ep. 98 - Chip Eichelberger:
Creator of "Get Switched On" & Fmr. Tony Robbins International Point Man
Bio
Chip Eichelberger graduated from the University of Oregon and began his career as a sales rep for Jantzen Sportswear. After being let go due to a company buyout, his career took an exciting turn. He went to work with the world-renowned Tony Robbins in San Diego where things really took off, winning Sales Leader of the Year twice. He hired, trained and led sales teams around the U.S. and became Robbins’ international point man planting the flag for Tony in Australia and the UK.
After spending five years with Tony Robbins as his international point man, Chip went off on his own. Today, he has worked with 1,000+ clients to get them “switched on’, including: Hyatt, Harley Davidson, & Campbell Soup Company. He's a proven pro that does his homework to customize a high-energy, interactive message EVERY TIME.
Transcript
ep. 98 - Chip Eichelberger:
Creator of "Get Switched On" & Fmr. Tony Robbins Point Man
Kyle Davis: Okay, so with us today on GDA Podcast, we get Chip Eichelberger, and he is probably, at least based off of the information he provided me, one of the most extensively traveled guests that we've ever had on this show, for being on the road [00:01:00] almost 20 years and having flown over 3 million miles, which to me is pretty impressive, but probably like most of our audience, you don't know who Chip is, or you're learning to know who Chip is, so I'm going to have Chip introduce himself. With that, Chip, how are you?
Chip Eichelberger: Hey, good afternoon. Yeah, 3 million miles is a plus and a minus, but the plus is when you're self-employed like many people who are listening possibly, I mean, you work out of the house and you just get on the plane and go out and do what you do, so that's the blessing, I guess.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, [00:01:30] I mean, the joy of flying, I think a lot of people romanticize it for what it once was, and people are getting all dressed up in suits, and I have to say that I am definitely the guy sitting next to you wearing a pair of joggers and a loose hoodie, because it's far more comfortable for me.
Chip Eichelberger: Yeah, I get it, I dress comfortable most of the time I'm on the plane too.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, and I tend to wear flip-flops, which people think is weird, but for me makes the ease of going through TSA so much easier.
Chip Eichelberger: That's why you've got to get pre-checked for Global Entry or Clear, you just fly [00:02:00] through, nothing out of your bag, nothing off your feet, that's the key thing. Global Entry, for about $100 you're good to go.
Kyle Davis: Maybe I should fly more.
Chip Eichelberger: Even if you only fly a couple times a year, that's good.
Kyle Davis: Cool. To help our audience know better who you are, I understand that you kind of got your start with Tony Robbins, but I understand that there's a little pre-story or preamble before that, so if you can, give our audience a little of your background.
Chip Eichelberger: Sure, well, that was unique. I got my dream [00:02:30] job out of college with a sportswear company for four years and thought that was rolling, and then, as happens, things went offshore, they cut the sales force in half, I got fired, and gravitated down to San Diego in a relationship, and serendipitously, I still have it in my first journal over here, a classified ad said, "Earn excellent income promoting a national celebrity. Five people are wanted who are committed to make a difference." I thought that sounded interesting, went to interview, and met Anthony Robbins, Tony Robbins, it was September [00:03:00] '88, pre-infomercial, would come out that spring, that first one with Fran Tarkenton many people remember. I was pretty mesmerized. A week later I was working for him, and spent 5 1/2 years there planting the flag. I had a group of sales teams, we would go into each city and telemarket and get out and speak at sales meetings for different corporations. Basically we put a persuasive program together to get them to take action, to see the value in spending their money to go see Tony Robbins in a [00:03:30] live seminar. I kind of pioneered that all over the US, Canada, United Kingdom, down in Australia. I was there 5 1/2 years before I ever got my first paid opportunity onstage.
Kyle Davis: I'm curious, because I think of probably our audience has seen the Tony Robbins documentary that's on Netflix, was he that guy then? Or has it been an evolution to where he is now?
