Believe The Hope

Chris Helms: 00:25

I have a series of sayings, I call them criticisms. They're things that Chris says all the time, and one of those things is hope is not a strategy. And so when I knew that our topic was gonna be about hope, I went, okay, alright, so there's 2 different ways to look at hope. My way is if you say, well, I sure hope that happens. Well, that's not a really good strategy.

Chris Helms: 00:44

But, looking at it from the other perspective of hope, it sure beats the heck out of despair.

Paul Nottoli: 00:55

Welcome To The Believe the Hope podcast. I'm here today with Chris Helms. Chris Helms is the president of the Federal Injury Centers with 50 plus franchises located in 27 states. He has a master's in business administration and 25 years of healthcare management and operations success. He teaches doctors and the federal employees about workman's comp and helps federal employees get their injury claims approved.

Paul Nottoli: 01:20

As one of the nation's leading experts in OWP, his mission is to solve the epidemic problem of denied federal working injury claims. Thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for being here, Chris.

Chris Helms: 01:33

Yeah. Glad to be here. This is cool.

Paul Nottoli: 01:35

So, I mean, we're gonna talk about hope and everything, but I think you offer a lot of hope to people that are trying. They've been injured at work, and their claims are being denied, and they're trying to get better, and they're fighting the red tape bureaucracy that that occurs in level or just any type of claim like that. So, yeah. I wanted to get your perspective on hope and understanding, and we've known each other now for probably 3 years, 2 or 3 years now.

Chris Helms: 02:01

Yeah. Yeah.

Paul Nottoli: 02:02

And you're successful and I like your Notre Dame shirt, but that's okay. As a Michigan fan, we're all good. We're all friends here. It is sparkly. So when Chris has a sparkly shirts on, it's game on.

Paul Nottoli: 02:14

So it's game on when Chris has a sparkly shirt on.

Chris Helms: 02:19

That's alright.

Paul Nottoli: 02:20

My, first question I ask everybody because everyone has a different perspective on this and experience is what does hope mean to them generally?

Chris Helms: 02:29

Yeah. And so that's, I was saying, you know, before, we went live that this topic makes me stretch a little bit. And the reason that is is because I have a series of sayings. I call them criticisms. They're things that Chris says all the time.

Chris Helms: 02:43

And one of those things is hope is not a strategy. And so when I knew that our topic was going to be about hope, I went, okay, all right. So there's 2 different ways to look at hope. My way is if you say, well, I sure hope that happens. Well, that's not a really good strategy.

Chris Helms: 02:59

But looking at it from the other perspective of hope, it sure beats the heck out of despair. And I prefer to try to just be positive, so much so that I'm annoying to some of my friends and family because I just don't easily get sucked into negativity and rumor and gossip and complaining. I just I typically just stay away from it. And I think hope is, is so important because you can be hopeful for what's coming, or you can feel just terrible all the time. And when you feel terrible, you're totally unproductive and probably not great to be around and, you're not feeling really good.

Chris Helms: 03:34

So hope versus despair is is how I look at it.

Paul Nottoli: 03:40

I definitely agree that hope is not a not a strategy. And we've had a couple other, news with it that say, like, just wishing like, the hopeful, just wishing something good to happen and just waiting around and being like, oh, yeah. It's just everything's gonna work out. And almost even on that point, I think that's, that's not a strategy, but, a sense of giving you something to look forward to or something to strive towards or something to take action with the motivation to step into something that you may be a little scared on or just giving you the permission to move forward and take action. It's better than Yeah.

Chris Helms: 04:16

And you know what? You mentioned

Paul Nottoli: 04:17

sitting around.

Chris Helms: 04:17

In in the you mentioned the opening that with the people I work with and, you know, how I'm helping them, truthfully, they feel despair more than, I think, any group I've ever been around. And so being able to help people gives them hope also. And, we do that. I had a union president. We we do a lot of work with unions, and he said, Chris, I'm just tired of seeing my carriers go homeless.

