Episode #2 - Traveling With Connection: An Interview With Chris Hulse

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:12

Welcome back to episode number two of Speaking From The Heart, and

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this is the inaugural episode in which I'll start interviewing guests every

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now and then on the podcast, and I'm really excited for our very first guest

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that we'll have today, Chris Hulse.

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Chris is originally from Adams County, Pennsylvania, in which he

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works at Mondelez International as a Customer Service Team Lead.

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He is a Distinguished Toastmaster, which is the highest recognition within

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Toastmasters International, and right now serves as the Club Growth Director

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for District 38 Toastmasters, covering Central and South New Jersey along

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with Eastern Pennsylvania, and we'll soon be taking the role of Program

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Quality Director in the next few weeks.

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He also has his own podcast.

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He is the host of the of the radio show Off the Beaten Path With Chris Hulse.

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It broadcasts every Monday at 4:30 PM Eastern Standard Time on WWDB-AM

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Radio 860 in Philadelphia, but it's also on the website and you'll hear

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a lot more about in today's episode.

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He loves to travel; you're going to hear a lot of that, especially part

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of this episode in which he's been to all 50 states and every county in

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30 states, and he's currently working on a book documenting those travels.

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Let's get to the episode.

Joshua: 00:01:33

We are here now with Chris Hulse.

Joshua: 00:01:35

Chris, welcome to the show.

Chris Hulse: 00:01:37

Well, thanks for having me, Josh.

Chris Hulse: 00:01:39

I'm really happy to be here.

Joshua: 00:01:40

I am too, and full disclosure for the audience, Chris and I have

Joshua: 00:01:44

known each other for a very long time, and I'm really excited that you are

Joshua: 00:01:48

my very first guest on really the inaugural series of interviewing guests,

Joshua: 00:01:52

so I bestow that honor upon you.

Chris Hulse: 00:01:56

I'll take that honor and I'm honored to have that honor.

Joshua: 00:01:59

I really appreciate you taking some time to talk with me today and our

Joshua: 00:02:03

listeners as well, and I really want to start off with just tell us a little

Joshua: 00:02:08

bit about how you got started with the podcast, because I feel like you

Joshua: 00:02:12

explaining that might even help us a little bit with our conversation.

Chris Hulse: 00:02:17

There was another Toastmaster who, had his own radio show, and I think

Chris Hulse: 00:02:23

he's had his for about four years now, and he had always invited other Toastmasters

Chris Hulse: 00:02:27

to come on his show, and I've been on his show 10 times and I think after about the

Chris Hulse: 00:02:32

eighth time, he had said to me, "you know, you're really, you're really good at doing

Chris Hulse: 00:02:37

this, would you be interested in having a whole half hour to yourself?", and I

Chris Hulse: 00:02:41

did that, and basically I was hooked, I said, "How do I do this every week?", I

Chris Hulse: 00:02:47

would love to have a forum to be able to talk about stuff and try to help people,

Chris Hulse: 00:02:55

inspire people, and he talked to a radio station in Philadelphia, WWDB, and really

Chris Hulse: 00:03:03

the all he wanted to know was, "What are you going to talk about?", and for me,

Chris Hulse: 00:03:05

because I'm well-traveled, I wanted to talk about that because I figured it would

Chris Hulse: 00:03:10

give me enough material to fill a bunch of episodes, and I love this experience

Chris Hulse: 00:03:17

because number one, I like to talk.

Chris Hulse: 00:03:20

I mean, and there's lots of us who who like to talk, but really when

Chris Hulse: 00:03:23

you have a radio show or a podcast, you have to really have a reason for

Chris Hulse: 00:03:29

doing it and, and a way to be able to organize into something that is going

Chris Hulse: 00:03:34

to be beneficial for other people.

Chris Hulse: 00:03:36

I figured with all this traveling I've done and the travel is really going to

Chris Hulse: 00:03:41

places that, like my title of my radio show Off The Beaten Path, I have had

Chris Hulse: 00:03:47

a following of going to these places and I thought, "Why not take all those

Chris Hulse: 00:03:52

experiences, turn 'em into a radio show and tell people about them?", and the

Chris Hulse: 00:03:57

feedback I have had since I've been doing this in January has been great.

Chris Hulse: 00:04:00

I have a following, like, I'm Casey Kasem or something, and that blows

Chris Hulse: 00:04:05

my mind because this has really been a dream of mine since I was a kid.

Joshua: 00:04:08

You do a lot of traveling, is it something that

Joshua: 00:04:10

you do just the United States?

Joshua: 00:04:13

If you do, tell us a few things about what you've learned in your travels.

Joshua: 00:04:18

I think that I'm really curious and I've been really wondering for a number of

Joshua: 00:04:22

years, how many experiences you've had that maybe fundamentally changed your

Joshua: 00:04:27

outlook just because you've met somebody or you got to experience something.

Chris Hulse: 00:04:32

Most of my travel has been domestic.

Chris Hulse: 00:04:33

I really haven't traveled much internationally.

Chris Hulse: 00:04:36

I've traveled so much domestically is because I belong to an organization

Chris Hulse: 00:04:40

where our goal is to be in every county in the United States, of

Chris Hulse: 00:04:45

which there's about 3,100 of them.

Chris Hulse: 00:04:48

Other than that, I love taking road trips, I love the whole experience of being in

Chris Hulse: 00:04:52

a car with other people, listening to music, jamming out, singing at the top

Chris Hulse: 00:04:58

of your lungs, eating food at different types of restaurants, whether it's a mom

Chris Hulse: 00:05:03

and pop or a truck stop, and you said about the experiences of other people.

Chris Hulse: 00:05:08

I've met people all over the country at one point, and this is when I was

Chris Hulse: 00:05:13

in college, I had actually reached out to people I had never met.

