A Black Belt Mindset, Why Success Comes Down to Never Quitting with Chris Natzke

What if success wasn’t about talent, but about refusing to quit?

In episode 35 of The Influence Exchange, I sit down with Chris Natzke, 8th degree black belt, national Taekwondo champion, bestselling author, and life leadership coach who has spent over 50 years mastering discipline, mindset, and personal growth.

His message is simple—but powerful: A black belt is just a white belt who never gave up.=

In this episode, we break down:

The real meaning of discipline vs. self-discipline

Why most people fail and how to avoid it

The 3 C’s to creating breakthroughs in your life

How small daily habits lead to massive long-term results

The power of pre-commitment and consistency

How mindset, not talent determines success

Chris shares a powerful truth: Success isn’t built in big moments. It’s built in the small decisions you make every day.

This episode is for you if:

You’re trying to build discipline and consistency

You feel stuck or lacking motivation

You want to level up your mindset

You’re ready to take control of your habits and your life

Chris Website: https://www.chrisnatzke.com/

Link to buy Chris books: https://www.chrisnatzke.com/chris-s-store

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

What if the difference between success and failure is simply refusing to quit? Today's Guess has been proving that mindset for over 50 years. Chris Natske is an eighth-degree black bell, a national take one double champion, a best seller author, and a life leadership coach who has helped thousands of people break through their limits both physically and mentally. From martial arts to businesses to personal growth, Chris teaches one powerful truth. A black fellow is just a white fellow who never gives up. If you're looking to build discipline, confidence, and a stronger mindset, this conversation is for you. Please join me in welcoming Chris Natske. Let's get into it. Hello, Chris, and thank you for joining the Influence Exchange today. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you, thank you. And I'm excited to talk to you today for many amazing reasons. One of the reasons is my nine-year-old son, he studies in Taekwondo. He just became a black belt in October of 2025. And I was talking to my son today about interviewing you, and he wanted to come downstairs with me, sit with me. And I told him, yes, you can, but you have to go to school tomorrow. So, but Chris, you are an eighth-degree black belt and a United States national taekwondo champion. Also a life leadership coach, a keynote speaker, and more importantly, a number one Amazon bestseller author. And you spent more than 10 years in successful operation sales. Talk to us a little bit about yourself.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

All right. Well, would you like to know the origin story to that in terms of martial arts? I started my martial art training back in 1973, a short little chubby 10-year-old. And I was enamored with a TV show that was on ABC at the time, which some of your more seasoned listeners may remember called Kung Fu. And so Qui Chen Kane was the monk walking across the American desert. And he would go into a little town, the bad guys would try to beat him up, and he would take care of him using his kung fu. And it was the coolest thing I've ever seen on the planet. So I literally begged my mom and my little town in the Midwest to let me go to a community center where they were doing what they called at the time Korean karate. The term taekwondo was not even used in the United States vernacular that much. And I felt like I came home when I saw these people with these amazingly powerful movements. And interestingly enough, at that time, JD, and it may be uh maybe a shift for you is martial arts at the time, particularly karate, taekwondo, kung fu, was there were not a lot of children in it at that time. That didn't really come about until the Karate Kid movies came in the early 80s, right? So it was I was training with a bunch of 20, 25-year-old males, and I was the only kid. Sure. But I grew up fast and I wouldn't quit. And that was, you know, going this is my 53rd year and haven't stopped yet.

SPEAKER_02 3:28

Wow, that's amazing. Can you get hired in an African development?

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Well, in Taekwondo, there are nine degrees of black belt. And um the way that I always I've heard it explained throughout the years, and I think it's um it's it's worth sharing right now. First, the third degree black belts generally tend to be the students and or the fighters, right? And then when you go to fourth to sixth degree, you become the instructors or the teachers. And then seventh to ninth degree, we would be considered the philosophers, right? So being able to take all those lessons that we've learned throughout our decades in martial arts and not only teach, but also uh the physical movements of martial arts, but also the philosophical aspect of martial arts. So that's what I I feel blessed enough to be able to do today.

SPEAKER_02 4:16

That's awesome. You know, I've heard, you know, through my son's um Taekwondo school that it's rare to find an eighth-degree black belt. So you said it perfectly earlier, 53 years. That's that's amazing. Chris, why is Taekwondo so important?

