Adam Torres and Christopher Kai discuss GifterX Talks.
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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage of GifterX Talks in Miami, Florida. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Christopher Kai, Founder of The GPS Program and GifterX Talks. Explore the future of GifterX Talks and The GPS Program.
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About Christopher Kai
Christopher Kai is the founder & CEO of The Mathem Group, a Beverly Hills-based leadership and sales training firm. He is one of the world’s leading authorities in story-based leadership, a Fortune 100 global speaker, #1 global bestselling author, and founder of GPS, the premier speaker training program in the world with clients in 120 cities, 29 countries, and 6 continents. He is a former business strategist and executive speechwriter at American Express.
Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of Mission Matters. My name is Adam Torres, and if you’d like to apply to be a guest in the show, just head on over to missionmatters. com and click on be our guest to apply. All right. So today’s a very special episode. I’m in Miami. We’re doing a Gifter X Talks edition.
We have on the founder of Gifter X Talks and my good buddy, Christopher Kai. Chris, welcome back, man. What’s up, Adam Torres. Always great working with you. We have. A great time. And we get to inspire people like yourselves. So for everybody that’s watching or newer to the show, and maybe you haven’t seen some of Chris’s work today we’re going to go into a bit about his background, some of the work he’s doing plans for gifter X talks is he’s got a speaking tour, a world speaking tour that he’s on right now.
First off, Chris, just for the audience that doesn’t know. That doesn’t know you yet. Talk about your background, man. How’d you get started in this journey? Yeah, so I was a six year old kid in New York City, Queens, where the first memory I had as a kid is my teacher telling me, Christopher, shut up. So I’m told to shut up.
Had a reading disability. It was really short, but many years later, I decided to write books. And this is the one I’m most well known for, which is a, book about networking with billionaires. And now all I do is travel the world, giving speeches to clients like Amazon and eBay, but also helping entrepreneurs understand how to build a business based on their network, their credibility, and speaking on a global stage, whether online or offline.
And so the GPS, the original GPS community. I’m one of the original, I’m the OG, I’m like one of the original members. And we were talking about this was we were warming up. It’s like how for my longterm, my longterm listeners and followers, I started as a financial advisor. You know that. How shy was I?
How like stiff was I? It’s okay. You can talk crap about me on my own show. Talk about it. I’m not going to talk crap, but this is how Adam sounded when he’s on the show. We we have the, we have the receipts. I took all those down, man. Yeah, no, but to Adam’s credit again, he’s a man of substance, a man of knowledge, but if you can convey that knowledge in a very more enthusiastic way, people are probably going to be very bored.
Talk about GPS. Cause we’re using some acronyms that everybody doesn’t know what it is. The GPS stands for the gifted professional speaker program, where if you are in business, unfortunately your client will Google you. You’re either Google, what I call invisible, but they’ll Google you and you don’t literally exist.
You’re invisible. Or you might be visible. Oh my gosh, there’s Adam Torres. My name’s there. But are you perceived as an expert? So when you’re a speaker, you will have the highest probability of success because you have what I call first class credibility. So if you have a brand, have a product, have a service, but if no one knows you and more importantly, if you don’t have credibility, it doesn’t matter.
So imagine are you on a, do you want to be a Fiat or Ferrari? And all marketing is, is perceptions. What I help our clients do in the GPS program system and packages is teach you how to build that first class credibility. So you’ll get paid more money in less time with higher, high paying clients. Talk about the ecosystem of, of GPS, Gifter, Xtalks the Gifter Summit, like about the entire ecosystem of, of, of creating these tools for speakers and and individuals that, that you’ve done.
Yeah, it really comes down to one word. It’s just marketing. What kind of feeling does your client have of you when they see your brand? And so whether GPS is more of the paid program where they learn how to speak, gift or X talks is a speaker platform. It’s been called the Ted talks of entrepreneurs where we had the Ted founder, but it’s about, okay, first I teach them how to market themselves and what stage can they actually market themselves on, which is a gift or X talks.
And I have a grifter’s podcast where it’s just, different medians, different platforms to help my clients understand how to project their brands. So they’re not just Google visible, they’re global expert. Because again, unfortunately, so many people we meet at them, they have all these amazing stories, amazing content, but no one cares.
They have three main gaps, which is Credibility gap, first class credibility, communication gap, how to communicate. And lastly, the connection, which is, I wrote a book about, again, networking with billionaires executives. If you’re going to have a business, why go through all the clients that are like hellish.