Chip Eichelberger: Oh, it's certainly been an evolution, I mean, [00:04:00] Tony, for a multi-day program like that, is the best in the world. His skills are far beyond what most people can imagine. I was just surprised on there that his language had gotten so bad, that was a little shocking. THere's lots of good adjectives out there you can use besides MF and F, but he is unbelievable, his skill level is just fantastic, and so I'd, that's one of the things that really rubbed off on me. I kind of equate it, I would say the difference between presentation and persuasion. [00:04:30] A lot of people are just present, and it's interesting, but the bottom line is what are people actually going to do? Are you persuading people to reevaluate and take action?
That's really what I've tried to do over the years is how can I put together a program that's very interactive, very engaging, more so than the typical, that's the toughest thing I have, probably, is getting across what's different between you and what other people do. I don't know the backgrounds that other people [00:05:00] have, but they probably didn't speak 1,400 times before they ever got paid, and so I do my homework to get buy-in from the audience, but it's much more of a workshop feel. Having a handout, people writing things down, asking them questions, having them stand up and get involved, that's not typically what happens in a "keynote" where it's just one person up there speaking. That's kind of where I carved my niche, to get people involved, adult learning strategies, if you get them talking, get them thinking, get them involved, it's going to stick much more [00:05:30] than just talking to them.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, one of the things that you mentioned prior to record is that you don't really have the canned speech, each one of them is unique and you take effort and time, and since it's much more of that kind of workshop feel, I think for me, at least, I'm only speaking for myself, having not seen you live yet, is that even then, when someone, I know someone does it like that, it seems far more genuine than the typical canned speech where it just, all they do is just replace the name of the company, that's pretty much it, or the organization or whatnot.
Chip Eichelberger: Yeah. I [00:06:00] certainly have a skeleton that's consistent each time, but it's carving out the flesh and the stories and the pieces, because if it's a customer service piece, or if it's a leadership piece, or sales, key things have got to be different to relate to that group, so ... I'll tell you what happens is, and I've been a 20-year member of the National Speakers Association, and it's a great organization, and there is a, I think a theme of thought, that if you're "doing a keynote", that it needs to be scripted, it needs to be written word for word, and [00:06:30] that's when it doesn't seem that sincere in the moment because the person said that over and over and over, and it's hard to really bring that authenticity to it when it's that familiar to you. If I had to do that, I would shoot myself. I mean, that's why I never niched. Some people go financial services or whatever. I go Campbell's Soup to Harley-Davidson, I mean everybody in between.
Kyle Davis: I think there's something to having kind of a like the architectural [00:07:00] skeleton, if you will, but then being able to piecemeal it together and putting what fits right for the client or the environment of the day makes sense.
Chip Eichelberger: Right.
Kyle Davis: You mentioned the difference between presentation versus persuasion. Is this something that, I mean, you've talked a little bit about it versus having that canned 45 minute keynote versus putting something together, is this something that you learned from your time with Tony Robbins, or is this something that's developed or evolved over time as well?
Chip Eichelberger: Well, very astute questions. When I was on [00:07:30] the road, we would go, let's say, to a RE/MAX office, and it was a regularly scheduled sales meeting, or it could have been linear copier sales, so we're coming in to add value, share a skill, but bottom line, persuade them elegantly to see the value in what I was saying, to invest their money to go see this program with somebody, nobody knew who Tony Robbins was, so key things learned was they were buying me. They weren't buying Tony, they were buying me, so if I got them involved, I could elegantly persuade them where they said, "Yes, I want to go, here's my credit card number, [00:08:00] here's the names of three other people, you need to call them, that was a great presentation." Because if I presented, they'd say, "Oh, that was neat. Let me think about it." One of the unique things in my presentation is I always have the theme of decision-making, and it's never estimate the power of one decision, so I have a little card I hand out that has "My decision" and it has some key things about how you can control your emotions with the right questions each day. Also, there's a little graph there, "How to get [00:08:30] switched on."
