Rising Stars: Meet Chris French

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chris French.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born in and have spent most of my life in Southern California. Growing up, we had 27 dogs in our Orange County backyard…that’s right, 27. I would travel around to dog shows with my dad where I learned to not call Dachshunds “wiener dogs” in front of professionals. I’m the youngest of three sons so it’s safe to say that I was a “momma’s boy” growing up. I had to be with my two older (much bigger) brothers who were perfect in performing their duties as enforcers, executioners, self-esteem deflators and protectors.

In the early 80’s we moved to Pennsylvania, where my main influences were Transformers, G.I. Joe and Mr. Hibbard. The first two you know (hopefully) but the third was my Social Studies teacher. Get this…after school, Mr. Hibbard would regularly put a small group of us into his car and drive us deep into woods where we would explore our petrological natures and he would teach us about rocks. After, he took us out to ice cream and dropped us all off at our homes. Understand, this was a different time. We were less paranoid as a society back then and our culture hadn’t yet changed into what we see as today. He was great. Completely selfless and he innocently did this because he truly cared about the kids he was teaching. He taught me a lot about being nice, not only in our conversations but by his example.

When I was 12, we moved back to Orange County, CA. It was a strange time in my life, I felt lost. I missed my PA friends and I had MAJOR identity issues. I tried to fit in with all sorts of social groups, but nobody accepted me as much as the (for lack of a better word) troublemakers. Let’s just say that I had a fair amount of run-ins with the law…and by the law, I mean Clair and Susan; the golf cart bouncers at my school (Side note: When giving a fake name, don’t panic and use your middle name and actual last name…they WILL find you). I’m thankful for the guitar I got when I was 16. I gained a real appreciation for music and I immersed myself in it. Somehow, I survived but what changed me the most were the two jobs I would soon get.

I think when you live in Anaheim, it’s mandatory that at some point in early adulthood, you work for Disney (AKA: The World’s Largest People Hole Built By A Rat). Being a Jungle Cruise skipper for years taught me a lot about public speaking and yelling at audio-animatronic animals. Aside from being a public speaker for our youth, THIS was the greatest job ever. During that time, my life changed even more when I got hired as an after-school counselor at the YMCA. From there, I started directing summer camps, family programs and model legislative programs for teens. I became a trainer in the Y’s character development campaign and learned so much! This was my purpose. I had finally found my identity. In 2008, the camp I directed won the American Camp Association award for best camp in the nation, specifically for its music and the character program that I was in charge of.

While at the summer camps for 7-18 years old, I realized an important thing: Although the yearly themes were different, the message we practiced and talked about day after day was generally the same. At the end of campfire and when the closing stories were all done, we would tell the kids to “be nice”. Those words are so simple. We forget so much of what we’re taught in life, and “be nice” just seemed like an easy reminder for everything. In 2013, I released a children’s album and the last song I laid down was a track called “BNICE”. It meant so much to me. It’s like something within me turned on. So I began my quest for simplicity and to inspire moral awareness in myself and others within the message of ‘BNICE”.

Today, I travel all over the country and speak about the lessons of being nice that I learned from my experiences transitioning from a troublemaker to a professional character education advocate, with a Jungle Cruise twist. I’m a die-hard baseball fan and I take my daughter to games whenever possible. I’ve also officiated 16 weddings. It’s a lot of work, but wow…so worth the honor of being a part of two people’s special day.

I love the experiences that have led me to where I am. As a “Moral Awareness Speaker” or better yet, an “Edutainer”, I have a weird job… and I love it so much!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Creating something out of nothing was so challenging. All I knew was that I wanted to use my gift to speak to kids about having good character and being nice. I knew I couldn’t just talk to them… I had to be interactive. So, creating props, songs, skits, group activities (with purpose) was a HUGE challenge. Mainly, the rough road was simply trial and error. I would have to test my ideas with schools and honestly, they didn’t all succeed and drive the message home like I had hoped. So, it was back to the drawing board with many of my “brilliant ideas”.

I can say that now I’ve not only found my groove, but I continue to challenge myself to make my assemblies even better. Sometimes, schools bring me back for a second, third, and fourth time and I have to switch it up and create new content that they haven’t seen and that’s a challenging…but fun part as well.

Learning the business side of it… like marketing and taxes has been a learning experience as well. Honestly, I’m still learning it.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Basically, I travel the nation and talk to elementary schools about being nice through an interactive, PBIS supported presentation focused on diversity and tolerance. If you talk to the school administrators that I have worked with, they will all tell you that I am not a new program but rather a great addition to their already existing efforts. Feel free to read administrator reviews on my website or just look around the site in general www.bnicetoday.com.

I am very unique in the style of my presentations and my approach tailors to my skill sets of working with groups of students. I perform fun magic, illusions and music but more specifically, I run inspiring and hands-on group activities and discussions that lead to more moral awareness. I believe students learn from DOING when it’s properly followed up with a solid debrief on why did we did the activity and how it applied to them? One Principal recently said it best that “the program is “NOT anti-bully, it’s pro-friend”. I also work with faculty, parents and the student leadership if the school desires. I have plenty of material on changing a school culture and lesson plans to follow my program up with.

Most questions on my presentation can be answered on my FAQ page. Typically, my program is one day presentation with multiple assemblies for the varying age groups. I have a PK-3 and a 4-6 program; both age-appropriate for those grades. PK-3 is obviously very simple and includes some fun music and magic relatable to my BNICE theme. The 4-6 program is a little more involved and inspires more critical thinking. I usually work with 1-4 classes at a time because I’ve learned that it’s important to keep the groups smaller to ensure more discussions and it helps that the students feel like I’m talking TO them, not AT them. However, I’ve done large assemblies of a thousand many times. Usually, the schools park me in the multi-purpose room, gym, library, etc… and then the classes funnel in throughout the day. I work on a program that fits each school’s needs based on their character and values model. I’m a public speaker by trade so if a school is only looking for 1 or 2 large assemblies, I can adapt. My goal is to simply provide schools with options to best fit what they’re looking for.

After my general message of “being nice”, I sometimes do a special leadership program for just the student leaders. It’s these leaders that I’ve helped start Kindness Clubs with. This is a different program than the BNICE presentation. It’s focused on leadership and the power of one. I’ve started up many Kindness Clubs and I offer solid “How To” guides and work with those leadership kids and hopefully inspire them to take some real action to help schools to create a positive school culture of kindness.

Honestly, I don’t think anybody does what I do. I’ve seen other elementary school character programs that offer dancing, puppets, etc.… but nobody is doing what I do (magic, illusions, skits, group games, music, etc.) because my presentations are unique as I created them all myself.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Although I’m an elementary school speaker, I’m fortunate enough to know some elite high school speakers and I went and saw them speak. I had lunches with them. I picked their brains on their failures and successes. I learned A LOT from them!

My advice is to keep learning and soak up every bit of knowledge you can about what you want to do. Talk to everybody!

Also, whatever you choose to do…. be the expert at it. Call yourself an expert… even if sometimes you don’t feel like you are or you see “more accomplished” people around you doing it. Having the mindset of an expert… will undoubtedly make you an expert.

Pricing:

• I am generally $2,000 for my one-day all day assemblies which includes parent meetings as well as faculty trainings if wanted.
• virtual BNICE Presentations vary but generally, a one-day virtual presentation is $1,500.

Contact Info:

• Email: chris@bnicetoday.com
• Website: www.bnicetoday.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bnice_with_chris_french/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClkyZ2b45pT-ibwveJhvkyA?view_as=subscriber