Episode 231: Turn Adversity into Advantage | Chris Welton

How Executive Leaders Build Autonomous Systems & Compress Crisis | Chris Welton

How do elite CEOs and "Leaders of Leaders" maintain operational freedom while scaling through intense complexity? In this high-impact episode of The Uncommon Leader Podcast, host John Gallagher welcomes back international speaker, author, and executive coach Chris Welton for his third appearance on the show.

Drawing from the frameworks in his book, Adversity is the Assignment, Chris shares actionable strategies for leaders looking to eliminate operational friction, build lean organizational systems, and develop autonomous teams. Whether you are dealing with talent disruption, rapid scaling bottlenecks, or executive burnout, this episode provides a strategic roadmap for moving from reactive management to systemized architecture.

Key Discussion Highlights & Takeaways:

• The Four Stages of Adversity: Learn how to navigate from Victim to Survivor, Warrior, and ultimately Architect without pretending the pain isn't real.
• The Adversity Backpack & "Receipts": How to store and pull from past wins when facing seemingly impossible current challenges.
• The Adversity Accelerator: Training for hard moments on purpose through disciplined routines, uncomfortable conversations, and mental stamina building.
• The Undefeated Morning Routine: Winning the first five decisions of your day before the noise of the world takes over.
• Modern AI Integration: How Chris utilizes AI to perform structural feedback audits on coaching calls to optimize leadership performance.
• The "One Jordan" Strategy: Building authentic, high-level relationships with world-class leaders (and the surprise call it sparked from John Maxwell).
• The Power of "No": Protecting family time, eliminating operational drag, and maintaining sharp focus on high-yield leverage.

If you got value from this, subscribe to the Uncommon Leader Podcast, share it with someone facing a hard season, and leave a quick review so more uncommon leaders can find the show.

📺 Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/mzZPkkdFe3I
🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-uncommon-leader-podcast/id1577348656

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📌 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 Chris Welton👇
➡️ LinkedIn (primary):  https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-welton-95279b72/
➡️ Website: https://chriswelton.live/
➡️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Coachchriswelton
➡️ Book: https://onejordanbook.com/one-jordan-optin-book-with-signature

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Everybody has it. Nobody has a bad situation.

Welcome Back And New Book

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Hey, Uncommon Leaders, welcome back. This is the Uncommon Leader Podcast. I'm your host, John Gallagher. So I'm bringing Chris Welton back for the third time onto the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Last time we had him on two and a half years ago, he was talking about his first book, One Jordan. We may touch on that a little bit, but ultimately trying to learn what's been going on in his life since then. But today we're here to talk about his newest book coming out real soon called Adversity is the Assignment: Transforming Breaking Points into Breaking Moments. Chris is here to talk about the mindset of adversity where we go into and there's different ways in which we handle adversity. And he's going to talk to us really about how he handles adversity in his life to make him more successful, to make him more powerful, and to ultimately lead him to the next level. It's not how everybody responds to adversity. So if you or your team is facing adversity right now, I think this conversation is just for you today. Let's welcome Chris Welton onto the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Chris Welton, welcome back to the Uncommon Leader Podcast for the third time. It's great to have you on the show. How are you doing, man?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

I am doing really well. And I it's crazy that it's been three times. I can't believe it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

That's crazy, man, three times. We were talking before we hit the record, but it's also crazy, it's been two and a half years since we last chatted about your book, One Jordan. We'll touch on that one a little bit and what's been going on in that space for you. But also, we're going to be talking about your new book that's going to be coming out here real soon. Adversity is the assignment.

Writing After Loss And Loneliness

SPEAKER_01 2:04

So let's just start right there in terms of Adversity is the assignment. Where did that title come from? Where'd where'd this book come from?