That's really my brand, how to bring your best, how to bring your A game every day. At the end, I mean, I'm getting people to write down on that card what's one decision. "Decision", the "cis", the Latin root, means "to cut off or kill". What's something you need to take ownership of right now? What's something you need to stop doing right now that's holding you back? What's something you need to start doing? What's a streak you need to start? They write that down, then they write down their compelling reason why, then I have them take out their cellphone, open up their calendar, [00:09:00] and go a month from that day, put a reminder of that decision they just made, and then click "repeat" so that decision is reminded on their calendar every month, month, after month, after month. That's been very, very powerful. Because, as I tell people, "You may not remember me four years from now, but you may pull out that little card and say, 'You know what, that was the day I resolved to do this, and look what happened.'"
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative), so you just mentioned it, but kind of your brand is how to get switched on, or [00:09:30] finding kind of what motivates you. Could you explain that a little bit more for the audience and provide a little bit of color and context for that?
Chip Eichelberger: Oh, absolutely. My belief is when you stand out, people judge you quickly. They judge tonality, they judge volume, they judge physiology, they judge smile, so how can you create a routine in your life so you're performing at your highest level consistently? What I try to get people is first acknowledge the kind of the gap between where you are and what's possible. [00:10:00] Get clear on really what's important in your life. Where do you need to prioritize? Where do you need discipline in terms of faith and family and career and fun and health and fitness and finances, all that? Then it's about reevaluation, taking the time to go back and look at what's working, look at what's not working, expand your compelling vision of what's possible, right? A lot of people are just kind of going through the motions, because they've forgotten their compelling vision, everything's just gotten too familiar. Getting people to dream again beyond [00:10:30] where they are. Then it's about execution in terms of a solid game plan. Accountability, measurement, keeping score. I'm a big believer that for you to be successful long-term, you've got to take care of your number one asset, which is you, and how you do anything is a clear reflection of how you do everything.
From a health and fitness and vitality standpoint, that's a key part of my message, helping people be accountable. I've got a really, if people out there Google "Get [00:11:00] Switched On Energy Schedule", you can pull up a PDF and download that and put that on a mirror in your bathroom. I've done this with every audience over the last 23 years, getting them to realize, "You're your number one asset. How often are you going to exercise your number one asset?" It's just a sheet you can track what your goal is and what you're actually doing each month. That's one key part of it, and a lot of it's around belief systems and growth mindset, getting you to realize that you have potential beyond [00:11:30] where you are, that you're a work in progress, that you've got to continue to invest in yourself, so what are those belief systems? Those are customized heavily based on the company I'm talking to, and I'm quoting people from their organization about what they believe about who they are and what they do, and getting people to look beyond where they are, what they're committed to becoming, what they're willing to start doing, stop doing, and then how, from a performance standpoint, can you bring that A-game every day.
Kyle Davis: Right. I like all of that. I put down four bullets, and I want to spend a little bit of [00:12:00] time on each one of them. One of the key things it sounded like at the beginning was having people take a look at their life and see kind of where they're at, and maybe reevaluate a lot of things. I'm kind of of the belief that people don't do enough self-reflection and they don't reevaluate everything on a daily basis, let alone monthly or-
Chip Eichelberger: Well, some people have gone a decade.
Kyle Davis: Right. Can you talk about the importance of reevaluation and why it is so important?
Chip Eichelberger: Yeah, it's a big part. We're doing the exercise, [00:12:30] and it'll say, "What is really," and then fill in the blank, "important?" They write that down, and I've great images in my visuals to reinforce this. Then there's a box, and I have them write down, "What's really important in your life? Where do you need focus, where do you need discipline?" We're not talking about it, they're actually writing it down from their perspective right there. Then I have them stand up and they share and they talk to people around them, which, it changes, when I get people involved in the presentation, it totally changes the energy of the room. [00:13:00] You can just feel it lift. It's a good check for them, because they always talk to somebody who wrote some things down that was really important in their life, that they've neglected to put on their list, right? We kind of go from that base of "everything affects everything". You've got to get clear in these areas, because the formula for getting switched on that I talk about is thinking long-term, right, taking care of your number one asset, and it's those little disciplines you do each day, in each of those key areas, that [00:13:30] will sustain you long-term, because motivation's great, it's great to listen to motivating music or a speaker or a podcast, but what's going to sustain you long term is discipline and the ability to get stuff done.
