts that helped trends, songs, and movies become hits. It was a fascinating interview to hear about Chris’s life and ever-growing speaking career and the list of books he has authored on the topic of 80s pop culture. I can imagine what a hit Chris would be at any conference, where the audience would be delighted with clips, songs, themes, and with inside fact explanations delivered in his engaging and passionate style. Find out what pop culture has to teach us about the workforce and leadership by checking out his books and speaker clips on his website.
