A Balanced Approach to Personal and Professional Growth

Jim Cathcart 00:05 Welcome to the Wisdom Parlor, a thoughtful discussion of important ideas among people who are committed to succeeding in life. This is a gathering of leaders from a variety of industries and our role here is to help you reach the top 1% of your field of choice. I'm Jim Cathcart. So come with me and let's discover how much more successful you could be. Speaker B 00:38 Welcome to the Wisdom Parlor, everybody. Great to have you back here. I'm Rich Bontrager. The trigger. As you know, hopefully today we're going to have a great topic and we want your interaction, you want your engagement. Today we're going to talk about is your success going to come from inside you or outside of you? Start pondering that. Today we're going to be discussing exploring the power of developing the personal qualities and habits that will attract success compared with the power of taking actions. We're going to talk about tools, software, relationship credentials. We're going to get into it all today. But the big thing I want you to think about, and Jim uses this phrase, is magnet or arrow. Magnet or arrow. And I'm sure Jim will explain that further as we get into it. Just a little reminder as we start, the Parlor is open for official business today, but it's not a debate section. It's not a forum for political religious issues. And it's a place where wisdom is going to emerge here. And we're among great people with great ideas and we're committed to making the world a better place here. So please, no self promotion, no campaigning for any company or special issues you got going on right now. Set all that aside and come into the Parlor. And by the way, the Parlor is sponsored by the Cathcart Institute Experts Academy. And if you haven't heard about that yet, it's a 12 month mentorship that results in and people receiving the CPE, a certified personal expert designation. And there is a book with Jim that he can explain that further. I'm going to drop in the chat in a moment. When we get going here, you can schedule time to talk with Jim as well. And that free book is what to do when you are the speaker. So without any further ado, Jim Cathcart is the host and he has authorized author over 25 books, deliver over 35. Jim Cathcart 02:25 I've authorized them too. Speaker B 02:27 You have and you're probably endorsed a few along the way. 25 books delivered 3400 highly paid lectures all around the world and has reached the top 1% of the 1% in the world of professional speaking. Jim Cathcart 02:38 You know him, you love them. Jim Cathcart, what a great setup. Thank you, Trigger. That's wonderful. It's great to see all of you. I tell you this. This has been such a special project for me. I met Michelle Abraham short while ago, and she said, I can turn what you're doing with your Zoom call into a podcast. And I said, great, let's make it a parlor discussion. She said, who are your guests going to be? I said, not. That's a typical podcast where you bring a guest on and you interview them and you go into their world and it's about their topic. Well, this is about our topic because there's more wisdom around me in this. This screenshot than there is in me, that's for certain. So the Wisdom Parlor is where interesting people come together to think about important things and discuss them. And today's topic, as Trigger just mentioned a while ago, is, does success come more from inside you, from the qualities you develop that make you a magnet? Or does it come more from outside you, from the discipline, the systems, the processes, and the actions you take? And I have opinions on that, but there's not an expert on that, as far as I know. Let's explore that. All right, who's got. Speaker B 04:06 We do that. By the way, raise your digital hand or wave to us, because we won't. We don't want everyone talking at once, but we do want you to share, so let us know you're ready to add in. Oh, I see a hand. Jim Cathcart 04:16 Julie. Yeah, come on in. Speaker C 04:18 Well, it's a great topic for today because I think it's both. I think it has to be both. And for example, today I have a big list of things I want to do, and some of them are more timely than others, and some of them are more intimidating than others. And I just thought, darn it, I'm better in the mornings than I am in the afternoon. Let's just tackle the stuff that's intimidating. And I went into that stuff, and already two of those people that I reached out to did exactly what I wanted them to do. So it's great to meditate on it, but you got to get in there and do the work, too, so I think you got to have both. Jim Cathcart 04:53 Excellent. I think you're right. It's a matter of percentages. Welcome, Dave. And. Hey, Fred, you had your hand up. Speaker D 05:01 Yeah, I completely agree with. With Julie. Jim Cathcart 05:05 It's both. Speaker D 05:07 It's a combination of two. Super important is the people you. You attract. Right. Who do you attract to you? The magnet? And are you attracting people that. That are going to be close to you and when you need help, when you ask for help, you're going to get such a high level of expertise and experience helping you. Now, on the other side of the coin, the work we do internally and taking action and, and putting plans into place, super important. And so I completely agree. It's, it's essential to work on both all the time. Jim Cathcart 05:52 I'm totally