Chris Helms: 04:41

Imagine the despair. You know? And and when you're able to help people, you can also really generate a lot of hope versus the negative. So I really live in that all the time.

Paul Nottoli: 04:56

To have people give experiences because I feel like experiences from people they may be able to relate to help with finding more hope in their lives or that positivity. To be able to share a time where you've had to really add hope to push you forward and make decisions and into something when things weren't going the greatest?

Chris Helms: 05:19

Yeah. Absolutely. Most people don't realize that my company today, Federal Injury Centers, it's actually the 4th version of this company. I shut down the first three and still had the whatever it is, whatever it took to do it one more time. Right?

Chris Helms: 05:34

And it would have been really easy to just say, you know what? This is hopeless. And I'm out. I'm gonna go do something else. And I've always felt like I could do anything I want, that I'm probably gonna be successful at it.

Chris Helms: 05:47

But I had to shut my company down 3 times, and thank God I did because this 4th iteration of the company is just fantastic. It's the best thing that I've ever been a part of. And, it was a Thanksgiving day in 2018, and while everyone else was watching football, I had my laptop out rewriting a company and just going just keep your head up and go. You know? And so that's, I think, probably my biggest story of hope, and I needed it.

Chris Helms: 06:17

I mean, absolutely needed it. If I would have gone down that negative, dark tunnel, I might not have gotten out of it and been sitting here talking to you today. We would have never met. I would have done something else. But for my, the patients that we help in our company, they're always hopeless.

Chris Helms: 06:33

And what I've learned with them is because I can teach them, I also instill hope in them because their hopelessness, that feeling, comes from not being educated in the system that they're in. And when I'm able to show them, like, Hey, you have all the power, and I'm giving you the power by educating you, it's you know, they just chest out, shoulders back, you know, and they you can see the change in real time. So I have a lot of experience seeing hopeless people, and in an hour to 3 hours, have them turned around just, like, ready to run through a brick wall.

Paul Nottoli: 07:07

And I think that's important too because I'm I'm interviewing some very successful people in some of the podcasts that I'm doing, and they're successful in a variety of areas of their life. And I think sometimes people just do the social media highlight reel and just think, like, everything was just awesome. And they were just they started this business, and it's so successful. And reality is that, you know, threw it 3 times. Like, you shut down 3 businesses.

Paul Nottoli: 07:32

And you're like, what am I gonna do now? And you were at that brink of you had to make a decision to move forward, or you had audacity or just the hope was giving you something that you knew it was just the right thing to do. It's important because a lot of times, just people see the highlight reel and just think, like, everything in their life is always easy. They just started a business, and they would they just next thing you know, they're successful. And then it's that saying that, it's whatever, 20 years to be an overnight success type of thing or 5 years or what.

Paul Nottoli: 08:02

But it's a lot of there's a lot of, there's a lot of downtime in that, there is sometimes when you're on your when you're doing something that you know purposely driven to do.

Chris Helms: 08:14

Paul, that's so true. You know, that it's the highlight reel on social media. No doubt about it. People that know me even probably don't realize that in the in the making of this movie, I'm considered bankruptcy 3 different times. We were 2 business partners, and month to month, we were really just saying, okay, this is how much we have.

Chris Helms: 08:36

Chris, how much do you need? Joe, how much do you need? Tom, how much do you need? And we weren't even taking the same amount of money, we were just saying, what is it going to take for us to survive this next month? And, you wanna talk about fighting despair.

Chris Helms: 08:48

That was tough. I'm like, man, I could go work at Subway and make more money than this. What am I doing? But, again, I try to stay positive, and we made it past all that.

Paul Nottoli: 08:58

What is the line? Be careful what you tell yourself because you're listening type of thing. The between the carriers is can be more important.

Chris Helms: 09:06

That's right.

Paul Nottoli: 09:07

One person or one individually more hope to their community.

Chris Helms: 09:13

Yeah. I like that question. I think that winning does that. Success does that. I think it's all contagious.

