Jump in and Swim with the Sharks: Christian Farioli’s Unconventional Approach to Embracing Challenges | Prof. Christian Farioli

Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome back to Push To Be More. I'm your host, Matt Edmundson, and we are about to dive into another deep exploration of what fuels this journey called life. Yes, we are. Joining me today, I have an exciting and an extinguished guest, Professor Christian Farioli. We're going to be delving into his unique life experiences.

That's he's had to push through the way he recharges his batteries and what he's doing to be more. Now don't forget, you can find all the detailed show notes and complete transcripts on our website at pushtobemore. com. So anything from today comes open. You think, I'd like to know a little bit more about that.

It's going to all be on the website, pushtobemore. com. Just check out the page with Professor Christian. you'll be able to get all the links and All that sort of good stuff. But of course, if you are signed up to our newsletter. We're just going to email that to [00:01:00] you automatically. It's just going to come straight through to your inbox.

And so if you've not signed up for that yet, go check out the website, pushtobemore. com and you will be able to sign up to that easy as pie. Oh yes. Now this episode is proudly brought to you by Podjunction, the company that helps you build your business with podcasting. Oh yes. It's the magic behind the scenes of this show and countless other shows The less entrepreneurs and business leaders like you and me amplify our voices through our own podcasts.

But you might be thinking, why on earth would I want to do that? Why would I wanna start a podcast? Let me tell you, podcasting has been nothing short of transformational for me and my business. It's opened incredible doors. It's created incredible communities. I've made some extraordinary friends, made a lot of money with podcasting, not going to lie.

And it's given me a platform that I never knew that I could have really. So you are definitely going to want to [00:02:00] check it out as a business tool for you, but I get it. The technical stuff, it can feel daunting, the distribution the production. Who in the right mind wants to do production?

The whole thing. Nightmare, that's where Podjunction comes in. They are in effect your backstage crew that makes sure your show goes on flawlessly. You get to do what you love, engaging with incredible people, having amazing conversations like we're going to have today, and Podjunction gets to take care of all the other stuff.

So if you've been wondering whether podcasting is your missing puzzle piece in your business strategy, and I think it probably is, it's time to have a chat with them. Go check it out at podjunction. com. www. podjunction. com. That's www. podjunction. com. They are doing some great stuff. They've also actually, there's a podcast called www.

podjunction. com. I host it with Sadaf who heads up www. podjunction. com. And it's great. It's a new podcast all about how to use podcasting to grow your business which one of our guests described as very meta. So check it out if you're into podcasting, go see www. podjunction. com. [00:03:00] Now let's talk about today's guest, Professor Christian Farioli.

He is the digital marketing professor who's dazzled Google to NASA, schooled thousands across the globe, and boosted brands like Ferrari into the digital stratosphere. I would love to work with Ferrari, not gonna lie. With a saga spanning Oracle to Dubai's Agency of the Future, and even having a bestseller under his belt, his magic blends tech savvy with storytelling in the digital realm.

He really is the professor. Oh, yes. It's great to have you on the show Professor Christian. Thanks for coming on, man. How are we doing?

Prof. Christian Farioli: Thank you so much, Matt. And I must say that you are one of the very few British person which can pronounce correctly my name and surname. So kudos for you.

Matt Edmundson: Thank you very much. If only that meant I was fluent in Italian.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Ah, there we are. There we are. That's the secret.

Matt Edmundson: It is. You know what? Italian is the best. [00:04:00] is for me, obviously, English is the language that I speak. It's what I grew up with. But if there was one language that I wish I could speak fluently, it would be Italian. It just sounds such a beautiful, expressive language. And, maybe one day.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Very nice. For me, if there is a language I would like to speak fluently would be English. Because after so many years studying and speaking and teaching, I still consider myself a spaghetti English language.

Matt Edmundson: Ah no, not at all. If I spoke Italian the way you speak English, I'd be very happy. Let me tell you, very happy. So welcome to the show. Whereabouts in the world are you? You are Italian, but are you actually in Italy?

Prof. Christian Farioli: No, I'm not in Italy. I live in Dubai for the last 17 years.

Matt Edmundson: Oh, wow. And what do you do over in Dubai?

Prof. Christian Farioli: here and there,

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, just a little bit.

Prof. Christian Farioli: actually, I set up a digital marketing company in 2010, and I was a [00:05:00] pioneer, since there was not even the license mentioning digital marketing available back in the days. And at the same time, I've been teaching digital marketing to large organization and for the last 12 years, as you mentioned in my very kind description.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, no, absolutely. And it must be fun in Dubai. I've been to Dubai. Oh, I can't remember how many times, a couple of times. My sister, lives over in that part of the world, she teaches in the school over there. And I just remember the first time going to the airport in Dubai and thinking the airport was massive.

