Unmasking Greatness
Join Fitness/LifeStyle Expert & Mentor Chris Kakouras talk about maximizing your health, business, mindset, and overall life! Let's get better together as I bring on amazing guest to interview and learn from!
Unmasking Greatness
Embracing the Entrepreneurial Rollercoaster for Growth and Resilience
Ever felt like you're building a parachute while free-falling? That's the essence of entrepreneurship we unpack in this episode of "Unmasking Greatness." Promising more than just survival tips, we explore the emotional rollercoaster of running a business and how to embrace its highs and lows. Join me, Chris Kakouras, as I share a coaching session with a client struggling with consistency and the entrepreneurial whirlwind. We touch on the fundamentals of planning, preparation, and understanding your 'why,' offering strategies to bolster resilience and personal growth. This conversation is a must for any business owner, particularly those still finding their feet in their first decade.
As the holiday season approaches, I challenge you to face personal conflicts head-on, instead of masking them with work. Discover why addressing personal issues is crucial for business growth and how unresolved matters can stunt progress. With insights on adaptability, continuous learning, and the pitfalls of "syllabus syndrome," I highlight the importance of mentorship and support systems. Learn how to balance work and personal commitments, especially in industries like nutrition and meal prep. So buckle up for the entrepreneurial ride of your life, and remember, this journey is not for the faint-hearted. Merry Christmas, and rest assured, we'll be here with more insights to help you thrive.
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Welcome to Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, a lifestyle fitness coach and mentor. This podcast is about unmasking your greatest potential, finding your purpose and crafting a life worth living. Health and fitness has been the gateway drug to all of my success. My continuous drive to keep learning and surround myself with other high achievers forces me to level up, which has developed my mind to something I never thought was possible. This podcast is here to share what I've learned and continue to learn with all of you. This is your sign to take back control of your health, mindset and personal environment. Strap in as we are recharged and always find value in the show. Please subscribe and share, as we can all get better together. Let's go.
Speaker 2:What's up guys, welcome to another episode of Unmasking Greatness. I'm your host, chris Kikoris, and I'm actually recording this podcast, not on a typical day that I would, but today and some days I just get in these moods I want to talk and honestly, I feel like that's the best time for me to do the podcast. I never want to force myself into doing something. I guess I can tell it's just not good work, it doesn't feel natural. So, if I can, when I have these sparks of inspiration or these ideas and concepts in my mind, I want to come on here and talk about it. So this podcast is going to be a little bit different, this episode. It's going to be a little bit more geared towards your you know, business owner, entrepreneur, especially new, newly slash, semi-seasoned, I mean under 10 years. I would say this will probably be geared towards you Because, again, in our coaching and mentorship we do work with a lot of business owners, a lot of people in the corporate, professional side of work as well.
Speaker 2:So a lot of the struggles that we help them overcome are very similar and it is not just your typical. Here's a nutrition plan. Here's your workout. You're going to do great. I wish it was that easy? It's not. It's not. There's a lot of mental barriers that come along with it. We know what to do right, we know we should eat healthier, we know we should exercise, we know we should go for walks, we know we should work on our personal development. There's things, and that's where we really hone in. So sure we're doing the nutrition and the workouts and, you know, helping you, educate you, etc. But we're also communicating with you on a regular to help you where you currently are in that season of your life.
Speaker 2:And so with that, I want to share a story with you guys, because I had a coaching call with one of my clients the other day and he had me thinking as well. You know, when we were talking we were walking through some of the struggles that he was having and I've seen him, you know from when he was starting his business and you know working through. I mean, he's been working with me for the past three, four years. So I've seen the evolution in him and he's grown tremendously as a individual and a business owner and as a family man. But it wasn't easy. I can tell you that he hit some big time roadblocks that he had to push through, and I'm only one of his mentors. He actually has another one as well, and so he's like Chris, I. I need to get things back on track. I feel like I'm falling off. I don't know why I just am having this issue.
Speaker 2:So we set up a coaching call and I was like let's just sit down and let's just start peeling back the layers and start from the top, because he's been consistent. We've dropped tons of weight with him before, so with this it was a little bit, I don't know. I just wanted to see what was going on. And we started talking and his struggles were going back to some of the fundamentals of like waking up on time, going to sleep at a good time. You know how can we create a path of least resistance to help him reach his goals, meaning that's planning and preparing. You know how can we create a path of least resistance to help him reach his goals, meaning that's planning and preparing. You know, reminding ourself like why is this important? How is this going to change our lives?