SPEAKER_03 4:36

Well, you know, it's interesting. We were talking before we began recording and you're sharing uh with me about your son. And I want to congratulate you here on camera because I, as I shared with you, I always tell my students, in fact, just had a black belt testing here in Denver last weekend, is that nobody gets to black belt by themselves. So of course they have the help of their instructors and their fellow training partners and students. But the parents, particularly when you're talking about children, play an incredibly important role. So I just wanted to give you and your wife kudos for that because I think that's just just awesome. But in my opinion, the reason that it's so important is because martial arts, particularly taekwondo, which is my area of expertise, combines not only the physical movement, which is great for our money, our body, mind, and spirit, but also the philosophical and character development aspects that are inherent in the training. So, you know, there are, you can get a lot of great rewards from all types of athletics. And I'm a huge proponent of that in balance in any person's life, particularly children. And I played team sports. I was, I went to college on a football scholarship. So I played in that realm and saw the value of it. There's great, great value in terms of particularly working on a team. But in my experience, and you know, in five plus decades, I've never seen anything match martial arts because of that integration of the philosophical and the character development along with the physical skills. And so what we're doing is we're really teaching people how to be great problem solvers in their life and being able to move through obstacles, being able to do it in a respectful way, do it in a focused way, and do in a way that where they're they're taking care of themselves so they can eventually help take care of others.

SPEAKER_02 6:17

Yeah, that's great. You know, what is the five tenets of Taekwondo?

SPEAKER_03 6:23

It was it persevering, courtesy, self-control, integrity, perseverance, self-control, and indomitable spirit.

SPEAKER_02 6:32

Indomitable spirit, yes. Love it. Right now, if my son was listening to me say it backwards or incorrectly, he would be extremely upset at me, Chris. Dad, I've been going to Taekwondo for so many years. How dare you say it incorrectly? But um, Chris, so what is the biggest lessons you have learned from Marshall?

SPEAKER_03 6:57

That's a that's an expansive question there, JV. You know, it's difficult to choose just one. I think that one of, and this is one that I teach all the time. In fact, I was just giving a talk to a number of teenagers here in Denver in um last week at a at a conference. And I set it up by talking about how many times we think that people who are showing success in life do so because they're talented, they have come from great socioeconomic backgrounds, they go to great schools, and all those things can be an advantage to people. But the people that have really excelled, and particularly when I look at all the black belts that I've been able to been blessed to be able to nurture throughout the years, I last count I have over 2,000 students that have received their black belt with me. And I can only think of two, only two that when they first came to me, JB, had really all the skills necessary where I said, they're gonna be a black belt. Focus, concentration, flexibility, you know, courage, all those attributes. Only two. Um, now one got their fourth degree black belt with me, and another got their second degree. But what about the other 1998? Well, they were the ones that they just kept showing up. They were the ones that went through the adversity. They were the ones that maybe it wasn't easy for them physically. Maybe they had fears that they had to overcome, maybe they had injuries they had to transcend. But what was interesting about that is when they stuck it out, that's where they grew as human beings. And interestingly enough, most of them that had the biggest difficulty at the beginning became not only my best black belts, but my best instructors that I developed. And so, in essence, what they did is they emulated what we say in martial arts all the time is that a black belt is a white belt that never quit. So it's that idea of continual perseverance, right? Of being able to lean into challenges, believe in yourself, and maybe even move when you don't believe in yourself so that you can come out the other side.

SPEAKER_02 9:00

That is extremely powerful. I never really thought about it in that perspective. Chris, sales. Spent over 10 years in sales before you decided to move on. Talk to us about your sales path and wealth.

SPEAKER_03 9:20

You know, it's interesting. I I started right out of college, so I played football for four years at Northwestern University, and then was recruited by the Procter Gamble Distributing Company and was with them for 10 years, right out of college, had a marvelous experience with them, learned tremendous lessons in terms of business and personal growth, worked with a tremendous amount of uh wonderful people. But there was always this thing in the back of my mind that, man, I really want to be doing taekwondo. I really want to be teaching. And the turning point for me was being at um, I was at the time, one of my customers was the largest growth, third largest grocery train in the country. And we were doing a corporate sales review. So the CEO and the president and the CEO were all there. And I went up and I gave my presentation, and then I sat down. And as soon as I sat down, I started daydreaming about getting back to Denver to teach a taekwondo class that night. And I realized, oh my gosh, this isn't where I'm supposed to be. That being said, the sales that I learned from that is I realized that the power of sales, not only when I was in my PG role and I was selling shampoo and conditioner and deodorant, were the same things I was doing when I was selling my martial art program and enrolling people into it. And not to say that I was trying to manipulate people, not at all. I was influencing them. I was able to communicate clearly the benefits that I provide to them. And also people understand when you're coming to them in an authentic manner. And so when you believe something truly that it's going to benefit someone, you're not really selling, right? You're serving them, you're telling them about the benefits, and they can choose in or they can choose out. So, sales, what I also found is it can also be very vulnerable. It takes a lot of courage to be able to stand in front of someone. I used to joke I'd be in front of all these big business people in the corporate world. But then when I opened my martial arts studio and I was sitting across the table from the mother of an eight-year-old, enrolling them in my program, I was more nervous then, right? But it was about again being authentic. And if we truly believe in what we're representing, then I find sales to be very, very easy. Not easy to do, but it's it's it's just a it's just a process. It's not something I had to work hard at.