Kyle Davis: Well, if you-
Chip Eichelberger: What I try to do is we don't talk about what's important. You actually do it and focus on it right there so it's real to you.
Kyle Davis: Well, to steal a quote from Jocko Willink, "Discipline equals freedom," so ...
Chip Eichelberger: There you go, Jocko, yes.
Kyle Davis: Yes, love me some Jocko.
Chip Eichelberger: [00:14:00] Yeah.
Kyle Davis: I love the fact that reevaluation is kind of a key. In my business life, what I've done prior to coming back to GDA, we've always spent time reevaluating every single day, was what I said on the call right, or what the task that we're doing right? What can we kill, what can we grow? Do we need to pivot, do we need, whatever it may be. Then I see a lot of people who just maybe don't understand the importance of reevaluation, or maybe it's they know that they've gone so far one [00:14:30] rabbit hole that to acknowledge maybe how far they've gone would be painful. I'm just wondering why you think people aren't so reflective these days?
Chip Eichelberger: Gosh, there's probably lots of reasons. I think people just get very busy and you get into a routine of what's working for you, and then you tend to hold on to what works for you. that's why sometimes people, when I speak to my audiences, the people who are in their 40's or past tend to have a tougher [00:15:00] time adapting to changing market conditions and new technology because you tend to hold on what got you there in the future, in the past. You're not as willing to look at new things, because, "Gosh, this worked for me in the past, this will work for me in the future," but in reality, you have to reevaluate consistently. Plus, life changes. Marriages and kids and illnesses and financial challenges and relationship challenges, you know it's just things happen so fast that periodically [00:15:30] you got to take a time out. that's really what I tell people. What I'm doing is giving an opportunity to take a time out and reevaluate.
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I think it's such a huge, important thing. I mean, I look at, I listen, we talked about this prior to recording, but I listen to a lot of podcasts. We talked about Tim Ferriss, and he's like this human guinea pig, if people don't know who he is, and he's constantly changing the way he eats or the way he exercises or sleeps, all these different testing things that he does, and I just like it because he's constantly [00:16:00] trying to find a better way to do something, like, "If I can get six hours of sleep, let's see if we can do it with five, or we'll see how much better we can do it with seven." I just think that-
Chip Eichelberger: It is fascinating, and it's easier for him because he's not married and he doesn't have four children or five children, right?
Kyle Davis: This is true, I mean, he has a-
Chip Eichelberger: A lot more time.
Kyle Davis: ... he has a lot more time to it, but what I'm trying to get it is that he's not stuck in his ways and he's the most extreme version of it, and I think more people should realize that everything is set in water, not concrete, so ...
Chip Eichelberger: Yeah, yeah, [00:16:30] good point.
Kyle Davis: When it comes to execution, that was the next big takeaway that I took from it. I mean, it sounds to me like your focus is on long-term strategy and skills. How important is execution, and do really people, and maybe it's more the pessimistic individual in myself, but I just don't think that people think about the importance of execution or designing the proper execution, and so they have this idea and they don't think about how to implement that idea. Or am I wrong?
Chip Eichelberger: Well, it depends on who you're talking about. One of my friends is a brilliant [00:17:00] guy, Marshall Goldsmith, you might know him-
Kyle Davis: I know Marshall.
Chip Eichelberger: ... brilliant author.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, I know Marshall.
