IAM059 – Consultant, Speaker & Trainer Helps Leaders Feel Superhuman

Hari Kalymnios is a consultant, speaker and trainer on mindset, resilience, wellbeing and how to feel SUPERHUMAN. He helps leaders become better self-leaders by improving their energy and vitality levels so they can attain high performance. He's the founder of The Thought Gym, and author of the book The Thought Gym and Working Well. He's shared his philosophies on the TEDx stage and with clients ranging from large multinationals to billionaires.

• CEO Hack: Super Human Smoothie and Followupthen.com
• CEO Nugget: In order to pull from your cup, it must be full
• CEO Defined: Chief Energy Officer

Website: http://thethoughtgym.com
The Thought Gym Book: https://amzn.to/2NqK5vB
Super Human Smoothie: http://thethoughtgym.com/smoothie/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/thethoughtgym/
YouTube: http://youtube.com/thethoughtgym
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thethoughtgym
Facebook: http://facebook.com/thethoughtgym
Personal Site: http://harikalymnios.com/

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Hari Kalymnios from The Thought Gym. Hari, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Hari Kalymnios 0:38

It's awesome to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolute pleasure.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

No problem, It's our pleasure. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Hari so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing and he's been able to accomplish. Hari is a consultant, speaker, and trainer on mindset, resilience, well-being, and how to feel SUPERHUMAN. He helps leaders become better self-leaders by improving their energy and vitality levels so they can attain high performance. He's the founder of The Thought Gym and author of the book The Thought Gym and Working Well. He's shared his philosophies on the TEDx stage and with clients ranging from large multinationals to billionaires. Hari, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Hari Kalymnios 1:20

I am indeed.

Gresham Harkless 1:21

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, what I wanted to do was just give you the mic, so to speak, to hear a little bit more about your CEO story and what led you to start your business?

Hari Kalymnios 1:29

Yeah, so quite simply, what led me to start the business was that I used to work at the London Stock Exchange and got redundancy from there and started on my own doing contracting work for retail heck was Sainsbury's, a bit like a Walmart out there, I guess. And I recognized pretty early on that if you don't tell it to work because you're ill you don't get paid, if you're not great at your job, you're not going to keep the contract. And so it became really important to me to be optimized physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, so I could give my best to that job. But also, at the same time, recognized that what I really wanted to do was coaching and speak on topics that I was beginning to learn at the time.

This was seven, eight years ago, on health well being and what it took to live a fully charged and high-performance life, and as I started learning these things, I felt that I was the last person on Earth to learn all these concepts. I think, surely everyone should know this stuff and actually, in reality, what happened is that not everyone knows the things that I knew and I felt like it was my obligation to share it with people. And so I started writing books and so you mentioned two of the books I've got there, gym and working well, speaking and sharing concepts and philosophies around health and well-being which I formulated into a small, simple, easy-to-access framework.

And really, that's because I just feel like that, the world needs more leaders, leaders who are on point mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, who is in charge of their own cognitive abilities, physical abilities, so they can offer the best to their employees, the best to their customers, the best to the world, and in essence, so that's why I started it, just to share what I was learning because I thought it would be a shame to die with me.

Gresham Harkless 3:23

Good for you. And I think that's awesome, especially you speaking on that day, where sometimes you think that what you know, everybody else already knows. But then you start to transition and realize that, hey, this person doesn't know that, or I can actually help them out. And you find your zone of genius with I think is pretty awesome. So I wanted to drill a little bit down into the thought and get a better idea of how you serve your clients and the products and services you have.

Hari Kalymnios 3:46

Yes, it's through a number of different ways really. So principally, it may be live training, so going into an organization and training their staff, but I also reach audiences and reach clients through an online method, through online courses, fortune.com itself as a URL takes people on a journey if you like through developing their mindset with the opportunity to learn more at the end of that and also through books as well the thought gym and working well to supplement the learning and then speaking on stage as well. They're primarily the main ways as well as one on one coaching so, connection or going into companies consultancy and how they can improve their health and well-being offering but also their leadership offering because I don't see a demarcation between health and well-being in leadership.