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Who'd you write it for? Yeah, you know, it started out with me after CJ passed away, my son, in 2020. I felt alone, like really alone. And uh, you know, most when a child passes away, more people pay attention to the mom than they do the dad. And and I was there supporting my wife, but I was alone for eight, nine months before I was able to connect with some people. And so it was it was a lonely path. So when I started looking at what I wanted my next book to be, I really wanted to focus on adversity as a whole and and figure out some studies about adversity, the science behind it, and how it affects people, both good and bad, and and and how it's a requirement for growth, right? We have to go through adversity to get to where we want to go. So I wrote this book for anybody that faces adversity and they feel alone, which is a pretty big group of people, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:00

It can be a huge group in terms of you know face adversity. We're all going to face it in the world. I mean, we could talk about it as as parents, as spouses. Certainly, again, and you touched on this in terms of that loneliness too. In the world of a male going through adversity, it can be a lonely space to rely on. And so I know I know you've talked about this before in terms of how we lean on our faith and how important that is, but it's still something that's very important. And one of the key quotes you you talk about right off the bat, and some of the notes I have is says most people just survive adversity, but the book teaches you how to build from it and compress the time you spent, spend frozen inside it. So you've talked about a couple of those situations, um, but ultimately you mentioned there's four stages of adversity.

Four Stages Of Adversity

SPEAKER_01 3:42

So let's let's jump right into that in terms of the context of the book. Tell us about those four stages and and how you've been through those.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

So the four stages are victim, right? You're a victim when adversity happens. These are the four stages of how most how people react or receive adversity. Okay. So you have a victim. You know, we all know the victims, right? Some of us are the victim, that's how it works. And then you have the survivor, right? Somebody who's been through a ton of adversity but hasn't done much with it or about it, and it continues to happen. Then you have the warrior, the person that says, Come on, adversity, let's go. I got you. Like, I'm gonna use you as a tool to push forward. And then you have what I think everybody should strive for, which is the architect. And and if you build your future on adversity and you use that as the building blocks, the more adversity you face, the faster you get through it, right? So that's why I talk about compressing time a lot. And it's people get frozen in that victim mindset. They don't do anything. And the worst thing you can do when adversity faces is nothing, right? It's just sit there and hope that it goes away. Well, it's probably not gonna go away. So we have to figure out how to move through that. And and that's why we created also what's called the adversity capacity index. So people can take this easy assessment and it lets you know what your natural state is when you receive adversity. Like, are you a victim? Are you a warrior? Are you a survivor? Are you an architect? So we thought that would be incredibly helpful for people to manage adversity if they knew how they normally received it, right? Like, like what is how do I normally receive bad news or a bad situation? And if I receive it as a victim, what do I need to do to be able to handle it differently to push through it faster? And you'll hear me say this, and there was a lot in the book about to get through it. I don't talk about getting over it. Getting through it is what you do with adversity because it becomes a permanent part of you, right? And if you got over something, it's just not there. So, how much stronger are you gonna be the more adversity you get through? I've been considered a thought leader on the topic of adversity, not by choice, by I guess God chose me to be the to be that person. But um, so I feel I have a responsibility to help others. And adversity can be anything, it doesn't have to be a tragic loss, like my son CJ, it can be other things, but being able to process it faster and to push forward is really, in my my eyes, the only way through it.

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Chris, you talked and and then you touched on that that phrase you used was to move through it, right? And it's so compressing the time that you spend or in it, and maybe some people see it as an investment, but you're not saying get through it fast, but you're I mean, ultimately you're saying at some point you got to recognize where you are and then you gotta make some decision because no activity is the worst space when you can send there. So compressing the time, getting through all those stages and getting to that architect stage that you're trying to get to. I love that. I I can I can hear you saying that. It's not that you want to just get through it and get it out of the way and get through it faster. It's processing.