SPEAKER_00 11:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:43

It's sales is you're bringing people together, you're talking to people, you're you're having relationships with people, connecting the dots with other people at the same time, making an earning offer it.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

Well, and I would argue, JV, that we're selling all the time. Like, you know, when you and your wife decide, you know, you would say, I want to go eat Chinese food, she wants to eat Italian, and you're trying to, you know, encourage her to go to the Chinese restaurant, you're selling, right? When your son, when you're trying to give him life lessons to tell him this is what I want you to do, this is why doing your homework isn't important or eating this healthy way, you're selling him, right? And so that's it's a natural way for us to interact with other human beings.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah. Chris, you're also a life leadership coach. And before we dive into that, when I was doing my research about you, I saw a video. And what what caught my attention about the video is your the people you were talking to, they had um uh a board and they wrote some words, and then you had the individuals break the board and you saw the emotions that came out of that. Talk to us a little bit about what exactly am I explaining?

SPEAKER_03 13:07

So part of my business, I do have a coaching part of my business that I do. The other part of my business is keynote speaking, um, where I speak and do inspirational speaking in front of corporations and organizations, and also like I did last week in terms of youth. But along with that, a tangential program to that is my board breaking experience. So, what I do in that is I use the board that we, these are the same boards my black belts break, right? What I do is I teach people in that 90 minutes to two hours, groups anywhere from 25 to 150 people in a room about how to identify, first of all, a breakthrough that they want to experience in their life. And then we go through a process of, well, why haven't you achieved that yet? And most of the time it's because there's a limiting belief for limiting beliefs that they're carrying. Sometimes they're even unconscious of. So I take them through a process and they will write their breakthrough on one side of the board. And then on the other side of the board, they will write the limiting belief that's been holding them back. And then I systematically take them through a process on how to use their heel palm to break the board. And then we hold the board with them looking directly at the limiting belief. And then they break through the board, and as a result of that, they have that breakthrough basically in a physical manifestation. It's a representation of what they can do in their real lives in the real world. So it's one of the most uh, it's it's some it's some of the most profound work I get to do because you literally see people have a breakthrough, excuse the pun, right in front of you. And generally speaking, women maybe have a little bit of trepidation because they don't know if they have the power. And men have trepidation because they go, man, if a woman can break it and I can't, I'm gonna look foolish, right? So all of those fears and everything come present. But then on the other side of that is this exhilaration. And I literally, I do it several places here in Denver on a regular basis, and I'll go back year and after year to do it, and I'll have people just talk about amazing breakthroughs that they've had in their life and how that board still sits in their office as a reminder of the powerful things they can do.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

I love that, Chris. Thank you for sharing. How do you feel when someone breaks that board and say, Chris, thank you?