with you. I do a thing that I call the causation chain when I'm teaching. And I say the mindset that you start with determines the actions you're going to take. The actions you take over time become the habits that you're known by. Because people, if you say, tell me about Jody, they're going to describe the habits or the, the repeating behavior patterns they've noticed in Jody as a way of describing her. So we are known by our habits and that our habits are a reflection of our mindset through repeated actions. Okay, so if our habits are how we're known, then our habits determine our reputation. Our reputation is our habits being observed. All right, so everyone has a reputation. Even if your reputation is, who's that person over there? I don't know them. Right. The stranger in the room has a reputation, just like the person that owns the entire business has one. Right. So your reputation determines who's willing to open the door to you and who's not. So your relationships are a reflection of the reputation as observed. Does that make sense? Speaker B 07:19 Oh, totally. Jim Cathcart 07:20 And the doors that open for you, in other words, the relationships that are accessible to you as opposed to shut down because of reputation. The, the. Those relationships determine the size of your future. So it goes mindset, action, habits, reputation, relationships, future. And that's what I call the causation chain. When you think of, of that, how much of that's inside of you? Well, mindset, of course, is inside of you. Reputation is observed from outside of you relationship. You know, you could give percentages all the way up and down that scale, but you could start on either end of this to affect it. You could go up here and say, you know, I want a bigger future, I want a different future. Sergio could say, okay, I've been making movies and that's cool, but I want to be an actor in, in movies. And all of a sudden that future requires a different mixture of relationships than he has as a director. And that requires that he start back down here rethinking everything. Right? Or he can go down here and say, my mindset is this. What actions do I need to take? Etc. So again, I Call that the causation chain. And it's kind of like, are we nurture or nature? Speaker D 08:49 What. Jim Cathcart 08:49 What are we the result of? And the answer is yes, both. Right, Dave? Okay. I mean, we are the result of the way we grew up, where we grew up, when we grew up, and who we interacted with, because that determined how our nature unfolded. Because our. Your nature only takes you so far in predetermination. And then the rest of it depends on this. What happens with that? Right. And you throw an acorn in the yard, is it going to become an oak tree? I don't know. Because it's completely subject to the environment. But humans have the ability, intellect. Intellect having three parts, the ability to adapt to our existing environment, shape our environment, or select a new and different environment. This comes from the work of Robert Sternberg. He wrote a book called the Triarchic Mind. He was a instructor and a researcher at Yale. And he wrote this about the same time as Howard Gardner, wrote Frames of Mind with the different types of intelligence and. Fascinating book, but it talks about what's the essence of intelligence, and it's the ability to do those things by either shaping the environment you're in. So you're caught in the rain, you put up a shelter. You've shaped your environment, adapt to the environment. You just get used to being wet and figure out how to live wet right in the rain. Or select a new environment, go live in a cave for a while. So that's. That's the essence of inner intellect as shown in this book. Over to you. Speaker B 10:40 I've got it. I've got a thought. I'm just curious. So the idea of success, first of all, is different to everybody here? Jim Cathcart 10:48 Yep. Speaker B 10:48 So what success are we thinking about when we say both and. Or. Yes, no, here. Are you thinking of personal success, financial success? You dig in. What success? Is this question hitting you? I'm just kind of curious. How did you take that question? Where did it translate to? Jim Cathcart 11:06 You? Speaker B 11:06 Business, life, family, where on that. Jim Cathcart 11:09 As you. As you're preparing to answer Earl Nightingale's definition of success is. Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. The progressive realization, the unfolding of a worthy ideal. That. That's. That's basically what success boils down to. But it can be personal, interpersonal, business, as rich was, any number of things. Let's get some thoughts on that. Hey, Jeff. Welcome. Speaker E 11:42 Good afternoon. Jim Cathcart 11:45 Cool. Speaker B 11:45 Anyone on mute? Jump on in. Jim Cathcart 11:47 All right. Speaker F 11:49 Yeah, I'll say something here. I think it's both. I think that, you know, our typical idea is success in our business, in our profession. But you've got to have success in your personal life to be able to, you know, accelerate the profess the success in your business and vice versa. So I think it's both. I think right off the bat, it's your attitude, your mindset has got to determine how much you're going to do, how much you're willing to do, how much you're willing to sacrifice, and how much are you willing to delve into what it takes to be successful. And by doing that, that helps you both in your personal life