SPEAKER_00 6:34

Yeah, it's not like trying to say, yeah, it didn't happen. It didn't happen. Let's don't play the didn't happen game, but let's play the hap the game on what it meant. What can we learn from this? Right? How can we better prepare the next time this thing shows up in our lives? And I, as I looked through my life, I went back through it in the in the book. Each um like it's called the Adversity Paradigm. So it's the four mindsets of adversity in that part of the book. And excuse me, each one of those has a childhood story where I explained to you how I lived through that and how I realized that's what that was when I went back through my history, which was a very painful part of the book to write, to be honest with you. Like I literally was there were several times where I was like, man, this is really tough to get through right now and relive those things.

SPEAKER_01 7:15

Well, and you have those, to your point, they stick around. I mean, I've got, you know, they you've got them on your shelf. I've got it on my shelf in terms of stories that are associated. Some of those stories are, at least for me, if I'm owned I'm looking at some of these things like that, you know, baseball there, a story of overcoming or adversary, that adversity that was faced. This little piece of I-beam there has a little story behind it in terms of adversity that we've overcome, but they're reminders that sit there. You don't want to just throw them away because you learn from them and you want to uh be sure that you face that. Now, I've seen you in in a couple of videos you've used. You also do this as a keynote speech. As you said, you're recognized as an expert. Uh, you've done this already, I've seen it on YouTube, uh, and we should put it out there. But you talk about the adversity backpack.

The Adversity Backpack And Receipts

SPEAKER_01 7:56

Tell me, tell me about the adversity backpack. I love this as a as a metaphor, if you will, in terms of what you're facing.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

So I actually did a TED talk um on the adversity backpack last year, which was by by far the hardest talk I've ever given. Um TED talks are incredibly challenging, by the way, and they're only like 10 minutes long. And I've been on I've done hour-long ones, but it's so they're so scrutinized. Like they really are dialed into what you can and can't say, and if you get out of line, they just cancel you. But uh so the diversity backpack, it it works like this. Everybody has one, nobody asks for it. Essentially, what it is is everything that's happened to you through your whole life is in this backpack. And the heavier it gets, the harder it is for you to make decisions and do things that you want to do, right? And it weighs us down. And what I realized was is that most of the things that are inside that backpack we can use as proof. I call them receipts, to get through the things that are coming at us that hey, we already got there. So my challenge when I first come up with that theory of diversity backpack was you you really need to also put the receipts and the your wins in there with it. And when something comes at you, you've got a bad day or a bad situation, you can reach in that backpack and pull out some receipts. Hey, man, I've been through something tougher than this, or this reminds me of the time it was this, or whatever that is, to again to help you push through those things that are in front of you. You I mean, most of us already have all the tools required to get through adversity. Like it there's not anything you haven't gotten through that was adverse because you're still alive, right? Nothing killed you. So, like you've gotten through it at one point.

SPEAKER_01 9:25

You mentioned four tools inside the book. You've touched on three of them now already. And you may have touched on the fourth one. We're gonna, I'm gonna ask anyway. The adversity capacity index. We're gonna talk about that more here in a little bit and what that means from a diagnosis standpoint, ultimately, just to tell you where you are today. The paradigm are the four mindsets and the backpack, but you also mentioned the adversity accelerator

Training For Pain With Accelerators

SPEAKER_01 9:45

as a tool. What's an adversity accelerator for you?

SPEAKER_00 9:48

And and John, I know this is you do the same, you do the same kind of stuff. This is something that that would fall right in line with who you are. So the adverse accelerator is this. I put myself in tough and hard situations consistently. So the next time life blindsides me, I'm already ready. And for you and I, it's physical challenges, right? We like to push ourselves so hard that we can barely move, right? So, like for me, it was I just did the high rocks competition back in November last year, right? At 53 with one arm. I shouldn't, I mean, it's just crazy I did it, but I went and did it anyways. And so it challenges you to put yourself in tough situations, whether that's having tough conversations, speaking in front of a group that you don't like to speak in front of because you're, you know, you don't like public speaking. Or for me, it's physical challenges, right? It's it's getting in the cold water every morning before I do anything else. It's it's sticking to a powerful, hard routine to push myself to find out how strong I am, and then it just prepares me for when bad stuff happens. You know, like when when I was on the high rocks comp competition and I fell, I was laying on the ground towards the end of it. And I'm I'm I I wanted to quit. My wife wouldn't let me. She leaned over the fence and told me a couple words that I won't repeat on here, but that to get up. And but as I'm laying there, I'm like, okay, what is it you teach people to do, Chris? Like literally, like you have all these tools you teach people to do. What are we gonna work right now? So I reached in my adversity backpack and I pulled out some things I've been through before that were way tougher than a high rocks competition. I'm like, you made it through that. This is a walk in the park, and I get up. And and that's that's what I use to to get the momentum up and get that thing finished.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

