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
The Power of Your Circle
Have you ever wondered why some people seem stuck in the same patterns while others continuously evolve? The answer often lies not in what you're doing, but who you're doing it with.
In this candid conversation, I share recent encounters with both seasoned business owners and young adults seeking direction that revealed a common thread: your environment shapes your potential. I break down the critical distinction between "assigned" and "aligned" friendships, challenging you to honestly assess whether your current social circle is propelling you forward or holding you back. That friend who shows up at 10 PM with beer might be comfortable, but are they contributing to your growth?
This episode tackles the uncomfortable truth that sometimes growth requires periods of solitude as you transition between social circles. As I told a young man feeling isolated after leaving negative influences behind: "You're not alone. You're never on a lonely island. You're just on the wrong island." I provide practical guidance on finding your tribe in various domains—fitness, business, spirituality—without waiting for perfect timing or circumstances. The key is extending your timeline for success while taking consistent action toward your goals.
Along the journey, I share exciting developments including our new AI food-tracking technology and partnership with Tropical Grill that integrates healthy meal options directly into our coaching platform. Stay tuned until the end for details about our massive giveaway featuring coaching packages, app access, and gift cards to help listeners jumpstart their health and fitness journeys! Ready to upgrade your environment and unlock your potential? This episode is your roadmap to finding the right people who will elevate rather than limit you.
FREE ENTRY FOR THE GIVEAWAY:
https://www.kakperformance.com/fuelandfit
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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. What's up, guys? Welcome to another episode of Unmasking Greatness.
Speaker 1:I'm your host, chris Kikoris, and today is Sunday. Now you're listening to this on Monday, but I'm recording this on Sunday because I made a commitment to you guys about putting out a podcast once every week, and this whole past week has been super hectic. And here I am. I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't record something, let's do it. So I'm here, I'm about to record this for you guys. This may not be a long one. It could be depends how I feel like, if I feel like rambling with you guys, but I do have a topic I want to touch on and I want you guys to listen to the end, because at the end I have a special announcement for all of you listeners that we are doing. So just stick around to the end and I will announce that for y'all. Now we've again. I this week has just been insane for me and we just have so many different things going on. You know, with our coaching, cac, performance, everything from you know structuring and continuously improving our platform, specifically our app. So there are many ways for us to handle nutrition protocols in our app, outside of just creating custom meal plans, because our goal is to create these structured meal plans and start to teach our clients how to grow and excel and then begin to learn how to do these things on their own.
Speaker 1:So one of the newest features that we have is a new AI feature, which many of you guys have probably maybe seen, where you can actually take a photo of anything that you eat and the AI will figure out what that food is and spit out the calories and macro breakdown. And it's really, it's really cool. There is a hundred percent room for error, because AI only knows what it sees. It doesn't understand brands. It doesn't understand if things are a little more protein oriented. And so, for example, I took a picture of some yogurt and granola and if it was looking at regular yogurt and granola, it was spot on with what it spit out. But I use a higher protein yogurt like the Okios, which has, you know, each serving is 15 grams of protein. It doesn't know that, so, but you have the ability to edit it inside of there if you know that's what you were eating.
Speaker 1:But again, I think, when it comes to a tool like that is very useful to just bring awareness to what you're consuming on a day to day, especially if you're going out and about to eat. You can take a picture of something and maybe it says it's 800 calories and you know that you should only eat for 500 calories. Well then, I would probably just eat half of what's in front of you, and it's also just kind of brings it into our system. We get to see what you're plugging in. So it's an amazing tool for us to utilize. So we are actually beta testing that with all of our clients currently. So we have that.
Speaker 1:And then now what we also have is, if you guys follow me on social media, we officially made our partnership with Tropical Grill, which was an incredible amount of great feedback when we dropped that announcement. I mean, when you're talking about healthy, good tasting food, cuban style, you know where they're doing bowls, they're doing wraps, all different sorts of healthy alternative meals, it's. It just blends very well with what we do. And so, with the gym Carolina Iron that I am out of and have my office out of, the owner of that tropical grill goes there, and so there's 15 locations in the upstate Carolinas and you know I got introduced to him. We just kind of chatted here and there hey, how are you? Very simple.
Speaker 1:And over time we got to talk a little bit more and then just had a conversation about possibly doing something together. And you know that door opened and I am a person that just moves. I here recently have been cloning myself with two words messy action, because I just go, I just go, I figure it out on the way, I'll fix it on the way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but you know I'm willing to give it a shot. And so it ended up. We got together. We sat down, I pitched this idea. He loved it and we're just doing a lot of things together. So there's there's a whole process behind that. Their menu is actually inside of our app platform that is interactive. We're going to be getting on their website. I mean, there's a lot that goes into this partnership specifically, so I'm really excited about it. But, yes, it keeps me crazy, crazy busy, and so it's funny how things start to enroll.
