The Power of Perseverance: Chris Welton's Inspirational Path to Success

Welcome to the Amberly Lago Show, stories of true grit and grace. Hey there. Thank you for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. I have a real treat for y'all today. I have a special guest, a really good friend of mine. Chris Welton is with us today. He is a performance coach, an author, an amazing speaker, a new dad.

Yes.

And so I'm so I'm so excited to dig into all the lessons he's learned because when I started this show, this is what I imagined, the kind of guests that I wanted to have on to show you struggles to success. So, get ready, get your notepads out, get a pen, and welcome to the show. Thank you for being here.

Well, thank you for the unbelievable introduction, Amberly. I almost got my notepad out to take starting notes. So, I appreciate that. That was very kind.

Oh yeah, I'm so excited. Thank you for flying into Dallas. The last time I saw you, we were at an event together in Dallas. We originally met when I think it was at Ben Newman's event. It was, yes. I was speaking at Ben Newman's event and we got to go. I met you and I was fascinated with your story, but then we got to go to dinner and I was like, oh my gosh, this man's amazing. Then we talked in the hallway and you about brought me to tears. And then I heard you speak at Renee Rodriguez's event and I was— you did make me cry. That's how— your story is powerful. And so before we get into like some of the amazing lessons that you teach. I want people to know exactly who you are, what started you on this journey of being a performance coach and writing your book and speaking on stages all across the country.

Yes, that's— well, first of all, I am— I'm the son of a drug addict, right? I was born with a limb difference and It took me 40-plus years of living with a limb difference, going through challenge after challenge, failing businesses, failing marriages, until I realized that I had a bigger purpose than it was just running some companies. In 2020, we lost my son CJ.

Mm.

He passed away about 18 hours after he was born. About eight months after he passed, I had gone down. I'd gone down a bad spot. Like, I'm not a drinker, but I ate a lot, and I eat a lot of food, and I just was covering my sores and my wounds from just eating whatever I could. And I'd lost sight of who I was as a person. I was sitting on my back lanai with my journal. And I had all these notes written in there about all the things I was going to do with CJ after he was born.

No.

So, I'm scrolling through the journal, and at the top of the page, I had written, call Coach Bill Hart. See, Coach Bill Hart was my coach years ago, and we had stayed friends after we parted ways as a coach-client relationship. So, I texted him immediately and started coaching again, being coached. I needed something in my life. And that was the start of where we are now. It's been a lot of ups and downs to get to that point, let's say that. You know, you really— I feel that God tried to tell me multiple times that I was meant for bigger things, but I didn't believe it.

Growing up, well, I wanna go back to, you know, growing up with, A mother who was a drug addict. And how was that as a child? I mean, did you— was she— did you grow up— I can imagine you had to grow up quick. Was she— did you feel safe? Did you ever feel loved?

You know, so I grew up in a lot of different houses along the way. A lot of family members would take me in. My mom would jump in and out of rehabs, or I'd live with my grandparents, my aunts, and kind of all over the country. And you're right, you do grow up fast. And I have a sister who's 3 years younger than me. When I was about 9 years old, I went back to living with my mom full-time. And when you're 9, believe it or not, you can take care of yourself most of the time.

Hmm.

So I was able to take care of myself. And I don't wanna sit here and say my mom was the worst person on the planet. She was a drug addict. She suffered from mental illness and put me through a lot of really bad things. But I do have some good memories about my mom as well. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that I've, recently just touched it, you know, by journaling and just thinking through things, that there was a lot of good things that came from her as well. But the challenges of growing up with a drug addict, you don't know who's coming home.

Yeah.

Or if they are coming home, right? And I didn't feel safe a lot when I was a kid, but I learned very quickly how to talk myself out of situations and realize that I didn't wanna be like that.

Yeah.

I did not want to be like that. And I think that's where a lot of people, a lot of people don't understand is that if you're— just because you're raised a certain way doesn't mean you have to be that way.

Yeah.

Right? And I knew—

You broke that cycle, that chain. But also, I think that when you grow up in a situation like that, you probably have like a superpower of being able to walk into a room and kind of judge, is this a safe place? Is this person a safe person for me to be talking to? Are they good? Or when I say that, I mean, are they like genuinely a good person? Or do you feel like it gave you kind of some spidey senses as far as like being able to kind of scope to see like, okay, listen to your gut?

