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Better Results and Positive Mindset

We had a conversation with Christopher Wirth of No Quit Living Audio from a positive mindset leads to better results. Chris’ new book the Positivity Tribe is available for order wherever books are sold.

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Full Transcript for A Positive Mindset Leads to Better Results.

Tim Kubiak 0:06
Hi, thanks for listening. I’m Tim Kubiak your host for Bowties and Bsuiness. You can find us on our socials at bow ties in business on Instagram and Facebook and bow ties B i Z on Twitter. You can find me at Tim Kubiak on Twitter, LinkedIn and timkubiak.com today’s exciting day, Christopher work with us. We’re gonna be talking about his new book. But before that a little bit of background. Christopher is the founder and president of no quit living. As a professional speaker, coach and trainer Christopher works with individuals, sports teams and corporations to help improve accountability, effectiveness and efficiency through his process, a positive mental advantage. Christopher is the host of the no quit living podcast definitely worth a listen, which has been rated as a top 50 iTunes podcast in three different categories business, health and self help. Christopher is also the founder of the positivity tribe. That’s the book we’re going to be talking about today, a coaching speaking and training company that focuses on working with schools, sports teams and organizations looking to adopt a positive mindset and positive advantage. Christopher’s coach basketball at the high school and collegiate levels. In addition, he coached an AAU team that succeeded at the national level. That’s impressive, by the way, and graduated from Washington College with a BA in business management and drama. Christopher was a member of both the men’s basketball and tennis team. He has three children, Zachary, Emily and Mason Christopher, welcome to the show.

Christopher Wirth 1:31
I appreciate the opportunity.

Tim Kubiak 1:33
Yeah, I appreciate you being here. It’s really exciting to have you on. Let’s start with how did you end up with drama and management.

They kind of go together and were these

Christopher Wirth 1:46
people maybe don’t see big business management and drama definitely go together. And in many ways, but actually, I fell into the drama perspective, I was always been an entrepreneur at heart enjoyed business and things, different things I studied in school and my suitemate, right across the hall was a drama major. And he was doing directing classes, and you need people to audition, and needed people to ultimately act that were not actors. So it was a volunteer position. And there was probably the most attractive girl in our school that was in the scene. And I had an opportunity to do that. So I actually fell into it. And then I just really enjoyed it. And the head of drama department said that he thought I would be pretty good at it. And lo and behold, I went down both roads.

Tim Kubiak 2:39
Do you have a favorite production you were in?

Christopher Wirth 2:41
I do not have a favorite production. But I was in a men’s improv group, which was really interesting. And I’ve done a very, very small smidgen of stand up comedy during my career. And it’s the only thing that is similar, but it’s harder in some ways. Because with stand up comedy, you can have a couple of obviously different go twos and things. But when it comes to improv, and if you really do it the right way, which is obviously audience participation. Sometimes you’re just like, holy cow, where we go and

Tim Kubiak 3:16
live without a neck.

Christopher Wirth 3:17
Right? And there’s no pause. There’s no do over. It’s just, you know, there’s a lot of times with improv with crickets, and you’re just like, on to the next one.

Tim Kubiak 3:28
In some ways, it’s no different than business and changes in business, though, right? I mean, things come out of nowhere, and you just have to adapt.

Christopher Wirth 3:35
Yeah, no, I that’s why i said i think the drama in the business world, I think there’s there’s a lot of similarities.

Tim Kubiak 3:43
So

let’s talk about the book real quick. It’s an interesting time to put out a book and positivity. So yeah, it’s how long was it in the works? And who are you really tried to reach with it?

Christopher Wirth 3:55
So it’s a awesome, awesome question. I appreciate the opportunity. So I was actually writing a different book in February and March of this year. And during this pandemic, to your point of an interesting title, there was just so much negativity, whether it was political weather were the race issues going on, whether it was people blaming other people, and a bunch of friends and I were having different conversations. And I came up with the idea for the positivity tribe. And it’s a fable, similar to john Gordon’s types of books that have a underlying tone to them. But as far as the audience, it’s, it’s really from, from kids up through adults. And I know that’s a wide range. But the reason is, it’s based on an actual true story of positivity notes that my company and I have been placing all throughout the country. We’re in over 35 states in five countries, and we’ve put out 10,000 positivity notes, and that’s the premise behind the book. And what I realized and why we we went ahead and did it and launched it now was You know, the we’re still doing, we’re still in some very difficult times. And I don’t think there’s any set point, whether it’s a month, six weeks where things are going to go back to, quote unquote normal or the new normal. And I think there’s never been a time and there never been a time within our country where we need more positivity. And I think sometimes they’re there times that are really good for things. And sometimes, you know, things just come along. But this was an opportunity that I had some really good people that helped with the project together, wrote it with a friend of mine, Chris Walker, dang. And we’re just really excited about it. And I can’t wait for for it to be out.

Tim Kubiak 5:36
So you can pre order now, right is that on positivity tribe calm?

Christopher Wirth 5:41
Yep, it can pre order on the positivity tribe calm, and it will be available on Amazon, Barnes noble, wherever else, you get your books within the next couple of weeks. So by the time this comes out, it should be available on all those outlets as well.

Tim Kubiak 5:56
And for anyone listening, it’s in the show notes will link you directly to his site. So you can go pick it up. And as it gets on those other sites, we’ll get it there, too. So you talked about positivity notes. I seen what they are, they’re pretty cool. Do you mind sharing with the audience how it started and what you’re accomplishing with them?