Speaker 2:Digging into the why, and so one of the questions we inevitably came up to is he's like Chris. I want to ask you something he's like I asked my other mentor too. I just want your perspective. And I was like sure, yeah, what do you got? And um, he's like you know, as a entrepreneur and business owner, how do you deal with the ups and downs of the rollercoaster ride? You know, um, like how do you, how do you handle that? And I kind of sat there for a moment to reflect on what he said do you handle that? And I kind of sat there for a moment to reflect on what he said and I bluntly told him and he might. I don't know how he took this initially until I explained myself, but I was like it is what it is and he was kind of like looking at me. I was like you're on a roller coaster. Right, the roller coaster is going to have ups, it's going to have these big steep downs. It is like it just is. Business is not a just straight up like shot to the moon. You know that's a. That's an overnight success which rarely happens and it doesn't usually last.
Speaker 2:So when you get into entrepreneurship you have to understand that you made a choice to get on this roller coaster. And I joked about it. I was like you ever go to a roller coaster that says you must be this tall to ride. It's not for everybody. Not everybody can handle this lifestyle of ups and downs because it throws you into these emotional fights back and forth.
Speaker 2:And when you start to understand and accept the fact that there are going to be ups and downs, you start to become more prepared. It's not as exhilarating anymore. You know what I mean. So if you go on a roller coaster and you start going up like you're probably really anxious, you're like, oh my gosh, like we're getting to the top, and then you hit that big drop and it's like, oh my God, my guts are in my throat, you know, and you're screaming and you know throwing your hands around. Imagine doing that roller coaster 50, 80, 100 times, 200 times, 500 times.
Speaker 2:By the time you do it that many times, you have accepted that there's going to be ups, there's going to be downs, maybe upside downs, and so you're not that excited anymore, to be honest, because you're expecting it. So I say that to say that business is always going to have up and down. But I was like this is why you're growing and getting better, right, if you're not challenging yourself, if you're not getting out of your comfort zone, if you're not working on areas to improve, then you're stagnant and more than likely with business, in my opinion, if you're not growing, you're dying. You know you have to have a constant funnel of new acquisition with clients or you know whoever that you are dealing with in your business. So again, understand it is a choice that you can get on this roller coaster. It is also a privilege to do this because again it takes somebody that is mentally tough to push through. Privilege to do this because again it takes somebody that is mentally tough to push through. Now, with that, like I said, I've seen him evolve over time and I told him when you start to get better and get to new levels new levels come with new devils you have to start to overcome and fight through things you've never had to before because you just don't even know about it.
Speaker 2:So many times in entrepreneurship and I'm going to talk more along the lines if you are someone that is starting a business, in a business, and you have a family as well, you have a significant other, you have kids, this is where it is really going to challenge you, and it challenged me hard because when you get into the business and you start seeing progress and you're making more money and everything's growing and everything is great. It's like you want to feed that beast more. It's like, oh my God, I can't believe this, you know, but in that moment you are also starting to let go of what was really important, which is your family. You know your kids, your friends. You know the things that you started originally doing this for.
Speaker 2:Most people start business because I want to make money and I have more time with my family, and what happens is complete opposite. We call that the paradox of progress. You are so invested into the business and growing because you think it is for them, and you're wrong. It's for you. You're doing and growing your business for you. It is selfish and again, until you put that into perspective, you can't fix that.
Speaker 2:And within my first year year and a half, two years I saw massive progress in my business and I wanted to keep feeding the beast. I was like we're getting somewhere, we're doing something. I never knew this was possible. And I'm so proud of my accomplishments as well, because I was completely like a deadbeat. I didn't know what I was doing before and so I didn't want to let that slip. I didn't want to lose that. I was so scared of easing up or taking time away from the business because I thought it was all going to crumble. And then in my mind, I have created if this thing crumbles, if this goes down, my wife's going to leave me, my kid's going to leave me, nobody's going to be here, I'm going to be alone.
Speaker 2:And so you have these internal pulls with yourself and you have to have these conversations with those significant others, and with him. He did that, which is great, because now you're on the same page. You can't expect somebody to know what you're thinking, because that is where disappointment comes, because you're like well, I thought I was doing this for us and they have no clue. You know what's going on. So you have to have that open line of communication. And I told him I was like as you start to grow, you need to set really hard boundaries for yourself. You need to manage your time well. You need to designate time for your work and things you need to do and work. You also need to designate time for you and personal development and health, because that's the only way you're going to show up your best and be a leader for your team and for your family and be a good example for your kids and then you need to have time for your wife specifically.