Chris Hulse: 00:05:17

I literally had met them by either posting something on a bulletin board,

Chris Hulse: 00:05:23

on a virtual bulletin board, or just met them through different groups I

Chris Hulse: 00:05:27

was in, and people would always say, "Oh, hey, if you're ever in Texas, if

Chris Hulse: 00:05:31

you're ever in Minnesota, if you're ever in California, just let me know

Chris Hulse: 00:05:35

and, and you can crash on my couch."

Chris Hulse: 00:05:36

and that's definitely what I did.

Chris Hulse: 00:05:39

The thing is, we all are Americans, we're all in the same country, but,

Chris Hulse: 00:05:43

everybody has had different experiences.

Chris Hulse: 00:05:47

They come to the table with different things, different food, different

Chris Hulse: 00:05:53

insights, different emotions, and what I've learned with everybody I've

Chris Hulse: 00:06:00

met over my entire life is everybody can teach you something, whether it

Chris Hulse: 00:06:05

helps you in your current situation or something you can stick in your

Chris Hulse: 00:06:09

back pocket, until you need to use it.

Chris Hulse: 00:06:11

All of it is useful and so many people I've met have touched my heart, taught

Chris Hulse: 00:06:18

me things, and have gotten me through some tough times, and you know, my life

Chris Hulse: 00:06:24

itself has been a bit of a road trip.

Chris Hulse: 00:06:26

I wouldn't say that it's what people would call typical.

Chris Hulse: 00:06:30

Some of my life experiences have been a little backwards but I've gotten

Chris Hulse: 00:06:35

through it, and I think some of it has been because I've met people that

Chris Hulse: 00:06:39

endured tough situations themselves and inspired me and taught me something,

Chris Hulse: 00:06:45

and, I'm going through that now.

Chris Hulse: 00:06:47

I'm, I might have this radio show and I might look like I'm having a fun time

Chris Hulse: 00:06:51

all the time, but I'm having a rough go of it; I'm not gonna lie, and, and

Chris Hulse: 00:06:55

knowing the people I do and getting to talk to them and that relationship to

Chris Hulse: 00:07:02

be able to just open up and just talk about it and try to get to the core and

Chris Hulse: 00:07:12

solve something, it's helpful and I'm glad that I have those people in my life,

Chris Hulse: 00:07:17

and they're not all in my neighborhood.

Chris Hulse: 00:07:19

This is like all over the country.

Chris Hulse: 00:07:21

The one thing that sucks is that you can't hang out with people that are a

Chris Hulse: 00:07:24

thousand miles away, but you go visit 'em when you're taking a road trip.

Joshua: 00:07:28

There's definitely even the online catch up as well, and technology has

Joshua: 00:07:32

made that so much easier for all of us.

Joshua: 00:07:35

I really want to dive into what you just said about really connecting

Joshua: 00:07:39

with people all across and having those authentic connections because

Joshua: 00:07:43

that's something that I really enjoy in my life and been able to do.

Joshua: 00:07:48

I have not, been an avid traveler like yourself, but I'm curious, is there one

Joshua: 00:07:52

person, you don't have to mention names, but is there one particular individual

Joshua: 00:07:57

that you think of instantly when you think of that connection and how have you

Joshua: 00:08:01

kept that relationship up over the years?

Chris Hulse: 00:08:05

You know, it's funny, it's when you said that, I started

Chris Hulse: 00:08:09

to think of somebody, but there's different people that pop into my mind.

Chris Hulse: 00:08:12

One person that that's really had an effect on me in my life, her name is Lisa

Chris Hulse: 00:08:17

Wheeler, and how I met her was about almost 20 years ago at this point, all

Chris Hulse: 00:08:26

of a sudden, and this is typical for me when I say this, all of a sudden I

Chris Hulse: 00:08:30

decided I was going to move to California.

Chris Hulse: 00:08:33

I took a road trip with my friend in California and decided, you know

Chris Hulse: 00:08:38

what, I've always lived life on the East Coast, I'm going to move out to

Chris Hulse: 00:08:41

the West Coast and see what I can do.

Chris Hulse: 00:08:43

I wanted to get into the entertainment industry, but not in front of the

Chris Hulse: 00:08:47

camera, I've always been interested in the production side of it, and over

Chris Hulse: 00:08:51

the next few months I made it happen.

Chris Hulse: 00:08:53

At the time I looked up, I think I went to a website, looked for people who

Chris Hulse: 00:08:58

were looking for roommates or tenants or whatever, and I found Lisa Wheeler, and,

Chris Hulse: 00:09:03

you know, we couldn't be more different.

Chris Hulse: 00:09:05

We were of different ages of completely different experiences, but we both

Chris Hulse: 00:09:12

were open about talking about what we were feeling about not being afraid of,

Chris Hulse: 00:09:20

oh, "what's this other person going think of me if I say this?", and she

Chris Hulse: 00:09:27

was really having a rough time too.

Chris Hulse: 00:09:29

I think sometimes that's when people are apt to connect the most when they're going

Chris Hulse: 00:09:35

through something and they don't know, they're not sure what to do and they,

Chris Hulse: 00:09:42

they feel like, "Okay, I need somebody else who has either gone through the same

Chris Hulse: 00:09:47

thing or something similar and I need them to almost give me a roadmap", like this

Chris Hulse: 00:09:55

is what you do, this is how you should approach it, this is, you know, and at

Chris Hulse: 00:09:59

the end of the day, it's all advice.

Chris Hulse: 00:10:01

You really have to take that information and make your own decision, but, I know

Chris Hulse: 00:10:07

when there's big stuff that happens in my life, I always call Lisa up and I'm

Chris Hulse: 00:10:11

like, "Oh man, let me tell you what's going on in my life right now.", and

Chris Hulse: 00:10:15

I always have kind of a comedic way of looking at stuff and she really has

Chris Hulse: 00:10:19

encouraged me to go after some of these things that I'm interested in, you

Chris Hulse: 00:10:25

know, writing and taking pictures and documenting everything and you know

Chris Hulse: 00:10:30

I told her about the radio show and she's like, "I'm not even surprised.",

Chris Hulse: 00:10:33

she's like, this feels like something you've been destined for, but I'm lucky.