Chip Eichelberger: Marshall's a great guy, love Marshall, and he says, like, he'll poll an organization, he'll do a survey. Let's say I'm doing a sales group, and a 150 salespeople, for example. We'll have them rank themselves in ten areas based on how they are compared to their peers, and then he says typically always the results come back that 70% of the people will rank themselves in being the top 10% in what they do. Well, somebody's delusional, [00:17:30] right, 70% cannot be in the top 10%. If you're talking about the true top 10%, the true peak performers, and that's one of the things I try to get across to the company who's hiring me, is continuing to invest in your top 10%. Continue to invest in the Presidents Club winners who consistently make it happen year, after year, after year. They have some gold strategies and mindsets that you can duplicate throughout the organization. That's one of the things I think I've found over the years when I'm, because I always interview some of the [00:18:00] top, top people in every organization before I go in, and it's fascinating to hear what they're strategies are and what their beliefs are about what they do. Sometimes people can think, "Oh, that's just an outlier. That's just something Kyle does." Well, in reality, everybody can do that probably. You can cross-pollinate those mindsets and those beliefs and those strategies, so people can execute more consistently. Don't reinvent the wheel.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, now, I'm a huge believer in promoting the [00:18:30] top, and keeping them around as long as possible and making them happy. There is a limit on a lot of things, but in every organization I've ever worked in it's always been hey, we've got the P-Club, or whatever you want to call it, this trip, that trip, and when we get to those nice retreats, wherever they are, whether it's in Banff in Canada or somewhere in Mexico or Prague or whatnot, we always took stock of what it was that we were doing that made us top performers in comparison to everybody [00:19:00] else in the company. Basically, what I'm trying to say is I've been on a few of these, and it's interesting though, there's a lot of similarity, but there's a lot of difference too. What works for one person's personality type, completely different for another person's personality type. It's interesting to see kind of the crowd of people they bring with them and they pull up as they raise the tide. It's very mirror-like.
Chip Eichelberger: Well, it's great for them to network and have the time together. I always say overall, one of the things I've learned from speaking [00:19:30] at over 1,000 conventions the last 23 years, is less is more. Typically, companies try to put way too much into a meeting. Sessions are, in general, too long. There's very few corporate people who can hold an audience for longer than about 30, 45 minutes. Take that hour session planned for an hour, make it 35 minutes, make that person prepare more and really jam the best stuff into those 35 minutes. Make it more interactive, [00:20:00] have people use handouts like I do. I've done this for multiple conventions where they'll bring me in a month before and spend the weekend and train and videotape and coach these people how to really captivate an audience and engage an audience. Make them do stuff before, because a lot of times at these conventions people are preparing stuff the night before.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, no, I agree, I agree on that one a lot. Now, the last thing you mentioned was about health and vitality. You also mentioned accountability kind of in there. [00:20:30] I want to say this comes from Jocko or Tim Ferriss, Tim or Tom, whatever his name is, Tim Ferriss, and it's getting out of your mind and into your body. I'm a huge believer in working out, eating right, but there's so much more to accountability, so I'm kind of wondering what your philosophy is on that.
Chip Eichelberger: My philosophy, it stems from that piece where you are your number one asset, and I always tell every audience, I mean, my end goal right now, I'm going for 100. I don't want them to live to be 80, I want them to be a 100, because we all know people [00:21:00] who have a high quality of life at 80 years old or 90 years old, and we all know lots of people who are old and decrepit at 43. You got to think your endgame is how long you want to live, but really what quality of life you want to live. I try to coach my audiences to look long-term, and realize the quality of your life long-term is typically the quality of your movement, and if you're not taking care of yourself right now, you're not exercising and eating well, and you're not enjoying your life, and you're not [00:21:30] taking the date nights with your spouse, don't think one day you're going to figure that out.
Because if you don't have the discipline right now to put in the time to eat right and instant gratification and avoid binging and drink the water, and I've got an unbelievable smoothie recipe. If people Google "Get Switched On smoothie", that thing has sustained me for 23 years, that will add ten high-quality years to your life. Because what I try to tell people is if you're not taking care of yourself now, and you think, "I'm just too busy," and [00:22:00] people think, "Gosh, I'm only putting on three pounds a year, four pounds a year," in a decade that's 30 or 40 pounds in 20 years, that 60 or 80 pounds, right? One day you're going to wake up with a disease you could have likely easily avoided, and now you've got major time, major money, major stress, reversing something you could have easily avoided with a little bit of discipline and a little bit of strategy. It's not a good trade.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, I like the fact that you mentioned the quality of movement. I'm a huge fan of mobility, exercises, [00:22:30] and really making sure that my movement is right. This just comes from years of playing football, I've had a lot of wear and tear on my joints, especially my shoulders and my knees and my hips, and I just spent a lot of time just opening them up, and it's so painful, and breaking a sweat just stretching, but it's like to me it's the most important thing I can do aside from any weight training or cardio training.