Speaker 2:Right, there's a tier of most important things in your life and most people would say business first. My father used to be that way. Business comes first, business over everything. Without business, I can't support you guys, I can't feed you guys, and the concept is it makes sense in the moment, but in reality it's backwards. In reality, it's your faith, it's your spouse, your wife or husband, your kids, and then it's the business. When all those others are aligned, your business will thrive.
Speaker 2:And I've experienced that. If me and my wife are going through a tough time, I notice it puts a damper on my business because I'm not mentally there. You know I'm not mentally there and a lot of times what many of you guys will do is you'll get an argument and, without having to deal with the argument, your escape is going back to work. You go back to work to take your mind off what is actually going on in your personal life, and I challenge you, if that is you, to not do that, because that problem is still there. It's not going anywhere and it could potentially get worse. So you need to have those hard conversations up front handle those.
Speaker 2:It may take some time, you know, depending on the situation, but knowing working on those other tiers is what's going to help your business thrive. So you know outside of, like your personal and your health. You know again when it comes to business, you start making, you know more money. Guess what? You start learning the tax system. You know most people just go down to a H and R block and just here's my taxes and you pay your fee and you're done. It's not that simple anymore. You know it's not that simple anymore. We work with a couple. We have a handful of clients that are seven, eight figures and it is not simple at all, honestly, the stuff that they tell me.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh my God, so like, do I really even want to get to that level? Now, grand picture sure you're making more money, but you have to spend money too, or Uncle Sam's going to get all of it. So again, new levels, new devils. You have to learn and expand and if you're not constantly learning, again you're going to hit these roadblocks and be stuck. And it was such a coincidence that we had that conversation because literally two days later after that I had a coaching call with my mentor and he was talking and he goes, you know, he starts talking about entrepreneurship and he said entrepreneurship is like jumping out of a plane and building the parachute on the way down. And he like, he said that and I'm like, I'm a, I'm a visual person. So if you say these kinds of like anecdotal stories, I'm painting pictures in my brain and I'm just like thinking somebody jumping and freaking out, like trying to get pieces and stuff, and it is like you have no idea what is about to come. You know, things might work, it might not work. You're constantly pivoting. And he said there's something called a syllabus syndrome, which I thought was quite interesting because he goes.
Speaker 2:Society has taught us to basically do a syllabus. You know, like when you're in school, like if you complete X, y and Z, you will get the result right. If you do these courses, get these credits, you get this degree. If you study, you know, for this amount of hours, this many days, you will make this kind of grade on this exam. So it's always if you do this, the result will be this. And with running a business entrepreneurship, it, it unfortunately there's. The syllabus is thrown out. You might as well tear that up.
Speaker 2:Is there ways to do things in a general perspective, to make sure that you're going in the right direction? Sure, but you're constantly learning, constantly evolving, and it's not even just because of you, it's because times are changing. The way that you need to market, the way that you need to nurture and communicate with prospects, the way to get in front of people, like all of that has changed so much. You know, back when I was in the restaurant, the way that you market was radio stations and newspapers. When's the last time anybody has picked up a newspaper? No, nobody does so. Again, the tactics and strategies are much different and they will continue to be different. And if you're not constantly learning, you will get left behind, and so I'm a big advocate for having these mentorship groups, because there's so much further ahead. They already know what's coming before it's coming, you know, and they can obviously share the information with me.
Speaker 2:So we pay for speed. It's just like you know people talking about you don't need a fitness coach. You're right, maybe you don't need one, but we work with a lot of individuals that don't have time. They don't have. I mean, that's their number one struggle. Chris, I don't got time to go to the gym. Chris, I don't got time to go to the gym. Chris, I don't have time to meal prep. You know, I don't have time. I don't have time. I'm so busy. I'm so busy I can't take away from the time I'm spending at my work and this and that. So these individuals are here to. They don't want to go on chat, gpt, they don't want to go to Google. They're like give me what I need, I will execute. Give me what I will pay for speed, I will pay for my time back. And this comes again with your business, like what happens when you start your business. A lot of times you start solo by yourself. I did until I started building a team, and what happens is I'm bringing people on, I'm paying people to gain time back to work on the business, not just in the business all the time. So, again, these are, these are the deep conversations that we have with our clients and, you know, I hope this resonates with some of you guys. Again, I know this one is going to be very geared towards you guys that are, you know, business owners, whether you have, you know, nutrition stores, you know, supplement um, I'm sorry, like meal prep companies and things like that, but just know that, again, we're we're kind of all on the same page with this kind of thing.