It was like a city in its own right, wasn't it? It's just unbelievable how big that thing was. But yeah, I loved it. Enjoyed my time in Dubai. A great place, can see why you live there.

Prof. Christian Farioli: I must say that's a nice place and there are also so many British people. In fact, even the plugs, so the electricity plugs are British, so there is no at all for you guys.

Matt Edmundson: Absolutely.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Built by British for British,

Matt Edmundson: Absolutely. It's a secret, no one knows. So let's open with a [00:06:00] standard starting question. As this show is brought to you the whole world by Podjunction, the company that helps businesses grow with podcasting. if you had your own podcast. Like an interview style podcast like this, and you could have anybody on as a guest from your past or even your present, but someone that's had a big impact on your life.

Who would be a guest on your show and why?

Prof. Christian Farioli: right? So I've been in a lot of real real life events paneling sessions, interviewing people, et cetera. But I must say that the one that make the massive impact in my life has been always the one and only Anthony Robbins,

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: sure that I'm not the only one that changes life forever and ever, but that would be really the biggest changing moment that I did in my life.

It's when I got his book and then many years later, I got the chance to participate in one of his events, actually in London, it was that. And at the time I was already based in Dubai, so I decided to took a flight [00:07:00] and go to London to attend one of his events and and then back to Dubai. And then after one or two years, I attended other events of him in Rome.

So this was the first time that he was was having a public event in my home country, which also was was nice to see that.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Now, Tony Robbins is quite a popular answer as is my dad or Jesus. The sort of the three key figures that a lot of people want to talk to. I'm curious what was the book that you read that changed your life?

Prof. Christian Farioli: It was in Italian, but actually it was a translation of Unleash the Power Within,

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: which actually was the the starting point of everyone. When you meet Tony the first time, it's typically one of his book

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the ones he's famous for, isn't it? Awaken the Giant Within sorry, Unleashed Power Within. Was it Awaken the Giant? I got different countries, different

Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Yes, exactly.

Matt Edmundson: So you said you mentioned that book changed your life in what way did it change your life?

Where were you? What did the book do for you? And where is that? Set you [00:08:00] on course for. Yep.

Prof. Christian Farioli: a student, so I was studying my IT engineering degree. And technology has been always my passion since when I was three years old, pretty much. I had a screwdriver in my hands and unscrewing things. Technically in my mind, I was fixing things, even though my dad used to fix things after me.

And and then my parents realized that I was going to become an engineer. Even without knowing what it was, I got the idea and actually I did, I follow up on on it until I was in in the university, almost finishing my career. And and then I decided that in my life in Italy, it was nice, it was comfortable.

I love technology. I was even setting up computers for my friends assembling PCs and stuff like this. But at the same time, I felt that there was something missing. I don't know. I was like in those period where you feel that. Okay, life cannot be only like this. It's beautiful, but I want to find out more.

And that's why [00:09:00] I got the spirit of adventure by reading the book. I was not finished the book yet, where I decided to go abroad and studied six months abroad. Which is something very unusual on my own, since I'm an Italian son. I don't have siblings and you can imagine my parents, they were saying, oh, you're not going to go abroad.

You're going to need to stay home with mom and dad,

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: But

Matt Edmundson: I could almost hear the conversation in my head, actually, as you're talking, I can imagine what that's like.

Prof. Christian Farioli: and and then clearly one day I spoke at the university with the Erasmus project office. I went home and then my parents, I told them that there was this idea that you could go abroad, et cetera, et cetera. But actually, because it was so late to apply for the program, so in the school, they told me, look, you have only one day to give us an answer because we are really way late and there is no other possibility.

So basically I had one day to decide and convince my parents.

Matt Edmundson: [00:10:00] Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And actually in the evening, so during dinner time, I just dropped the seeds that there is this program to go and study abroad in the university, et cetera. And they were really looking at me like they knew that something was cooking in my head. And then they told me, but where are you going? Are you going in the UK?

So you're going to learn English. Not actually, since the UK was not available anymore. Where are you going to go? Yeah, there is a space in Spain called Valencia. Where is Valencia? Where are you going to go to Spain? You don't need to speak Spanish. Yeah, but this is an opportunity. La. And my mother, that she knows me a lot, she asked me, okay, when she, when he say like this, he's already convinced.

So when you need to give the answer and stuff like this there is a plenty of time, actually until tomorrow lunchtime. And I create a kind of a mess in my place, but finally they say, okay, if you're convinced, et cetera, [00:11:00] you're going to go and that's fine. And then I will say, look, there is another guy that is from my university.

There is gonna look after me, et cetera, et cetera, which I have no clue if was going to take care of me or not, et cetera. And finally, only two weeks later. I took the flight, and I went out. By the way, as soon as I land, I keep continuing reading the book of Tony Robbins, because that was my moment of change.

And and for the next few weeks, I was keep reading it. And again, I was building up in my mind this this urge of of change my life completely. And and that's it. And then that has been the huge, the biggest pivotal moment in my entire life.

