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
Building a Resilient Path to Achieving Your Dreams
Ever wondered why chasing instant results might be the biggest obstacle to your long-term success? Discover the evolution of "Unmasking Greatness" as Chris Kakouras share his journey from a spontaneous idea to a full-fledged production studio at Carolina Iron Gym. We're committed to excellence, not just by upgrading our equipment for a professional podcast experience but by nurturing an environment that encourages achieving one's dreams with relentless dedication. We'll take you behind the scenes of our podcast, sharing our plans for expanding guest interviews and joining YouTube, all the while inspiring you to pursue your aspirations with the same passion.
Join us as we tackle the art of setting realistic goals amidst a world that glorifies instant gratification. We'll explore how patience and sustainable growth are essential to achieving lasting success, using relatable examples like weight loss. Hear personal stories of navigating social pressures while maintaining healthy habits, and learn strategies to stay steadfast in your objectives, even when faced with skepticism. We'll share insights on embracing personal growth and self-confidence, so you can thrive in your health journey and beyond. This episode promises to arm you with the mindset to overcome peer pressure and cultivate a fulfilling path to greatness.
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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 today we're going to unmask some greatness. We want some greatness in your life, and so I got some good little gems for you guys to take today. All right, but let me back up, because this is going to roll into what I want to talk about and this also is a little bit of an update for you guys with the podcast in general. So, if you've been following me, especially on Instagram, social media, we finally did get a location in Greenville, which is at Carolina Iron Gym, where we are building out our content studio, slash podcast studio, and so we've been in there for almost a month now and again slowly getting everything in there the lights, the furniture. You know all the bells and whistles and I'm pretty excited about it because you know this was.
Speaker 2:You know, we started this podcast over a year and a half ago, me and a good friend, dr Preston Gregory, and it was great and it just started with a joke. I mean, if you've heard some of our old podcast us just getting together, we would just feed off each other's energy. We'd be talking business life. You know all these. You know different topics, whatever we wanted to talk about, and sometimes we'd be talking like, man, that was some really good, good conversation. We should just record this. That's how it started. Just an idea, just a thought. And we just started like, okay, well, hey, let's do it, let's put a podcast together. And I had no idea what to get, you know, what to buy, how this works, how to upload, like I knew nothing. But I was like let's just start doing it. And you know, looking on YouTube and trying to figure out what, what we should get for this podcast. And you know, again, if you heard me say this, we used to take some messy action. We were moving in a general direction that was towards our goals, but we didn't really know what we were doing. And over time, we figured things out and fine tuned things and made it better. And so, inevitably, a year and a half later, I was like, you know, I want to do more guests on because Dr Gregory, his practice got super busy and he didn't have time to do it as consistently as I would like to, so I wanted to take it a run. So that's what I'm doing. And so having a location to bring guests on and do an interview style and provide you guys value. That's something I really want to do, and it's impactful for me as well, because I want to learn from these individuals too. So I'm hoping that you guys gain just as much value from them as I do. And so I say that to say, you know, now, getting this new space, we are, you know, again building it out, getting the things in, and I want to be.
Speaker 2:I have a high standard for myself in general that has built over time, and I didn't want to leave anything on the table with this one, and what I mean by that is, when I came in, it was an empty office. There's nothing in there. I mean, there was some stuff we had to clear out, but regardless, it was just, you know, just an open, open playground for me to start plugging things in. And I was like no, I want to make this thing look good, like I want to make it look professional. When people come in here, they're like, wow, this is actually, this is impressive and uh, and it also sets an environment up for me to be successful and show up the way that I should. So, going in, I was like Chris, do not half-ass this, make it something great.
Speaker 2:And so I did, and you know it came with a price. You know of an investment, because I obviously have my rent. But now I wanted to, you know, invest into furniture. I needed lighting, I need cameras, which I had, some of that stuff. But one of the features I did want is these wood slatted panels which goes on the wall, and that one wall alone cost me a thousand dollars. You know, did I need it? No, but I wanted it, and I think it's going to make a massive difference in the quality of content that we put up. So I invested into that, and so I want to be known as taking things seriously, want to be known as taking things seriously. I want to be known as a professional, and I think that energy will be portrayed when we start really running with this thing and put it on YouTube. That is the next goal. So, if you want to, if you're a visual person, sometimes I like to be with the full episodes will be on YouTube. Probably in the next month. We'll start rolling them out, hopefully.
Speaker 2:So, and again, messy action. I don't know nothing about YouTube, so we gonna figure it out, but I say this to say that if you have goals in your life. If there's things that you wanna accomplish, whether it's in your business, your relationships, your health and fitness, don't half-ass it. Quit tiptoeing around. Your goals, attack. It's okay if you don't know everything and every step that's in front of you right, you don't have to know 20, 50 steps ahead. You just need to know the first two that are ahead of you and just take them one step at a time and move, and you can start to build up and accelerate a little faster over time.