Chris Helms: 09:23

Positivity breeds positivity. You know, some people using social media. They go on social media, like, in my HOA, okay, I've got a Facebook page for my group, and it is the complaint page. That's all they do. They just complain.

Chris Helms: 09:39

And really ridiculous complaints that we could really we could probably go on a tangent and just have

Paul Nottoli: 09:43

a complaint. HOA complaints.

Chris Helms: 09:46

No doubt. But I think the way you inspire your community is be inspiring. You know, make an effort to do better. And, and it's okay to, I think, promote your success. I know that these are snapshots and it's the great the highlight reel on social media, but also it helps.

Chris Helms: 10:03

You know, it helps other people to look and see success out there that, okay, I can do that too. And, and I think we could all do a better job of getting on and just promoting the good that we're doing, the success that we're, you know, that we're living, and let other people know that this can be you. And the harder you work, the more lucky you get. So, I think that's probably the best way that I can think of is just be the example of it. Let people see it.

Chris Helms: 10:34

That's tough also. If you're in your own head and it's all dark and you're in that tunnel, that's tough. But now you're gonna have to go find it because you don't wanna spread that.

Paul Nottoli: 10:45

I think just, kind, show people in your community, supporting people in your community that are doing good work. I think that can go a long way saying thank you because sometimes make someone's day pull and do for somebody. Know. I think those little things do add up. Reason I'm starting this podcast is because I feel if we have these conversations and we put this out there is for momentum and putting more light into the world, we may see only dark for a variety of reasons.

Paul Nottoli: 11:15

But,

Chris Helms: 11:17

Yeah. And you know what? You just you made me think of something. So it was maybe 20, 25 years ago I was taking a road trip with my uncle, and my uncle was working for a Walmart store. And Walmart, at that time, was just now making the, Supercenters that you see today.

Chris Helms: 11:32

Before that, they were just regular stores. I even I don't even think they had groceries. But he was the store manager for a Supercenter that at that time was the fastest to a $1,000,000,000 of revenue. And he didn't have a high school degree. He dropped out.

Chris Helms: 11:47

He was a drug addict, but he turned his life around, and he did that. And so we were taking a road trip once, and I just said, hey. How did you do it? What's your secret? And I've never forgotten his words.

Chris Helms: 11:58

He said, I love everybody. And he meant it. He literally loved everyone, and I would see it. He'd go into into his store. I went in with him, and and people were coming up hugging him.

Chris Helms: 12:09

And he was saying the words, I love you. And, and I took that on. So for half of my life, I've made an effort to just love everybody. And if you do that, it's hard to get mad at anybody. It's hard to be frustrated with people because there's some endearing quality everywhere.

Chris Helms: 12:25

You just find it. And when you love everybody, people respond to that in a positive way. And I think because I was able to hear him half a life ago say that, I've had a lot of success with people. I have almost I have no turnover in my company. I've had 0 turnover in the last 4 years, and I had a 21 year management job write out at 3% turnover rate because I love everybody, and nobody wants to leave that guy.

Chris Helms: 12:49

And I think it's a lesson that we can all, learn from that there's a lot of success just in treating people right.

Paul Nottoli: 12:57

I don't have anything to add. That's a good fishy. When you said everybody love everybody, that that reminded me of, Jackie Moon in the, what's the the basketball movie he was in?

Chris Helms: 13:10

I don't know.

Paul Nottoli: 13:11

Anyway, he had a said and he said, ELE, everybody love everybody.

Chris Helms: 13:17

Yeah. It works.

Paul Nottoli: 13:18

That's gonna come on and be able to tell me what I can't draw in a blank on that movie. It's a good strategy. It is a good strategy. Advice to give clients or people that are struggling with hope, be down, they may be in a just a bad time or just a season of being down. What advice would you give them to to more hope and, for that?

Chris Helms: 13:48

So something that Sean, you know, our mentor, tells me all the time is focus on what's right in front of you. Because you can be overwhelmed by this big picture, but what's right in front of you right now? And I think I love that. That's really focused me in in my life. But I can see how it can really work on a lot of people because the world has all these things being thrown at you all the time.