Joshua: 00:10:36

It's, something else that you just drew out the hat and is

Joshua: 00:10:38

like, yes, we're going to go right around it and we're going to do this

Joshua: 00:10:41

because that's just what I do, right?

Chris Hulse: 00:10:43

Exactly.

Chris Hulse: 00:10:44

I mean, that's one thing I will tell you is I am pretty fearless.

Chris Hulse: 00:10:50

Stuff that that might scare other people.

Chris Hulse: 00:10:53

If I get into my head that I'm going to do it, I will.

Chris Hulse: 00:10:58

When I was in college, I decided I was going to drive around the country for

Chris Hulse: 00:11:03

three and a half weeks, and I knew I was going to put over 10,000 miles in

Chris Hulse: 00:11:07

my car, and the more the people were like, no, you're not, you're not going

Chris Hulse: 00:11:10

to drive around the country and, go to places you've never been to and

Chris Hulse: 00:11:14

not really have a plan, and I'm like, "Oh, you don't think I can do that?

Chris Hulse: 00:11:18

You know what?

Chris Hulse: 00:11:19

I'm gonna prove you wrong."

Joshua: 00:11:20

Wow.

Chris Hulse: 00:11:21

I'm almost into proving people wrong because I want to show people

Chris Hulse: 00:11:29

what I'm made of, what I'm capable of.

Chris Hulse: 00:11:33

I've kind of learned that my life it's not normal, you know what I mean?

Chris Hulse: 00:11:37

I feel like in doing that, that's how I've connected with people because then I'm

Chris Hulse: 00:11:42

like the leaser wheeler to other people.

Chris Hulse: 00:11:44

I can tell people, "Oh, well this has been my experience and this is how I dealt

Chris Hulse: 00:11:49

with it.", and because I'm going to be honest, to me, connecting with people,

Chris Hulse: 00:11:56

that is why think I was put on this Earth.

Joshua: 00:12:00

Yeah.

Chris Hulse: 00:12:00

Whether your listeners are religious or not, to me, even the jobs

Chris Hulse: 00:12:05

that I've had, maybe the work that I was doing, to me that that was not the

Chris Hulse: 00:12:10

important thing if I was able to sit down with maybe somebody that worked for me,

Chris Hulse: 00:12:14

or I worked for them, or we just happened to be at the same meeting, the fact

Chris Hulse: 00:12:18

that we got to connect over something, to me, that is what keeps me alive.

Joshua: 00:12:24

I know for a lot of people, even myself, I sometimes struggle with

Joshua: 00:12:28

being able to connect with those people because I always think there has to

Joshua: 00:12:32

be something in common, and I found something really interesting that you

Joshua: 00:12:34

said is that with Lisa particularly, there is nothing that you had really

Joshua: 00:12:40

in common, per se, in the beginning.

Joshua: 00:12:41

It's almost like one of those opposites attract stories that you

Joshua: 00:12:45

hear about, and I think that this is an important lesson because wherever

Joshua: 00:12:50

we're at, it can create some great, fascinating, different perspectives,

Joshua: 00:12:55

and it sounds like you've had that.

Chris Hulse: 00:12:59

Absolutely.

Chris Hulse: 00:13:00

One thing that I say a lot, and I've actually been saying it a lot

Chris Hulse: 00:13:03

more recently is we're all humans.

Chris Hulse: 00:13:06

We're all humans; I actually say that to my employees because I'm a, team

Chris Hulse: 00:13:10

lead and obviously part of my job is to motivate people to get work

Chris Hulse: 00:13:15

done, but I also don't want people to forego the other experiences in life.

Chris Hulse: 00:13:22

I don't want people to work so hard they are missing out on family

Chris Hulse: 00:13:26

functions or their kids are like, "oh, well I don't know mom or dad

Chris Hulse: 00:13:30

very much because all I see is sitting them in front of a computer".

Chris Hulse: 00:13:33

When you get to the end of your life, you are not going to remember, "Oh, I worked

Chris Hulse: 00:13:37

really hard and I got that project done."

Chris Hulse: 00:13:39

You're going to remember the connections you had with your kids, your family,

Chris Hulse: 00:13:43

your friends, your neighbors.

Chris Hulse: 00:13:45

That's what's important, and I'm always telling people, "You know what?

Chris Hulse: 00:13:48

We're humans first.

Chris Hulse: 00:13:50

We're humans.", and part of that human experience is connecting with people,

Chris Hulse: 00:13:55

and like you just said about, you know, me not really having a lot in common

Chris Hulse: 00:13:59

initially with Lisa, the fact that we're both humans, we've experienced

Chris Hulse: 00:14:04

the same things, and that's where I try to draw on with people is the fact

Chris Hulse: 00:14:09

that maybe you're meeting somebody who has a wall up, and you know what?

Chris Hulse: 00:14:15

I'm not saying I try to break through that wall, but I try to

Chris Hulse: 00:14:18

maybe put a hand through that wall to be like, "You know what?

Chris Hulse: 00:14:21

I'm here for you.

Chris Hulse: 00:14:23

I can help you.

Chris Hulse: 00:14:25

If it's something I can say, if it's a story, I can tell you.

Chris Hulse: 00:14:29

I'm here to help you," and I want someone to know that they're not alone because

Chris Hulse: 00:14:34

there are times in my life where I felt so alone, and I'm telling you, that is

Chris Hulse: 00:14:39

not a good feeling, and if you can be there for somebody and make them realize

Chris Hulse: 00:14:45

that whatever is happening to them, they are not going through it alone.

Chris Hulse: 00:14:53

That's the connection I want to make with people.