I love storing those things in the backpack, if you will, the receipts that you touched on and that adversity accelerate to your point is hey, I've done harder stuff than this. I I some of the questions I did, I went ahead and uh did the adversity capacity index myself beforehand. And you know, one of the questions that's you know always on there that I always battle internally is you know having tough conversations and the timing of tough conversations with regards to the questions that are in that index. And your point about having the receipts in that backpack, carrying it with you, that show you've done harder things than this is so powerful. And I I love I love the word you used in the in the video as well. It said, you know, it creates a belief. Uh it gives you some self-confidence, if you will, that you can get through this. Plus, you touched on it, your wife's there saying, I believe in you too. She may not be saying those words at that point in time, but but I believe in you, so you just get your tail up off the ground and get this thing finished. She was transmitting. There's some remnants of hard stuff. There's the Spartan Trifecta from last year, and you're right. Yeah. She was transmitting the belief. What are you crazy?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Yeah, John, she was transmitting belief. I could feel it, but that's not what she said.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

So too funny. I can I could understand that for sure. Hey, you're I mean, you're a coach and you do this. You don't, you're not just doing this for yourself, although you're a keynote speaker, you do this, you're an author now, an international best-selling author, but you're also coaching others. Is there a story that you have? Maybe it's in your book, or maybe it's something else that I mean, where you've used these tools of the paradigm of backpack accelerator, you know, with a client or or someone else where you've seen the impact of what you've learned.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, I mean, I think there we've used them, we use the backpack a lot. Like like when people are in a tough spot, we use the backpack a lot. And and we we go there and have them pull stuff back through it. You know, like what is what else is in that backpack that make us believe we can get through this tough challenge? It's the tough market, it's that key employee left us, whatever that is. So I would, you know, I don't know one per story in particular, but we've used the we use the backpack quite often in in our coaching sessions. I'm working with a high school football team here locally that I worked with last year, and I I meet with them tomorrow, and they've got me scheduled to talk for an hour tomorrow, which which which will be fun. And we're gonna talk a lot about adversity and and understanding of the university backpack, uh, because I think it's really important for these kids. We uh we're one play away from heading to the the the state championship last year, got beat uh on a fourth down in overtime. And and so there's a lot of adversity that carries through that, and and we're we're gonna address it and and how we have proof that we're better than what that was and and and be able to carry that with us all season long.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Yeah, you touched on that. It's something that we used when I coached my sons back when they were in high school, and we finished the season on a fourth down play that kept us from getting into the playoffs. And that was the theme the next year. You know, bring our our uh mutual uh colleague Ed my let up in terms of uh who we listened to and who we learned from. It's just one more rep, one more yard yard, one more play, uh, one more practice, you know, snap that we, if we just could have done that might have taken us over the top with regards to making that happen. But I can see how that can be a motivator to get them ready to go for the next season. For you personally, when you wrote the book, was there any awareness? And again, these stories, was there any awareness in there? You're like, man, I can't believe I'm actually writing about this, or what that you learned about yourself as you went wrote through this one for the second time, your second book?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of painful personal stories in the book. So um to go back and have to relive some of those things was challenging. It took me a year and a half to write this book, and mainly because I didn't like the headspace I was in a lot of times when I was writing. It would take me back to something I wanted to forget about. But I felt like it was so important that this story was embedded in there so people understood the importance of what I was trying to come across and teach, right? Like I could have just written the book, had the paradigms, had the backpack, had the adversity capacity index and accelerator in there and not had any substance to go with it, and it probably still would have sold well, right? Because people deal with adversity. But I really felt that I needed to put my own personal touch and life stories in there to help people understand the whole reason why I came up with these things or how they worked in my life.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