Chris Helms: 14:12

But focus on the one thing that you need to handle right now. And then what happens is you overcome that one thing. You overcome the next one thing, and the next thing you know, you're just having success. You're excelling at things 1 by 1. And whatever that is, I mean, maybe it's not a job, but maybe whatever it is that's right in front of you right now, take care of that.

Chris Helms: 14:32

And then it starts to feel good. It's like you just knock over dominoes and they just start falling down. I think that's the best thing because as I I said this earlier, the harder you work, the luckier you get or you feel. But that hard work at one thing at a time really can unblock whatever is blocked. Right?

Chris Helms: 14:52

So that would be the advice I would give.

Paul Nottoli: 14:54

That's good because it allows that hope that you're looking for towards the future that you see that there's a better option for you. Same time you're balancing, quote, unquote, reality. You're just focused right in front of you. So that that allows that, like you said, to just knock one domino at a time without feeling overwhelmed. Because if it's financial and you're in a lot of debt or whatever, like you said, figure out, like, the amount that you have to climb, and you don't you are to just focus on just get through this day, just get through this week, have enough to feed my family.

Paul Nottoli: 15:30

You start to just make those changes, but I find that that can be over sometimes hope can also be somewhat overwhelming because you you don't focus what's in front of you. You focus on I need to dig myself out, but you almost push ask for help, you just feel like I have to do this on my own, and that sometimes runs into where you're not focused, like you said, right in front of you, or Sean said, I should say, the advice that That's right. You've given us. Anything to hope that we have not discussed like to add today?

Chris Helms: 16:05

I don't know if it if it's that we haven't discussed it, but just the thing that's been on my mind, and it is kind of a lot anyways, is that I think that people need to listen to the conversations that are going on around them. And when you really focus in on them, how many of them are just so negative? Rumors and gossip and complaining, and it's easy to fall into that. You know, it's kinda like a trap. And and if you'll notice, you know, there's a crowd of people over here, and they're all complaining about something, and that's what they have in common, and so they gravitate.

Chris Helms: 16:35

And when I see that stuff, I run from it. I just try to stay as far away from negativity as possible. And even within my own company, you know, like 80% of my doctors make me want to throw stuff, but there's redeeming qualities about those 80%, right? And, then I'm able to look and go, look, well, at least I'm not going bankrupt anymore. Things are great, actually.

Chris Helms: 16:56

And so I like to look for the positivity, even in the negative. And I think that that's something that's hard to do. And I'm not perfect at it. I'm just good at it because I put effort into it, that I really just try to block out anything that's negative. If it's if there's white and dark, I try to stay away from the dark because it's easy to get sucked into it.

Chris Helms: 17:17

And so what I would say to people is try not to get sucked into that. Be aware of what's going on around you. Who are you hanging around? Tony Robbins and so many other people say you're an average of the 10 people you spend the most time with. And, I'd be honest, that's made me get rid of some people.

Chris Helms: 17:32

Like, just drop them. Boom. Like a bad habit. Because it's bringing me down, and I think, everyone can hear that and say, okay. What and who is bringing me down, and what can I do about it?

Paul Nottoli: 17:44

Yeah. It's easy to hear that quote or the 5 people, 10 people, or whatever, but it's hard to have that, EQ or whatnot to that that understanding of how to actually see that in the world. Because if you're just in the silo of negativity all the time, then you just become you're just becoming that negativity. If you're a positive person, you're just you're just always focused on it. Not watching for me, I haven't watched the news of any kind and myself even the doom scrolls sometimes.

Paul Nottoli: 18:20

I'm like, what am I doing? Like, you just get caught up, and you're like, this is stupid. This everything sucks. And I'm like, what am I doing? Sometimes, I'm just like, just put the phone down and go outside.

