Programming Lions

Ep.95 Refugee to Pop Star w/ Christian Ray Flores Story

• Matt Morstad • Episode 95

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Dive deep into the riveting life of Christian Ray Flores. From his beginnings as a refugee to becoming an international pop star, brand builder, and philanthropist, Christian's story is nothing short of inspirational. Discover how he transitioned from the entertainment stage to the world of entrepreneurship and coaching, guiding purpose-driven leaders to multiply their impact. Christian also shares insights from his eclectic book 'The Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America' and provides advice on managing success, overcoming challenges, and living a high-performance life. Don’t miss the rapid-fire segment for some quick, fun insights into Christian’s life!


Website: https://www.christianrayflores.com/


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00:00 Introduction

00:44 Early Life

01:47 Life in a Refugee Camp

05:44 Warnings from History

07:29 The Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America

12:52 Christian's Journey into Music

16:06 Becoming a Pop Star in Russia

22:18 The Perils of Fame and Staying Grounded

22:58 Avoiding the Rockstar Lifestyle

24:10 Struggles with Relationships and Family

25:49 Finding Faith and a New Path

27:38 Transitioning from Music to Ministry

34:26 Coaching for a High Performance Life

41:08 Rapid Fire Questions

42:58 Conclusion

Welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. How about refugee to pop star to brand builder? Well, today we have Christian Ray Flores with us, a lifelong brand builder across multiple businesses, entertainment and nonprofit sectors. As an entrepreneur, international pop star, author, and philanthropists, he was born into exile, raised across multiple continents. Through his exponential life. Coaching, Christian helps purpose-driven leaders align how they live, clarify their unique edge, and build personal brands that multiply impact, income, and legacy. Let's go.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Christian, welcome to the Programming Lions podcast. We're excited to have you on. You have an incredible background and story from being a refugee to being a pop star, and so we got a lot to uncover with you today. But first of all, just thanks for taking time with us.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

It is a pleasure and I just love your, the, the way you're doing this. I'm very excited about what's gonna come out of it.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Awesome. Okay, well, let's get cranking. So. First question. This is not like, so, you know, deep and all that, but is that a real sword

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

It is actually, yes. It's a real sword. Yeah, it's a real sword.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That's

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

hasn't killed anyone. It hasn't been

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

but it's a real sword. Yes.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow. Very cool. That's cool. Okay, well now on with the real topics. So like, we're gonna start off at more of the harder topics and we're gonna move toward like the more. Fun ones with like your music and stuff and all, all those fun things. But I heard that you are raised inside of a refugee camp and I don't know much about that. So are you able to like tell us what those are kind of like and like what it is kind of,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So I was not raised in one, but I did spend a few months in one. So the Backstory Boys, is that I. In the seventies, this is in the last century, the 19 hundreds, the USSR and the United States were involved in the Cold War, right? And what happened is, so there was two ideologies, the capitalist ideology, the communist ideology, and they were really fighting this war in not only between each other, but between through proxy throughout the countries and approaches and stuff like that. So. The Western Hemisphere was really a declared a zone of vital interest of the United States. The United States didn't wanna see another communist regime pop up, like one that popped up in Cuba and became sort of a problem. And the Chilean the Chileans actually happened to Democratically elect. A Marxist president,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

he was not a dictator. He was democratically elected by the people and still that was a problem. So there was a coup that was organized impartially with the participation of the CIA.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

To overthrow that guy. His name was Salvador Gente. My parents were Marxist, and so they supported him. Now, they were not terrorists, they were not politicians. They were just normal people who supported a candidate. But because they supported him and they were, he had tremendous support. He was literally democratically elected when, once he was overthrown very violently the the military. People who took over. They proceeded to put tens of thousands of people into concentration camps and secret secret prisons. And a lot of people were tortured. All of that was obviously illegal on, on all kinds of ways, right? And then a lot of people got killed and thousands and thousands disappeared without notice. So my father was one of those guys in a concentration camp, and they used con soccer stadiums. As concentration camps because it held a lot of people. So he was lucky because he was not tortured and he was, you know, survived and he was released. But at the time when you release somebody like that, the secret police would follow you around and it was not unheard of for them to get you back in with all your friends once you led them to your friends. Right? That's how they got sort of the associates of the potential, you know, dangers to the state kind of people. And and so we. We were lucky because the United Nations had established two refugee facilities for expats, for people that were foreigners to keep them out of the violence. And because my dad was married to my, my Chilean dad was married to my Russian ma mom, he was eligible to be part of that. So we were in that refugee facility for a few months. And you know, to answer your question beyond the backstory, how did it feel? It felt very, very scary. Very uncertain because I was, even at age five, I was aware that, you know, there were soldiers, there was violence, there was shooting, there was, you know, I knew there was a lot of danger and I knew that we were in a lot of danger and I knew that everything, our life would never be the same again. So we lost everything, all property. We didn't, we didn't know. What the future holds. So we were in that place of uncertainty, a hundred percent uncertainty for a while until we got offered asylum in Germany and Munich, and that's where we went next.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow. Wow. That's. I was about say cool, but like, it's not really necessarily really cool a good thing. It's a, that's a crazy story. And so at what age did you move to Germany?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I was probably five or maybe six or something like that. Yeah, I