Matt Edmundson: That's a really fascinating story. Really fascinating story. I love this phrase, the spirit of adventure which is, what happened. So do you think if you'd not read Tony Robbins book, you wouldn't have gone to Spain?

Prof. Christian Farioli: I'm not sure, but actually there was a little bit smaller spark that triggered the Tony Robbins book, because actually in Italy, when I was 18 [00:12:00] years old, I attended a three, three or four days training. It was a memo training. So a training designed to help you memorize more stuff. And it was done by somebody that was one of Tony Robbins assistants back in the days in the United States, and he was the one that was bringing in Italy the first ideas of motivation, leadership, et cetera, something that it was not even heard of.

And and because of that, because I participated at his event, I start opening up my mind. But, like one or two, yeah, like one or two years later, I don't remember exactly how long time later, because of that, I received a postcard from his company and was advertising the book of Tony Robbins.

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And this was the first time in my life that I decided that I'm going to go to the to the library and I'm going to buy a book.

First time in my

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: because in my family, typically my mother was [00:13:00] buying my school books et cetera. I was a little bit of a spoiled kid, I must say, but this is the first time that I decided I think that I'm going to buy this book. I found like the holy grail, this is attracting me. I never got interested in any book at all, not even in the books or university or school books at all.

And so this was, for some reason, there was something in it. Now to think if I wouldn't got into it, maybe I would have got into it in a later stage because then more and more, there's been more ideas around the concept of motivation, Tony Robbins and few other guys that they learn from Tony.

So for me, just a matter of time, we are destiny. I believe in the destiny. That's if it wasn't like that, I was gonna, I was going to go somewhere else. And at the same time, because in the year 2000, I was in a holiday with my parents in Dubai. Again, I decided that I was going to come back.

And this was another funny story, because I was in the beach. And first of all, [00:14:00] I'm grateful to my parents with my whole life because they allow me to study in a great university, to have the right education, and as well to travel every now and then with them and and visiting and discovering new places, different capitals of the world, et cetera.

But at the same time, when I've been to Dubai in the year 2000, so I realized that this place was going to be so much different than any other place I've ever seen in my

When you come from Milan, you're happy. You go to the capitals of Europe and you think wow, big things. And we've been to New York, big wow, Miami, et cetera.

Still when I've been to Dubai, it was another level wow. And we are talking about the year 2000, but there was almost nothing. And then one morning, I was just sitting on an hammock lay down next to the beach and my mother told me, so Christian, do you like Dubai? And I say, look, mom, this place is so cool that I need to finish my university.

I need to learn English. I need to build myself a curriculum and then I'm going to be back here and I'm going to make myself rich. That's what [00:15:00] I told her, just like that. And my mother say, what are you doing? You crazy? In a funny way, she told me, are you going to come here and working with the Bedouins?

In a

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: way, clearly not offending anyone.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And then my father saw the conversation and say, what he say? And my mother say, your son, the crazy one, say that he's going to come back here and working with the Bedouins, in a very funny way. And of course, my father was a little bit surprised. But then I say, look, Christian, if you stick with your plan, you have my blessing. And my mother was like no, he cannot come here. He needs to stay home with mom. I'm going to take care of him until he's going to be 60 years old and beyond. There's a typical Italian mom style, but actually this is what this is what they did. With the idea is that whatever put in your mind you just willing to do it.

You do it. You put your energy, you do it. And that's what I did. So a few years later, I find myself in 2007, [00:16:00] taking a one way flight to Dubai, leaving a huge company because I was working for Oracle for the previous five years. And then I decided I need to go to Dubai. That's going to be my mission. And that's it.

I tried to relocate inside Oracle. I couldn't find any. Any way to do it since they were telling me, oh, you need to speak Arabic fluent, and all these things. And I say, okay, I'm not gonna stop. I quit and I took one wave flight from Madrid to Dubai without passing through Italy.

Matt Edmundson: Wow. Fantastic.

That's a great story. And I'm really intrigued Christian, because I, being British, we have a certain, understanding of Italia and the sort of the family structure in Italy. And one of the things that I think I've always admired is Italy feels like that there is this sort of strong family bond, especially between a mother and her son.

Now, this may be influenced by Hollywood and, certain stereotypes, but [00:17:00] it's the impression that I have that actually Family is a big deal in Italy and quite rightly I'm a big fan of family myself. I'm not going to lie.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And actually the real Italian family is much worse than many Hollywood movies.

Matt Edmundson: This is interesting. This is fascinates me because here you are the sort of almost like the prodigal son, aren't you? You're heading off to foreign lands. How has that affected you? The family. So obviously, modern technology, you can be in contact as often as and as little as you like with video technology these days.

