IAM1368 – Consultant, Speaker and Trainer Helps Leaders Feel Superhuman

Hari Kalymnios 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.

• CEO Story: The world needs energized leaders; on-point leaders physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually who are in charge of their cognitive and physical abilities so they can offer the best to their employees, customers, and to the world – this is the ‘Why’ of Hari in creating his own company after having redundancy on his previous work in stocks exchange.
• Business Service: Live training. Online courses. Coaching, consulting, and speaking.
• Secret Sauce: Breath of Knowledge. Simple but very comprehensive philosophies.
• 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: @thethoughtgym
YouTube: @thethoughtgym
Twitter: @thethoughtgym
Facebook: @thethoughtgym
Personal Site: http://harikalymnios.com

Throwback Link: https://iamceo.co/2018/09/10/059-consultant-speaker-trainer-helps-leaders-feel-superhuman/

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Transcription

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00:02 – Intro

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 Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:27 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Harry Kalimneos from the Thought Gym. Harry, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:38 – Hari Kalymnios

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

00:42 – Gresham Harkless

No problem. It's our pleasure. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Harry so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing, he's been able to accomplish. Harry 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 that they can attain high performance. He's the founder of the Thought Gem and the author of the book, The Thought Gem, and working well. He shared his philosophies on the TEDx stage and with clients ranging from large multinationals to billionaires. Harry, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:20 – Hari Kalymnios

I am indeed.

01:21 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, what I want to do is just kind of 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.

01:29 – Hari Kalymnios

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 a retailer here called Shamesbury. It's a bit like Walmart out there, I guess. And I recognized pretty early on that, you know if you don't turn up 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 coach and speak on topics that I was beginning to learn at the time. This was 7, 8 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 was thinking, oh, surely everyone should know all 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 them with people. So I started writing books.

So you mentioned 2 of the books I've got there, The Thought Gym and Working Well, and speaking and sharing these concepts and these philosophies around health and well-being, which I formulated into a small, simple, easy-to-access framework. And really, that's why because I just feel like the world needs more leaders, it needs more energized leaders, it needs more leaders who are on point mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, who are 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 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.

03:24 – Gresham Harkless

Good for you. And I think that's awesome, especially you speaking on the idea 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 kind of find your zone of genius with, which I think is pretty awesome. So I wanted to drill a little bit down into the thought, Jim, and get a better idea of how you serve your clients and the products and services you have.

03:46 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah, So 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. So through online courses. So thoughtgym.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, like 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 coaching or going into companies, consulting and seeing how they can improve their health and wellbeing offering, but also really their leadership offering because I don't see the demarcation between health and wellbeing and leadership. I know many companies do and they have well-being weeks and they have wellness Wednesdays and whatever have you but I see it as an integral part of high-performance companies to be, at the end of the day the company is run by people, right?

So if the people aren't high performing because of stress or because of lack of sleep, because of poor nutrition, because of any number of things, the company spot on the line 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.

05:20 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. And that's huge and especially because you forget and a lot of people forget that when you look at businesses and no matter how big or how small, they're made up of people and to be able to develop those people, like you said, will definitely kind of manifest itself in a lot of different ways. So it's kind of hard to kind of separate the 2 of those things. So I think that's a great point that you brought up. So 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 kind of your differentiator or your secret sauce for the thought gym?

05:49 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah, I think that really 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 if you like. And 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, 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 of the way I have researched and analyzed it, there are countless different areas that all fall into one of the 4 areas that I teach, but there are countless different approaches.

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 in that people get it, they understand it, and I'm able to take seemingly complex ideas and murky waters of nutrition or movement or 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 lives because it doesn't come from just one area, it comes from multiple different areas. Those people who are always looking for that silver bullet are always looking for that next thing that is gonna be the thing, and are usually disappointed. And unfortunately, it's the fundamentals, it's consistency, and it's being able to understand how they all integrate together. That really makes a change.

07:46 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, and 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 kind of 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 kind of see the forest for the trees, so to speak, so that you understand exactly like how best to help this organization or these people within the organization reach their goals.

08:10 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

08:12 – Gresham Harkless

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 a book or a habit that you have that makes people more effective and efficient as entrepreneurs and business owners.

08:23 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah, I may be a bit cheeky and I might just give you 2, but one is not at all. It's such… But what I think helps me become superhuman each day, And I know because when I don't do it, I don't have it. And there are many things I've got in my morning routine. But one thing that I've been using for about 6 years or so 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.

From a technology point of view, I would say what I really love is a simple website slash app that you use for your emails called followupthen.com. I don't know if you're familiar with it. But effectively what you do is you put, say you're emailing someone in the BCC area, you will put something like 6 days at followupthen.com and it will send you an email back after 6 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, I don't use Gmail on mine, but it's a way to keep on top of who you need to chase. So you can put one year later or you can put a specific date or you can put 2 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. People can find out what's in that at the thoughtgym.com forward slash. I think it's a smoothie. They can see a video of me making that and make their own version of it.

10:10 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, nice, nice. Yeah. I'm really big on drinking a smoothie before I start out the day. I don't know if mine's a superhuman, but I'll go to the link to make sure that and see if it is. And I do have a Follow-Up event as well too. That is an incredible kind of free kind of freemium site and tool that you can kind of use to make sure that you're on top of everything, your follow-up with people at the right time. So I think those are 2 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.

10:39 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah, I think what I would say is 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, which 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? 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. My advice to aspiring CEOs, current CEOs, managers, leaders, and everyone else is this: If you want to give your best to others, including your family, loved ones, and children, you must first ensure that you take care of yourself.

When your own cup is full, you can better support others. 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, or 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 the most to other people.

12:08 – Gresham Harkless

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 kind of at a disadvantage, but to be able to stand on your ones and 2, so to speak, and be able to help somebody and help build them up and pull them up is a great CEO nugget that you provide us. I appreciate that. And now I wanted to ask you my favorite question, which is kind of like the definition of being a CEO. And we're hoping to have different CEOs on this podcast to kind of glean back and kind of get a new definition of what exactly being a CEO means. So what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:42 – Hari Kalymnios

I think being the CEO and I think actually, whether you've got the title of CEO or whether you're Temp, you're all potentially CEO. And CEO to me doesn't mean Chief Executive Officer, it means Chief Energy Officer. The energy that a leader brings to an 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 going to be like and it's going to show. If you come with lots of energy 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 even if you're an office temp, 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, and you'll 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 the energy, okay, and being the chief energy officer.

13:57 – Gresham Harkless

I love that, Harry. That's incredible. Just remind 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 Harry, 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 get a hold of you.

14:19 – Hari Kalymnios

Yeah. Like I say, I'm all over social media as The Thought Jim. So you can find me on Instagram and YouTube. I post regular videos, have done for the last 5 years. Now there are maybe a couple of hundred videos on YouTube at the Thought Gym. But also if they're 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, thethoughtgym.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 thethoughtgym.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 yeah, 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.

15:27 – Gresham Harkless

I love it. That concept of keep moving forward. So Harry, 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, but I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

15:41 – Hari Kalymnios

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

15:46 – Gresham Harkless

Thank you for listening to the

15:48 – Outro

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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