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Wow. That's crazy. And so you still have a lot of memories from this. It's obviously traumatic. Yeah. That's wild. That's insane. Do you have any like warnings with, because since you've been in it, do you have any like warnings for the future maybe.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Warnings for the future. That's a good question. Huh. Yeah, I think the warning would be whether from the left or from the right to avoid tyrannical regimes, you know, to do anything you can to avoid people that will, oppress, you know, illegally compel their citizens to do things or not do things to crush descent. And the thing is, tyranny can happen on the left or it can happen from the right. So it can happen on the sort of liberal side or on the conservative side. And I think both are are terrible for.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I think that's well said. Yeah, and it's. Crazy. We watched a movie actually the last couple nights. It was around the German. Oh, Bonhoeffer. Yeah. It was, it was around the Nazism and the takeover of Germany and how it just kind of happened slowly.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Because it happened slowly. You know, people didn't even necessarily pay attention to the fact that all of a sudden, like these groups were being oppressed and they were being, you know, called out and sequestered. And it's just wild to even imagine how that can happen. But when you're right in the middle of it

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. It's horrible.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

it's, it's, it's, it's horrible. And we've seen maybe, maybe. Wrinkles of this in the past several years. And so I think it's a good warning to your point that we gotta watch and stay away from that. So, yeah. Crazy

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Okay. So an interesting fact about Bonhoeffer, right? So first of all, I think that it's, is it the, the modern Bonhoeffer that just came out?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

yes. Yes. The one by Angel Studios. Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

so the one I think it was, it was based on the biography written by Eric Metaxas, if I'm not mistaken. And Eric I have a quote from Eric Metaxas on my book, the Little Book of Big Reasons to Love America. So it's in a little loop and a little connection there.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Could you spend a minute just telling us about the book and who's who, who it's for and what it's about?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, so it's a very eclectic book. And I'll, I'll tell you why in a second, but I wrote it because I actually, my wife told me to write it. And you listen to your wife basically,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

No, of course. Always, always,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So she, you know, as an immigrant, I married an American, she's from Wisconsin. She was very, very American, right? And, and then, you know. We kept traveling back and forth'cause we lived in Eastern Europe for a long time and then we moved to the to the States and every time I would be either visiting or when we moved, I would discover something new and I would point it out to her and say, honey, this is really special. America is really special. And I would point things out from my, you know, ether economic standpoint of political or freedom or faith or family or philanthropy. All of those little things that are all strong points. But separately, they would be like, yeah, but they have this over here. Right, and over there. But in America, they're all at the same time in one place. You know, and I would point that out in a very excited way. And she eventually was like, you know, we need to write these down. These are actually really good insights. So basically what I did is for a while I pushed it away and,'cause it was, it's so much work to write a book, but then eventually I was like, you know what? I can write a book if it's a, like a, you can read it in an evening, right? So I was like, okay, it's 10 chapters, 10 reasons. And it's basically, it's sort of a nice mix between easy read but also a lot of substance. I sprinkled in like bunch of really crazy stories, like some of the ones that you just heard, and then I added, I'm a very eclectic guy, kind of a creative guy, so I added pictures from personal archives and then I added illustrations where I didn't have pictures that are AI generated illustrations. Then I added a QR code in the chapters where you can go on a page and you can hear more stories. Me telling you stories like on YouTube about that thing. That didn't make it into the book. Yeah, so basically it's one of those eclectic books. It's not even, it's hard to even determine the genre, but the idea was to just in, have people who love America, who've seen a lot of America bashing, you know, just find an appreciation and almost, it's called the subtitles, A love letter from an immigrant, from the standpoint of somebody who comes from the outside to say, guys, you have something really special here and it's worth protecting, nurturing, and fighting for.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, I love that. This sounds like a fantastic, that's coffee table book

