Patrick: Hey Chris Whitney, welcome to Disruption Lab.
Chris: Man, thanks Patrick for the opportunity to be here. Man, what a privilege.
Patrick: I'm excited to have you here. I think we're gonna have a good conversation. You and I, you know, we've had a chance to to meet in person. Obviously, you were written about
Chris: Mm-hmm.
Patrick: in the book and the chapter around hands, which deals with the idea
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of sometimes in order to be a disruptor, you gotta let go of something good to get something better. And you also need to roll your sleeves up sometimes and get your hands dirty. And I thought you were just a great example when Patterson and I were writing the book. It like this is the guy, this is the story, this is the team that tells a lot about how to deal with disruption. And to get your hands dirty and maybe let s go with something good to get something better. So for the for
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: the sake of those who may have not read the book yet, although they all should read the book, right? If they haven't read the book yet,
Chris: Yes.
Patrick: I'd love if you tell a little bit about your story, Chris.
Chris: Yeah, and let me start off by saying, hey, thank you for your service, man. I you know, with all that's going on in the world right now, I just want to say thank you from all of us for your service and your time that you give in for this country. obviously love what you do with the book, but I just want to say thank you for that as we start off. So
Patrick: Thank you, man. Appreciate that.
Chris: and so yeah, so my wife and I have lived in Middle Tennessee twenty two years, this July. we moved here twenty two years ago to start a church. I was actually had a really nice running insurance business. a lot of group medical and and life insurance and and mutual fund sales and things like that and worked with a lot of business owners. And that process taught me a lot, man. A lot. And so we moved here to start that church. We didn't know a soul, no financial support. So when you talk about leaving everything, I remember we were here a year and it was hard, man. I mean really, really hard. We had three daughters, one going into tenth grade, one eighth grade, one sixth grade. We were in a four thousand member church. We were in a community we've been in for my whole life. And we left all of that to come somewhere where we knew no one. And and but I remember that first year we went back to St. Louis and I was kind of commuting back and forth to do my insurance business still to pay the bills, you know. And
Patrick: Mm-hmm.
Chris: and I remember that I'm the the guy that ran the agency I was in, he he said, Man, I'd offer you now this is Think about this 22 years ago, he goes, I'll offer you four hundred thousand dollars right now, a year plus your commissions to to come back. And my wife and I got in the car and she looked at me and I went, I know what you're thinking, but you know the answer. And she says, Yeah, I know. And just to give a picture of when you say we we let go of something to walk into something we didn't know, just to give the breadth of that situation at the moment, and You out of that church came one gen away, one generation away, which you wrote about. And we were we started this food ministry and thirty actually thirty five years ago now we were in a we were in a food line just over thirty five and a half years ago. We had a daughter born, our middle daughter was born with spina bifida, and it was a just a really, really hard year. I was in construction back then and man, it was just tough to pay in sh the insurance premium because we had a child obviously there was gonna need a lot of surgeries and our house payment and it just ate up everything we had and we had nothing and we just remembered how un how demeaning and how hard that was and how embarrassing it was and that launched this movement that we've been able to start and man it's been the coolest hardest most exhilarating thing we've ever done in our lives. And no regrets whatsoever.
Patrick: So you were in you were in St. Louis, you were doing the construction business side of things, then kind of had a bit of a downturn or a tough time, right? And then Yeah.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, it was a really, really bad year weather wise. And if you know anything about construction, it's driven by weather. We had a huge ice storm that made it the one we had here even look small. And I think I made maybe eighteen thousand dollars that year. And and
Patrick: Yeah. So that was a really tough time, your daughter, you're you're at the health situation, but then you b recovered, right? Got into the insurance space. So you kinda had the down and then the up.
Chris: Yeah, it got up, up, yeah. And then we then everything went great. You know, man, we bought a house for the first time in a place I'd never dreamed of as a kid growing up in Normandy, Missouri. You know, it's I have a high school diploma. I've I I used to say I've never been to college, but I had the privilege of going to Harvard Business School a couple of years ago for a week with strategic perspectives and nonprofit management with a hundred and sixty leaders from twenty countries and stayed in a dorm at Harvard. So now I've been to college for a week when which was cool, but
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: but yeah, man, so I in Normandy was where if people remember the Ferguson riots in St. Louis, Normandy bordered line Ferguson. So our first date was in Ferguson, Missouri. So it was a really racially tense area. and I just I had a really rough childhood and just a you know, kind of a a really hard family life. My dad was an alcoholic, left when I was about the twelve or thirteen years old. I became the dad of three younger brothers in a sense, and So I didn't grow up with any, you know, any kind of expertise or experience in any of this, but got in the insurance business and was really, really good at it. and I think I was good at it because I figured out one thing, man. It's like if you can outserve whoever your competition is, things kind of turn out all right. And I think serving is like a hidden disruptor that most people have not discovered yet. And if you serve people well. It's amazing how much favor you get. I mean, you have to have a sincere heart, you have to be a legitimate person. But if you're sincere, legitimate and you've got drive and you really serve your clientele well, you're gonna do really, really, really good. And
Patrick: You know, that's so true. I I you know, I think about service being a dis being a disruptive force. It can be in that I know there was times years ago my wife and I were calling for something h home maintenance around the house. And I remember she called and left a voicemail somewhere and she hung hung the phone up and said to me, I'll probably never hear from them. And I thought She's not being cynical. She's actually being accurate. You know, you can call and
Chris: Accurate.
Patrick: if they've got enough work, you'll probably never hear from them, type of thing. Or even if they do have don't have enough work, sometimes you won't hear from them. And that's kind of an interesting thing. And then somebody comes along and they differentiate. That's why people talk about certain companies like or a Chick-fil-A or something. Like the service is just, you know, another level and it resonates with folks. So I I have to w I have to wonder, and obviously you felt a personal calling in this regard to come to Tennessee and and you said
Chris: Mm.
Patrick: start a church, but that had to be a tough choice. to at some level, perhaps, maybe not, where it's like, okay, I went through this up and down of my childhood, my our daughter's health situation, what we dealt before. Now I'm back in a good a good situation and things are good. What would what
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: would cause you to say, okay, I'm gonna let go of this? And I would imagine you'll tell me a bit about your belief your belief structure, but I think it could be true for for everyone in order to let go of something, in order to get something deeper.
Chris: Yeah, no, and I think that's exactly what it was. We knew we were called for something more. And I think that's something you gotta think about as as as a disruptor, as anyone that's gonna embark on a a founder or something like that, you've got to figure out what is your drive, what really fills you. And I mean that inner that inner inner gut thing in you. What does that what is what is what why do you get up in the morning? And and I think we realized we really enjoyed serving people. And and we remembered the shame we felt in that food line and we thought we don't any we would never want anyone to feel what we felt because most people we would meet today, you know, like you said, we've met in person. Nobody would meet Elaine and I and CS and ever think in a million years we would be in a food line, ever in our lifetime. You know, just it just we don't look like it. Well, I tell people hunger just looks like everybody. It doesn't look like anyone. And And so I think for us it was like we just had this unbelievable level of faith to say this is what we were supposed to do, you know, and we and I and I tell ya, I I think Patrick the the the really cool thing about things is we try to imagine so far out that we paralyze ourselves with fear, trying to dream about the good, the bad, and the ugly ten years from now, instead of just thinking about that never ha I mean. We we started there, but then we just realized, man, the only thing we've got right now is the next hour in front of us or day in front of us. And we can't we we can't make a decision based on we we were thinking ten years from now and nothing that I thought would happen in ten years happened in ten years. But so much more happened that was better and more beneficial. So I think the critical
Patrick: Yeah, it it it's so true. I had a friend, I'm sorry, Chris, I mean to step on you, but I have a friend who and
Chris: No
Patrick: I've used this state this line a lot in my life, where she'll say, you know, just do the next right thing. When you look at all the things that are out there, it can be overwhelming. You can start to build a a bridge to trouble that you haven't even gotten to yet. It's like she's like, just do the next right thing. Takes a next right
Chris: Love that.