They want to take your time. They’re like, they suck all your time out. Why not find more high paying clients? That’s why Elon Musk had to hire to your car first and then have the more mass production. That’s why Louis Vuitton, all these big brands during the reception or during the COVID, guess what? They were.
Up here, they still sold a lot of money and made a lot of money as product offering people. But again, GPS, gift directs, toss, get the podcast. It’s all a platform that teach entrepreneurs how to build that first class credibility to pull those high paying clients with integrity. So you can live their lives according to what they want.
So, so speaking of that credibility and building that brand, going back to my very first book, one of the things that I, one of the stories I tell the show pretty often is I’m like, my first book, I didn’t even want to do it. And I always talk about, I’m like, Chris or my coach, you know, I’m part of this program.
I always talk about it and I’m like, I didn’t even want to do it. I didn’t want to be on the front of the book. That’s for sure. And it’s all this and that. And, you know, and I’m like, okay, now we got Chris in the show. I can, I can got receipts. Talk about that first project, man. Yeah. Well, again, when I first met Adam close to 10 years ago, he was a financial advisor, a very good one at that, by the way, he managed over 200 million in assets, worked for these big brands, he was all polished, talking about the Louis Vuitton belts and whatnot.
Not doing a book? Come on, man. Well, yeah, because he was already very established, he was semi retired in his mid twenties, but I saw his story. Yeah. I knew his heart, and I’m like, Adam You have all this knowledge, all this amazing content. Why are you not going out there speaking more? He’s like, I don’t want to write a book.
Why should I write a book? Because you need credibility. Yes. No one cares about those brands because those are those brands. But if you want your own brand, having a book, writing a book is the single most important thing that he decided to do. And I was honored to actually write the four words. So I’m just so grateful that like Adam, all you have a story.
But no one will care. I know that sounds harsh, but I’m a New Yorker, so that’s what I call New York Blunt. If you don’t have a first class credibly brand, and one of the best ways is to be like, Adam, will you write a book? Then you become that brand and then people will pay you what you deserve. Yeah, and and speaking of the book, like you were, right, so what happened is I come out with the book, I’m using it.
All of a sudden I’m speaking, I’m traveling. All these other things happen. It was like the Canada Yeah, we treated like a VIP getting paid. For his services, pretty insane. Cause remember just a financial advisor. So now I tell these stories sometimes, but I don’t know if everybody believes them or they hear them or whatever.
So now I have the, I have the validation, like of the people that were there and helped me along that end. And I still remember having these conversations, like, why would I want my face in a book? Why would I want to do this? And I’m like, do you remember the moment remind the audience how much you have paid for your first speech with no websites?
Oh, if we were talking China, like that was, that was five figures, multiples. Before China, he made five figures from being a speaker and it shocked him because people spend their whole lives trying to make five figures a year. You do that in one second. Speech. But again, because he had first class credibility and I’m grateful.
I’ve had mentors, coaches, and trainers, but to add as credit and to all of you who are watching the fact that you’re in this ecosystem, hire stuff in the back. Okay. Yeah. And you’ve had other clients. I mean, I always tell you I’m competitive, so I’m always like, I’m going to be that client. I’m going to hit, have the, Speaking fee, the this, the that, and that’s just my personal fun of it all.
But you’ve had some other clients that have done some insane things. And I’m just looking at our, that, you know, the private WhatsApp group in the community that I’m a part of as GPS. And I’m like, oh my gosh, what did they do now? Oh man, I can’t take it. How do you attract these people? Ha ha. Again.
Remember, very humble beginnings, but when my uncle hired me at his insurance company when I was 12, I started understanding networking and branding and entrepreneurship. And then when I worked at American Express, I would create the actual sales tax we use as a company to pitch IBM and Pfizer. So by my twenties, I started realizing, like I said, it doesn’t matter what you do.
It really comes down to how you attract them by the hook and by the hook, it is that credibility. So when I realized that it wasn’t about the content and the service and the book, really, it was the credibility first. That’s what you asked me. And I was honored to write the forward because I had at that time a more higher status, a higher brand, right?
So, yeah, The bottom line is again, we’re business owners. Why not create this first class credibility to attract the customers? Because if you don’t do that, according to an article I read at Inc magazine, you have a 96 percent chance of failing because you have no cash flow. If you have these high paying clients, which I teach in the networking programs and the GPS, you have You have the highest probability of success.
What do you think he holds people back from becoming successful speakers and building successful brands? Cause you’ve worked with hundreds of people. What holds people back? Hundreds. And again, as Adam said, I’ve worked with millionaires, trillionaire countries, state department. The main thing is. Imagine me wearing a hat, it’s three things, thoughts, actions, and habits.