I I think uh writing can be uh rewarding when it's done. Hate doing it, love having done it. Um, but it certainly can be painful, especially as you said, you keep uh bringing up some of these things from your past. Your book is full of stories. I'm looking forward to hearing some of them with the Oprah Winfrey story, David Goggins. Is there a favorite story you have that you love to share in your keynotes that you talk about from the book?

SPEAKER_00 15:50

You know, I haven't brought any of the non-personal stories myself, like any to the keynotes with the book yet. We've done some piece keynotes of the book. We haven't done the full one yet because we're kind of in agreements we have to release it on in October at this special event. But uh, you know, I'm very transparent with with being the son of a drug addict, right? Like that's how I was raised. That's you know, I lived in seven different homes growing up. I went to eleven different schools. Like, so so I'm very transparent in those things. And I I think that uh probably one of the most powerful stories in the book is is just me remembering my nana and papa, my grandmother and grandfather that I lived with for a little while in this little single-wide trailer in Ipsilanti, Michigan. And uh those were some good memories. Those are some good memories in there. So I love sharing those stories.

Building A Personal Brand Offer

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Hey, Uncle Leaders, hope you're enjoying the episode so far. I believe in doing business with people you like and trust and not just a company name. That's why a strong personal brand is essential, whether you're an entrepreneur or a leader within a company. Brand Builders Group, the folks who have been helping me refine my own personal brand are offering a free consultation call with one of their expert brand strategists. They'll help you identify your uniqueness, craft a compelling story, and develop a step-by-step plan to elevate your impact. So head on over to CoachJohnGallagher.com slash BBG, as in brand builders group to schedule your free call and take the first step toward building a personal brand that gets you noticed for all the right reasons. That's CoachJongGallagher.com slash BBG. Now, let's get back

Adversity Capacity Index Assessment

SPEAKER_01 17:14

to the episode. Really looking forward to the book, Chris. Tell me, tell me a little bit more about the adversity capacity index, uh, that diagnosis their diagnostic tool that you use or assessment on how we might be able to get our hands on that. But then I'm gonna move kind of a little different direction and see where you've been the past couple of years.

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Yeah. So as I was writing the book, I started thinking more about it. I'm like, okay, what can we do to help people understand where they're at when they receive adversity? What's their natural state, right? And and I created it originally for adversity in the workplace, right? Like, what does that look like? Right. Like, how do we, where are we at when that when that happens, right? Like, like how do I, you know, some people, it's like they're always the victim, right? Like it's always in a victim, oh God, another bad day. Oh, happens to me again, right? Like, and and then they get stuck there. So we spend some time working back and forth to try to come up with a really easy way to um help people understand where they're at. So the capacity adversity capacity index does that. So if you go to adversitycapacityindex.com, you can take a free assessment. I think it's 18 questions right now. The beta test is we're probably gonna add some more throughout that. We're also gonna have some things coming out later this year where it's it's financial services exclusive, healthcare, okay, and a couple other industries. We're we're focusing on going that route with it as well. But this will give you an idea of where you stand when adversity hits. And we'll you'll we'll email you results and it'll give you an idea of what it is. There's no pass or fail. So if you score low, that doesn't mean I'm a failure at adversity. It just lets you know where you where you stand, your natural state when you receive it.

SPEAKER_01 18:47

Uh, we'll make sure we put the link to that uh index in there. I took it before we uh get on the call today. I'm looking forward to getting my report because I think I can learn all the time as well. Look, we're continuous learners. We are driven by that, whether it's reading books, listening to podcasts, or ultimately uh doing hard things like you talked about with regards to the IROCs.