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

It is. Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

some interesting, you know, different aspects to it. So we'll have to check that out and hopefully our listeners can too. We'll drop a link in the description so people can check it out for sure. And you know, with that, I, I just have to ask as well, like today in America there are so many people. Who want America to burn, and you're giving some great and articulate points around what a great place it is. We would agree. But what do you think's happening? Like why are people so frustrated these days and wanting this incredible nation to just burn and restart?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Well, I'm sure there's, there's more than one layer to that, but I would say at the, at the bottom, you know, like the most base emotion is jealousy, envy,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Mm

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

uh, of the successful one.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Like, I mean, we're just envious people. It's very human to envy. So when you find yourself, you know, I think it, none of us are even immune from that, right? If you are in this place in whatever health, wealth, beauty, you know, and you're find yourself someone who is like in the stratosphere next to you, you're gonna naturally feel insecure and you're either gonna be drawn to the person and say, Hey, teach me how, or you're gonna go. Man, you make me really feel like a loser and I don't like you for that. And I think that's sort of the base instinct on an general international level, right? And it, it, there's, there are all kinds, all kinds. And some of it is merited actually. For example, the CIA meddling in the democratic process in Chile, right? Which I was a recipient of. It changed my life forever. Those are, those are big mistakes. Right. And it creates a reputation, creates a stigma. People never forget that kind of thing. Meddling, right?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Well, and the CIA is notorious for doing that all over the world, and I did, I, I agree. That's like been a big stain on America's reputation. We were a beloved country around the world for a long, long time, you know, especially through World War ii. And then we started meddling in, in affairs and doing these, you know, these regime changes.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Nation building, you

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Yeah. And trying to do it under the table, but everybody knows kind of where it's coming from and so it's yeah, it can be incredibly damaging. So anyway. Well, these are deep topics. These are deep topics. Let's get back to our line of questioning boys. So going away from like the deep topics and all that. So when did you know, like what you wanted to do in life?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

That's a very good question and okay, so I think I knew halfway through college, so I was, I was in college, I was studying economics, I was working on a master's degree and it. I started early, so it's one of the things is that, you know, the high school in Russia at the time was 10 years total. I came back to Russia when I was a teenager. I was 14, so I finished high school there. I wasn't there for the whole time. And so you're done at, at age 18. Done not, you know, not later, no. 16 rather. 16. It was 16.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

wow. Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So you're now applying to colleges, thinking about the future at age 16. And at age 16, you don't know what you want most. In theory, I, there are people like that, but I wasn't that person, so I was like, I don't, I don't know, like, I guess, you know, so I, you know, chose economics for whatever reason. Right. But I, I didn't have a passion. That drove me to that. I just picked something and and eventually I became a a, a lifelong. Economics fan. I still am. And I mean, even you can see it in, in the book, some insights are purely from an economist standpoint, right? But my passion was in music. I just didn't know that it could be a thing. And it, it is truly actually not a thing. Like the, if you plan to be a an artist that's not a career choice. That's like a choice to be an employed for a while, and then maybe if you can get lucky, you know, maybe the 5%, maybe less will. Actually be able to make a living out of it. So it is truly objectively not a very pragmatic choice. And that's probably part of the reason why I didn't do it initially, but then like halfway through college was also, was what was happening in Russia at the time is that it was transitioning from the Soviet state that was very locked down top bo you know, there's no free any, no free market.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So even if you start doing something, there is no such thing as entrepreneurship. It's illegal to get into the music industry was impossible.'cause it's very state control, top down. And I'm this sort of not very Soviet kind of guy,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right. Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