as well as in your professional life. So I think, as we've all said so far about the whole idea, it's a tandem. One goes in the other, you really can't. In my opinion, I don't think you can really succeed in either your personal life or your professional life if you don't make the decision first and foremost to make the decision to do it. And then you got to go into, put the action in place. So I think it goes hand in hand. Speaker G 12:46 Yeah, I think you can be successful in business, but then not successful in personal life, or you can be very successful in personal life but then failing in business and you can be successful in something but to be a successful person. And again, I jumped in late. I don't know what the original question was, but I'm kind of piecing it together to be a successful person. It's a, it's a balanced life all the way around. If you look at the Zig Ziglar wheel of life, and if you can have a balance, you could, you might all have only one in the circle, the, the wheel of life. But if you, then you're a balanced person. And I think that is success. I think balance is very critical to success. Speaker B 13:32 The, the big question of the day was, is success going to come from inside of you or outside of you? But we never define what that success was. That's why I'm just curious. Jim Cathcart 13:42 Yeah. And if you look at what, what Dave was referring to, Zig used a version of this with seven pieces to it. I've added an eighth. It's mental, physical, family, social, spiritual, career, financial, emotional. So if you think about your life and, and this is something I was just scripting for a video to go on my website just this morning, I opened it by saying, how fully are you living? You know, the. A friend of mine, Margaret McBride, who's a literary agent, said to me years ago about the Acorn Principle. She said, the purpose of life is really Living. It's living, really living. And I thought that's, that's pretty, a pretty good description because if you think of this, all of us, you know, we've seen this, we thought about it a zillion times at this level in our careers. But if, if you look at this not from a standpoint of how successful have I been mentally, you know, physically, emotionally, etc, but rather look at how fully am I living in each of these areas? How fully am I developing and using the, the functions of my mind, innovation, memory, you know, all those things, visualization and so forth? How fully am I using my, my body and living well, you know, considering any limitations I might have? How fully am I interacting with those that I consider family? How active am I in caring relationships socially, as opposed to like Facebook relationships? And spiritually, how, how at peace and, and fed do I feel internally based on what I believe is so about the world, career wise? How fully am I engaged and living in my career? How fully am I engaged and living in my finances? And then the emotional. The reason I brought that up is emotionally, we need to have moments of exhilaration. We need to have experiences of deep sadness from time to time to grieve. We need to feel safe and, and protected and loved. We, you know, all the range of emotions that are possible, they all have their place. And if we deny any of them, we're not getting rid of them, we're postponing them. So any part of your life that has not gotten enough attention lately, sooner or later it's going to step forward and say, okay, all you other parts of your life, sit down. My turn. And if it's physical, it's going to say, my turn. We're going to the hospital. If it's emotional, it's going to say, okay, my turn, we're going to therapy. If it's relationships, at my turn, we're going to court. Whatever it happens to be. You've got to make time for each of these. The myth has been that people think you ought to evenly divide your life by seven or eight, percentage wise, you know, all around. Can't do that. You have to be fully engaged in one at a time, rotating and alternating so that none ever ends up neglected too long. Who's next? Sergio? Give us some pearls of wisdom, little observation from the Canadian side of things. Speaker B 17:28 Oh, God. Speaker D 17:29 Well, I don't know for being that successful on the Canadian side, but we weren't. We're not talking politics or religion today, but, you know, success is an interesting thing. You know, I Used to think it was making a lot of money and being happy. I somehow missed the part about enjoying the journey, you know, and that's something that you really helped me understand is this idea of even. Even the notion of balance is sort of tricky because, you know, we're not looking at it like as percent, 10%, 10%. Like it doesn't have to be an equal percentage. It's how fully are you living in each of these areas? So that, that living fully fulfillment piece is something I'm very conscious of. And, you know, there's a few bumpy areas in my life right now that I'm looking at and saying, you know, I better schedule a date night or I better, you know, put some love and attention and focus in this area before it's too late, you know. Jim Cathcart 18:31 Beautiful, beautiful. Thank you. And by the way, thanks to Lisa Marie for posting the causation chain on the in the chat. If your chat window is not open, do open it up. She took one of my slides and posted it in there. Cool. Well, I am blessed with relationships that are just absolutely pure