The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Unlocking Breakthroughs: Skip Kelly on Prosperity and Personal Growth

Starting point is 00:00:00 You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times. Cause you're about to go on a monster education rollercoaster

Starting point is 00:00:32 with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi folks, it's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com. There are only things that make some fish are welcome over 16 years. The CEOs, the billionaires, the White House Presidents, Advisors, the Pulitzer Prize winners, all the amazing, brilliant people that share their stories, their books, their journeys,

Starting point is 00:00:49 their lessons of life with you to help make your life better. And if you don't make your life better listening to the Chris Voss Show, we'll go back and listen to every single damn episode over 16 years and 2300 until you get it. There's so many ways to make your life better on the show It's not even funny opinions expressed by guests on the podcast are solely their own and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the hosts Or the chris voss show some guests of the show may be advertising on the podcast But it is not an endorsement or review of any kind today. We an amazing young man on the show We're going to be talking with skip kelly. He was named in 2024 to the top 100 global most loved CEOs. I'm

Starting point is 00:01:28 on the top 100 most hated. And with his leadership his company RTT skyrocketed to become the number 28 global most loved workplace. Skip Kelly is the kind of leader who makes you wonder if he secretly lived nine lives or maybe he just doesn't sleep. Serial creative and business strategist, he has worn more hats than Broadway costume designers. He's a motivational youth speaker or started out that way. He's a rock climbing instructor, amateur hip hop dancer, all these things he does. He's kind of a jack of all trades, a renaissance man, if you will, I would say. From filmmaker to podcaster, healer of physical journeys, transformational festival founder,

Starting point is 00:02:10 and even marketer who can explain algorithms while making a laugh so hard you're in tears, he's mastered the art of re-advention. Welcome to the show. Skip, how are you? Skip Larkin I'm doing fantastic. Pete Larkin So, Skip, tell us about you. Give us a 30,000 overview of what you're into and what you're about. Yeah. So, I mean, right now, I mean, that's actually, that question is pretty aligned with kind of what I do on a day-to-day basis with people.

Starting point is 00:02:33 You know, I help new entrepreneurs kind of get their footing and get grounds to be more successful and that's combining a lot of things. A lot of you are probably familiar with the term like Ikigai. It's a very common thing these days. People are like, what are you passionate about? What are people willing to pay for? What are things that really impact the world in a positive way? And then what are you talented at?

Starting point is 00:02:52 Talent being a really, really important part there. So like, obviously, all of you watching this show, Chris has a phenomenal voice and clearly is really good at commanding a conversation. So he's very talented at that. And so when we look at what I'm most passionate about at the moment is helping people achieve these sort of breakthroughs and what I call prosperity. And prosperity can be looked at in a number of ways, but I'm going to simplify it with like self health and wealth. So a lot of people are saying,

Starting point is 00:03:19 you know, they want to get more fit. That's really tough. There was a long period of time I'm in that trajectory of people that you would call naturally way too skinny, like basically have to buy the smallest clothes of every time. And then over a long period of time, I probably took a decade to kind of build out a physique that wasn't the scrawny kid. And I tried so many strategies from doing the carnivore diet and everything, until I committed to a whole identity shift that I thought would actually transform my health in the way that I was looking for. And that was two years I committed to with a friend of eating a certain amount of protein,

Starting point is 00:03:58 and that's actually what created a full shift or a breakthrough, if you will, and that's in health. And I think it takes, you know, six months to two years to really create an identity shift. And so if money is the category, I think it's also about two years where you need to be producing and earning at another level to kind of make that the standard or reset the thermostat of your wealth. And then the same is true of yourself. If you've been really down on yourself or have a lot of negative self-talk, it's about two years of having that consistent reinforcement of positive self-talk in that new way, whatever you're seeking, to have that become your new identity. Pete So, tell us about your journey through life. How did you grow up? What influenced you? And

Starting point is 00:04:40 you did so many things we talked about in your bio. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I would say I had like a really nice childhood, but I think if you look at kind of certain aspects of it, like anybody, there were some really tough times. One piece of that was, I'll give you the story, in seventh grade, I went to school and I was in my English class. I want to say it was Mr. Bingham, I think was the guy's name, just whatever standard school metal detectors in Texas for these 12-year-olds. And so it was clearly that type of area. Like I walked through a neighborhood where, you know, like a kid got shanked on the way home from school one day, like that type of area. But I thought it was normal. I mean, it's all relative to whatever you grew up with.

