Conversations With Christopher: Robin Bates

In this week's episode of the Press Start Leadership Podcast, we introduce Conversations with Christopher with special guest Robin Bates.

We discuss with Robin Coaching for Geeks, video games, Turbo sessions, and his thoughts on Leadership, Mindfulness, and Awesomeness.

You can find Robin Bates at:
https://www.coachingforgeeks.com/

Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills

Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist

Hit subscribe/follow and be sure to check out: https://pressstartleadership.com/

Transcript

Unknown: 0:18

Hi there real quick before we jump into the episode, if you enjoy this episode, or any of the other episodes, be sure to give us a follow or subscribe. It would also be great if you shared it with a friend or better yet left a review so others can know how awesome it is. Thanks so much. And now, the episode hey there press starters and welcome to the press Start leadership podcast, the podcast about game changing leadership teaching you how to get the most out of your product and development team and become the leader you were meant to be leadership coaching and training for the International game industry professional. Now let me introduce you to your host, the man the myth, the legend, Christopher Meb Sood. Welcome back press starters to another special edition of conversations with Christopher. On this week's edition. We have the Overlord of coaching for geeks, Robin Bates. Now, let me introduce you to the fabulous Robin Bates. Well, hello. Hi, Chris. Welcome, Robin. Thanks very much. Yeah. It's always lovely to be called fabulous. On the way into a room. I appreciate that. So I I think it's I think it's one of my my many, many regulations to you is, but fabulous definitely always comes to mind. So I know. And I can I have a reason for why I consider you fabulous, but I'm not sure that all of my listeners and those who are reviewing this, do know Robin Bates. So the way I always like to start every conversation with my guests is to find out what their origin story is. So Robin, can you please tell us the origin of the fabulous Robin Bates? Well, we're going to have to go quite a long way back to the late 70s. For the for the emergence day. Robin Bates celebration, absolutely. Very cold winter. In fact, apparently it popped out and turned blue wasn't jus till the new year came or arrived just before Christmas just wanted an extra set of presence. Good day, good sides. Indeed. nerdy kids growing up, didn't really develop great social skills instead very much a game. Fact. I don't have a joypad handy. But there are numerous about me in this room growing up with a BBC Micro Model B spectrum 48k plus an Amiga re 500, Super Nintendo, 3d, oh, et cetera, et cetera, didn't really develop strong social skills as a kid. And looking back now can see that in all honesty, it was a very, very anxious young man. And rather than develop coping strategies, I tend to drink and drugs I spent majority of my time at university I spent my student loan on a Bag of Weed a bag of cocaine and a Sega Dreamcast. So fun time, but that's not how you succeed in a meaningful way, I continue in a meaningful way, meaningful way. And I've continued to sort of mask and have false confidence throughout my 20s through self, self prescribing, drink and drugs with some terrible effects of getting airlifted out of music festivals and I got viral meningitis, and it nearly off to me a few times, it wasn't until my late 20s, when the series of accidents chance. The company that I was working for was acquired by a much larger publisher. I was working in very unique learning and teaching publishing. And that enabled me to learn lots about learning styles and working styles, and leadership and confidence and the way people are in the world and I started to unravel myself and pick the story of who I was. And then I got to London and carried on bumbling around in a kind of drink and drug fueled haze until while continued that journey of accidental progression in my career where I spent some time at the Institute of knowledge transfer, and then was acquired by the, the Institute of Physics and worked my way up there from an administrator to professional standards manager, managing people managing projects, managing teams, developing as a leader, and it was there were they couldn't afford to pay me more. But there was a training budget. And that's where I've really learned about I did a certificate in learning and development programs, and I loved the coaching and the mentoring aspects of it, I felt a real affinity for it. So on top of the class, really sort of like yeah, this this is my over, I have found what I want to do and me and another student when joking the band or we'll set up a coaching practice together. And then of course, we went on our way at the end of the training, and didn't really think any more of it. And I took the next what I thought logical step in my career progression, again, without really thinking about it paid more, it was in the similar fields. And then one day, I found myself on the way home, I've got fat, I do eat normal feelings to bacon, butties every morning on the way in, and maybe a couple of sandwiches for lunch. And I found myself crying on the London Underground on the Northern line, on the way home, wondering where had it all gone wrong. And at that point, I declared, that was it, I was leaving London forever. I hated everything I hated myself, I've completely lost what little self belief and confidence I had. And that's it, I'm leaving. Instead, what I did was I got a, an easier job, simpler job, a job I could do without much stress, and spent a bit of time retraining. So everyone went don't leave, do something with that coaching that you you've been doing with your teams with amazing effects that you do with us. And and so coaching for geeks was born after years of studying of retraining of learning, neural linguistic programming and coaching and more mentoring and tackle eye movement therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and wanted it all together. And here we are. And now I help geeky content creators and entrepreneurs to grow their audience. And really, it's an it's a mix of working on the inner stuff. The self belief, the confidence, the having the guts to go, Hey, will you come and do a do a podcast and trying things and seeing what works? And part of it is the showing people how to do stuff like this? Well, I love the term entrepreneurs. I think that that's excellent. And yeah, that's definitely you definitely see that in your group. And I mean, that's, and that's definitely the reason how I met you, and how one of the reasons why I've been inspired last last, you know, half a year, over half a year of getting to be a part of this community that you've created, and see all the learnings and everything and all the people you've gathered all these entrepreneurs you've gathered around you and rally around you and you know, as an as an Overlord, that's, that's very impressive. I mean, you have quite, quite the, you know, the group of followers there that but and they do it wholeheartedly, like I've, you know, I see it there every day. So, maybe, I know, I want to hear more about play, what you're offering in