Joshua: 00:14:56

I know that for you, I know you have a remarkable story and that is

Joshua: 00:15:00

something that you definitely resonate with people and my listeners are going to

Joshua: 00:15:05

hear later on in a future episode coming up after this interview is done about my

Joshua: 00:15:10

own personal story, which you know about very well when it comes to getting that

Joshua: 00:15:15

help that I desperately needed, but we'll save that for a future time when that

Joshua: 00:15:19

episode goes out, but you said something that I, I think that my listeners would

Joshua: 00:15:24

really love to hear about as it comes to how you actually reach out, because for

Joshua: 00:15:29

some people, they do not even know how to start that conversation or even have

Joshua: 00:15:34

that interaction with different people when it comes to what you're feeling.

Joshua: 00:15:38

Can you talk a little bit about how you've done that?

Joshua: 00:15:41

What's your strategy?

Joshua: 00:15:42

What's your go-to that seems to always work, or even if there's something that

Joshua: 00:15:46

hasn't worked, what are those lessons that you've learned, that you've applied?

Chris Hulse: 00:15:51

To me, it's, it's really keeping in touch with people, and the

Chris Hulse: 00:15:56

ironic part of this is that sometimes it's hard for me to stay in touch with people.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:02

Sometimes other people are the ones that have had to do the work, but,

Chris Hulse: 00:16:07

if I know somebody's going through something, I want to be right there.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:12

I want them to know that they can count on me, that I can be a an ear to listen to.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:17

I, and again, I'm not saying this to be like, oh, I'm some great person or

Chris Hulse: 00:16:21

whatever, but I mean, I'll forego sleep, I'll, put some other project on the back

Chris Hulse: 00:16:25

burner or whatever if I know somebody needs me because, that's what I want.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:31

It's hard to expect that of other people because other people I

Chris Hulse: 00:16:35

know they have responsibilities.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:36

I know they got to go to bed or they got to feed their kids or

Chris Hulse: 00:16:38

whatever, but I don't have kids.

Chris Hulse: 00:16:40

I don't really have other family around me where I live right now, so I have

Chris Hulse: 00:16:44

the opportunity to be there for other people and whether it's hanging out, or

Chris Hulse: 00:16:50

driving to them or taking a road trip or something like that, and, and sometimes

Chris Hulse: 00:16:55

that really is all it is for them is to know that they have a friend that they

Chris Hulse: 00:17:02

know they have somebody they can count on, and then it, it starts from there.

Chris Hulse: 00:17:06

A lot of times with, especially with my friends, you exchange stories and a story

Chris Hulse: 00:17:11

turns into, "How did that make you feel?

Chris Hulse: 00:17:14

How did that other person make you feel?

Chris Hulse: 00:17:18

Oh, that, that, that really upsets me.

Chris Hulse: 00:17:20

How can we change that?"

Chris Hulse: 00:17:22

and it really kind of goes from there, but it really is about having

Chris Hulse: 00:17:26

those conversations and really keeping in touch with those people.

Chris Hulse: 00:17:31

I know that, honestly, I don't always have to be the one to initiate the

Chris Hulse: 00:17:35

conversation because when you get a good friendship going, it goes both ways.

Chris Hulse: 00:17:40

I mean, I don't know.

Chris Hulse: 00:17:40

I sometimes joke and, and think, "Man, if I could make a job out of being

Chris Hulse: 00:17:44

friends with people, I'd be a very rich person, but here's the thing, money

Chris Hulse: 00:17:50

doesn't buy you happiness, so if you can say that the connections I've had

Chris Hulse: 00:17:54

in my life, I'm already a rich person.

Joshua: 00:17:58

Wow.

Joshua: 00:17:59

What a statement, because I was thinking about this the other day.

Joshua: 00:18:02

I was at an event and I was talking to someone too about this subject and I

Joshua: 00:18:06

said, "My business isn't about money."

Joshua: 00:18:09

I mean, I want to make money, obviously everybody does when

Joshua: 00:18:11

it comes to that importance, but it's about those connections.

Joshua: 00:18:15

It's about those people that we're interacting with; that's what I really

Joshua: 00:18:19

want to have, especially when it comes to creating that bigger wholistic picture.

Joshua: 00:18:25

Thinking of wholistic pitchers, I want to talk about a little bit of

Joshua: 00:18:28

your Toastmasters experience and maybe how that's interplayed with that.

Joshua: 00:18:32

Just so everybody is on the even playing field, if you've never

Joshua: 00:18:34

heard of Toastmasters, Toastmasters International itself is an organization

Joshua: 00:18:39

that works on communication and leadership building skills.

Joshua: 00:18:41

They have over 280,000 members, across 144 countries, with over 14,700 clubs,

Joshua: 00:18:48

and both Chris and I actually met through Toastmasters and being able to have that

Joshua: 00:18:54

connectivity, but Chris, I'm curious, has this Toastmasters experience, which you

Joshua: 00:18:59

can let the audience know how long you've been involved with, and I'll give you a

Joshua: 00:19:02

moment to think about because sometimes I have to think about it too, how long

Joshua: 00:19:05

I've been involved, but, when you talk about your authentic connections, maybe

Joshua: 00:19:11

like with Lisa and other people, even with doing Off the Beaten Path through

Joshua: 00:19:16

your podcast, has there been anything that's really helped enhance that

Joshua: 00:19:20

connectivity by going through some of the things that Toastmasters provides?

Chris Hulse: 00:19:25

Absolutely, and for me, it was stepping up and being a leader.

Chris Hulse: 00:19:30

I mean, initially I got into Toastmasters because I had this anxiety about

Chris Hulse: 00:19:35

public speaking, and I worked on that probably the first two years, so

Chris Hulse: 00:19:40

I've been a Toastmaster since 2016.