gold. I, you know, when I think about 1976 and Jody's probably got records of me from back then because she has records of everything from back when I, in 1976, I joined the National Speakers Association, a little club of 200 people, and said, I want to, I want to be one of those people when I grow up. I want to be like Zig Ziglar or whoever. You know, Zig was one of the heroes at the time. And Earl Nightingale. Oh, I didn't know anything. I, you know, I was teaching other people's concepts when I was doing seminars. And very little of that was personal from me. Meaning, you know, I was, I was bringing it from outside of me and teaching it. And I got good at that. I did 400 JC's meetings, Junior Chamber of Commerce meetings in two years in Arkansas in 1972, three and four. And in those 400 meetings, I got pretty good at delivering training. But I wasn't teaching my subject. I was teaching their subjects and selling their products to go with it. And then over time, I developed my own understanding and my own material and, you know, published books and all those kind of things. But it was coming from outside me. First the desire was inside me, but the qualities weren't. And I was not an eligible receiver. So even if I'd been downfield and in the open, I didn't have the ball catching capacity that would cause somebody to throw it to me. So I had on those qualities in order to create the external. Speaker B 20:32 So, Jim, Jim, you just hit on something I've been thinking about is why are some people more open to, say, outside help? I'll receive it, I'll take it. In fact, I even would love it. And some people are closed off to the idea of somebody else coming in and helping them open that magic door, go to the next level. What's. What's that barrier that keeps some people from being eligible downfield to catch it? Jim Cathcart 20:55 Yeah. What are your thoughts, folks? Yeah, Jodi, I think a lot of Speaker H 21:00 people don't have mentors or they don't have the right mentors or they think they've gotten beyond the point of needing mentors. And I think that we always need people to be able to bounce things off of and to ask advice from. And we get so many different viewpoints, and the more viewpoints, the better, because then we can kind of decide, okay, based on all this different feedback I've gotten from all these different mentors that I highly respect, what do I think? And that really, I can't stress it enough when I talk to people. I ask them every single time. I ask my employees, I ask my Girl Scouts, I ask everyone, who are your mentors? And very often I get blank stares. Jim Cathcart 21:37 Yeah, my mentor was remote at first. You know, it was Earl Nightingale and Dale Carnegie and people I got from books or recordings. Recordings. And finally I was able to connect with people in person and have mentorship that way. But you're right. And we need to have more than one version of mentor, you know, because some mentors, they're going to hold you accountable like a coach. Some mentors are going to simply advise you, some are going to be Socratic, and they're going to ask you compelling questions that cause you to stop and go, all right, I hadn't considered that, you know, and. And some mentors are going to lead you through a process and simply observe and give you supportive feedback. There's all kinds of modes of mentorship, and I've got probably half a dozen that I consider true mentors in my, in my current life. But that's, that's important. Here's another one. Spencer Johnson, you remember who moved my cheese? Well, Spencer was the author of that, and he was the co author with Ken Blanchard of the One Minute Manager. And his office was next to mine in La Jolla, and his wife and my wife would have lunch together quite often in La Jolla. And so Spencer and I were talking one day and he said, I'm writing a New book called yes or no, the Guide to Better Decisions. And he gave me a draft of it, and I ended up collaborating with him on the book. But the nature of the book is it leads you to the use of a decision making tool that he designed that's simply a yes or no decision making tool. He says anytime you've got a decision to make, there are two sides to that decision. One, the practical side. Is this going to work? Are there enough resources? Is it sensible to do this? Will it last? You know, things like that. And the other side is the personal side. How do I feel about this? Does this have integrity with my belief system and what I think is right? Does this. Is this something I see myself doing or being associated with in the media? You know, how do I feel about it on that side? And then he's got a series of sub questions that help you get clear on that. But if you can get a copy of this, by all means do. If you don't find one, I've got in our Going Pro and Exec or Experts Academy files, there's a copy of the Guide to Decisions, so you can download that if you're subscribed to that. If not, just send me an email and I'll send you one. But anyway, good tool for mentoring yourself when you don't have the external mentor, because a process can be your mentor in a limited way, a reliable process. Jeff, bring us a little Freedom Day wisdom. Speaker E 24:40 Well, I mean, I, I think, you know, along the same lines of what you're talking about with, with mentors and everything else, I think you also have to realize that you have to take the bull by the horns and actually do it. I think too