Answering the Call: Chris Myers on Purpose, Belief, and Changing Careers
Mindset · From Student of the Game
Answering the Call: Chris Myers on Purpose, Belief, and Changing Careers
Chris Myers and Brad Noll go back a long way. Both grew up in Berne, Indiana, and Chris first met Brad as a kid at a Spring Arbor basketball camp, where Brad handed him pieces of a shattered backboard and instantly became, in Chris's words, "the coolest dude." Years later the two reconnected in Fort Wayne. Chris set ten goals for this year, and one of them was to be a guest on Student of the Game. Brad told him that was not a goal, it was a to-do, and booked him.
The episode is about answering the call: that nagging feeling in the back of your mind that you still have more gas in the tank. Chris recently left a marketing role at Hallmark Home Mortgage, where he told stories for businesses through video and social media, to start a new career as a financial advisor. Brad frames the conversation around what it takes to rewrite your own story after years of telling everyone else's.
A Grandfather Who Lived Without Fear
Chris was born in Texas and raised in Berne. He played basketball in high school and at Bluffton University, then finished a psychology degree at IPFW. His grandfather worked as an electrician in Berne for decades and taught him that it does not matter if you sweep the streets or serve as president. "We've all got to help each other because we're just people," Chris remembers. That servant's attitude followed him through every job he has held.
Some of Chris's favorite memories are summer afternoons in a hammock at the family lake house, talking with his grandfather about life and sports for hours. His grandfather was just as comfortable going very fast. He raced a small drag boat named Sassy and once hit 112 miles per hour on the water before a wave sent the boat under. He climbed out, fished the boat out, rebuilt the engine, and kept going.
When Chris began interviewing for his new career, that memory finally made sense. His grandfather could live so boldly because of the good decisions he had made earlier in life. He knew the people he cared about would be taken care of. Chris wants that peace of mind for his own children, and he wants to help other families find it, too.
“I'm going to do whatever I've got to do to make sure that when I walk into that door and I get into that room and I see that table, that my name card is on that table.”
Chris Myers
Why Now?
Brad asks the obvious question. If the lesson was there when Chris was a boy, why did it not land at 22 or 31? Chris answers with a line from a movie: "The faster and the harder you try to run away from the truth, the more tired you're going to be once it finally catches up to you." For years people told him he would be an effective communicator in sales, and he ran from it. "I hate salesmen," he used to say. With time he realized he is not a salesman at all. He helps people get into a better position to take care of themselves and their families. As Brad puts it, "When the student is ready, the teacher will appear."
Consistency, Action, and an Unwavering Belief
Many of Chris's fundamentals come from sports. An old coach used to tell him it does not matter whether you want to or not, just do it. Chris also leans on a Kobe Bryant mindset: if you win, you wake up the next morning and do the same thing over again, and if you lose, you do exactly the same.
His second fundamental is the Stockdale Paradox from the book Good to Great, drawn from the story of a prisoner of war in Vietnam. The prisoners who pinned their hopes on being free by Christmas or Easter lost hope when those days came and went. Chris describes the lesson this way: "You face the worst parts of the reality facing you. But you also couple that with an unwavering belief that you can and will succeed."
Brad hears three fundamentals in Chris's answer: action, consistency, and belief. He shares a story from a well-known college basketball player he met while working camps, who told him he only felt good about 30 percent of the time. "If you only get in the game on the days you feel good, it's only going to be about 30% of the time," Brad says. The people who show up consistently are the ones who win.
Believe Is an Action Word
Chris is honest that changing careers is a grind, and he told his wife exactly that before he made the leap. "The dream is the grind," he says. He set expectations early that it could take months, maybe a couple of years, of full effort before the ball gets rolling.
He also borrowed one of Brad's habits: a word of the year. His word is believe, and he is careful to say it is not belief. It is an active verb, a daily engagement in believing he belongs in the rooms he walks into. He even wondered if he belonged on a podcast that has featured artists, agency owners, and Olympians.
The practices Chris leans on as he answers his own call:
- Keep showing up, whether you won or lost yesterday.
- Name the hard reality, then hold on to the belief that you will succeed.
- Set expectations at home before you start the grind.
- Make practice harder than the game.
- Use daily affirmations and a word of the year to stay grounded.
- Stay a student. Chris calls himself a searcher who is always hungry for input.
Chris takes a Socratic approach to learning: true knowledge comes from knowing that you know nothing, which keeps him hungry to learn more. Brad adds a principle he shares with his kids and his team: set goals not for what you get, but for who you become.
Grow Constantly Without Feeling Like You're Not Enough
Grow constantly is one of the core values at Noll Team Real Estate, and Brad says it can be one of the hardest for his team to adopt, because some people hear it as a message that they are not good enough. He asks Chris whether imposter syndrome fuels his drive to keep learning.
Chris says it does, in a healthy way. He pictures a room he does not think he belongs in, with a table he does not get to sit at. "I'm going to do whatever I've got to do to make sure that when I walk into that door and I get into that room and I see that table, that my name card is on that table," he says. Though he calls himself a shy person, he has spent his life putting himself in sink-or-swim situations.
Brad offers a reframe. Everyone has a seat at the table, even if it is not the seat they want yet, and you earn a better one by educating yourself, doing the hard work, and starting small. He also points to the people around you. Brad says his business doubled in a short period once he got around people who push him and have his back.
What Does Winning at the Game of Life Look Like for Chris Myers?
"Making [his grandfather] proud," Chris answers. He wants it to be obvious to everyone around him where his values came from, and he is not sure the journey ever ends, because he does not know when he will have helped enough people. Brad's response is simple: by answering the call, Chris is already making his grandfather proud.
Chris then hands out flowers to his wife, his grandfather, his family, and the friends and mentors who kept raising the bar for him. One goes to Doug Noll, whose Spring Arbor camp taught Chris a lesson he did not understand until much later. After he got in trouble one year, he was given a choice: take his awards and go home that night, or stay with no recognition and help his team win the tournament. He stayed. "If you can't help your team win, what did you actually do?" he says now.
Brad closes with a challenge for every listener facing a career change or an uncomfortable decision. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, each life sends out ripples. "How big a ripple effect do you want your life to be?" he asks. When you answer the call, there is a bigger purpose behind it.
▶ Listen to the full episode
Answering the Call with Chris Myers, on Student of the Game.
Work with the Noll Team
Ready to make your move?
Since 2003, Noll Team Real Estate has been helping people in the Fort Wayne area find the freedom to live the lifestyle they want. Tell us where you are headed and we will build the plan around your life.