Christopher Wirth 6:12
Yeah. So in May in June and July of 2019, a couple of friends and I just took some of our we have these very small, thin pads that are white paper. And what we didn’t realize at the time, is that they look identical to parking tickets. So we put these positive quotes on them. And we were leaving them under the windshield wipers on cars in Connecticut in New York, which is where I am. And then fast forward, we started putting the notes on Instagram, we started putting some tags and some things out there. And then people reached out to us via dm or on the comments of our post and said, Hey, where do I get these, I’d love to put them out. So we did, we went ahead and we we printed out quite a few of them. And we’ve mailed them out to people. And the best part about it is it’s just a way to share and spread positivity. And it’s not just during these these crazy times, we’re going to continue this after and it started before. But what I found is that people gravitated to this, and a good friend of mine, a gentleman by the name of Fred corbon, who’s one of the assistant coaches at the University of Kansas, for the men’s basketball team. He’s been a huge advocate of this. And what he did was he took those notes, and he created his positivity poll. And what he does is he lays them out on this positivity pole that’s on the corner, two different corners on the street, and people walk by it. And people have been asking, Hey, when when’s the next note coming up on the positivity pole. And the new station last night just did a special on it. And it was really cool. And there have been a couple of newspapers that have done it as well locally and in Kansas. And what I’m realizing what I’m seeing is that people gravitate towards positivity just as much as they gravitate towards negativity. And what we try to do and what we read in the intro is that the PMA we call a positive mental advantage that we coach with our clients is he’s approaching things with that positive mindset. And it doesn’t mean that you’re going to accomplish everything, you’re going to be undefeated. But statistics have shown science has proven that if you approach certain things with a positive mental attitude, a positive mindset, you have a higher chance, statistically, of a better outcome than you do if you approach something with a negative outcome. And it’s so very simple. But when you break it down, people don’t realize the value of what it is to be positive not only individually but with sports teams, companies, and especially in business.

Tim Kubiak 8:39
So right now, business, everybody’s figuring out, right, do I go back to an office? Do I? Do my employees stay from home stay at home? Do they stay home forever? What’s that look like? What’s a way that people would benefit from your type of coaching and your new book as they go through these times and navigate these waters?

Christopher Wirth 8:59
I appreciate that. That question I think for for people that are going through these very difficult and I think unchartered territory uncharted waters, especially in this country and throughout the world, and I have a lot of clients that are that are downsizing, obviously everybody is working remotely. Some businesses are obviously getting back to quote unquote normal and will actually go back to normalcy in the sense of having their office space and employees, maybe there’ll be distance, but they’re going to be there and other employees are are downsizing. And I have a couple of clients that have completely gone away from an actual office, a client of mine in the Midwest actually just did not release, renew, excuse me his lease, he’s going to work and have his employees work remotely. And I think the reason why this type of coaching works is these are unchartered territories and having a positive mental advantage and having a positive mindset is going to help you get through this. It’s going to help you stay focused. So whether you’re a team that has a sales component to it? How do you stay focused on sales. And the bottom line while you’re dealing with these unchartered territory is going back to the office some of those uncertainty. And the thing with the book is anybody that is looking to have that little pick me up anybody who’s looking to to spread some positivity and understanding, the thing that we talked about in the book is spreading positivity one person at a time. And it’s a little bit cliche, but the reality is if, if I share something with you that’s positive, the likelihood is you’re going to share it with somebody else, whether that’s a spouse, a child, a parent, a co worker, and what happens is people compound that by then sharing it with somebody else. And then all of a sudden that person shares with somebody else. So that’s the whole beauty of what we do with not only the company, but also with the book is the importance of valuing positivity, but more importantly, not just positivity for you, but doing something for somebody else, bringing something to somebody else’s life, whether it’s a positive quote, a positive message, whether it’s a positive phone call, and all of a sudden, when you compound that it just has a hugely positive impact moving forward.

Tim Kubiak 11:07
Where did this start for you in life? Did it start in athletics? Did it start? Was there a trigger point that you really said, you know, what mental attitude and aptitude is everything to the outcome?

Christopher Wirth 11:19
I’d like to say that I listened to my parents always growing up. But unfortunately, as I have three kids, and I see that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, it definitely started with sports. But I have two amazing parents. And my father, for example, always asked me challenged me to read a little more to try to expand my mind. And it wasn’t until, you know, probably my junior year in high school when I realized I wanted to play college sports that I understood having that mental perspective of goals and, and then the day to day, things you need to do. But I think so many people don’t understand the value of that mental perspective and the mental advantage and look at in sports. I think probably the best example I know of in the last decade or two is Tom Brady. Tom Brady was somebody that physically he could throw a football. That’s that’s a fact, when he was at University of Michigan, he did have a good arm. But from physical attributes, he was not six foot six, and 210 pounds. If you look at his draft pictures, he’s like one third the size he is now. But what he had was he had the belief within himself. He had the mental perspective of what he needed to do at Michigan. And then when he got drafted, when most people don’t know is he told Robert Kraft that that was going to be the best decision he ever made for the New England Patriots. And probably, Mr. Kraft didn’t think much of it because they had another quarterback in front of him. But it was during that time and even to this day in his early 40s. Tom Brady is still playing, obviously, yes, he’s physically gifted. He’s physically still in phenomenal shape. But I think if you took one attribute, and you said to me, I have to make a quarterback. I’m picking Tom Brady because of his mental perspective what he was able to accomplish, because not only did he have goals, but then he reverse engineered and broke them down into bite sized pieces. He did he did each and every day.

Tim Kubiak 13:11
Yeah, his work ethic is not only legendary, it’s unbelievable, right? And it works perfectly in Belichick system not to go down the sports road to four. So I’m really hoping to see what he does this year in Tampa, because I think it’s gonna be fascinating. Yeah,

Christopher Wirth 13:25
I hope we hope we have a season because to your point, I’m, I’m really excited because they’re the naysayers who say, you know, Tom’s nothing without belcheck. And Bella checks nothing about without Tom and I want to I want to see, you know who’s right, who’s wrong. But more importantly, I’m curious to see what he can do in a in a warm environment.