Chris Hulse: 00:19:44

I would say probably about 2018 I was well into my experiences of getting

Chris Hulse: 00:19:51

over my anxiety of public speaking, but something actually happened in

Chris Hulse: 00:19:55

my life that spurred kind of this path that I'm still on, and it was

Chris Hulse: 00:20:02

an unfortunate event, but I did what needed to be done, I guess I'll say.

Chris Hulse: 00:20:06

The event itself was, my home club is my corporate club; it's at where

Chris Hulse: 00:20:13

I work, and my boss at the time was heavily involved in Toastmasters.

Chris Hulse: 00:20:20

She's basically the reason why I got involved in Toastmasters, and me and her,

Chris Hulse: 00:20:26

her name was Cindy Ashton, and we had, it was really kind of developing our boss

Chris Hulse: 00:20:34

employee relationship even beyond over work because we had this shared love of

Chris Hulse: 00:20:40

Toastmasters, and unfortunately, Cindy was murdered and that was devastating.

Chris Hulse: 00:20:49

It was devastating on a personal level, on a professional level, but she was,

Chris Hulse: 00:20:54

at the time, she was the President of our Toastmasters club, and before

Chris Hulse: 00:21:01

that, everything was starting to fall apart and she was trying to get it

Chris Hulse: 00:21:05

back on track and I figured in her absence, this is what she would want.

Chris Hulse: 00:21:11

She would want everything to be taken forth and try to rebuild it, and

Chris Hulse: 00:21:17

that's what I did really in her honor, but, in a way, it also taught me

Chris Hulse: 00:21:24

about my own leadership capabilities, and I went on to lead that club.

Chris Hulse: 00:21:30

I went from there, to being asked to be an Area Director; I went from

Chris Hulse: 00:21:34

there to being a Division Director, and with each increasing level of

Chris Hulse: 00:21:38

leadership and for people that don't know Toastmasters, those titles I was giving

Chris Hulse: 00:21:42

out, basically you have a smaller set of responsibilities and then it grows,

Chris Hulse: 00:21:49

and then it grows, so you go from club, to area, division, and in that I was

Chris Hulse: 00:21:55

meeting more people, more people who I had Toastmasters in common with, but there

Chris Hulse: 00:22:02

are so many different types of people in Toastmasters and I was also getting

Chris Hulse: 00:22:06

to flex my leadership skills, and I was finding, I am actually good at this.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:11

You know, I might not be the best leader in the world, but it's because I try

Chris Hulse: 00:22:15

to connect with people and I found that if you can connect with people, you

Chris Hulse: 00:22:20

can motivate them, you can get them to help you what needs to get done.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:25

I'm not all about, "Oh, you do this and you," I'm not a leader that gives orders.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:29

I'm a leader that says, "Look, let's work on this together.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:33

Let's figure out what needs to be done, and then, let's do it, because we can

Chris Hulse: 00:22:37

both learn from the experience of doing it.", and I've made some of my best

Chris Hulse: 00:22:43

friends in the world over the past years.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:46

Josh is one of them.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:47

Erin Bailey is another person that, actually Josh is one of the people that

Chris Hulse: 00:22:52

that put us together because we were conference co-chairs and oh my god, Erin.

Chris Hulse: 00:22:57

Erin has a huge place in my heart, even beyond Toastmasters, and that's the thing

Chris Hulse: 00:23:02

too, is sometimes you're involved in an organization and the reason why you

Chris Hulse: 00:23:06

become friends is because you have that organization in common, but then you

Chris Hulse: 00:23:10

find out you actually like that person as a human outside of that, and really

Chris Hulse: 00:23:15

Toastmasters, it's really, truly changed my life and it's got me over that anxiety

Chris Hulse: 00:23:19

I spoke of; it's given me leadership experience that I actually used to get

Chris Hulse: 00:23:24

promotions at work, and it's made me some wonderful, wonderful friends that

Chris Hulse: 00:23:29

have helped me through thick and thin.

Chris Hulse: 00:23:31

In a way you could almost say, I'm married to Toastmasters.

Chris Hulse: 00:23:35

Toastmasters is my relationship, and I've gotten so many things

Chris Hulse: 00:23:39

out of it and, that sounds cliche in a way, but it's really not.

Chris Hulse: 00:23:42

I feel like no matter what you're involved in, in life, whether it's Toastmasters

Chris Hulse: 00:23:47

or maybe you love golfing, or you, I don't know, you belong to your kids'

Chris Hulse: 00:23:53

PTA, any one of these experiences can help you build connections that really

Chris Hulse: 00:24:00

are going to be able to change your life and help you get through life.

Joshua: 00:24:05

I find that to be wise words and you're too kind.

Joshua: 00:24:08

It wasn't because of me, it was because of your passion for what you want

Joshua: 00:24:13

to do, and that's been resonating throughout our conversation today

Joshua: 00:24:17

that you are really the authentic person that you want to share with

Joshua: 00:24:22

others, and I think that's incredible.

Joshua: 00:24:24

We're getting closer to the end of time with our interview here, but I

Joshua: 00:24:28

want to ask you one more question and then I want to give you a few minutes

Joshua: 00:24:31

of any promotion you like to do.

Joshua: 00:24:33

My final question is, what do you do to not just help people because

Joshua: 00:24:40

you've mentioned a little bit about wanting to be with them, especially

Joshua: 00:24:43

when they're going through a harder time, but, What have you done

Joshua: 00:24:48

personally to help rejuvenate yourself?

Joshua: 00:24:51

Because, I feel that, a lot of, and you're already smiling at me.

Joshua: 00:24:55

I know because this can be somewhat of an interesting question for even myself.

Joshua: 00:25:00

What have you done as therapy, quote unquote, for yourself, or what have

Joshua: 00:25:04

you done to retrain those muscles, because I, I'm sure giving yourself

Joshua: 00:25:08

a lot is an extension of so much of not just time, but also the resources

Joshua: 00:25:14

you have inside of yourself that you could use for other reasons.

