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

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0:58with us right now it's christina curtis christina you are the author of the book choosing greatness an evidence-based approach to exceptional outcomes and you are the ceo of curtis leadership consulting and you're found on the web at curtisleadership.com christina thank you for joining us thank you for having me excited to be here well congrats on the book launch tell Well, let's start there. Choosing greatness, that sounds like a good plan. 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?

1:35And 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, um, and man, the book lodge was fun. We went to New York. We had a little times square billboard flash in the book and, um, uh, we sold it in the first day and the Barnes and Noble stores.

2:10So that was exciting. Uh, it's here, it's here. Gosh, it's here after three years. It's here, Josh. Yeah. Well, I'm sure a labor of love, no doubt. And I was thinking about this earlier today too. When I think about what is greatness for ourselves? And I was kind of reflecting on my ideal day or 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 doesn't interest me. 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. I was thinking about this idea of 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.

3:00But I was thinking about, well, yeah, I think that sounds like working smarter, not harder. But my perfect day is having enough time to spend with people I love. I love hobbies. 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 imbibusly lazy? I don't know. No, it 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.

3:45That 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 an 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. 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.

4:20That'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 in 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. So what happens when we do have that nagging voice of, oh boy, I, you know, I, 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.

5:02And 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 one to 2 % where we were off our mark versus the 98%. We were like, you kicked butt today, Josh. Totally, totally. Totally. It's like I used to watch people would get feedback reviews where they would be scored on how they're performing in an organization and their leadership style. And if they had 10, five out of fives, but one who gave them a three out of five or two out of five, that's where we're spending our hour, right?

5:50And it's like, gosh, is this the right investment in mental calories? Here's how I think about that. It's not about the end result. And I say that having just spent 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. 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 than they will just at the launch of the book, right?

6:30That'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, you'll never make it to the books and 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 a hundred thousand people. And you think, well, maybe that's true. Maybe that's not. 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?

7:02Did I grow from a skillset 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 it performs in the future. Uh, 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 that are included in the book, they'll go out on a match, like take a tennis match. They're in Wimbledon and center 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?

7:33They'll watch videos. 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. Yeah. Talk more about that when we think about, you know, 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, you know, those immediate, do this for an immediate payoff.

8:15And maybe the 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, you know, that we tweaked or altered or, you know, 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.

8:54So 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 questions. Sorry. No, go. I want to know. You know, I even like, um, 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, I know, 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.

9:30Busy is a badge of honor. Yep. Hustle culture. Hustle culture. And I'm a hustler. I mean, I'm, 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, 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.

10:08You're not just repeating what you've always done. You're expanding, you're growing new neural pathways. You're connecting dots behind the scenes that you never even thought of. And so I 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 whack-a-mole with your calendar and invites and trying to get through everything. The difference is not small.

10:43It'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. 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. Yeah. Christina, the book came together, not just because of your own personal brilliance, right? This was 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.

11:26Could you talk more about the collaborative nature and kind of the stories and examples and what is in the content of the book, Choosing Greatness? 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. What are they doing to break those habits?

12:01Because 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 it. It's like this urge. The folks who are exceptional achievers that I 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.

12:38This 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. Cause it's going to be hard. 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.

13:12I'm only going to prioritize those today. And the other things are going to have to fall to the wayside. And that's uncomfortable. I can't cross them off my to-do list. It's really uncomfortable. So I engaged in free interviews because I wanted their perspectives. And so each chapter has someone like Richard Branson or Javier Rodriguez, who's the CEO of DaVita or Olympic athlete, Daniel Nestu has 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.

13:49Yeah. Would you share a little bit about Christina, your work in coaching? Can people work with you today? Yes. So I've been in the coaching business for two decades, which is just shocking to me, Josh. I don't, right. But time flies. My background's in organizational psychology and I have a bent towards neuroleadership 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.

14:34I 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 out there. I'm doing things, Josh, I'm doing things. Yeah. So the book, Choosing Greatness, an 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 book 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.

15:16Yeah. That's right. And the audio book comes out in two weeks. So that'll be available as well. Thank you so much for that. I'm a big audio book consumer. Yeah. 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. Yeah. I, 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.

15:57That was really important to me. There's a lot of motivational woo-woo 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 as 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.

16:34They'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, 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 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. Yeah. Christina, your website is curtisleadership.com.

17:09When somebody goes there, what would you recommend? And I hope you're going to say, grab that first chapter from your book. 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. Yeah. Any other resources that you'd recommend at curtisleadership.com? 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 skillset, uh, both from a relationships and results standpoint. Um, but I, the more people that we connect with, the more we learn and grow from.

17:46So please feel free to reach out. Awesome. All right, Christina Curtis, uh, 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 curtisleadership.com. Christina Curtis, thank you for joining us. Thank you.

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