Tim Kubiak 13:44
Yeah, that And to your point about that, though, and your whole message of you know, no, quit living on your podcast, and we’ll come back that, in a way he’s gonna raise the level the water, right, by being more positive by having that work ethic, it’s going to impact everything. So is that really, you know, the same kind of approach you took with your podcast?

Christopher Wirth 14:04
Yeah, I think I think there’s there’s a lot of similarity. And I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have some amazing sports guests as as Sumi sports people, both players as well as coaches as guests on my show, and it’s the same thing. And I think Tom epitomizes kind of that, that mental perspective, that no quit mentality. And if you look at Tom Brady, you look at the rings. He has not been undefeated, he’s not had multiple 16 seasons, and then they go undefeated in the Super Bowl, and they just blow people out. He’s lost games. He’s had tough seasons, he’s lost almost an entire season to injury, but it’s not quitting. It’s and when you get knocked down. And the thing that everybody always says when I asked for they’re no good stories, but which one do you want to hear Chris? Everybody that we look up to whether it’s business, personal, professional, they’ve all been knocked down. That’s not a question if somebody gets knocked down, but the question is, do you get up better, stronger, do you Get up a better version of yourself, you get up a more educated version of yourself and you take those, those bumps in those bruises, and you turn them into your next victories. And that’s, that’s why I think we’ve had success with, with our podcast as well as the company because that story is something that that everybody understands, everybody understands getting knocked down, everybody understands, you know, missing that sale, everybody understands you don’t get, you know, every single job opportunity you want. It’s what do you learn from it? How do you become a better version of yourself? And I think, moving forward during these challenging times, I’m hoping as a country, that we have a little bit more empathy towards each other, and understand standing that this has been an extremely challenging time. And how do we move forward together?

Tim Kubiak 15:42
That’s, that’s a big goal, right? You’re gonna have to send out a lot of notes to get there.

Christopher Wirth 15:49
I think I think millions of notes, but but I’m extremely hopeful, because I think during these challenging times, I’ve just seen some amazing things, amazing people and some amazing companies that are just stepping up left and right and doing things for other people with zero expectations in return.

Tim Kubiak 16:06
Yeah, and you’ve seen that. So on that, you know, I’ve seen a lot of writing Harvard Business Review, in other places have talked about the impact that executives and their communication and senior leaders and companies in their communications their team has had in this time, is there anything you can share from your clients that are like a best practice takeaway for how they’ve helped navigate the waters?

Christopher Wirth 16:30
Yeah, I think the the best practice thing that I’ve seen, not only with some of our clients, but also with just on social media, and some people that I know is, is having that expressing empathy towards others, not fully understanding what this person might be going through. So for example, if I lead a sales team, and you’re on my sales team, and you come in that day or that week, and maybe your numbers are not what they’ve been, or they’re not as, as typical as they should be. It’s having that conversation. And the reason I say empathy, because the second piece I have underneath that is communication. I think in today’s day and age communication, now, today is so much more important than it was three months ago, six months ago, because you don’t know what somebody’s going through. You don’t know what they’re dealing with at home, do they have a parent or grandparents that just got diagnosed with the coronavirus and maybe they’re in the hospital, has their husband or wife, you know, lost their job, or there’s all those things that that people don’t know. And some of the companies that we worked with both individuals as well as, as teams and corporations, the ones that are communicating now are the ones that are going to be more successful when we get through this. And I think if if your listeners take anything is from this interview is, I think hopefully it’s the positive perspective. Number one, but two is, is the importance of communication. And it’s not just in business world, it’s also with family, friends, and people that you socialize with is it’s important to communicate now more so than ever. And the one thing that I have seen is, there are some people that are just very, extremely uncomfortable with wearing masks and having the social distance and having to sanitize and do all those things. And some people are taking it lightly, and some people are taking it. The flip side is over the top and you know spreading, you know, 50 feet away from everybody. But what you what you need to do is be more empathetic and say is this person being quote unquote, over the top, just because that’s the way they are. Maybe they had, you know, really unfortunate maybe they lost a family member that died from this. And maybe they’re saying, You know what, I may be look silly, driving in my car with my mask on by myself. But you know what, I’m going to be overly cautious. But being empathetic and communicating is super important during these climate.

Tim Kubiak 18:38
It is and it’s it’s funny. So I live in the Midwest, right? I’m originally Yeah, Pennsylvania now. And seeing some of that mask thing, especially out in the suburbs has been really fascinating to watch it, but also in a way to watch it evolve in the last two weeks, businesses here started to require it. And it took the personal individual element out of it. So if you want to come in and do business with us, happy to have you gotta wear a mask, right, and not just national chains, but some of the local chains. And so now you’re seeing masks in the parking lot as people are walking up and things. So I’ve seen a huge change in talk about taking a leadership position, right? Because they could very easily just let the Nationals take it on the chin on that one. So it’s been that’s been an interesting evolution.

Christopher Wirth 19:24
Yeah, it’s it definitely has. And I’m curious to see as as when schools open up whether that’s for for children, or colleges and universities, I’m curious to see how, how that comes because there are some challenges of what state versus federal versus local and there are people that are, I’ve seen people argue with people in stores and say, you know, you don’t, you don’t have to wear it. And you say, Well, you know, it’s our, it’s our philosophy or it’s our rules. And I’m hoping that as we get through this because I 100% believe we will get through this. And the only way we’re going to get through this together. I’m hoping that people will again, can Indicate more communicate less aggressively less anti against somebody, and it’s okay to have a difference of opinion, I want to be very clear with that it’s 100%. That’s what our country is based upon. That’s why we have a Democratic and Republican parties is it’s okay to have different ideas. But what I feel is not okay, is we have this combative, fighting against each other, it, you might still believe something, and I might still believe something else. But at the end of that conversation, I should 100% know where you’re coming from, you should 100% know where I’m coming from, it doesn’t mean that either of us have to bend and say, Well, you know what, because you’re stronger or older, more wiser, you’re going to win, and no one could say, you know what, I’m gonna respectfully, you know, still believe what I believe. Now I understand your perspective a lot more. So I appreciate you, you sharing that with me. But I still feel this way. And I think, if we did that, as a country, a lot of our issues we have now I think would would subside again, it wouldn’t go away forever, it wouldn’t be completely eliminated. But I think if we could learn to communicate better, I think it would just have a hugely positive impact on our country moving forward.