Patrick: step. And I know when Patterson and I are out talking about the book, sometimes people hear us say, Okay, you need to be clear on your fire inside. You know, what's your purpose here on earth? What are you passionate about? What are you talented at? What needs are there in the world you can help close the gap on? And that's what you were dealing with there. And then they can say, Okay, I I kinda feel like I have a feeling for what why I'm here. What can I do? And they start thinking about the mountain they're gonna climb or the horizon they're gonna get to, whatever it might be, and it can be overwhelming. And I like how Patterson says, you know what? Just put your toe in the water. Just start moving and
Chris: Yep, I agree.
Patrick: see what happens.
Chris: Yeah, moving's the thing, taking the next taking a step. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So you're you know, your steps are what are ordered. So you just take a step at a time. And and I I I think that there's times in our lives too when we need to reflect back and think, Man, where was I? You know, it's like we we you know i there there's so many d books out there that are amazing, you know, that we've read over the years, this one being one of one of my favorites now, obviously we're a chapter, but just the stories were just reminding me of the courage it takes, but also just the humility it takes too. You know, I don't think you think about that. You have to humble yourself to think, hey man, I'm all that in a bag of chips. I'm really great in the insurance world. Million dollar round table producer, man. Go to trips, go to all these awards. But that's not what fulfills me. What fulfills me is meeting a need that I've been equipped specially to do. And that's something you've got to sink your teeth into and that's the only thing that's going to give you the courage to keep taking the next step is going, I know I am called to do this. And I can promise you something will go wrong. And I can promise you it'll be really, really hard. And I can promise you there's going to be a lot of resistance. But I can also promise you this what's on the other side of that is so spectacular that you tend to forget the pain of what you went through to get there and it's worth every penny.
Patrick: So let's t take me to the conversation with your wife when when you said here's what they offered and it was in the car and I could go back and work in the insurance world and and you bas you ba she knew the answer you were gonna give and you knew that she knew the answer you were gonna give and there was clarity as a couple about the
Chris: Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick: collective purpose between the two of you. You know, this could be a point for many people that goes a different direction, right? Where the other person says No, no, no, no, no. We that y you can have that dream or whatever, do it could be a side thing for you, but you need to take this job and provide stability to the family. Or you could have or whatever that might be, what was it
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: that the two of you were able to do kind of educate us here? Because I think the road in many cases that leads to divorce and tough times and things like that in relationships could often start with a lack of shared expectations.
Chris: That's good. And I and honestly, it goes back to that time we were in the food line where we looked at each other and said, This is not be gonna gonna become a blame game. Like if you wouldn't have done this, we wouldn't be here, or if this wouldn't have happened, we wouldn't be here. And so we made a decision then, like this was a concrete decision for our relationship going forward. And just to give people some history, we'll be married forty years this December. So it's like we've done a lot of life together. And so That was I think a pivotal moment back then that we said we would never do that. And then I've another decision we made earlier on in life too, and I said, I will never go somewhere that you're not in agreement with. I'm not dragging you anywhere. We're either in agreement and until we become to an agreement, we're not gonna make a decision to go or do. And those were two valuable lessons we learned, I think, in a relationship. in our relationship early on. So when when we got in that car, Elaine will tell you this, she would say it was really, really hard for her. That conversation that she just heard between me and the guy that I was partnered with and she was like she just looked at me and said, I really, really wanna come back, but I know we're not supposed to.
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: And and and so and we the reason is is because we invested so much time on the front end to make sure we were both in agreement. This is the way walkie in it, we're gonna do this, this is how we're gonna walk it out and this is what we're gonna do. and then we we joke about this too, Patrick, and you and Jamie, I I kinda look at you guys the way your relationship is, I from what I am seeing from the outside looking in, but I asked Elaine one day, I said, if you would have known then what you know now and she looked at me and she said, Today's not a good day to ask that question And I went
Patrick: Ha ha ha ha.
Chris: Understood. And but you know, I think you gotta have that kind of relationship, right, where you can be honest with each other. But other than that, we never had a day when both of us were down. It seems like somehow it just works out where one of you's got the unction to say, No, no, no, no, no, we're not quitting, we're gonna keep going. And and and that that's honestly what what what pulled us out of that story and and one of my things about quitting is and and one of the reasons I love I love the book. If you're gonna be a disruptor, the idea to quit's gonna happen a lot. And so there's this quote I have: I said, the desire to quit doesn't make you a quitter, it just makes you human. Quitting makes you a quitter. So just understand the difference, right? The desire to quit's
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: not like you're a failure, you didn't make it. Dude, that's just life. That's just part of the gig. And and so you gotta look at that and go, okay. And if you've got a spouse or somebody, you go to them and say, Man, you know what? It's just a hard day and have them look at you and go, I know it is, but we're not quitting. We're gonna keep going. and there's times when you gotta just you've literally gotta just take yourself to the to the to the backside of nowhere and just talk to yourself, right? And just say, you know what? I'm supposed to do this. I'm gifted to do this. Nobody said it was going to be easy every day, but I I I have a mission that I have to fulfill. and I must fulfill. And and I believe this too, Patrick. There's lives tied to our obedience. So it becomes bigger. Your idea has to come early on. It has to become bigger than you. I just truly believe that. And when that happens, then you feel that that really natural good responsibility that what I have to do is going to impact lives. And and the first lives that's gonna impact are the people that I end up employing or come to work with me, let alone the people that are gonna receive. And and so I think those are the the big key takeaways about our relationship.
Patrick: How how about the three kiddos at the time that were Alice were also impacted that I mean those are some difficult ages to pick up and move.
Chris: man. Yeah, the oldest was tough, man. That was really brutal. They had never been really exposed to public school much either. They were we did every kind of schooling. We did private school, home schooling. Elaine's mom died at sixty two of pancreatic cancer, so they were tutored at that time. so we went through a lot of hard other hardships and heartaches and our our f Fourteen year old at the time was brutal. She threw up for the first six weeks of school before she went, just ruined her life, destroyed. She's in a youth group. I mean, she knew everybody in the church and she's in a huge, huge group of friends to where she has no friends. but it turned out okay. She's married now and has five kids and met the love of her life here, and it all worked out good. She didn't see it in the moment. And and I think that's that's part of the deal though, man. You know, it's it's not Once again, it's not easy. Once again, disrupting man is not it's about disruption. It's about creating a little bit of chaos in your world. but it's it's a controlled chaos in a sense, and it's like with with a vision with a vision of stability down the road. And now twenty-two years later as a family we sit together because our kids are all adults, we have nine grandkids, fifteen to one year old twins. and we look at and start talking about now the legacy of that decision has changed the trajectory of our family for generations. And
Patrick: So let's let's talk about that decision. So you you got to you got to Tennessee and
Chris: Mm-hmm.
Patrick: and talk about how one Jen Away started.