Starting point is 00:05:22 And in school this one day, these kids regularly picked on me. I was a victim of bullying in a lot of different places. This moment that I'm telling you about was actually the moment where I figured out I was the problem. I was the one creating the situations to get bullied because this is the third school in a row where I was getting physically bullied by kids. I'm like, wow, no one else gets bullied. Like, I must be doing something that is resulting in the bullying. And so I was in the

Starting point is 00:05:51 middle of class and I saw one of the cool kids go and turn off the lights in the classroom. And suddenly I just felt fists hitting me. Like a bunch of these kids got up and surrounded me and were just hitting me in the middle of class. Everyone knew what was going on. This wasn't unusual. It was just more extreme than normal. And the teacher fumbled over to the lights and flipped the switch on and the kids all hid and got back down in their seats. And it's like the whole classroom of these 20, 30 kids knew what had happened and the teacher obviously knew what had happened. Like I wasn't totally quiet while that was happening, and just continued to teach as if nothing happened. Pete And it was in that moment I went, oh crap, like no one's going to save me, you

Starting point is 00:06:34 know? If the authority can't do anything about this and none of the other kids are going to speak up, like I'm the only one that's got to change. And actually, it was one of the most beautiful moments because at 12 years old, I learned I've got to be the one who instigates the change and makes life better for myself. And I've got to teach other people how to recognize that and do it as well. So it was kind of like a very formative moment where it's really taken into this whole, like, how do you create breakthroughs in your life? The first step is you got to surrender and say, I'm the problem. No matter what, you're the only person that you can control. So if you want anything to get better in your life, it might be luck, and a lightning strike happens and the

Starting point is 00:07:14 perfect thing happens and you can manifest it. But for the most part, you've got to take action and you've got to decide what you really want. And you've got to figure out how you can take some responsibility and do things to improve it. And so what I've done over the years is just codified that ability to create those breakthroughs for people and delivered it in a number of ways, whether it was, you know, helping people heal injuries or teaching people how to do it to themselves or doing what I do now and teaching people how to be more successful in their business and really create a financial breakthrough.

Starting point is 00:07:43 But it's fascinating. Pete Yeah, definitely. And you know, if you can't fix anything until you take accountability, you know, there's a lot of people that are always trying to fix stuff in their life and, you know, it's kind of like a good joke I can use as reference that, you know, I just was at my big dating group that I run an event last night. It's funny, people will do the same thing over and over again with relationships, with their approach to life, with how they do things. They'll do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Of course, that's insanity as we know. They just won't take accountability.

Starting point is 00:08:22 You'll meet people that in dating, they'll be like, hey, the last 10 guys I dated were narcissists. The common denominator was you. And you may be able to use that in what you talked about with the being bullied. The common denominator was you. And you had to make the choice to like, I'm going to improve and do what I need to do to make sure the situation ever happens again. But until you address that from self accountability, you can't fix it.

Starting point is 00:08:50 Jared Slauson 100%. I mean, I also just found it fascinating that you run a dating group. Pete Slauson Yeah, I'm like you, I'm up to a lot of things. Jared Slauson Yeah, that's fascinating. Pete Slauson Yeah, I suppose so. It is what it is. It's like I needed more of a headache in my life. So, then where did you go from there? How did you start achieving your goals of trying to make things change so that you wouldn't be bullied in the future? Jared Liesveld Absolutely. So, what I did, and this is applicable,

Starting point is 00:09:21 of course, to a 12-year-old, but the wisdom of a 12-year-old sometimes surprises you. I found all the losers in the school that didn't have friends and I brought them together. And oftentimes when you find all the kids that are kind of singled out, they're all sort of like X-Men. They're exceptional people. And one of them happened to be like the largest kid in the school who's just kind of awkward and I'm still friends with them to this day. But obviously, when you walk around with a kid who's at, you can imagine at 12 being like six foot three or, you know, just over two meters tall, no one's bullying him. So, I just walked with him everywhere I went and made sure that he felt great about himself. And so, we became really good friends. And then I just collected other kids that were singled out little by little. I started watching, you know, movies and TV shows of people that were

