We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Chris Meroff a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Chris thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
I started a business with my parents when I was 22 up in New England. The business was growing tremendously but working with my parents was becoming increasingly more difficult. The value they had instilled in me as a child was becoming harder to recognize through the highs and lows of work. I eventually launched out on my own in 2011 and moved to Texas to make a name for myself in the business world. The road was long and arduous, but within 5 years, I created a business that was #1 in the marketplace and brought in $22 million a year. At the height of the company’s success, paranoia, fear, and isolation set in when my business partner and friend resigned the day after our company Christmas party. This left me feeling more alone than ever. The journey back to community was won through vulnerability, authenticity, and self-discovery, which led me to pen Align: Four Simple Steps for Leaders to Create Employee Fulfillment. Since the writing of that book I have been on a mission to meet with—and mentor—other leaders in the community. I do this through hosting monthly networking/community building events, an annual personal development conference — DCX, and continuing to create valuable content for leaders to love and serve the people they lead toward fulfillment.
Chris , 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?
I am an entrepreneur with a passion for developing people. I want to invest in businesses and ideas with strong people behind them. I think the current model of leadership is broken and I am on a mission to redeem the workplace and the people inside it. We spend the majority of our waking hours at work, therefore, if we don’t want to regret the time we spend away from loved ones, we need to create purpose in our work that allows us to be fulfilled in the workplace. My passion and desire is to help leaders unleash the greatness within their people. I founded and operated a consulting business for 25 years that produced enough capital to launch my venture capital firm in 2019. Through these business endeavors, I experienced and delivered poor leadership. Shifting my leadership philosophy brought about incredible fulfillment, so I decided to make it my life’s work. I now provide leadership consulting, host networking events, personal development conferences, podcasts, and have created a leadership tribe in the city of Austin. I am hoping to take leaders from authority to influence, from power to purpose, and from productivity to understanding, in the way they lead their teams. I am most proud of the rapid development of leaders within my organization beyond their own hopes for themselves. I want everyone to know they are enough as they are, but because of that, we all have the ability to be better.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
In 2019 I used the capital from my consulting company to start my private equity company. Two weeks before the pandemic hit, I signed a lease on a 30,000 sq.ft. building to be office head quarters for the 8+ businesses I was running. Unfortunately, throughout the course of the pandemic, we had to shut down several of the businesses. This led to us having no clue what we were going to do with a massive building and a 10 year lease. We decided to pivot our business structure and open up the building to the community for coworking, meeting room, private offices, and event spaces. This was not the plan at all but has led me down an incredible path and new business ventures throughout the process.
Any advice for managing a team?
The best thing you can do for any team or person is to give them as much clarity as possible through prioritizing all their tasks and give them hard deadlines. People love to hide in the gray area. We need to give them certainty that what they are working on is the right thing. This will help make sure everyone is on the same page.
Contact Info:
- Website: dcxcommunity.com
- Instagram: @chrismeroff
- Facebook: DCX Community
- Linkedin: @chrismeroff
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfISAYFKgf7uvG_ly6OboFA