many people sit back and, you know, oh, I, I can't control this. You know, my life's out of control. Well, your Life is completely 100 in your control, and you have to kind of switch your brain around a little bit. I was doing a podcast interview yesterday, and I, I, you know, it was one of those moments of inspiration. You know, the lady that was interviewing me, we were talking about real estate, and she said, well, you know, I mean, it's great. You know, I, I'd love to invest in real estate, but I don't have money. And I said, you got to stop right now, and you got to start thinking about life in a totally different way. You need to start thinking about it. Not from, well, you know, I, I can't do it because I don't have the money to. All right, how do I find the money? To do that, you know, and I always go back to one of my heroes, Grant Cardone. I mean, Grant Cardone, when he. We were. I was watching Undercover Billionaire, and I mean, first thing he did when he got to town, he's like, okay, who's got my money? You know, and I. I started to think that way, okay, who's got my money? Where do I need to go to get to it? You know, and I think it's. It's the same thing when it comes to, you know, becoming successful. It's the same thing of why people don't move forward. You know, you've got to stop thinking about what, you know, why I can't do it and think about what do I need to do to do it. Speaker D 26:16 Exactly. Jim Cathcart 26:17 And. And to say, I don't have the money yet. Yeah. Speaker E 26:24 Not even that. Where do I get the money? Jim Cathcart 26:26 Yeah. Speaker E 26:26 You know, so it's even more than that. Where do I get the money? Where do I get the knowledge to do this? Jim Cathcart 26:31 Hi, Pam. Speaker G 26:32 I think it's. I think it's a. I think it's a difference between a lack mentality and an abundance mindset. You know, I. I tell my clients this all the time. Your business is perfectly designed for the results that you're achieving. I think that works for your. For your life. Your life is perfectly designed for the results that you're achieving. So if you don't like the results, you got to change the design. And I love what Jeff said, you know, have that mentality of. Instead of, I can't turn it into I can. Because, you know, I don't know about you, but I serve a. I serve a God that is limitless, and he created us in his image. Jim Cathcart 27:12 Yeah. And if you think of the universe as being unlimited, the possibilities exist beyond our capability of even perceiving them. Then there's always a way. You know, I did a little. I wrote a poem that was in my book. Is. In my book. Intelligent curiosity is optimism. When you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. It's a matter of mind and not just a matter of might. If you, you know, I don't remember all the. The rhyming part of it, but basically it's when you see that there are possibilities beyond your ability to perceive them. When you believe that, then you will keep looking until you find evidence of them. If you don't believe they're there, you'll give up. So pessimism always causes the world to shrink, whereas optimism is always looking for a little Crack in the armor where there might be some sunlight possible in that direction. And people say, yeah, but that's Pollyanna. No, Pollyanna is. Is deluding yourself and saying, oh, no, this. The bleeding is going to stop because. Because, you know, just can't go on. Everything's going to be fine. No, it's not. You may need to take action to stop the bleeding. And once you take that action, then recovery is possible. If you don't take that action, recovery is impossible. I was a combat medic. That was what I trained to be. I didn't see any combat, but in the Army, I was trained as a combat medic and hospital corpsman. 91A10. And we were taught, stop the bleeding. That's the first thing you do. So when you go into a company and you're advising them, consulting with them, say, okay, where are we losing money, losing customers? Where are we making things go bad? Stop that. Stop the bleeding. Because if you don't stop the bleeding, the patient can't survive. Second, clear the airway. In other words, allow them to breathe. What does that mean in a company? It means clear the communication airways. Tell the truth, good or bad news, up and down to everybody so that everyone sees the reality and can offer input or opt out and leave if they want. Third, protect the patient. Get the person out of the zone where the bullets are hitting so that you don't further damage the business, the company, the person. And then finally, treat for trauma, for shock, for ptsd. Allow for the impact of this bad moment to be processed and recovery to happen among the people. So same principles just applied in different ways. Welcome aboard. Pamela Stanbaugh. You know, Pamela, I was thinking being accountable actually pays off. Speaker I 30:06 Well, there you go. I thought of that once, too, and then I wrote it down. Jim Cathcart 30:13 There you go. That's the name of it. Pamela's in San Diego, and she's been a mentor and an advisor and a. And a paid coach of mine, business coach of mine for many, many different times over the years, and a trusted and dear friend. So welcome to everybody. By the way, Dave Kaufman had me at his Edge Con conference in Nashville the other day, and that was awesome and such great fun. And I was coaching today. Ken Hartley and Marie Cosgrove, from