Chris: Yes, we were, you know, we started the church with nothing, like we said. And and we had a we had a we had an agreement there too. Like we said if if ever we have an event or a service that no one that that out no one outside of our family or somebody we know show doesn't show up, we're quitting that day. So we we had some boundaries, man. We put some parameters on our thing. but then I was praying one day and God dropped this phrase in my heart one generation away, and Elaine Went to work outside the home for the first time in 17 years at Mid Cumberland Community Action Agency, which here in Middle Tennessee is Davidson County's where the seat of Nashville is. And so every county that touches Davidson has a Mid Cumberland. And this guy would deliver bread from Second Harvest. We didn't know Second Harvest Food Bank at the time, but just delivered bread every week and said, Hey, I could bring a tractor trailer load of food to a parking lot. And I was here serving with an event, you know, we're just trying to get to know people, and I was over the food part of it and we Got this tractor trail load of food to brought and we actually did commodities for second for middle for mid-Cumberland and we would take four times a year, bag commodities, walk people out to their car, load their cars. Had no idea God was building a model for what we do now. but that was kind of that's that's where it all started, man. And it was then a year later we were in a a parking lot, bank parking lot in downtown Franklin, and I told Elaine we gotta get another truckload of food and my phone rings. It was second harvest calling me with a free tractor trailer load of food. We would have never dreamed, you know, what it was gonna be. I mean, but we d I did dream that when it
Patrick: I don't think I can I don't think I can even envision how much a tractor trail load of food is. It's probably a ton of food. yeah. I was gonna tell that. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. So let me tell that story if you don't mind, Chris. So y folks, here's what happened.
Chris: It is really hard. Well you saw one you saw one in the parking lot that one day when you showed up with your dog, right? You know? Yeah. And I know, yeah.
Patrick: So we write the book and and as Chris knows, the interviews happened over the course of a couple of years. So I interviewed a lot of different people and Patterson and I were working on the book, sell it to the publisher, it goes out. So there's a Y there's a pretty long delay there, right? That's just a process
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of publishing. And then the the book's coming out on a Tuesday. It was September twenty-ninth of twenty-five. And that Saturday prior to it, I was getting ready to leave on a trip 'cause Patterson and I were starting in Las Vegas. So we were starting in Vegas like on Sunday night, we had to meet up. So Saturday morning my wife and I are out for a walk and we do we do try to walk every morning if we can get away with it. And we went for a walk and we're walking around this park and then through a parking lot on the backside of a of a school. And And there's this massive group of people in front of us as we come around the corner in this huge parking lot and it's like hundreds of people. And I realized this one generation away. And I I was like, my goodness, that what are the odds the g what was it by coincidence, I believe it was there. And I
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: walked up and I said, is Chris here? And there was another guy and he Yeah, I'm I'm Chris. I'm not that Chris, but I'm another Chris. And they were just finishing up The volunteers were just finishing up, you serving all those who were coming through and as soon as everybody cleared out, then every then all the volunteers got together, we took a photo and it was like I'll have to put it up with this with this with this particular podcast episode
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: because it's a it's a hundred plus people. I mean it's a big gathering of folks giving away food.
Chris: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that's yeah, so imagine we started with nothing, you know, like we didn't have anything to start one gen either. We didn't have a we had a Hyundai Santa Fe and we rescued our first store, the Whole Foods here in Franklin, out of that car and then we bought our own truck and yeah, I mean then the story just grew from there. We didn't nobody got paid for the first, you know, five years and another big disruption was we signed our first warehouse lease in November of thirteen for one gen. So we d we DBA'd under our church for a couple years. In June of 13, we became our 2013, we became our own 501c3. So 14's our first official full year as our own 501c3. So November 13, we signed a lease. December 31st or 13, I get diagnosed with stage three throat cancer. So sometimes
Patrick: Hits you hits just keep coming.
Chris: Yeah, man. Sometimes you're the disruptor, and sometimes the disruptor is is, you know, your hits you. Does that make sense? You know, and we had several of those.
Patrick: yeah, we are we are all like we like to say we we like to say we are we are all the disrupted, but some of us choose
Chris: Yes.
Patrick: to be disruptors.
Chris: Dust disruptors, exactly. So so that was a big deal, man. So we're our our our two thousand fourteen was tough, man. I started my first treatment in the middle of January, did my daughter's wedding and started chemo and radiation the next day and my youngest daughter's wedding and it was a tough ride, man. We we we had a really hard year. I did I think we only did about seven mobile pantries and you know, I was preaching in a church, s leading a church, still doing insurance work and running one gen. So I there's a lot of things going on. And but and
Patrick: A and literally fighting for your life at the same time.
Chris: fighting for my life, yeah, yeah. Thirty two radiation, six chemos. Pinned to a table every day from the waist up, chest up, low below my chest up with and my feet tied together and pinned to a table while they radiated me. So it was like crazy, man. I'd come out with mesh marks on my forehead.
Patrick: my goodness.
Chris: but it was so you know there's there's but you know I have this quirky personality and I kind of see it in I I see it in you a lot too is we talked about quitting earlier. I'm just one of those guys, man. I just I really struggle with quitting. I just I'm just don't have enough sense to quit. I just keep going. You know what I mean? So it's like I I figure if there's resistance, I don't look at resistance as a negative, I look at it as something's trying to stop me from doing the right thing. So it kind of gets my juices flowing that I need and I think you have to have that as a disruptor to go, Well of course there's resistance. I'm disrupting the normal. And any
Patrick: Yeah, yeah.
Chris: time you disrupt the normal means you're disjust you're disrupting people's comfort zones. And we're we are called to disrupt comfort, not in a negative way, but to make it better and more impactful and to engage more people. and I think those are, you
Patrick: I have this
Chris: know
Patrick: I have this slide when I'm out talking to audiences, I have a slide and it says on it that disruption isn't the enemy, the status quo is. And it's the I i
Chris: I love that.
Patrick: it and and oftentimes we're just we just wanna hang on to the status quo, but it's it's it's first of all it's it's deceptive, it's not gonna stay that way, it's gonna change. And secondly, is you'll it'll keep getting you kind of less and less as far as outcome or impact in that regard. So let's
Chris: Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick: talk about impact right now. So
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I'm so glad that you you beat back cancer. I'm so glad you're tenacious.
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I'm so glad that you followed your own path and you were in such alignment with your wife and your family across in the process of doing that. When you look back over the history of one generation away, kinda give us a feel for the numbers. How many people have you fed? How many pounds
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of food? What what does that look like?
Chris: That's a great, great segue, man. So we so you figure we just told the story about the warehouse, right? In two thousand fourteen, we did probably about three hundred and seventy-five thousand meals in two thousand fourteen. All right, just get three hundred and seventy-five thousand. November of this year, twenty twenty six, we will serve our fifty millionth meal. Fifty
Patrick: my goodness.