I know many companies do and they have well been weeks and they have well wellness Wednesdays and whatever, but I see as an integral part of high-performance companies is to be, at the end of the day the company is run by people right? So if people on hyper men because of stress or because of lack of sleep, poor nutrition, or any number of things, the company is going to suffer. And it's all about leadership, in my view, so yeah, in answer to your question, training one too many, online courses, books, coaching, consulting, and speaking.

Gresham Harkless 5:20

Awesome, awesome, I'll say that's huge and especially because you forget, and a lot of people forget that when you look at businesses, no matter how big or how small, they're made up of people, and to be able to develop those people, as you said, will definitely manifest itself in a lot of different ways. So it's hard to separate the two of those things. So I think that's a great point that you brought up. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. And I know you said you help people to feel SUPERHUMAN. So I wanted to ask you, what do you feel is your differentiator or your secret sauce?

Hari Kalymnios 5:49

Yeah, I think, there are a couple of things I would say. One is the breadth of knowledge, so when people often bring in people, especially when it comes to leadership or health well-being, their view is I wouldn't say myopic, but it's more focused, maybe they bring in their past monk to talk about mindfulness or meditation, or they bring in the nutritionist to talk about food and whilst all these things are valuable and useful, and most people don't need to go into so much depth in one area, what they need is an overview of many different areas in order to succeed, because the way I have researched and analyzed it, there are countless different areas, which fall into one of the four areas that I teach.

But there are countless different approaches and by being able to see effectively step back and have experience in all of these areas, I'm able to offer a more holistic complete solution to people rather than having piecemeal by piecemeal things coming in and the philosophies that I teach are very simple but very comprehensive.

And I think that's what makes it unique that people get it, they understand it and I'm able to take seemingly complex ideas and murky waters of, nutrition, movement, exercise or mindset and meditation, and clarify those into simple usable philosophies that people can use integrating many different components.

So you don't have to go to lots of different places to find out a little bit from here, too much over here, I give just about the right amount, so that people can make real improvements in their life because it doesn't come from just one area, it comes from multiple different areas and those people who are always looking for that silver bullet, are always looking for that next thing that is going to be the thing are usually disappointed. And unfortunately, it's the fundamentals, it's consistency. And it's been able to understand how they all integrate together that really makes the change.

Gresham Harkless 7:46

It's huge. Especially because you forget how intertwined everything is. So for you to be able to take that holistic approach to understand that these are the things that you need to do to help be successful. So it's not that silver bullet like you mentioned, or that one thing, but it's a multitude of things. And you're able to see the forest for the trees, so to speak, so that you understand exactly how best to help this organization or these people within the organization reach their goals.

Hari Kalymnios 8:10

Yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 8:12

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack this might be an app or a book, or a habit that you have that makes people more effective and efficient as entrepreneurs and business owners.

Hari Kalymnios 8:23

Yeah, I may be a bit cheeky, and I might just give you two but one is not at all. But what I think helps me become superhuman the next day and I know because when I don't do it, I don't have it, there are many things I've got in my morning routine but one thing that I've been using for about six years, is my Vitamix blender, my super blender and I blend a super smoothie. And, it sounds like a bit of a joke but actually, that has been a saving grace for me to keep me fueled, energized, and ready for action with just the right amount of components in there and there are about 30 different ingredients that go into my smoothie.

But that definitely is something that helps me and from a technology point of view, I would say what I really love is a simple website/app that you use for your emails called followupthen.com, if you're familiar with it, say, your email in someone in the BCC area, you will put something like six days at followupthen.com and it will send you an email back after six days to remind you to follow up with them so you can start clearing your inbox.

And you can not lose track of the people that you're connecting with. I think maybe Gmail, you might be able to do something like that anyway, but certainly, I couldn't either use Gmail on mine, but it's a way to keep on top of who you need to chase, you can put one year later or you can put a specific date or you can put two months later and that way you can be consistent with following up with people and chasing up people. So followupthen.com is a great resource for emails and then my superhuman smoothie if people can find out what's in that at fortune.com, I think it's a smoothie, they can see a video of me making that and make their own version of it.

