“One thing I do know is that as long as I walk this earth I will be an entrepreneur; it is in my DNA.”

Chris J. Snook has spent over 11 years as an author, entrepreneur, and venture catalyst. He has built a global marketing and distribution business in the U.S. Canada, Japan, and Hong Kong, along with a Business Development Consulting firm, and has spent the last 5 years in the investment community and private equity as well. Chris is currently the Managing Partner of TLEC’s portfolio which includes several Modern Media focused businesses including The No Limit Publishing Group, Parallel6, SellMasters and loopthink.

Chris J. Snook has co-authored three international best-selling books entitled Wealth Matters 2007 and 2011 (2nd Edition) and Personal Trainer’s Burnout: How to Transform Frustration to Fortune in 2005. In his 11+ year-long career as an entrepreneur he and his wife and their core team have resiliently overcome up and down markets to create a holding company with company assets valued over 8 figures.

MO:
You have an extensive background as an entrepreneur and wealth management expert. Can you tell us what in your background has prepared you to be the author of Wealth Matters and create the accompanying website?

Chris:
I played football for 12 years, and when my career came to an end, as they all do, I was looking for something to fill the void that football had consumed. I read Think and Grow Rich in 1999 at a used bookstore in San Diego, and began a two-year journey into personal development, seminars, etc. I decided I was going to be an entrepreneur in 2000. Within my first 5 years, I had started several businesses. I managed to end up over $500,000 in debt by mid-2002. I earned my way back to zero, paying it all off by 2005. Most of these businesses were in the fitness or direct sales industries. In 2006, my wife and I self-published a book called Personal Trainers Burnout; it was about how to not lose $500k, like I did. We learned quickly the power and influence that being a published author garnered. From 2006 to 2008, we created a million-dollar consulting business and invested in a few other start-ups. One of those start-ups failed because of a destructive partnership; that, combined with the real estate crisis, caused a $2.7 million loss that cleaned us out. We came back from that, stronger than ever. The motivation and experience of surviving all these ups and downs helped create the lessons and value of Wealth Matters: Makeover Edition. In the end, the most valuable (and often painful) teacher in any entrepreneur’s toolkit, including my own, is the experience that comes from failing your way forward. There are no shortcuts to success, only the appearance of them. 

MO:
Many of our readers are small business owners. What is one tip you can give small business owners who are beginning their entrepreneurial endeavors in this down economy?

Chris:
In any economy, especially this one, recognize that running lean and planning for a rainy day is a paramount strategy. Creating jobs is wonderful, but only profitable companies can keep employees working. I have learned this lesson too many times to count. Every time you think you have enough cash in reserve, double it before making too many new investments in your growth. The unexpected will always happen, and you will be vulnerable.

MO:
You seem to attract the attention of young entrepreneurs in college and the Baby Boomer generation as well. How does your message resonate with two very different demographics?

Chris:
Primarily, because it was part of our core strategy when crafting the content.  Boomers may have different experience and priorities than their Gen-Y counterparts, but both are concerned in some way about their futures. Both realize that money isn’t everything – until you don’t have enough to live the life you want, and then money is the ONLY thing you think about. We are financially illiterate in this country, which is why you see an evaporating middle class, frustrated college graduates who are offered far less than they expected, and stressed-out Boomers who are losing their jobs to more energetic and cost-effective Millennials right before they thought they would coast into retirement. The debt-fueled faux prosperity of the last 30 years has almost all of us delusional about what type of lifestyle we can actually afford. Approximately 99% of the population lacks the skill set to develop income if they don’t have an employer paying them a salary. We have lived the high life on borrowed money that hasn’t been earned yet. In doing so, we have forgotten how to be sustainable in just about every way, from growing our own food, to negotiating, to generating passive income. All generations are focusing now on how to become more sustainable and secure, and this has a lot to do with why our message in Wealth Matters: Makeover Edition resonates across demographics.

MO:
We are very interested in your work with No Limit Publishing – what type of authors do you work with? How do you help them with the book publishing process?

Chris:
The publishing industry is being disrupted and flipped on its head. Amazon makes no bones about their intent to crush the old guard and ride out any losses required to do so, with their $6 billion in cash reserves. This has made the ecosystem for developing, marketing, and distributing an author’s work economically unstable. It’s created fragmentation on a mass scale on the author services’ side of self-publishing, resulting in an exponential rise from 207,000 new book ISBNs issued in 2007 to over 3,000,000 ISBNs this past year.    The increased noise level has made it easier than ever to become published, but more costly than ever to become financially successful at it. At No Limit Publishing, we have built an Integrated Media Ecosystem that truly incubates viable author brands in the business and thought leader category. We co-invest in the journey to help position, produce, promote, and profit with them.  This includes not only the development and publication of their book in print and multiple digital formats, but also the strategic development of other platform-related assets. These can range from internet reality T.V. shows to coaching and seminar products, mobile application and platform technologies, strategic special sales to corporate and sponsored buyers, and live events.  Each thought leader has a custom roadmap and an opportunity to be exploited, and we take an active partner role in helping them sequence and develop their business strategy and then execute it.