SPEAKER_03 15:30

I feel like a proud papa, you know? And you know what's interesting, JB, is I was doing that for decades in the martial arts world, right? And then I had a good friend of mine and fellow coach who was doing a business boot camp, and he asked me to create this program. And I had about 50 or 60 people in the room, and every it went great. Everyone broke the boards, everyone was exhilarated. And I started having people come up to me afterwards saying, So is this what you do? You go around the country and do this board breaking experience? And I said, Yeah, that's what I do now. And now that's what I get to do. But I'll tell you what, when I see someone do it the first time, it's fantastic. But what's really great in that environment is every once and again we'll have someone who struggles to break it on the first or s or second time. But then you see everybody get behind them and you feel the tension in the air, and then they break through, and the entire place just goes out seeing them do it, and you can just see the exhilaration and the joy and the confidence move through them. It's it's it's like candy. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Yeah. And Chris, you must have changed so many lives for the better. And that's phenomenal. You should pat yourself on the back because you deserve it. It's really amazing because there's people that's probably struggling in life that don't know or don't have a path of where to go. And they find you somehow, they attend your keynote, they break a board, a week later, they're thanking you because their life had a short.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Thank you. I you know, I I guess I I I very I humbly um accept that and and I say thank you to that. And but I I just I tell I want to tell a little bit of my story, I think that will make sense just why that's so important to me. So, you know, I told you I started martial art training in um in 1973 at age 10. But about three years after that, I met a man that would change my life forever. And his name is Grandmaster J.K. Lee. And Grandmaster Lee this year is going to celebrate his 85th birthday and his 50 years of teaching martial arts uh in the United States, and I was there right at the beginning with him. And one of the first times I was in his class, I was seated in the back. I'd already been training for about uh three years at this point, right? But now he came and he was this amazing teacher, so I started following him. And I'm sitting in the back of the room and my legs were spread wide. I was stretching out, getting ready for the training that morning. And he walked onto this mat, on the mat, and he he had this amazing power and presence about him, just the way he carried himself. And he's surveying all the students, and pretty soon I realize he's looking directly at me. And before I can get up and move a muscle, he comes over and sits down in front of me. And he puts his right foot on the inside of one leg, his left foot on the inside the other, he grabs the end of my belt and with one push-pull, split me out to 180 degrees. Yeah. So I learned, I learned two very important life lessons from that experience, JB. Number one is anyone can do the splits at once, right? But the second thing is, and the most important is when he looked me in the eyes and he said to me in his broken English, he said, I will make you a champion. I will make you a champion. Now, at a as a 13-year-old, all I thought about was medals and trophies. But what I realized later on is he was talking about being a champion in life, right? And beyond that, I also realized that even though my head heard, I'll make you a champion, and I saw the vision of all the tournament wins. What my heart heard at that time was, I believe in you. And as a young boy, I was growing up in a household where my mom was my absolute hero. She helped raise, you know, she raised three, three of us, at the same time being married to my father, who was struggling with his alcoholism. So I never knew who I was going to come home to as a father. Was I going to see the jovial guy that I love to talk sports with, or was I going to be seeing the guy that was just the opposite of that? And so when my instructor said that to me and said that he believed in me, it was life-changing for me because I had someone who I tremendously loved, admired, and respected say, I see greatness in you and I will carry you through this. And it was life-changing because now all of a sudden I said, Wow, there's a path. There's a path for me. So really, really, I guess I'm just doing my best to pay that forward is what I'm doing. It's so life-changing for me.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

That is awesome.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

It's important, Chris, when a human being, whoever it is, says some kind of words that may spark a light bulb in you that you will remember 20, 30, 50 years. And just seeing your energy speaking about your past and your experiences, it's fundamental. It's phenomenal. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 20:52

Well, and that's you know, and that's the thing I would say too, for those of us who have the opportunity, whether it's parenting or coaching or just we're around youth, understanding how powerful our words can be. Right. And and how just that one sentence. And that doesn't mean that we walk on eggshells, but what it means is we know that when we come forward with good intention and a loving way of trying to support young people, we can have a profound impact that we may never know we had.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:27

Chris, I read something about the three C's of creating breakthroughs and how we can use them in our lives. What exactly are the three C's?

SPEAKER_03 21:40

Well, you know, it's interesting. I appreciate you asking me. I I created those three C's as an adjunct to my board breaking experience. And I'll just kind of give you a brief little history of it. I I would go to these events that I would come back year after year and I'd ask people how their breakthrough went. And about half of the time, people say, Oh, my. Gosh, it was the best thing. I use it as a big catalyst, and I create created all these things in this last year. It was fantastic. And then I'd see another group of people and they'd say, Wow, I love breaking the board. And I'd say, Well, where are you at on your breakthrough? And they'd say, Well, I'm still kind of working on it. And I realized that people needed a path, right? Rather than just that experience of breaking a piece of wood, they needed a path after that. So I wrote a book called Breaking Through. And within that, the entire structure is built around the three C's of creating breakthroughs. And so the first C is clarifying your vision. So getting very, very clear about what you want to create, what you want to experience. And my experiences when I've worked, when I work as a life leadership coach, when I work as a martial arts instructor, is when I ask people what they want, many times they're not clear about it. Now they're very clear to articulate what they don't want. Right? They don't want to be overweight. They don't want to have bad relationships. They don't want to have money pressures. They don't want to have, you know, fill in the blank. So the idea there is what you focus on expands. So if you're focusing on what you don't want, what you're looking for, you'll probably find. So how do you change that into, okay, let's turn that around. Let's do the 180. And if you know what you don't want, how can you turn that into what you do want? You want to be fit, you want to have great relationships, you want to be, you know, have monetary prosperity in your life, how whatever it is, you want to be a black belt and get clear on that vision. And that's the vision that carries you forward, and then also being able to understand why that vision is important to you. See, when we have a really powerful why, then when challenges come up, we're much less apt to get off track because why we're doing it is so ingrained in our psyche. So the first C is to clarify your vision. So the second C is to create a plan. Like, how do you get there? So, you know, it's it's like using the martial arts as a metaphor. You don't show up one day and say, I want to be a black belt, and then you come back the next week and they give you a black belt. As you know, your son went through it. There's a very systematic plan. There are different belts and criteria that they need to go through. And what many people will do is they get very focused on their end vision, but that end vision is so big to them, it becomes intimidating and they don't even take steps toward it. So when you create a plan, you begin with the end in mind, but then you break it down into small digestible chunks, just like we do in the belt system in Taekwondo, right? You go from your white belt to your yellow belt. You can do that with anything in life. And then what happens is when you set these small incremental goals, you start getting momentum, you start feeling better. And now it becomes part of your life. So the create that plan. Yes, the final one, which you can have the best plan in the world, but if you write it out and put it in your desk drawer, nothing's gonna happen. You need to take consistent action, right? Consistent action. Okay. And what I always um coach my clients to do is make those small, consistent actions because small, consistent actions done over time can lead to massive results. Case in point, let's say, JV, you chose something in your life that you wanted to get 1% better at each and every day. So each and every day, whatever that was, physical, mental, emotional, whatever, spiritual, you're just gonna get 1% better. That's what you concentrate on each and every day. Well, if you maintained that pace, at the end of a year, JV, you would be 37 times better than when you started. Statistically speaking, not bad, right? Yeah.