Saying No And Protecting Family Time

SPEAKER_01 19:06

Past two and a half years, Chris, what's uh a new habit or discipline you've put in place since we last chatted that's made the biggest difference in your personal or business development? Saying no to a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_00 19:18

Saying no to a lot of things I would have said yes to a couple years ago. I'm very selective about the speaking gigs I take. I'm because of time away from my family. I I have a two and a half year old son, and I'm in my home office right now. My wife's at her medical practice today, and I can hear him out there playing with the nanny, right? So making more time for him has been the discipline and the things I do. When I'm done at the end of the day, this right here, my phone stays in my office and I go out there. I'm not in the the emergency business anymore where people need me right now. I'll check it later when he goes to bed to see if any of my other kids have called or anything. Because my kids range in age from 33 to 2. So, you know, we've got a few of them in there that that uh want to call us. But uh, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing is just saying no to some things. You know, I used to say yes to everything, and then I'd also say yes, I'll be at the event all four days and I'll do all this and all that. And it's nothing against the events or anything else, but I really like hanging out with my my son and my wife. So we just prioritize some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 20:15

That's good. That's really good. I love and that's that's not an easy one. Um, those no's, to your point, are yeses to other things that are more important to you. So I'm glad to hear that. I'm glad that I'm glad that's going well for you, Chris. Uh, the for those of you who haven't heard from you before, what's your undefeated day and how you're doing

Undefeated Morning Before The Phone

SPEAKER_01 20:32

on that right now?

SPEAKER_00 20:32

Yeah, undefeated day was something we created back during COVID. And uh, I was running a mortgage company back during COVID, and and all of a sudden I'm working like 16-hour days, seven days a week. And uh and that's the real, and that's not me just spouting a number. Those are real numbers. That's what we were working to try to process these loans and get them through. I just became this pipeline manager, constantly working on flow of loans to get them closed because we had so much business. And what I found was is I'd wake up in the morning and I grab my phone first thing. It's 6 a.m. Grab my phone, I look at it, and the next thing you know, I'm I'm taking on the world's problems. Every problem an underwriter has, every problem an LO had, a closing, a funding, secondary, whatever it was, they're all here in my phone, and I'm taking them on and making them myself. When I look up from my phone, it's noon, right? I've gone through all this. I've missed the morning with my wife, and and she's off to work, and it taken over who I am. So undefeated morning is I get up and I do these five or six things in the morning, the cold plunge, the workout, I I journal, I meditate, and I read, and then I'm five and uh I'm five and oh, right? So that's before I pick up the phone.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

That's a great way to start the day, too. I mean, what you're gonna do.

SPEAKER_00 21:42

And if I'm five and oh, I can pick up the phone, you can throw whatever you want at me. It's hard to beat me now, right? It's it's it's hard to beat me. So I just found myself getting so sucked into everybody else's problems that I didn't have time for my own. And uh and COVID was a a big uh, I think a big teacher of that, especially in the financial services or The mortgage space, like it was really like overwhelming.

SPEAKER_01 22:03

I appreciate that. And if we can start off five and oh, like you said, even if you missed the first one, you're five and one. You're still doing pretty good for the day, no doubt about it. Absolutely. Chris, as coaches as we are, again in the author world and speaking world, we're always looking for uh ways to become more effective.

Using AI To Improve Coaching

SPEAKER_01 22:21

The you know, we didn't talk about AI two and a half years ago. How are you using AI maybe to make you a little more effective or are you using it all in your business?

SPEAKER_00 22:29

Is it every day? I'm actually my second screen right here has Claude open right now. It's Claude is working as we're speaking. So what it's doing right now is it's taking the transcripts from the last 90 days of coaching calls and telling me how bad I am. It's telling me what I need to do more of and what am I doing too much of? Should we do less of? What's getting better results? How much time am I actually talking compared to my clients? Right? Am I asking enough questions? Like, so I have it analyzed this data to tell me where I need to stand with that. So that's just one of the many things that we have it doing. It runs on my email, like it goes in and deletes my email boxes and gets rid of junk mail and does some other things too. But yeah, I you I use AI quite a bit. I mean, I use chat a little bit like Google. I use Claude for a lot of things.