Speaker 1:And this is kind of where my topic for you guys comes into play, because I've had a couple conversations within the past week with other business owners, even some young kids and everything from. I'm trying to figure things out. I want structure in my life, I'm trying to get out of bad situations, stop doing drugs, or I'm just trying to like stop hanging out with people that just want to drink all the time. It's funny Cause I I was actually at a birthday and you know everybody, everybody drinks, you know, and that's one of those things where it's just part of either the culture or that's just the thing we do when we get together with our friends, and so I started to get a little bit of the feeling when people see me they're like oh, chris is in health and fitness, I shouldn't drink too much, I shouldn't eat this or whatever. I'm like do your thing. You know I'm not here to judge anybody.
Speaker 1:So, anyways, I decided to, you know, talk to one of my buddies and he was just telling me he's like, yeah, dude, he's like I can't, I can't continue to just drink every single night. You know, people would just show up at my house with a case of beer and we just sit and hang out and start drinking. And so I was like, yeah, dude, you you can't, you can't continue to like, surround yourself with people like that, because they're going to start to hold you back. You know, you have a family to spend time with, you have other obligations and you just sitting around drinking at night is not going to be beneficial to you or your future. And he was like, yeah, I know he's like I'm, I'm trying. They don't come over anymore at night, but it's still still that thing. You know, it's just start part of my lifestyle.
Speaker 1:And so, um, you know, we just had a pretty good conversation about that and I was like you need to really start to surround yourself with people that are, you know, motivated and like-minded and encouraging. You know cause, if anybody's coming to my house at you know 10 o'clock at night with a case of beer, in all reality you ain't got shit going on in your life and I hate to say it like that, but like you literally have nothing going on, nothing to work towards, you're just filling a void. And that's okay for some people if that's what you want to do, but for someone like myself, or even the friend that I was talking to, I was like that's not acceptable and you need to really put some hard boundaries in place and you can come off and be an ass and that's. You know, if they take it that way, they take it that way and maybe they're not a friend. You know what I mean. Maybe they're not somebody you should be hanging out with, and you know this goes back to, you know, the saying of your friends are not assigned, they need to be aligned, and with that, most people, when I say that they're like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:I'm like well, what happens when you go to school? You have friends at school. You know you're friends with them because you go to school with them. You know what about work friends? You go to work and you make friends at work. My question to you is if you didn't work with them, if you didn't go to school with them, would you choose that person to be your friend? Would you choose that person to be in your inner circle and talk to and hang out with and interact with? Because if not, then this is a problem, right? You're just going into the conditions and just drifting, and so now, especially you know, at the age I'm at and my friend was at, you have a conscious decision of who you start to surround yourself and hang out with, and that has changed everything for me.
Speaker 1:It's very hard I get it to start pushing or not even pushing people away, but limiting your time with people that just are not conducive to your goals anymore. But you need to start putting yourself in rooms with individuals that can help you grow, that can help and want to see you scale and become a better version of yourself. And it doesn't always have to be business, it can be, you know, fitness, it could be in your relationships, it could be in your spirituality, like you want to get in those rooms to become better and to serve others is better and you really start to see your, your life start to flourish. So you know, I have a conversation with someone that's a little bit older and has a business. And then I had a conversation with a younger kid that's 22. And you know, again, I get it like drinking the drugs and everything's all involved in that time.
Speaker 1:But you have to start to separate yourself. And he's like you know, honestly, he's like I feel kind of like alone now that I'm not really hanging out with people, and I was like that's okay. I was like it's okay to be alone for a little while, cause you got to figure out what you want. But I always say you're not alone. You're never alone. You're never on a lonely island. You're just on the wrong island. It's time to find that island with your people, the people that are there to cheer you on and encourage you and push you, you know, when you're struggling. That's why community is so important.
Speaker 1:And you know, I have this like kind of a deeper conversation with a younger kid because I was like I can't imagine someone talking to me when I'm 22 like this. But I'm just kind of like you know, feeding him, you know just kind of, hey, get, think a little bit differently. And what he took from it, what he took from it. I don't know how far you know he says he, you know, when we were talking, he understands I'm doing that, I'm willing to work hard and I'm like I get it. Dude, work hard, you have to. There's seasons where you're just going to grind, bro, but it shouldn't be like that forever. You will start to figure things out if you are making the moves you need to go. So just move, just start taking action, knowing you're going in the right direction. Do not put a hard cut deadline on. You know where you're supposed to be at a certain time. Just get there.
Speaker 1:Most people they need to extend the timeline of their success. That's why people get frustrated, especially with, like weight loss. Oh, I'm trying to drop 50 pounds, so can I do that in like a month or two? I mean maybe starve yourself and you know, walk, you know 20 miles a day. I mean that is, it's not sustainable and it's probably not the best approach for you to drop it, so you'll probably gain it back. So if you do things slow, steady and in the right fashion, you know you will progress and you will get there. You will get there, you know so, and you'll meet the right people on the way when you're starting to do things and again think about it.
Speaker 1:You know I know a lot of people like, well, where am I going to meet these people? Well, you know, think outside the box and you don't really have to go too far. If you're trying to get healthy, well, get to the gym. You know it's a whole nother environment. You want to do a bootcamp class? You know, but train specific for what your goals are. That's a whole nother conversation that I should have.