Chris: million. So think about that. Three hundred and fifty thousand and twelve years later we're gonna serve our fifty millionth meal. That gives you a little bit in I lost count, but I think nine or ten states at least, around the southeast mostly and over to Texas, but you know, kind of the SEC footprint. yeah, that's so that's that's what we've done and and it's an incredible story to think. Our cash budget in twenty in fourteen was twenty five thousand dollars. Our cash budget in twenty in twenty five was we raised three point four five million and our cash budget was three point two million. And we've never had debt. We've we've never borrowed money. We can't even borrow money in our bylaws. So it it it is an unbelievable tale of of of just I don't know, man. It's just I it's hard to explain. I don't even know how to explain it. You know, it's just I I love this phrase that I've also got that, you know, your footprint needs to be bigger than your foot. And our footprint's a whole lot bigger than our foot. And I think that's when you know because it takes you know, there's two ways to look at the footprint. I look at it from my side from from a spiritual side I look at it that that God's definitely in our thing because it's bigger than us. But take God out of if you took God out of the equation, which which I'm not upset if somebody does at all by any means. But you have to have more people involved to make your foot bigger. And if you've not engaged other people that normally would not have engaged in what you're doing, your footprint's still not bigger than your foot. You need to be you need to be drawing people. I believe you always should be drawing people in as a disruptor. You should always be drawing new people to what you're doing so they can get an opportunity to taste and see if that's something they want to do. And if not, at least it may motivate them to go do what they really want to do. And that's the key to when you see a hundred people in a parking lot. We could see anywhere to five to six hundred volunteers at a time, which is way too many, but they just show up 'cause we don't we don't we don't sign up volunteers and and I think the thing that's really disruptive in our world of what we do is we don't ask any qualifying questions. So we refuse to ask people to prove they're sufficiently deficient to need help. And we would rather just give them food and love on them and say, How do we how do we help you take the next step to get out of this cycle that you're in? And the only way I know how to do that is to just Be committed and consistently show up and just keep showing up and loving people well and then watch and see what happens. and and we've just seen miracle stories and and we'll see people s park their car and go, you know, I need I really need food today, but I just want to get out and help. And I believe that's the first step out of the cycle is serving someone else. Now I'm valuable and I'm needed by someone else. And that to me is if you can do that, now you're disrupting not just a person, but you're gonna disrupt a family. And just think how many times that spreads, and that's gonna just spread like wildfire and change generations and change the world we live in. And and that's why I'm so grateful for you and James Patterson writing this book. This is a book that's going to change generations of families and and it's gonna change how we see each other in the world. And I think This type of book is going to lower the temperature of our country.
Patrick: Well sure need to have it lowered, that's for sure. And it it's interesting.
Chris: Who don't we ever
Patrick: Yeah, it is. It's it's interesting too to to see you know, some people will start things, like you you you and Elaine started something. some people will join a a cause and y that day I saw those people working. obviously they're tired. It was it was it was hot. It's late September, but you're in Nashville, Tennessee, it's hot. But there's also joy and a sense of fulfillment. of a job well done and the ability to contribute to others. I'm just certain I'm sure you I'm sure you've seen countless people that get involved even re even reluctantly or hesitantly that then that
Chris: Yes, yes.
Patrick: then find a profound sense of joy in the process.
Chris: Yeah, we we've seen that over and over. And I I think the other thing that disrupts our thing is you can bring your kids. Like you can bring your whole family to our events, you know, and serve people and it's especially a lot of us that live in Davidson and Williamson County, we live in this bubble, man, of, you know, a world that nobody you know, your kids don't see outside this this kind of bubble we're insulated in and for them to get to see people that look differently and are in different circumstances is really healthy. and that that's what it was all about for us. F honestly it was Just how do we do s I wanted to do something that I knew could generationally be passed on. I I'm a firm believer if something dies with you, then you've missed it somehow. It needs to, it should,
Patrick: Mm.
Chris: it should continue on. and I look at, you know, I look at my grandkids, my my 15-year-old grandson when he was 13, looked at his mom and said, You need to tell Grandy when I get older, I'm gonna run one gen, but I'm gonna take it international. And that's that's how you want your teenager thinking. I for me, that's how I want my teenagers to think. You know, I want them to think. bigger and say, man, how can I take something and make it better than what it is right now? And so for me, Patrick, that was that was the key to disruption too. It's like I want to I want to disrupt generationally, not just in the moment we're in. I want it to become a movement of people and and Elaine and I believe this from day one, I I want I want one gen to be nameless and faceless. I want to get to a place where it's not Chris and Elaine Whitney. I want to get it to be where Who's one gen? Well, it's Patrick, it's Joe, it's Mary, it's Sue, it's all these volunteers that have given their lives to come out on a Saturday morning and serve people that they never know and they didn't know and they'll probably never ever see again. And the beauty of that, I think, can be contagious. And and it's just it's just such a humbling privilege that you and James chose us to be one of the chapters. It was one of the coolest moments of my life, and I can say that. Now that I'm looking at you face to face and and to tell you that. And I'm grateful for your courage. I just think about your story, your courage to do this, to reach out to James Patterson, all the steps that most people don't think about, but I do because of being a disruptor as you are. You know what I mean? You start thinking about all the steps you took and and the amount of lives and the ripple effects you're gonna have for generations to come because of your obedience to do and the follow through and courage to do it.
Patrick: I appreciate that, Chris. Hey Chris, if people are listening right now and they're like, you know, I'm finding my own thing or maybe one gen is my thing or I want to just help out one gen as
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I figure out my other things in life, how can people learn more, Chris, about one generation away?
Chris: Yeah, so onegen away dot com, you know, it's spelled out O N E G E N A W A Y dot com. You can do there. You can Facebook, we're one gen away official. Our Facebook page got hacked and we lost sixteen thousand followers overnight. yeah, so that was really bad, but now it's one gen away official. Instagram one gen away, any any of the socials, or you can email email our office. my email is Chris at one gen away dot com and if you wanna meet, Annette will take care of that and help you with that. I'd love to meet people. If you've got an idea and you just think, man, hey, I'd I don't know. I I love to meet with people that got ideas. I wanna I wanna help any way I can and I wouldn't be here if there weren't for a million people that helped me out in my lifetime and I never wanna be I never wanna become that guy that's not willing to talk to somebody that's trying to start something. I think If you're a disruptor, man, go help somebody that's looking that's got an idea to disrupt if you've got the opportunity. I know we're all busy, but busy people know how to make a schedule. So if you're out there, Chris at one gen away.com and and and you just want to talk about anything one gen or even something different, man, I'd love to I'd love to help you get on your path to whatever you're gonna do.
Patrick: Awesome. All right. One last thing once we wrap up. We'd like to end the conversation with a quick question. I'm in the pursuit of a really good vanilla latte, so I disrupt myself and try different places all the time. Is there a is there a drink or a food choice which seems fitting for this conversation that you have like figured out the perfect drink? Like Chris has worked on this to figure this one out. He makes it at home or he goes somewhere gets it, or the perfect food item. What would you recommend to the audience? Is like, hey, here's the best whatever if you want to go get it.
Chris: Wow, that's a great question, man. I don't know. That's a good one. I would say if I were gonna pick a food item, it would have to be something on I like to eat, man. I love to eat. And I would say a perfect like lasagna. I love Italian food. My wife's Italian and Lebanese. Or a perfect grape leaf. So those are the two, man. Grape my wife makes grape leaves like they did in Lebanon.
Patrick: Really?
Chris: And if you can find that, that's yeah, yeah. So she makes her own. And it's really hard to find that the lemon juice and the grape leaves just right, you know. So those are two of my favorites in the world, and lasagna, and I am I'm I'm gluten-free, and my wife figured out how to make lasagna with gluten-free noodles. That is just unbelievable. And so that that's what I would look like. So they're both unique, and I think that's what disruptors are. We offer We operate in unique ways, you know what I mean? And so
Patrick: And I love it too, 'cause the best ones are right there in your own kitchen. That's awesome.
Chris: Yeah, Lebanese and Italian, man. I married well.
Patrick: Yes, y yes, you did, my friend. Well hey Chris, thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. I appreciate all that you're doing, let us letting us share your story with other folks. And just you're right, we're we're one generation away from a lot of things if we don't choose to continue to pass that torch forward and make it better.
Chris: Thanks, Patrick, for your time. And once again, man, thanks for all you're doing and and I'm grateful, extremely grateful.
Chris: Man, thanks Patrick for the opportunity to be here. Man, what a privilege.