Starting point is 00:10:11 popular and literally taking notes. What did they do? How did they say? How did they walk? How did they act? And I started to say, who do I want to become? What sort of identity do I want to have in this world? And at that time, I didn't have a lot of good examples of what that could look like. So, I took it from things like movies and television and then built sort of a character of who I'd like to be. Yeah, what do you have? Pete Slauson Mm hmm. And you built it into, not sure what you mean, what do you have? Did you keep purely me?

Starting point is 00:10:40 Jared Slauson Oh, yeah. It seemed like you had something like a moment there. Pete Slauson No. I just taking it in. So, now you've helped other people. Tell us about some of the journeys you've been on. You've done, I believe, acting, you did the festivals. Walk us through some of that. Jared Suellentrop Yeah. So, at 18, I got super lucky and I got asked to be the right hand man to this motivational speaker for youth. His name was Eric Bostic. We actually still are in touch to this day, even though it's

Starting point is 00:11:09 been almost 18 years since we connected. And, you know, he really taught youth leadership, kids, how to be amazing people and what it meant to be like a really productive person in society, how to have a positive mindset, how they were going to go and live their dreams and really kind of gave me the infrastructure of what a breakthrough meant. Funny enough, at one point we were getting asked to go on a TV show with Tony Robbins called Breakthrough, where he was like helping people achieve breakthroughs in all areas of their life. We never did the TV show, but it must have subconsciously stuck with me because now all these years later, that's so much of what I do and what I'm fascinated by.

Starting point is 00:11:51 You know, how many people do you know in dating, as an example, who are like, gosh, I really want, you know, a soulmate or the partner of my dreams or like an amazing relationship. And like you're saying, they just do the same thing again and again, or how many people are like, you know, I've always made 50,000 or 60,000 a year and I really want to make six figures or business owners who are like, I really want, you know, a seven figure, eight figure, nine figure company, but they're just not doing the work and they're not necessarily like playing at that level yet or they're holding themselves back a lot of the time, they're not as confident. And then you've got people in health who are saying they're going to lose like 10 pounds

Starting point is 00:12:27 or 20 pounds for a decade or two decades or they're going to start running someday and they'll run twice and then sprain their ankle type of thing, you know. And so it's what really is the way that people can truly do the things that they want to do and do they want them at all? And how do you kind of sift out, you know, what you sort of want for ego or identity and just for other people to see and what you really want for yourself? Pete Yeah. And so, now you help people achieve that. What sort of things do you do for folks? Do you coach? Do you consult? Tell us about the offerings you do. Jared Yeah. So, a couple years ago, I started teaching

Starting point is 00:13:06 this method for people. I mentioned that I used to help athletes recover from injuries and other people as well. And what I found throughout that practice is people became very, I'm going to say dependent on me to help them. Like they'd recover from an ankle sprain or an Achilles tendon tear, a knee injury, whatever it was, and then they would come and see me, I would help them. And then if I didn't see them for a few weeks, their injury would slowly come back because they would keep doing the habits that got them to that injury to begin with. Or they'd feel so good that they would exercise really hard and then they

Starting point is 00:13:39 would recreate the injury or something similar. And then once I found that pattern, I started to create a process where people could actually heal it themselves. So they didn't depend on me anymore. And then I found something really interesting. Even though I created this amazing process that they knew and I could prove worked time and time again, they wouldn't actually do it. They wouldn't take the action. Even if they had the whole playbook of exactly what to do to feel better, for some reason there was like this resistance around progress. And this really opened my eyes

Starting point is 00:14:13 to why people don't get the things that they want. And it honestly comes down to probably two things. Number one, understanding what it is you really want and really thinking about that. And number two, all of these subconscious barriers are what people might call their upper limit problem. And so once I got into the business space, because for years when I was seeing people one-on-one in my business, I was, you know, the pendulum effect.

