About Coach Chris
My life and career are dedicated to one pursuit: peak performance, for myself, and for the people I lead.
I'm Chris, founder of the Never Surrender Performance Institute. I hold talented people to the standard their talent demands, then I help them build the skills and tools they need to hold themselves to that standard.
My clients learn the Language of Peak Performance, the framework that lets you clearly articulate your authentic, nonnegotiable priorities. It has three parts:
Heroic Philosophy — elevates your understanding of human nature
The 12 Skills for Life — elevate your understanding of the dynamics of peak performance
The Hero's Journey Roadmap — divides the quest to master your craft into 8 manageable steps
Mastering the 12 Skills for Life while mastering your craft is a complex process with an indefinite timeline and an uncertain outcome. Our tools exist to simplify the process, accelerate the timeline, and increase your probability of success.
My Story
The stress of the Performance Gap was killing me by manifesting as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, addiction, obesity, diabetes, hypertension. In 2017, I made the decision to solve the problem, or die trying. I quit my job, sold all of my possessions, and literally went around the world in search of a solution.
That is not a strategy I recommend. But I have an extreme personality, and that was the standard my talent demanded, the path my conscience told me to follow, no matter what. If you have an extreme personality, if you've been called "too intense," "too competitive," "too demanding," or if you've been called "a psycho," "a sicko," or "obsessed" with regard to your talent and your craft, I'm here for you. I found the solution to the Performance Gap because I had no choice. If you feel a similar compulsion, you don't need to quit your job, sell your possessions, and wander the earth. You just need to apply for coaching.
My insistence on transforming all of my talent into skill and peak performance always alienated me from people who simply wanted to do the job to specification, and then go home. Encouraging other people to follow their conscience, no matter what, left me isolated, because most people aren't psychos or sickos or obsessed with mastering their craft.
If you're familiar with that alienation, let's build community and belonging. There's nothing wrong with the people who want to do the job to spec, and then go home. And there's nothing wrong with us. We're not psychotic, and we're not sick. We're the ones who refuse to allow any of out talent to go to waste.
Who I Work With
Warriors
Warriors are sick and tired of feeling their talent go to waste. They're operating in environments, professional, athletic, creative, that prioritize compliance over performance. They know they're capable of more than they're currently producing. They've felt the performance gap their entire careers, and they've decided they're done rationalizing it.
For Warriors, the entry point is 12 Skills for Life, the tools, and the framework for becoming fluent in the Language of Peak Performance, and for beginning to train the skills: authenticity, courage, focus, clarity, that turn conscience into daily practice.
Heroes
Heroes insist on peak performance. They refuse to allow any of their talent to go to waste. They've hit the ceiling of what self-directed effort can produce, and they know the difference between their environment's ceiling and their talent's ceiling.
What Heroes need is not more information. It's a coach who becomes the external embodiment of their conscience and their unshakable faith in themselves, who sees what they cannot see about themselves, holds them to the standard their talent demands, and refuses, under any circumstances, to let any of it go to waste.
That is what the Never Surrender Performance Institute delivers.
What Gets in the Way
Talent gets wasted when people get distracted.
The most common distractions are uncertainty and self-doubt, followed by the need for status and approval, the pull toward comfort and safety, and the consumption of meaningless, momentary pleasures.
None of these are character flaws. They are features of human nature, present in every performer at every level, regardless of their achievements.
The difference between the performer who closes the gap and the one who doesn't is not talent. It is the framework that keeps the conscience in charge of the talent, the time, and the attention before distraction arrives.
The Mission
I believe the Performance Gap is not a character flaw, a lack of effort, or an inevitable feature of human life.
It is a framework problem.
And framework problems have framework solutions.
I believe the revolution in coaching, education, and leadership begins with a single shift in priority, from compliance to peak performance. From "you do what I say and I give you a meager reward" to "how can I help you develop the skills you need to unleash your true potential?"
I am building the Never Surrender Fellowship, a private community of elite performers who refuse to allow any of their talent to go to waste, because I believe those people, cooperating across disciplines with a shared language and a shared standard, can advance a culture that desperately needs both.
The Questions Worth Asking
How much of your talent do you want access to?
How much of your talent do you want to go to waste?
Are you performing to the level of your talent, or to the level of your environment?
If you know the difference, and if closing that gap is no longer optional, the framework exists, the community is here, and the standard does not move.