Patrick: I'm excited to have you here. I think we're gonna have a good conversation. You and I, you know, we've had a chance to to meet in person. Obviously, you were written about
Chris: Mm-hmm.
Patrick: in the book and the chapter around hands, which deals with the idea
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of sometimes in order to be a disruptor, you gotta let go of something good to get something better. And you also need to roll your sleeves up sometimes and get your hands dirty. And I thought you were just a great example when Patterson and I were writing the book. It like this is the guy, this is the story, this is the team that tells a lot about how to deal with disruption. And to get your hands dirty and maybe let s go with something good to get something better. So for the for
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: the sake of those who may have not read the book yet, although they all should read the book, right? If they haven't read the book yet,
Chris: Yes.
Patrick: I'd love if you tell a little bit about your story, Chris.
Chris: Yeah, and let me start off by saying, hey, thank you for your service, man. I you know, with all that's going on in the world right now, I just want to say thank you from all of us for your service and your time that you give in for this country. obviously love what you do with the book, but I just want to say thank you for that as we start off. So
Patrick: Thank you, man. Appreciate that.
Chris: and so yeah, so my wife and I have lived in Middle Tennessee twenty two years, this July. we moved here twenty two years ago to start a church. I was actually had a really nice running insurance business. a lot of group medical and and life insurance and and mutual fund sales and things like that and worked with a lot of business owners. And that process taught me a lot, man. A lot. And so we moved here to start that church. We didn't know a soul, no financial support. So when you talk about leaving everything, I remember we were here a year and it was hard, man. I mean really, really hard. We had three daughters, one going into tenth grade, one eighth grade, one sixth grade. We were in a four thousand member church. We were in a community we've been in for my whole life. And we left all of that to come somewhere where we knew no one. And and but I remember that first year we went back to St. Louis and I was kind of commuting back and forth to do my insurance business still to pay the bills, you know. And
Patrick: Mm-hmm.
Chris: and I remember that I'm the the guy that ran the agency I was in, he he said, Man, I'd offer you now this is Think about this 22 years ago, he goes, I'll offer you four hundred thousand dollars right now, a year plus your commissions to to come back. And my wife and I got in the car and she looked at me and I went, I know what you're thinking, but you know the answer. And she says, Yeah, I know. And just to give a picture of when you say we we let go of something to walk into something we didn't know, just to give the breadth of that situation at the moment, and You out of that church came one gen away, one generation away, which you wrote about. And we were we started this food ministry and thirty actually thirty five years ago now we were in a we were in a food line just over thirty five and a half years ago. We had a daughter born, our middle daughter was born with spina bifida, and it was a just a really, really hard year. I was in construction back then and man, it was just tough to pay in sh the insurance premium because we had a child obviously there was gonna need a lot of surgeries and our house payment and it just ate up everything we had and we had nothing and we just remembered how un how demeaning and how hard that was and how embarrassing it was and that launched this movement that we've been able to start and man it's been the coolest hardest most exhilarating thing we've ever done in our lives. And no regrets whatsoever.
Patrick: So you were in you were in St. Louis, you were doing the construction business side of things, then kind of had a bit of a downturn or a tough time, right? And then Yeah.
Chris: Yeah, yeah, it was a really, really bad year weather wise. And if you know anything about construction, it's driven by weather. We had a huge ice storm that made it the one we had here even look small. And I think I made maybe eighteen thousand dollars that year. And and
Patrick: Yeah. So that was a really tough time, your daughter, you're you're at the health situation, but then you b recovered, right? Got into the insurance space. So you kinda had the down and then the up.
Chris: Yeah, it got up, up, yeah. And then we then everything went great. You know, man, we bought a house for the first time in a place I'd never dreamed of as a kid growing up in Normandy, Missouri. You know, it's I have a high school diploma. I've I I used to say I've never been to college, but I had the privilege of going to Harvard Business School a couple of years ago for a week with strategic perspectives and nonprofit management with a hundred and sixty leaders from twenty countries and stayed in a dorm at Harvard. So now I've been to college for a week when which was cool, but
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: but yeah, man, so I in Normandy was where if people remember the Ferguson riots in St. Louis, Normandy bordered line Ferguson. So our first date was in Ferguson, Missouri. So it was a really racially tense area. and I just I had a really rough childhood and just a you know, kind of a a really hard family life. My dad was an alcoholic, left when I was about the twelve or thirteen years old. I became the dad of three younger brothers in a sense, and So I didn't grow up with any, you know, any kind of expertise or experience in any of this, but got in the insurance business and was really, really good at it. and I think I was good at it because I figured out one thing, man. It's like if you can outserve whoever your competition is, things kind of turn out all right. And I think serving is like a hidden disruptor that most people have not discovered yet. And if you serve people well. It's amazing how much favor you get. I mean, you have to have a sincere heart, you have to be a legitimate person. But if you're sincere, legitimate and you've got drive and you really serve your clientele well, you're gonna do really, really, really good. And
Patrick: You know, that's so true. I I you know, I think about service being a dis being a disruptive force. It can be in that I know there was times years ago my wife and I were calling for something h home maintenance around the house. And I remember she called and left a voicemail somewhere and she hung hung the phone up and said to me, I'll probably never hear from them. And I thought She's not being cynical. She's actually being accurate. You know, you can call and
Chris: Accurate.
Patrick: if they've got enough work, you'll probably never hear from them, type of thing. Or even if they do have don't have enough work, sometimes you won't hear from them. And that's kind of an interesting thing. And then somebody comes along and they differentiate. That's why people talk about certain companies like or a Chick-fil-A or something. Like the service is just, you know, another level and it resonates with folks. So I I have to w I have to wonder, and obviously you felt a personal calling in this regard to come to Tennessee and and you said
Chris: Mm.
Patrick: start a church, but that had to be a tough choice. to at some level, perhaps, maybe not, where it's like, okay, I went through this up and down of my childhood, my our daughter's health situation, what we dealt before. Now I'm back in a good a good situation and things are good. What would what
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: would cause you to say, okay, I'm gonna let go of this? And I would imagine you'll tell me a bit about your belief your belief structure, but I think it could be true for for everyone in order to let go of something, in order to get something deeper.
Chris: Yeah, no, and I think that's exactly what it was. We knew we were called for something more. And I think that's something you gotta think about as as as a disruptor, as anyone that's gonna embark on a a founder or something like that, you've got to figure out what is your drive, what really fills you. And I mean that inner that inner inner gut thing in you. What does that what is what is what why do you get up in the morning? And and I think we realized we really enjoyed serving people. And and we remembered the shame we felt in that food line and we thought we don't any we would never want anyone to feel what we felt because most people we would meet today, you know, like you said, we've met in person. Nobody would meet Elaine and I and CS and ever think in a million years we would be in a food line, ever in our lifetime. You know, just it just we don't look like it. Well, I tell people hunger just looks like everybody. It doesn't look like anyone. And And so I think for us it was like we just had this unbelievable level of faith to say this is what we were supposed to do, you know, and we and I and I tell ya, I I think Patrick the the the really cool thing about things is we try to imagine so far out that we paralyze ourselves with fear, trying to dream about the good, the bad, and the ugly ten years from now, instead of just thinking about that never ha I mean. We we started there, but then we just realized, man, the only thing we've got right now is the next hour in front of us or day in front of us. And we can't we we can't make a decision based on we we were thinking ten years from now and nothing that I thought would happen in ten years happened in ten years. But so much more happened that was better and more beneficial. So I think the critical
Patrick: Yeah, it it it's so true. I had a friend, I'm sorry, Chris, I mean to step on you, but I have a friend who and
Chris: No
Patrick: I've used this state this line a lot in my life, where she'll say, you know, just do the next right thing. When you look at all the things that are out there, it can be overwhelming. You can start to build a a bridge to trouble that you haven't even gotten to yet. It's like she's like, just do the next right thing. Takes a next right
Chris: Love that.