unknown 25:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

But now let's take that a step further. What if you decided to maintain that pace for two years? Most people would think, well, heck, I'd be 74 times better. But that's not true. You'd be 1,400 times better because your good habits don't add up, they compound. Like compounding interest, they start to grow exponentially. And if you maintain that pace for five years, you'd be 76 million times better, right? So that's what we want to do, is once we have that plan, is build it as part of your regular daily routines to take consistent action, and that's when you can achieve breakthrough results. So those are the three C's. I love that.

SPEAKER_02 26:41

I love that. So one more time, the three C's are number one. Create your plan, take consistent action. I love that. Thank you. You were just talking about your books um breaking through, and you have a second book, Black Belt Leadership. Talk to the audience about the case.

SPEAKER_03 27:06

Well, actually, the second book was my first book. So Black Belt Leadership was published first in uh 2013. And that was you'll you'll appreciate this story. Um I had, when I tested for my seventh degree black belt back in 2008, I created the test. So my instructor said, I want you to create to demonstrate your skills. And so what I did during that is I would perform certain things, and then I would have a little break, and I would have one of my students talk about what I created to be my seven qualities of black belt leadership. Okay. So I performed for a little bit, then one of my top students would talk about, you know, creating a purposeful vision in your life. And then, and then I would perform again, and then they would talk about being the change you wish to see. And these were the seven qualities, right? Well, at the end of that, uh, I had someone who I was very close to said, Well, that's a talk, right? Those seven qualities are a talk. So as I started my speaking career, that's what I would speak on. And then that same person over time said, Well, that's a book. So basically, black belt leadership is an extension of my keynote talk. And it's those seven qualities that I actually created because it was my seventh-degree black belt, because I came up with seven. But when I really reflected on them, those were the qualities that were very consistent in my life that I not only use personally, but also professionally and also in the martial arts.

SPEAKER_01 28:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:38

Absolutely. That's awesome. Chris, you are a national champion. What did it take to become a national champion? How much hard work can you just explain to the audience? Because people may be listening or watching this episode and saying, oh, I could do that. I personally know how much how hard work is involved. Can you just share that experience with the audience?