But I'm just I'm curious how that has impacted your family with you moving so far away. Sure. Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: myself, as I realized that I have a, I have an explorer mindset. So for me, I find myself so comfortable in new places, new location where I've never been before. And it's very unique because most of the people, they tend to do always the same, to see the same thing, et cetera, et cetera.

With, for me, I feel comfortable in the new things. For my [00:18:00] parents, I'm comfortable. It was not so easy because until I was in Europe I was in in Ireland in in Spain, I was like a couple of hours plane from Italy. When I go to the Middle East, I'm like six and a half hours flight. And then they see it, what's going to happen to you.

If you feel sick, that's a typical question of Italian moms. If you get sick, what are you going to do? I'm going to go to a hospital, I'm going to go to a doctor, to a clinic. Yes, but it's in another country. Yeah, there's going to be doctors, there's going to be clinics the same way that there are in Italy and everywhere else.

But that's what more traditional Italian family think about. And what are you going to eat how are you going to find the good food? That's also another biggest problem of Italians. actually I was extremely surprised in 2000, in the year 2000, where I was here in Dubai and we went to a few different restaurants and the food was amazing. We tried different kitchen, different style, even an Italian restaurant in Dubai in the year 2000 was [00:19:00] amazing. And then for Italians back in the days, it was not easy. To find what for us it's considered good food, since you go everywhere and nobody seems to know how to cook pasta. And we say, something so easy, how is it possible nobody knows how to cook some simple spaghetti?

And then in Dubai, everything was great. Even spaghetti was cooked perfectly. So that's why I realized it cannot be. In a country where you have a perfectly white sand, great weather, swimming pool chilled because it was a little bit hot outside.

Golf course with the grass greener than Scotland.

On top, they know how to cook pasta. So this was a dream.

Matt Edmundson: I love that. They know how to cook pasta. Yeah, it's one of those lessons I think I was saying before we hit the record button, there's a young Italian lady is going to come stay with us this weekend. Part of the fam really. She's lovely. Yeah. And I remember when

Prof. Christian Farioli: make sure you buy either Barilla or Dececco pasta. Otherwise, she's going to look at [00:20:00] you like this braids is doesn't understand life.

Matt Edmundson: I think that's what happened when she stayed with us the first time.

She's no. This is how you cook pasta. And we're like, okay. I'm very sorry. I'm very sorry to insult your food staple there, but yeah, it's brilliant. So you've been living in Dubai then for 12 years.

Prof. Christian Farioli: 17 years

Matt Edmundson: Oh 70, jeez so my math is all wrong. So you've been there 17 years so before you hit Dubai, it feels like you had that adventure spirit wandering around and now you've hit Dubai and you're I don't need to go anywhere, I'm quite happy where I am and now I'm starting to build.

So you went wide and now you're going high, has it all been play sailing? I guess one of the questions I want to get to is, we like to ask guests what is some, what's maybe a significant challenge that you've had to push through? And I'm curious what that would be for you living in such an idyllic climate.

You've got the pasta, the green grass, the gulf, the pools, but I'm assuming it's not all sunshine and rainbows or maybe it is. I dunno. I'm curious.[00:21:00]

Prof. Christian Farioli: at the beginning it takes a little bit to adapt, because even though I had a great spirit of adventure, when I came here, I jumped, and then I discovered, okay, now what am I going to do?

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: I came here without a job. And then on the first day when when I was in the taxi from from the airport to an hotel, the taxi driver was asking me if I was coming in Dubai for an exhibition, for a plastic exhibition.

And I would say, no, actually I just relocated to Dubai. And I don't have a job. And the guy say, okay, that's normal. A lot of people are doing that nowadays. So I was thinking, that's nice. That's the first good reassuring point. And then I asked, so do you think that I'm going to find a job here? And then he look around and he say, look how many buildings that are under construction.

In one of them, there's going to be some office that's going to give you a job. Okay. That's a good point. I like the attitude.

Matt Edmundson: Yep. Yep.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And and that's how I started. Then I started meeting people, et cetera. And then I was pleasantly surprised to see that everyone was [00:22:00] just recently arrived. So when I was asking people, so how long time have you been here?

And they were telling me, Oh, I've been here a week. I was like, wow, I just here one day. Oh nice. So when somebody was in Dubai for one month, it was like, wow, you are the savvy wizard with one month of experience. I came here with 31 years old and everyone was pretty much 30 years old.

30 to 35, the massive amount of population 30, 35 years old. So it was like going holiday with smart people, with your peers. And then the first day, when you are in holiday, you just introduce yourself to everyone else. But this was not an holiday. This was like a city. So everyone you were introducing to, they were people just arrived.

This was a great welcoming, even though it was a massive cultural clash, because you see it's the Middle East, people, Arab guys, dressing in a white dress, where typically you, I saw it before only in [00:23:00] the movies, and a lot of people from India, from Bangladesh, Pakistan, so it was it was a little bit of a cultural clash.

