IAM1341 – Speaker Shows People How to be Productive with Purpose

Sophie Chiche is a multi-talented entrepreneur, author, speaker, journalist, and psychologist. Equal parts philosophical and practical, Sophie has a unique ability to cut through the BS that keeps people trapped in frameworks that don’t match their dreams. Her newest venture, Becurrent, is a unique productivity method that shows people not just how to be productive but to be “productive with purpose.” One of her most notable entrepreneurial ventures was the creation of Shape House, an L.A.-based “sweatshop” featured on Good Morning America, The Doctors, and Ellen.

• CEO Story: Started very young as a leader and at the age of 12, Sophie together with her friends, went to parties and created princesses and clowns that they sold and made a lot of money. That gave her the bug to start other companies later.
• Business Service: Transforming people. Help people build a system. How to use Trello – organize project management.
• Secret Sauce: “My own experience – run companies, lost 200 lbs, written books…” Listening to people.
• CEO Hack: Ask yourself questions, and learn to sense what’s right and what’s wrong.
• CEO Nugget: Emptying your brain. Don’t keep it in your head so much because at some point your head becomes so full.
• CEO Defined: Gather the right people around you. Know who you are and make sure you are in the right place.

Website: becurrenttoday.com

Linkedin: sophiechiche

Instagram: becurrenttoday

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Chiche

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00:18 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEO's without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Question markers value your time, and are ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Grash from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Sophie of the current Sophie Chiche. I am super excited to have you on the show.

00:55 – Sophie Chiche

I am super excited to be here. Thank you.

00:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited to have you on and about all the awesome things that you've done before. Of course, we do that. I want to read a little bit more about Sophie so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Sophie is a multi-talented entrepreneur, author, speaker, journalist, and psychologist. Equal parts philosophical and practical, Sophie has a unique ability to cut through the BS that keeps people trapped in frameworks that don't match their dreams. Her newest venture, Be Current is a unique productivity method that shows people not just how to be productive, but to be productive with purpose. One of her most notable entrepreneurial ventures was the creation of Shape House an LA-based sweatshop featured on Good Morning America, The Doctors, and Ellen Sophie. Again, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:42 – Sophie Chiche

I've never been so ready my whole life.

01:45 – Gresham Harkless

Well, let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I'd touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to hear what I like to call your CEO story. We'll let you get started with all the awesome work you're doing.

01:54 – Sophie Chiche

You know, my CEO story started very young. I feel like I've always been you'd find me in the sandbox, you know, negotiating pencils and who's going to work on the castle or something. It was, it was very, I would call it slightly bossy maybe, but I was definitely someone who was not afraid, to speak up and have ideas and, and, and get my head out there to, to lead something. And so, you know, I started a company. It was 12 / 13 when I would go to birthday parties and it was so boring. I created this Princess and clowns. You could, you could buy from us. It was a company, I guess a little company. There were five or six of us and I was sending them to parties and so and it made a lot of money. It was it was really fun. And so I think it gave me the bug maybe a little bit to start other companies later. That's the start.

02:45 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. I love that. And you know, you're not supposed to call it bossy. You're definitely supposed to call it leadership. That was early leadership of you being able to say who was going to, you know, do what building a sandcastle. And I love to see how it kind of has taken off from there.

02:57 – Sophie Chiche

Well, it never really stopped. I built the one job I had. It's funny, my entire career I had one job where I was paid, you know, by someone else. Everything else has been companies I started or houses have flipped or, you know, magazines I wrote for, you know, things like that. So I never but that one job I was whatever, I was hiding the thing. But there was a team of people that were Spanish speakers and I was raised in Spain. And so we had this really deep connection, like much better than the usual, you know, where is the trash, you know, or whatever. We really connected with that team and they called me La Chefa.

03:32 – Gresham Harkless

Which is the boss he's.

03:35 – Sophie Chiche

The boss. And so, yeah, I mean all along, I mean, today I, I look at it as everyone as a bit of action of their own life, particularly where we at, you know, where people are working from home and they really have to manage themselves. I mean, leadership for me was never following someone else. It was always about having an idea. What's your idea? You know, and, and we follow the one that's the smartest or the most, you know, solving the solution the best, the problem the best. So, you know, it's, I like leading people, inviting them to bring their leadership. I'm extremely bored otherwise. Like I don't like telling people what to do. I like collaborating and coming up with, you know, what's the best way for the moment. I think that's the best way to be ACEO.

04:16 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I definitely would echo that and agree with that. And a lot of times you have that iron sharpening iron and you get to really have even more creative ideas when you have that collaborative spirit as you mentioned. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more and hear about BE current, hear a little bit more about what you're doing there, how you're serving the clients that you work with.