Tim Kubiak 21:04
Yeah, and frankly, I think if you did it on a global basis, it would be a much better world.

Christopher Wirth 21:10
Oh, it would be such a better world. And just looking at where we are in this country now is in in an election year. It’s, it’s anti this one person, and instead of me, quote, unquote, running against this person. Now, it seems like both people are fighting against each other. And it’s not, this is what I believe this is what I’d like to do. It’s almost like you’re a bad person, and I’m a better person. And again, having three young kids. That’s not the way I was raised. And it’s not the way I want to raise my kids, it’s not about knocking somebody down, we’ve been using the hashtag for the last probably seven, eight months now as we rise by lifting others up. And I think that’s something that we need to do a lot more of. And more importantly, we need to see a lot more of in our country. And to your point about global is let’s start a global movement. And let’s start here at home first, and then let’s expand it.

Tim Kubiak 21:59
So with that your podcast hugely successful, you’re at Episode 280, something 8788. With the time we’re recording this, what are some things that people could go find, you know,

Christopher Wirth 22:12
best back episodes, best messages to keep themself moving, did really dalen to you and your message, but also, you know, things that they can use in their own life, I appreciate that, thank you, again, for forgiving the opportunity yet for. So by the time this recording, it’ll be 287 88 to 89, somewhere around there. And for me, I think what I love about podcasts, and what I share with people is, you know, if you turn on your radio in your car, if you’re if you hear a song you don’t like you have to change the station. You know, you can’t pick an actual song and artist yet i’m sure in the next couple couple months or years, you know, you’ll be able to, you know, press your car and have it do exactly what you want. But what you have to do is you have to change the station and say, Okay, you know what I want to listen to rock or rap or hip hop, and you hope that there’s a different song. And if not, then you change the station. When it comes to podcast, you can go on any any area, however you listen to podcasts, and you can look at the back episodes. And what I would say to anybody that wants to listen to any episodes is there, there are some amazing, amazing shows. But what I always recommend people do is just click on some of these podcasts, yours including mine included, and just scroll down. You know, on my show, we have athletes we have entertainers we have speakers we have best selling authors and take a listen or to have somebody that you maybe know and you’ll get you’ll get the flow of of the show. But the thing we talk about on almost every episode is each guest no quit story time in their life where they could or could have given up or given in, but they didn’t. And then we talked about a lot of personal development, a lot of self development type things of the books, you read the things you do. And then we always give each each guest an opportunity to share something that’s going on in their lives. So I like to make the episodes fun. We also have something we call the hot seat questions, where it’s kind of fun with movies, sports, entertainment, get to know the guests a little bit more. And it’s and it’s there’s some similar stuff out there. But I know that a lot of shows really don’t focus on you know, the person in general, those focus on either the book or a podcast or, you know, being an athlete in their professional career. So we tried to make it fun, and we try to keep each show around 25 minutes. Just because that’s kind of the distance free Corona of traveling to and from now obviously, there’s no distance so but we try to make them fun. And like I said, I think the best thing is go back and listen to an episode or two because you might really like one more more than the other but, you know, find somebody that maybe you don’t know, or maybe find somebody that you know, you do know and you’d love to hear them have a 20 minute 25 minute conversation.

Tim Kubiak 24:41
So talking about you know, finding things to college sports, how do you balance that? What does that how do you play to, to love to sports at that level, I guess is really the question. You have

Christopher Wirth 24:55
a left hand and a right hand. No um, it was

Tim Kubiak 25:00
You’re ambidextrous if you can get to the hoop from either side.

Christopher Wirth 25:03
Now it’s a it’s a great question. And I think for me, playing a bunch of sports growing up is I just love playing a lot of different things. I think now, you hear kids in the at the age of seven or eight, someone says, Oh, your son likes soccer at the age of seven. Well, you know, he should specialize in that he should play soccer, you know, 23 hours a day and sleep for one hour. It was tough. It was difficult, physically demanding. But it was interesting. My grades were higher during the season, and during the the high points of the seasons, because my time was so limited. So if I wanted to have time with the friend with the girlfriend, or time relaxing, I knew that I just spent an hour here or on the way back from a from an away game. I had to grab some books and do some work. But it was definitely difficult. But I think the best thing for me, which I didn’t realize, obviously at the time, is it’s set me up perfectly for life, because life is crazy. Life comes at you 24 hours a day, you know, 100 miles an hour. And I think the one thing that I really took from it is that we all have those same 24 hours every single day, whether you’re a college freshman, or you’re a 55 year old parent, we all have the same 24 hours. And the question is, do you maximize them? Do you spend them how you want to, and for me, I definitely fell through figuring out what worked for me, you know, when you’re running to practice running to a class running to try to get something to eat before you have to run and then have a lift session. It was it was a lot but but it taught me a lot of and I don’t like the word time management because I don’t think you really can manage time in some ways. I we speak about time maximization and maximizing your minutes each day. And it definitely taught me how to do that.

Tim Kubiak 26:48
So as we look at that, right, athletics laid the foundation for you to now do 234 things professionally.