Speaker 1:But you business, go to. You know business conferences. You know network with other business owners or whatever niche spot that you're in. You know I go to a ton of coaching events with other trainers and coaches and you know it's cool to listen to the big speakers on stage, but I love talking to the people that sit right next to me, the real people that are just in in the weeds. You know grinding and you build really good relationships like that.
Speaker 1:You know you want to work on your spirituality, you know. If you don't, I mean obviously go to church, go to your temple, go, go wherever you feel like you need to go, where those people are. Or now you can have things online and that can help at least get you in the right headspace to be able to feel comfortable going somewhere. I don't think going to church makes you a good person. You know, it's just. Again, everybody has a personal choice and an opinion on that. But just because somebody doesn't go to you know their, their church doesn't mean that you're like, you don't believe and you're not good. So, again, it's all how you live day to day.
Speaker 1:So I say that to say make sure that you are getting around the right people, you're having the right conversations, and if you don't like where you currently are right now, that's okay. It's okay, but it doesn't mean that you have to stay there. Don't accept the mediocrity, don't accept that this is it, this is all my life's going to be, because that's not true. And if you say that, you will believe it and you will get stuck. So don't say it. I don't care if you think it, but don't physically say it, because the subconscious mind will hear you and it will start to believe in you. Okay, so that's my quick words of wisdom for today. All right Now.
Speaker 1:I told you guys that I had something special, and I do so today, that you guys are listening to this podcast. On Monday we are officially dropping a crazy giveaway. So again, going back to the topic of um, cac and Tropical Grill, we just got such amazing feedback when we made the official announcement and again, we made a nice little commercial video and promoted it and all that. But the amount of feedback that I got from that was just a little bit overwhelming, because not only did the video do well on social media, but I was getting text messages. I was getting DMS, not about, like you know. Hey, chris, I want you to coach me. It was more like, chris, I saw that, that thing that you're doing with tropical grill, dude, that's crazy, that's insane. I can't believe. You guys got together and did that. How did you do that? And it was just like again, it was encouraging to me knowing that like, okay, I'm doing something good and people are watching and they're, they're inspired by it.
Speaker 1:So I got on a call with the owner and cause he's out of town and I was like dude, I was like this thing is crushing. And, uh, you know, the good thing is he kind of gave it. Let me kind of like run with my thoughts and my ideas and I put everything together and he just I would just hey, is this good? Do you like this? How's this feel? Uh, and he, he just supported it. He's like yeah, chris, I love it, do it. And uh, so I, I messaged him and was giving him the rundown on the feedback and you know all the messaging and stuff like that, and I was like I, I think we should do something else, let's do something cool, let's give something back, and so what we have decided to do is run a giveaway, and so you'll see in the post and I'll give you guys a little bit of a breakdown and I'm going to put the link in the description below.
Speaker 1:But since we announced this announcement this past week, we decided to do this massive giveaway. Now how this works is that there'll be three winners. There'll be a first place, a second place and a third place winner. Okay, and you will apply. There's an application that you will fill out. Now the first place winner is going to be chosen off of the application. So there's a specific question that asks like why do you want this? How will this help you? And whoever has the most compelling will team up and choose who that's going to be. So first place will be chosen, the second place and third place are going to be a raffle. So every application is a ticket. Every person that you comment in the post a friend, a family member is an additional ticket. You can get as many tickets as you want. And then third place is the same way. So, and if you do it on the story, if you repost something on the story about the challenge, you get two tickets for that, so you can really increase your chances in winning.
Speaker 1:Now what do you win? First place will get one month of free coaching with myself at CAC Performance and then 12 months access into our custom app, which is an insane amount of value. Tropical Grill is going to be giving $150 gift card to their establishment, where we'll actually build a plan around their meals to help you be successful. Second place, we'll get six months access into our app and $100 gift card, and again, we'll help you build out that plan. And third place will be three months access into our app and a $50 gift card to help you reach your goals. So we're giving you the food, we're giving you the plan, we're giving you the support. There's no way that you can really bomb this thing without just not doing anything. So again, check out that post, tag your friends, tag your family and again, if you're listening to the podcast I don't know if I'll say this on social media or not, but when you apply, we are going to do the announcement of the winners live.
Speaker 1:Okay, so you guys will get a link to come in to a live with me where I will be sharing the winners and all the prizes, and I have something very special for all of you guys that show up for that as well. So, again, watch for the details of after you apply. You'll get the links and all that kind of stuff and know when that announcement will be, which it will be on Friday. This Friday, at 1230 pm Eastern Standard Time. If you show up to that or you apply, I have something for everybody. Just a special another gift for you guys. Okay, but I'll leave it there. I've said enough before I start revealing all my cool ideas that I have. All right, so I hope you guys have a good Monday. I appreciate you. You know, listening to the podcast and always supporting. The only thing I ask is please just give me a great review, share it with a friend and let's continue to grow together. All right, love y'all, see ya.