Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris Tuff.
Hi Chris, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I fell into digital advertising in 2004 just as the world was coming back from the dot.com bust. I had 64 failed job interviews until lucky 65 landed me a small firm known as Moxie Interactive. After many lateral moves in many different departments over a 4 yr period I found my first taste of where passion and profession collided in the social media space as one of the first advertisers to work with Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook. I tell people that when passion, purpose and profession collide ridiculous things tend to happen- my first taste of this was when I was challenged by our agency owner Kris Pinto to make a viral video (pre-YouTube). I uploaded a video of my engagement where I pretended to sprain my ankle on a run with my now wife Julie. It was a scale of emotion that played out over a 3.5 minute video (on my personal website) that garnered over 7 million views in a week, a feature on Good Morning America and which even got our pictures on the front page of the WSJ. I then ran with that “currency” in the digital and social media space where I helped build out this practice starting 14 yrs ago at the agency of which I’m a partner 22squared. It was in 2018 that I felt like I had more impact to make on the world when I also began putting most of my efforts into my younger employees to help empower them and drive purpose for them. It was on an executive retreat when I introduced myself as “I’m kind of like the millennial whisperer” that the guy leading the retreat (Tommy Breedlove) proceeded to tell me “You’ve got to write that book!” 4 months later I wrote the book that then went on to sell tens of thousands of copies and which landed me on the stages at the world’s most prestigious brand stages like Nike. But then the pandemic hit and asked myself “what is the ONE book I was born to write?” It was in this moment I decided to help the world become better networkers and sellers while also being more true to our own purpose and passions. Over the last 2 years, I’ve interviewed some of the world’s greatest networkers which has culminated in my upcoming book (publish date of 3/1/22) titled “Save Your Asks.” The book title is a call-to-action to focus on connection first.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I hit my own rock bottom in 2016. I had lost sight of what was most important to me (my wife and two daughters) as I hobnobbed around the world rubbing shoulders with tech execs and the social elite. I decided a few things had to change as I struggled through my own rock bottom. The first was re-prioritizing my wife Julie and my daughters Finley and Marlin. I also changed my metric of “success” which prior to this rock bottom was essentially beating my older brothers in the game of life and career to “success” being measured on a daily basis when my head hit the pillow. This new metric of “success” was also simply “did I have a positive and productive impact on the people around me today?” I also learned to embrace more of the process vs. the “champagne or Instagrammable moments.”
As you know, we’re big fans of Guided by Good. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
We are 100% employee owned advertising firm that is comprised of 3 companies:
1) 22squared (With creativity as its core product, 22Squared integrates media, strategy, analytics, data science, development, creative and production into a single cohesive unit, designed to help brands find their conviction, and turn it into action for people.”
2) Trade School (Trade School is a holistic content shop that helps clients accelerate and scale the creation of high-quality, effective content.
3) Dendro, (Dendro is a creative growth partner for ambitious leaders working upstream to fill the gap between where management consultants leave off and creative agencies begin).
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Some of the most important lessons I’ve learned have been that life can and should be a ruthless pursuit of honing our purpose and passions. It’s up to us to craft our future that is further in line with our ever-evolving purposes. It’s also with this in mind that I think it’s essential that we all have side-hustles and that organizations support and encourage employees to pursue them. Changing my metric of success to impact coupled with reprioritizing my family have been imperative for me in my own journey. I try to live and breathe a growth mindset all day everyday and feel like many organizations out there do only support fixed mindsets which is where dreams go to die.
Contact Info:
- Email: Chris@christuff.me
- Website: https://christuff.me/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tuff22/
- Other: https://www.guidedbygood.com/
Image Credits:
Uchechi Anusiem