Christopher Wirth 26:57
Yes, sir. It was definitely a it was a preview of what’s to come. It’s a preview of what’s

Tim Kubiak 27:02
to come. And a you got to ask what age? What age group did you coach,

Christopher Wirth 27:08
I coached actually rising seventh graders through rising seniors. So I took a team and we had a good core. Not every single person obviously lasted. But we had a really good core group and ninth and 10th grade years, we competed at an incredibly high level nationally. And we had players that went on to play at Duke, Georgetown, quite a few d3 programs. And we actually had a couple guys that went on to play division one football, which is which is really interesting, because my whole thing I said before is a lot of great athletes and in middle school and high school, play a couple different sports. And ultimately, it’s not usually sometimes it’s early on, but sometimes it’s not till freshman, sophomore, junior year in high school, and they really say you know what, this is the one sport I want to play in college.

Tim Kubiak 27:55
Yeah, yeah, it is funny St. Louis’s baseball town, so I watch kids do soccer and baseball, and they get you know, roped in, and you’re right, it’s age seven, age eight, up, Nope, can’t play basketball, I can’t play tennis, you can’t play golf, you just do this, you know, and that, beyond the social circles, it creates or doesn’t create, frankly, of the repetitive stress injuries by the time they’re 12. Because they are playing, you know, way too many hours a day. So,

Christopher Wirth 28:25
you know, I think it’s interesting, you said that not to, not to cut you off. But I think that’s something that we’re all seeing a lot more now is, is for example, if you have a son or daughter that plays basketball during the winter, whether it’s in school and or in a town league or travel League, you know, there’s there’s this specific wear and tear, but there’s also the specific wear and tear on those specific joints and tendons, and muscles and bones that are specific towards movement and basketball. And then typically in March, April, when spring sports come up, whether it’s baseball or softball for girls lacrosse for both. And now all of a sudden, that male or female is then going to play an additional 4050 6070 basketball games, whether they’re the best player, as a sophomore, you know, the 11th person on ninth grade team, their muscles, tendons, joints are now playing, you know, double triple what they used to. And I think that’s something that doctors and people are understanding more so now than ever is because you used to have a break from those, let’s call it but basketball muscles. And now your son or daughter is playing, you know, lacrosse or there may be they’re swimming and it’s it I definitely believe it allows the body to recharge. But when all of a sudden you’re playing a sport, almost 365 days a year. And when a sport like basketball, which is which is games are all indoors. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in the dead of winter or you’re in the heat of the summer. You can typically play that sport all the time. So I’m hoping that that people get a little bit smarter and understanding that recovering the rest perspective because I think it’s okay to Want to be a professional athlete? You know, Michael Phelps is probably the best example of somebody who committed to excellence in his sport. But he also took some time off over the last 10 years.

Tim Kubiak 30:12
He did. And if you look at some of the greatest athletes ever, right, they were multi sport athletes. Right? pick pick a profession, in Piccolo, even a lot of Major League Baseball players could have played pro football or vice versa. You know, and I think that’s Frankly, I saw that loss to my daughter’s era, right, I watched everybody becomes specialized. And it was interesting. The other thing I saw, and I don’t know, the ages, you children, but mine, I saw you lost the neighborhood pickup sports, which I thought was tragic. Everything had to be organized. It became a business that the kids were involved in, in funding, basically. And nobody went and played with the subdivision or the next town over and played pickup basketball or baseball or anything. Have you seen same thing?

Christopher Wirth 30:59
Yes, it’s minor, 11, nine and seven. So they’re playing more competitively in certain, certain levels. But yeah, it’s interesting, you say that during this, this pandemic, my my kids, obviously, everybody was was being educated from home. But a couple of the kids within the neighborhood would get on their bikes more would go down to the park and play. And I was actually really, really positively surprised, because to your point, I drive by those parks, six months ago, a year ago, two years ago, unless it was an organized baseball team practicing or a game, there was little to nobody there ever. And I think that’s something that I’m hoping during this craziness of people needing and wanting to be outdoors more, maybe we could get back to some of that. Let’s call it normalcy of, hey, let’s grab four or five, six friends and let’s go play touch football, or, hey, let’s go grab a bunch of us and, you know, shoot some hoops, play some, some other sport, you know, play soccer for a little bit. And I think in some ways we get back to that. But to your point, everything is is not only super plan and focus, but it’s it’s super competitive, where it’s like, you know, you need the best, the best. And it’s got to be this travel team. And I’m hoping that we can get back to a little bit more of a relaxed enjoyment for some of the kids.

Tim Kubiak 32:17
Yeah, let them be kids. Yeah.

Christopher Wirth 32:20
Amen. Amen.

Tim Kubiak 32:21
Yeah. So a lot of my demographic, young women professionals growing in their careers, you know, what are things that they can do specifically? Because there’s some challenges there, right, to have that positive influence in their organizations and in their own career direction? Yeah, I