Speaker 2:I go to a lot of conferences and it's like, wow, you, you deal with this too, you struggle with this too, and so, and then you got the other life curves. You know my father's cancer, and then you got, you know, my son gets sick one day. Like you know, all these things are just again tossed on top of the load that we're already carrying and if you are not taking care of yourself, if you're not finding a way to manage your stress or even increase your capacity to manage stress, you are going to be in for a hurtful run on that roller coaster. Basically, no seatbelt, no support, you're just thrashing around, um, and it's going to be miserable. But if you can plan, if you can prepare, if you can put yourself in uncomfortable positions without completely harming yourself, uh, I, I encourage you to do that. You know, there I'm.
Speaker 2:I have been in positions where I'm just like, oh my God, like, am I even going to get out of this? I don't even know how I'm going to get out of this. I put myself in in some serious um positions where I was just on a massive struggle bus and I have my my ways that I can sit back and calm down, and part of that is me time. Part of that is starting my day off. A little wind started. Part of that is me going to the gym and just just being in in an area that I know that is getting some blood pumping. But it's also in a state that I can control. You know I can control. You know the exercise I'm doing. I can control my breathing, I can. I'm just in a state of control versus there's a lot of things in business we just can't control and it is what it is.
Speaker 2:And when we start to accept that we are able to start getting through it, because, just like seasons, just like storms, they will pass, but we have to keep pushing forward. So my message with this podcast is to tell you guys, if you are asking yourself, like you know, how do I get off this roller coaster? How do I have, you know, less stress in my life, listen, you know, at some point things will start to smooth out as you start to figure things out and you have things in place. But I don't think stress will ever, will ever, leave again, because once you start to hit new levels, there are new, new barriers that you have to break through, and you can try to break through it yourself, or you can get mentorship to help you or someone to help you. That's been there and done that. It's your choice.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, for me, I pay for speed, I want to, I want to learn, I want to evolve. I listen, entrepreneurship is a struggle in itself. I don't need to add more struggling on top of that. All right, so let's just get in the right group in the right types of rooms to help me be successful, and I encourage you guys to do that too, and that's why, you know, in the upstate we we've built a pretty good, you know network when it comes to, like, the fitness space and nutrition space. So and I plan to expand that as well so, get around the right types of people.
Speaker 2:I mean, it all falls back to that. If you're around a bunch of whiners and complainers and people that aren't doing anything with their life and they're like if I can just get my stuff together, if I can just get my finances right, but they're not doing anything, well, that's not very encouraging and not and that doesn't even help you start seeing opportunities, versus if you see people taking action, you can see the fruits of their labor. Right, you have to start making permanent changes, to make permanent changes in your life, right? So if you're making temporary changes and you're stopping, of course nothing's gonna keep going. It's easy and quick to grow a weed, but it takes a long time to grow a tree that's willing to withstand the storms.
Speaker 2:So you have to be invested, you have to be in for the long haul and honestly, to be honest with you guys, now that I'm talking about this and this is just like coming in right off the top of my head I feel like me doing bodybuilding and training has really correlated into my business. When it comes to patience, I can go and train days, weeks, months, years, and knowing I'm making very small changes every day, I'm okay with that, you know. And so the same thing with the business. I may not see changes in the next days, weeks, months, but I know I'm inching my way forward and something is going to hit to where it's going to take me, where I want to go Again, levels to this.
Speaker 2:So I hope I inspired you guys to stay on the roller coaster. Listen, if you ain't that tall, then maybe this ride isn't for you. You know what I mean. It's not for everybody, it's not for the weak, it's for the strong. So if you are a business owner, man, I'm there with you. I support you fully. This is a tough road, but it's again, it's very fruitful, it's a blessing, and you know we need to acknowledge those blessings because this is going to give us a life that otherwise we could never have by just doing, you know, a nine to five or just settling Push for more and you will get it. So, anyways, that's my message. This is what I had for you today. Um, hope you guys have a good rest of the week. I know we got Christmas coming up, so Merry Christmas to all you guys and um. The podcasts will continue to roll. All right, see y'all.