MO:
Many entrepreneurs-turned-authors think they should self-publish. What advice can you give to first-time authors on why working with a publishing company is beneficial?

Chris:
Self-publishing is a broad description, as is traditional publishing. Depending on their overall goal and experience level, I don’t recommend either, per se. If the author has the ability, experience, and desire to run a publishing business for his own content, then it provides many benefits. Self-publishing allows for more control, larger royalties, and greater flexibility. The downside is that every book is a business and needs to be treated as such. Paying up to a few thousand to get a book in your garage or up on Kindle or ClickBank may be a fast way into the game. To win and see a return on that investment, it will cost a lot more money and require a sophisticated, strategic blend of marketing, publicity, and social media. It also requires product development, salesmanship, packaging expertise, and valuable content. This is why we have been so successful in building relationships with already-successful authors, like Steve Farber or Rebecca Costa, in our ecosystem. We truly become a ‘partner’ and turnkey solution that stays on top of the trends and changes in the publishing market to properly keep them focused on delivering and developing their content. We handle the strategy on product development, licensing, and distribution, as it changes almost daily.

MO:
One of your latest endeavors is an exciting event called loopthink®. Can you give us a run-through of your inspiration for such an event, and what you hope attendees gain from the experience?

Chris:
loopthink®  is an event series and ongoing conversation designed to reinvigorate the mastermind concept for a networked economy. Years ago, I read Neil Howe’s book The Fourth Turning. If you are familiar with it, we are in the cycle of history called “The Crisis” period, which is followed by “The High.” We are roughly halfway through this period, and the last transition occurred in 1945, when WWII ended. During the climax of The Crisis period, the three generations that are of adult age and in positions of power and influence must come together for society to continue on and not collapse. This typically causes a tearing-down of existing, obsolete institutions, as well as a focus on local and individual sustainability. It requires collective compromise and the obliteration of status-quo formulas and paradigms. We are in a Renaissance period for thought leadership in the coming decade, and No Limit and loopthink® are designed to be at the center of it. In short, it is a period of time that requires real “thinking.” Since the complexity and rate of change currently outpaces our ability to process information effectively, we all have allowed technological enhancements to make us more reactionary than thoughtful. loopthink® is a group of highly successful, highly intelligent capitalists who will gather quarterly in 5-star locations and begin to discuss the questions that can help create the solutions to solve our most pressing systemic issues. It will also be a great place to upgrade the caliber and impact of each delegate’s professional network. It entails 3.5 days of discourse and workshops with today’s leading thinkers and catalysts, mixed with intimate excursions, dinners, and networking to build real social ties and leverage for each individual’s own project and ideas. The vision is to become the leading intergenerational, multi-disciplinary, non-partisan thought collective. We want to start a dynamic conversation.

MO:
Every entrepreneur goes through struggles. Can you tell us about a challenge you have faced in your career and how you overcame it?

Chris:The foreword to the 2^nd edition of Wealth Matters discusses the motivation for releasing the Makeover Edition this year. It highlights a period in 2008 when I was conflicted. I had one business that owned a then-self-published book called Wealth Matters, which had sold in over 13 countries quite successfully, but I had another brick-and-mortar business investment whose decaying partnership led to the tough choice of filing for bankruptcy. Coming out of that mess in early September 2008, just as the world was going into it with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and the multiple forthcoming bailouts and crash on Wall Street, showed me that all of us are vulnerable to collapse. Wealth truly was, and always will be, a mindset rather than an accumulation of physical possessions. I overcame my situation by getting back to work, focusing on what I could do to generate opportunity, cash flow, and new sales. I was successful at rebuilding a portfolio of companies that, since 2009, are worth 8 figures during the worst economy of the last 100 years. This is not to say that my struggles are all behind me, but in business, you learn quickly that being able to “play hurt” is a critical skill. Just like in competitive sports, it’s mental toughness that separates champions from the mediocre. I have been humbled more times than I can remember over the years, and I am sure that won’t cease to be the case as I continue to grow older and, hopefully, wiser. One thing I do know is that as long as I walk this earth I will be an entrepreneur; it is in my DNA. I am grateful for that, do the best I can each day, celebrate the successes when they come, and don’t overreact to the failures that help create them. I wouldn’t trade my life for any other person’s on the planet. To be able to say that at 36 years old, and mean it, is my most prized trophy.