Starting point is 00:14:39 I'd have a 10K month and a 1K month. I'd have a 15K month and a 2K month and this pendulum of swinging. Because once you'd get success, then you'd take it easy. And then once you took it too easy, it would get really hard. And you're like, oh, God, I've got to pay bills. And you'd go really well. And over time, I stabilized it and then codified that. And then all these years later, it's been maybe 11 years since that time. What I do right now is I run an accelerator called that Passion to Profit program. And after being the CEO of RTT, we've got about 18,000 people that have certified as rapid transformational therapists. And they're out at different stages doing business in the world. And I found basically the strongest

Starting point is 00:15:20 people from there, and then people who have similar businesses, chiropractors, doctors in the transformational space, and just teaching them how to have these breakthroughs for themselves and create not just a sustainable business, but also one that's fun, maybe even easy, and of course, profitable. What I'm finding, even in that group of a few hundred people who are really building these thriving businesses, no matter what level they're at, whether they're in this or one of my friends that runs a seven, eight figure what level they're at, whether they're in this or one of my friends that runs a seven, eight figure business, they're all facing those same sort of

Starting point is 00:15:49 mental challenges of that self-worth of that upper limit problem, just at different levels. You know, someone who's producing, let's say $2,000 a month, and it wants to take this business full time. The things they say to themselves are like, gosh, what if people judge me? What if I'm not good enough? What if I get the client and I can't actually help them get the result? And the people who are maybe at $10,000 a month are like, is this really want to do what for the rest of my life? Is this the niche I want to work in? What could I add? What could I do bigger and better? Or they might say, I find it, I feel like an imposter some days. Am I really the

Starting point is 00:16:26 person? And what I've found, and I don't know if you can relate to this, you might be past that point, but people who are really successful, that voice doesn't necessarily go away. So, I wonder, 2300 episodes later, do you ever have that where you're like, should I be doing this or are you past that? Pete Slauson There's a lot of passion in what I do. I don't think I really think about it. No, not at this point. Awesome. I mean, the difference is I'm passionate about this. So there were times when I owned companies

Starting point is 00:16:54 or investments that I enjoyed being the CEO, but I didn't like the company really. I had the business. I just really didn't give a shit about, I wasn't passionate about doing it, you know. It was just widgets and investments to me. But the podcast is like the one thing I found, my audience is aware of this, this is why we didn't cover it at the beginning. My audience is aware of, you know, the fact that I love this and that this is my purpose and that I love interviewing people and finding out their journeys.

Starting point is 00:17:22 Do you find that, I think Tony Robbins used to call that effect you're talking about where people are, you know, they get caught in these traps of, you know, kind of working hard enough to make a certain amount of money and then cooling off. He calls it the thermostat effect. What are your thoughts on that? 100%. I mean, we are all, we all have a thermometer and we all have a thermostat, depending on where you're plugged into and I'd say the more, there's a little bit of a trap here that I'm going to try to

Starting point is 00:17:50 explain that I'm sure you've experienced and you can speak to as well which will be fascinating. When you become more and more of a leader or whether that's a thought leader, a leader in a business, a leader in your friend group, whatever it might be, let's say you're going on a hike. There's always that one person that's way more experienced than everybody. They brought a shovel, they brought extra water just in case for everybody else. That person is the thermostat of the group. And in different contexts, that person won't be the thermostat.

Starting point is 00:18:21 Maybe they're great at hiking, but when they go to your dating group, they're the most nervous person there and they the thermostat. Maybe they're great at hiking, but when they go to your dating group, they're the most nervous person there and they're a thermometer. They're checking everybody else's temperature and then mirroring or, you know, kind of becoming a chameleon in that environment. And so, the question becomes for us, number one, am I the thermostat or the thermometer in this room? And great leaders know when to follow, but you can choose. And I think awareness is kind of the first stage of this. So as a perfect example for everyone to ask at home right now, if we're just talking finance or prosperity, which is the thing I talk about the most right now, are you the prosperity

Starting point is 00:18:57 thermostat in your group, where you're leading the way and you're setting the tone for your friend circle and your peer group? Or are you a thermometer sort of plugging into other people? Like a perfect example of this is maybe you landed a $30,000 paycheck for a one-month gig but all your friends make $5,000 a month and you're kind of nervous to maybe share that with them. That would indicate you're kind of approaching that as a thermometer. Whereas if you come in and you say, guys, I just closed a $30,000 deal and I'm going to do another one next month. I want to show you how I did it.