coaching for geeks, like we're, you know, what's that? What's the current setup? So what are the, you know, what are the offerings? Someone who's who's looking for an overlord? Or is an aspiring entrepreneur? You know, what would, what would they? Where can they find some some of these, these these bits and pieces that you've, you're spreading now, which is, well, you have a lot of knowledge is spreading, which is awesome. So I think, you know, we can cover quite a bit here. do our best, you know, sometimes that when someone says that, you know, one, thank you. There's one thing I've had to learn is to is to accept compliments, which can still be a struggle sometimes. And so is believing them so that's, that's one of the first offerings we have one. Believe in yourself, folks, because you're flippin awesome. But the actual offerings is the sort of the entry level is we have a free Facebook group called coaching for geeks, obviously, on Facebook, and this is the community, this is where 1600 of us have gotten together from a variety of backgrounds from all over the world. And everybody there is. I've been told I've created a safe space for geeks and nerds to hang out. It's not a traditional kind of geeky is not really discussing the minutiae of, you know, trying to think, for example, here of Dragonball Z, and who's the strongest and who would win in a fight between, you know, Batman and something like that. It's what there is that under underlying current of nerdiness and geekiness. There's a lot of means and games, but ultimately, it's helping people to grow their audience to grow their confidence to grow their audiences online. And it's such a odd mix of people who have, who aren't creating content who aren't business folks, it's two people who were quite well along in their careers running their own businesses, incredibly successful, and everybody in between, for people who are starting out on twitch to people who have got huge Tick Tock followings to people who are creating jewelry to other coaches, and leaders of all sorts. And that's probably one thing I've noticed is that everybody in there is, is a leader or becoming a leader of some sort, in their own way, whether they realize it or not. So that's your entry point. First offering the free Facebook group coaching for geeks.com forward slash Facebook, if you'd like to come and join us. We also have the blog, which probably has the more deep dives into topic areas, everything from why you might need a CRM to how to grow your YouTube channel to the kick, you might need to you've started a twitch stream to even have some board game reviews because companies lovers like to send us things to you. So there's that's where you get all your deeper dive into content specific areas around audience growth and around confidence and around careers and around all of these things that that make up the whole coaching game. So we've got fitness stuff, we've got mindset and mental health. convention reviews and cosplayed guides all sorts on their coaching for geeks.com. I want to just take circle back because I know we've talked before and and you know the community and you mentioned it's kind of a safe space, but you used to use another term before which I think was was very important about it like, yeah, it's not a safe space. It's a brave space safe space. Yeah, cuz any space can attract. Anytime you put something online, you you've got to be able to assume that anybody might be able to see it. Anyone can screenshots anyone could send that time. We have had instances quite recently where where there was a little bit of ablest language that went on, it was a great space because people felt that they were able to speak up and say, Hey, actually what you're saying isn't okay. And the person who who put that post up was really open and willing to to change what they've put change the language that they use, they took that information on board and went Yeah, I was I really welcomed this thank you and got something from that exchange. And then there was one person who may be really dug their heels in and like no, no, I will not listen to the people with disabilities who were telling me that I am wrong. Actually. Everybody is to this too touchy these days. So but person went it's it if you can't play nice yeah, you can there's a lot of options in this world right you know, that's the thing I think everyone feels like you know, oh, but this is this is my I want this to be my space. Well, there this perhaps is not the space for you. And there are other options out there. And that's one thing I've had to grow into as a leader, as a community leader, is that it is my space to curate. And if people don't like what's going on, then I've got to stop and listen, and pay heed to what's happening and make a decision and stand by it. And as a reluctant leader, it's, it's been something that's taken time to grow into rather than running off and hiding and asking my team to do it and be the bad guy. Yeah, yeah. That's, that's a, that's a fallback for a lot of a lot of a lot of leaders early on and so forth. And something that I've learned is, you know, comes with the space is making the hard choices, and and not always having to be the get to be the good guy all the time. Yeah, sometimes, you know, but I think if you're speaking from a place of authenticity, and and really do want to help somebody out, like, it's not being the bad guy, it's still being the good guy, right? There's still value there and everything. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that individual considers me the bad guy, despite me trying to approach it. And look, here's an opportunity for you to actually listen, pay heed and grow. Maybe Maybe in time, though, we'll pick up on maybe you never made but it'd be the catalyst. Yeah. You never know. you plant the seeds, right? Yeah. So speaking of leadership, and this, this podcast, and this brand is all about leadership to a point. But how would you How would you describe define good leadership? I, it's, it's contextual, depending on the circumstances, but good leadership comes from somebody who will make it make their intentions clear. And those intentions should be aligned with the values of whatever the thing is that they're leading. Making loads from knowing your values, and making them really clear, is really important for good leadership. And once you've done that, a lot of the other aspects of leadership can quite easily fall into place. Including putting your hand up when you're wrong, and saying, actually, I made a mistake. And I'm sorry, and this is what we've learned from it. I think that's really important. I've worked with so many leaders who think that's a sign of weakness, and would refuse to do that. And we'll pass the blame on. Absolutely not being able to go, you know, what kids, we fucked up, take it on the chin and learn and grow from it. And so, making your intentions clear, being flexible, to changing circumstances, being there for your team, that mentor in supporting, ensuring that they're continuing to grow, and getting the opportunities to become sort of the best version of themselves to gain XP, the skills that they need to level up. Yeah. Now, it's a lot of things now, right? Yeah, there's so much that goes into becoming a good leader and, and