Author and Motivational Speaker Chip Baker on His Journey to Help and Inspire the Masses

It was always a natural space for Chip Baker to inspire people.

A fourth-generation teacher and a football and powerlifting coach from Hearne, Texas who comes from a family of churchgoers, Baker in 2012 started The Success Chronicles, which is a podcast he uses to interview people who tell their stories of struggles to triumph. Baker is also a motivational speaker, educator, life coach and author, writing books that have become bestsellers.

“I think we all are blessed with God-given talents and abilities and the beauty of it is when we can tap into that, aww man that puts us in alignment with our assignment,” Baker said in an interview with The Quintessential Gentleman. “…It’s organically put me in a space to where I’m doing my thing. It’s put me in a lane to where I absolutely love doing what I do. And I’m truly grateful for it.”

Baker is grateful for his life coach work in which his central theme is ACE, or adverse childhood experiences, which can be someone’s saving grace, Baker said. Baker likens this theme to how Black men can navigate through life.

“I don’t care how immune you are. No one is immune for growing through tough things,” Baker said. “…In those adverse situations, we have to make sure we can catch the lessons. We have to catch those lessons so we can say, 'Chip don’t do that again. Oh, yea Chip don’t be around those kinds of people.’ … We have to take those lessons and use those to help other people. … Once you know better, you should do better.”

For therapeutic results, Baker notes that it’s up to everyone to realize the environment and relationships that one has dealt with and learn from those past experiences.

And for Baker, it’s very easy to help someone who is struggling because he was brought up in a single-parent home starting at age five in Dallas, Texas. Still, he went on to earn a football scholarship at West Texas A&M, earning a Bachelor of Science in kinesiology/special education, before becoming a teacher and a coach close to the Houston area. Baker also has a masters in educational leadership from Sam Houston State.

His own story of trials and tribulations led to Baker writing the book, Effective Conversations to Ignite Relationships, which was started after a connection with Pastor Dr. Oliver T. Reid from the Washington, DC, area who told Baker to put the material he podcasted into a book.

“We decided to co-author that book. We did a couple book tours, but that concept took our experiences with relationships, and the fallacies and the good things, and we just put it in a book to share with people,” Baker said.

Baker also stresses that if anyone is self-aware of weaknesses, it’s about putting the work in to tackle those issues.

“You have to be willing,” Baker said. “You have to open (up). You have to be responsible with your path and seek the knowledge. You have to put that work in.”

Still, no matter the people he has interviewed for his books and podcasts, Baker recognizes one commonality.

“…None of us are perfect. We are all just striving to do the best we can with what we have,” Baker said.

Baker uses his talents as an inspirational speaker at graduation ceremonies, school and team settings, business workshops, trainings, religious functions and one-on-one interviews. And other books written are Growing Through Your Go Through, Suited For Success: Volume 2 and The Formula Chart for Life.

Check out the full interview below.