Joshua: 00:25:18

I mean, why do this?

Joshua: 00:25:19

You could be a selfish person, Chris.

Joshua: 00:25:21

Why?

Joshua: 00:25:21

Why?

Joshua: 00:25:21

Why aren't you selfish?

Joshua: 00:25:22

That's my question.

Joshua: 00:25:25

Go with that.

Chris Hulse: 00:25:26

Well, it's honestly because I get so much out of the things that

Chris Hulse: 00:25:29

I do, out of Toastmasters, yes, I put a lot of work in the Toastmasters.

Chris Hulse: 00:25:34

I'm now part of the District Trio, which oversees about 150 clubs in

Chris Hulse: 00:25:39

Eastern Pennsylvania and Central and Southern New Jersey, and that's a lot

Chris Hulse: 00:25:42

of work that does eat up a good amount of time, but, I get something out of it.

Chris Hulse: 00:25:47

It allows me to have this pride of helping other people, strengthening those

Chris Hulse: 00:25:52

connections and knowing that I'm doing something that is benefiting other people.

Chris Hulse: 00:25:57

Same thing with the radio show; this has been a dream of mine to

Chris Hulse: 00:26:01

have a radio show ever since I was a teenager and will listen to the radio.

Chris Hulse: 00:26:05

This is, Pre-Internet, believe it or not, I was around before the internet

Chris Hulse: 00:26:09

was around, and so, that to me, that was really my window to the world

Chris Hulse: 00:26:15

was listening to the radio and the person who would talk between songs and

Chris Hulse: 00:26:19

yeah, I'm not spinning records, but I'm actually getting my voice out there

Chris Hulse: 00:26:24

and just spending time with friends, having those experiences that make life

Chris Hulse: 00:26:29

worth it because then, having experience with your friends really strengthens

Chris Hulse: 00:26:36

those connections, and not only can you help them when they're going through

Chris Hulse: 00:26:40

some tough times, they can help you too, and that's honestly a lot of the

Chris Hulse: 00:26:44

conversations I've been having recently as I've been going through some stuff,

Chris Hulse: 00:26:48

I've been drawing on those connections and saying, "Am I doing the right thing?

Chris Hulse: 00:26:53

What do you think I should do here?", and that sort of thing, and people have

Chris Hulse: 00:26:56

been great about giving me their advice, showing me that they've been there for

Chris Hulse: 00:27:00

me and it's awesome and I hope that I can repay that favor back to people, but

Chris Hulse: 00:27:07

take a time for myself, which I know was at the core of what you're asking, I don't

Chris Hulse: 00:27:12

do a lot of that, but I feel like in the activities I engage in within those, I

Chris Hulse: 00:27:21

do get things that are really for myself.

Chris Hulse: 00:27:24

I'm just not a person that really enjoys a lot of downtime.

Chris Hulse: 00:27:28

I don't know if that's going to be eventually to my

Chris Hulse: 00:27:31

detriment, but you know what?

Chris Hulse: 00:27:33

Once I get towards the end of my life, the one thing I'll be able

Chris Hulse: 00:27:36

to say is that I lived this life.

Chris Hulse: 00:27:39

There's a song out there, and one of the lines from the song is, "With every

Chris Hulse: 00:27:43

broken bone I lived"; nobody will be able to say that once I get towards

Chris Hulse: 00:27:48

the end, that I didn't live this life.

Chris Hulse: 00:27:50

Oh, I did.

Chris Hulse: 00:27:51

I took every opportunity I could and I tried to turn it into something for

Chris Hulse: 00:27:57

my benefit or somebody else's benefit, and for me, that's why we're put on

Chris Hulse: 00:28:00

this planet, and I'm trying to make sure that I stay true to that, and if

Chris Hulse: 00:28:05

I can help other people in any sort of way, try to stay tuned as well.

Chris Hulse: 00:28:11

That's why I'm here.

Joshua: 00:28:12

Staying true to yourself I think is something

Joshua: 00:28:15

that we can all resonate with.

Joshua: 00:28:17

Chris, I want to give you a few moments, I know you are a busy guy

Joshua: 00:28:20

with a lot of things happening.

Joshua: 00:28:22

I know you got your podcast, you want to tell our audience about your podcast or

Joshua: 00:28:25

anything else that you got going on and follow you and I'll make sure we'll put

Joshua: 00:28:29

it in the show notes too so that they can take a look and visit you as well.

Chris Hulse: 00:28:34

Definitely.

Chris Hulse: 00:28:35

If a listener or listeners more than one, hopefully-

Joshua: 00:28:38

Oh, there will be more than one.

Chris Hulse: 00:28:40

Well, and I meant like, hopefully there's a listener.

Chris Hulse: 00:28:43

I'm sure you're gonna, you know, plenty of listeners listening to this program, but

Chris Hulse: 00:28:47

hopefully, at least one of your listeners for your program will want to listen to my

Chris Hulse: 00:28:52

program and my program, the name of it is Off The Beaten Path with Chris Hulse, and

Chris Hulse: 00:28:57

as I talked about a little bit, it really, I would call it a travel log show.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:02

I just made that word up.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:03

No, I don't think I made that word up.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:04

I think it actually exists, but what I try to do with each of my episodes is

Chris Hulse: 00:29:08

organize them into some sort of similarity between a few different places, so the

Chris Hulse: 00:29:14

one day I talked about Elvis sites, another day I talked about the world's

Chris Hulse: 00:29:18

largest ball of yarn and the world's largest thermometer and where these

Chris Hulse: 00:29:21

places are, because I think a lot of these places don't get enough credit.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:26

I've also talked about headwaters of rivers.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:28

I mean, I have some unique sort of interest in what I'd like to see, but

Chris Hulse: 00:29:33

you're not going to often hear me talking about those places that everybody goes

Chris Hulse: 00:29:37

to because they already get enough press.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:39

I want to give press to the people or the places that you can stop at

Chris Hulse: 00:29:43

between going from the Eiffel Tower to Disney World, because I think

Chris Hulse: 00:29:49

those places are important too.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:51

Obviously the people that own those places want you to come see them and

Chris Hulse: 00:29:54

I had a good time checking them out.