Christopher Wirth 32:40
think that’s that’s a fantastic question. And one of the things I talk about, quite often is, and it’s something that’s free, it’s, it’s the value of an accountability partner. And I’ve had many accountability partners in my life. And the very significant difference between an accountability partner and a coach or a mentor is you’re not paying for an accountability partner. And for a woman, even a man that’s trying to grow their business, grow their profession, personally, professionally, advance, we have those same challenges, whether it’s kids, whether it’s obstacles, whether it’s certain education, but what an accountability partner will do and can do for you is you set a specific schedule, typically on a weekly or bi weekly basis. And you tell him or her these goals, these challenges that I’m having, and he or she will hold you accountable. every single week, you have those check ins, and what happens is, you get those small wins along the way. So if any of your listeners have not looked into accountability partners, I think it’s something that that I definitely recommend. And the other thing is, is old school, but it’s it’s the value of writing things down. And and when I talk about his his goals, it’s journaling and it’s affirmations. And people have that funny comment or that funny smirk when they hear affirmations because they picture Stewart smiley back in the day from from senate live, when you look in the mirror and say, I am wonderful, I’m amazing. And people like me, that’s not an affirmation. That’s that’s a humorous perspective. What I’m talking about is, is writing something down, whether it’s a goal, whether it’s a sales goal, whether it’s a raise in a business, whether it’s a different, you know, john Rowe, you’re leading into for your business, whether it’s a different perspective, you’re taking the value of writing things down, goals, affirmations, and then just doing journaling of where you are struggles you’re having. It’s been proven that when you write things down, you’re statistically so much higher. Going to have a higher chance, excuse me of accomplishing that goal or that objective. And if you add an accountability partner to it, I think all of a sudden, now you have this, this formula, now you have this base for for learning, growing and improving. And I think, for me, I don’t like the term self help. And the reason because I think people look at help as a weakness. I like the term self improvement. We’ve actually coined it the self improvement movement, so For anybody that’s looking to make those self improvements, holding yourself accountable, but also having somebody to hold you accountable, and then also somebody that you hold accountable as well. It allows you to take that personal development step one step higher. And then once you get there, then it’s you raise it a step higher. And I’ve seen and heard some amazing people sharing incredible stories of how accountability partners have really helped take their personal professional journey to just the higher level.

Tim Kubiak 35:27
That’s great advice and not advice you hear very often on the accountability partner, I have a question on journaling. Yes, sir. Do you have an opinion? is digital versus old school pen and paper make a difference? Does it depend on the individual, any research you’ve seen on that?

Christopher Wirth 35:43
Yes, and I and I love how you preface that as opinion because it is, this is an opinion of mine. It’s not a fact based. But as I said before, statistically, your likelihood of following through on things are so much higher, when you take a pen or a pencil to a piece of paper. So in that regard, there’s science proven that when you actually do it, it has a different mental perspective of seeing it, writing it down from your mind, actually, to the paper. But my opinion is for me, I go back and I have journals dating back to 2003 2014. And I go back once a quarter, once every two quarters. And I’ll just grab one or two and go through them. And I see names of events, things that I’ve had forgotten. So for me, I always preach to my clients. And whenever I get a new client, whether it’s an in person client, or a, or a virtual client is I either give them or send them a journal, blank journal, because I truly believe in the value of that. But I also have clients that have very specific electronic systems that work for them. So my opinion, and again, I’m glad you preface it that way is that there’s nothing that beats the pen in the paper. But I also know people that are unbelievably successful, both personally and financially that have a digital system that works for them.

Tim Kubiak 37:02
Yeah, and the reason I ask is I get in an argument with a couple of my friends in other entrepreneurs all the time, and I am old school I have my journal is a purple journal. And if they ever stopped making that color, I’m lost.

Christopher Wirth 37:15
Right? I will tell you you can see these are leather bound are no good living journals. And I literally I swear by these and if they stopped making these I’d be less as in trouble I think as you with the purple but and you know it Did you bring up a point though, is the one thing I always tell people to is, is, it’s it’s about walking before you go ahead and full on sprint or running 100 100 yard dash at the Olympic level is, you know, you people think, Oh, I gotta get a journal. So now I gotta go online. And I got to get fancy, I have a client of mine, unbelievably successful, you know, seven figures plus, and he gets his journals from, from Barnes and Noble. And they’re $6 and 95 cents. They’re, they’re bound, but they work for him. And there’s not a single person on this earth that could say he would be more successful or less successful. If he had either a $200 leather bound one, or if he had an electric electronic system that had every bells and whistles, this works for him. But the thing that that I love about it is it’s all about consistency. So for your listeners that have not thought about, or maybe you were interested in, during these challenging times where things are slow down, we all have a little bit more time. So maybe think about picking up journaling and go to staples and grab a $5 notebook notepad and just just figure out what works for you. Because there’s not one thing that works for everybody.

Tim Kubiak 38:35
So you talked about clients, if someone listening is an individual or runs a team, what’s the best way to get in touch with you start the conversation about what you can offer them.

Christopher Wirth 38:46
I appreciate that. So I love connecting with new people. I’ve been so fortunate to have people that have mentored me over the years and I give my personal email address to everybody which is Chris at no quit living.com Like I said, I love connecting with people. The website, no quit living.com has got a bunch of our stuff on there. And we’re pretty active on social media, the biggest platform are on his Instagram, but we’re also on on Facebook. And I think the one thing I talk about a lot is six degrees of separation. In today’s day and age, we’re really one degree separate from people, especially with social media and technology. So if there’s anybody that’s thinking about maybe hiring a coach, think about bringing a coach or speaker, we always have free consultations. We’d love to have a conversation we want to make sure, first and foremost that not only are we a right fit for our clients, but if we are not, I have a very large network of speakers, coaches and trainers that are friends of mine that would be happy to recommend but I love connecting with new people and I love I love having conversations with people from all walks of life.

Tim Kubiak 39:47
How have you seen the speaking business shift to the virtual events in the last four or five months?