Chip Eichelberger: Oh, yoga and stretching are the best.
Kyle Davis: Yeah. I mean, the funny thing is for years I had no idea that [00:23:00] I had a bad posture with my shoulders rolling in, and how big of a problem it was, until finally somebody opened it up, I'm like, "Oh, wow. that's different."
Chip Eichelberger: Light bulb went off, yeah. Well, I don't think a lot of people are looking at those destiny questions, because, I mean, reality is this, when you see somebody really in shape, it's more of the outlier than the rule. I mean, I had, somebody hired me a month ago and is in Phoenix, and main contact, his name was Jim, and I said, "Gosh, Jim, you're in good shape, what's your strategy? What do [00:23:30] you do?" I'm always looking for good strategies, right? He said, "Oh, Chip, you don't know the story." He'd lost like 54 pounds in the last six months. I said, "What was your trigger moment?" I'm a big believer, when people change, it's not over a month or a year, it's like there's a moment that was like, boom, that's it, right? He said, "Well, it's simple. I just got out of the shower and I looked at myself in the mirror and said, 'Have you just given up?'" In that moment, he said, "that's it. I'm changing right now." Most people have that moment [00:24:00] of change or clarity.
Because I talk about streaks, because people say, "How long does it take to change?", and my audiences usually go, "Oh, 21 days," and it's like, "Really?" I defy anyone out there to get any kind of scientifically proven study that there's anything magical about 21 days. There isn't a study. It's just one of those numbers that people repeat it over and over and over and they begin to believe it, because everybody repeats it, right? When you make a new decision, when you want to do something differently, that first moment you do that new piece, you started a streak. [00:24:30] A streak starts with one. The kill is don't kill your streak. I've been on a push up streak, and my moment was I was playing golf with my son, who's a good golfer, and he's 17 years old now, and he started playing a lot of hockey, and man, he got so much stronger with his butt and his core, he's blowing it past me off the tee, and I thought, "Geez, I've got to get stronger."
Serendipitously, in Inked magazine, they had like, what were people's success disciplines. The guy said, "Well, I just make sure I do 10,000 push-ups a year." That sounds impressive, right, [00:25:00] 10,000 a year, but if you divide it by 365, it's less impressive, it's only 28 a day, but it's 28 every day. That day, it was Thanksgiving three years ago coming up, I downloaded a push-up app. The alarm goes off every day on my phone. You have to put it down on the ground and you have to touch your nose to it and it counts you off and you're doing five sets of push-ups. The metaphor I give my audiences is, "I've made a decision I'll never do less than 28 push-ups a day the rest of my life." I'm [00:25:30] on a 1,000-plus day streak of over 61,000 push-ups.
The metaphor is, if you, some people listening right now could do 28 in a row and knock it out. The best thing about having that thing on the ground, you can't cheat. You have to do a full push-up to get your nose on the ground, right? Some people could do 28 in a row, some people would have to start with 14 sets of two. If you kept doing 14 sets of two day after day, pretty soon, nine days later, you're going to be able to do seven sets of 4 when you had to do 14 sets of two. You keep doing seven [00:26:00] sets of four, miraculously you're going to be able to do four sets of seven, right? You might get up to two sets of 14, you might be able to get up to 28 in a row, but you started at 14 sets too. that's the beauty of personal growth. One of the things Tony used to say is when you sit down and you say, "Hey, I'm going to plan out my year," right? You've done this, I'm sure. You plan out your year. You overestimate what you can get accomplished in a year. You ever done that?
Kyle Davis: Yep.
Chip Eichelberger: It is not going to get done here, but here's the key. You underestimate what you can accomplish, or who you [00:26:30] can become in a decade. Because we underestimate the power of doing the same thing right over and over and over. It's the compounded effect of those disciplines, in your marriage, in your health, in your fitness, with your business, building relationships, that will sustain you long-term.