I do. Yes, I agree with that. I think that especially when it comes to dealing with people who are other addicts, if someone's trying to take advantage of me, I can tell very quickly that they've got a different— there's a different plan with them. Yeah, I can read an addict very well. because I learned to do that at a young age. And I'm sure it's the same story for anybody that grew up the son of an addict or an alcoholic or whatever. I learned how to read those types of people very well. So, that has helped me in several places in my life.

Mm-hmm.

The flip side of that where it's hurt me is I was so, so many times in my life was I trying to be loved, be accepted, be okay with things that I got taken advantage of massively in business deals and in previous marriages and in all these types of things. Because I was really wanting that love that I missed, that I didn't get when I was a kid.

Would you say you were, uh, like really trying to people-please to get that love and sacrificing what you really needed or what you really wanted or who you are?

Yeah, definitely. I, I would be— I'm the guy who tries to save everybody, right? I would try to save everybody, right?

Yeah.

Not everybody can be saved.

Yeah.

So I would try to save everybody to the detriment of myself and And then I would be in a spot where I didn't feel like I deserved any better than that.

Yeah.

Because those people would treat me bad and I'm like, well, that's, I think that's all I'm worth, you know? And I think that I had a double-edged sword there. There was this part of being raised by drug addicts and then being born with a limb difference. And look, being born with a limb difference in 1970 is a lot different than now. I'm not discounting what people go through now, but I didn't have social media to go to to see this athlete doing this or that or whatever. So I thought no one would want me. No one would want to, you know, I would never be in a good relationship when I was a kid because no one would want to date me or anything else because I'm the kid with one arm. Right.

Well, how did you start to gain the confidence and the self-esteem and the courage to start asking for what you want? I mean, I know you said you had a coach and I think it's so important. I have a coach. I mean, I have a coach and I am a coach. I'm in a mastermind and I have a mastermind. I think we all need some sort of Guidance. So, what helped you? I mean, I'm sure that had to be hard going to school. I mean, kids can be—

Yeah, they can be brutal.

Mean.

You know, one of the first things was sports. I started playing sports and my wrestling—

What did you play?

Well, I played baseball, football, I wrestled. And the big thing was, is in sports, I knew I could go out there and put it all out on the field and it didn't matter because everybody else was doing the same, right?

Yeah.

So, baseball, I remember being in 5th grade in baseball and really starting to get good. And then I got my confidence, right? I had to find confidence externally 'cause I wasn't getting the confidence at home, right?

Yeah.

So, externally, I found it playing baseball, right? And I grew up in a neighborhood with a bunch of kids that I'm still friends with today. And we would play sports all of the time. So sports, I would say, was the first thing that helped me. The second thing was when I got my first job.

And what was that?

When I was 11 years old, I lied and said I was 13 and got a job for a company called Junior Salesman. And what it was essentially is I was selling, excuse me, candy and cookies door to door. Knock on the door, I had a script and I would pitch it and I'd sell it. I made $0.60 a box.

$0.60 a box?

$0.60 a box. I sold them for $3, so I made 20% commission.

Yeah.

And I would literally go in and my first day I killed it. I did the script, I did everything, and I just started getting this confidence. Then I started seeing money, right? Like, okay, well, I'm making, I'm making money. I would make $150 a week when I was 11 years old.

That's amazing.

That's— but it gave me that confidence. So sales and sports were the two things that I could really go back and go, okay, well, I'm pretty good at these two things. But I still didn't, I still couldn't overcome the shyness. I still couldn't overcome the fact that I thought people looked at me differently because I have one arm, or I would hide the stories about growing up the son of a drug addict. My mom just couldn't make it today, right? She's sick or whatever, or she was never at any of my sporting events, right? So I always made excuses for that.

Yeah.

I think that the lessons that I learned from that was to be so present with my kids. Like, I was so present with my kids now and wanted to be something different than that. But look, I wouldn't be sitting here in this chair or have a book coming out or be speaking on stages all over the country if none of this stuff had happened to me.

Yeah.

Right.

You share from stage, by the way, it's so real. And so you can tell from your heart and so authentic. And I think that's one of the reasons that people really gravitate towards you is because you are so genuine and so real. I know a lot of people carry a lot of shame about their past and they would never want to admit that they had a problem or they would never show, you know, I used to never show the scars on my legs. I was like, I don't want anybody to know that I have scars. Now I'm Got scars all over the place. But when did you start to be confident in, like, not hiding the fact that, you know, that your arm— like, you show your arm proudly. Like, when did you start doing that?