Chris Hulse: 00:29:56

I do that, and then I also have a guest on my show each week and they get to

Chris Hulse: 00:30:01

talk about what travel interests them, whether it's international travel or

Chris Hulse: 00:30:07

owning a house at the shore, or being a park ranger or canoeing or climbing

Chris Hulse: 00:30:14

a tall mountain, something, everybody seems to have some particular travel

Chris Hulse: 00:30:18

interest, and so I want to give people a platform to be able to talk about

Chris Hulse: 00:30:21

that too, because here's what I found, and whether it's on my radio show or

Chris Hulse: 00:30:26

just in life, you never know what is going to inspire somebody else, and I've

Chris Hulse: 00:30:30

actually had people tell me, which I love hearing, "Oh, the places that you

Chris Hulse: 00:30:34

go see Chris, you actually inspired me to jump in my car and go and check out

Chris Hulse: 00:30:40

the state park a hundred miles away, or check out, the world's largest ketchup

Chris Hulse: 00:30:45

bottle or whatever it is, and if I can affect somebody like that actually does

Chris Hulse: 00:30:49

something for me, it means that something I did actually spoke to somebody else.

Chris Hulse: 00:30:55

My radio shows a a way of doing that, so if you want more information about

Chris Hulse: 00:30:59

my show, go to Off The Beaten Path with chris hulse.com, and that is all one

Chris Hulse: 00:31:04

word, the words Off the Beaten Path with Chris Hulse, my last name is spelled h u

Chris Hulse: 00:31:09

l s e.com; all the information is there.

Chris Hulse: 00:31:13

The radio show is actually on weekly on WWDB AM 860 in Philadelphia, and you can

Chris Hulse: 00:31:20

actually go to their website, wwdb.com, and it holds a database of my episodes

Chris Hulse: 00:31:29

I've had so far, so you can listen to all these different places I've traveled to

Chris Hulse: 00:31:33

and to all my guests, but I would say if your listeners could go there, hopefully

Chris Hulse: 00:31:39

they'll be inspired and benefit from some of the things I've talked about.

Chris Hulse: 00:31:43

Thank you for the opportunity to talk about that, Josh.

Joshua: 00:31:45

Absolutely.

Joshua: 00:31:46

Anytime and we will, we'll definitely connect you there, and also, like I said,

Joshua: 00:31:50

it will be on the show notes as well if you want to access the link directly.

Joshua: 00:31:54

We've ran out time, but Chris, thank you so much for being the inaugural

Joshua: 00:31:58

guest on Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:31:59

It's been really a privilege for you to be here and sharing a little

Joshua: 00:32:03

bit about your authenticity with relationships and connection.

Joshua: 00:32:07

I look forward to hopefully having you back again.

Chris Hulse: 00:32:10

Thank you Josh.

Chris Hulse: 00:32:11

Thanks for this opportunity.

Chris Hulse: 00:32:12

It was great to be your first guest.

Joshua: 00:32:14

Yes, thank you so much.

Joshua: 00:32:17

Wow.

Joshua: 00:32:18

It was a remarkable episode, the very first interview that I've done for

Joshua: 00:32:22

the podcast with Chris Hulse, and I want to, again, shout out to Chris.

Joshua: 00:32:26

Thank you so much for being part of my show and the discussion that we had.

Joshua: 00:32:31

I want to recap a couple of things that were said that weren't clearly set out on

Joshua: 00:32:35

the episode, but, Toastmasters something that Chris is heavily involved in and

Joshua: 00:32:40

I've gotten to know him over the years.

Joshua: 00:32:42

He and I both belonging to local clubs within the state of Pennsylvania, and

Joshua: 00:32:47

for anybody listening all across the world, Toastmasters is international.

Joshua: 00:32:51

There is literally clubs waiting for you to get started in with your communication

Joshua: 00:32:55

and leadership skills it doesn't matter where you're at with your skillset

Joshua: 00:32:59

or your skill level, those clubs are supportive, inviting environments where

Joshua: 00:33:03

you can practice and get better and there's no judgment whatsoever, so if

Joshua: 00:33:07

you're interested in checking that out, go to www.toastmasters.org, and when

Joshua: 00:33:13

you go on the main page, you're going to find a button that says "Find a Club"

Joshua: 00:33:16

in which you can find where a location is and the clubs are physically meeting,

Joshua: 00:33:21

there's also hybrid clubs, which have a mix of people in person and online, and

Joshua: 00:33:26

there's even all online clubs that will help you get started with your journey.

Joshua: 00:33:31

I want to just talk about some of the things that Chris mentioned in the show

Joshua: 00:33:34

that just resonated with me that I hope that you, my listeners, followed along

Joshua: 00:33:39

with too, and I thought the biggest thing that he said that will forever be in

Joshua: 00:33:45

my heart is that it's about the riches of the experiences that we have with

Joshua: 00:33:51

people, it's not about the money, so for my professional friends out there, think

Joshua: 00:33:56

about what your purpose is when it comes to helping others or what you're doing to

Joshua: 00:34:01

help contribute back whatever your trade or skill is, because it isn't just about

Joshua: 00:34:06

the bottom line, it's about what kind of impact that you're making with others,

Joshua: 00:34:09

and I think Chris really stepped up to talk about how some of those travels,

Joshua: 00:34:14

especially in his life, really created some of the opportunities that he has and

Joshua: 00:34:20

making that job out of just being friends with people, those are the people that are

Joshua: 00:34:24

the trendsetters in the world and even are some of my counterparts when doing podcast

Joshua: 00:34:29

episodes too, wherever you listening to.