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative), yeah, it's just interesting, I mean, I think I've shared this one of twice in the podcast before, but just over a year and a half ago, I weighed 325 pounds, now I'm done to 245, so-
Chip Eichelberger: [00:27:00] Wow.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, but I'm like a big football player, former football player, so it's hard to tell that I've, unless you've seen my face, that's really the only way that you could tell, but it was just kind of saying, "Man," and I'm living in New York, and-
Chip Eichelberger: What was your moment though, what was your moment?
Kyle Davis: When I decided to move back to Dallas. Because Dallas is such a superficial city, but in New York, I was like, "Oh, man, I can"-
Chip Eichelberger: that's the only one in the country, by the way.
Kyle Davis: Well, I mean, there's plenty of them, but it's ... Miami, LA, whatnot. I made [00:27:30] this, I knew I wasn't going to keep working for this company and once my lease was up I was going to be moving back to Dallas, and I decided, inside of riding the subway, it's April now, I'm going to walk to my office. It was like a three mile, not three mile walk, it's New York City. Maybe it was a three mile walk, but I walked there and I walked back, and I just did that every day. Then when I finally left the company I had a couple months left on my lease and I was just like, "I'm going to stay in New York but I'm just going to walk around." I had this favorite salad place, it's on the West [00:28:00] Side, I live on the East Side, I'm going to walk there. It go to the point where I was doing something like 20 miles a day of walking, and then-
Chip Eichelberger: Wow.
Kyle Davis: ... when I came back to Dallas, it was like, "Okay, now I'm going to start running," and that sucked. Then from running it was, "I'm going to do CrossFit," and I've been doing CrossFit now for quite some time, even though I just got hurt again, but it's all been, it's all been pretty beneficial, so ...
Chip Eichelberger: Oh, absolutely, you feel fantastic, I'm sure. that's awesome.
Kyle Davis: I've changed [00:28:30] the diet a whole bunch too.
Chip Eichelberger: One of the strategies on that-
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Go ahead.
Chip Eichelberger: Say that again.
Kyle Davis: I've changed the diets all up. I very Tim Ferriss it. I go keto for two months, and then I do something else for two months.
Chip Eichelberger: Well, my basics I learned from Tony living health, is if you want to live a long time, eat live foods. Half of what passes your lips should be fresh fruits and vegetables. that's why the Get Switched On smoothie recipe I referenced is so good, you can get your ... Because people say five fruits and vegetables a day, National Cancer Institute came out recently, and it's seven for women [00:29:00] and nine servings a day for men, and that is tough unless you do something like my smoothie. On the Get Switched On Energy Schedule, the basics, "Treat your body as a temple," it says in scripture, right? Half of what passes your lips, fresh fruits and vegetables. If you're busy and you're professional, bring a cooler with you, take control where you always have good quality food to eat, because if you don't have anything good to eat, you'll settle for crap. Big salads and a small entrée. I mean, I'm 6'2", 200 pounds, and I've been this way for 25 years. I [00:29:30] haven't really gone up five pounds either way for 25 years, and it's just been by consistent exercise, nothing super-hard, but consistent aerobic, some weight training, some core stuff, some push-ups, but it's drinking that smoothie consistently and having big salads and small entrees. It's pretty simple, it's not rocket science. Just got to have the discipline to do it.
Kyle Davis: Yep, that's it. You got to stop going through the drive-throughs and start making it yourself.
Chip Eichelberger: Yeah, absolutely.
Kyle Davis: The one final thing that you talked about was the importance and the [00:30:00] power of belief systems and believing that you can do something. Expand on that, and then we'll take another look at it.
Chip Eichelberger: Well, it's, I predicate the fixed versus growth mindset, there's a, she's at Stanford now, Carol Dweck, and when I was raising my kids I wanted to do the best I could, and I came across and article she had written called "The Secret to Raising Smart Children." If you go to my website under "I just saw Chip", you can find a link there. She found [00:30:30] that the secret to raising smart kids, the self-esteem movement had gone too far, the secret to raising smart kids was quit focusing on intelligence and praising them for being so special and so gifted and so wonderful at what they do, that they praise them so much for being smart, after a while they think that the reason they're getting great results is that they're so gifted and so talented.
