Chris Michael Harris (CMH) is the founder of StartupU, Host of StartupU Podcast + StartupU TV, Speaker, and Performance Coach.
Having founded, bootstrapped and scaled multiple startups to 7+ Figures in his mid-to-late twenties, in both the on and offline space, Chris excels in taking concepts from idea stage to traction and growth in extremely rapid succession.
In addition to being involved with several exciting endeavors ranging a variety of industries and serving as the Entrepreneur in Residence for Silicon Valley-Based Accelerator Program, Founder Institute, Chris is also the host of Entrepreneur Hour, a podcast that has trended as high as Top 5 worldwide on iTunes under Business, Health and Education.
The show has featured many mainstream guests such as Daymond John, Barbara Corcoran, Marie Forleo, Grant Cardone, Guy Kawasaki, Jack Canfield, Russell Brunson, Ryan Deiss, Dr. Josh Axe and Dave Asprey (to name a few) in addition to over 40+ NYT's Best Selling Authors and Thought Leaders in their respective space.
With his focus on leaving the world better off than he found it, Chris is passionate about service to others and creating empowering content to uplift his audience to take control of their own futures.
[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:01
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone! My name is Umar Hameed, I'm your host on the No Limits Selling Podcast where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how you can become better, stronger, faster. Just before we get started, I've got a question for you, do you have a negative voice inside your head? We all do, right? I'm gonna help you remove that voice and under 30 days guaranteed, not only remove it, but transform it. So instead of the voice that sabotages you, there's one that propels you to much higher levels of performance and success. There's a link in the show notes, click on it to find out more. All right! Let's get started.
Umar Hameed 0:40
Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of The No Limits Selling Podcast. Today we Chris Michael Harris with us today and he's the founder of ‎Startup U. Chris, welcome to the program.
Chris Michael Harris 0:52
Thanks man. Hey, I appreciate it. It's Umar, right?. Am I saying it right?
Umar Hameed 0:55
Perfectly.
Chris Michael Harris 0:56
Perfect! Or I just want to make sure I got it.
Umar Hameed 0:58
Hey you. One of the two both work. So before we start, before we hit the record button, we were chatting about every single breakthrough you've had in your business had nothing to do with the process of it, it was more like insight or a mindset issue. Tell us more about that.
Chris Michael Harris 1:15
Yeah, it's funny because, you know, there's so many people online, they know the X's and O's like you'll have I have clients or myself or whoever the case may be and it's like, you know, the X's and O's of business, you're following stuff online, you've paid for 10s of thousands of dollars worth of online courses and books. And I'm not mitigating the importance or significance of those things. That's all a huge step in the process. In fact, I would actually argue that's one of the big things I didn't do in my first startup. And despite the fact that we experienced so much success at a multimillion dollar company from my college apartment, the thing that I realized it hurt me was I didn't have the X's and O's. So it is a foundational piece of it, right? It's a part of the pillar of success. However, one thing that I didn't deal with going into that business was I put too much stock into energy, like my actual physical energy in the business, right, the work that I was actually doing rolling up my sleeves, which I've never been shy of doing. And just the hard work aspect, right? And then not enough stock...
Umar Hameed 2:06
Right.
Chris Michael Harris 2:07
...educating myself or working on me, right? like, what makes me tick, what are some of the living beliefs that I have? Or what are some of the emotional blocks, or some of the trauma that I've carried with me from childhood or life experience are all just the things and you may say, people listening may say, "Well, I don't have any trauma here, there's little "t" trauma, and there's big "T" trauma, and there's so many people, myself included, that are walking around with little "t" trauma. And oftentimes, what I've come to find with myself and with others, is when you can reconcile those little "t" traumas in your life, things that maybe you don't think are impacting you, but they are to a large degree, all of a sudden, it's like you see things in a way that you never saw them before. And sometimes those manifest in things that are blocking you from actually taking steps forward in your business or having success in other areas of your life.
Umar Hameed 2:54
Absolutely. And I think sometimes, you know, there's little dramas, little "t" and sometimes there's big traumas. And then there's a third category, which are big traumas that have been suppressed. And I was working with this woman who, you know, I like to speak in public a little bit more comfortably, I feel really uncomfortable doing that, and that she was saying that her hand went up to her throat.