Speaker 2:But again, don't half-ass things you know. Really dig into it. If you really want it, you got to take it seriously. You know we talk a lot with our clients and making sure that they're fully invested in accomplishing their goals, and so that's what I want to come on here today and talk about their goals. And so that's what I want to come on here today and talk about is I got three tactics that I want you guys to take and apply. If you're not applying to help you to obtain any of those goals and I see this very commonly in people that we work with and other successful individuals All right, so let's just dig into it.
Speaker 2:So the first tactic and this is a mindset shift your success will not be linear. Your success will not be linear. Success is not easy. Success comes with the hardships. And when you start to accept that the hardships are coming and you start to welcome them, this is when you're going to be able to really stick to your goals and not quit. Understand when you see hardships coming, you lean into it. Right, there's no problems. There's puzzles and we need to figure out a solution, a problem. And when you say the problem is that, when you say stuff like that to me, you already gave up. There's no problems, all right, there's only solutions.
Speaker 2:Me and my team of coaches I tell them if you have something going on, an issue going on, don't come to me with just a problem. Come to me with some ideas of how we can solve it and then we'll solve it together, because I don't need you just unloading your garbage on me, walking away and say you know, let me know when you figure it out. And I expect that from our clients to acknowledge what's working, what's not working. All right, let me, let's walk through this together, let's figure this out together, all right. And so when you start to understand it that way, every time a new problem arises, a new puzzle arises. You, you lean into it, you welcome it. And what happens when you overcome it? Confidence is built. You get a little more resilient, right. You get a little more proactive in what you're trying to do. So I see a lot of people when they feel like quitting, it's because they have a lot of doubt in their abilities and they've lost clarity on why this is important to them.
Speaker 2:You know why did you say that you want to achieve X goal? Like, why did you say you want to lose 20, 30 pounds? Why did you say you want to have a six, seven figure business? You know why and I don't want a superficial answer. You know I don't want to. I just want to be healthy Not good enough. You know I just want to be a millionaire Not good enough. You got to dig deep. What's going to change in your life? You want to drop that 20, 30 pounds? Tell me why Is it? Because you want to have more energy to play with your kids. You want to have more intimacy with your significant other. You want to perform at a higher level for your office or for your business? Like, what is it? What's going to change in your life? You have more confidence. Right, same thing. I just want to be a millionaire. I hear people say all the time I want to be a millionaire For what? You know? For what? What is going to change in your life? Do you know what comes along with being a millionaire?
Speaker 2:I know a lot of people that make a lot of money and they were not happy with it. You know, sometimes, you know, I think, when it comes to your income, people need to stop thinking about how much money they need to make and start thinking about what kind of life they want to live, because there's a big difference and I think you'd be really surprised on how much money you actually need to make to live that life that you want. I don't think you need that much. Now again, everybody's lifestyle is different. You want the Lambos, you want the mansion, you want the yacht, of course, okay, now, now you're talking right. You're talking about a different lifestyle, but most people my everyday people they want to know that they don't have to look at their bank account and worry that they're going out to eat. They want to just drive a nice car. They want to have some freedom some time. They want to be able to go on vacations when they want. You don't need millions of dollars to do that. So I tell you that to think about what kind of lifestyle you want, all right, and again, focus when you're starting to work toward your goals.
Speaker 2:Think I know everybody wants to say quality, but quantity Keep pushing forward. Do more of what is necessary to reach your goal, because this is what's going to get you better right. Think about somebody you know that's playing a sport. Right, you're playing soccer, is what's coming to me right now. You're playing soccer, right, and you want to play the best game ever. Well, do you just show up on game day and your coach is like listen, I need you to show up the best possible for this game. How well do you think you're going to do compared to somebody that has been showing up to practices, multiple practices a week and months and they're saying okay, now you show up to the best game you know. Show up and you know, put the best game possible on. Of course, the one that did the quantity, because they put the practice, they put the work in, they've conditioned their body, and so I say that to you guys too is like just put in the work you know, so you don't have to. You don't have to be the best to start acting like the best. Quit waiting and quit procrastinating. Quit waiting and quit procrastinating. All right.