acknowledging that it's a constant. It's constant learning experience, it is always things that you can do as soon as you become the best leader that I can possibly be, then you've kind of lost it. I totally agree. It's a it's an ongoing journey and never kind of ends. And there's always something to learn. But I think that's kind of the thing is, like, you know, when you first start off in a career, or in life, and so forth, you're usually very eager to learn everything, right? And then you get to that point where you gain a little bit of experience, and you kind of like think, oh, there's no, I've done this before. I know everything. And then you kind of hit another point where you go, oh, man, I still have so much to learn and everything that I know, is just one point of many more things, you know, so yeah, don't increase your curves. very real. And everything. Oh, yeah, I'm getting great at this. I'm amazing. Oh, no, no, no, no, there's so much more to learn. Actually, thank you very much. Please teach me somebody. So we, we like to ask this question because especially from folks all over the world, because, you know, I like I like food. I'm not gonna lie. And I I'm always curious about donuts. And so what what's your favorite? What's your favorite donut? I come from a local family. My mom and dad grew up in Blackpool, which is a seaside town, the Vegas of England. In fact, It but on the seaside so piers out into the sea and theme parks casinos have more like the Atlantic City of yeah it's it's known as the Vegas of the Atlantic city's probably Atlantic city's did the the Vegas or New Jersey so ring plain ring doughnuts what you get at the UK seaside we don't have a lot of fancy kind of stuffed filled doughnuts outside of big cities you don't have a Dunkin on every street corner like Boston it's it's a bit more of a rarity. So apply and I also have Type One Diabetes so that limits a plain old owner is fine by me. However if I am in Boston, I am going to be going in and getting something filled with a don't like jam in a doughnut. Or jelly in a doughnut. No thank you a custard or chocolate or a cream of some sort. I'm also lactose intolerant with just gonna shovel some sugar in and some lactose Give me the lactase and give me some more insulin. Clear the room for this give me give me a room. cuddle kerlin a ball. Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, yeah, that does limit the fun a little bit. That's the thing. You know? How about you? What would you go for? If I'm a Boston Cream? Like I like I grew up like I just had memories as a kid. Like in the morning when my mom would drive me to school sometimes we'd stop at the Dunkin Donuts and we go in and we pick up a fresh Boston Cream so that you know the chocolate glaze on top and then the Boston Cream inside. It's not a donut. I was gonna say or chocolate croissant. But that's that is a croissant with chocolate. Which does not Yeah, I would much rather go for a pastry. Yeah, maybe for ham and cheese if we're feeling savory or just yeah, plains bit of butter, lovely. cream on it. Why not? Let's ruin myself. girly girl. The so for another aspect that we like to discuss is mindfulness a good bit and everyone has their own way of dealing with mindfulness and in finding their Zen. This last year is definitely been a crazy one for a lot of folks. And a lot of people have not been able to find Zen or have gone deeper because you know what better time than isolation and the final ones then. So how would you how do you how does Robin find his den? I punch things in VR to find that that's that's how I get into a flow state game called x booster on the Oculus quest. I don't work for them or anything. icons come at your face this thing set up and you just punch them in the right angle in time with the music games with a musical rhythm games with the musical element. So with that physicality of punching things, as well, like beat Sabre. Yeah, it's it's similar beat sabers, swinging the swing and yeah, cheering or punching. Yeah. You know, I've fiddled around with I'm looking so I had one here, coloring books and activity what was quite like an activity book. Okay, but that works. For me. That's how when I've felt particularly anxious, why have I bought the damn thing and hold it up, and you could have put an affiliate link in, but now there's this really nice one, which is quite gentle. And I don't like coloring in. I've always been terrible at staying in the mines. And I'd always get told off as a kid for going outside of the lines, like, wasn't creative. That was no you have to color within the lines and do a good job. That's kind of how it was at school. When I was little, and with the I have ADHD, which are quite poor motor control skills and a little bit shaky, and my handwriting is appalling. I can't draw a stick very well. So these are all these are all limiting beliefs, which I probably should work on, but they haven't really got in the way as an adult. But this this one of those activities, you know, it's put down some three things you're grateful for today. Draw, draw a dog, do a little maze, just do something that takes your mind off the activity and use you into it. I'm so bored of walking. We're in lockdown for so long. I used to walk And that would be enough, but my brains got no report of walking the same streets over and over and over. Certainly so far. Okay. So yeah, bunch of things in VR, and little activity books. Okay. My shoes come from mine, meditation, I do a lot of I do a lot of meditation. I lucked out when I was five, my mom was a new age hippie. So she really she, she loved meditation. And so when I was five, she was teaching me how to meditate. And so from there, I practice it not like I won't say like I was intensely meditating at five years old. I learned it at five. As I grew up, I started studying and following more, it wasn't until I got into my 20s that, like I applied more what she taught me along with finding other teachers. So I kind of branched out yoga, tai chi, Qigong, standing, sitting meditation, you know, energy movement in general. And even travel a little bit of the world to, you know, pretty work, but also got the study with some, some excellent teachers. I'm also, this one always a little polarizing folks. I'm also a big Osho fan. So depending on your standpoint, actually, but actually, when I lived in India, I traveled to the meditation resort that he has there. He's no longer with us. But that's there that teaches his different styles of meditation. So overall, like I've probably practice about 30 different forms of meditation in some way, shape, or form. And pretty much make that a constant practice. So daily meditation, even meditation throughout the day, little calming moments there, I think it's really necessary because my personality is very swinging. So I'm an extreme. So I'm all in or all out. And I think that meditation helps balance that quite a bit. So yeah, it's, it's how I, how I get through the day. And it's, I think, how people survive around me as well. I do do a few breathing practices. But meditation is something I did a little bit when I was a teenager. And I was exploring things a bit. But I've found it really difficult to do as an adult, like, my brain is just so active, and it would probably do