a, I'm like a Latino looking minority kind of, you know, very eclectic type dude. And I wouldn't be doing Soviet music. I was doing r and b pop hip hop. Like it was just decidedly and not, not Soviet. Right? Let's put it that way. So when the countries it was became clear that the country's like collapsing. I was sorry. Oh, maybe. Maybe there's something there. And literally when I gr graduate in 91, that's when the country falls apart.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So I was like, you know what? All of my friends are going to banking and trade and whatever, and I was like, maybe I should do this.'cause now there's no like a completely open field. And that's what I did. So I sort of decided I'm gonna give it a few years. My, in my, I I graduated with a Master's at 21, so it was pretty early. I'm gonna give it a few years. I'm young, I can live in a shoebox. Who knows, who cares? Right. But I'm not gonna, I'm gonna regret not trying. That was sort of my thinking.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay, so your music career started in Russia.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow, okay. How long were you in Russia?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I was there total 20 years before I moved to the States. Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Is it like cold up there? All, all year long.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Not all year, all year long, but it's I lived in Moscow, so, but it's, it's like, you know, you just don't get sun, you know, it's like the Pacific Northwest type stuff. Like you don't get a lot of sunshine. Plus it is cold for like, maybe nine months or something like that. And, and then even in the summer, it's not all sun. So it's, it's really depressing actually.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah. Well, have you been to Wco? Your wife's from Wisconsin,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, so she would be, yeah, it's sort of similar, but even Wisconsin is sort of mild compared to Mo to Moscow actually, you know, but it's sort of in that GE general vicinity. But I would go, you know,'cause I toured all over the former Soviet Union, so 15 countries, and that was sort of my, the cultural space remained. So the tv, the radio, the press all reached all of that space. So I became a big star across all that space. And I would tour there. And I would too, like mild places like, you know, Ukraine and places like that, or the Baltics, or, but I would go Siberia. I would, I had several gigs literally north of the, the polar circle, you know, which was kind of fun. Right?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That's crazy.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

like extreme, extreme cold. Like the, the worst cold I've experienced was in Siberia, and it was minus 43 Fahrenheit.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Geez.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yes. That was like being on the surface of the moon.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

I mean, I grew up in Minnesota and that's cold for, that's even cold by our standards. That's wild. And so that, that is crazy. So you moved into music and you became a pop star. We, we watched some of your videos and obviously you, you, you've matured a bit since, since

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Oh, it's been a long time.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

But it's like pretty classic, like nineties pop star genre and really good stuff. So I don't know how quickly you became popular, but then you started touring all over. Right. And that had to be quite an experience. And so I think it leads into one of the other questions is, is like what's, what was it like being a pop star? A lot of people want to know and then, you know, any kinda pros and cons of that.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

It was, it was fantastic. It really was because. You know, it's, it's a, there's like 1% of, of musicians get to experience what I experienced. And so I was so, so very lucky. And I also worked hard and I had work ethic and I sort of studied the business side quite intently. And but it was wonderful in the sense that, you know, you imagine it's the ultimate entrepreneurial exper experience, right? You have nothing. It's not like you're creating like a, you know, whatever, a computer or a teapot that will sell, you're creating music that you have no, no evidence that people, anyone would like it, even in the first place, right? So it's like, so it's, it's completely unpredictable and I, you know, you. You start writing songs and then you find your way, you start writing better songs, you find people to collaborate with, like an arranger, a producer, things like that. And it's, it just builds very gradually and. You know, there's so many layers to it because you need to create a, some sort of show performance that is good choreograph. It's wor and lyrics. It's the sound, it's the image, it's the brand. There's so many lessons that I've learned so quickly and was so e, so quickly successful, which made me very lucky'cause it made me very optimistic. As an entrepreneur, right? Like, oh, I can do this, basically. Right? But the feeling was exhilarating. I, I remember the first time, this is of course, pre-internet, right? The first time I heard my, my song played on the radio. I was in a, in a car with someone, and it was just, we lost our minds, right? It was, it was like, what? You know, like, and or we show up on TV somewhere and we know that millions of people are watching. Our stuff. It's just mind bog boggling and so fulfilling. And then of course you start by doing, you know, you can get a feel early on. You, you're playing small clubs and people are responding, oh, this is cool. And you get your first people that come to see just you specifically. Right? You recognize the faces and you, you have like your first fans and it's a, but it's a small group and then it sort of scales because he goes. Through mass media and it then becomes sort of viral because it covers the massive territory and you start hearing people in the audience sing your songs back to you. And that's just mind blowing to me, right? Like I'm in the kitchen writing this little song, and then next thing I know, there's a little crowd. Singing it back to me, then eventually it devolves to a sports arena and you have a sports arena singing back to you what you wrote, you know, as a broke musician in the kitchen somewhere, you know? So, and then you have, you know, the pre, the president Yeltsin's, people con connected with my people because they liked my song and they want to use it in the election campaign to help with the vote, with the youth, vote