your meeting, doing a little speech coaching. Just amazing. And then Jeff Kickle's specialty is Freedom Day. He's achieved it in his own life, and now he's teaching other people and has actually written a book about it and has a podcast about it. How do you achieve Freedom Day? What's Freedom Day, the day you can cut the strings and work is optional and you get to do whatever your heart tells you to do. And Sergio never read a. Sergio and I met on a, what was it, a chat. Clubhouse chat. And then connected and he joined the Going Pro program and came here to Austin like you did Robin and then Julie and anyway, Sergio and I just bonded and he's a movie director and producer and creator and, and just a super cool guy that's living a lifestyle that I want a big chunk of. And Robin Kriseman and I go all the way back, you know, playing music together at NSA National Speakers Association. And Robin's a TV producer and a musician and a author and a trainer and basically teaches people how to stand out and win by being a Work at Work Day rock star in whatever it is you're doing. And Fred's a new acquaintance of mine. Fred. Fred, I don't know as much about you, what your, your area is. Accounting, cpa, that kind of thing. Is that right? Speaker D 32:15 My area is in, in investing and. Jim Cathcart 32:20 Okay. Speaker D 32:20 Specifically alternative investments. So I, I teach and speak about that and share the message. So I, I, I've got to connect with Jeff because I love hearing what he's all about. That really resonates. But it's great to be here and always love being around a diverse community and diverse group. This is awesome. Jim Cathcart 32:51 Super. By the way, everyone type your contact info in the chat and the chat will be saved as part of this overall recording so that if you want to share it, if you don't, then don't worry about that. Well, Julie Furman is still coaching Cupid and doing quite well at it, and just returned from a love conference in New York. Speaker C 33:13 Right, that's, that's right. It's the 20th anniversary of my company, but also the 20th anniversary of the Matchmaking Institute, which evolved into the Global Love Institute. And they've been producing conferences for 20 years and they've just gotten bigger and better. I mentioned to you, Jim, when I first started in this industry, all the conferences were strictly about lead generation, conversion, how to close deals. Yeah, they cry, they buy. You know, those were the kinds of things that they tried to get us to do. And now it's really much more about service and the art of making a great match and the challenges that we have today in relationship and what we can do as professionals to help. So it's just delightful. And I got to talk about service oriented matchmaking, which made me really happy because the loudmouths in my industry are usually the people charging 10 times what I charge and I'm given more service than they are. So it was really good for me to be able to share with people you can have a good business over 20 years without price gouging. So it was really fun for me. Jim Cathcart 34:28 And that goes back to our theme. You know, Rich, when you think about it, our theme for the day for this meeting is does success come from inside your outside? Well, for Julie, the percentage is stronger on the inside than the outside. She does the outside. You know, the actions, the work, the strategies, all of that. But the nature of Julie Furman is she's a good person looking to match other good people. And as opposed to being a carnivore who's going out there just to find who's got their money in their pocket. Right? Speaker C 35:02 That's right. Jim Cathcart 35:02 She's looking very much more into that. And that, that I think is excellent. Now, Jody, Jody has her own Amazon business, the online business, you know, online marketing. And, and I'll let you describe it a little more accurately, Jody. But the thing that I've noticed about Jody is she started as a young person on the outside part of the equation, the actions to take, the things to put in place, the systems, the processes, the dependable, reliable, productive things. And then started working more on herself and has been intensely doing that work ever since I've known her comments or observations. Speaker H 35:49 Well, Amazon is a beast and it's difficult for people to work with the beast. And we have been sellers on Amazon so since way back when they were the largest bookstore on the planet, only selling books and DVDs. So way back when then, you know, we were just trying to sell products and we didn't know anything. And so we learned everything over the last 20 plus years. And most recently, you know, we work with a lot of inventors and this is one of my inventors who asked us for advice on what to do and we told them how to package it. And you know exactly what to do from start to finish. So if somebody has an invention and they don't know where to go or where to start, we can work with them. We can refer them to the right people. If they need a trademark or a patent, we can work with them. If they already have a product that they're selling, we'll tell them, well, we'll sell more. And sometimes they'll say, okay, give it, we'll give it a try. And so right now we're doing that with one of our clients who sold 380 pieces last month. And we Said we'll sell more. And he said, okay, you take over for the month and I'll do my work, I'll work my job, and