If you listen to, if you understand physics, the law of physics is every object moves in the same way, unless acted on by the outside object. Imagine all of us have thoughts, but they’re thoughts and you’re going the wrong way. So you’re literally going the wrong way with the wrong thoughts, with the wrong habits.
So unless you have something like an asset force, like yourself, who publishes books, builds that brand for your clients, they’re going the wrong way or they’re stopped. So the reason why is they have the wrong thoughts, wrong habits, and wrong actions. So somebody’s out there right now. They have, let’s say one or two of these three things that you just mentioned.
Where do they start? Like, how do people start re, I know that’s a big question, but come on, open up the can of worms. Where do they start? They start by removing their ego and ego stands for ego. Erasing great opportunities. I meet so many people, including multimillionaires and billionaires and unicorn builders.
Oh, I have the testimonials, Christopher, I have the story. I’m like, okay, they say they do, but that’s their arrogance, ignorance, or ego. But we’ll look at their website. I literally had this conversation with a client of mine who built not just one, but two unicorn clients and, and, and, and, and businesses.
Right. And I looked at his website. It was like, it was, Horrible because he had an ego successful, but the start is finding people like Adam or myself, who have done what you want to do objectively, not thinking about it or wondering or pondering. If you don’t do this in terms of hiring someone like Adam or myself, you’re wasting your time, wasting your life.
Sounds harsh, but I wish I invested in someone like Adam and myself because it took me eight years to write up my first book. But it was in the last eight weeks that I invested in someone that I didn’t know. He up sold me I didn’t want to buy, but thankfully because I made an investment, it was in the last eight weeks I finished my book instead of suffering for eight years.
So the how is you find people you trust, But I’ve done what you want to do, not thinking about what they want to do. But if you want to write a book, Adam has written and helped people publish hundreds of books. If you want to be an interviewer, this man has done 6, 000 interviews. Okay. So you find people that are doing what you want to do.
At scale, but have not just done it once, twice it had been a hundred or thousands of times. One of the favorite things that I always try to pick up from you. There’s a lot of tips, but one of the things that I watch you and what I like about your style of mentoring and coaching is you’re leading by example.
You’re not just saying something like there’s empirical proof for days you’re doing exactly what you say. And you could see it. Now, one of the things that I’ve seen you do, like insane is, is. Testimonies and getting them and getting that video in the moment and getting that and then you’d show me and I’d be like, I forgot to get the testimony or I forgot to get that picture or I forgot to talk about your thought process on testimonies and how simple you make this because everybody gets in their head about it all weird and this and that because I’ve, I’ve tried to tell people that and I’m like, no, you just, you just do it.
Just ask. Talk. Well, first, let’s explain to the audience why it’s important. Hmm. So according to McKinsey research, they found that testimonials, what they call consumer driven marketing is 31 percent more successful in business in sale. So for instance, the people that are watching, if you’re making a hundred thousand dollars, do not want 31, 000 more.
If you’re making 1 million, would you not want 310, 000 more? Just to be very clear why you should have a testimonial. Now, how is this Elon Musk? On video set to me while you know, a lot, John Paul, the Jory Oh, who is billionaire as well said, Christopher is great speaker. Listen to that guy, right? The how is.
Get ready to have a specific strategy after an interview, after you meet them, have your camera ready and just ask them with a very sincere, honest voice. Hey, Adam, I’m actually a speaker and testimonials are so important. Do you mind if I take a quick video of you saying if you thought I was great speaker?
Oh yeah, sure. Okay, great. Like literally on the spot. Yes. I’ve seen you do it over and over and over again, but if you wait, Until that, then it’s like, it’s the graveyard. It’s done. The moment’s gone. Their emotions gone. Their feelings gone. It’s done. Well, because again, people that are successful, there is no other chance.
If you meet an Elon Musk, in our case, we meet them a lot more, right? Because of our skillset and our network. But frankly speaking, you don’t have another chance, literally. If you meet someone of status, you take a picture with them. Just in psychology, it’s called success by association, where if you realize you’re not living your life now.
It’s not because you don’t have the desire. It’s because you don’t understand the science of marketing. Marketing is about emotion. It’s about association. So the simplest and quickest way beyond even testimonial before testimonies, just get a picture. You see someone of high status who is more high profile than you take a picture and just by that alone, success by association, gift or X talk.
Like, you’ve had some big, some big, big guests that have already come to that to give Directs Talks, and the recent one that I was a part of, and I attended founder of TED Talks. I mean, talk to me about that experience. That was an amazing experience. Well, again, Adam didn’t just attend, he has now spoken with him, so you can say he shared the stage with me.