But at the same time, the city was so full of expatriates that they were welcoming me. And then it was this idea, this global idea of paid forward. So whoever just I just arrived and people were helping me, were showing me around, were telling me where to go, et cetera. And then I was doing the same with the next person that they were coming to Dubai.

I was showing them around explaining the, how was the good things to do, et cetera. So it was very welcoming. But I know for sure that some people came here for a project for their company based in Europe, whatever. And after maybe three months, they started becoming homesick.

They want to come back because they were missing the typical tradition, family, friends, relatives, et cetera. For me, I was happy enough and I told all of my friends, look, come here and visit me. Stay with me as long as you like this is an amazing place. But again, not so many people came because again, some [00:24:00] person is more keen to, to live abroad, to experience new things.

Some other, they were still reluctant. That's it. That's about life. Everyone is built in a different way,

Matt Edmundson: so what you how did you deal with loneliness when you first moved out there? I

Prof. Christian Farioli: I never really felt alone when I was traveling because I lived as well in California, in San Diego and it's always the first few days that they are a little bit stronger because it's a complete change of you don't have any more certain reference point.

You go to a new country, new place, new language, new people, new culture, new food, new everything. So at the beginning, it's oh that's a big things, but nobody push me there. So I'm the one that decided to go. And for me, what I've been doing all of my life is that when you want to learn how to swim, you jump in the middle of the ocean with the sharks.

You're going to learn pretty fast.

Matt Edmundson: love that. Yeah, but it's true. Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And that's what I, and that's what I did [00:25:00] when I joined Oracle. Actually, I'm an IT engineer, but after working one year in the field that I studied, I was passionate for. I discovered that there were not much money to be made in technology. Maybe I was born too early. If I was born in years later, I would have stayed in technology all of my life and being working for Google or Facebook or something like this.

But actually I decided to move into sales. Passionate about technology, do technology all of my life, moving to sales, where I know nothing and have no clue what I'm going to do. And that's where I start. So this was the first jump in the ocean with the sharks. And I didn't start with a small company, easygoing, friendly.

I start with Oracle, which is a notorious, hardcore sales

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: And there is no chance if you don't bring 100 percent of your monthly target for two months in a row, you're out. With 90 percent you get a big warning, with 80 percent you're out. So it's something that you have to start [00:26:00] and jump and swim very fast.

So I got used to adapt. And even that, back in the days, I remember I was a little bit shy initially. Even to make cold call to

Something that nobody has been prepared for. But again, my trick was, I'm going to make the phone number and then once I hear the phone, my brain is going to rewire and it's going to figure out what to do.

Out of the panic mode, if you jump, then you need to figure out how to fly. If you make a phone call and somebody answer, you have no time to, you need to do it. And out of that, boom I become a salesperson, I got awards, et cetera, et cetera. And the same happened with Dubai. First I go, then I'll figure it out.

Matt Edmundson: I like that

Prof. Christian Farioli: that has been always my way,

Matt Edmundson: I really, I like that idea of it sounds to me like what you've done is you take a process, Like cold calling which sends shivers down many people's spine, doesn't it? It's like I don't, in fact, just calling people if you're under [00:27:00] the age of 25 sends shivers down your spine.

It seems these days, you just don't want to call people. And so it's a really interesting thing. That you did because you can worry about the whole process, like the whole beginning to end and it can seem a little bit overwhelming. But what you did was you just concentrated on the first step, which is I'll just, let's just dial the number.

And then we, I like your phrase, jump into the middle of the ocean with the shocks because someone's got to answer. You've got to figure out what to say. Yeah. Did it?

Prof. Christian Farioli: I knew as well that worst case, what's going to happen? That somebody's going to shoot me in the head? No, going to maybe look stupid, look silly. They're not going to buy from me, whatever, but I'm still going to be alive. So what can happen? That's why I've been always going for for experience and for trials rather than for massive preparation and studying and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

Actually,

Matt Edmundson: It sounds to me like I was always, I've, the way I've always thought about this, Christian, is there's different types of people that says if you're on one side of the city and [00:28:00] you are in a car and you've got to get to the other side, there's the person, this is obviously pretty sad now, but there's the person that will get all the maps out, will look at it, analyze it, figure it out, figure out the most optimal route, what they're going to do, and if they come across a traffic light, this is the process.

And then there's the other guy, which sounds to me to be much more like yourself, which is I'm just going to get in the car. I think I'm going that way somehow, and I'm just going to figure it out along the way. Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: like the first version. In my previous life, because when you study IT engineering technical fields I even had the five years in a technical college starting with computers, et cetera. So you tend to hyperanalyze absolutely everything until one day I discovered two things.

One, we're girls. When you discover girls, then your life as a human changes a little bit. And the second, I discover sometimes drinks. So this was the combo that makes me think sometimes, [00:29:00] stop hyper thinking, just do it.