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Oh wow.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I mean, that's a whole different level of.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That is so cool.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So, yeah, it was, it was

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That's boys. You don't know who Yeltsin was, but that would be like having Harris or Trump ask to use your song and help perform Yeah. As part of the campaign. Like that's pretty, pretty cool. That would, yeah. I said probably be something like that. If it's like an election. Mm-hmm. Who is that guy? A president. That would be so cool if like he was one of your own songs, was being sung or whatever, right in front of like a bunch of.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

of people trying to vote for like one person.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah, exactly.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That'd be, that's so cool. Did you see, you also see horror stories of this kind of experience where people fall into drugs and other things, or they get, they get their head gets too big. How did you, how did you manage all of that?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

In some ways I managed well in others. I did not. So in some ways, for example, the drug thing, right? And, and it all comes usually from this inflated ego that it's fed by. By everybody, you know, everybody around you, right? Like it's, it's, it's sort of this, when people make you into something that you're not, it's a persona, not a, you're a persona, not a person. And you are adored by, you know, millions of people. It, it really shifts your ego, and it's very, it's a very dangerous thing, right? If you don't. Get grounded into, in, in something that makes, reminds you of who you really are. You lose yourself. So in some ways I, I actually did relatively well. I sort of experimented with drugs, but I was so business minded that I very quickly realized, okay, this is not good for business. It was like, it was a very straight up type of thing. And then and then when I went, would go on tour, I. When you go on tour and people host you, they're, they usually are sort of these producers that create the event. They advertise the event, they front the money. There's all kinds of things that go into into something like that. One of the things that the, at least at the time, one of the perks that was they wanted is to party with the star.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Sure.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So when you come to a city, they would create, like, they would just roll out the red carpet, right? And it's, you know, food and drinks and party and girls and drugs and stuff like that. And I, what I did, I think, well. That I'd never engaged with those things. And I basically said, I'm here to work. This is a business. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna party with you. And that sort of turned a lot of people off. became, I had a reputation, right, of like bus kill kind of guy. Right? You know, and and so I didn't engage in those things. You know, I wasn't immoral with the, with the girls out there. And there's obviously many and, it ended there because when I came back home I was very moral and it, it was almost like, okay, you work hard than you party hard right at, at home. I did,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Yep.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

One of the things that, that I, that really, really wrecked me was, when you become very successful in actually in any, in anything. You have flaws and you have cracks in your character, in your, in your mindset and your worldview that sometimes be are not as evident when you're not highly successful. When you become highly successful, those things become amplified.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And for me, the thing that was just that I have ma major cracks in was romance and relationships and family.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Because I come from three generations of broken homes. My parents were divorced. It was literally the most traumatic experience of my life at this point. And I went through wars, civil war, the fall of the Soviet Union. But that's the thing that really affected me, right, was the divorce of my parents. And I had this fear of intimacy and commitment because in my mind, if I fall in love with someone I marry, eventually the whole thing's gonna blow up and it's gonna affect the kids and all of that. So what I would do is I would. Sabotage every relationship that got a little bit serious. And I would act out and I would do things to draw the other person away. I repeated that cycle

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

until I was dating this girl and I got her pregnant and she had a baby. And I, I didn't stop, I didn't fix it, I didn't do anything. I just continued to act a certain way and she left. Cut me off from my oldest daughter, so I lost my daughter and I was just depressed. Just clinic. I had a number one hit and I was clinically depressed. Clinically depressed. I couldn't function and. That's where I, it just messed me up. Fame really, really, really messed me up. And what got me out of it is, is Jesus you know, I, I met this guy who was a, a minister, a missionary Canadian missionary, and and he had, and he had the, the, the amazing Godly family. And it was so evident to me that he has something. I, I don't know, I don't know anyone with that. That's what I need, and I don't know how to do it. So I basically was like, Hey, can you teach me?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And, and I, before that never opened the Bible. Never. Like I really looked down on Christians. I felt that they were just sheep manipulated by this old book. That was sort of my,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people still feel that way. Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

He embodied biblical wisdom and. And what it does for the human being, how it makes you flourish, right? So like two and a half weeks later, I get baptized and I literally give all of that rock rockstar life away. Like I just cut it off and that's it. And it was, I was done.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow. That's great. So what did you move on to from that?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