I don't remember exactly when it was, but I would say it's the early 2000s. I started doing well in business and I bought some custom suits.

Yeah.

And I said, you know what? I want the suit tailor-made on my arm here. I want my shirts tailor-made. I used to hide my sleeve in there so you couldn't see it. You could see it, but to me, you couldn't see it, right?

Yeah.

Because I didn't want to be judged by that, or I felt I would be in a negative way. So, I would say in the early 2000s is when I started wearing tailor-made and custom suits. And so, people— so, that's who I am. So, my— literally, my name on my screen name is One Hand at a Time, right? Like, that's who I am. Like, I don't want to hide from that anymore. And I used to hide. kids' pictures when I was a kid on the baseball team or anything else, I was always the guy with someone on the left.

Oh, yeah.

Because I wouldn't want people to see that, right? That was— I wanted to see what I looked like with 2 arms, right? And I let, unfortunately, what other people may think about me define who I was. And I think that a lot of kids do that, unfortunately, but a lot of adults still do it today. Look, I have the best conversation piece in the world when I walk into a room. Well, you and I both do, but like, literally, we can walk into a room and people see us, right? First of all, we're tall and attractive people, but now we have something else to talk about, right? So I want everybody to know about it and the story of how it happened. And so other kids that have that or other adults that haven't had the opportunity to share what's going on, to be able to share it.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's how I think we really connected and realized we had so much in common. What is one of the biggest lessons that you have learned through all of your journey being an entrepreneur with, you know, now showing the world your arm? What is one of the biggest lessons that you've learned that could help somebody that's listening that maybe is having a hard time accepting who they are or what they look like?

How much time do we have? No, I'm just kidding. I would say the first one of the biggest lessons— I've learned a lot. So One of the biggest lessons is you decide your worth, right? Not what other people say. We are always chasing likes now and we're chasing followers and everything. You decide what your worth and value is.

Yeah.

And look, I went through a really crazy divorce about 13 years ago, 14 years ago. I sat down with a piece of paper and I wrote out what I wanted in my life because I didn't like where I was at. And I wrote down what I wanted in a partner. You see, I'd settled before, right? I'd been in relationships where I didn't exactly get treated the way I wanted to be treated, and I was okay with that. I was very descriptive on what I wanted in my next partner.

Why are you?

And what I wanted her to be and who I wanted her to be like. And because I wanted something that I felt I deserved, frankly, in And then I met—

not just the values, but did you write down like what she looked like?

Oh yeah, oh yeah, I can tell you. I got— she would be tall, brunette. I wanted her to be never married, which was kind of selfish on my part because I'd been married, but never married. I preferred to be Catholic because I'm Catholic. I preferred to have no kids because I already had 2 girls at the time. That I wrote all this down— athletic, could pay her own bills, would support me, would be my best friend. Like, I wrote all these things down and I would look at this every day And about 6 months later, I walked into a dermatology office for an appointment and my wife walked in the door to treat me.

And she's beautiful.

She is a 12. Yes, she is. She's a 12. And at first I felt something like, oh man, there's— that was weird. Like, there's something here. So I called the office. I found out if she was single or not from a friend of mine that knew people that worked there. And they said she was. So I called the office and I said, hey, I'd like to leave a message for Nicole. And they said, sure, what's your date of birth? And I said, it's not that kind of message. And they said, I'm sorry, but we don't, we don't take personal messages for providers. I said, well, here's my name and number. If she wants to call me, call me. Well, she called me.

So wait, she was the doctor there?

Yeah, she's a nurse practitioner there.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, she was the provider.

Oh, wow. So they're like, what's your date of birth? When do you— I'm surprised you didn't say, I need an appointment right away.

Yeah, but she called you. She did. And the funny thing is this, is that I role-played with myself in my head multiple times when she was going to tell me no, she was not going to go to dinner with me. I was ready. I'm a salesman, right? So I practiced.

And you had like, you had all these things. I had all of them.

I was ready. And she said yes. And I didn't know what to do. Amberly, I had no idea what to say next, right? And here's the thing, go after who you want to be with. Like, like, don't limit yourself. And, and I did that so much in my life, and that's why I want to share from stages how important it is to get strength through adversity. Like, we all face some type of adversity.