Matt Edmundson: Just have a go,

Prof. Christian Farioli: the third was Tony Robbins book, et cetera, et

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Tony. Appreciate the help. So I really enjoyed this idea of there was a book, which I'm trying to remember the title of the book now, which in effect had the same premise. It's no, just do this. Just a little bit here and then see what happens, just follow it along.

There's a wonderful quote from the movie I Bought a Zoo. So I Bought a Zoo with Matt Damon, which I, we love as a family, great family movie, where he talks about 20 seconds of insane courage can change your life. And it's just that, just focus on doing something for the next 20 seconds, a little bit of insane courage and you'll never, you never know what, what will happen really.

So do you still live, but.

Prof. Christian Farioli: make me realize that I want to watch that movie and I completely forgot. So just now you make me remind it.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Thank you so much,

Matt Edmundson: No problem. Watch the movie. It's a great movie. And I always remember that line. There's 20 seconds of insane courage. Is this a philosophy you still live by today? [00:30:00] Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: indeed. Because Dubai is also the city of opportunities. It's full of opportunity seekers. Because okay, there are also extremely wealthy people that they don't need to think. They just live and spend money and that's it. But it's a city where if you're smart, if you grab, if you can recognize and grab opportunities, there are so many every day.

And and that's what I live for. For me, it's a passion to enjoy great conversation with a stranger like we're here now. One day ago, I met a stranger. I never met you. I didn't have the pleasure to meet you. And now we're having an amazing conversation. Again I decided this year to be a little bit more open to podcast, to interview, etc.

And I said, okay, I'm not going to be just more open. I'm going to do it. I'm going to take action. Boom boom. And here we are.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: I still live like that. You tend to be a little bit more relaxed, just to be a little bit less adventurous, let's say like that. [00:31:00] Now, even when I need to travel to deliver trainings in different countries, it takes me a little bit longer to do it.

Where before, yes, I'm going to do it immediately. You can fly today, yes, immediately, let's do it. Just with, I understand that with age, there are certain things that change a little bit. But the main dangerous part of my brain sometimes it's still it's

Matt Edmundson: Yeah. No, absolutely. They still apply. It's fascinating. Hey, with all this going on then, how do you. How do you recharge your batteries? How do you make, how do you make sure spiritually, physically, mentally, everything's all cooking, and all point in the same direction?

What's your secrets there?

Prof. Christian Farioli: I have been doing a lot of experiments on myself. That's, sometimes my my logic brain kick in and then when I need to try some solution, I just experiment. What's going to happen? And because of sometime I work extremely hard. I have my own company, so I have the luxury of deciding if and when I can work.

[00:32:00] But at the same time, I know that the more I produce the happier and wealthier I become and my family can enjoy as well. Sometime I work like from nine o'clock in the morning or nine 30 or something like this until midnight or even after sometime, even two, three o'clock at night. So I need to have some little breaks.

And the way that I have some little breaks every now and then, I just go to another room, and then I play Fortnite with

Matt Edmundson: Okay, I was not expecting that as the answer. Okay

Prof. Christian Farioli: that's for me the, to clear my mind, because it's not an extremely violent game. Actually, I start looking into it to have something to play with my kids. And it seems that it was a common game that people can play together, et cetera. I decided, okay, that's going to be my family gathering activity since I need to choose something that my kids can do and I can do it with them.

And at least playing video games is [00:33:00] something that I was passionate since childhood. And by doing that, basically I relaxed my mind. like my completely disconnect. From the business compartmental things, just think easily, spend a little bit of time with my kids, et cetera. And if it's maybe half an hour and that's it.

So then with the brain completely fresh, I come back to the computer and boom, and I can produce more and I can create more stuff et cetera, launch new ventures and so on. So it's as funny as it sounds for me, playing for night is my relaxing moment.

Matt Edmundson: that's brilliant. You know what Christian, we've had we've done quite a few of these shows and I, in all the years I've done podcasting there are some common answers that you expect to hear from people, I suppose in some ways, like a lot of people say, I'll go walking or I'll do, I'll go to the gym or I meditate or I go to church or, all these other things that people do.

No one has ever said to me before, I play Fortnite. That's definitely a first, which I think is brilliant.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Believe me, I try all of the other things that you [00:34:00] mentioned, I tested it, but it's not for me. To have a nice walk, it's nice. And now because I have some some little bits of high blood pressure, et cetera, I have to every now and then. I play paddle. I used to play a lot of sports in the past, but actually what makes me totally relaxed is Fortnite.

