Who doesn’t love the ’80s? The era of big hair, synthesized music, and Members Only jackets is near and dear to many of us. Gen Xers learned many important life lessons growing up in the ’80s, but does the decade that brought us parachute pants and the A-Team have anything left to teach us today?
BEMA’s Convention 2025 keynote speaker, Chris Clews, thinks it does. Clews is a self-proclaimed ’80s pop culture expert, specializing in deriving leadership lessons from the unique culture of the iconic decade. He shared his insights in a fun and laughter-filled session that left attendees with plenty to think about.
Just Breathe
Clews started with everyone’s favorite martial arts movie from the ’80s, The Karate Kid. While the movie’s message is about standing up to your bullies and learning something new about yourself, Clews focused on a much simpler lesson: Don’t forget to breathe.
In the key “wax on, wax off” scene, Mr. Miyagi keeps telling Daniel to breathe, and it’s important for leaders to also place an emphasis on breathing.
“I don’t mean the physical act of breathing, but that playing with your dog, your kids, taking a walk, going to the gym, whatever it is,” Clews said.
Taking time to “breathe” yourself and allowing your employees the freedom to decide when they need some time to do so can decrease not only your stress level, but it can create happy, more loyal employees, as well.
“How can we increase employee retention?” Clews asked. “One of the easiest things to do is create a stress -free environment, and that starts with you.”
Be Like Chunk
It’s not a discussion of the ’80s without at least one reference to The Goonies. But again, Clews chose a small scene that made all the difference to the movie – and can make all the difference in our lives, as well.
In the movie, one of the boys, Chunk, ends up imprisoned in the basement of the rival Fratelli family with Sloth, a Fratelli who looks different from others. The Fratelli’s have chained Sloth up and locked him away because he’s not like everyone else. Chunk offers a piece of his precious Baby Ruth candy bar to Sloth, reaching out and showing him kindness. In the end, it is Sloth who helps the Goonies find and capture the treasure.
Clews point was that kindness still counts, especially when it comes to including people – the people who may not look like you or act like you. Everyone brings something to the table and often the people you least expect can offer solutions because they look at the problem in a slightly different way.
“It’s a human thing to do to include everybody, and it makes our businesses, lives and communities better and our businesses more productive when we include everybody,” Clews said.
Write the Note
Clews’ next lesson centered around a handwritten note that the musician Prince sent to another ’80s musician, Suzanne Vega who sang the song “My Name is Luca.” After that song came out, Prince was so moved by it that he sent Vega a note that read:
Dear Suzanne,
Luca is the most compelling piece of music I’ve heard in a long time. There are no words to tell you all the things I feel when I hear it.
I thank God for you,
Prince
Leaders can take three lessons away from this story, Clews said.
- Leaders aren’t afraid to share the stage. They’re not scared by someone else’s talent. They know that there’s room for everyone.
- “Encouragement doesn’t cost a thing,” Clews said. It doesn’t take anything except time to offer an encouraging word, a smile, or an act of kindness.
- We’ve lost the art of the handwritten note. Clews points out that there’s a permanence to a handwritten note that email and text simply don’t have. It’s something you can take out and read over and over again that will often evoke memories in a way that digital communication does not.
“All it takes is five minutes for a handwritten note,” Clews said. “If you’re a leader, a team leader, leaving a handwritten note on someone’s desk, sending them one, if they work virtually in the mail just to let them know they’re doing a great job, it goes a lot further than an email. It’s something tangible they can have in their hand and again has your heart your soul your energy in it. It makes all the difference.”
Fix the Screws
No discussion of ’80s pop culture is complete without The Breakfast Club, a movie about five kids in detention that defined a generation. In his talk, Clews focused on Bender, the criminal, in the scene where he takes the screws out of the library door, so he can throw a party. When confronted about it, Bender says, “Screws fall out all the time. The world’s an imperfect place.”
Clews reminded us that the screws of our lives do fall out all the time, often leaving us at a crossroads where we have to make a decision about what we want to do next. He pointed out that a lot of the time, we just put the screws back in and keep doing what we’ve been doing – but the screws fall out again. Over time, the screws warp and rust and eventually, they won’t go back in.
“One day, those screws don’t go back in, and you’ve got to make a decision on where you’re going to go, whether it’s your business or your personal life,” Clews said. “What’s the next step for me? Am I just going to keep putting these rusty screws in and keep going through this life of quiet desperation? Or am I going to find something new, some new screws, an entirely new journey, walk out that door to something brand new?”
Pulling on his own experience leaving a corporate job in marketing, Clews encouraged Convention attendees to really consider making a change if the screws in some area of their life are falling out repeatedly.
Choose Your Verse
Clews closed his presentation by talking about the Robin Williams classic movie, Dead Poets Society. In the movie, Williams’ character quotes from the Walt Whitman poem “Oh Me! Oh Life!” saying “The powerful play goes on and you may contribute a verse. What will your verse be?”
Clews challenged the audience to think about their verse, their legacy. “How will the world know that you were here?” he asked, encouraging convention-goers to think beyond their business and their family, to focus on advocating for causes that are important to them.
And while you’re thinking about your legacy, Clews imparted some life advice from the two most bodacious dudes of the ’80s.
“Be excellent to each other. Party on, dudes!”