04:34 – Sophie Chiche

Yeah, so Be Current was born of me, one of the companies I created grew to 350 people as a team and that's a lot of people to lead. And there was that moment where I didn't have, you know, middle managers or I was really kind of the point person. So it was a lot of people coming at me for all sorts of things.

And so I created a methodology to make it easier for people to work collaboratively, but also have their own place where they can create their own productivity. And, when COVID hit, it was very exciting for me because the company had grown to 10 million, you know, from literally 11. 00 when I first started. That's another story or maybe a story for today. But there really was, I was at a point where it was not as fun. Like I think I'm an entrepreneur, you know, $10 million is no longer, I mean, you can be a start-up guy, you know, and make a lot more money, but ten million, $10 million is really a lot of to-dos and weed, like not weed that you smoke, but weed that you know.

05:40 – Gresham Harkless

Well, that's fun weeds.

05:43 – Sophie Chiche

Yes, exactly. And so not the good kind. And so at some point, you know, it became, I mean, there was the moment of tension of like, oh, I don't like this. And then out of I don't like this, I usually create something that I like better. And so when COVID hit, someone I remember asked me like, what do you love doing? Like what's your favorite thing to do? You do it for no money, which has always been one of my favorite questions, you know, like, what would you do if it wasn't money wasn't involved at all? And lots of people would not be doing what they're doing if you ask me. But I think that was the, the key moment of like, what I love doing is watching people transform.

I love that's why I've been a psychologist and, you know, I've done all these other things. Typically I accompany people who are overwhelmed, often creative people who generate a lot of ideas, you know, and they're excited about doing things, but maybe they haven't fully delivered or followed through. Or people that are on the surface very organized, but the second you scratch the surface, it's a little bit what's, you know, it's an inner mess. It's it's something where they're organized on the outside, but they're really not that thriving on the inside. And they're just keeping, you know, the boat afloat of their own life, but they're not really thriving. And so I tend to work with people that are overwhelmed, but curious.

Like, I don't, I don't really enjoy working with people that are stubborn and think that the way they're doing it works for them when it clearly doesn't work for them. That's not very fun. So I accompany people through this methodology. They end up with a Trello. I don't know if you're familiar with Trello, but that's my drug of choice. I really like building lives and projects and teamwork and all sorts of things on these boards. And so I accompany people through this methodology. So an interesting research not long ago where it sounds like 36 % of a day of a worker, so work day is spent looking for something, 36 % of a day. That's not the bad news. I mean, it is bad news, but it's not the worst. The worst is in 45 % of the cases they don't find what they're looking for.

07:56 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. And what would you consider to be what I like to call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But is it the methodology, or is it like just your approach? Do you feel like that sets you apart and makes you unique?

08:09 – Sophie Chiche

You know, no, I mean, the methodology is cool. I mean, no question about it. And it gets the job done. So that's the base. But maybe the secret sauce is more my own experience, you know, the fact that I've run companies, the fact that I've lost 200 lbs, the fact that I've written books, the fact that I've raised children, the fact that I learned to ride a motorcycle when I was, you know, scared shit less of doing it. I don't know. It's like accompanying myself through a number of things. It, helps me be really present with other people. And I think I'm, I'm, I might be, you know, we all have different talents, right? And skills or gifts.

Maybe they come from even before we were born. Possibly, But I think I have a knack to hear the bullshit. I mean, I know it was in my bio, but I really do bullshit that I recognize. You know, it's like it's like a bell. It rings wrong, you know, and so I'll be sitting with someone and someone will be like energetically, there's like they're like carrying a dead cow up the hill, you know, and they're talking like it's nothing. It's like that's and I'll stop and say like, do you want to tell me what's going on with that? Just that, you know, just pause and like ask yourself the question and people open up like crazy. And yes, I hate what I do or yes, I'm really disappointed that I didn't do this other thing, or yes, oh, no, I don't know.

It's like I'm very unaware of what's happening. Meanwhile, the guy looks like he's going to jump out the window to me. So it's pretty clear that something's not clicking happily in there. So the secret sauce is listening. Yeah, maybe that's like listening really, really carefully. And someone had said to me years ago, like, if you have something to say immediately when the person you're talking to stops stalking, you're probably not listening. Because to listen, you have to shut up inside your head. You know, you have to not be like, what am I going to say? What's next? What is he going to do? That's like, what's my next question? It's like, no, be with me, you know, just be with yourself. And let's see where we go with that. But yeah, listening would be my secret sauce, maybe.

10:12 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, no, I appreciate you sharing that. And I was actually going to ask you for what I call a CEO hack, which is kind of like an app, a book, or even a habit that you have. But I almost wonder if that is in and of itself the hack, the thing that can make people more effective and efficient. Is it, you know, asking those questions or even like we've been talking about visualizing yourself on that bench and answering those questions of how your life is and you know if it's not where you wanted to be, should you be taking steps forward? Do you consider that to be like the ultimate like hack and secret that we should know to be more effective, and efficient?