Joshua: 00:34:32

I really encourage that if you have somebody like that that you can talk

Joshua: 00:34:35

to, especially that Lisa in your life that you could just call up at any time

Joshua: 00:34:40

and have that engagement with, those are the things that we'll talk about

Joshua: 00:34:44

in future episodes, how that can be so impactful and help you just get to that

Joshua: 00:34:48

next level where you really need to be.

Joshua: 00:34:50

It's something that helps all of us go from point A to point B, and I

Joshua: 00:34:55

really love Chris' story behind that.

Joshua: 00:34:58

The one other thing that he mentioned was about the murder of Cindy Ashton and

Joshua: 00:35:02

how that fundamentally changed his life, and I didn't get much time to really

Joshua: 00:35:06

go into it with him, but knowing what Chris is and how much he's taken that

Joshua: 00:35:11

to heart and has been able to project so much positivity in the world, I know

Joshua: 00:35:15

that for some people it takes a traumatic experience that fundamentally shifts the

Joshua: 00:35:21

thought pattern and what you do for the rest of your life, and for those that

Joshua: 00:35:25

have lost a significant other or somebody that has been close to you in your heart,

Joshua: 00:35:31

I mourn for you, but if you're still sitting there thinking, "What do I do?

Joshua: 00:35:35

What do I do to make this different?", you have the power to move forward,

Joshua: 00:35:42

and I hope that Chris' story about how he did that within Toastmasters

Joshua: 00:35:47

creates some of that framework for you.

Joshua: 00:35:49

It helps you to understand how to move forward and how to understand

Joshua: 00:35:54

how to create that value within your own life so that you can help others.

Joshua: 00:35:58

I love the expression of the song that he was starting to say about

Joshua: 00:36:03

with "Every broken bone I lived", I resonated with that because even with

Joshua: 00:36:08

all the trauma and all the things that happen in our lives, we find ways to

Joshua: 00:36:13

project and create confidence within ourselves, and it's about staying true.

Joshua: 00:36:18

It is about creating some of those opportunities in which we're able to

Joshua: 00:36:23

take it from the next level to even a further level, and sometimes being

Joshua: 00:36:28

in that murkiness of the unknown, that swamp, can be very unnerving,

Joshua: 00:36:34

can be very nerve-wracking indeed, and that's why I always encourage

Joshua: 00:36:38

those, especially if you have the opportunity, work with a life coach.

Joshua: 00:36:42

I provide that through the business that I've started, Your Speaking Voice, in

Joshua: 00:36:45

which I help clients realize and get a plan together to help them move to

Joshua: 00:36:50

that next level, wherever they're at.

Joshua: 00:36:52

If Chris's story really resonates with you and how to do that,

Joshua: 00:36:56

that's what's really important.

Joshua: 00:36:58

There's one last thing I have to say that wasn't captured on this

Joshua: 00:37:00

episode, which we were talking about afterwards, is that how you change

Joshua: 00:37:05

your life with making connections.

Joshua: 00:37:08

It is so important, especially in this day and age that even though

Joshua: 00:37:12

that we're so connected with all the different social medias and all the

Joshua: 00:37:16

different ways in which we can exchange thought and exchange opportunity, the

Joshua: 00:37:22

most important thing that we need to remember though is that we're all human.

Joshua: 00:37:27

Chris talked a lot about that in the episode in which he was sharing not just

Joshua: 00:37:31

about what the human factor is, but also how you can create that human factor to

Joshua: 00:37:36

help you be able to have authenticity, and I think that was so important for

Joshua: 00:37:42

Chris to share because a lot of us don't know how to do that, and sometimes it's

Joshua: 00:37:47

very tough to just be able to say and take a step back and think about what

Joshua: 00:37:52

are the things in my life that will help me to just understand and value

Joshua: 00:37:58

what's really important?, And although life coaching is there, all kinds of

Joshua: 00:38:04

coaching, Chris really resonated with me sharing a little bit about shame.

Joshua: 00:38:10

Shame sometimes comes from the fact that when we know that we need to do something

Joshua: 00:38:15

about it and we've put it off and we put it off and we put it off for so long,

Joshua: 00:38:19

we start to develop that thought process of, "Is this really what I want to do?

Joshua: 00:38:25

Is this really how I want to feel?", and I know that I can be very tough for

Joshua: 00:38:29

a lot of different people to be able to say, "I know that this has given me this

Joshua: 00:38:35

feeling, but I need to push it aside and know that I'm still doing this for the

Joshua: 00:38:39

right reasons.", and I think the testimony that Chris was sharing was something

Joshua: 00:38:45

that helps all of us to engage and think thoughtfully about what is really

Joshua: 00:38:51

important in that daily conversation.

Joshua: 00:38:54

If you have somebody that is willing to do that, whether that's a personal or

Joshua: 00:38:58

professional level, that's going to help you so much in seeing the bigger picture.

Joshua: 00:39:04

Overall, I know that for many of us knowing that we can have these

Joshua: 00:39:09

opportunities to do whatever we want in our lives, even if it is travel,

Joshua: 00:39:13

can be opportunity in itself to expand our mindset and create value.

Joshua: 00:39:20

I hope that today's episode with my interview with Chris really showcases

Joshua: 00:39:25

that the opportunities are endless.

Joshua: 00:39:27

If you have the right mindset and you're willing to just keep going no matter

Joshua: 00:39:32

what, that's what this is all about.

Joshua: 00:39:34

This is how we create relationships, create that connection with others,

Joshua: 00:39:39

have that confidence to step forward, but stay determined on the end goal

Joshua: 00:39:44

because when you do all of that, you will have something that is valuable and

Joshua: 00:39:51

cherishable for the rest of your life.

Joshua: 00:39:54

Thank you for listening to episode number two of Speaking From the

Joshua: 00:39:57

Heart, and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Outro: 00:40:02

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