Mm-hmm.

What are we going to do with it, right? And for me, I have so much adversity. I have pages of adversity. And God was trying to tell me all along the way to do something about it, and I didn't. I didn't listen. And now I'm 51 years old and I'm doing something about it.

Yeah.

Right? I, I work with people every single day, whether it's clients who pay me, or I've got some foster kids I've done some help work with, or just relatives and family members that call me and want to talk through scenarios, right? I've been training for 51 years for this job.

Right. Well, I want to know about the strength through adversity. What can you— I know you have a summit coming up that I'm super excited that I get to speak at. I'm very excited about that. And we'll make sure we put the link to that in the show notes.

Awesome.

How does someone gain that strength through adversity? So if somebody's sitting there going, you know what? No, life is hard. Life is tough.

Yeah, life is real hard. It is.

I'm trying to find the strength, but I can't even get out of bed.

Yeah.

What would you suggest to them?

You know, what I would suggest, first of all, is finding— to figure out what your purpose is. What am I supposed to be doing? Who else am I hold accountable— held accountable to? And our good friend Ben Newman talks about the burn, right? When your why and purpose connect and ignites. You can't see it now, but I have a tattoo on my arm right here. It said, CJ's watching. CJ's the reason I get up and go do things. He's my son who passed away in 2020, right? So I know he's watching me and I need to make him proud every day. So that's how I get my feet on the floor.

Wow.

It's going to be different for everybody else. We're all going to face adversity. To me, adversity is when you're tested from the universe and God. Are you going after what you really want? Right? Because every time I get real close to where I want to be, I get smacked with some type of adversity and it's like, this is a test, right?

Oh yeah.

This is a test. Am I being tested right now or should I quit? Well, it's a test.

I think it's a test. I think it's like, how bad do you want it? Like, before I did my Unstoppable Life or my Unstoppable Success Summit, well, Unstoppable Life Mastermind, I was launching it on my birthday, March 16th, 2020.

And that's good timing.

Yeah. When the world shut down and my husband was like, you're launching something called Unstoppable Life Mastermind when the world just shut down? I'm like, yep, I am. My event last March, my husband had to go in for an unexpected surgery. My daughter, who's sitting right over here, she was sick. I was in the urgent care. I mean, anything that could have gone wrong was going wrong. And I think It is those times when you are on that path that you're supposed to be on, you're going to be tested. And I think, you know, new levels, new devils all the time.

Yes.

You know, where do you gain your strength? I know you said you have your tattoo with your— the name of your son, which, man, my heart goes out to you with that. I mean, truly. But now you've turned what could have something that was so tragic into that burn, into that purpose for yourself. Is that where you gain your strength? Where do you gain your strength?

I mean, that's where I keep my strength, I would say. Where I gain it from is a daily discipline and routine, is sticking to my routine and winning things every morning. So, I have some momentum going into the day because I'm going to take some losses. It's going to happen, right? Like, I'm in Dallas today, but I got up this morning, I got my workout in, I did everything I was supposed to do that makes me strong to help the other people in my life, right? Because the responsibility isn't just about me, it's about everybody else that's around me. And when I figured that out, I knew that I was chasing my purpose. Like our friend John Gordon, right? Like, I talked to him about that. Um, A couple months ago, and he said that when he realized what his purpose was—

He's on fire. Can you believe he's speaking at my event coming up?

Yeah, that's amazing. Oh yeah, that's a really big deal. And Ben, and Ben as well, right?

Yeah, yeah.

So for me, it's sticking to that routine and understanding what's important.

And what is that routine?

Um, so I'll give you a brief summary. I work out every morning. Like, when I'm on the road, I cold— when I'm home, I cold plunge. I've got a cold plunge I get in for 6 minutes. You do?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Got to get one of those.

A cold shower when I'm here. But I cold plunge, I work out, I journal, and I spend about 15 minutes meditating and visualizing what I want my life to look like and really focusing on that. And here's the crazy part about that. It works.

It does. But you got to take action too.

Yeah, you do. You do. But it also works when you think negative stuff's gonna happen. People don't talk about that enough. But if you sit around all the time in the doldrums, it's gonna be bad for you, right?

Yeah.