SPEAKER_03 29:04

Well, you know, the the I'll answer that in a couple of ways. Because of course, hard work is a relative term, right? And of course, any athlete, any athlete that achieves a high degree of success, it's it's a given that you have to be dedicated to and you have to put in maximum effort. I think the difference between the people that achieve at a moderate level and that achieve at an extraordinary level, there the difference is very, very small in terms of what that tipping point is. Because everybody that I competed against in 1999 when I won the national championship, and everyone I competed against in 1998 when I lost in the finals and I took the silver medal, we all practiced art. We all practiced art. But what I would say is, first of all, you need to have a love for what you're doing. Right? If you're doing it because someone else is telling you it's important or you think you have to do it, that will only take you so far. So you generally have to learn to love it, but not learn to love it because of the end result. Learn to love it because you love the practice. You love the training, you love the sweatiness, you love the small improvements that you have, right? And number two, you also have to learn that you're constantly learning and you're constantly needing to grow, and you're using that training as a metaphor, as a means of applying to your life. The other thing that's important is, and this isn't always easy when you're a high-level athlete, is to learn to train efficiently, because training hard isn't always the best way. Sometimes the greatest discipline is being able to train in a balanced way. When I was getting ready to test for that sixth-degree black belt test that I, oh, my sixth degree black belt test, I was um starting to, my body was starting to break down because I was training so hard for it. And I went to my homeopathic doctor and he ran all these tests. And um he said to me, he said, You're getting ready for a major injury. He said, I think you're not only gonna pull a hamster, you're gonna tear one. You have to back things down. And I was very resistant. I said, I gotta keep training hard. My instructors are coming in town. And he said, You have to remember that rest is part of your training. Yeah, well, think about it. You know, like if you're doing weight training, you don't do bench press every day. You do bench press on Monday, then you rest, and Tuesday you might pick it up. And the other thing that I'll end with, which was a great life lesson for me, is a concept that I teach not only my students, but my life leadership clients, is the concept of pre-commitment. Pre-commitment. So, you know, I often tell my students that we don't teach discipline in self in uh in martial arts. We teach self-discipline in martial arts. And pre-commitment is basically this. Let's use an example of you decide that you want to get in better shape, and so you're gonna start walking or running every morning. And you wake up that morning, you're gonna start, and you had told yourself the night before you're gonna hit the road, and the alarm goes off a half an hour early, and you're like, oh my gosh, this bed seems so warm and cozy. I'll tell you what, I'm gonna put and put it on snooze. I'll run at lunchtime. And then lunchtime comes and suddenly comes up. You say, I'll do it when I get home, and it never happens. Pre-commitment is this. I am doing this. I've committed, I committed to it the night before, and I literally put my running clothes at the edge of my bed in my shoes. And as soon as I hear the alarm, I've already committed that when I hear it, I'm gonna sit up immediately and I'm gonna get dressed. I pre-committed to that activity, and then I'm gonna get out and do my because once I get moving, now I'll get there. I one time had a coach saying, say to me, what does feeling like it have anything to do with it? Now, I want to back up a little bit. Like there are times as an athlete, as I was saying before, you overtrain, you have to listen to your body and maybe back off. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the time when you're like, oh my gosh, I think I'll just sit home today and watch TV rather than go to taekwondo class or do my preening. Well, that's because I don't feel like going. Well, that what does that have to do with anything? You committed to a higher level. And that's that's the small tipping point between those that do well and those that achieve excellence, is that small piece of being committed to what we promise ourselves we're gonna do. That's pre-commitment. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 33:48

That's great. Chris, you said something important. You use an important word. And for an audience member, they may say, I know what the word discipline means.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

Can you explain what self-discipline means? You know, each and every one of us have habits, right? I mean, I mean, if you were to take an objective view of yourself, you'd see all the habits you carry on throughout the day, from the time you wake up in the morning to the time you go to bed. And I believe discipline is being able to consistently carry through with positive and productive habits in our lives on a daily basis. Right? So, like for me, one of the things I've developed through the years is something called the six M's of morning mastery. So these are the six things that I do in the first hour of every day. And I do these because that's my discipline of setting myself up for success for the rest of the day. So I start each day with some sort of mindfulness, uh meditation. I just, it's a one of the first things I do after I drink water and release, you know, go to the bathroom, I sit down and I do some meditation. And then I do what I call mind treatment. So I'm I'm doing positive affirmative statements in my mind. So that's my mind treatment. I'm getting myself to re-recalibrate those synapses in my brain. Because people will tell us we'll have up to 70,000 thoughts per day, and the majority of those are negative if we don't train ourselves. The opposite of that. Why? Then the the third element, the third element is called mental imagery. And that's basically imaging the day that I want to create. I've already, I already had this interview with you, JB, when I was visualizing it this morning, right? And I one time had a coach tell me, Chris, if you're gonna, if you're gonna fantasize, you might as well win. Right? So so having a mental imagery to that. The the fourth M is movement. Now note I didn't say exercise, but movement. Our bodies were designed to move. So what's a a stretching, a walking, a yoga, a calisthenics? What is that for you each and every day? The next is motivation. Is it through books? Is it through videos? I mean, we have we have these phones, right, that have the best library on the planet that we've ever had where we can tap into motivation. And then finally, the sixth M is memoirs, and that's doing journaling each day. So that's how I start every day, the first hour of every day. And that is to me, is a discipline of success. And then I can apply those lessons learned to my other disciplines. But they just become positive habits that you not only have committed yourself to, but they're easy to be part of your regular daily routine. Until they become easy and they're just part of you, every day's, you know, going to be a crapshoot. But if you decide this is what I'm gonna do and it just rolls into your regular routine, you're much more apt to having that successful experience.

SPEAKER_02 36:55

Yes. Chris, I can relate because I've said this before on prior episodes. It took me three years to create the Influence Exchange podcast. And the reason why, Chris, is I had the discipline, but not the self-discipline. I was not motivated in a way. I had my mind where had those negative thoughts, and I had to train myself within time, speaking to family members, speaking to my wife. And it took three long years, Chris, to finally train myself, have the correct mindset to say I'm stepping forward, training myself with those positive thoughts. And I did exactly what you just said. When my alarm wakes up in the morning, I'm jumping out of bed. I can't remember the last time I hit snooze. I'm journaling. I am walking or on the treadmill. I am doing stuff that's motivating myself to do better. So I'm glad you share that, Chris, because I couldn't.

