Chris Denson's Crushing the Box Hit #1 in Its Category, Then Spent 8 Years Opening Doors at the UN, PayPal, and Beyond

Chris Denson is a former head of the innovation practice at the world's largest media agency, a stand-up comedian turned innovation strategist, and the author of Crushing the Box, his Scribe-published guide to the 10 essential rules for breaking essential rules. Eight years after launch, the book is still functioning as the credential that gets him into rooms he otherwise would not be in, including a workshop at the UN General Assembly and a company-wide fireside chat at PayPal.

Why He Wrote the Book

Chris had spent years collecting evidence. Three hundred-plus interviews with people in the innovation economy. The leadership of the innovation practice at the world's largest media agency. A nine-year-old kid who raised a million dollars for his best friend's disease. Comedians, CEOs, celebrities, scientists. He had a thesis forming about what makes ideas land in the world, and he had a working title that was, in his own words, "an A to Z guide" where he'd "make some words up that are definitions."

His Scribe team pushed back.

"I was able to organize it through working with Scribe. It's funny because I was like, I think I'm going to do an A to Z guide, right? And just like make some words up that are definitions. And you guys were like, nah, you don't want to do that. I spent a few weeks just kind of going back to the drawing board and what I landed on was the 10 essential rules for breaking essential rules."

— Chris Denson, author of Crushing the Box

The Constraint That Built the Book

Chris wanted Crushing the Box launched at SXSW in March. He started the Scribe process the previous October. Blank pages to bookstore in roughly six months, while he was simultaneously leading a 20-person team on the CES show floor in Las Vegas, hosting a startup event, giving tours to clients, and reviewing the manuscript in two-hour chunks per chapter with the Scribe team.

"I had to book time with you all to review the book in quarters. So I had, all I was like, I don't know how I'm going to get through this week. Obviously I did. You talk about constraint. It's like that's four days in a city of planning and leading and presenting. And then also reviewing... when you get squeezed through a portal like that, you're like, oh, I'm actually capable and have a lot more capacity than I thought I may have."

— Chris Denson

What 8 Years With the Book Has Looked Like

Crushing the Box hit #1 in its category at launch. What the book did after that is the story most authors do not get to write, because most authors do not wait long enough for the compound effect to land.

The Book Got Him Into the UN General Assembly

Chris led a workshop at the UN General Assembly on innovation, empathy, and tactical ingenuity, tying his book's principles to the UN's sustainable development goals. In his own words, on paper he had no business being in that room.

"One was being able to create a workshop for the UN General Assembly. On paper, I have no business doing that. But because this book was a tool and because at the time they [the UN] were knee deep in the sustainable development goals, and I'd been doing some work adjacent to fintech financial technology, and we're like, to accomplish all of these goals, finance is a part of each and every one of them and how we look and think about money. And so using these principles of innovation and empathy and tactical ingenuity to go like, hey, guys, have you ever thought about it this way?"

— Chris Denson

PayPal: Stage, Book Club, Innovation-Team Zoom

One Fortune 500 invitation produced four compounding outcomes from a single book: #1 category bestseller credibility going in, an on-stage fireside chat broadcast to the entire company, the book joining PayPal's internal book club, and a follow-up private Zoom session with PayPal's innovation team.

"I'd gotten invited to PayPal and let's keep in mind that the book did become a number one bestseller in its category and going to PayPal, working with their innovation team. And not only just being interviewed on stage, that was broadcast to the entire company. They [PayPal] had a book club already and so my book was part of their book club and then I got invited to just do an intimate Zoom presence with that entire team."

— Chris Denson

International Speaking on the Book's Strength

The book carried Chris to New Zealand, Australia, Africa, and London, plus a SXSW launch event with Michigan House (his alma mater). His "full-circle moment," in his words, was being interviewed by Josh Luber of StockX about the book.

The Lighthouse Effect, Eight Years On

Two weeks before this episode aired, Chris took a sales call where the prospect opened with the line every Scribe author hopes their book will produce on autopilot. Eight years after publication. The book did all the pre-warming.

"I had a call two weeks ago and the guy was like, I'd already read your book and just humbled by this conversation. I'm showing up almost with a little bit of dysmorphia. It's just me. He's pouring it on thick and having had to come across the book and some other things that the book led to."

— Chris Denson

This is the result Scribe sells but most authors only get to imagine: a book that keeps working as a lighthouse for qualified prospects long after launch, doing the introduction and the credentialing without the author having to do it himself. Or, in Chris's own words:

"[The book] opened up a flood gates of what even I thought was a possibility for my own career, my own journey."

— Chris Denson

What He Tells Authors Who Are Still on the Fence

Chris's coaching now uses the same imposter-syndrome reframe he had to learn for himself while writing the book.

"Whatever imposter syndrome tells you, it's just a reflection of your own sense of your own value. It's a tap on the shoulder to go, maybe we should work on this. From a tactical perspective, I was like, it just became a little bit of a superpower. It was like, well, [imposter syndrome is] also a driver for me to do excellent work."

— Chris Denson

Chris's practice is called Visionology. You can find him on Instagram and LinkedIn at Densynology.