Patrick: step. And I know when Patterson and I are out talking about the book, sometimes people hear us say, Okay, you need to be clear on your fire inside. You know, what's your purpose here on earth? What are you passionate about? What are you talented at? What needs are there in the world you can help close the gap on? And that's what you were dealing with there. And then they can say, Okay, I I kinda feel like I have a feeling for what why I'm here. What can I do? And they start thinking about the mountain they're gonna climb or the horizon they're gonna get to, whatever it might be, and it can be overwhelming. And I like how Patterson says, you know what? Just put your toe in the water. Just start moving and
Chris: Yep, I agree.
Patrick: see what happens.
Chris: Yeah, moving's the thing, taking the next taking a step. It's a marathon, not a sprint. So you're you know, your steps are what are ordered. So you just take a step at a time. And and I I I think that there's times in our lives too when we need to reflect back and think, Man, where was I? You know, it's like we we you know i there there's so many d books out there that are amazing, you know, that we've read over the years, this one being one of one of my favorites now, obviously we're a chapter, but just the stories were just reminding me of the courage it takes, but also just the humility it takes too. You know, I don't think you think about that. You have to humble yourself to think, hey man, I'm all that in a bag of chips. I'm really great in the insurance world. Million dollar round table producer, man. Go to trips, go to all these awards. But that's not what fulfills me. What fulfills me is meeting a need that I've been equipped specially to do. And that's something you've got to sink your teeth into and that's the only thing that's going to give you the courage to keep taking the next step is going, I know I am called to do this. And I can promise you something will go wrong. And I can promise you it'll be really, really hard. And I can promise you there's going to be a lot of resistance. But I can also promise you this what's on the other side of that is so spectacular that you tend to forget the pain of what you went through to get there and it's worth every penny.
Patrick: So let's t take me to the conversation with your wife when when you said here's what they offered and it was in the car and I could go back and work in the insurance world and and you bas you ba she knew the answer you were gonna give and you knew that she knew the answer you were gonna give and there was clarity as a couple about the
Chris: Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick: collective purpose between the two of you. You know, this could be a point for many people that goes a different direction, right? Where the other person says No, no, no, no, no. We that y you can have that dream or whatever, do it could be a side thing for you, but you need to take this job and provide stability to the family. Or you could have or whatever that might be, what was it
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: that the two of you were able to do kind of educate us here? Because I think the road in many cases that leads to divorce and tough times and things like that in relationships could often start with a lack of shared expectations.
Chris: That's good. And I and honestly, it goes back to that time we were in the food line where we looked at each other and said, This is not be gonna gonna become a blame game. Like if you wouldn't have done this, we wouldn't be here, or if this wouldn't have happened, we wouldn't be here. And so we made a decision then, like this was a concrete decision for our relationship going forward. And just to give people some history, we'll be married forty years this December. So it's like we've done a lot of life together. And so That was I think a pivotal moment back then that we said we would never do that. And then I've another decision we made earlier on in life too, and I said, I will never go somewhere that you're not in agreement with. I'm not dragging you anywhere. We're either in agreement and until we become to an agreement, we're not gonna make a decision to go or do. And those were two valuable lessons we learned, I think, in a relationship. in our relationship early on. So when when we got in that car, Elaine will tell you this, she would say it was really, really hard for her. That conversation that she just heard between me and the guy that I was partnered with and she was like she just looked at me and said, I really, really wanna come back, but I know we're not supposed to.
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: And and and so and we the reason is is because we invested so much time on the front end to make sure we were both in agreement. This is the way walkie in it, we're gonna do this, this is how we're gonna walk it out and this is what we're gonna do. and then we we joke about this too, Patrick, and you and Jamie, I I kinda look at you guys the way your relationship is, I from what I am seeing from the outside looking in, but I asked Elaine one day, I said, if you would have known then what you know now and she looked at me and she said, Today's not a good day to ask that question And I went
Patrick: Ha ha ha ha.
Chris: Understood. And but you know, I think you gotta have that kind of relationship, right, where you can be honest with each other. But other than that, we never had a day when both of us were down. It seems like somehow it just works out where one of you's got the unction to say, No, no, no, no, no, we're not quitting, we're gonna keep going. And and and that that's honestly what what what pulled us out of that story and and one of my things about quitting is and and one of the reasons I love I love the book. If you're gonna be a disruptor, the idea to quit's gonna happen a lot. And so there's this quote I have: I said, the desire to quit doesn't make you a quitter, it just makes you human. Quitting makes you a quitter. So just understand the difference, right? The desire to quit's
Patrick: Yeah.
Chris: not like you're a failure, you didn't make it. Dude, that's just life. That's just part of the gig. And and so you gotta look at that and go, okay. And if you've got a spouse or somebody, you go to them and say, Man, you know what? It's just a hard day and have them look at you and go, I know it is, but we're not quitting. We're gonna keep going. and there's times when you gotta just you've literally gotta just take yourself to the to the to the backside of nowhere and just talk to yourself, right? And just say, you know what? I'm supposed to do this. I'm gifted to do this. Nobody said it was going to be easy every day, but I I I have a mission that I have to fulfill. and I must fulfill. And and I believe this too, Patrick. There's lives tied to our obedience. So it becomes bigger. Your idea has to come early on. It has to become bigger than you. I just truly believe that. And when that happens, then you feel that that really natural good responsibility that what I have to do is going to impact lives. And and the first lives that's gonna impact are the people that I end up employing or come to work with me, let alone the people that are gonna receive. And and so I think those are the the big key takeaways about our relationship.
Patrick: How how about the three kiddos at the time that were Alice were also impacted that I mean those are some difficult ages to pick up and move.
Chris: man. Yeah, the oldest was tough, man. That was really brutal. They had never been really exposed to public school much either. They were we did every kind of schooling. We did private school, home schooling. Elaine's mom died at sixty two of pancreatic cancer, so they were tutored at that time. so we went through a lot of hard other hardships and heartaches and our our f Fourteen year old at the time was brutal. She threw up for the first six weeks of school before she went, just ruined her life, destroyed. She's in a youth group. I mean, she knew everybody in the church and she's in a huge, huge group of friends to where she has no friends. but it turned out okay. She's married now and has five kids and met the love of her life here, and it all worked out good. She didn't see it in the moment. And and I think that's that's part of the deal though, man. You know, it's it's not Once again, it's not easy. Once again, disrupting man is not it's about disruption. It's about creating a little bit of chaos in your world. but it's it's a controlled chaos in a sense, and it's like with with a vision with a vision of stability down the road. And now twenty-two years later as a family we sit together because our kids are all adults, we have nine grandkids, fifteen to one year old twins. and we look at and start talking about now the legacy of that decision has changed the trajectory of our family for generations. And
Patrick: So let's let's talk about that decision. So you you got to you got to Tennessee and
Chris: Mm-hmm.
Patrick: and talk about how one Jen Away started.
