1615 – Choosing Your Version of Greatness with Curtis Leadership Consulting’s Christina Curtis

Josh (00:00:05) - Hey there, thoughtful listener. Would you like consistent and predictable sales activity with no spam and no ads? I'll teach you step by step how to do this, particularly if you're an agency owner, consultant, coach or B2B service provider. What I teach has worked for me for more than 15 years and has helped me create more than $10 million in revenue. Just head to up my influence and watch my free class on how to create endless high ticket sales appointments. You can even chat with me live and I'll see and reply to your messages. Also, don't forget the thoughtful entrepreneur is always looking for guests. Go to up my influence com and click on podcast. We'd love to have you. With us right now, it's Christina Curtis. Christina, you are the author of the book Choosing Greatness and Evidence Based Approach to Exceptional Outcomes. And you are the CEO of Curtis Leadership Consulting, and you're found on the Web at Curtis Leadership. Christina, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me.

Christina (00:01:18) - Excited to be here.

Josh (00:01:19) - Well, congrats on the book launch. Tell them let's start there. Choosing greatness. That sounds like a good plan.

Christina (00:01:27) - Well, I've been watching people for the past 20 years. I do executive coaching. I've been watching people just really struggle with, gosh, am I reaching my potential? And if not, why not? And so part of this book just came out of this moment of realization like, gosh, why aren't we and who is and what are they doing? How are they choosing their version of greatness? So I interviewed Richard Branson and CEOs and Olympic athletes in this book to figure out what are the daily choices we can do and make to achieve our own version of greatness from a wealth and wellbeing and happiness standpoint. And and man, the book launch was fun. We went to New York. We had a little Time Square billboard flash in the book, and we sold it in the first day in the Barnes and Noble stores. So that was exciting. It's here. It's here. Gosh, it's here.

Christina (00:02:14) - After three years, it's here. Josh Yeah.

Josh (00:02:16) - Well, I'm sure a labor of love, no doubt. And I was thinking about this earlier today too. Yeah. What? You know, when I think about what is greatness for ourselves and, you know, I was kind of reflecting on my ideal day and my ideal schedule. I don't want to work 12 hours a day. I really don't like at this stage of my life that that doesn't interest me. And so, you know, and that got me thinking, well, does that mean that I'm not achieving my full potential when in fact, I got to tell you, like, I've got amazing teams. You know, I was thinking about this idea of, you know, kind of I'm going to throw in a bunch of stuff in the pot here, and then I'll let you kind of cook it up and help me make sense of this here. But, you know, I was thinking about well, yeah, I think that sounds like working smarter, not harder.

Josh (00:03:06) - But, you know, my perfect day is having enough time to spend with people I love. I love hobbies, I love I love my herb garden and my plants, my vegetables and my flowers. And I love walking my doggy around the block. I love, you know, stuff I geek out on YouTube and, you know, does that make me a lazy person or am I just being a No, no.

Christina (00:03:32) - No means you have a balanced scorecard. Think of it this way. If there's one scorecard you're measuring your life against and it's only career, man, you're going to get to the end of it and say, I really missed out on some elements of my life. That is just a fact. If you speak with people who are retired, who have gone through their career, who got to the end, my father included, my father ran organization. He was a president of a company. And they got to the end and he said, I'm so glad I invested in family and relationships because now I have that.

Christina (00:04:01) - Now I can transition and engage in other parts of my life. Listen, this book, Choosing Greatness, what was really important to me is figuring out who is achieving exceptional results at work, at home from a health perspective, who is leaning in wholeheartedly to a whole life. That's the scoreboard we need to be watching. That's what we need to be engaging around. And sometimes let's be honest, Josh, Sometimes you're giving more to work than you are to home or you're giving more to your garden than you are to other parts of your life. And it's just choosing, consciously choosing what is this season of my life about? How do I want to be winning? What does that look like for me? So I can feel really fulfilled and happy every day?

Josh (00:04:42) - So what happens when we do have that nagging voice of, oh, boy, I you know, I failed again or I didn't live up to my own internal expectations. Now, keeping in mind that as I'm saying this, I'm reflective of my own personality traits where I have a very high standard for myself.

Josh (00:05:03) - And I know historically that's caused me a lot of anxiety and, you know, I would say unease or unhappiness. And I don't think there's anything wrong with having high standards for ourselves. But, you know, when we our own scorecard, we look at how we performed that day and we we focus too much on the 1 to 2% where we were off our mark versus the 98%. We were like, You can't. But today.

Christina (00:05:31) - Josh Totally, totally. It's like I used to watch him. People would get feedback reviews where they would be scored on. On how the performing in an organization and their leadership style and if they had ten, five out of five, but one who gave them a three out of five or 2 to 5. That's where we're spending our hour, right? And it's like, gosh, is this the right investment of mental calories? Here's how I think about that. It's not about the end result. And I say that having to spend three years of my life writing a book and waking up at 4 a.m. to get it done and evenings because I'm a parent and an entrepreneur.