Chris Michael Harris 3:16
Um.
Umar Hameed 3:17
And so she did that gesture was like, "Hmm." And so I started to use a little bit of hypnosis to kind of look underneath that. And it turns out that she was abused by her uncle, and he would grab her by the throat, so she couldn't make any noise. She totally suppressed it.
Chris Michael Harris 3:33
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 3:33
We didn't implant anything, it was just like a what's happening there, then all of a sudden, you understand, I could not use my voice and now in public, I don't want to do it either.
Chris Michael Harris 3:43
Right.
Umar Hameed 3:43
That's the third category. But most of us have pretty decent upbringings we have parents that love us...
Chris Michael Harris 3:48
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 3:49
...that did the best they could sometimes they were heroic, and sometimes they were misguided but...
Chris Michael Harris 3:54
Sure.
Umar Hameed 3:54
...your, if you've got a pulse today, they did a pretty frickin' decent job.
Chris Michael Harris 3:59
Yeah, yeah. And I think also to, to add to your point, I totally agree with what you're saying. I think we also tend to diminish the significance of some situations, right? Like it specifically I think I'm more of the male side of this. we tell ourselves like, "Ah, we're fine" like, "Throw some dirt on it, bro, keep going." And I don't think that we end up realizing a the significance of events that happened to us, but then also to just acknowledging and giving it its grace and, and, and presence in your life to be able to do something about it, right? So you end up ignoring it, whether it is a big tear, a little "t" trauma. I think there's a lot of people that just they don't know what exists, right? They don't know what's bothering them, and then they tend to mitigate those events in their life all together.
Umar Hameed 4:39
Absolutely. And we'll talk about the business aspect of this, but I just want to share a story since we're down this path.
Chris Michael Harris 4:44
Of course.
Umar Hameed 4:45
My wife passed away. We were married for 27 years and she passed away.
Chris Michael Harris 4:48
I'm sorry to hear that.
Umar Hameed 4:49
Two and a half years ago,
Chris Michael Harris 4:50
Yeah, it's horrible.
Umar Hameed 4:51
Thank you. And I'm a very evolved person. And I really believe that she went to a better place and I did not break down and cry during the first year, I didn't stand on my bed covers, I was out functioning, doing stuff being amazing. And then on the urut anniversary, I took her ashes out to California. And there was a special spot there on the water where I release them, and I twinged my back that day and the next day had business meetings, and it got excruciating. I went to a chiropractor and said, you know, "Oh, my God, something's wrong." And then so she's trying to fix it, can't fix it. Then she says, "Let me do some muscle testing." Have you ever done that Chris?
Chris Michael Harris 5:30
I have. Yeah.
Umar Hameed 5:31
So for the viewers watching you hold your arm out straight, you'll go off camera, if I had to go that direction. And the chiropractor said, you know, "Is this a physical issue?" and it stayed strong, she couldn't bend it. Then she goes, "Is this a chemical issue? couldn't bend it, then she goes, "Is this an emotional issue?" and it just went weak instantly. Then she goes, "Did something emotional happened yesterday?" I said, "I released my wife's ashes and then it hit me that". This entire year, I was suppressing all the negative feelings, I had no idea. I was deluding myself, everything's okay. And that back thing lasted for about three or four days and then I had to deal with the emotional trauma of losing my wife. So it happens to the best of us, I do this for a living, and I still deluded myself because that's what we're really amazing at. The number one thing human beings are great at is rationalizing, and you bring that word up is rationalize we tell ourselves because it's so freakin' believable.
Chris Michael Harris 6:27
Yeah, yeah. Wow, that's a profound and powerful story. Thank you for sharing that.
Umar Hameed 6:31
Thank you. So let's take one of those little "t" that we have and we go to do something in business.
Chris Michael Harris 6:37
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 6:38
Ask for money or start a new venture and then all of a sudden, we find ourselves feeling really uncomfortable. When you're working with people or yourself when that happens, Chris, what do you do?