Starting point is 00:19:34 I hope it's inspiring. You become the thermostat where everyone else goes, whoa, I need to step up to that situation. And so accelerators, programs, dating groups like the one you run, communities exist because there's one powerful leader who can become a thermostat for everybody else. So, that's you in that group. And there's probably other like key people in that group that can kind of help you come to that higher level of thinking, that higher level of experience and mental models. Does that make sense? Pete Slauson Definitely. Definitely. One thing you talk about is how to stop trying to be ready. What does that mean?

Starting point is 00:20:10 Jared Slauson Hmm. Yeah, I mean, momentum over perfection. So, gosh, I can't tell you how many times I've read quotes and I've experienced it and seen so many friends who, to be honest, I would consider not intelligent do way better than me You know people that are are so not dialed in haven't done the research, but they were courageous They were bold and they just went out there and they're like, you know what? Here's my offer. It's sloppy It's messy, but I'm gonna help you and I've learned so much from those people over the years of just saying I'm just gonna go out there and just test it. You know, they don't even mitigate risk. Like I'm constantly thinking of how do I do the lowest risk possible with the things that I launch

Starting point is 00:20:55 or come out with. And over the years, I've tried to lower that barrier to launch for myself. And so, when it comes to momentum over perfection, it's exactly that of what's the least that I can do to get this thing moving to see if I care about it at all. I've had so many friends work on their business ideas for three months, six months, one year, multiple years before they put it out there. And then the day they put it out there, it's just crickets. And you're like, Whoa. Now, here's the thing. I think when you're in like the dating world is actually a perfect example. When you're in the dating world and you go up and you say something to someone and you get rejected,

Starting point is 00:21:35 it might really be over. If you really messed it up, it may just not be good chemistry. You may have some other chances to rekindle something there, but the first impression is a little bit more important, or at least your ability to kind of navigate that first 60 seconds of conversation, which I would love to hear you talk about in a minute. But when it comes to business, that is actually totally normal to get crickets right out of the gate.

Starting point is 00:22:00 But in business, you have a million opportunities to iterate and make it better. So what I tell people is get the first thing out there. But in business, you have a million opportunities to iterate and make it better. So what I tell people is get the first thing out there. If it bombs, no worries. Delete it. Test another thing. Go to the same group of people and say, what would be better?

Starting point is 00:22:14 What would you like differently? And think more about the ideal outcome or that creator offer fit that we talked about right in the beginning, which is what do I really want to give? And then I'm just going to start trying to give it and help other people shape it for me. So as an example, like whatever your passion is, like you're talking about the show, I've got water in this bottle. If I just poured out all the water and had no container for it, no business, no way to service it, no way to, you way to exchange money with someone. It just kind of seeps into the ground and dissipates.

Starting point is 00:22:48 But as soon as I put it into a bottle or into a container or into some sort of service offering, or you've put this into a podcast, or you've put this dating thing into a dating group, now it has a container that people can either say yes or no to. And that's where you really start to learn in business. So the idea is get your outcome, get the way you want to deliver it, put it out

Starting point is 00:23:09 there, get rejected, and then iterate, ask people questions, because in business, a rejection is not death, a rejection is a redirection. And so with your company, the RTT, I think it is, correct? Yep. Tell us about that. How does that work and people that are listening out there get involved with what you're doing there? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:31 I mean, there's a bunch of things. RTT, rapid transformational therapy, was a technique created by Marissa Peer for the last 35 years or so. And basically what she did is said, okay, people go to therapists for five, 10, 15 plus years. Sometimes they get better, sometimes they don't. There's got to be a way, at least in some circumstances, maybe not for every client, but for some of them to get better today. If you go to the dentist with a toothache, they're going to try to help you right now. If you go to a chiropractor with a back pain, they're going to

Starting point is 00:23:58 try to help you right now. If you go to a therapist and you're in a breakdown, they're going to talk to you for an hour and say come back on Tuesday. So the question became for her, how can we create a tool set for therapists and other people to use to help them get resolution in say the next 90 minutes, two hours? Is that even possible? And she started experimenting with it. And over the last 35 years created a system that now we've taught over 18,000 people to be able to actually do that, at least in some cases and scenarios. Not all of those people are trained therapists.