you guys work my products. And so we're thrilled because we know we're going to sell way more than he sold. So, you know, we're helping people so they can focus on their lives and, and what they want to do. And we just take their products and sell them as best we can on every marketplace, not just Amazon. I have a Walmart.com store. I have lots of stores. Jim Cathcart 37:10 Very good. Thank you. Thank you. By the way, Rich, I'm going to come to you in a moment, but I want to acknowledge my early mentor, Rex House. Rex, how are you doing? Good to see you, my friend, I tell you. Great. Jim, good to see you. Sorry I'm late now. I went to a JC's meeting in Chicago in 1974. I was a relatively new member of the Arkansas JCS and I was in charge of the programs that they called Individual Development. Idaho and the Individual Development programs were basically two programs. At first it was Personal Dynamics, which was a four part discussion program about goal setting and interpersonal communication and success skills. And then the other part was Leadership Dynamics or leadership training. And it dealt more with the external application of those qualities with other people. And then there was Speak up jc, which was kind of a hybrid of toastmasters that we did as part of our meetings. And then we had family life development, spiritual development, other things that came along. But I went to this meeting In Chicago in 74, Rosy Cheek Kid, you know, knew very little, just excited to be in Chicago at anything. And I'm sitting in this seminar and Rex started talking about things like the personal priority wheel and started telling stories and doing goal setting exercises with us. And he's a Texas boy and I'm a new transplant to Texas trying to become a Texas boy. But Rex was involved with Success Motivation Institute, is that correct? With. With J. Meyer, right? The Leadership Division. Yes. Yeah. And he's still going strong today and has so, so many successful students that have learned from his mentorship over the years. I'm honored that you joined us today. My pleasure. Thank you. You bet. So, Trigger, take us away. What? Tell us your views and insights based on what we've been talking about. Speaker B 39:19 So again, the big question for those of us joining late here and playing along is, is your success going to come from inside you or outside of you? That's the big question of the day. We've talked about mentorship, we talked about mindset a little bit. I'm kind of interested. What other tools? What are the techniques? What are the things help you guide yourself through that success journey? Is it calendaring? Is it meetings like this? What are the things that actually help you stay on your success? Okay, boom, right away. Now what is that? Speaker H 39:56 Anything that I see that have days of the week on it, I get it because I just put down what I need to do to do each day and it's pretty full. Typically, I'm busy all day long. I have some that are even lengthier. But when I'm in a meeting like this, I write down my action items and as soon as I finish the meeting, I start working on those action items. Jim Cathcart 40:16 Wow. Speaker H 40:17 I just have a method, I have habits and I just keep them. And anything that you ever see like this, send it my way. Because that's how I just, I just keep doing the same stuff I'm always doing. Jim Cathcart 40:30 Perfect habits. There you go. Thank you, Pamela. Work habits. Yeah. And one of the things. Look what she's writing on what I'm writing on. Speaker I 40:38 Yes. Jim Cathcart 40:39 Those are million dollar bills. Right? Speaker I 40:41 Right, right, right. Jim Cathcart 40:42 Yeah, yeah. Speaker I 40:43 That's where you get. That's where you get your million dollar bills and work habits. Jim Cathcart 40:48 Not too shabby. I like that. I was coaching a guy just before this call about his upcoming speech and his speech is on self leadership and he said that he was going to use the put on your mask first before helping one of the other passengers with theirs. And I said, let me suggest a change to how you do that. Walk out onto the stage and say put on your mask first. Because if you don't, you won't be there when I need you to help me. When you frame it like that, you know, everybody's saying, okay, you put on your. Before you. Oh, he didn't say that. Where's this going? And then. And why should you put on your mask first? Because like if there's a limited amount of food and you say, well, I'm not going to eat anything, I'm going to give it to all to everybody else, then you're going to die and not be able to help the rest of us because you're going to die of starvation. If on the other hand, you took a little bit and at least led yourself first, then you could lead others, you know, help yourself first, then you can help others. So put on your mask first. So you got the oxygen to be a strong, helpful resource to other people and that it goes back to the internal external, because the. Your mask first. That's taking care of you, nurturing the person and then serving others. That's taking the action, stepping forward, reaching out. Robin, you've been sitting silent too long. I want to hear some wisdom from the, from the musical side of, of the workday rock star. Speaker F 42:40 Well, all this is so good. I mean, everybody's got great insights. And Dave, I loved what you said earlier after I spoke, because you're right, you've got to make sure