Speaker 2:The second one planning and expectations. This is a heavy hitter, and this is especially for those of you that have big goals, big dreams, and I think you should. I think you should set your goals high, but I think you should also extend your expectations of the time it's going to get there. We live in a society now where we want things now. It's that instant gratification, and society and the world has conditioned us that way. You know, you want to eat. There's fast food now. Oh, you don't want to go to fast food, don't worry, uber eats it. You know what I mean. Like we can get things immediately. Oh, you want to buy something for the house, for your lifestyle? Amazon Prime, be there tomorrow. Yo, that's crazy. It's crazy. Convenience is actually hurting a lot of us for being healthy and living a good life. You know we need to be patient sometimes, and so I'll give you an example.
Speaker 2:Is that you know, when we're talking about a timeline, let's say I'm talking to an individual that wants to get into the program and I tell them OK, listen, in the next 30 days we're going to drop 20 pounds, right? So, person A I say 20 pounds 30 days. Then I talk to another person. I'm like, hey, listen, what we're going to do, we're going to do, we're going to put you on this plan. You're going to drop five pounds in the next 30 days, okay, cool. Person B five pounds 30 days. Now, 30 days go by. Both individuals lose 10 pounds. Let's meet it in, you know, somewhere in the middle, like 10 pounds, right? 10 pounds in 30 days. Same results, different expectations. The person that I told that they were going to drop 20 pounds are going to be upset. They're going to feel defeated, they're not going to feel like this is working. The person that I told 5 pounds in 30 days actually did better. They're excited, they're pumped, they're motivated. Same results, different expectations.
Speaker 2:So sometimes you need to extend the timeline of what you're trying to do and you know, for us, we really I know what we're capable of doing, but I always under promise a little bit, so I can extremely over deliver to make sure that our clients are happy, right, and everybody, everybody wins. So you know, if we can start to stretch things out, I think the sustainability is insane. Right, because if you're just we're talking I'm talking 30 days right now, right. If you're going to try something for 30 days and then give up because it didn't work, this is a problem. This is why you are in the situation that you're in problem. This is why you are in the situation that you're in. You need to make a commitment to yourself to solve those puzzles, figure things out, learn your body. You know, because whether you lost the weight or not, we know exercise is going to do you good. We know drinking more water does you good. We know eating healthy, organic food is going to do you good. You are moving in that direction. We need you to move in. So keep going. But we got to tweak things. We got to pivot. It's okay. So, instead of talking 30 days, think 12 months. Think 12 months. We're going after it. In 12 months, you can learn a lot. We see an average of our clients if they stick with us for 12 months, we have sustainably been able to reach their goals and they've learned the skills to be able to do this on their own. You can't do that in 30 days. Let's talk business.
Speaker 2:I have made a commitment to what I do in coaching. I've made a commitment to this podcast that I'm going to do this for the next decade and I'm going to continue to get better and I'm going to continue to improve. I'm going to improve, I'm going to continue to show up. And so I'm not looking at a timeline in months, I'm looking at my timeline in years because I know this is what I want to do. I know where I want to go is going to take time and I'm okay with that Patience. You got to learn to have patience and it's hard, I get it. It's hard, but if we can start to just extend that timeline just a little bit. You know, make short timelines for short-term goals, but if you got big goals, you got to extend the timeline because you are setting yourself up for self-sabotage and just mental defeat. So planning and expectations, big deal, all right.
Speaker 2:Number three stop worrying about what other people think. I get it. We're in a society now where social media is where a lot of us find our self-worth, which is a very scary place, because if you're not getting likes, if you're not getting comments, if people aren't saying the right things to you, for some reason, it just hits us, it hits and we don't even know these people on a personal level. It's not like a family member or a best friend is coming to you talking trash to you. It's somebody that's got a cat as a profile picture and it bothers us. I don't respond to comments like that. I just don't entertain it. I don't have the energy to give them, nor will I give them any of my energy. So stop worrying about what other people think.
Speaker 2:You know I was having a conversation with an individual about the gym and there's a little bit of anxiety that goes with coming to the gym for the first time, because we're worried about people judging us, right? People are staring at us. You know I don't know what I'm doing and, honestly, more than likely the same people you're looking at that you think are judging. You are probably thinking that you're judging them right. You know I've been in the gym for over 15 years now and to this day and I'm an introvert at heart I still feel like people are watching me. You know, and I know everybody's minding their own business, but that's why I just I have my headphones in and I just get to work. You know, now when my headphones come off and I'm done working out, I'll talk, you know I'll talk. But, like during the workouts, a lot of times I'm just kind of I try to stay in my zone. You know that's my therapy anyway, so that's where I find my peace and so I try to zone in.
