Name: Kris Mac

Title: Coach

Organisation: Coach Kris Mac

I built my first gym in my twenties thinking I had made it. On paper, I was successful. But something was off. The fire wasn’t there. I felt stuck like I was living someone else’s version of success. It took hitting rock bottom, confronting my own excuses, and stripping away all the bullshit to realize I was built for something bigger. That was the moment everything changed.

Now I challenge leaders to do the same. I work with high performers who have built their careers, businesses, and lives but feel like they are still missing something. They are disciplined but stuck. Strong but burnt out. They have more to give but no clear direction. My job is to push them past their limits, cut through their own excuses, and force them to see what they are truly capable of.

I don’t deal in comfort or easy wins. I believe in resilience forged through action. My coaching, events, and programs are designed to break people out of their cages, wake them up, and give them the tools to build a life that actually fuels them. If you are ready to face reality, level up, and lead with strength, then you are in the right place. Uncaged and unstoppable.

Thank you to the 2,000 leaders who’ve generously done the 7 Questions on Leadership!

I hope Kris's answers will encourage you in your leadership journey. Enjoy!

Cheers,

Jonno White

1. What have you found most challenging as a leader?

The biggest challenge in leadership is leading myself first. If I am not disciplined, focused, and holding myself to the highest standard, then I have no right to expect it from anyone else. Leadership starts with setting the tone, showing up every day, and proving through action what is possible.

There are days when motivation isn’t there when the easier path looks tempting. That is where the real test happens. Leadership isn’t about pushing through when things are easy. It is about staying locked in when no one is watching, when the results are slow, and when doubt creeps in. Leading myself means eliminating excuses, controlling my mindset, and taking full ownership of every decision.

The hardest part of leading myself is knowing there is no finish line. There is always another level to reach, another challenge to take on, another layer of growth. That constant demand to keep evolving is what separates true leaders from the rest. Leadership is a lifelong commitment, and it starts with mastering yourself first.

2. How did you become a leader? Can you please briefly tell the story?

I became a leader the moment I realized leadership has nothing to do with a title or position. It is a mindset. It is about how you show up every single day, how you handle adversity, and whether you take full ownership of your actions.

For years, I thought leadership was about authority. I owned a gym, ran a business, and had people looking up to me, but something was missing. I was successful on the surface, but deep down, I felt lost. I was stuck chasing an idea of success that wasn’t mine. It took hitting a wall, questioning everything, and stripping away all the bullshit to finally understand that leadership isn’t given. It is taken.

Once I embraced that, everything changed. I stopped waiting for permission and started living by my own standards. Leadership became about leading myself first, about making the hard choices, about showing up with purpose even when no one was watching. That shift didn’t just change my life. It gave me the clarity to help others break free from their own limitations and become the leaders they were meant to be.

3. How do you structure your work days from waking up to going to sleep?

I bookend my days with discipline and intention. Mornings set the tone, and nights lock in the lessons. Everything in between is about aggressive execution.

My day starts early with a non-negotiable morning routine. No snooze button, no wasted time. The first hour is for me, movement, hydration, cold exposure, and reflection. I prime my body and mind to operate at their highest level. This isn’t about motivation. It is about conditioning myself to show up with intensity, no matter how I feel.

Once I am dialed in, I attack the day with ruthless execution. Priorities are set the night before, so there is no wasted energy deciding what needs to be done. I focus on high-impact tasks, cut out distractions, and move with urgency. Training is a key part of my day, not just for my body but for sharpening my mindset.

At night, I shift gears with a shutdown routine. No mindless scrolling, no working late into exhaustion. I reflect, review my wins and losses, and set the game plan for the next day. Sleep is a weapon, and I treat it like one. I go to bed knowing I emptied the tank and set myself up to dominate again tomorrow.

4. What's a recent leadership lesson you've learned for the first time or been reminded of?

A recent lesson that hit hard is how easy it is to let comfort creep in and poison everything. Leadership isn’t just about discipline in the big moments. It is about the small choices, the ones that seem insignificant at first but compound over time.

I caught myself slipping as I experienced success but was allowing small excuses, letting certain standards slide, and getting too comfortable. My vision started getting cloudy, my execution wasn’t as sharp, and my energy wasn’t where it needed to be. Nothing major was wrong, but that was the problem. When you stop pushing for the next level, stagnation sneaks in disguised as stability.

The wake-up call was realizing that comfort is the enemy of growth. Bad habits don’t show up overnight. They build in the background when you stop paying attention. Leadership means catching that early and resetting the standard. If you don’t actively fight for your vision, you will drift into mediocrity without even realizing it.

5. What's one book that has had a profound impact on your leadership so

far? Can you please briefly tell the story of how that book impacted your leadership?

The E-Myth Revisited was the first book I was given when I got into business, and it completely changed how I saw success and leadership. At the time, I was grinding nonstop, doing everything myself, and thinking that was just the price of building something great. I was stuck in the technician mindset, working in the business instead of on it. I thought sheer effort was the answer, but in reality, I was just running myself into the ground.

This book hit me hard. It made me realize that leadership isn’t about doing more, it is about thinking bigger. It is about stepping back, building systems, and creating something that operates beyond just you. That shift in mindset forced me to let go of control, trust in structure, and lead in a way that actually created long-term success instead of burnout. More than that, The E-Myth was when I discovered the true power of learning from others.

It was the first time I truly understood that I didn’t have to figure everything out on my own. I could stand on the shoulders of giants, absorb their experiences through books, and use their lessons to accelerate my own growth. That realization changed everything. Since then, books have been one of my greatest weapons in sharpening my mindset and leveling up as a leader.

6. If you could only give one piece of advice to a young leader, what would you say to them?

Lead yourself first.

Forget titles, forget waiting for permission, and forget thinking leadership is about other people. Leadership starts with how you show up for yourself every single day. If you cannot hold yourself accountable, if you cannot operate with discipline, if you cannot push through the hard days when no one is watching, then you have no business leading anyone else. Most people want to lead, but few are willing to do the work in the dark. They want respect, influence, and recognition, but they skip the part where they build themselves into someone worth following. True leadership is forged in the daily grind, in the choices no one sees, in the relentless pursuit of being better than you were yesterday.

Master yourself first. The rest will follow.

7. What is one meaningful story that comes to mind from your time as a leader, so far? In 2010, my entire world flipped upside down. I lost my father. I lost my relationship. I sold my business. Everything I had built my identity around was gone, and for the first time, I had no direction. I tried chasing different things, jumping from one project to another, but nothing stuck. I was missing a North Star (a meaningful mission). Without that, it didn’t matter how disciplined or productive I tried to be. Without a clear purpose, habits and routines don’t mean anything. You just float.

I kept pushing, trying to force progress, but I was burning out. I had too many pokers in the fire, spreading myself thin, hoping something would give me that sense of drive again. Instead, I was heading straight for rock bottom. That was when a friend asked me a simple but brutal question: “What’s really changed?” That hit me hard. It forced me to step back and look at my life objectively. I remembered the saying, “Success leaves clues.” So I asked myself, What worked before? When was I at my best? What was driving me then? That was when everything became clear. I had lost my mission. The thing that made me wake up every morning ready to attack the day.

From that moment, I stopped drifting and started rebuilding. I redefined my purpose and mission, something that actually mattered. Then I rebuilt my discipline, one habit at a time, one brick at a time. I didn’t wait for motivation. I didn’t chase distractions. I just put in the reps, every single day. That was the foundation that got me back on track. And that is why I push others to do the same. Without a mission, you drift. With a mission, you build.