But the visualization exercise and meditation has been just key to help me. Yeah, I'm an action taker. That's what I am.

I'm an integrator.

Like, if you give me a list of something, I'm like, okay.

I told you, and I'm like, I'd love to have you on the show. We're doing it in person now. And you got back to me, you were on it. You were like, Yep, I'm flying in. I'm there. I mean, I know you're an action taker. You were a surprise guest speaker at Renee's conference. I remember walking out of the conference room. It was the first time I ever met him in person. He is so kind. And I was like, I think you're going to be the surprise speaker. And you were like, yeah, I think so.

Yeah.

And you were just like, I'm up there, I'm doing it. And you were on fire. So, it is about like really getting intentional. Also, you talk a lot about core values. I see you talk about that on your social media. How does someone find, if they're like, well, I don't know what my core values are, how does somebody find their core values?

I have a simple worksheet that I used for my clients to help them create their core values. And we can put a link to that in the show notes or whatever. But core values are more than what's just written on the wall in a company. I think that That everybody has these, I've got these great core values on the wall.

Yeah.

And then the reality is they don't live to them, right? So, the core values can be 1 or 2 words, as long as you live to them and it creates the positive culture in your life, your family, and your business. And I think that's where it gets lost. There was this time in the '80s and '90s where everybody had to have a core purpose and core value on the walls when you walk in, and that's who our company defines as. And then you get in the door and it's not that. Right. So I would tell you to first get real clear about what it is that you do and who you help, and then define your core values from there.

Yeah. And I don't know about you, but I found sometimes I see somebody on social media or something and I think, oh, well, they're this kind of person. And then I meet them in real life and I'm like, yeah, wow, you're totally different. Like in, in real life, your, your outside appearance doesn't match who you're inside. really is as a person. Have you found that?

Unfortunately, yes.

You have?

Yeah, yeah. Unfortunately, yes. And look, be yourself. Be who you— be yourself. You know, I'm not Ed Mylett, you know what I mean?

I was just talking to a client about that yesterday. She— I keep telling her, be you, be authentically you. People are gonna love you, and you will attract the people that you're supposed to attract when you're yourself. And she messaged me that she had a dream that I was even in her dreams saying, just be you, you know? And she's like, okay, I'm gonna be me. I hear you. I'm gonna be me. But that's— why do you think it is that's so hard for people to do that? They strive to be like— Ed Mylett or Mel Robbins or Jay Shetty?

Because they're lazy. Look, I think people try to be other people because they're lazy. You've been a little straightforward. Well, I do, because they're lazy, because they see someone else doing something, they figure that they can go do that. Just follow what they are and be them, and it cuts out all the work. Look, what people don't realize is, is that for me to get in this room, it's been 51 years. Yeah. Okay. Like, yeah, it didn't just happen overnight, right? For you to get on the Ed Mylett Show, how many years did that take, Amberly?

Yeah.

And be yourself, be original, be who you are. People are going to like you. Not everybody's going to like you. Like, I'm not going to go be Ed Mylett. I'm going to learn from Ed. I'm going to learn from John Gordon. I'm going to learn from Ben Newman and so many other people. I learned so much from you already. Like, and then I'm going to figure out how can I help other people by the stuff I've learned?

Yeah.

I'm not going to go be them. I'm going to be Chris Welton, right? That's, that's who I am. And I wanted to talk about Renee real quick on something that, he's the reason why I started speaking. I went to his event in January 2021, and we sat in the room, and he helped me define my story and how important it was. And I got up there and I told the story in front of everybody about my son, which I'd never told anybody before besides my family and friends.

Wow, I bet you had the whole place in tears.

Yeah, and I was definitely crying. But Renee gave me the opportunity to tell a story and taught me how to do it. And ever since then, I've been on a mission to get on as many stages as possible, speak to as many people as possible, because I knew that became my purpose. That's the reason I wrote the book I wrote. And, and that's the reason I have started my podcast.

Mm-hmm.

And look, I'm not trying to be Renee. I'm not trying to be Brad Lee or any of those people. I'm just trying to be Chris Welton. But I'm going to learn from them and implement in my life to do the same.