Christopher Wirth 39:54
It’s been it’s been interesting and challenging and I and I laugh because in May June, July of this year, I’ve had quite a few large speaking events. And I’m not talking from a monetary perspective, I’m talking from a audience perspective, a lot of keynote opportunities that obviously got shut down. Some of them will be returning in a virtual fashion. But the one thing I say has been interesting is, personally, I love to go to live events in person is the way I learned best. But there are other people that like to learn via technology and virtually more so. So for example, they could be sitting at home in their bathroom in the morning, or they could be sitting at home at night after they worked out in their workout clothes. And you can turn on a video you can turn on a coaching program. So what I’ve seen is I’ve seen just a lot of different things coming up, whether it’s webinars, whether it’s zoom conferences, whether it’s different type of meetup type things. And I think what what we’re going to continue to see is there are companies and events and fellow speakers, I’ve seen a bunch of them posting things that they’re having events and things now very different looking space spatially, you know, you’re very distance. But I think the the thing that I share with people is, it’s an opportunity to be creative. And I think the speakers and coaches and trainers that are going to be able to adapt to these new virtual times, I think you’re going to be very successful. And I think the ones that, you know, don’t, we’ll have to figure out a way to do it. But if you can, I think, figure out kind of that medium, that middle point, I think you have an opportunity to be successful, but it’s definitely changing. And as you know, it looks different. It feels different. But at the end of the day, it’s the exact same message. So whether Jhansi Maxwell is speaking virtually in front of 5000 people or if he’s speaking at a small dinner event for 50 people, it’s the same message. He’s saying the same thing. It’s just being delivered and being received in a different way.

Tim Kubiak 41:49
Yeah, it’s funny that so this week, traditionally, I’d be in Las Vegas at an IT security event, right? And crawling around playing nerd. And it’s really weird not to be doing that. And I was on with, you know, one of my business partners this morning. And it was like, man, we’d be in Vegas right now. You know, we’d be trying not to have our cell phones hacked at the moment, because it’s a hacker event. But right, we but you know, it was so weird. That dawned on us that all of that’s going on, and we have friends that are no speakers, and we knew they were supposed to be in Europe speaking in events and just realizing that impact. But to your point, I’ve seen some amazing virtual pivots. Right? I’ve seen some events where they delivered the same content and half the amount of time the same quality. Yeah, you missed the coffee breaks you missed in networking, you missed the people. But the main messages were still there.

Christopher Wirth 42:43
Yeah, you know, that’s a really good point. And I would I would say for for any listeners, or viewers that are, that are listening or watching this is those events and those things, those speakers, those programs, they are still there, you just have to look a little bit differently. But to your point, it’s, it’s the same thing, you’re just missing some of that one on one networking. But you know, one, one interesting story is a good friend of mine, he started creating these five 5pm virtual happy hours, he’s been doing them now for the last two or three months, he runs a very successful video company, he actually does all my video stuff. So might be a little bit biased. But he made a decision that he was not able to network. So he was he was a type of person that loves meeting new people. He’s always going to different happy hours and type of events, just to put a name with a face and to get his business out there. And He does it because that’s what works for him. But he came up with this idea to have these virtual happy hours. And he said there are times where we’ll have two or three or four people these other times we’ll have 12 1520 people he said some of the same Some are brand new, some come back some don’t. But it’s a way to be creative. And I think what I’ve seen and I know you’ve seen as well as they’re just some really cool companies and people that are doing some really neat things not only virtually but creatively that you couldn’t have done five, six years assuming five six months ago, you know, Zoom Zoom has been around for a long time. You know, webinars have been around for a long time but five 610 months ago people pervert in person, I’ll share a statistic with with with your listeners that might shock them if you know this, then it won’t shock you. But as of a couple of weeks ago, zoom was worth more money than the seven largest United States airlines combined. Think about that for a second combined. So it’s not we’re not we’re not talking about the middle of the pack or the smallest we’re talking about the seven largest airlines combined are now worth less than zoom isn’t and that’s exciting in some ways, scary and others but what it means is that this company took an opportunity and they said you know what, not only can we capitalize financially, but we can also bring people together. I believe that airlines and things are going to go back to normal. I know around here on the East Coast, travel is picking And vacationing and things people are gonna obviously be more careful with masks and things like that. But I believe we’re going back to, to normalcy soon. But they’re just huge opportunities for people to be creative. And I think with with obstacles and challenging times come opportunities where companies, individuals can create things. And I, as you said before, to I’ve just seen some really cool things with companies. Yeah, for

Tim Kubiak 45:23
anyone who’s listening and wants to see that, I’m guessing you saw it on the visual capitalist that where you saw that chart?

Christopher Wirth 45:29
No, I actually, I saw it on somebody posted it on Instagram a couple weeks ago.

Tim Kubiak 45:36
Okay, cool. So it’s on Instagram, but it’s there’s also a version from June right before zooms last earnings on the visual capitalist. It’s a really great breakout. So if you just hit visual capitalists calm and look it up, you’ll see it. And yeah, it was fascinating. I, it’s funny, you use that stat, I actually used it in a presentation I did for a security company for the channel partner network. And that was, you know, part of my, my telling the story of how your business better change, because look at what’s changed.

Christopher Wirth 46:06
That’s it, that’s a good point. And again, goes back to something I said earlier, too, is the opportunity, the perspective of, of opportunities to be creative, you know, a year ago, I if you and I had a conversation, I never would have brought up a virtual keynote speech or a virtual seminar or webinar as opposed to an in person. Yes, it would have been recorded would have been broadcasted later on YouTube and or available on YouTube later. But now it’s it’s your first it’s your first objective. And, you know, to your point, it’s, it’s those amazing stories and things are out there. So for those people that are looking to be more creative, but also looking for ideas and suggestions in front of you just have to be willing to, to search a little bit for

Tim Kubiak 46:49
so your business you’ve changed the book has up? Have there been other positive changes that have accelerated your business through all of this?