Chris: Yes, we were, you know, we started the church with nothing, like we said. And and we had a we had a we had an agreement there too. Like we said if if ever we have an event or a service that no one that that out no one outside of our family or somebody we know show doesn't show up, we're quitting that day. So we we had some boundaries, man. We put some parameters on our thing. but then I was praying one day and God dropped this phrase in my heart one generation away, and Elaine Went to work outside the home for the first time in 17 years at Mid Cumberland Community Action Agency, which here in Middle Tennessee is Davidson County's where the seat of Nashville is. And so every county that touches Davidson has a Mid Cumberland. And this guy would deliver bread from Second Harvest. We didn't know Second Harvest Food Bank at the time, but just delivered bread every week and said, Hey, I could bring a tractor trailer load of food to a parking lot. And I was here serving with an event, you know, we're just trying to get to know people, and I was over the food part of it and we Got this tractor trail load of food to brought and we actually did commodities for second for middle for mid-Cumberland and we would take four times a year, bag commodities, walk people out to their car, load their cars. Had no idea God was building a model for what we do now. but that was kind of that's that's where it all started, man. And it was then a year later we were in a a parking lot, bank parking lot in downtown Franklin, and I told Elaine we gotta get another truckload of food and my phone rings. It was second harvest calling me with a free tractor trailer load of food. We would have never dreamed, you know, what it was gonna be. I mean, but we d I did dream that when it
Patrick: I don't think I can I don't think I can even envision how much a tractor trail load of food is. It's probably a ton of food. yeah. I was gonna tell that. Yeah. So Yeah. Yeah. So let me tell that story if you don't mind, Chris. So y folks, here's what happened.
Chris: It is really hard. Well you saw one you saw one in the parking lot that one day when you showed up with your dog, right? You know? Yeah. And I know, yeah.
Patrick: So we write the book and and as Chris knows, the interviews happened over the course of a couple of years. So I interviewed a lot of different people and Patterson and I were working on the book, sell it to the publisher, it goes out. So there's a Y there's a pretty long delay there, right? That's just a process
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of publishing. And then the the book's coming out on a Tuesday. It was September twenty-ninth of twenty-five. And that Saturday prior to it, I was getting ready to leave on a trip 'cause Patterson and I were starting in Las Vegas. So we were starting in Vegas like on Sunday night, we had to meet up. So Saturday morning my wife and I are out for a walk and we do we do try to walk every morning if we can get away with it. And we went for a walk and we're walking around this park and then through a parking lot on the backside of a of a school. And And there's this massive group of people in front of us as we come around the corner in this huge parking lot and it's like hundreds of people. And I realized this one generation away. And I I was like, my goodness, that what are the odds the g what was it by coincidence, I believe it was there. And I
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: walked up and I said, is Chris here? And there was another guy and he Yeah, I'm I'm Chris. I'm not that Chris, but I'm another Chris. And they were just finishing up The volunteers were just finishing up, you serving all those who were coming through and as soon as everybody cleared out, then every then all the volunteers got together, we took a photo and it was like I'll have to put it up with this with this with this particular podcast episode
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: because it's a it's a hundred plus people. I mean it's a big gathering of folks giving away food.
Chris: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And that's yeah, so imagine we started with nothing, you know, like we didn't have anything to start one gen either. We didn't have a we had a Hyundai Santa Fe and we rescued our first store, the Whole Foods here in Franklin, out of that car and then we bought our own truck and yeah, I mean then the story just grew from there. We didn't nobody got paid for the first, you know, five years and another big disruption was we signed our first warehouse lease in November of thirteen for one gen. So we d we DBA'd under our church for a couple years. In June of 13, we became our 2013, we became our own 501c3. So 14's our first official full year as our own 501c3. So November 13, we signed a lease. December 31st or 13, I get diagnosed with stage three throat cancer. So sometimes
Patrick: Hits you hits just keep coming.
Chris: Yeah, man. Sometimes you're the disruptor, and sometimes the disruptor is is, you know, your hits you. Does that make sense? You know, and we had several of those.
Patrick: yeah, we are we are all like we like to say we we like to say we are we are all the disrupted, but some of us choose
Chris: Yes.
Patrick: to be disruptors.
Chris: Dust disruptors, exactly. So so that was a big deal, man. So we're our our our two thousand fourteen was tough, man. I started my first treatment in the middle of January, did my daughter's wedding and started chemo and radiation the next day and my youngest daughter's wedding and it was a tough ride, man. We we we had a really hard year. I did I think we only did about seven mobile pantries and you know, I was preaching in a church, s leading a church, still doing insurance work and running one gen. So I there's a lot of things going on. And but and
Patrick: A and literally fighting for your life at the same time.
Chris: fighting for my life, yeah, yeah. Thirty two radiation, six chemos. Pinned to a table every day from the waist up, chest up, low below my chest up with and my feet tied together and pinned to a table while they radiated me. So it was like crazy, man. I'd come out with mesh marks on my forehead.
Patrick: my goodness.
Chris: but it was so you know there's there's but you know I have this quirky personality and I kind of see it in I I see it in you a lot too is we talked about quitting earlier. I'm just one of those guys, man. I just I really struggle with quitting. I just I'm just don't have enough sense to quit. I just keep going. You know what I mean? So it's like I I figure if there's resistance, I don't look at resistance as a negative, I look at it as something's trying to stop me from doing the right thing. So it kind of gets my juices flowing that I need and I think you have to have that as a disruptor to go, Well of course there's resistance. I'm disrupting the normal. And any
Patrick: Yeah, yeah.
Chris: time you disrupt the normal means you're disjust you're disrupting people's comfort zones. And we're we are called to disrupt comfort, not in a negative way, but to make it better and more impactful and to engage more people. and I think those are, you
Patrick: I have this
Chris: know
Patrick: I have this slide when I'm out talking to audiences, I have a slide and it says on it that disruption isn't the enemy, the status quo is. And it's the I i
Chris: I love that.
Patrick: it and and oftentimes we're just we just wanna hang on to the status quo, but it's it's it's first of all it's it's deceptive, it's not gonna stay that way, it's gonna change. And secondly, is you'll it'll keep getting you kind of less and less as far as outcome or impact in that regard. So let's
Chris: Yeah. Yeah.
Patrick: talk about impact right now. So
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I'm so glad that you you beat back cancer. I'm so glad you're tenacious.
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I'm so glad that you followed your own path and you were in such alignment with your wife and your family across in the process of doing that. When you look back over the history of one generation away, kinda give us a feel for the numbers. How many people have you fed? How many pounds
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: of food? What what does that look like?
Chris: That's a great, great segue, man. So we so you figure we just told the story about the warehouse, right? In two thousand fourteen, we did probably about three hundred and seventy-five thousand meals in two thousand fourteen. All right, just get three hundred and seventy-five thousand. November of this year, twenty twenty six, we will serve our fifty millionth meal. Fifty
Patrick: my goodness.