me the world of good to spend a bit more time. Ecuador in it. Yeah, it really is, like, I again, my, it's hard for me because, like my wife, I've forgotten that she she's, she's now practicing quite a bit. But when she first started, she's like, I can't concentrate for that long. And I'm like, just a little bit here and there. And then you get to it. Right? My advantage again, I was being shown how to do it when I was like five. So for me, it's just it was like really easy. I just kind of step into it. It didn't, didn't seem like, but I get it where other people are like, I can't, I can't do that or whatever. And but I also think the big thing for meditation is removing the expectations of what you think you're supposed to be getting out of meditation, because I think a lot of people's preconceptions that, like my mind supposed to be empty. And it's like, in some cases, yes. But in most now, you're just letting the thoughts calm. It's more about release, right? It's like, meditation lets you bring on what you need to be thinking about in that moment. And then learning to release it and letting go. And that's the tricky part is the letting go part. So that's, you know, you'll get a lot of thoughts sometimes in like some mornings I'm clear as a bell other mornings, I'm, I'm thinking about the a kabillion meetings I have for the rest of the day and stuff, but it's great. That's where it's me for the rest of the day. So yeah. But you you actually you have a great group in addition, so you talked about the website you talked about the the community but you have now a regular thing going on. I know it's it's, it's, it's a little exclusive. There's definitely a bit of a wait here in there for it. But there are openings on occasion and this is something that I'm part of so I can I can speak highly of this. It's something that I find a lot of value and and it's helped me find a lot of focus and it's it's the cushion for geeks turbo it is I mean far enough. I've been working on my core so I can leave now. Yeah. So that punching, it's really helped educate servo is why paid membership group, which is exclusive in that it opens at the start of the month we open on the first of each month and it ends on whatever the final day of the month is whether that's one of your February's or one of your August's the short and the long months. And it's all about goal setting and accountability and greet working and having a really supportive team of cheerleaders there who are rooting for you who will commiserate with you. Cheer you Work and, and get you to that goal that you set at the start of the month. And we start by having a one to one conversation, figure out exactly what you want to get out of a month in turbo. And then every week we have a group session where we go, right what's, what's your goal this week? How'd you do last week? And what should go in this coming week. And these conversations are where a lot of the magic happens, because it's not me telling everyone what they should be doing. Rather, it's more of an exchange amongst the people who were there and everyone chips in the guys haven't thought of this. Have you tried that? Oh, no, that's, that's not works. What about these people share ideas and each other along and it's awesome. And the sudden you get out of it, like just from bouncing ideas, or just just being there, it's, I'm careful. I'm careful to not call it a mastermind because it's it's it's different than a mastering day, because it's such a variety of folks. But it's definitely like, again, going to that that. That nerd nerd group with you. There foreigner Yeah. And there's a lot of those but it's again, it's a mix, right? There's people are doing their fitness goals, there's people that are doing they're, they're like trying to build up their, their twitch channel and their stream and everything like that, or Yes, someone's launched a YouTube channel, someone's just tidying the house up because it's messy. And they want that focus that one person joined to, to rethink their dropshipping business on Wednesday, did you also get access to all the training that I've created on the platform or webinars and guest sessions and everything I've ever put together. And they've worked through that and have an epiphany that they have given that power away to authority, Chrysler, I have checked, I am allowed to talk about this outside of the group. They've given the power away to authority a lot and they've had this revelation that they don't need to do what they're told, and they can do their own thing. And she's scared a pixie cut stone at pink with a black friend, I am going to be a whole transformation is going on. Yeah, it's Yeah, it's it's exciting to be there and see that and support it. That's it's frickin awesome. And then there's the people growing that business people like you who grow their businesses and people like, say Meredith is growing their business and Annie who's restructuring their business. So it's so get this real mix of people, but it's, I'm careful about who we let in. So we keep that culture and my values of fun and respect, and all of those things, which I think is awesome. And I think the best way this sounds like like already, you're like Oh man, I really like her really like what what Robins putting down my best suggestion for you this is something that's interesting is to one check out obviously the free group and become a member. Get involved there. And kind of just you know, you don't have to be posting just to kind of read and see you get a quick, it very quickly, you can tell the vibe of the group and the organization and everything like that. And it's excellent. Join Robins mailing mailing list, there'll be a link in the in the show notes for all these things. But join the mailing list because Robin does sound send out. Again, this is some of the fabulous, fabulous weekly reports on the things that are going on in the group, what he's doing. And again, I think it speaks volumes to to the turbo group. And then also when there's openings, you get reminders that there's an opening and the chance or if there's an opening, you can also get on the waiting list, which is also available through that so I think all these things are excellent pieces. But and I know we talked about there's I think there's like so much more to turbo but I think we've covered the there really is yeah there's there's a lot more to turbo and of itself. It's It's It's It's a value, that's for sure. It's just some of this the daily accountability posts to a day, so tucked in every day to ask what you're doing. And then at the end of the day, did you do the things you said you do this morning when you were filled with beauty and wonder for the day ahead before like it's true. A lot of daily, a lot of daily, daily goals by mine included get shattered very quickly, often the Yeah, and again, if you just want to get a sampling of that though, just being in the free group. Every Monday, we all set our Yeah, it's Monday every Monday we set goals, too. So even if you're not in turbo, there's there's still a little bit of accountability and a nice taste tasting of what goes on there. So And what's the last bit about co working sessions as well? Yeah, so we just get together and sit on zoom, go. have a bit of a chat. And you're