Christopher Wirth 47:00
I hope I define them as as accelerated business. I think it would it would I define it as just being more willing to jump on zooms with clients more. So now, I think the interesting perspective is if if you and I connected via an introduction, six months ago, I would have said, hey, let’s just you know, give me a call. Now, I’m saying, Hey, I’ll send you I’ll send you a zoom link. Let’s jump on on a video. And I think that’s something that that has helped the business perspective. But personally, I don’t think there’s anything better than seeing somebody idi, their expressions, their mannerisms, and a 15 minute zoom call is almost in some ways, I think better than than a 45 minute phone call, because you can see things differently. I can pick up my phone and say, Hey, did you see this or I can like I did before, I know, I grabbed my journal. And I showed it to you, you can’t do that on the phone, you can describe it. So I think that’s been the biggest thing is is just embracing technology. So early on, in the middle of March, we bought the highest level of zoom and all those capabilities, because we saw the writing on the wall. And we’re far from perfect, but I think the technology that’s out there today, it’s forever changing. And it’s much cheaper to do certain things, and it was 234 years ago. So for any of your listeners that are looking to maybe start a business, grow business, or maybe even bring on new employees, there are ways to do it way more cost effective today than it was a year two or three years ago.

Tim Kubiak 48:31
Yeah, it’s interesting barrier of entry to your point is consistently coming down. And if you do your homework, and you’re creative, and you want to start your own thing, I agree define your market and go at it.

Christopher Wirth 48:45
Yeah, I love that you. I love that you said that the barrier of entry is it’s much cheaper. But it’s also quicker to you know, a year two, three years ago, you know, if someone’s on your website and do all you know, now you go on GoDaddy or one of those other sites, you buy a domain, you can also have a LinkedIn live within minutes. And I think that’s the one thing that I would I would challenge people on is just be creative and think a little bit outside the box. Yeah,

Tim Kubiak 49:12
so I was speaking to a real estate person yesterday. And it was not a podcast interview. It was just simply a discovery call. And it was fascinating to hear how technology has shifted residential real estate in the last five, six months, virtual house tours, virtual viewings, everything. Right. So she’s literally running around with cameras now. Live Streaming stuff, you know? Nope. So totally different world.

Christopher Wirth 49:41
It’s interesting. You said I have a lot of friends that are in the real estate world and, you know, I constantly hear them. I’ve never been I’ve never been busier, non stop And to your point. It’s the same house. It’s the same street. It’s the same cost. It’s just being delivered in real Received differently. And again, going back to your discovery call you mentioned is having that video camera having that cell phone going. So hey, I know you can’t get out until Friday. But you know what, I’m at the house. Now, when you grab my phone, I’ll walk you through the kitchen, you had a question about the, you know, the pantry or the, you know, the guest bedroom boom. And again, it doesn’t take away the fact that still people want to physically see that house, they want to walk the property, but now you can virtually see it almost to the point of being in person. And I think that helps a lot of things. But but it’s it’s it’s fascinating seeing some of the amazing things people are doing.

Tim Kubiak 50:37
So talking about that is we bring it back, the books coming out right positivity tribe, give us two or three reasons why, if I’m thinking about getting it, I really should grab it, right?

Christopher Wirth 50:50
First of all, it’s a quick read. So I know people like to have that checkmark next to next to a book in that regard. But if you’re looking for an uplifting story, if you’re looking for some positivity, but if you’re looking for something that it’s really fun to read, so whether you have a sixth grade son, or you have a 17 year old daughter, or whether you’re a 40 year old business person, it’s something that’s easy to read, it’s fun. And I believe it’s a book that you’re going to read, and you’re going to pass it along to somebody because it had a positive impact on you. And that’s, that’s our number one objective with this book is to have each reader finish reading the book and say, You know what, I feel better that I finished this book. But I also feel more optimistic, and I’d like to pass it on or gift it to somebody else.

Tim Kubiak 51:33
And that that goes to your point earlier, right? That actually, you can read it from, you know, senior business person down to kid. So this could be something that you start in your business life, and then frankly, take in your personal life, or vice versa.

Christopher Wirth 51:47
Exactly that and that’s, that’s a really good point. And that’s something that we thought about a lot is, if you’re on a on a team, that’s called a sales team, and you read this book, or it gets brought to you or, or I come speak to you, you’re going to read it, and then you’re also going to be able to, to bring it home to to your kid or your spouse. And then the flip side is if you’re a you know, seventh grade, son, excuse me, seventh grader, male or female and you read this, you can then go ahead and bring it to to mom or dad or to your brother and sister. So I think that was one of the things we really focused on is, is having a wide range of potential readers.

Tim Kubiak 52:21
It’s really nice. So Chris, thank you for being here. Again, you can find it at positivity. tribe.com right. And it will also be available on Amazon Barnes and Noble, a host of other places. And the no quit living podcast and I believe the website’s no quit living.com

Unknown Speaker 52:38
Is that right?

Christopher Wirth 52:39
Yes, sir.

Tim Kubiak 52:39
So anything you want any parting comments?

Christopher Wirth 52:43
Yeah, my pardon come very simple is is just again, going back to the hashtag as we rise by lifting others up. And as I said earlier, if anybody would love to connect my personal email, it’s Chris at no quit living calm. And I hope you have a fantastic day, morning or evening depending on when you’re listening to this. And I truly appreciate the opportunity to be here. I I’m honored every time I get to share our our positive message.

Tim Kubiak 53:09
It’s been a real pleasure. So I look forward to catching up with you. Thank you. Hi, thanks for listening to bow ties in business. If you haven’t already done so please subscribe via your favorite service. You can find this on Spotify, Apple podcasts, and a host of other servers. If you’d like your hurt, definitely go check out Chris again. You can find him positivitytribe.com this podcast See you all next week.

Tim Kubiak is a Business Geek, Nomad, Aging Metal Head, Nerd, & Coffee Addict. Plus the only big guy at Hot Yoga. For over 25 years he's been building high-performance sales teams globally. With over 2 billion in lifetime sales in goods and services. Tim works as a coach mentor with Founders, Business Owners, Executives, and High Performing individuals to transform companies, bring new solutions to market and achieve their professional goals.

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