To preaching the gospel actually.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And, and, and that was later. But what I gave up is the sin, right? Is the lifestyle.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And, and and I basically, I became very vocal about it. And at first, neither, like, neither the fans or my even entourage, no one believed that I was actually for real. There was like, oh, it's a phase. Come on you. This emotional, creative guy. He'll snap out of it. You know, that was basically, that was basically the idea, right? It and I was like, no, I'm serious guys. And, you know, and I went all in actually on Jesus. I, I have several magazine covers where I basically say I've given my life to Christ, like on the cover of a magazine, you know, so, so, you know, I'm, I'm all in kind of guy in general, right? So, and then eventually, a few, a few years later, I did transition out of show business because I felt. That I wanted to do other things with, there were parts of me that were not act, that were not, they were dormant doing this one thing, and it's not, it was not just faith, but it was, I'm an international guy and I'm touring in this one corner. So even though some people might feel like, wow, that's, that's not bad. Right? But to me, I felt almost claustrophobic. I wanted to be international. I wanted to do other things. I have an economics degree. I wanna do something with entrepreneurial stuff. I wanna do philanthropy, I want to build a family. And that was one of the things, right, is the lifestyle didn't lend itself to a family. And I was so intent on building a strong family. I'm like this, I can. Be bad at anything or mediocre, but I'm not gonna be mediocre in as a father and as a husband. And if that requires for me to change, literally change careers, so be it basically. And and also, but also it was sort of this deep sense of, you know, if I can move millions or tens of thousands alive on stage and I can communicate and I have a presence and I have a skill and a gift from God to move people. Why am I not using that for eternal impact. That's basically the, the idea. And like I think I need to preach the gospel and so I basically start pastoring and stuff like that after that.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Wow. Wow. That's pretty interesting. Well, yeah, I'm, I'm very curious because we've seen some of your music videos and you had very long flowing hair. Right? So I'm wondering at what point, throughout this whole time did you cut off your hair?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

That's an excellent question. I had, I had long hair for a long time actually. I think I, I got long hair. I think I was maybe 18, 19 when I got long hair for the first time. And the first time I cut it down to maybe something resembling, this must have been 42 or 43 or something like that. It was a long time that I had long hair, you know.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

of long hair. Yeah. Wow.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

yeah, yeah. And and it became sort of, I just became bored with it. I'm like, you know what? At some point when you, when you reach a certain level of maturity and age, even it. It's not really cool anymore, I guess, you know, that was sort of my feeling, right? I'm like, I, I, I want shorter hair, so, so, but yeah, the longer hair, it it was a thing, you know, it, it brought me a lot of attention and, you know, I did shampoo commercials and things like that.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Oh, I bet you did. Funny. Yeah, my funny mom told me about that. That's, that's pretty funny. Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

actually pretty cool. Is your still around?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

It was a head and shoulders commercial. It was a great video, by the way. Really well shot. They did, they put me in magazines and bus stops, like people would go on bus stops. All over the city, and I was standing there with a shampoo bottle, you know?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Oh, wow.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Okay, so here's a, here's a, if you're a church person, a funny thing, like imagine that you do that. I'm actually, I did the shampoo thing when I was already pastoring, right?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I was leading a church and a guy comes to me, a member of my church, and he goes, you know, bro, I, I was waiting for the bus. And I felt like I was in sin man. I, my guilt like was really, I had remorse and everything, and then I look at you and you just look me with those eyes and I, I just wanna say, I wanna confess my sin to you because you looked at me a certain way from the bus stop. The, the shampoo commercial. It's so funny.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That's funny. You never know the impact your image will have, I guess your image is impact in many different ways.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

that was hilarious. Yeah, that was really funny.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That is funny. I wouldn't necessarily call this like a quote, but you like saying stuff about high performance life,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