Chris Michael Harris 6:52
Yeah. So if I may, I can kind of, maybe it doesn't answer the question or ask me specifically, but I think it's it just came to me so I want to share it because I feel like it just kind of in the same vein, I think people still get value out of what I'm going to say. So for me, I grew up with a father that, for better or worse, I didn't feel like I got the praise necessarily, like I could have scored 50 points in my basketball game, right? I was the captain of the team and I was all these things and I, you know, excelled in many ways, and really put my effort into it. And I was like the kid outside that was shooting hoops in Cincinnati, when the net was frozen middle of winter just to continue practicing, like hitting hitting the net with, with with a shovel to get it to fall out of the net, because it was net was frozen, right? So just constantly investing myself really working hard and diligently at all athletics, not just basketball. And so I felt like even if no matter what I did, no matter how well I excel, no matter how well I played, it was always someone else in the game that did something better than I did, whether that was a teammate or someone to the team, or it was something that I didn't do well. So maybe I had three turnovers, or I almost found out at four or five files where I struck out that one time at bat and I watched it, I didn't swing it the third strike, you know, whatever the case was, and that applied to school that applied everything like, so no matter what everyone around you, is in your father's eyes is better than you in some way. Not that you're not good in certain ways but there better. So what you end up doing is you drive yourself crazy trying to prove yourself first to your, to your father, later manifested into myself, right? Later, I'm trying to prove myself, to myself. And so I entered into a business, right? and I always say it's about entrepreneur, entrepreneurs. When you, if you want to find out what your problems are, you want to find out the stuff you've been burying or stuff you haven't been paying attention to go start a business, it puts everything under under a microscope, under a magnifying glass, all of your problems are going to come out tenfold because you're under the pressure cooker so much like it just requires everything and every ounce of you just pulls the best and unfortunately pulls the worst out of you, so what's crazy is that I had this thing. And like I mentioned we we had we happen to just have fine market, product market fit really in alignment and we did a great job of marketing ourselves. We took a new approach to an industry we're causing disruption, we grew literally, from year one to year, two 1,000% $40,000 to $484,000, literally less than a year. And I'm in my mid 20s, right? And from that point forward, Umar, I started realizing really quickly, these problems are coming out whether I like it or not. And I remember it was just I was driving myself crazy because no matter what I did, no matter how much work I put in no matter how much we succeeded, it was never enough because that prove myself bug was just, it always focused on the things that I didn't do well, I can never celebrate the things that we did well. And so ended up happening was, we then double that 1.2 million went on to become a multimillionaire company. But here's the deal, I remember I was 26-27 years old, I hit a million dollars, my goal was always make a million dollars for I was 30, so I did it 3...3-4 years earlier than what I had planned out for my life, right?
Umar Hameed 9:54
Nice.
Chris Michael Harris 9:54
Yeah, it sounds great on the surface, right? Sounds awesome. I remember where I was, I remember what I was doing or what I was wearing in that moment, and it meant nothing to me, it literally meant nothing to me because my brain was already on how do I make a billion, right? Like I was already, I'd already moved the goalposts for myself and already was focusing on the negative thing so I remember I went and I did, I did RTT, which is a Marisa, Marisa Peer, sorry, tongue twister. She has a form of NLP where it basically taps into...
Umar Hameed 10:21
Right.
Chris Michael Harris 10:21
...elements of I'm sure you know Umar, I'm just making sure people. I know you know this but, but of hypnosis, right borrows almost from hypnosis. And I remember we did an exercise where she had me visualize, you know, obviously, she this was well into the session, had me visualize my younger self, and to put, put my arm as my current self around my younger self, and to basically...
Umar Hameed 10:45
Right.
Chris Michael Harris 10:45
...say, "I've got you, I'm proud of you, I've paved this path for you, things are going to be okay. You have done a great job." And in that moment, man, I completely like I just something shifted in me that has never come back, like the, the prove myself bug...
Umar Hameed 11:01
Awesome.
