Marc Champagne - Behind The Human

09/03/21 • 23 min

When we think about physical fitness, it helps us improve our body. So we're stronger. We can do more physically. Marc's area is great because it's one of the underserved areas, which is mental fitness, and why we do not want to have a strong mind. In today's episode, our guest is Marc Champagne, who will share about mental fitness.

[5:11] Why should we listen to you?

I think other than what you pointed out with the unique care and interesting last name of champagne, I think the other unique part is my characters. I'm just obsessed with questions. So for me, good quality questions are something that I collect, and I collect them off the show, and other podcasts and books and whatnot, and I would probably start asking you questions to unpack or at least leave that conversation, so I've got something new to think about when it comes to an excellent prompt. Cause I feel like it's a universal language that we all ask ourselves these questions. Sometimes they're bigger when we have big life decisions and whatnot, but at the end of the day, if we upgrade the questions, we upgrade the life.

[6:25] How do the questions tied to mental fitness?

The thing I like about mental fitness, just like physical fitness, is that there are just so many different ways you can do it.

[7:15] Someone might try meditation and be like, it's just not for me. What about journaling? What about breathwork or just reflection in general. And that's how it ties in for me. It allows us to pause. I really think that we're in a default kind of autopilot mode most of the time.

[9:21] How did you stumble upon the beauty and the golden questions?

Was I was coming out of university; I was starting a corporate-type job. Everyone's going through the same type of training. And I remember asking myself, what if we're all doing the same training? How could I come out of this a bit forward if I'm going to do the same thing? So what I started doing was getting up a little bit earlier and started reading blogs at that time.

[10:00] Robin Sharma was a big one for me. One of his most recent books, the 5:00 AM club, is the principles that I was following, getting up early and just taking in content that would fuel my mind versus starting the day with looping narratives.

[10:42] Then podcasts start coming out, and I'd be listening to these interviews. And there would always be these moments where the guests share that kind of pivotal moment in their life or where they hit a wall and like how they got out of it. And they typically would share this question of some sort. But I've found that the hosts would always just kind of glaze over the question and get into what did you do? And then, all of a sudden, this company has started, or you sold something like whatever the story is. And I was sitting back there, I'm like, hold on, hot one question, pull them out of this and sent them off into this whole other ecosystem or whole other world, and I'd write those questions down. The following day I would journal on them in relation to where I was at in my life. So it was always just again, providing kind of real-life feedback, perspective, and awareness.

[12:23] What's the one that you would share with people?

My big thing is depending on where we're at in our life, the questions change. And that was one of the big reasons why I left that corporate world and started a journaling app because the frustration was there are all these template journals out there that are great, but it's the same thing all the time. It just seems very repetitive.

[13:29] Something that I've asked myself a lot in the last probably two, three years is what do I want for my life and to really take time, it could be 10, 20 minutes to answer a question and taking time to consciously or intentionally design out the life that you want right now.

[14:52] What do you think happens if Someone in life is not asking the right questions or any questions, and what does that default look like?

I am taking a bit of an audit of what do you want for your life? And then taking a look at this is what I've said that I want. Am I doing those things every day, and are the people in my life and everything tha...

[5:11] Why should we listen to you?

[6:25] How do the questions tied to mental fitness?

The thing I like about mental fitness, just like physical fitness, is that there are just so many different ways you can do it.

[9:21] How did you stumble upon the beauty and the golden questions?

[12:23] What's the one that you would share with people?

[14:52] What do you think happens if Someone in life is not asking the right questions or any questions, and what does that default look like?

Previous Episode

Justin Daniels - The Future is Scary and Here

In today's episode, we have Justin Daniels. He is a Cybersecurity Subject Matter Expert, Legal & Business Advisor, Tedx and Keynote Speaker, and the co-host of She said Privacy/He said Security Podcast. He will talk about many things when it comes to how our world's progressing towards higher technological means where everything is interconnected. Justin will share his perspective of things that affect our daily life we are not aware of.

[4:41] What is our situation in this world of connectedness and our security volatility?

We live in a society where we have transformed from a manufacturing to a service economy, and a subset of that is we've become so technologically advanced. We're in a data economy. That also means that all of the efficiency that we have because of our interconnectedness as a country now makes us vulnerable not only as a country but also as individuals to cyber attacks.

