Meet Christian Chambliss | Speaker, Leader & Content Creator.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christian Chambliss and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christian, how do you think about risk?
Risk is an inevitable part of accomplishing a dream…. When starting something from the ground up there are a lot of unknowns. From the very beginning you have to come to terms with the fact that what you are doing might fail.. and be okay with it. The road to victory is paved with failure. At the end of the day, I’d rather lay my head down in bed knowing that I took a risk and failed, rather than letting fear keep me from moving. I am also a Christian, so risk is in the DNA of my belief system. In the Christian world however, risk goes by a different name – faith. The whole premise of faith is the idea of, I may not see the end result, but I’m going to move forward and trust I’ll be okay whatever the outcome. So when I look at risk assessment, the same rules apply… I’m going to jump.. if I fail thats okay, but I know I will eventually win. Risk is an inevitable part of accomplishing a dream.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
In 2017 I quit my job to start the first Arizona chapter, of an organization called Arizona Youth Alive. Youth Alive is a faith based non-profit designed to help students lead change on their school campus. Think about this, in the next 24 hours 1,439 teens will attempt suicide, 2.795 teenage girls will become pregnant, 15,006 teens will use drugs for the first time, and 3,506 teens will run away the vast majority of them will be from our public school system. Students need help an administrations are becoming more and more limited in what they are able to do to help them. So, we say to the school and to the community let us come along side you and train up students to be leaders on campus to bring the change our school systems so desperately need. We help students reach their campus through 3 main strategies: 1. We resource student lead campus clubs, where student leaders can bring what we call a “life-giving” community to their campus. 2. We work with student leaders to organize customizable school assemblies called 7projects where our team of communicators brings a high energy media driven program that addresses hard hitting topics such as suicide or drug addiction. You can go to arizonasevenproject.com for more info. 3. Lastly we run an annual student conference, where hundreds of students from not just Arizona, but the surrounding states participate. It is called the Youth Alive One Day. Here students receive practical training, and hear talks from world class communicators on how to lead at a high level. Starting this was NOT easy, because for the most part people didn’t get what I was trying to do, community leaders, churches, and school administrations had to be convinced that what we were doing was needed. So, I had to hours and hours of vision casting to people from all walks of life. Eventually, we built a team, and raised enough money to function. I couldn’t be more proud of how far my team has come since 2017!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I live in Phoenix, which is the 5th largest city in America, so there is a ton of stuff to do. Now, i’ve got 2 little kids so most of what I do is kid friendly however I can still give some ideas left over from my single/kidless days. First, you’ve gotta try Pizza A Metro, which is a little hole in the wall pizza joint with super authentic Italian pizza. You can’t go wrong there. Then about 10 minutes to downtown is Chase field, where you can catch a Diamond Backs game. Even if you’re not a baseball fan, this is really fun experience especially when they play the Dodgers or Giants. Then, you should go to Scottsdale to stay in one of their many resorts. My wife and I love this place called The Scott. The whole place has a restored 60’s vibe… Super instagram-able. Or if you have kids the best resort in Arizona bar none is the Great Wolf Lodge, it literally a wolf themed version of a Disney resort. My kids love it. As well in Scottsdale, you can hit up Fashion Square for a luxury fashion experience. Now, if you’re a coffe-holic like me there are great coffee shops all over town to hit up as well. Two must haves would be a place called Driftwood on the west side of town, and the other is called Mythical on the east side of town. You won’t regret either.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Well first and foremost I’d have to give acknowledgment to Jesus Christ. I would not be here today if it weren’t for him saving my life from addiction. As well to my grandpa Charity Harris, for showing me what it means to be a man, work hard, and care for others. He is my biggest super hero, and has always cheered me on in accomplishing my dreams! Love you papa!

Website: https://arizonasevenproject.com/
Instagram: @azyouthalive & @chrischam91
sFacebook: Christian Chambliss or Arizona Youth Alive
Youtube: Arizona Youth Alive
Other: tik tok @azyouthalive

Image Credits
I’ll credit our photographer who does all our photo work Adrian Alcaraz Insta: @_adrianaalcaraz