Chris Michael Harris 11:01
...just away completely. It was just the ultimate sense of relief, I came out of that room with a smile on my face bigger than I had had in years, I just felt light, I just felt happy, I felt euphoric. And from that point forward, I've been able to move and acquiesce and do things in my life and in my business. Without that, that heavy burden I was carrying around, I've made decisions that are completely different, there's just a lack of that pressure that I had on myself that I didn't even know was there. And it's just changed my life in every single way possible and that's just one example of many. All be it was the big one, it was like the keystone one that we dropped first, that kind of led to kind of a domino effect on some of the other small things that were kind of surrounding that.
Umar Hameed 11:16
If two things come up, number one, I tell people all the time, that change happens in a moment. Like some modalities take a long freakin' time to get there but before the change happened, you were still stuck in a moment after the thing happened, you were unstuck, so that's a perfect example of that and so thank you for sharing that. And it also brought up this quote, I had heard, I'm not sure from whom, it was the definition of unhappiness, "Not knowing what we want, and killing ourselves to get it." A lot of people tend to be in that mode of more and more and more and more and more and never getting to the end. And one of the tools that I came across was this this concept that of course I stole from somebody is just like, "If you want to make your life, measure it on the happiness scale." And if your happiness level isn't an eight today is down to a six, all you need to do is what's making me unhappier and an answer comes up, what can I do to make it better? And an answer will come up. And if you don't know the answer, call Chris, he'll give you the answer.
Chris Michael Harris 12:45
Yeah, it's, it's as you said, something I think is really important because I found this to be the case. We said we use we're rational people like we use our rational brain. And I think one of the things that was that was frustrating for me is that I was I was consciously aware of the fact that I had, I don't know that I knew was a prove myself bug but I was definitely aware there was a problem, right? And I tried to rationalize it and like I heard, you know, it's not true, you need to celebrate your wins. And I tried like I did, I went through the mechanics of what that would look like but, but I'm so glad that tools exists now that we can make those shifts because this was such a subconscious level, that it's just like there was a literal block that just would not allow me no matter what, no matter how much physical application I put into that. It would not, it it was literally prohibiting me from fully feeling what that would be like to not have that prove myself aspect, right? not to have that proved myself burden that I was carrying around. So it's, it's really tough, I see people that I frustrated for them, you know, I'm upset for them, because they see their actions that are that are very, it's obvious, right? Like, once you've gone through something like that, you're able to recognize it and other people, like you can see you're like, "Oh my gosh, did I used to do that?" Like, "Is that how I used to look right?" Like...
Umar Hameed 13:55
Yeah.
Chris Michael Harris 13:56
...it takes one to know, one kind of thing, you know, and so I could see other people, and I...
Umar Hameed 14:00
Absolutely.
Chris Michael Harris 14:00
...still do other people behaving the ways that I did. And I feel so bad. I'm like, I know, though, that no matter what they do, no matter whatever physical application they put into that it's it, it has to be deeper, that shift has to be at a deeper place. And so I'm glad for people like you that do the work you do, because it is such an amazing gift.
Umar Hameed 14:18
Absolutely. And it's kind of interesting how many answers we have within ourselves and we can't access. I had the CEO come in and trouble with the board. And he's at a board meeting the next day and it's like, you know, "I'm ready to just quit," because they're not supporting me, it's an uphill battle so it's like, "Okay, I don't know the answer to that." So I just put him in a hypnotic trance and just picked a random number. There are four board members that do not understand what you want to do or just not connecting with it. The first one and when you have them in mind, have them sit in the chair in front of you, and then lift up your finger so I know it's done, so it goes like this. And then they get to have a conversation with that person, figure out what the real issue is and when that's finished, go the next, the next, the next. And then we bring him out of hypnosis is like, "Holy shit, I know what's wrong, I've been screwing up here, here here," what I need to do is connect these dots to those people, and that would allow them to understand that the very next day he had his board meeting and the entire boards on board, so I didn't teach him anything about some magical board trick, because...
Chris Michael Harris 15:19
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 15:19
...what do I know? But...
Chris Michael Harris 15:21
Right.
Umar Hameed 15:21
...our conscious mind gets in the way of wisdom, many times you can't live without the conscious mind. But sometimes you can get it to step away, we can reveal what's really important and then bring the conscious mind and say, "Okay, how do we execute that?" because fighting through that is really, really difficult.
