Chris Clews

Growing up in the ’80s and with over twenty years of leadership experience in corporate marketing, he knew three things very well – ’80s pop culture, business and this crazy thing we call life. One day, in his mid 40s, he was on his couch having a self pity party of one over a job that just wasn’t working out for him.

He was watching The Breakfast Club when John Bender said, “Screws fall out all of the time. The world’s an imperfect place.” He sat straight up and said to himself, “I’m an imperfect place. My screws have fallen out. What am I going to do to put them back in?” Continuing to flip channels he stopped on the classic 1983 movie The Outsiders and literally jumped off his couch when he heard Johnny Cade say, “You still have a lot of time to make yourself be what you want.”  Yes I do still have a lot of time to make myself be what I want, he thought to himself.

He took the advice of Johnny Cade and left his corporate career of 20 plus years to become a keynote speaker and author on the topic of lessons from 80s pop culture for life and the workplace. Combining his areas of experience, he created the popular book series, The Ultimate Series on Essential Work & Life Lessons from ‘80s Pop Culture, which includes two volumes of What ’80s Pop Culture Teaches Us About Today’s Workplace, and his newest title Raised on The ’80s: 30+ Unexpected Life Lessons from the Movies and Music That Defined Pop Culture’s Most Excellent Decade.

He’s spoken to a diverse set of organizations and companies including VISA, University of Florida, UPenn Medicine, DHL, WIFS (Women in Insurance and Financial Services), DisruptHR, FuturePharma, HR Healthcare, CMAA (Club Management Association of America), SGAC (State Government Affairs Council), Nostalgiacon and more. He’s also a frequent guest on podcasts with topics ranging from workplace culture to 80s pop culture and has been referenced or interviewed in numerous publications such as Entrepreneur.com and Esquire UK magazine.

A graduate of Elon University in North Carolina, he has over 20 years of marketing leadership experience with companies ranging from Planet Hollywood to DHL. He’s been lucky enough to build brands, lead brands through transition and spearhead sports sponsorships with NCAA Basketball, PGA, MLB, International Soccer and the UFC.

He’s also very passionate about animal rescue and donates a portion of the proceeds from his book and speaking engagements to WonderPaws Rescue and lives by the quote from the poet laureate Ferris Bueller, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop to look around once in a while, you could miss it.”