Upping Your Elvis via Chris Baréz-Brown – Professional Motivational Speaker and Author
Do you truly love your life and everything that you do, or are you simply going through the motions and existing on auto-pilot? Unfortunately, too many of us say we want to improve parts, or even all of our lives, but when it comes to actually doing something different we are either too afraid or too lazy. Instead we settle for the hum-drum and continue doing things as we always have.
When you keep doing the same thing, you simply cannot expect different results. What so often happens within the world of work as well as many other aspects of our lives, is that we get stuck in routines. We go to the same meetings, with the same people, discussing the same tired topics. We sit almost the whole time from 9-5 staring at our computers, trying to be productive, but often producing merely the bare minimum because our creativity is being blocked.
Brilliant to have Chris @BarezBrown on stage here at #RDO8 as our first Key Note speaking about 'Upping Your Elvis'! #MondayMotivation pic.twitter.com/ZVEeUm56Gs
— RDO Official (@rdoofficial) September 11, 2017
As Chris Baréz-Brown, professional motivational speaker, author and founder of Upping Your Elvis, passionately argues, to enjoy our lives more we need to break out of the routines we find ourselves stuck in. In turn by changing course and escaping auto-pilot, the added fun and enjoyment that this will create will lead to greater creativity and success. Once you start to notice this added enjoyment, freedom and success it will then be highly unlikely that you will want to return to the monochrome existence that you were drudging through before.
Recently Chris came to speak at RDO8 at the Don Carlos Leisure Resort & Spa as the opening keynote speaker in front of our delegates and his energy, enthusiasm and zest for life was apparent from the first moment. It is all very well talking the talk, but not all so-called motivational speakers can walk the walk. It was clear that Chris is living his best life and loving practically every moment. Almost immediately all delegates were asked to stand-up, turn to their neighbour and give them a hug. This set the tone for a positive, fun-filled seminar that will no-doubt have given everyone many ideas to improve their lives and businesses.
Chris leads by example as he has proven himself to be a master of transformation throughout his own life. Surprisingly, considering his current offbeat style, he began his career in the army, took a u-turn into brand management and then onto innovation and leadership development. In 2010 he established “Upping Your Elvis” a Creative Leadership Consultancy and collaborates with his business partner Jim Lusty on their mission of unlocking individual’s’ innate creative genius. The concept behind the name and business was inspired by rock legend Bono, lead singer of U2, who’s signature question is “who’s Elvis around here?”, in other words who is the maverick who stands out from the crowd, breaks the rules and gets things done?
For Chris, this isn’t something that is set in stone though and in fact he believes that everyone has a bit of Elvis i.e. maverick personality within them just waiting to be unleashed. What it takes to be able to unleash this, is to take risks, shift from auto-pilot and break the routines that so many of us find ourselves stuck in. As revealed during the presentation by delegates themselves and from extensive research, people are most creative and have their best ideas when they are doing something active whether that is walking, running or cycling, or in an inspiring location such as being surrounded by nature. The key to all of these is that they are activities or places that people enjoy, so their mind feels at ease and liberated to become more free thinking and open to new ideas.
Unfortunately, what most businesses do is have regular meetings which become almost a repeat of the last one. There is no movement, inspiration or variety, and most importantly, no fun. Everything becomes very corporate, serious and boring which leads to a lack of enthusiasm and creativity. Everyone in the meetings knows what to expect and can almost predict what will be discussed and the outcomes created which are very often nothing of any value.
It is this auto-pilot state of living that Chris argues is stifling creativity and preventing both individuals and the businesses they work for, from reaching the potential that they can. It is almost like people forget how to have fun once they develop from children to adults. In many ways it is expected of us to become more serious and therefore bored in our lives. What Chris encouraged delegates to do both during his energetic and exciting presentation, and during our everyday lives is to think more like a kid and be less inhibited in everything we do.
Chris’ latest book, “Wake Up! Escaping A Life On Autopilot”, is designed to help readers to break out of routine, challenge the status quo, take risks, become more creative and successful, and generally enjoy life a lot more. During his talk Chris urged business leaders to encourage staff to have more fun and create an environment more conducive to creativity, such as meetings in different locations with different people, and less restrictions and seriousness. To accompany his latest book you can also find a Wake Up! App which can be downloaded here.
Here at RDO we would like to once again thank Chris for his excellent presentation at RDO8.
To find out more about Chris, including how your organisation can book him for inspirational sales speeches, or staff training, visit his website: https://www.barez-brown.com/
He is also active on social media so connect with him on his channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisBarezBrownUppingYourElvis
Twitter: https://twitter.com/barezbrown
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chris_barezbrown/
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/chris-bar%C3%A9z-brown-0695531
If you would like to discuss anything with RDO regarding this blog post or other relevant topics, then simply add the hashtag #RDO8 or #RDOdigital to your tweet. Alternatively search #RDO8 or #RDOdigital on Twitter to see what else we’ve been discussing and you can easily get involved in the conversation.
The RDO8 conference 2017 was sponsored by CLC World Resorts & Hotels, Diamond Resorts International, Interval International and RCI at the Platinum level, and Dial An Exchange, Light Enterprises and Shawbrook Bank at the Gold level. We thank them for their support.