The problem is with that is you're going to put yourself in situations where you tend to exceed because you think you're so talented, but the problem is the focus goes from doing [00:31:00] well because you were talented, not because you worked hard and prepared. The opposite of that is the kids who weren't told they were talented, maybe they were told they were less than, they thought they were stupid or it's ADHD, or ADD, they were using that as a crutch. They both groups of kids, some thought their intelligence was fixed, they were brilliant, some thought they were stupid and it was fixed. What her research drew out was that the focus needs to be on not [00:31:30] focusing on not focusing on intelligence of the kid, did the kid do well on the test because they were smart or because they worked hard and they prepared.
I'll never forget one of the lines in the article, the teacher's standing in front of the class, and he's working with all these kids who didn't think they were that smart, and really passionately got across to them, "You know what, your brain's making new connections every day. Every day you're getting smarter in this class," right? One of the kids says, "You mean I don't have to be dumb anymore?" It had never dawned on him that his intelligence could change, right? [00:32:00] The focus needs to be on telling kids stories of people who attain mastery and did great things, not because they were born talented like that, it was the personal practice, they persevered. They had grit, they had guts, they had determination to persevere and they didn't quit. That's kind of getting people to realize if you want to go on in your life, you've got to realize there's some stuff you're not good at right now, you've told yourself, "I'm not good at that," well, how many times did you try? Have you really practiced, have you gotten good feedback, have you really ...
Because I guess one of my [00:32:30] best stories lately I've been talking about, I'm a golfer and that's my passion, I just finished the FedEx Cup that Justin Thomas just won, right, and in one of the first playoffs, three tournaments ago, there's a guy in the tour, Matt Every, who had not done well the past couple years, but in that first playoff, first round, I think he shot 62. He's in the press room, and the tweet that they tweeted out was he said, "My good stuff today is so much better than my good stuff two years ago." [00:33:00] I love that, and I ask my audiences, "Is your good stuff a lot better today than it was two years ago?" How much better are you today than you were two years ago, or five years ago? You don't want to be one of those people, "Oh, you should have seen me 10 years ago, I was really good." No. Have you plateaued? What are you doing to get to that level?
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I think knowing that you can always choose growth I think is a huge thing, and when you hear people say things like that, it just, it's somebody who chose growth versus [00:33:30] choosing to plateau.
Chip Eichelberger: Absolutely. Your past doesn't equal your future. that's one of the key belief systems. One of the things I'm famous for, if people google my name and the breaking boards experience, where we're teaching people how to break boards and get past their self-imposed limitations, what they need ... It's a great way to close a convention. I've done it for 100 people, I've done it for 25 hundred people, but we're getting really, really clear on what we need to believe, what we need to let go of, what we're committed to making happen, why, and it's the metaphor [00:34:00] of literally teaching people how to break those boards, and it's an awesome, awesome way to finish a convention, because people hold on to this boards as trophies for years and years and years.
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Yeah, I think that's pretty ... Again, choosing the growth and thinking about how you can break a board if you've never done it before is, just doing something that you haven't done before is, I think, hugely important.
Chip Eichelberger: That's it. Most people haven't tried something that, because there's always that self-doubt, "Can I do it? How do I do, what's going to happen when I get in there?" It's [00:34:30] fun individually, but it's just such a way the team comes together to support each other, that's what makes it possible.
Kyle Davis: Right. Well, I think that's a good place for us to wrap up. Look, if you all want to have Chip come and speak for your event, you can do so by contacting GDA speakers, the number is (214)420-1999. For the transcript of the podcast and everything else, you can go to gdapodcast.com. With that being said, Chip Eichelberger, thank you.
Chip Eichelberger: Hey, I [00:35:00] appreciate the opportunity. For those of you who are listening, it says a lot about you that you stuck it out to the end. One little gift I'll give you is get clear on something maybe you've been putting off. What is something you need to start? What is something you need to stop right now? What would that mean to you? Write that decision down, why you need to live that, and live it today, make that decision today.
Kyle Davis: Well, truer words have never been said. Thanks a lot.
Chip Eichelberger: You're welcome.