SPEAKER_02 23:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:17

And then we just started using Manus to build some dashboards and some other stuff.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

That's one I've heard, and I have not started down the path of Manus. I use Gemini pretty regularly, and yeah, Claude is one that I've heard really good things about too, in terms of uh that process. I asked that too because I was combing your social media a little bit before I got on the call

One Jordan Strategy To Reach Leaders

SPEAKER_01 23:38

today. And how do I get a billionaire on a phone call?

SPEAKER_00 23:42

Man, I tell you, it it my One Jordan strategy has been really effective. And and you know, it if if you haven't ever read, if you haven't read the book yet or haven't heard about it, I'll give you a short summary of it. But essentially, I was stuck in an airport in Charleston, South Carolina, again, trying to compress time. I left corporate America when I was 51 years of age in a beautiful glass office with with a nice, nice income and endless vacation time and all those things people dream of or work their whole life for, and I just was not dealing, didn't want it anymore. So I'm like, how can I compress time to to meet people to help me grow my coaching and speaking business faster? Right. And I know it wasn't just calling because just calling, you can't get to most people. So I came up with a one Jordan list. I'd seen somebody on TikTok tell a story about sending a Jordan shoe. So essentially what you do is you get a list, create your list, and and we have a we have a chat GPT now, our own GPT, that can help you create that list. We can put in the notes as well, that you can go create your own one Jordan list, but and get their shoe size and send them one Jordan shoe in a handwritten note that says, if you want the other shoe, give me a call. And and we've done this countless times. We did it so much, we said, let's write a book about it. And then it became an international bestseller. Not because I'm an incredible author, just because it just became it just sold, right? Like I didn't think we'd sell any books, to be honest with you, um, besides just family and friends. And uh, but the strategy is timeless. I had a call last week with a guy who I had sent one Jordan to a couple weeks before. One of the best speakers on the planet, I believe. His name's Clint Pulver. I don't know if you know who Clint is or not, but he plays the drums when he's on stage doing his keynote. He's just just a beast. So I sent him one Jordan because I saw him speak live. I sent another guy one Jordan last week, a guy named Chris Doe. He's probably one of the best brand, top branding experts in the world. So he hasn't responded yet, but we'll see what happens. But the the top one of them all, like the one that just really shocks me still today and has been the most meaningful of them all, was when I sent one Jordan to John Maxwell. And uh love this. And and John called me and I didn't answer the phone because it was a West Palm number, and I thought he wanted me to extend my warranty on my car, right? That's just what it found like. So I have this saved voicemail and I do my one Jordan keynote, I play it, and it's John saying, Hey Chris, where's my other shoe? You know, so and the cool thing is I sent the other shoe to John. He's read my book, he created a keynote about the about it called the People Pile. And uh, and I just was with John a couple weeks ago. He was we had a life surge event here locally, and John was speaking, so I got to spend some time with him there. And we've built this beautiful relationship, all because I was bold enough to send John Maxwell a shoe.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

That's so good, so good. Speaking of which is my picture with him and all my books that I've read. I mean, I I love the John Maxwell story, and uh it's maybe even a little bit of Jordan envy that built that's built into that, but it's so cool that you have built that relationship all from a shoe, which I told you before the call. I also wore my Jordan's for the call today because I know you know that's they only get worn for special occasions, and you uh kind of triggered that. So what's what's your Jordan, what's your preferred Jordan to wear on stage? Because you you like you like to you've got a good shoe game. What's your preferred Jordan?