Matt Edmundson: That's brilliant. I'm going to try that. I'm going to go and after this, I'm going to, when my wife's back, I'm going to go and say, babe, I think I'm going to buy an X Box and play Fortnite just to,

Prof. Christian Farioli: There we are. It's going to be the best decision of your life, and you'll be happy because you're going to be at home. You're not going to go out doing crazy stuff. So you're going to be under her control. And that's it. Then let me know.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's really funny. Actually, joking aside, I don't, I stopped playing computer games in the eighties when they started getting more hard to do. And a few about two years ago, my daughter and I, we I've done a trip with my kids. I wanted to do a trip, like [00:35:00] a big trip with my kids just, and so I said to my daughter, where do you want to go?

And we, she wanted to do the drive along the PCH, the Pacific Coastal Highway, from just south of LA up through to San Francisco along the coast. She wanted to do that. And so we did that and we ended up in San Francisco for a few days and we came across this arcade in San Francisco and it was an old school arcade.

It was just full of old arcade And I said to Zoe, my daughter, I said, we have got to go in here and have a look around. And they had like pinball machines from the forties, just like amazing stuff going on. And then I heard a theme tune in my head and I just stopped and I went, no, no way. And she's what?

I said, I can hear the music. She goes, what? I said, the Star Wars music, because when I grew up, there was this sort of Atari Star Wars arcade game, which I loved. I spent all my time down at the [00:36:00] arcade, just playing this game. And it was the one with a sort of a stick fighter thing, and it was just great.

And I loved it. And I heard the music and I said, please tell me they've got that here. And I walked around the corner and it was a pinball machine. I was like, Oh, that's not it. Nevermind. But then we carried on looking around and lo and behold, I just came across it. And I was like, I was just beside myself and I was like, I, whatever cash I had I turned it all into dollar bills and we just played, I played the game for hours just reliving my childhood and it's the one game, Christian, the one game where I've played it and I've beat my daughter.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Well done. Well

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, she beats me on everything else but that one, apparently the muscle memory is still there, could get one of those, maybe I'd, if I could buy a machine I know I've been looking for them actually, the old Star Wars Atari arcade machines. If you know anyone that's got one, let me know at a reasonable price, because that would be my thing.

I'd play that rather than Fortnite, but I get the

Prof. Christian Farioli: Very nice.

Matt Edmundson: Very good. [00:37:00] So what does the future look like? What's more look like for you?

Prof. Christian Farioli: For me personally, I'm more and more involved into public speaking and training, since basically I'm a person of influence for my company and for a few other startups that I'm working on. And so basically being again, more public figure. Since AI is taking over heavily, massively, inesorably, unstoppably, and also thanks because of me, because I'm one of those facilitating more AI, more technology, more innovation.

At the same time, I realized that one of the very few things missing just to, to keep ourself relevant is to keep becoming bigger and bigger public figures. So personal brand is one of the things that I started doing with myself like a decade ago. And I believe that's still going to be there.

You know that you can get a better reply, cheaper and faster from Cristian Farioli AI. But eventually you still prefer to have it from me because of the [00:38:00] entertainment, the emotion, the emotional interaction, and because of what Professor Christian Farioli has been achieved and represent for you, et cetera, et cetera.

So you still enjoy more my company rather than my AI version. That's why I believe that's what's going to come. And for myself again, I'm more involved as well with the startups because I see so many great potentials, but as well as I try long, long time ago, launching startup myself.

And back in the days I fail because I didn't have the experience, the capacity, the skill, the connection, a lot of other requirements. So now I'm helping other startup to succeed. But because they cannot afford my fees, I enter as an equity partner. So that's basically how I envision myself in the near future and in the far future.

Matt Edmundson: Fantastic. It's interesting listening to your story because I'm this is similar to my own in a lot of ways. I think, you get to a place or it [00:39:00] seems that a few of us get to this sort of place in business where we're like okay, I've done this and I figured all of this out.

And I'm in my, I just, I turned 50 last year, so I'm, I've gone to the second half of my life now. And you go this is interesting, isn't it? I've learned all of this stuff. And actually, what I want to do now is start investing and being part of other people's stuff. And I do ecommerce, ecommerce is my thing.

And so we invest in ecommerce businesses and get involved in those. So really interesting that you've got to, you're starting to do that similar thing and get involved in other people's companies and it's just, it's quite good fun, isn't it? And you get that sort of that buzz of it all again.

Helping people, coaching people. And I think it's just one of those things that we do as we get older, I think. And I, and quite rightly so too, and I enjoy it very much.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Yeah, indeed. Now we put our wisdom to work.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, finally. It's just, it's more, [00:40:00] it has to be more than grey hair, right? So listen we've got to the stage now where we are doing the question box. Oh, yes, as we wrap up. So here's the thing, Christian. I'm gonna flip through these. You're gonna tell me when to stop. When you tell me to stop, that's the question we're gonna look at.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Stop.

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: afraid the question maybe I'm not going to be able to answer. No

Matt Edmundson: no, I think you absolutely will. So actually this question has come up before on Push. It was asked to Heidi Richard, Heidi Renata, I think her name was. I really need to remember her surname. She's lovely from New Zealand, actually. Describe a simple pleasure.