Chris Michael Harris 15:37
It is it was specifically for type A entrepreneurs, right? Because, because us it's like, action leads to results. And now you're talking about wisdom, wisdom requires whitespace and like backing up and really having some, some just reflection time. And I feel like we that doesn't, that that doesn't tend to correlate to well, that's like mixing oil and water to a type A entrepreneur, but what you said I 100% agree.
Umar Hameed 15:59
Definitely. So this is ancient Chinese kind of methodology, which is there's a book shelf here, it's like I've got a problem, I'm gonna go to this book right over here. And I'm going to turn to this page and this word, and the word I'm happens to be perfectly, it's like, how does this word fit in with what the problem is, and all of a sudden, you get this insight, and I'm not sure if it really works but it gives you another perspective to the problem that you have. And perspective is the key to out thinking the situation because all too often we see things with these blinders from our own experience and this is what's going on, this is what it means. And I think if we can get perspective, sometimes, you know, having a coach like yourself helps and sometimes just having the ability to step back a bit and see what's going on. And just like you describe that experience in hypnosis, your hypnotist got you to bring the kids perspective into this adult life, you thought you were going back there to help...
Chris Michael Harris 16:56
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 16:57
...little Chris, but really little Chris was giving you insights in that perspective. So how do you try and get perspective on the situation's you're trying to solve?
Chris Michael Harris 17:06
Yeah, that's a really good question. So I think, the good thing for a lot of people is, things may seem really cloudy at first, like you don't really you don't have that discernment to be able to tell. This is a, this is a block coming from, I don't have resources, as I'm speaking to entrepreneurs here, versus this is a...
Umar Hameed 17:26
Yes.
Chris Michael Harris 17:26
...blossoming from within, right? There's definitely some intuitive sophistication, or intelligence that you're able to acquire as you begin the process of just going through and reconciling some of these issues, like you're able to more quickly have self awareness about them so I'll give you an example, this happened a couple weeks ago,
Umar Hameed 17:36
Yes.
Chris Michael Harris 17:37
actually, I was speaking to a great mentor of mine and a huge man of faith, were probably the most devout man of faith that I know in my life. And this by the way, I want I always preface this, my my whatever my faith is I think this applies regardless, whatever your faith entails, I can call it God and call the universe whatever I like it, I fully believe this entails regardless. But anyway, so one of things I told him, I was like, you know, I'm going through kind of the motions using the rational brain to assess what's going on with the unconscious, right? And I'm like, I really, something's missing, right? Like I'm, there are signs there, there are red flags there like I'm not enjoying my work near the degree that I used to, I don't have the same energy for what I've been doing. Then what I do is, and this helps me a lot, I layer on actually another aspect, which is the biological stuff, right? So physiologically, I wear all these these biometric tools, so I can assess, okay, and where's my HRV score, right? like, which is a measure of stress in the body. Like, all these other aspects, what's my diet look like, like? Is that the issue? Is it a physical issue? Is it a mental issue is an emotional issue? Is it something else, right? So so I'm able to kind of work through and reconcile each one of those and having that conversation with him kind of analyzing those aspects. What, what are these, what are these signs telling me? How am I feeling, right? My own self reporting, right? my own my own subjective reporting of how I'm feeling about a situation. And within a course of about an hour of having that conversation and more or less using process of elimination, I would say, arrived that, you know, I've been really trying to do too much on my own and less of leaning into it to to divine wisdom, less of leaning into God and what it is that God wants me to be doing, right? It was more of leaning on my own merit, leaning on my own intelligence leaning on my own willpower, energy, etc., right?
Umar Hameed 19:34
Ego.