[5:39]

Because of this internet of things or devices, amongst other things I think there are like 127 devices connected to the internet every second, all of these billions of devices connected to the internet create a huge area for cybercriminals and nation-states to create mischief.

[6:58]

All of our efficiency and automation creates a huge common point of failure, which is if you can take down certain parts of our grid, then you can have a huge cascading type of effect.

[8:33] The role of the Government on Web Censorship

It's an algorithm. It just does what its algorithm says. It doesn't think as a human would in terms of having emotions, and there's a cost to that. The people who want to make a profit as a corporation, that's just a cost of doing business, but there's a societal cost. It all goes down to what kind of regulations we should have. If we don't get some, we have a real imbalance where it's all about efficiency and ease and stuff about privacy and cybersecurity, which I like to call an inconvenient necessity.

[10:49] What is 5g, and what could be something we don't foresee from it as an issue?

5g is all about faster communication. Where it comes into play is it turbo-charges the interconnectedness. And as a society, we've been slow to understand what the real consequences are as it relates to technology.

[14:42] What are your thoughts on the whole Snowden situation?

It is a tough call because one could say he was betraying the country, but I think as another way, we have a right to kind of know what is going on.

[15:19]

There's so much good information that really gets you thinking, "Is Snowden a traitor? Or did he do public service?" The more I learned about it; I'm not sure I agree that the guy was a traitor because it was a dig into what the government is doing with surveillance and how much our digital life is available for the government to surveil.

[17:44] What are your thoughts on AI? What is Singularity, and do you see it becoming a reality?

With all this technology and efficiency, Are we really creating a real blind spot and weakness for us? I think the answer to your question is a resounding yes.

[2:12] Building Awareness and Fighting Unauthorized Access

For most people, it's inconceivable that you wouldn't put on your seatbelt. But 30 years ago, that wasn't a habit. Before we had seatbelt laws, it was the Mothers Against Drunk Driving campaign that built awareness. But that campaign alone wasn't enough. It was the awareness coupled with laws starting to be passed that changed people's behavior. It's where we are now today, where we don't think twice about putting our seatbelt on.

[20:43]

With cybersecurity, we have to build an awareness that this matters because now, in a digital economy, what should we do with all this data that's created into? How do we protect it from un...

Next Episode

Chris Freeze - FBI to Trauma Training

In this Aww Shift Podcast episode, we have invited Chris Freeze, retired FBI agent and speaker. Traumas haunted millions of individuals worldwide, with some getting help while others stay cooped inside their world. With his 23 years of experience during his FBI career, Chris sets his sight on educating the world about leadership, trauma, and hope.

[03:49] Why should we listen to you?

After 53 years of pounding his head against the wall, wondering things don't change, I understood why we keep talking about leadership, wishing things were different and hoping for a better tomorrow, but they're not. It's all because of the adverse childhood experiences and trauma that go to the world. I need to share with people that there is a different way of living.

[12:31] Concept of Trauma

We tend to push those emotions and experiences away from us. We want to escape from it because it was a painful journey. When talking about trauma-informed leadership, transforming other people's minds from contempt to curiosity felt like I have succeeded.

[15:29] There was a study in the late '90s, and they came up with the ten most common types of trauma: physical, emotional, sexual abuse, physical-emotional neglect, substance abuse, etc. And laying on top of these traumas are people telling you how unimportant, stupid, idiot, useless, etc., you are, and you will not amount to anything. By the time you get to adulthood, it will all be ingrained in you because you were told those things throughout your life. Nobody pushed you to achieve your dream.

[16:38] Whether it’s in our childhood or workplace, what’s missing is a person that will allow, empower, and believe what you are capable of. It's not a checklist where if you follow it, things will be different; it's a mindset, paradigm shift saying things will be better, and the power to make things happen.

[22:28] leadership

Leadership is about relationships; relationships are about trust. It’s going to be hard if all the times you live, you don’t have a person to trust or have people violated that trust.

[27:22] What promise did God make to the world when He created you?

No matter how old you are or what you have done in life, he wants to have a relationship with you and everybody else.

Key Quotes:

[09:05 – 09:08] "If you're not good at addressing a problem as a leader, you're lost."

[10:50 – 11:00] “I enjoyed serving the American people as an FBI agent, but it did not define who I am or who I watched—it was a profession, and I am something other than that.”

[25:40 – 25:48] “You can have natural talent, but if you don't utilize and practice that talent, it's as useless as me having no talent."