What does Jim speak on?

How to Grow your Business. (Motivation & Sales issues.)

In general: “Relationship Selling and Intelligent Motivation for a Challenging World” A shorter answer would be: The Human Factors in Business. In Sales, Service, Leadership, or Motivation, His main areas of expertise are Relationship Intelligence and Self-Leadership as applied to Business Growth.

He focuses on how to understand yourself & others, deal with people effectively and structure your work or your organization to help both people and profits to grow. (Jim’s specific topics are outlined in the topic descriptions)

What are his qualifications to speak on these topics?

• Bestselling Author & Sales Expert: Jim Cathcart has authored 15 books, 2 international bestsellers, the #2 national bestselling e-book (2000), and was selected as one of the Top 5 Speakers on Sales & Service in an online survey of over 14,000 people for the years of 2010 and again in 2011. Jim is the Original Author of “Relationship Selling.” It was published in 1985 and rewritten in 2002 and 2009.
• Professional Trainer: Jim has been a top achiever and leader of many organizations over several decades. He has been a professional salesperson since 1970 and he has been a professional trainer since 1974 when he was leading seminars for Nightingale-Conant and for the US Junior Chamber of Commerce in his native state of Arkansas. He went on to become the Manager in charge of Leadership Training for the Jaycees at their National Headquarters for two years (1975-77). Since then Jim has conducted his own research worldwide, worked with over two thousand client companies, and for three years (88-91) owned a major interest in a psychological research firm in Arizona.
• Sales Trainer: He has sold insurance and been the sales trainer for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. in their award-winning office in Tulsa, Oklahoma (6 years), as well as building a successful consulting firm (now 34 years of continuous success). Early in his career he sold mutual funds, automobiles, motorcycles, and even doughnuts! Jim is the original author of Relationship Selling and has authored five major sales books including a college textbook, plus eight other successful books.
• Banker: He was a banker for several years and ultimately became a member of the American Bankers Association’s executive faculty (five years).
• Volunteer Leader: Mr. Cathcart is a respected civic leader and consultant to many nonprofit organizations and charities. As a volunteer leader he has been a local, state, and national officer in both the US Jaycees (managing a national field force of 200 volunteers) and later, the National Speakers Association’s (NSA) 88-89 National President. He is a Board of Counsellors member for the School of Business at California Lutheran University and served on the Board of Visitors of Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business & Management and the Board of Directors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Conejo & Las Virgenes.
• National President: As national president of NSA, Jim made a major impact on the future development of the association, especially in the area of professional education, where he designed their Professional Competencies program. He served 10 years on their board of directors.
• Convention Chair: Jim personally has chaired eight major conventions ranging in attendance from 250 people up to 1,300 people! His largest had 225 separate events over a five day period. He is also a master at conducting board and committee meetings and has even recorded a Nightingale Conant album on the topic, Meeting with Success.

Describe Jim’s speaking style.

Jim is one of the most inspiring and sincere speakers you’ll ever hear. He’s very thoughtful about his topics and knows each audience well. He uses a playful humor and sometimes incorporates guitar and song into his keynotes for fun. He is powerful yet very smooth and professional with that underlying playfulness which makes him fun to listen to. He usually uses PowerPoint images or other audiovisuals and always involves the audience on some level. It may be asking them to raise their hands, posing questions they can easily answer, or creating exercises which get them to actively apply what they are learning. (This depends on the nature of the situation and the goals for the meeting.)

Audiences frequently comment on Jim’s ability to connect with them in his first 30 seconds on the platform. Nobody leaves his talks bored! He is also praised often for his understanding of each audience. (See his recent testimonial quotes.) Jim spends many hours studying the group prior to each performance.

Storytelling is one of Jim’s strengths and his background is in conducting training programs. He can be dynamic, humorous, inspiring or pragmatic with lots of specific “how to’s”, depending on the needs of the group. Above all, Jim is always well-prepared and thoroughly professional in his presentations.

Nobody rolls with the punches better than Jim! He knows what to do with even the worst emergencies. During one presentation the entire hotel was evacuated for a fire and Jim reassembled his audience on the steps of a building across the street and continued his presentation in stride!

He changes the style of his talk to fit the occasion, like for a keynote, or a workshop, or executive training or speaking to a group of international guests, with concurrent translation.

Isn’t Jim partners with another speaker?

No. He co-owns a number of companies with various colleagues and a decade ago was partners with Bill Brooks & Tom Antion in a company called The Professional Speaking Institute (www.professionalspeaker.com). From 1981 to 1985 Jim was partners with Dr. Tony Alessandra and they co-authored a number of still-popular products. But since 1985 Jim has been the sole owner of Cathcart Institute, Inc.

I heard Jim long ago. Doesn’t he speak mostly on Sales?

No, he mostly speaks on Intelligent Motivation, whether for sales or leadership, he is best known for his book and online assessment built around Relationship Selling. He first wrote that book in 1985 and rewrote it in 2002 and again in 2009. But in the late 70′s and early 80′s Jim was a pioneer on ” behavioral styles”. He published the top selling audio album on the topic (with Tony Alessandra). Then in 1988 his career took on a bold new direction with his purchase of a psychological research firm. Jim created The Acorn Principle: Know Yourself to Grow Yourself, a four day training for leaders. This new program was the result of three years of focused research by Jim and a team of researchers. It teaches decision making, motivation, leadership, self development, and human understanding. It is now available in a speech or short seminar as well as the full training. This is most often called Intelligent Motivation for a Challenging World.