SPEAKER_03 38:19

Well, and kudos to you, JB, because you know, I did my own research on this, whatever, 10, 15 years ago when I started these practices, and I started researching people that I really admired, that I saw were being successful in the world. And almost every one of them to a person had a powerful morning routine. Everyone. I thought, wow, that is something I can emulate. I, you know, and it might mean that I was getting out of bed a little bit earlier than I was before, but then I just developed going to bed a little earlier, and now it just, it just, it's part of my lifestyle.

SPEAKER_02 38:51

So, Chris, you are a life leadership coach. Talk to us about what do you do?

SPEAKER_03 38:58

Well, I mean, I believe deep in my soul that each and every one of us has profound gifts that we have to share in this life experience. And sometimes we are fortunate to know exactly what that means, and we're actually able to provide, you know, our love and our experience and our gifts in the world in an active way. And sometimes people aren't. And so I believe that in order to be a leader of anyone, any group, whether it's large or small, we first have to be leaders of ourselves, right? So, what I basically do is I help people identify those breakthroughs that they want to have. And then I say, okay, now what do we need to do? First of all, to identify that, um, you know, what that vision is for you. And then how do we break it down into that plan, like I did in the three C's, right? And then what's the action? But then also what are the limiting beliefs that are holding you back? What are some of the skill sets that maybe you need to develop as part of that? And then what we do is we develop a plan about how you can make that integrated within your life. Again, through consistent effort each and every day. It's very, very few people have breakthroughs that are life-changing in one single moment. It's not like, I mean, I'm sure it does happen with a lightning bolt hits them and all of a sudden they could, you know, you get knocked off the horse and they're ready to go. Most people have to work consistently at it to make it an active routine in their lives. So I do that both in individual coaching, not only personal, but also professional coaching. I also do it in group formats where I have, you know, the formats of my books that I have in video form where people go through processes, then they come together in groups where they talk about their challenges, they talk about the victories, and we actually everyone is self-coaching one another, so I facilitate that process as well. So again, I do that. Sometimes people do it with a focus on business, sometimes they do with, you know, personal things about them. Sometimes it's about health and wellness, but it's really about helping them take those uh things that they want in their lives to express in a most powerful way, but helping them develop a path toward that. And martial arts obviously is my metaphor for that. It's basically using those martial art principles that I would help for decades to get people to black belt and help them become black belt parents or black belt business people or black belt wellness uh recipients. That's basically what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01 41:27

That's great. You're doing a great job.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

You're welcome. Chris, for someone that's struggling, maybe health reason, wellness, right? What would be your advice for that individual?

SPEAKER_03 41:43

Well, the first thing is to get real with yourself about what's actually happening. Okay. Many times when we're dealing with struggles and challenges, we're in this constant resistance, right? I don't like what's happening. This is not good for me. I don't want it to happen, and we fight it. And it's not to say we need to necessarily enjoy when we're struggling, but what I always tell people is slow down. And after you've gone through the emotional aspect of I don't like this, I'm angry, I'm sad, I'm scared. And those are all totally, totally wonderful human emotions. And you need to go through those. But after you process that, then take a breath and ask yourself, what's really happening here? Without my story that I'm bringing to it, right? This guy said this, my boss said this, my wife said this, my husband, right? Okay, without the story, what's happening? Well, this person said this, and that's what happened. Okay, boom. You identify what's happening because now you can have an awareness and looking at it objectively. And awareness is the first step in breakthrough, the first step in transformation.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

Sure.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

And then once you've identified that, then ask yourself three simple questions. Number one, what do I need to keep doing in this situation? Positive habits, positive languaging, you know, positive visualization. Um, what do I need to keep doing? What are the things that I've been doing on a consistent basis that have brought me to this point that are really positive in my life? What do I need to keep doing? Number two, get very real with yourself and say, what do I need to stop doing? What do I need to stop doing? You know, we do so many things through habit and we do things unconsciously. And I don't know if if you've ever heard the story, I'll just give the abbreviated version, but it's caught, it's the story of cutting out both ends of the ham. Have you ever heard the story? Three generations of women are in the kitchen for Christmas. The daughter cuts off both ends of the ham and puts it in the oven, looks at her mom and says, Mom, I put the ham in the oven, but I'm curious, why do I cut off both ends? And she says, Honey, I don't know. Uh, that's what the way I was done. That's what your mom taught me, my mom taught me. Let's ask her, hey mom, talking to the grandma, why do we cut off both ends of the ham? Well, she doesn't know, so they call great grandma in the old country. Mama, why do we cut off both ends of the ham? She goes, Oh, honey, when I was growing up, we had a very small pan and the ham wouldn't fit in. So we had to cut off both ends, right? We just keep doing what we've always done and expect a different result. Einstein said that was insanity. So what do you need to stop doing? And then finally, question number three to ask yourself is what do I need to start doing? Is there a different behavior, a different mindset? Whatever that is, what do I need to start doing to be able to break through? So, what do I need to keep doing? What do I need to stop doing? And then what do I need to start doing?