Paul Nottoli: 18:30

Just don't, like because it's easy to get caught in it, and it and it happens fast, especially with social media. I find myself even few minutes at night, you read something that pisses you off, and the next thing you know, you're you just and you're like, hey. What am I doing? Sleep good the night before, and it just ruins your it's tough. It's and but it's practice too.

Paul Nottoli: 18:51

Have constantly good people, and Lacey and Dave Meltzer, like, what who we know that are just podcasts that's putting good into your ear on a regular basis. And if you're able to recognize those things, those relationships, then that might not be the best that you need to limit or eliminate yourself doing the doom scrolls. I like to call it on social media.

Chris Helms: 19:15

Yeah.

Paul Nottoli: 19:16

Because I I guess that that's something I get caught up in and yeah.

Chris Helms: 19:22

Yeah, man. And, I gotta be honest with you. I am guilty. I watch a lot of news, but I know where I stand, and so I I usually I usually end my news watching feeling okay. I'm alright.

Paul Nottoli: 19:34

Yeah. And it's because you practice a lot of being where your what your lines are, where your boundaries are, that you know that you're you're in that. But for me, I just found that the news, like, just negativity was so much and just so for me, that was the number one thing I did years ago when my twenties was just stop watching news, and it was like, oh, this is refreshing. He's a bastard. The next

Chris Helms: 20:00

the next thing I gotta cut out of my life is fantasy football because I just woke up today and found out my quarterback is maybe out. So I was like, well, there goes my season. It's week 1.

Paul Nottoli: 20:10

Team hasn't started, so I'm still I'm still not in the doom doom of it. So yeah. But, yes, I may have to just cut out. Yes. At the time as as we were turning on, Michigan was losing to Texas, and I was like, oh, this is they have fountain mouth a little too confidently, but we'll see what happens in or time.

Chris Helms: 20:31

Paul. It's gonna be okay.

Paul Nottoli: 20:35

Is, how do people find you, connect with you, learn more about what you do? Maybe there maybe there's some practitioners looking to possibly work with you or just people wanna follow you and learn more about your about what you're doing?

Chris Helms: 20:48

Well, we always say, if you can't find me or my wife on social media, then your phone must be turned off because we are everywhere all the time, especially her. My wife's name is Jeanne Helms. And, so you can find us at federal injury centers dot com. We have a Facebook live training page that's called Wednesday night OWCP Chats with Chris and Jeanne. I've got books, you can see one behind me, called breaking OWCP, and I've got a TikTok page that is named that.

Chris Helms: 21:18

So we're everywhere, and my name is Chris Helms. And if you search me, you'll find me everywhere.

Paul Nottoli: 21:23

Sure. Yes.

Chris Helms: 21:24

Everywhere.

Paul Nottoli: 21:25

Yeah.

Chris Helms: 21:25

Yeah.

Paul Nottoli: 21:26

Genies everywhere. And if you pay attention to my page, you'll see probably me posting photos with Chris and stuff at Sure. Events that we attend on a regular basis. There's some irregular yes. Cool places.

Chris Helms: 21:36

That's right. I don't

Paul Nottoli: 21:37

have the shirts that Chris has, so I feel feel underdressed every time. Always dresses dresses really nice and too. So I always feel like I'm underdressed when I'm around you guys, but we have a good time.

Chris Helms: 21:50

No. You gotta be who you are. That's what she told me. I struggled with this for so long because I never felt like I fit into any room I was at. And she said, you just gotta find who you are and be that.

Chris Helms: 21:59

And I said, well, okay. Here we go.

Paul Nottoli: 22:01

Like, you have to be okay with that too? It sounds good.

Chris Helms: 22:06

You might not like it.

Paul Nottoli: 22:09

So much for your time today, Chris. I appreciate you Yeah. Seeing you soon in person at some point in time, and, thank you for for giving your insights and your expertise. And, yeah, I appreciate you, and thank you for being on.

Chris Helms: 22:24

My pleasure, Paul. Thanks.

Paul Nottoli: 22:26

Bringing you another episode of the Believe the Hope podcast.