right, everyone what you're doing, go around the group, get our heads down and get on with work. And people do just get right. I'm tidying my house. And you quite often see people singing their hearts out to whatever they're listening to. I'll be honest, I'm always super worried that my musics like, like audible to the way, the way my my the way my my audio is all set up on my computer. I never know what's actually muted and what's not even when I'm muting on zoom. So I'm like, I'm not gonna play any music to it. Everyone's gonna be hearing me do it. They're just telling me. Yeah. So the, so you play you play games? board games, and the board games role? tabletop role playing games, or just board games? For the moment? Yeah, both? Both. Okay. So do you have a Do you have a favorite? Like, what's what we all time or go to? Let's go with go to what's your go to tabletop game that, you know, if you were, if you were in a pinch, and you're like, man, I want to play a game with San Francisco the game that you know, you're just going to grab the boxer? Oh, god, that's a big question. It depends on the group. And it depends on the time. But deep sea adventure, because it's it comes in a little box like that. So you can throw it in your bag can take you anywhere, which is excellent. It's pretty easy to explain, it plays quickly, you can put it, you can put it in any size space, because it's little tiny tokens that leaves a trail. So you can fit it on a small table in a pub or on a great big table. And it will it will expand or shrink to fit the space. And it's really fucking brutal. You're all deep sea divers. But you are cheap. And there's only one tank of oxygen between you and you traveled down. Yeah, it's a roller move. But the dice only go up to they have 012 and three on them, I think so you traveled down. You only start using your oxygen. Once you picked up pieces of treasure and the tokens that you've traveled down on the trail of treasure that could be anything between the top level or with very little the further deeper you go, the more points they get from sort of zero to three to 20 to 25 at the bottom, but as soon as you start picking up treasure, it slows you down. And it also means you start to consume oxygen. So the the tracker starts going down very quickly as people are picking up treasure. And if you get greedy, then it slows you down so much that you end up drowning at the bottom of the ocean and everyone laughs and it's just an absolute delight because you're egging each other on you push Go on Go for it, you can you can pick up one more. Knowing that some prick right at the top, he's only got one point he's going to turn around and head back and do muscle. It's a lot of fun. A lot of fun in a very small box for about 15 pounds. Yeah, that's actually that sounds very good. And and you actually said something that I never really thought about any pub size, like pub size games? Because there's plenty I mean, I've gotten to plenty of pubs that have games, you know, the problem always is, is they're usually too big for the space that's allotted in a pub. Right? It's kind of ironic that my sense of the word but kind of stupid that like the pubs are set up, they had the space but they don't have the space. Right, so I like the idea of pub size games. It's probably there's probably more of those out there that are just not aware of that just need to be like what's it Yeah, like what are pub size games because that's actually sounds like a great niche that should be out there and it probably already exists but you know, point games to a lot of these little quite small box size ones. So that's quite a live entry. It's nice doesn't have a huge amount of tactical depth but it's if you're in a pinch it sounds like it's got a lot to it right playable trackers, you know some some kind of strategy in there. So for a simple game, it's actually I feel like has locked VM as a former game designer actually sounds like it's got a lot of depth to take this design itself. So it's actually pretty slightly smashing game. But on the other hand, though, let's play mansions of madness madness version one which takes over two tables. It takes an hour to set up you get one thing wrong, the whole chain of events is broken and you have ruined the game. And it takes five hours to play. Yeah. Love it much better than the app version. Sorry, folks. version two is trash. Tie feel about anything past was second edition talisman. So with all All the extra corners that yeah expanding everything everything but um yeah stroll exactly to that yeah yeah it's definitely definitely has its flaws too. Do you have digital talisman on Steam? I've seen it I've not picked it up I have not picked it up the the I need to I would also need to pick up is is the tabletop like the role playing game that tells me it's actually written by a couple rounds so I'm like I asked him though is it is brutal assassin when they were writing and I said is it as brutal like Will you lose friends over this game and tabletop and they're like now it is all about losing friendships. That's what that's games for. Yeah, no, that's diplomacy surely. Yeah. Diplomacy too. Oh, what's the one with a Barrow trauma Have you played that? That's to D mongers on a submarine that flies through space? Well, it's aggravating it's it's got that kind of lovecraftian otherworldly magnet about it. And you're just trying to keep your space submarine going and then why does it keep breaking it is it you let's batter you to death with a pipe and find out that that's where they settled most that's my style of leadership. So on the on the video game side of things are you PC console handheld electronic devices where do you Where's Where? Where do you Where do you go for your digital digital play? Yeah I'm platform agnostic where have is got other games that I want to play? I will go over only really got a decent gaming PC last year fortunately just before the GPU crisis so I've got my my beast under the desk that's brought the funds roar a little bit of cleaned she's it she's noisy base, but I've got a ps4 and a switch and Wii U and Oculus quest and a variety of older systems knocking that stuck out Dreamcast somewhere yet with GPS Your guess is solid solid. Like at that time it was the that's the generation right after the Genesis right? Dreamcast so drink Yeah, yeah, no Sutton came after Saturn. Right yeah. But you know Nights into Dreams phenomenal game. Dream cast was Sonic Adventure Crazy Taxi. Power Stone. That weird game with the fish dude. See man, man yeah narrated by Leonard Nimoy so terrifying that gaming it learn things and it will repeat them back there get yourself in mischief. There are some really cool early AI games that people don't pay attention to that was one and I felt like the original black and white was actually super smart. The the minions that your your big beast that did the things for you. There were things that that thing picked up on that I was just like, they lost it somehow and the second the sequel the sequel? Oh, right. But But the first one you could do things like where you had a fireball you through the fire but like you teach it to play catch. And then you teach it to catch a fireball and it'll learn to catch a fireball and then you'll learn to throw the fireball at