Prof. Christian Farioli: That's an

Matt Edmundson: Playing Fortnite, I'm thinking is the answer.

Prof. Christian Farioli: that could be one, but let's just say for the audience something else. A simple pleasure for me is sharing knowledge with people.

Matt Edmundson: Okay.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Find myself because just to see those people [00:41:00] and you see sometimes even between my students, I got even CEOs of huge organizations and once they get to the wow moment, the haha moment, that's for me, it's wow, I've been able to make a change, to make an impact in those people, even though they have been seeing a lot.

Even a lot more than me because I got people sometime, even much older than myself. And so for me the fact that I can give back, that they can share my knowledge or something that I discover or something, et cetera, with individuals that they can put. That kind of knowledge into practice.

That's for me. It's a simple pleasure, like a rewarding recognition.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, I get that. I really get that. I think like I was saying, the older I've got, the more important it is to be able to do that, to pass on the knowledge and to help people. I think the phrase you used earlier was to pay it forward to realize that, there are people in the same place I was 20 years ago, but there were people who were kind to me at that point in their life and helped me in whatever way that was.

And so it's incumbent upon me to do the same. And so I [00:42:00] get that there's definitely pleasure in that. in doing that. And it just, it's pleasurable, but it's also quite satisfying, isn't it? It just feels almost godly in some respects to, to do that.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Yes. Yes, indeed.

Matt Edmundson: brilliant.

Prof. Christian Farioli: We're giving ourselves a pat on the back, but we need to do something to deserve it. Am I right? Okay. It's easy. I can give myself a pat on the back every minute, but that's going to make myself happy. For me, my ultimate happiness moment is that one.

Matt Edmundson: Yeah, no, fair play. Listen Christian, I've loved the conversation. It's been wonderful to meet you and just shoot the breeze a little bit. If people want to reach out to you, if they want to connect with you, find out more about you, what's the best way to do that?

Prof. Christian Farioli: The easiest way, you just go to farioli. com, so like my surname, dot com, and there you will find all of the companies, social, my best selling book, et cetera, et cetera, that you can that you can think of. And although I've been teaching and speaking at so [00:43:00] many huge conferences, et cetera, including NASA and Google and the World Economic Forum, I'm still a very humble person.

So I always reply to people. So please contact me directly. The easy way is if you contact me through LinkedIn, because at least I can understand who you are, which company you are working for, etc. And that's it. Otherwise, if you have really the need for for something that you believe that we can work together, etc.

You can even send me a direct WhatsApp message. Again, from farioli. com, you will get all of my contacts.

Matt Edmundson: Fantastic. Farioli. com. F A R I O L I. com. We will of course link to that in the show notes as well as Christian's LinkedIn. That's all going to be there. But listen, you're a legend. Absolutely loved it. Really appreciate you coming on the show. I love the Fortnite thing and it's rekindled, actually what it's done is rekindled my desire to go and buy the Star Wars Atari game.

So I need to go and figure out, I need to go back onto

Prof. Christian Farioli: Go for it.

Matt Edmundson: find one. Yeah, [00:44:00] absolutely. I'll really appreciate it. Yeah. That's lovely. Wonderful to meet you. Thank you for coming on. Yeah.

Prof. Christian Farioli: My big brother from my other mother. I'm glad that we met, even though in a podcast hopefully one day, either I'm going to pass by UK or you're going to pass by Dubai. And we'll be glad to, to have a personal chat

Matt Edmundson: absolutely. No, I love it. And you can teach me how to cook pasta, which would be great.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Anytime.

Matt Edmundson: what a wonderful conversation. Absolutely. A massive round of applause. In fact, oh, I can do this. Hang on. Let me play. There we go. Massive round of applause. I love the sound desk we've got.

Prof. Christian Farioli: Hi, amazing.

Matt Edmundson: Absolutely.

Of course, huge thanks today also for the show sponsor Podjunction. For all you podcasters out there, all you people thinking about podcasting to grow your business, check them out, podjunction. com. [00:45:00] Now remember, keep pushing to be more. Don't forget to follow the show wherever you get your podcasts from because we've got some more great conversations up our sleeve and I don't want you to miss any of them.

And in case no one has told you yet today, let me be the first. You are awesome, yes you are, created awesome, it's just a burden you have to bear. Professor Christian has to bear it, I've got to bear it, you've got to bear it as well. Now push to be more is brought to life by Podjunction, as I've said. And for transcripts or show notes, make sure you check out the website, pushtobemore.com and a big kudos to the team that makes this show possible.

Sadaf Beynon, Tanya Hutsuliak, and a shout out to Josh Edmundson for at fantastic theme music that always gets my feet are tapping. So from Professor Christian and from me, thank you so much for joining us. Have a fantastic week wherever you are in the world. I will see you next time, bye for now.

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