Chris Michael Harris 19:34
...hard work, whatever. So, so it's, it's difficult. And I think most people what they end up doing at least I'm only speaking for myself as an anecdote here. I think what we end up doing is when we have those red flags, like we know something's wrong, like we can feel that something's wrong and what we do is we go back and grab another cup of coffee, or we go back and say, "Well, I got to put my head down and focus and plow through it," and there are times when that's the case, there are times when you do need to say, "You know, I only slept six hours last night and that's why I'm tired. And I just need to get this done. And I need to sprint to get to the finish line with this." But when that's been happening for a while, when you have something where you're like, I just can't, literally, I hate the word can't, but I just can't get over this hump. And I just don't feel as inspired or as passionate or as motivated about as I once did and I'm really having to push myself not be pulled towards it in the way that I once was, right? And so I feel like we don't do a good job of really looking underneath the hood of what drives us, looking at the engine that drives us and saying, "Realistically, where am I?" And this is where journaling is so important, I think for a lot of people is...
Umar Hameed 19:34
Right.
Chris Michael Harris 19:34
...,every day journaling like "How do I feel today?" because oftentimes I do this, when I had a moment or a stretch, let's say it was like three or three months, like one quarter of the year last year, like I was just on fire, I go back and I look at my journal, like what is my food diary look like? Like, what was I actively doing? What was my morning routine? What were some of my wellness practices? Like, was I was I hitting all those bases? And if the answer is Yeah, I actually was in compared to now these are the things I'm not doing, we're gonna maybe it's a physiological thing, maybe it's something else we're doing or maybe I'm not spending enough time in meditative practice, or I'm not doing X, Y, or Z or getting outside enough or moving my body or whatever the case may be. You know, but when you've seen those stretches, maybe you go back and you're like, "Yeah, but I still felt blocked there too even though I did all those things, the mechanics were there, but I still feel blocked," then I feel like you're able to really look inwardly even further, right? So it's like peeling the layer of the onion, then it's like, you know, I think there's something else going it's like what you experienced, right? Like, you went to the chiropractor, and it's like, you know, "That didn't really fix it.' 'Okay, well, what's going on here?' 'Oh, and I didn't really fix it either.' Boom, emotional thing that fixed it. So I just think that we don't take the time do I do to society due to kind of what you know what we're expected to be doing action over anything else, we don't take the time to really sit in reflection to think, you know, something's really missing here and it's been that way for a long time and it's time for me to do something about it, and then have the resources to actually take action on that, to be able to to make the transformation that you're seeking to make.
Umar Hameed 22:02
Brilliant. So I find that your mind will lie to you continually,
Chris Michael Harris 22:07
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 22:08
but your body never lies. And so really pay attention to your body. So if you go into a situation, all of a sudden you feel anxious, what is an uncomfortable feeling, listen to your body. And one of the ways I do that is I just placed my hand on wherever the issue is, and use this magic word, "Hello". And that party, your body answers back says, "Yep". So this uncomfortable feeling, what are you trying to teach me? What do I need to pay attention to? And an answer comes up, and from that answer, it gives you perspective again, then you can use the intellect to go in and say, "Oh, am I feeling stressed there? Why is that what's stressful," and so pay dear listeners, pay attention to your bodies your most, it can be your most finely tuned instrument to connect with other human beings and connect with yourself. But so many of us kind of just disregard our body, it's just like a vessel and it's all about the mind.
Chris Michael Harris 22:55
Exactly.
Umar Hameed 22:56
And I think it's all about the body because there is people feel heartfelt, as I literally feel they do connect with their heart.
Chris Michael Harris 23:04
Yeah. And something that I want to highlight is, and this has really been a big paradigm shift for me, I'm glad you said you just said, when you get I think sometimes we tell ourselves, "I don't have time for that." Like right now, in this season of my life, I need to grow my business because I need to provide for my family and I need to pay my mortgage or my rent and my kids and take them to soccer practice whatever that looks like for whoever listening, right? we tell ourselves, we don't have time for that. And here's the big, that's, here's the big lie in all of that, I'm gonna go ahead and completely destroy that for people that are thinking that because this was big for me, when I was able to shift, right? it's like, you're going from A to B to C to D all the way to, you know, and then you realize quickly, like, I don't have to do all that I can just go from A to Z, when you clear those things, it's amazing how much faster you get to what your goal was, right? Like, it's like, Okay, if you had to run a race, right? You you're racing in a sprint, and the other person is gonna run with nothing in their hands, right? they're just able to freely just run and just run as fast as they can. And meanwhile, you're running and trying to carry all this stuff, right? we call that baggage. Who do you think has a better chance of getting...