Chris: million. So think about that. Three hundred and fifty thousand and twelve years later we're gonna serve our fifty millionth meal. That gives you a little bit in I lost count, but I think nine or ten states at least, around the southeast mostly and over to Texas, but you know, kind of the SEC footprint. yeah, that's so that's that's what we've done and and it's an incredible story to think. Our cash budget in twenty in fourteen was twenty five thousand dollars. Our cash budget in twenty in twenty five was we raised three point four five million and our cash budget was three point two million. And we've never had debt. We've we've never borrowed money. We can't even borrow money in our bylaws. So it it it is an unbelievable tale of of of just I don't know, man. It's just I it's hard to explain. I don't even know how to explain it. You know, it's just I I love this phrase that I've also got that, you know, your footprint needs to be bigger than your foot. And our footprint's a whole lot bigger than our foot. And I think that's when you know because it takes you know, there's two ways to look at the footprint. I look at it from my side from from a spiritual side I look at it that that God's definitely in our thing because it's bigger than us. But take God out of if you took God out of the equation, which which I'm not upset if somebody does at all by any means. But you have to have more people involved to make your foot bigger. And if you've not engaged other people that normally would not have engaged in what you're doing, your footprint's still not bigger than your foot. You need to be you need to be drawing people. I believe you always should be drawing people in as a disruptor. You should always be drawing new people to what you're doing so they can get an opportunity to taste and see if that's something they want to do. And if not, at least it may motivate them to go do what they really want to do. And that's the key to when you see a hundred people in a parking lot. We could see anywhere to five to six hundred volunteers at a time, which is way too many, but they just show up 'cause we don't we don't we don't sign up volunteers and and I think the thing that's really disruptive in our world of what we do is we don't ask any qualifying questions. So we refuse to ask people to prove they're sufficiently deficient to need help. And we would rather just give them food and love on them and say, How do we how do we help you take the next step to get out of this cycle that you're in? And the only way I know how to do that is to just Be committed and consistently show up and just keep showing up and loving people well and then watch and see what happens. and and we've just seen miracle stories and and we'll see people s park their car and go, you know, I need I really need food today, but I just want to get out and help. And I believe that's the first step out of the cycle is serving someone else. Now I'm valuable and I'm needed by someone else. And that to me is if you can do that, now you're disrupting not just a person, but you're gonna disrupt a family. And just think how many times that spreads, and that's gonna just spread like wildfire and change generations and change the world we live in. And and that's why I'm so grateful for you and James Patterson writing this book. This is a book that's going to change generations of families and and it's gonna change how we see each other in the world. And I think This type of book is going to lower the temperature of our country.
Patrick: Well sure need to have it lowered, that's for sure. And it it's interesting.
Chris: Who don't we ever
Patrick: Yeah, it is. It's it's interesting too to to see you know, some people will start things, like you you you and Elaine started something. some people will join a a cause and y that day I saw those people working. obviously they're tired. It was it was it was hot. It's late September, but you're in Nashville, Tennessee, it's hot. But there's also joy and a sense of fulfillment. of a job well done and the ability to contribute to others. I'm just certain I'm sure you I'm sure you've seen countless people that get involved even re even reluctantly or hesitantly that then that
Chris: Yes, yes.
Patrick: then find a profound sense of joy in the process.
Chris: Yeah, we we've seen that over and over. And I I think the other thing that disrupts our thing is you can bring your kids. Like you can bring your whole family to our events, you know, and serve people and it's especially a lot of us that live in Davidson and Williamson County, we live in this bubble, man, of, you know, a world that nobody you know, your kids don't see outside this this kind of bubble we're insulated in and for them to get to see people that look differently and are in different circumstances is really healthy. and that that's what it was all about for us. F honestly it was Just how do we do s I wanted to do something that I knew could generationally be passed on. I I'm a firm believer if something dies with you, then you've missed it somehow. It needs to, it should,
Patrick: Mm.
Chris: it should continue on. and I look at, you know, I look at my grandkids, my my 15-year-old grandson when he was 13, looked at his mom and said, You need to tell Grandy when I get older, I'm gonna run one gen, but I'm gonna take it international. And that's that's how you want your teenager thinking. I for me, that's how I want my teenagers to think. You know, I want them to think. bigger and say, man, how can I take something and make it better than what it is right now? And so for me, Patrick, that was that was the key to disruption too. It's like I want to I want to disrupt generationally, not just in the moment we're in. I want it to become a movement of people and and Elaine and I believe this from day one, I I want I want one gen to be nameless and faceless. I want to get to a place where it's not Chris and Elaine Whitney. I want to get it to be where Who's one gen? Well, it's Patrick, it's Joe, it's Mary, it's Sue, it's all these volunteers that have given their lives to come out on a Saturday morning and serve people that they never know and they didn't know and they'll probably never ever see again. And the beauty of that, I think, can be contagious. And and it's just it's just such a humbling privilege that you and James chose us to be one of the chapters. It was one of the coolest moments of my life, and I can say that. Now that I'm looking at you face to face and and to tell you that. And I'm grateful for your courage. I just think about your story, your courage to do this, to reach out to James Patterson, all the steps that most people don't think about, but I do because of being a disruptor as you are. You know what I mean? You start thinking about all the steps you took and and the amount of lives and the ripple effects you're gonna have for generations to come because of your obedience to do and the follow through and courage to do it.
Patrick: I appreciate that, Chris. Hey Chris, if people are listening right now and they're like, you know, I'm finding my own thing or maybe one gen is my thing or I want to just help out one gen as
Chris: Yeah.
Patrick: I figure out my other things in life, how can people learn more, Chris, about one generation away?
Chris: Yeah, so onegen away dot com, you know, it's spelled out O N E G E N A W A Y dot com. You can do there. You can Facebook, we're one gen away official. Our Facebook page got hacked and we lost sixteen thousand followers overnight. yeah, so that was really bad, but now it's one gen away official. Instagram one gen away, any any of the socials, or you can email email our office. my email is Chris at one gen away dot com and if you wanna meet, Annette will take care of that and help you with that. I'd love to meet people. If you've got an idea and you just think, man, hey, I'd I don't know. I I love to meet with people that got ideas. I wanna I wanna help any way I can and I wouldn't be here if there weren't for a million people that helped me out in my lifetime and I never wanna be I never wanna become that guy that's not willing to talk to somebody that's trying to start something. I think If you're a disruptor, man, go help somebody that's looking that's got an idea to disrupt if you've got the opportunity. I know we're all busy, but busy people know how to make a schedule. So if you're out there, Chris at one gen away.com and and and you just want to talk about anything one gen or even something different, man, I'd love to I'd love to help you get on your path to whatever you're gonna do.
Patrick: Awesome. All right. One last thing once we wrap up. We'd like to end the conversation with a quick question. I'm in the pursuit of a really good vanilla latte, so I disrupt myself and try different places all the time. Is there a is there a drink or a food choice which seems fitting for this conversation that you have like figured out the perfect drink? Like Chris has worked on this to figure this one out. He makes it at home or he goes somewhere gets it, or the perfect food item. What would you recommend to the audience? Is like, hey, here's the best whatever if you want to go get it.
Chris: Wow, that's a great question, man. I don't know. That's a good one. I would say if I were gonna pick a food item, it would have to be something on I like to eat, man. I love to eat. And I would say a perfect like lasagna. I love Italian food. My wife's Italian and Lebanese. Or a perfect grape leaf. So those are the two, man. Grape my wife makes grape leaves like they did in Lebanon.
Patrick: Really?
Chris: And if you can find that, that's yeah, yeah. So she makes her own. And it's really hard to find that the lemon juice and the grape leaves just right, you know. So those are two of my favorites in the world, and lasagna, and I am I'm I'm gluten-free, and my wife figured out how to make lasagna with gluten-free noodles. That is just unbelievable. And so that that's what I would look like. So they're both unique, and I think that's what disruptors are. We offer We operate in unique ways, you know what I mean? And so
Patrick: And I love it too, 'cause the best ones are right there in your own kitchen. That's awesome.
Chris: Yeah, Lebanese and Italian, man. I married well.
Patrick: Yes, y yes, you did, my friend. Well hey Chris, thanks so much for joining us. I really appreciate it. I appreciate all that you're doing, let us letting us share your story with other folks. And just you're right, we're we're one generation away from a lot of things if we don't choose to continue to pass that torch forward and make it better.
Chris: Thanks, Patrick, for your time. And once again, man, thanks for all you're doing and and I'm grateful, extremely grateful.