SPEAKER_02 44:44

I love it. Chris, you have some amazing, amazing advice and your experiences shows for it. So, Chris, what is your inspiration today?

SPEAKER_01 45:00

What inspires you?

SPEAKER_03 45:03

I think it goes along with the work that I'm doing. I get incredibly inspired by people who are doing great acts of service in the world. So I get inspired by watching martial arts instructors doing great acts of service. I get inspired by people that, whether they're adults or they're even kids, that are going beyond their comfort zones to make a positive influence and maybe standing up for a cause, even though it may not have been popular at the beginning, but they they step forward. I also get inspired by people, you know, who have dealt with some real hardships, maybe particularly even physical hardships. Maybe they're confined now to a wheelchair or something like that. You know, one of the things each one of our black belts has to do in the four months prior to their training is they have to do a day of empathy. So after they train for three years and they have four months prep cycle to get their black belt, they have to spend a 24-hour period being blind, deaf mute, or in a wheelchair. So they understand what it is to go through hardships and come out on the other side. And so I get extremely inspired when I see people that have gone through those hardships, as well as the people that are helping them go through those hardships. I get incredibly moved. So being able to use our gifts for good, and sometimes that can be in professional situations, sometimes it can be in spiritual and religious situations, it can be done in sports and martial arts. But when people are taking the time to step out of their comfort zones and serve, that's what inspires me the most.

SPEAKER_02 46:40

I love that. Absolutely. You know, my son had to in October, before he became a black belt, he had to take an egg around for one week. Meaning he sleeps with the egg, he carries it in his backpack, takes it to school, he takes it everywhere he goes for seven days. And if the egg cracks or breaks, oh my gosh. It it showed him how for a young kid, it's it's showing how to be responsible.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

Oh my gosh, I love this. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 47:21

Yeah, and he did it.

SPEAKER_03 47:23

It was I'm gonna do that. And what a great example of mindfulness. You know, because you know, I'll often jest, you know, these are some of the best tools on the planet, right? In fact, it's got more computer power in it than the moon that landed on the the moon that was in the lunar module that landed on the moon, right? I'm sorry, the computer system that was in the lunar module that landed on the moon in 69, more computer power in it. And we use it to what, you know, argue with strangers and watch cat videos, right? So we have all these opportunities to get distracted in our lives. But when we slow down and we come become mindful, we understand the power of not only taking care of something, but what it's like to really connect with another human being, right? And that's that's a superpower in and of itself.

SPEAKER_02 48:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 48:15

So, Chris, we run out of time, and I usually like to ask my guest one last question. What are your final thoughts or message you would like to share with the world?

SPEAKER_03 48:29

You know, one of the lines that I use in my keynote speaking very often is um a champion doesn't need to be told what to do. They just need to be reminded. And what I mean by that, I mean I have two meanings to that, is number one, is I believe we all have an inner champion. That was what my first book was really about as well. And that might mean that we discover the fact that we have that champion inside of ourselves and that we can there's a power inside that's greater that we don't even may not even be aware of. So it'd be my hope that everyone goes through that journey to be able to rediscover that, remember that. And the other thing is to know that to remind ourselves, sometimes also being proactive and changing our mindset, because when we do that, everything can open up for us. Because we may not be able to control everything that happens to us in the outside world, but we can always have control how we respond to it. And that's what it is to be a black belt leader.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

I love that.

SPEAKER_02 49:36

Chris, you have been phenomenal. I had a great time talking to you today. It's been a pleasure. I want to thank you so much. Enjoy the rest of the day. Thanks, my friend.

SPEAKER_03 49:48

It's been my pleasure. And I'll tell you what, tell your son the best of luck. Do does his uh instructor use the term pilsung? Yes. So tell him pilsung for me, certain victory, and keep going toward his second poom. And I look forward to hearing great stories in the future about how he's continued his training.

SPEAKER_02 50:05

Awesome. Thank you for those kind words, Chris. Take care. Bye-bye. Before I go, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for pressing play. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching on YouTube. I truly appreciate you taking the time to be here with me. And if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button. And if you're listening on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other platform, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on the next episode. Because we're going to keep having real honest conversations like this. And remember, your influence grows every time you choose courage over comfort. I'm JV. Stay curious, stay consistent, and keep influencing others. Peace out.