Starting point is 00:24:34 This can be people who are like life coaches that want a stronger skill set to be able to do something like, you know, a very low grade intervention. Obviously, it's great to work in tandem with their medical professionals, but it's really an amazing technique that's helped me a lot over the years. And then in the process of running the company, I discovered probably the biggest pain point of these graduates, which they had no idea how to run a business because they're like empaths, you know, they're people who are like, bleeding hearts, just asking everybody else questions. And as soon as it came bleeding hearts, just asking everybody else questions.

Starting point is 00:25:05 And as soon as it came to money, they just kind of crumble. Not all of them, but I'd say 97% or so. And so I had to create a system of saying, gosh, if we're really going to change the world, if we're really going to go out there and help the people that we can help, we're really going to break into research and medical communities and put this stuff out there as an option for people to use, then they've got to be able to build a great business. They're not going to impact people

Starting point is 00:25:31 if they're doing free sessions all the time. You can only do so much of that. But you bring someone on a six-month or a one-year journey where they're experiencing these rapid breakthroughs and transformations in two hours or less every time they see you, suddenly you make a huge impact on the world. And I've helped people who build businesses breakthroughs and transformations in two hours or less every time they see you, suddenly you make a huge impact on the world. And I've helped people who build businesses where they're helping people with addictions

Starting point is 00:25:51 they've had for 10, 20 years. And I mean like opium, alcohol, really intense things. These are usually people who are also psychiatrists and psychotherapists that do this in tandem. And I've worked with people who help people do weight loss for the first time ever in their life, 50 pounds, 100 pounds or more. I've helped people who do things all over the spectrum. People who have had like narcissistic partners recover from that. People who are narcissists try to step away from that. So it's kind of the whole spectrum of what's possible in the mental emotional world. But now I run the business accelerator teaching them how to be successful and really create incredible impacts in the world.

Starting point is 00:26:28 Pete Slauson Great, incredible impacts in the world. So, as we go, pitch people out, they can onboard with you, how they can get to know you better, reach out, get involved in your programs, etc., etc., and dot coms. Jared Slauson Yeah, so, I would say the best way to do it is go to Instagram, I'm at Skip Kelly Films. If you go to to YouTube you can just type in skip Kelly and you'll see me all over the place Bunch of different sources, but if you go to my main YouTube channel You'll find that if you want to go and just learn more about me You can go to WWW that the skip Kelly comm you'll see some cool stuff about me

Starting point is 00:27:00 That's all getting an overhaul at the moment But I'm super Googleable and you can also ask chat GPT all about me and it'll give you my life story It's pretty funny. It knows a lot about me. That's all getting an overhaul at the moment, but I'm super Googleable and you can also ask ChatGPT all about me and it'll give you my life story. It's pretty funny. It knows a lot about me now. There you go, ChatGPT. Skip, thank you for coming to the show and sharing some of your inspiring ideas and concepts with us and hopefully you can help a whole lot more people. Thank you. Awesome. Thanks, Chris. Thanks, Samanis, for tuning in. Go to Goodreads.com, Forchance.chrisfoss, LinkedIn.com, Forchance.chrisfoss, ChrisFoss1, the TikTokity, and chrisfossfacebook.com. Thanks for tuning in go to good read.com fortress Chris Foss LinkedIn calm fortress Chris Foss Chris was one tick-tock

Starting point is 00:27:26 Any and Chris Foss Facebook calm thanks for tuning in be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you next time

The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Unlocking Breakthroughs: Skip Kelly on Prosperity and Personal Growth

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