We were lucky to catch up with Christopher Summers recently and have shared our conversation below.

Christopher, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

Personal Freedom, Financial Independence. For me these are not only powerful words but strong motivators. I began my job life at 15 in an ice cream shop. However my actual working life started much earlier. I don’t remember my exact age, but I convinced my father to let me have a newspaper route. For most people today they don’t even know what that is. I would wake up at 4 or 5 am and unload the bales of newspapers that had been left on our front porch. I’d then individually bag each one and load them up on my bike. Seven days a week 365 days a year, for two years, in Chicago. Cold, snow, rain, heat, it didn’t matter, the papers had to be delivered, by me. Dad was not going to help. He was not going to help. He was already out the door to his business. Then I got to collect the money!

I’ve always felt a strong desire for being independent and being on my own.

Christopher, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

After 12 years serving our country in the US Air Force my desire to once again go out on my own re-asserted itself. While I had been on active duty I had dabbled several times with starting my own businesses. But as a computer engineer I had no idea what it took to create and run a successful business. And I had no one to turn to for help and guidance. I tell people today the school of hard knocks is a good teacher but the tuition sucks.

By this time my father and stepped out on his own as a heavy equipment repair company. I realized I needed help and mentorship to succeed in business but I did not want to be a mechanic. I started researching franchising as a business model. Intuitively I knew that doing what I liked and what I enjoyed may have been fun, but it is a terrible way to choose a money making business. So I started looking into successful businesses that offered a proven model and mentorship.

My previous attempts at entrepreneurship were expensive ways of learning what not to do, but I didn’t want to spend the next forty years of trial and error hoping to stumble upon the right formula. Here again my previous experience stepped in in a good way.

Through all my years after the paper route I continued biking. I loved getting out on the road and discovering new places. I truly felt the need for speed. Through a college classmate I discovered the sport of triathlon. I felt like this was a sport made for me. it combined strength, endurance, speed, and strategic and tactical planning. While training at the on base gym I developed a friendship with a fellow gym rat.

After several months of conversation I told him I was leaving the Air Force to start a business of my own. He said that if was serious that I should meet his business coach. Up to this point I had no idea he was also working a side gig. As an athlete I knew coaching. If you wat to learn a new skill you have to find someone who’s already done it and succeeded. If I wanted to learn hockey I’d go to Wayne Gretsky, Basketball- Michael Jordan, not my uncle, or neighbor.

My dream was to be free. I wanted to sleep in till at least 5am, have a nice pre-workout breakfast then go ride a bike for 3-4 hours. Come back have second breakfast and run with my dog. To me that is the perfect start to the day. I liked being a military officer, but it did not offer my dream lifestyle. Steven Covey taught to “Begin with the end in mind”. Determine what you want and then work backwards to find out how to get there. I find so many people today trying to get somewhere in a vehicle that is ill equipped to make the journey.

This is why I’ve named my business Full Time Life. I’d rather live full time than work full time and live my life on evenings and weekends.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve had several pivots in life. in the interest of time I’ll just list them: deciding to study computer science in order to become a space shuttle payload specialist after the challenger explosion.
washing out of pilot training and deciding to remain in the USAF.
leaving the USAF and moving to Texas to start my business

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

We met in the gym

Contact Info:

• Website: none

Image Credits
Photos by Chris Summers