so what is a high performance life and how do you consider somebody to have a high performance life?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Excellent question. So. You know in the Bible, Jesus has this parable of the talent. It's called the parable of talents, right? So it's these three guys and he says, and the par talents at the time, it was basically a measure of money. The modern translation, I think it says gold bags of gold, right? Something like that. But the talents were actually measure money. So to one guy, he goes, I'll give you one talent to the other guy. Four talents and to the third guy have five talents. And the parable is about what are you, what are you supposed to do? What, what, what was given to you? Right? And it could be, you know, it could be money or inheritance or that you were born in America. And have all these opportunities for education and for lifestyle, and you can start a business here and you could be free here and all of those things, right? All of it together or even your personal story, right? What can I do with me being an international person who speaks four different languages and is musical and and knows economics, and then knows the Bible? I mean, it's a very precise set of. Gifts like it was given to you. And some of it is came from bad things, but it's still a gift that you can use for to help others. And the parable basically says that from God's standpoint you're not supposed to just receive and use it right and keep it, you're supposed to receive and multiply it. The guy who got five bags of gold, he was expected to bring 10 bags of gold back. So he's supposed to go out there and be a high performer, right, to use everything he was given and actually make more. Out of it. Impact more people, make more money, build a business, write a book, create music. He's, the expectation is that you use the gifts to impact the world, to have an imprint in the world for good.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Sure.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And then the guy who had four, he, he brought four bags, and then there's one guy who had one bag. So it, it's not even that much that he had to do with it, but, but he had to do something with it and he didn't. And in the parable, that's the scary part of the parable. It says, Hey, you are a wicked servant. You're lazy.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Oh,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

You know, that's a scary, so high performer is the, is the person who multiplies that was given to him or her

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

yep.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

When I do coaching for high performance, I basically say, look, you. You have this set of treasures that were, that you have laying around, let's help you multiply it so that God is pleased and you live a full life for as long as you can. Basically, that's the idea.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm. Well, that's really interesting. That's great. And it's actually a segue into something I wanted to ask you about is your coaching and you do a, a, a lot of coaching with various types of people and help them find their purpose. And so how do you go about sort of fishing out what somebody's talents, skills and purposes, and then helping them align that with some greater mission so that they, you know, get that reward loop and feedback from the, you know, abundance that they start creating.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

That's a good que i i basically, the first thing I do is sort of help people develop the skills to not be stressed out,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

you know, and, and if you are boys, when you grow up.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Mm-hmm.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

You're gonna, you're gonna be tempted to be stressed out because life gets really complicated called, it's called adulting. You know, like your dad has gray hair and part of the reason is that he's stressed out about many things, right? Because life just comes at you with complexity, right? Is the mortgage, the kids, the work, the stuff that is not going well, finances, et cetera. And you know, when you are high performed PE I usually work with people who are. Entrepreneurs or, or executives, professionals who want to really have an impact, they have that drive already. I, I can't really transplant that drive into them. They were given the five bags. Right. But when, when you're given that you're usually, you, you are almost have this engine inside. You want to do well, and what happens is sometimes you just don't multiply correctly because now you're. There's too much complexity. You are not getting enough rest. You have employees, you don't know how to hire, how to fire, you don't know how to scale. You, you have this unhealthy balance in your life. You don't have a faith, spiritual practices that can give you perspective or anchor you into something more eternal and transcendent. So there's whole sort of thing. It's this whole thing that happens. So when. When you find yourself, for example, you know, a great example is me in the music industry, right? In the beginning. It's pure fun. I'm writing songs. I'm dancing and choreographing. Somebody invites me to do a club. Great. Then you get popular. Then you're selling millions of albums. Now you have management, you have the label, you have dancers, you have employees, you have management, like administrators and other types of employees. So now I need to generate revenue because people's livelihoods are based on how I do.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

So that's pressure, right? That's fragmentation and its complexities. So it's no longer about the thing that you love to do that made you successful in the first place, right? There's many things, and that's why high perform, high performance, they just slow down first and then they plateau, and then they either go in circles or just hit a wall and they just, I don't know what to do with myself. I can't even see clearly. So the first thing is how do you get yourself from out of that space and. Create a lifestyle, changes some skills to every day change from anxiety to creativity, to joy, to clarity of mind, because that gives you then the space to imagine something new.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

You cannot imagine something new if you're stressed out and you're in survival mode, right? So that's like the first step. It's okay, let's get you creative, joyful, rooted, you know, the next step is. Let's pick what direction you want to go because the world will pull in three, four different directions. Okay, let's pick what are you gonna say no to? How are, where are you gonna go? How quickly are you gonna get there? So that's momentum, I call that, right? The other one is how do you deal with the inevitable worry and anxiety? It's called resistance. Where Satan is in your brain going, who do you think you are? You know, you wanna build this company? You wanna scale it, you wanna write this book, you wanna change careers, you're gonna fail, you're a loser. And that's the internal resistance, and you need the ability to slay those dragons. Right. And then the last piece, that is all a part of the core program, which is sort of the beginning only, right? Is how do you create a, a life, a clear understanding of the, the most important things in life, the most important dimensions that make you into a healthy, joyful, vibrant human being. And we have a scoring system actually, you know, and it's really cool. So, and actually I give it away for free. I use it with my clients. But if you go to exponential life without the e exponential life. There's a little, like halfway through the page, there's a exponential radar scorecard. And basically it asks you a bunch of questions and you can very clearly see, like at a glance, oh, I'm good here, I'm medium here, I'm pretty low here.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Right.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