SPEAKER_00 26:49

No, right now I'm wearing a lot of Jordan 1s on stage. You know, I I last time I spoke, I wore a Jordan 1 Nigel Sylvester, which is kind of a limited edition type of shoe. Um, I try to find things that are just a little bit different in that space. My wife's like, okay, do we need any more? Like you've got boxes and boxes of shoes you've never worn. But the Jordan 1 is the one that I I tend to wear the most, the low top, but I do wear a few different high tops. Probably my favorite shoe all time, though, is the 1991 release of the Jordan 5, the white shoe with the red 23 stitched on the side. I have an original pair in a in a glass case in my basement. And you know, that that shoe meant a lot to me when I got that shoe when I bought it in 1991. But yeah, so usually low-top Jordans is what I what I wear. You know, I'll I'll break out a special pair tomorrow. I've got these yellow and blue Travis Scott ones that I'll wear tomorrow because the football team I I I work with, they're yellow and blues or color. So I'll break out the Travis Scott's for that.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

What's your walk-up song?

SPEAKER_00 27:51

You know, it's it's it's not just like a one song, it's like just there's some different instrumental music that plays with it. We have a full video that we run. It's about two minutes long before we get on stage. And it just got some different stuff in there, got some some voiceover from me and just some some highlights of some of the other things we've done.

SPEAKER_01 28:08

Cool stuff. Chris, two and a half years. I hope it's not two and a half years before we chat again, which means you got to write another book or we got to figure out another Jordan story, whatever it is we can do to make that happen. This has been a good conversation. I want to honor our time as well as we go through this today. I want to, since you're the third time, I'm gonna think of a different question to kind of finish you up with.

First Steps When You Feel Stuck

SPEAKER_01 28:28

But ultimately, as we talk about this, you know, adversity as the assignment and the book and folks going through adversity. And if you had one tip uh for folks who are, um I think maybe to your point, stuck in that adversity right now and what they could do to uh move through or accelerate their way. What's the first thing they can do to get going, to get out?

SPEAKER_00 28:50

I mean, the first thing is to recognize is this supposed to be a lesson, right? Am I supposed to learn something from this? And uh, that's the first thing I would do is evaluate that. Is it supposed to be, is it a lesson? Am I supposed to learn something from it? You know, everybody feels differently about adverse situations. It could be you got into a fender vendor this morning or we lost a family member, right? Like, I mean, those are big differences, but some people take them the same way. So if there's a lesson that I can learn from it, is there anybody I can help to get through it, going through it the same way? Is there any gratitude that I can find from it? And uh, I was talking to a friend, a young lady the other day, and she was talking about a relationship that failed. And I said, she's like, I don't know what to do. And I said, You should be grateful. She's like, What do you mean? And I said, You should be grateful that it failed now and not five years from now with three kids, right? Like, like, like, be grateful, thank him for showing you who exactly who he was, and and move on. So there's there's so many different ways to take it, but when adversity rears its head, it's like, okay, what am I gonna do? What are we gonna get through? Um, you know, I'm a faith man, I believe a lot, I pray a lot, so God helps me through a lot of things. You know, I I know when I walk into a room, I don't walk in by myself. Um, there's somebody bigger than me who comes in with me to take on the world. So try to find some strength in that as well.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

So good. Hey, Chris, thanks for once again investing time with the listeners, the Uncommon Leader Podcast. Wishing you the best on the book. I think it's gonna be really good. I think it's got a you got a great story to tell, as always. And it's gonna make a difference, and that's what it really means, okay? So best wishes to you. Yep, I appreciate it, John.

Final Takeaways And Share Request

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Hey, folks, great conversation there with Chris Welton. Hope you enjoyed it. If you're still listening here, that means you made it all the way through. Look, adversity is something that we all face. And I loved even his last message with regards to what are we learning? Are we asking for help? And ultimately, when we go through adversity, can we have a spirit of gratitude that we go through it? Love that as a finish. If you get a chance, share this episode with someone you know who needs to hear it. That's how we get it in the hands of more uncommon leaders, just like yourself. So until next time, go and grow champions. Until next time, go and grow champions.