The founder of the Ted Talks, including the world’s strongest woman, Brooke Sousa, including five time record holder, Merle Lievlin, including Queen Dianne Bey. But again, when I realized that I want to help our clients as business owners, make the money and make the difference they want, they have to have the credibility.
So I created this brand. It’s the world’s leading speaker community for entrepreneurs. And it’s been called the Ted Talks for Entrepreneurs. So it’s my way to get my clients when they invest in my programs on more higher tier, to give them that immediate, Instant credibility that they would never have had they not make that investment.
Yeah. And I think it’s amazing. And, and then the curated audience and everything else like that goes around it. I mean, it’s just, it’s just a first class show, man. It’s been fun. And, and just so you all know, Richard Branson, he has a event called Necker Cup in his island, Necker Island, and they wanted me to host their show.
They charged 60, 000 to 100, 000. To have their tennis cup thing with celebrities, but they have a necker cup. And when they saw my brand of that status, they, Oh, perhaps you can host our show at necker Island. Amazing. Last thing I want to cover here, Chris. So the speaking tour international world speaking tour that you’re on right now.
I want no part of it. That’s too much traveling for everybody. That’s been listening to this or watching this. I’m I’m in Miami right now. That’s that’s far enough from LA. I don’t know how, if I could do all that stuff, but. Talk to me about it. Where are you going next, man? Where have you been? Where are you going next?
Well, I mean, this year alone, I’ve been to Venice, Italy and Barbados and Singapore and Thailand with my client, the Prince of Thailand and Malaysia and Amsterdam and London and Estonia. But the global speaking tour is with the largest seminar business in the world. I’ve been working on this for over 10 years, but going back to what Adam says.
All I hope is that I’m an example for other people. I literally, there was a hurricane going through Houston. I was flying to Dallas. My flight was delayed 13 hours from Miami to Dallas. And then I get there, I’m heading to the hotel. It’s 1122 central time, which is 1222 my time. I get a text. Say good morning from, I don’t even know if you know the story from the co founder of the largest seminar business in the world and say, Hey, get your hand on the phone.
I’m like my first reaction and you know me, Adam, I got to focus on my speech tomorrow, but this is a multimillion company. I’m on a global speaking tour. I said, you know what? I’ll get up in five minutes. So 15 minutes later at 1137 or 1237 am in my time, after 13 hours of delay after a hurricane, almost hitting Houston or hitting Houston, I get on the phone and from that 1237 am my time, I got on the zoom call and I booked three more speeches and two days later, I booked two more speeches.
What I’m saying is most people are sleeping or making excuses. If you’re not going to a funeral or having a baby at a hospital, change your schedule around because the reason why most people, unfortunately, don’t succeed is they aren’t lazy. They think I’ll do it another time. No. How many of us have people that we know have passed before the time.
And so when people meet me, they’re like, wow, you’re so intense, Christopher, because I know we’re all going to be a bag of bones one day. Well, while we’re here, why not give back? Why not serve? So that global speaking tour, which I’ll be back on the road in Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, you know, Frankfurt, Germany and Dublin, Ireland and Dubai.
I’m just so grateful because it’s what I’ve lived for, dream from, work toward. And so for those listening, know that your dreams are possible, but if you don’t have the right network, you don’t have the right coaches like Adam, you’re not going to get there. And that might sound harsh, but I’d rather tell you the truth.
Then say, Oh, everything’s going to be perfect. Pursue what you love in the money. No, the money won’t follow. Things don’t always work out. And so if you know you’re going to be dead one day, live today, hire and find people like Adam who have integrity, who know what they’re doing and start living your dreams.
Amazing. Chris, last thing, look into the camera. Tell people how they can follow you, how they can follow up, how they can learn about your community. Go to Instagram. You’ve heard of the kingdom. I have the Christopher Kite. I’m so go to Christopher Kai’s. My last name, K A I. So Christopher Kite on Instagram, love to learn from you, connect with you and make sure you say that you heard about me through Adam is so I can give him props as well.
Amazing for everybody listening. Just so you know, we’ll put the links in the show notes. You can just click on the link and head right on over to Chris’s Instagram. And speaking of the audience, if this is your first time with mission matters and you haven’t hit the subscribe or the follow button, do that.
This is a daily show each and every day. We’re bringing you new content, new interviews, and new ideas to help you along the way in your journey. So again, hit that subscribe or follow button and we’ll see you next time. And Chris, thank you so much, man. Fun to do this again. Yep. Bye.