And those are the things that based on both experience working with a bunch of people and also a lot of studies, those are the things that matter. So it helps you. To know, to invest in the things that matter most, rather than investing in things that really don't matter that much. And that sets you up for success for a lifetime, essentially. So it's a long-term strategy type thing.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Well, you said a lot of stuff there. That makes a lot of sense. I think people get tangled up and I try to like do little outof body experiences and look in on my life periodically in terms of what I've gotta do to create space or create time or create energy. Because you're right you can get so focused on the day to day or the thing that you're doing, that you've got blinders on, and then you stop being creative and you stop creating and you stop ideating and you, and you stop mo you know, mo moving upwards. And so I think it's, it's great advice and if you've got tools to help people see that and, and, and unpack it, like how powerful that can be. And in fact, I'm very curious, I'm gonna dig into some of this myself because we're trying to create a business, right? We're. We're a little team here, a, a family team trying to create a business, and part of the reason that we're doing it is to create an entrepreneurial spirit and, and a business mindset in youth and, and, and do that early so that when they get older, they have. This ingrained in their minds and they know what it takes and that there's hard work, but there's fun and there's setbacks and there's, there's adversity. All of these, all of these things that, that you, you learn when you're trying to build something. So I think that that sounds amazing and I, I guess I would encourage people to go and check out. We're gonna drop the link and everything in our description to your page and your site. And so I encourage people to go check it out. You've got some great wisdom there that you just passed on, so appreciate that.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Thank you.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

So, without further ado, I think we're gonna run into a special section. Okay, so this is called Rapid fire. Oh,

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

All right. That's awesome.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

3, 2, 1, go. What is the coolest invention in your lifetime?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

The iPhone

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

All right. Would you rather sing or dance for a rest of your life life?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

sing.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Excluding us, who is your idol?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I don't think I have an idol. I loved Michael Jackson as a, as a musical idol. Yeah. When I was growing up, I got to meet him too.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Oh wow. Is what?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

That's great. Maybe we could talk about that after rapid fire. Okay. Yeah. Would you rather die to a great white shark or flaming hot volcano?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Great White shark.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

If you had a superpower, what would it be?.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I think the superpower to change people's lives, I.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Wow. So if you had one executive order as president, what would it be?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Idealistically, I would say small government.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Amen. Amen to that. Would you rather be pure vegetarian or pure carnivore for the rest of your life?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

I've been a vegetarian for seven years. I was a vegetarian. I, I would have to say still vegetarian, because you have more variety that way

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

would you rather fight one one 1000 pound doc or 1001 pound docs?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

The first one, yeah.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

So one, one, tell one big duck. All right. And then last one. Have you ever been stuck in a bathroom stall without toilet paper?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Yes.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Same here. Yeah, max. Oh, that concludes rapid fire. Okay. Oh, fantastic. With that we'll wrap up the podcast, but Christian, it was really interesting hearing more about your background. You shared a lot of great wisdom with us here today. And so, as we wrap up, can you tell us like the best way to get in touch with you for our audience to learn more about your services and things that you offer?

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

If you're like, I need some coaching from this guy. Go to exponential life. Exponential without the e just starts with an X, the cool way to spell exponential. And you'll find more details, testimonials, things like that, and ways to connect if you feel like, hey, you know, there's some really good insights there, go to Christian Ray flores.com. This is my newsletter. And I drop, basically, there's a free version of it that drops every Sunday. There's a paid version of it that drops every Wednesday. You can choose whatever, but it's basically the best stuff. I have, the best value I have. I share there podcast episodes my favorite books, strategies, insights, everything. I invest in that newsletter and has a bunch of subscribers, so I think you would enjoy it as well.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Matt-webcam-00h_00m_00s_311ms-StreamYard:

Okay. Awesome. Well thanks so much for your time and best of luck to you. Yeah, thank you. With that, we'll wrap it up. Bye-bye.

CHRISTIAN_RAY_FLORES-Christian_Ray_Flores-webcam-00h_00m_00s_241ms-StreamYard:

Bye. Thank you guys. This was fun.