Christina (00:06:06) - It's actually about the skill development, the growth. What I can find now is when I'm engaging in a particular topic, my depth of research in that area is far more vast than it was three years ago. Why? Because I spent three years studying it, so I'm better positioned. And I was the whole way through. Actually, my business grew more during the three years of writing the book because I was sharpening skills. Then they will just at the launch of the book, right? That's just another step. So when I'm standing in Barnes and Noble signing books and having had this moment of like emotion, it's not that the book is on the shelf and that's a lifelong dream. It's that when I started this, people said, it'll never make it to the books shelves of Barnes and Noble. It's that that's not going to fly. Christina You're not famous enough. You're not big enough. And now I've got this following of 100,000 people, and you think, well, maybe that's true. Maybe that's not.

Christina (00:06:55) - I built those skills. I refined those skills. That's where the growth is. As long as you can wake up and say, Did I grow as a human being that I grow from a skill set from a business perspective, did I grow from a parent perspective? To me, that's a win. Regardless of what the results are that day, you are automatically priming your brain to improve the way performs in the future. And I believe that that's what you look at people who are highly successful at the top of their game, like Olympic athletes, and those are included in the book. They'll go out on a match like take a tennis match. They're in Wimbledon and center court and they'll hit the ball in the net and they may lose the game. So they'll go back and do what? The watch videos. How how can I adjust? What can I do better? How do I need to engage next time? And then that's what they focus on. They're refining their skills. There's no real failure in sports if you keep getting better.

Josh (00:07:45) - Yeah, talk more about that. When we think about how we allocate our day and, you know, whether or not we're spending too much time putting out fires versus taking the time to sharpen the saw, essentially, which it sounds like, again, you're an advocate for prioritizing that. And sometimes, you know, I think about, you know, it's so easy to do those immediate do this for an immediate payoff. And maybe the immediate payoff is, you know, resolving some immediate pain. But, you know, I think about where we have made the greatest leaps forward or I have made the greatest leaps professionally. Usually it is after some sort of big discovery led to a course correction of some sort or some thing that that we tweaked or altered or whatever pivoted. And, you know, because of I took all of my experience and then I added, So I've got wisdom going into it, and then I'm able to read a concept or a book differently than I would have years ago. So I'm just a different person.

Josh (00:08:54) - So now I adapt this new learning. I test it always running lots of tests. But you know, even just recently, you know, I really gosh, this boy talked about a long winded question. Sorry. No go want to know, you know, even like just taking the time to read a couple of really amazing audio books. And as a result, I'm like, oh my gosh, well, why don't we test that? We tested it awesome. I was like, Oh, I wish I would have been doing this like a year ago. But, you know, hey.

Christina (00:09:23) - I'm no, you know, it's so true. And we actually live in a fire drill environment where we're almost it's like busy as a metric for success. Busy is a badge of honor. Yeah. What will call you? Fossil culture. And I'm a hustler. I mean, I'm a hustler. I will admit, I've been a hustler my whole life. And when I'm. Engaging with people who are really just a level above anything I've ever seen who are out there crushing it and titans in their industry.

Christina (00:09:50) - Yeah, they prioritize time for reflection. They prioritize time to think, they prioritize time to read. I mean, they'll literally have reading books, a book list where they are moving their way through it. Why? Because when you do that, you're actually creating space in your brain to create new connections. You're not just repeating what you've always done, you're expanding your growing new neural pathways. You're connecting dots behind the scenes that you never even thought of. And so think it's actually not that I'm too busy, but how do I prioritize, right? Those are it's everyone wakes up. I have no time. Christina. I love that. You want me to think When the heck is that going to happen? If you prioritize it, I guarantee you you'll have quantum leaps forward instead of just these one day playing Whac-A-Mole with your calendar and invites and trying to get through everything. The difference is not small, it's actually quite substantial. And I will share. I do all business coaching. I have a much easier time getting on the calendar of CEOs of Fortune 100 companies than I do of directors.

Christina (00:10:54) - And why is that? It's because they have space. They have more space. How's that possible? They have hundreds of thousands of employees. They are prioritizing space for what matters and moves them forward. I think that's really important.

Josh (00:11:07) - Yeah. Christina the book came together not just because of your own personal brilliance. This is very much it appears to be a very collaborative. Like you've had conversations with a lot of top leaders that has led to what you've put together in this book. Could you talk more about the collaborative nature and kind of the stories and examples and and what is in the content of the book Choosing greatness?

Christina (00:11:34) - Yeah, it started actually when I started, I began noticing patterns we tend to operate on patterns 42% of the day. We are habitually doing what we've done before. We're operating on what we call autopilot because the brain wants to conserve energy. And I started watching people who are engaging differently in their day, and I would consider them to be the very top of their game again, titans in their field.

Christina (00:11:59) - What are they doing to break those habits? Because we all have them, right? It's like if I'm driving, I may find an urge to grab my phone. This is a really simple habit that happens, but we can all relate to how do I withstand that urge? How do I not just habitually grab it and look at whoever's texting when it lights up? Or if I'm habitually craving sugar and my kids order dessert, how do I not grab the spoon and dig in? That's a habit I can't help but it's like this urge The folks who are exceptional achievers that engaged in this book are able to withstand the discomfort of choosing change. So what do I mean by that? When their day is just coming at them, when they are just in autopilot running, they can say, stop, hold on, This is not driving the results and outcomes I want to achieve. And they choose change, which creates discomfort. And so when it creates discomfort, they're building up this tolerance to be like, got it? I don't want to ask for feedback right now because it's going to be hard.