your enemy. Right so you it was like that is amazing. Couldn't do that in the second one for whatever reason, but it's only a play. I've never played back when I was it. He had to do a publish it. It was like it was why it was the fable guy right? Yeah, Molyneux Millenium. Yeah. spores on which I played for the first time recently and Sanic game I mean again I don't I never get disappointed because I know they hype those games too much but in sport I was so excited about from like all the talk when it was like oh yeah, you can do this and do this. Oh my oh my god was gonna be amazing and then I got a great game. I'm like it's okay. But did not live up to the stuff but that's like fable right. Like, when fable was sold and like Oh, if you if you go around and murder all the redhead women all the redhead women are were kerchiefs and hide you know, because they that Now that it's happening, they're like, also, why would you be doing that? But anyway, but I was like, actually, that speaks to their marketing team a little bit. Why did you pick that as the example for like, because that literally what like, I didn't just make that one that was literally like I remember pizza money, took about a few plants in a call and started the game. Towards the end of the game, the tree will have grown and of course, it just wasn't capable of doing that. It was a fun action RPG romp that I played all of them I love them all like for what they are, but they but what they what they weren't is a lot of things. If you played the Connect one, connect, Yes, you. Yeah. Yeah. I actually was i was i was music with my wife today cuz we're going through my library on my, my Xbox. And she was like, oh, Dan Central's like, Can you do that? I was like, I need to get to connect to do that again, because I used to love the hell out of that. Like Yeah, I think I was one of the few fans of Connect. Like I know there's a lot of people were like, act Connect stupid or whatever. Like, I mean, I use the excuse that I bought the connect in order to do the voice commands for Mass Effect, I think isn't as effective. You could like, give commands you know, I bought it because the Dance Central like yeah, great games on it. Trump central was fun. There was another dancing one by Konami, which was more of a be money. Like, para para paradise style, sort of Yeah, turn remember that one. was the one by Double Fine, the happy action theater that was phenomenal with a roomful of drunk friends. And so all of a sudden, the room was filling with lava and people were burning to death in it and then all was good, fine. And then no, now we butterflies playing breakouts. It's just bonkers. Lovely stuff. Loved it. I pitched I pitched a giant monster Connect game that just been salad and go play the giant monster and you destroy the cities and everything cuz I thought that would just be like, I still think it'll be good fun. And I still follow maybe Yeah, I would play that. Yeah, and that was the one where it was like a puzzle game. But you had to be the bridge for little guys to walk over. And that was humbling. So many great games. of which, if it's the novelty part, though, right, like, so everybody was building on the novelty of it. And it's like any, it's like any kind of cool game ideas. It's like, Alright, now you've got past analogy. What else can you do with it? And I think people Yeah, yeah, people and for whatever reason, like even though like, I think the you know, the, the we right, people were doing a lot of stupid stuff. And people were having fun doing it. I'm guessing this is again, I have no proof of this where I'm guessing that your typical Xbox player versus your your Wi Fi player is maybe a little bit more self conscious about the stupid shit that they do in front of their, their their home monitoring camera system. like to say it was it was supported a bit better than the PlayStation. That actually made a game for the PlayStation. Did you? Actually it was the lights party? Lights party action? Yeah. Yeah, it was. It was a fun one. Yeah, I was I gave a lot of feedback and support for that. But yeah, I think we we use the controllers in that and then it was like nothing else you could use it for, I guess. The controllers for is the psvr. Yeah. So you have to go back a system to get the control. Yeah, work in the current system and the seals, USB rather than mini or micro ones. But it is great for Johann Sebastian joust, which if you run it off a Mac, you connect all the moves. It's the game were talking about. Yeah, you help you try to get as close as you can the other person right? Is it the way he wants you to mark jiggle the move, if your move moves faster than the beat or the rhythm of the track that's playing? Then you're knocked out it goes red, and yeah, you're eliminated from the game. It's so much fun. You could obviously play it much more low tech with wooden spoons and lemons. Lemon jobs think Yeah, okay, but it's it's really good fun with especially in a slightly darkened room with these glowing orbs moving around slowly and the music gets faster and everyone picks up. Stop. going slow. Remember, I remember that one. It was popular this year, couple times at GDC or at least once at GDC. They remember seeing so it was pretty cool. You can download that it is part of sports friends, buy ticket fabric, which was a collection Have mini games and you'll find my name in the credits though because I backed it on Kickstarter that's it carry up bring yourself back. Fair enough. Fair enough. Not much of a story. But what's your what's your we've covered some games what's your What's your favorite favorite game of all time? rez? Yeah, yeah, my favorite video game of all time is rares which have bought on the Dreamcast ps3 ps4, Xbox PC, Oculus quest. And again, it says anything for me. mixture of it's, it's it's a shooting game, but it's really much and at the same time, it has a lock on and paint effect. It's all very Tron looking graphics, very stark, neat lines rich and works for me. Back when I was getting high and doing acid and stuff. I always wanted sorts of very industrial things to look at friends like oh no, let's go out in the garden. Look at the grass. No give up. I want steel and concrete and brutalist structures to look at that will do it for me. And I think that's carried on in the zone. And then but I have, and it has a lovely lock on paints let go when it will shoot just just just in time to the beat, you build up you're hacking the system, and it builds up in intensity and effects and the beat gets harder and it's it's so Trump is ridiculous. But try and trans, excellent, so it doesn't matter. There's nothing wrong with that. I could be as strong as it wants to be. That's cool. My heart's beating. I've got very excited that reminds me now of me staring at the marketplace this morning going I should I should buy the new enhanced version of Mass Effect even though I didn't my library later and saw that I still have all the original versions of it and it's like am I gonna buy it just for the graphical improvements? like are they really gonna make liara not look as ghastly ugly as she did. And that's part of the charm of the original game was just how ugly that character was. I was so disappointed after all that romancing tarly didn't get to like