That's powerful. And, you know, John Maxwell has a saying that people come up to him all the time because he's, you know, bestselling author of many books. And he says, they say, oh, well, I want to do what you're doing. And he's like, but do you want to do what I've done or what I did to get to? And that's the thing. Sometimes it looks easy, but yeah, you've got 51 years of All that you've been through to get up there and share your message on stage, to be able to coach people, and what you've been through and how you've learned how to just process grief, loss, overcome limiting beliefs. What could you say to someone who is struggling with limiting beliefs and how they could gain the confidence to move forward and step into their power?

Boy, limiting beliefs are tough. You know, I struggled with it for a long time in my life because I didn't think I was worthy. Right. So the first thing I would tell someone is you are worthy for more. You are worthy for more. You were meant to be here. You're here for more than what you're letting your mind believe.

Yeah.

And, and then if your goals aren't big enough to scare you, then they're not goals, in my opinion. And I have limiting beliefs. I mean, I had limiting beliefs on the flight here. Why am I going on this show? Is that what I'm supposed to be doing? to be doing. Find a mentor, somebody you can talk to about those things, right? My wife's my best friend. So I call my wife and I'm like, you know, and she's like, are you kidding me? You're supposed to be there on that show. Go be yourself. Talked to my coach about it this morning. He's like, just be yourself and it'll be great. So limiting beliefs. I got over my limiting beliefs by stacking wins early on. Again, back to my daily disciplines. It goes back to the same thing. If you're not taking care of yourself from the start, and doing things that are hard, so you get the belief structure that you're gonna overcome those things, it's not gonna happen. And you can have all the positive thoughts in the world, like, I'm so positive, things are gonna be great. But if I eat a bag of Ding Dongs and I don't go to the gym and I don't follow up with people who are asking me to sell them something, I'm not gonna make any money, I'm gonna be in bad health, and I'm gonna still have the limiting beliefs are gonna come true.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, I had Bedros Keulian on the show and we were talking about stacking wins and he's like, you know what? It could start with as simple as something as just like setting your alarm and getting up instead of pushing snooze.

Yeah.

And I've always wondered, like, I've got an iPhone and the snooze is in big red bold in the middle. And then to turn the alarm off, it's like kind of hidden down at the bottom.

And I don't have my glasses on, I can't find it.

Yeah. And I'm like, they make it It's so easy to just hit that snooze button. But that's— but I love how you say, you know, doing hard things, sticking to, you know, being consistent with what helps you. You're such an inspiration. And I know—

Well, thank you.

You help so many just by seeing you stand on stage and being like proud to show your arm and all that you do. I mean, so tell me a little bit, what do you have the name of your book yet?

Yeah, the name of my book's called One Jordan.

Oh gosh, that's all we need, like another hour for you.

It's One Jordan.

Tell people why it's One Jordan.

So a friend of mine, Renee, came up with this strategy that if you send a shoe to someone and a handwritten note, if you want the other shoe, give me a call, it'd be a great way to network. So that's what I did.

So is that where that came up from? I remember you telling me That when we were having dinner. Yeah. So it came from Renee and gave you that idea.

Renee gave that idea to Bradley. Bradley put it on social media. I watched it and I ran with it.

And so did Brad ever—

I don't think he ever did it. No, I don't think he ever did it.

But you ran with it.

I ran with it. I think I've done 16.

Where's my shoe? I need a shoe.

You know what? So here's how this— my wife asked me this morning, hey, is there any women in your book? I'm like, no, because I think it might be weird if a guy reaches out and says, hey, what size shoe do you wear? Like, it's kind of weird, like, to have a foot fetish or something. Like, that's— I don't want to come across as that guy, right? So, so I haven't done that yet.

So it's all men in the book?

It's been all men. It has. And I literally send one shoe and a handwritten note, and I've had some great relationships built from that.

Wow. So who's somebody that you sent one shoe that you're like, oh, I'm probably never going to hear from this guy? And they actually—

Oh, well, Ed. Oh, then they called. I haven't heard back from Ed. So, Ed, if you're listening— I haven't heard back from Ed. Yeah, haven't heard back from Ed.

Ed Mylett?

Yep, haven't heard back from Ed.

You need to give him a call so you can get that other shoe.

His sister has the shoe for sure. I know because I, I've, I've messaged with his sister Erica.

Oh.

So I know for sure the shoe made it. But, um, I, I've had a lot of success though, like a lot of success with it.

Um, I know Ed listens to my show all the time. Yeah, well, he's been on the show, actually.