Umar Hameed 24:09
Right.
Chris Michael Harris 24:09
...point B faster, right? Probably not you. And so sometimes what we realize we need more.
Umar Hameed 24:11
That's another A course.
Chris Michael Harris 24:15
Right, right. We don't take the time to be like, okay, "You know, what, I need to focus on more lateral thinking, this is going to and so I had to look at as a growth hack, because that just helped me in my type A driven self" it like, "Okay, how do I...
Umar Hameed 24:26
Nice.
Chris Michael Harris 24:27
...take this away as not as a taking time off or time for reflection?" But how do I say, this is uploading myself like this is giving myself an OS upgrade, right? like this is making me better so that I run more efficiently. And when I made that shift, and I actually like really embrace that internally, like inherently embrace that. Now I'm like,
Umar Hameed 24:46
Nice.
Chris Michael Harris 24:46
"Oh, my," and then and then you start to see the result of that, which is more importantly, like when you start seeing the actual physical manifestation of that intention, then you're like, "Oh, my gosh, I became I say this now I became a mental hypochondriac," because now I'm like, "What am I missing? that is stopping me from getting to the next level," right now I'm like a detective and I'm constantly looking at things. Because I realized for 20 something plus years, I was carrying stuff around that made my life harder and made my success slower than it could have been, and that was even with and considering the growth that we experienced in that business, right? Like my life, in many ways, has been exponentially better than even It was then because I'm able to just seamlessly go from point A to point B when I couldn't do that before.
Umar Hameed 25:26
Brilliant. Chris, thank you so much for being on the show and sharing your wisdom. Any last thought for the viewers and listeners that would help them implement something immediately?
Chris Michael Harris 25:37
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is just, you know, if people are listening, they have no idea what we're talking about but they're curious, and they kind of know they have an issue, that's an underlying problem, I think the biggest thing is to just start immersing yourself. One of the first people that I found and started to follow, obviously, follow this podcast, because this is tremendous value, I think that we're talking about here today, and I can only imagine that the other episodes are more of the same. But I started finding people like Dr. Joe Dispenza, I started following people that we're talking about this time, we're sharing their stories about how he went from literally, I think it was completely paralyzed, had a nasty cycling accident, and literally just tapped into ways to, you know, rewire the subconscious and retrain himself. And I think people, we're not reading enough about that, we're not reading enough about what that can look like in your own life. And I think that that, that you don't understand what's possible until you read about what someone's done, right? in their own life. I think for one it normalizes,
Umar Hameed 26:28
Because it gives you permission.
Chris Michael Harris 26:30
Right. Exactly, exactly. And to me it normalized, it was like, "I'm not, I'm not isolated in this weirdo that has this problem that no one else has," like, there's other people out there that have had significantly worse problems that I've had that have manifested into serious physical conditions, right? And if they can do it, I can do it too, right? And so for me, that would be the first step. And this is with anything I say, find your starting point, and that could be literally just watching a YouTube video, it could be reading a book, it can be whatever that entails but take that first step. And then you don't eventually you get to the point where you're like, "Okay, I'm going to, you know, work and do some NLP work, and I'm going to pay this practitioner," like, then you get to that point, but I think the very first intention is just grab a book, watch YouTube videos, start to open your mind up to the possibilities of what this could be like for you.
Umar Hameed 27:11
Absolutely. And it kind of reminds me of, I'm holding this pen here with a death grip. And Chris, you look like a strong guy, it would take a lot for you to grab this pen out of my hand, and I think people hold on to their reality with a death grip.
Chris Michael Harris 27:24
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 27:24
And when you start reading books like that and start hearing stuff, and you kind of go, "They're frickin weird," which is okay, but it loosens up your grip on reality and then pretty soon you can open up your universe. So Chris, thank you so much for being on the program, really appreciate you being here. And I'm looking forward to round two.
Chris Michael Harris 27:43
Sounds good. I enjoyed it. Thanks so much.
Umar Hameed 27:50
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of neuro-linguistic programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.