it wasn't like Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've actually yeah, that was one of my favorite romances because I think I did all the multiple times over. Because it definitely played through the game at least six different times. based off of all the readings like to get all the it's one of the few games that I get all the achievements were for as much as possible and I don't like playing super hard versions of the game, but I'll do it anyway for that one. Just to get the last of the achievements. The only game I ever got all the trophies for installation was Hannah Montana the movie The game that's a fun fact for you. Sorry, but so max effect you were about to tell me more about the era. No, I was gonna say I was I was gonna comment that during this whole COVID thing. I kept saying thinking to myself, I was like, man, we're getting really close to having to be Koreans aren't we? I really hope that's not the case. But yeah, the only the only game I've actually gotten 100 100% on was the new the reboot of Tomb Raider so not like the first of the three now I guess. Yeah, I did that one ran all over the place crap found all the stupid shit I don't know why like but yeah, Metro Metroidvania games though. Get me like especially within those that's those are fun for me. high hopes for Prime four. Oh, yeah. The game I'm actually super excited about and I pre pre bought today a couple of weeks early is biome unit. So I'm looking forward to buy a unit I think that game is gonna be I hope it's as good as I think it's gonna be if you haven't checked it out you can make little your like your own anthropomorphic looking dudes, so I'm going to make them a bad looking one and I'm going to call them Batman do I've already played it PC game a weekend? About three or four years ago no yeah, a long time ago. It's been a It's been a long time. And it was letters for back then it was like wow, this is going to be something special and then disappeared for years. So Wow. Let's hope it is. I do I do. Fingers crossed that scream I'm gonna be playing the hell out of in a couple weeks. But yeah. So people we asked I asked this question everybody and and everyone I get on is a specialist in some way shape or form. That's the thing that they do. You've told your story how you got there, but perhaps someone doesn't want to go through all the the the drugs and the drinking and the the hitting hitting bottom part if they want to To get into, like leadership or you know, or coaching or mentoring and so forth, what what steps would you recommend to someone who's looking to get into doing doing that? Yeah, yeah, find yourself a mentor or coach, someone who's doing what you want to do, and is willing to take one and at least at the very least, just have a conversation with you, and talk you through what they did, what you could do, what opportunities and resources are available to start, that that journey. And hey, I think there's a site called press star leadership, that would be an excellent place. There is there is, but also understand that there's a place called coaching for geeks. That also would be I think, an excellent place to start as well. Yeah, absolutely. I'm not going to teach you how to be a coach, or necessarily a leader through my content, or as you would I can help you grow your yourself belief and confidence and your audience. But I think you're better off coming to someone who's more of a specialist in that field, it depends where you want to be a leader, as well. But doing things like playing Dungeons and Dragons, and being the dungeon master, that's sort of such a great way to develop leadership skills and thinking on your feet and improvising. When when someone decides that, no, they don't want to talk to the obvious person in the tavern that is clearly the quest giver. But who's this person over here who's juggling, and you have to suddenly come up with a name and they're going to interrogate them, and you have to be literally everybody else in the world, that role playing games, improv. I think those those people who have those skills, and I think that's the advantage nerds and geeks have, that they don't realize, is that they spent a lot of time in worlds being different characters thinking about different characters. And honestly, like business, dealing with different groups of people is a lot about putting on the right mask at the right time and being the right character and presenting things, right. I mean, you have to be authentic still, right, like, at the core of it, like and that's, I mean, I think, from my experience of role playing for years, every character I play has the essence the true essence of me somewhere in that character anyway, regardless, so as long as you're keeping that authenticity there, those are great skills to have. So yeah, I agree like you. That's the thing and I you touched on another part that I always like to bring up and I think, I mean, we're getting we're finally getting out of the quarantine and everything like that, but we do still live in a day and age where connectivity to people is so much easier now like accessibility. So if you want to find a mentor or whatever, like I highly recommend what you've already said is reach out to somebody to say hey, I'm interested in doing this I I love it when people write to me I will respond back I find the sad thing is usually the conversations kind of die off after a little while so I think it's really people I think if you want to do it go in just be respectful of people's times or whatever but I really feel like there's tons of people out there that are in your field what you're doing that are more than willing to share their experience and their their knowledge with you. And so you know, if people are willing to now they're not all gonna say yes right? You're probably gonna have to it's a numbers game a little bit right? But somebody will say yes and when they do you know, be respectful of their time and like take you know, take advantage of that use use that moment to be like hey, I have questions people do it. I really I think I think it's you know, people it's that whole getting over the fear it's like you said earlier like training training people to be better in there and what they do is getting them to get the courage to ask you know, people to be on your podcast or to be you know, in your group or to to guest blog or host something or answer some questions for you for just even an interview like you don't even have to you know, just putting yourself out there but it's scary and I get that it is like rejection scary and people are always afraid but honestly I think when I when I coach people to get you know how to ask for a raise ask you know, how do I how do I how do I how do I get a job in another country apply? Right like the first step is doing it now the fear of like half of it but chances are most people just gonna say either Well, most of it ghost you nowadays, which sucks, but say now or, you know, maybe We say something ridiculous. Generally they won't like most if they're gonna respond to you they're gonna probably say like, yeah, sure, ask more questions on what you want. Exactly, but it's my former mentors. catchphrase is shy kids don't get sweets. And it's true if you don't ask you don't get shy kids did well