10:42 – Sophie Chiche

I never saw it like that, but the way you just said it, I would say yes, ask yourself questions, and learn to sense what's right and wrong. You know, when I'm, when years ago I, I had no idea, like I would make a decision based on God knows what, you know, like really God knows what like, and now it's like I've developed a sense of like this feels good. This feels right, you know, and, and maybe there was some work because at some point, you know, what feels right was, you know, I don't know, eat chocolate cake right now and go to bed. So that wasn't too right.

So there's something between, you know, who's that who's talking like you need to make sure you know, who's talking inside of you, but to learn to listen. And I engaged in a relationship not long ago, a business relationship that something was not right for the globality of it, But there was a piece that I really needed them for. And so I, I followed, you know, and, and it turned out to be true. Like they were great for that piece. And then for the rest, they had no integrity and no humanity and no lots of other things.

And because I had followed my gut, once the piece I needed to be done was done, I had the guts to say, you know what, this was good. We had this piece. And I'm starting to notice that maybe we really don't care about the same things, which is critical to working with people who have values that are at least not ethical values. But just like, hey, do you care about this? Because if you don't care about that, we're not going to be able to make very good decisions together, you know?

12:08 – Gresham Harkless

So, I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a little bit more of a word of wisdom or piece of advice. We might have already touched on this, but it's something you might tell your favorite client, or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

12:21 – Sophie Chiche

Emptying your brain, just finding a way that you capture it. And in your case, I could see you have notes on the wall. That's one way that you got it out of your head. I mean, there may be ways that are a little bit more of this century maybe, but I want to get in there with you now, of course. But yes, don't keep stuffing your head so much because at some point your head becomes so full, similar to your stomach.

You know, when you eat too much, you can't, you just like, right, you crash, you have to go to sleep. You know, the head has the same mechanism of like, you shut down just too much, you know, And so then you eat sugar and you drink alcohol and you watch porn and you're just like disconnect more and more and more and more. And that's, you know, that's not how I want to live my life. So I empty my head. That's what's the deal for me.

13:08 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be I AM CEO. I know we already session on this a little bit, but I wanted to ask you, Sophie, what does being I AM CEO mean to you?

13:19 – Sophie Chiche

Well, the, very, simpler version for me is to gather the right people around you because that's what I know and one of my skills is to attract really good people and then they do what they do best and everybody is having fun doing it. But also there's maybe a deeper level of like, know yourself. And that probably is not your usual, you know, turn of the mail. Make sure you know, your finances. I mean, to me, that's basic.

If you don't know what you're doing or you don't have a product an idea or a service, you don't have much to contribute. So that's obvious. But once that's that's in place, you know, really stay in touch with who you are so you don't end up finding yourself in a city you did not, that's not the city you wanted to be in. And then you become someone that's not fun to be around. That would be my advice, You know, become self-aware, the more aware you are of yourself, the rest, you know, it, it finds itself, I would say.

But if that's not in place and that's, and you act from a place that's not healthy, like people want to be CEOs because they want whatever is happening in this day and age, you know, the fame, the fortune, the blah, blah, blah. They want to be like so and so and so over there. And it's like, who, who the heck are you? Like, what do you want to be? What do you want to do? Forget what they're doing. What do you want to be doing? And I think if you're I AM CEO, that's the minimum. Don't know who you are and make sure you're in the right place.

14:44 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, Sophie, truly appreciate that definition. And I, of course, appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:00 – Sophie Chiche

You know, I'm sitting here really touched by our conversation. Actually, I'm really touched by people who are taking risks and doing something and really following their own bliss. I am. I'm seeing you do that. I see that you're going after big things for yourself and I'm touched by that. So that's what's present for me.

15:22 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, Awesome. Awesome. Well, I love that and definitely appreciate you for mentioning that is definitely. I always say if you run your own race, you can't lose, and that's something that I see in you as well too. But for people that want to get a hold of you, so what's the best way for them to do that?

15:36 – Sophie Chiche

Becurrenttoday. com, it's the website becurrenttoday.com and there's lots of stuff in there, lots of blogs, lots of. There's a quiz that's really cool that helps you understand how you do what you do and why a little bit. Yeah, the website is really. And then from there, there's more stuff in there on Instagram, the usual suspects, but going to the website is a good place.

15:58 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome. And of course, to make that even easier here, we'll have the links and information in the show notes too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But I truly enjoy this conversation. And of course, you know the message and just how important it is to kind of make sure we start with ourselves. So thank you so much for the work that you do, and the course time you took today and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:16 – Sophie Chiche

You too, Gresh. Thank you.

Outro -16:18

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO podcast powered by CB Nation and Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us @iamceo. co. I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Subscribe and leave us a five-star rating. This has been the I AM CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Junior. Thank you for listening.

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