Speaker 2:But again, you know, don't always think about people judging you. You know, get in there when you have a plan and you know what you're going to do, that kind of goes out the window. Most people that are like stressed about the gym or worried about what people are thinking there, they end up just going to the treadmill because that's what they're, they're comfortable doing. You just get on the treadmill, you do your little walk. You can't mess up walking, right, you can't mess up walking. But you know, doing a new exercise, you may look a little goofy if you don't know what you're doing. So, having a plan and knowing and getting comfortable doing exercises, that will definitely mitigate the stress. And you never know, someone might come up to you and ask for some help. But again, we all know and this isn't the podcast, for this episode won't be about it, but we know we got to get some strength training done. That treadmill ain't going to do you no good, especially in building, building of physique, metabolism, muscle, all the good stuff.
Speaker 2:Now, another thing I want to say on that is, as an individual there's there's going to be two types of people when they're looking at other successful individuals. You're going to have some people that are going to be a little bit jealous and then you're going to have others that are going to be more encouraging. And this is a really important concept for you guys to understand, because I have had people come to me and sometimes indirectly saying man, you're lucky. Oh, it must be nice, you know, and I just again, I don't entertain that too much. My only comment that I can say is you're right, the harder I work, the luckier I get. That's my response, you know, and I'll leave it there.
Speaker 2:But regardless of what I have to say, the point is, if you see somebody that is successful, whether it's their business, maybe you you know, envy somebody's physique. Maybe you see somebody in a relationship you're like I wish I really had that, you know. If you're going out and saying, man, you're lucky, I wish I had your life, you know stuff like that, subconsciously you're starting to tell yourself that you can't obtain it. You think it's all luck, you think things have been handed to that individual, so you kind of give up the idea of you ever being able to obtain something like that, versus somebody goes up to you and says, listen, I love what you're doing, you're crushing it. I just love seeing the stuff that you're posting every single day. It's impacting my life and I'm applying it and it's actually working. Crazy difference when it comes to the subconscious, because now, because you are looking at it from a different lens, you are subconsciously telling yourself if I do those things, I can also achieve it. And this is why it's so important to get in the right rooms and be around the right types of people.
Speaker 2:When I wanted to turn pro as a bodybuilder, what did I do? I didn't look at these physiques and, man, you're genetically blessed. I wish I could get on stage one day and turn pro. No, I didn't. I busted my butt. But I also hired a pro athlete to get me to where I want to be. I want to take the supplements that you're taking. I want to train the way that you're training. I want to do the cardio the way that you're doing it. I am going to emulate what you're doing. Same thing with my business. You know, I'm trying to grow my business. I'm going to find that person that is running a business successfully, has an awesome team, they have systems put in place. I'm gonna emulate that. There's nothing wrong with following somebody that has already proven that they know how to do it. It's going to time collapse your results significantly, which is why I'm such an adamant for having a mentor in your corner, a coach in your corner. This is why I do what I'm doing.
Speaker 2:I've seen people struggle with weight loss for decades and they get with us in a matter of months. We're starting to strip it off, because this is what we do. This is my specialty. This is how we are able to help people. I'm not. I'm not going to go try to fix my car. I'm not trying to. You know, go start up some sort of restaurant like these things. Man, it's not that I couldn't do it to some level, but I'm not going to do it good because it's not my specialty, nor am I passionate about it. So I'm going to find somebody to help me. You know, I'm going to find somebody to show me that path.
Speaker 2:So, again, the biggest thing I would say is you know, make sure you stay true to what you're doing and you find peace there. You know we can't make everybody happy and you shouldn't. Right, when you know what your goals are and you have a plan, execute. You know, execute. You know everybody, when it comes to you know business, everybody will cheer you on when you're building a business until a point that you surpass them.
Speaker 2:I heard this from Alex Ramosi, so this is where I'm getting this quote from and I'm probably butchering it. I'm just saying in my words. But he says when people are trying to chase their dreams, people cheer you on, but when you get to your dreams, people start to mock you and talk down to you. And it's because when you're chasing your dreams, it reminds those individuals of their dreams, but when you actually obtain it, it reminds them that they couldn't. And dude, that's a powerful statement. But you're going to have people like that. Not everybody's like that, but you're going to have people like that.
Speaker 2:Or when you're out and about, simply like when you're eating with your family and you want to make healthy choices, they'll probably mock you. I know mine did for a long time. Oh, you're going to eat chicken and rice again. You know, you know stuff like that. Catch me outside now I'll eat whatever I want, so anyways that's. But again you got to. You got to stay true to what your goals are. You got to know what it is.
Speaker 2:So again, I hope you find some value in this content. I hope it resonates with some of you guys. If you're not using some of these tactics, definitely do it. It's definitely more of a mindset shift and if you think a friend, a family member would resonate with this, definitely share it with them. Share it on your social media. We're really trying to push this podcast out and Share it on your social media. We're really trying to push this podcast out and the best way we can do it is with you guys that are listening. So hope you guys have a good rest of the week and I will talk to you all later. Peace.