at Halloween. I didn't really want it. Yeah. Just the just to tell a personal so my babysitter's and the way my parents handled, like the babysitter having to deal with me is they would buy a box of cookies. And they would babysit or take the box of cookies. It gave me the box of cookies. And I would eat the box of cookies, like the entire box of cookies. Right? And it wasn't like it wasn't like spread out over a week. So I was I was a husky child. I'll put it that way. I know some people don't like that term. And it definitely leaves leaves some some you childhood scars, the word Husky we're going to store to buy some new pants, we're going to do the Husky section. like nobody knows. It's that line, right between adult and kid. It's just like, yeah. I don't think we have that term over here. It really confused me. Like, ski section, dog? Well, yeah, yeah, no, there's that. There's definitely that. But it was like, I think I want to say came out in the 80s. I don't think I think it really was like a term they tried to they try to come out for like, slightly larger, hefty, hefty children. But yeah, but yeah, we reached out to people, because I've, quite often the fear comes from, I think that people think, Oh, well, I want to be a coach, they're a coach, they might think that I'm trying to intrude on their territory, or, or in the net, but it's, it's like I say, for success, there's so much success out there that you don't have to worry about it. It's it's like, even as a generalist, you're not going to over you're not going to compete, right too much. I mean, like, there's gonna be overlap here and there, but chances are like, you're not gonna be able to serve everyone, and they're not gonna be able to serve everyone. And the thing is, you might also you're not going to be a fit for every every client, and they're not going to be a fit for every client. So it's going to come down to it like it's, it helps the network or whatever it helps to support folks. There's a good chance in the future, if you do if you have too many clients, and you're like, Oh, I know, this guy, or girl who is doing this thing, and they're really good at this, maybe push him in that direction. Like I always kind of check to see like, Okay, what are you looking for? As a leader, right? Who are you serving? What do you want to do specifically, because it may not necessarily line up with, with where where I am. And thankfully, I will love all the people that I run into that are in my stuff. So I'm more than happy to toss, toss them over to somebody else to be like, hey, you should talk to this person because they're excellent with, you know, marginalized groups or upcoming groups or looks like it sounds like you're looking for, you know, someone that's more like you, you know, and that, that helps, you know, find the right right fit for you. There's different strokes for different folks, and plenty of plenty of options out there in this world. And there's like, you know, it's there's, there's like, plenty of success. It's not like pie doesn't run out, right? You can have all the success in the world. And share it and then be happy for other people for it. Yeah, I'm sharing it is that thing like when when people come to me for questions, advice, pointers, like, Oh, hey, why don't you write this up for the blog, and then I get a piece of content, they get backlinks, everybody wins. It's the audience gets a great bit of content, as long as it is a great bit of content. publishing the old trash. Sure, sure. Quality Speaking of which, the might spot piece of content about new leaders from persistently put the right way. Press thought leadership here. No, it's true. That's true. I really enjoyed writing that one. It was it was good fun. So and I think and i think i think Robin for me, because I asked Robin I said, what, what are what, like, what are the kinds of things that you know, leadership stuff that you know, your, your, your team and people were looking for? And he definitely, you know, it was like, it's good. It's a good bit of advice, right beginning leaders there. They're the first ones there's a lot of good stuff in it. So yeah, check out some golden nuggets there. There's it's, it's just going out on Instagram, actually, as opposed so let's go easily using that new feature on missing glass. Yeah, I don't want to Instagram is the one spot where I do don't want to have too much missing letter sends a lot to all my different social networks. And I need to keep a closer eye on Instagram. But I'll take a look over that. It's only allowed to post there once a day on the calendar that I've set up. It's not going to overwhelm. That's good. Yeah. Very cool. So, Robin, I really do appreciate your time today. But I would like to ask for one more reminder for the listeners and those viewing. Where can they find you? Very easy to find. If you type coaching for geeks, and to any of your devices, we will pop up. But if you want specifics, you can find the website coaching for geeks.com. Join the free Facebook group coaching for geeks.com forward slash Facebook. Meanwhile, over on the homepage of the website, if you click at the top where it says CFG turbo, you can find out more about virtual geeks turbo and apply to be in the next round of turbo on twitter at coaching geeks, Instagram at coaching for geeks, sorry, they are different. Twitter just doesn't allow enough letters in the username. Where if you follow me on Twitter, I'll probably be posting pictures of the beautiful sky or friendly cut that I've encountered every coach out there. Chris, you've turned into a.in the morning. Yeah, it's it. Sadly, I think we've run to the I think I think my camera decided I wanted to turn into a pumpkin. So we're out of time. I'm in charge now. Welcome crest leadership on where all your dreams will come true. Oh, yeah, yeah, just hit me up on anything. I'm quite an open book. You can find me you can chat to me. I highly recommend it. Robin Robin is as I said a treat and very, very fabulous. And and honestly one of the one of the most generous beings that I've had the pleasure of meeting so yeah, no, it's, it's it's been it's been great. Thank you so much for being a guest and sharing your your journey and what you're doing now. And I hope many of them join us and over in coaching for geeks because it is a great community that I think there's a lot that our listeners here can can get some value from so I hope they take advantage of that. Yeah, me too. It'd be great to have some of your awesome presto gang along for the for the CFG ride. Thank you for having me on. It's been an absolute pleasure, Christopher. Yes, always a pleasure. Thank you. That's this week's episode of press star leadership podcast. As always, thanks for being awesome. And if you haven't yet, make sure to give us follow. Till next time. If you haven't downloaded my free ebook, five heroic leadership skills, click on the link in the description. Tune in next week for your next episode of press star leadership podcast. Thank you. Oh, hi. In the episodes over, but thanks for sticking around till the end. Be sure to check out more episodes in the playlist and new episodes every week on Monday. Follow or subscribe so you never miss an episode. Don't forget to leave a review. Thanks again for being awesome.