Gresham Harkless 10:10

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah, I'm really big on drinking that smoothie before I started off the day, I don't know if mine's a superhuman, but I'll go to LinkedIn, make sure that and see if it is whereby to follow up then as well to that is an incredible, free premium site and tool that you can use to make sure that you're on top of everything or follow up with people at the right time. So I think those are two great CEO hacks. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget and this might be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice you might have for CEOs.

Hari Kalymnios 10:39

Yeah, I would say that in order to be able to pour from your cup, it needs to first be full. And what that really means is, in order to be able to give to other people to give value to your employees, to give value to your customers, you need to be looking after yourself first. And it's all too easy, especially if you're starting a business or you're running a big business for you to neglect your own personal health and well-being. And it's a bit like those leaflets that you get in the airplanes we say put your own mask on before you put on those of your loved ones or your child even and you think, you want to save your child, but actually how can you save your child if you lose your oxygen?

Okay, how can you save your company? How can you bring the best out of your employees, if your own cup isn't full, you can't pour from something if there's nothing in it? And so my advice to would-be CEOs, current CEOs, managers, leaders, everyone really is that if you want to give your best to other people, including your family and your loved one and your children, you must first make sure that you, Okay, your cup is full, so that you can look after yourself first and then you can give more to other people. And it's not a selfish thing to say that it's selfish, I think, to neglect yourself, and then either shortchange your customers, shortchange your family, shortchange your clients and that's, I think, more selfish. So look after yourself and I know it can be really guilty to sometimes think that, but actually, that's what gives them the most to other people.

Gresham Harkless 12:08

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that and you're absolutely right, it can be definitely selfish if you're trying to help somebody, and you're not really able to help yourself and then you're both at a disadvantage, but to be able to stand on your ones and to so to speak, and be able to help somebody and help build them up and pull them up as a great CEO nugget that you provide us. I appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you my favorite question, which is the definition of being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different CEOs on this podcast to glean back and get a new definition of what exactly being a CEO means. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

Hari Kalymnios 12:42

I think being the CEO, whether you've got the title of CEO, you're all potentially a CEO, and CEO to me, doesn't mean Chief Executive Officer, it means chief energy officer, the energy that a leader brings to the organization, is the energy that will be in that corporation, if you bring in a culture of distrust, and backstabbing and looking over your shoulder and working people to the ground, that's what everyone's gonna be like, and it's gonna show, if you come with lots of energy and openness and willingness to help mentor and bring other people up, that's going to benefit the organization.

So whether you're at the top though, or whether you're at the office, if you bring energy to your team, to your office, to your work, to your role, other people will be attracted to that you'll start to grow people, you start to have an energized, vital workforce, not just an engaged workforce, but a healthy happy workforce as well, that is able to perform better for themselves and for their clients and customers. So for me, what being a CEO is all about is, bringing energy, and being the chief energy officer.

Gresham Harkless 13:57

I love the Hari, that's incredible just in reminding yourself to, be energetic and bring the same thing because it's going to basically trickle down from everybody that's on your team. So, Hari I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule. I wanted to pass the mic to you, so to speak, to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know, and how best people can kind of get a hold of you.

Hari Kalymnios 14:17

Yeah. As I say, I'm all over social media as The Thought Team. So you can find me on Instagram and YouTube I post regular videos have been for the last five years now there are maybe a couple of 100 videos on YouTube at the thought gym. But also if they are interested in learning more about my specific leadership model around health and well-being then there's a free video series that will bring them into that world at thethoughtgym.com. So the thought is in thinking the fortune.com That's the best way to connect with me. They can google my name. There's another website on that but I won't give that the best website is probably fortune.com or tracking me down on one of my social media channels as The Thought, Gym, plenty of free content, I'd love to connect with people. I'd love to serve people in whichever way I can to help inspire future and current leaders to become super leaders. And remember, it's not about perfection, it's about progress. So progress, not perfection, start where you are, with what you've got, and move forward day by day, a small step at a time.

Gresham Harkless 15:27

I love it, I love it, and I keep moving forward. So Hari, I truly appreciate everything that you're doing and all the awesome things you're doing to help people become superhuman. We'll make sure to have the links in the show notes just in case anybody wants to follow up, I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Hari Kalymnios 15:41

Likewise, likewise, thank you once again for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.

Outro 15:46

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Thank you for listening.

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