Christina (00:12:52) - I'm going to choose it anyway. Tell me, Josh, what do I need to know? How can I engage differently? Fill me in on what I'm missing. It is uncomfortable. I've had leaders who engage in their day differently. Gosh, I've got 52 things on my to do list. I'm going to let people down if I don't do that. 52 or choose change, lean in and say actually, only these three really matter. I'm only going to prioritize, though, to those today and the other things. You're going to have to fall to the wayside and that's uncomfortable. I can cross them off my to do list. It's really uncomfortable. So I engage in interviews because I wanted their perspectives. And so each chapter has someone like Richard Branson or have your Rodriguez, who's a CEO of DaVita, or Olympic athlete Daniel Nestor, who's won more doubles tennis matches than anyone in the history of the sport. So it was very, very important to me to hear their stories on the daily choices they've made to choose change and allow themselves to access what they consider greatness every day.

Josh (00:13:49) - Yeah. Would you share a little bit about Christina, your work in coaching? Can people work with you today?

Christina (00:13:58) - Yeah, So I've been in the coaching business for two decades. Which is just shocking to me. Josh, Don't. All right. But time.

Josh (00:14:07) - Flies.

Christina (00:14:08) - Time flies. My background is in organizational psychology, and I have a bent towards neuro leadership and how the brain operates, as you can tell. So I do individual coaching. I do group coaching, I do keynote speaking, you name it. Any and all things related to human potential and goals. And usually I work at the top echelons of organizations, so there's a greater impact in terms of the work we're doing as they lead their organizations. I also have courses available online for people who are interested in learning more about things like overcoming the fear of public speaking or how to generate more wealth and well-being for people who are entrepreneurs. So I'm I'm out there, I'm doing things. Josh, I'm doing things.

Josh (00:14:51) - Yeah, it's. So the book, Choosing Greatness Evidence based Approach to Achieving Exceptional Outcomes. It's on Amazon and Barnes Noble and other places. I'll point this out. I don't know if this is going to be the case by the time this airs or publishes, but right now you can get the Kindle eBook pretty inexpensively. So for all of those years of work that you put in and preparing all these notes and stories and everything, you know, someone can have it for a few bucks. Yeah. Your, your audiobook is done.

Christina (00:15:19) - That's right. The audiobook comes out in two weeks, so that'll be available as well.

Josh (00:15:23) - Thank you so much for that. I'm a big audiobook consumer.

Christina (00:15:26) - Yeah.

Josh (00:15:28) - I love the fact and I pointed this out before we chatted, you said that it's an evidence based approach. Would you mind sharing what that is? I mentioned to you previously. So my my wife is a family therapist. Evidence based approach is some. It's a term that she uses frequently in her work.

Christina (00:15:46) - Yeah, I'm a big proponent of what is the science telling us and how do we bridge that science into practice. So the book is loaded with information that is research backed. That was really important to me. There's a lot of motivational woowoo out there of just, you know, just move your way through it and you can do it. And it's like, Great, well, how do I do that effectively and efficiently with a little time as possible? And so the book pulls from a lot of scientific research. For instance, Connection. I hit on connection a ton in the book and how we're building our network. And rather than just saying, Hey, it's important to build a network. Talk about the fact that when you have a good relationship with someone, their brain 14 parts of the brain light up. So they are engaged because you've got this strong connection, which means they're willing to help. They're willing to share your ideas with others. They're willing to help problem solve and lean in. But if you don't have that relationship with someone and you're engaged in conversation, six parts of their brain activate.

Christina (00:16:45) - But 11 deactivate. They're saving their neurological fuel for someone else. So building connections with people is an example of an evidence based approach where it's not just nice to have. Gosh, it's a it's a need to have as an entrepreneur and as somebody out there who is trying to generate a higher level of wealth and well-being in their lives.

Josh (00:17:04) - Yeah. Christina, your website is. Curtis Leadership. When somebody goes there, what would you recommend? And I hope you're going to say grab that first chapter from your book.

Christina (00:17:15) - I the first chapter is available. Click on the link that says book and go get yourself the first chapter and we can continue the conversation. Feel free to reach out on there.

Josh (00:17:24) - Yeah. Any other resources that you'd recommend at Curtis leadership.com.

Christina (00:17:29) - Yeah. Christina Curtis official is where we are on Instagram and so I do put tips up every day for people who are looking to advance their career and sharpen their skill set both from a relationships and results standpoint. But I the more people that we connect with, the more we learn and grow from.

Christina (00:17:46) - So please feel free to reach out.

Josh (00:17:48) - Awesome. All right. Christina Curtis, again, congratulations on the launch of the book Choosing Greatness Evidence based Approach to Achieving Exceptional Outcomes. And again, you are found on the web at Curtis leadership. Christina Curtis, thank you for joining us.

Christina (00:18:04) - Thank you.

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