Yeah.

So he's been on the show.

I, I've had a lot of success with it so far. As far as like Tarek El Moussa from HGTV.

Okay.

It's a pretty big hitter.

Speaking at your event.

Yeah, he's going to be on my event. Yep. John Gordon, right? I won Jordan John Gordon. Ben Newman. That's how I met Ben Newman. I sent one shoe to Ben Newman, right?

That's how you met Ben?

Yeah. Yeah. I recently did Clinton Sparks. I sent Clinton Sparks a shoe.

I know Clinton Sparks. And I shared the stage with him as well.

Yeah, we talk all the time now. And gosh, there's a lot of people that— I mean, Coach Michael Burt, I don't know if you know him or not, but he's a really great performance coach. And I met him by sending him one Jordan.

I have told him that.

You should meet him. He's a great guy. But the moral of the story is that how do you get in front of these people and connect, right? I'm a 51-year-old man who's sending one Jordan to people. I'm connecting and I'm building these massive relationships, getting in rooms that I would've never gotten before, right? Like, I met John Gordon in person because I did the shoe with Ben, sent the shoe to John, had been messaging John, couldn't find time to get a call in with John. But Ben brought me backstage in the green room at an event and John was there and I cornered him.

So yeah. But that's the thing too, though, that I think a lot of people just expect for these relationships to be built. And I've actually had people that have message me and say, hey, you know, I saw that you had Trent Shelton on your show. Can you hook me up and introduce me to him? And I'm like, no, because out of respect, I'm not going to abuse that relationship.

Yeah.

But also that it took years of really getting in the room. I don't know if people understand that enough, like how important it is to get in the room. That's how you network. That's how you meet people. is you get in the room, whether you're speaking at an event or whether you're just going because you're like, oh my goodness, I want to see this person, get to know that person.

Yeah.

That's why I started my whole summit was because— and it's intimate on purpose because I want people to actually make those meaningful relationships. And it does take time, but I love the way that you're doing it. And then before we go, I want you to tell people about your event. And how they can get involved with that. I'm so excited when it is and all of that. The links for all this will be in the show notes as well.

Perfect. So, the Strength Through Adversity Summit is going to be an online summit. It's going to be free. We've got 20 of the best speakers in the world are going to be on there. I had 19 and I've confirmed that Amberly's good. So, we're 20 now. And it's going to be over 4 days, 5 speakers each day. You can log in from your office and watch it or whatever. And just, we're just doing it to bring everybody together and introduce different types of speakers. So, um, for me, it was important to create something to let people know they're not alone, right? So it's a Strength Adversity Summit. You're not alone. And I want people to understand that everybody on this that's going to be on there has faced some major adversity in their life and they're still going, right?

Yeah.

So I have 20 totally different types of speakers. So it's going to really, I think, There'll be a great— the audience, it'll resonate with several different types of people. It's going to be in June. I don't have the final dates yet, but I'll make sure that, Amberly, you get that. I'm working with the online people to set everything up right now.

No joke setting that online stuff up.

Yeah, for sure.

It's no joke setting an event up. Let me tell you.

What's no joke is writing a book. That's no joke. That's like way harder than I thought.

Oh, yeah. And I am Doing both at the same time. So I'm like, they, the, I'm doing a book.

So we talk about doing hard stuff. What are you doing? Hard stuff.

Hard stuff. Hard stuff. But it's worth it.

It is.

It's totally worth it. Well, tell everybody where they can find you if they want to do some performance coaching, if they want to come to the event. What's the best place to follow you on Instagram?

Instagram. I'm One Hand at a Time, all one word on Instagram. And chriswelton.live is my website. So, chriswelton.live is my website. It's got everything there you would need, links to the podcast, opportunities to speak. I will put a special link in there for the Amberly Lago Show. Anybody wants to do a 15-minute call with me, there'll be a link on there. They can just click it and sign up.

Thank you. Oh my gosh, Chris, I just, I mean, I'm so grateful for you. I appreciate you being on the show. So thank you. Y'all take a screenshot, whether you're listening on Apple or you're seeing this on YouTube. I suggest you watch it on YouTube just so you can see how amazing he is. If you're listening, all those links will be in the show notes. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Amberly Lago Show. And screenshot and tag us on Instagram.

Yes, please do.

And we'll see you next week. Thanks.