that there's two places happiness in your own personal life and business life. What I'm thinking about from a business standpoint, having been in the music and television business for so long and seeing a lot of these celebrities and rock stars. Not celebrities, but rock stars. Excellent people at doing what they do. They've got a mindset that is absolutely refused to lose. And they've got the diligence to make sure that they're practicing every day. Not just practicing, but perfect practice so that when they make sure that they have their gift and their skills ready to go, we're not having to think about it. It comes naturally. And then to your point that you were just talking about right there, Jim, my dad was a Baptist pastor growing up, and I grew up in the church and he was known as a people's pastor. And he was always loving on people and he always told me, son, go first, reach out, put others first, make it about them. And to your point, what you just said, Jim, yes, you've got to put yourself first in order to be able to be in a capacity that, to do that. But once you are, if you're always putting the other person first and helping them shine, they're going to like you, they're going to trust you, they're going to want to be around you, they're going to tell other people about people about you. So I'm very much an advocate of get your mindset right. First and foremost, decide to commit. Jeff Gordon. I did four specials with Jeff Gordon, the NASCAR driver and his team, the Rainbow Warriors. Their mantra was refuse to lose. And we were talking in Austin, Jim, at the, at the work, at the retreat, going pro. Yeah, diligent. This. The, the, the teams are on a mat on a NASCAR team. The, the pit stop fractions of a second make a difference. And the, the commitment that these team members are challenged to be a part of is to go out there and undo that lug wrench, get that tire off, fill in the gas or wipe the the windshield is so important because matter races from the first to the 30th person was in, you know, within seconds. So are we willing to commit to do that in our business? And so most of us aren't. And that's typical of the. If you look at success ratios and most sales companies are, you know, customer service, there's the top 5% maybe, and there's maybe a 20% that's pretty good, but the top five is really good, and the majority are not. There's a bottom layer that's not really good, and there's some in the the middle of that that could be good if they were taught better or whatever. But I'm always wanting to get out there and share the principles that these rock stars and these hall of fame speakers that we've worked with and are doing so we can all be better. And when we do, that helps other people shine around us, because that's part of our mantra, is how good we are at what we do, how good we are in our presentation with other people, and how good we are with other people. And so the idea of what I speak about is be the one people want to work with, buy from, and tell others about. And there are steps that you can make that happen. And. And I just think that we can do that in our everyday life. Jim Cathcart 45:46 By the way, let me, in our business, back up and say that again. Be the one people want to work Speaker F 45:53 with, buy from and tell others about. Jim Cathcart 45:57 Work with, buy from, and tell others about. I love that. That's poetry. But we'll see you. Dave, thanks for joining us. Speaker F 46:06 Thanks, dad. Jim Cathcart 46:06 By the way, Robin, I love your graphic behind you. Of course I do. Thank you. Speaker F 46:13 Whenever I go to a meeting, I have that person back there. Jim Cathcart 46:17 There you go. Speaker F 46:17 I want you to make them shine. Jim Cathcart 46:20 I want you and Sergio to get to know each other. I think you'll. Yes, yes. Speaker B 46:25 So, Jim, I got one from Jody in the chat. She wants to know how much have E courses, because E course is another way. It comes from within us. It goes out to people. But also people are coming into your E course. So, Jody, you want to add anything about. She's kind of curious how many of us are leveraging something like that to get the in and out going. Speaker H 46:44 I just realized that when I work one on one, I can only help one person. But if I create an E course, I can really help a whole lot of people. But I don't really have experience with E courses. Usually I sell products, and this is something that is. Is, you know, intangible. You know, it's. It's a video online that people would need to watch. And I just. I'm curious if people have had success with it and what they think about it. Just any feedback at all? Jim Cathcart 47:09 Quick comment on that. E courses are just books delivered in a different medium. So what you do is you take each chapter of the book and deliver it in a video format with learning tools or whatever, however you're going to approach that. But each. Each thing is about learning one aspect of it. Like, if I was using this to structure an E course, I would have one about mindset, and it would be all stories about points of view and mindset and so forth. And then I'd go into these other items as well. And for actions, I would have specific steps and. And show the value of them and the payoffs. But for habits, I would have systems. Because a system is to a business what a habit is to a person. A system is to a business what a habit is to a person. Another way of saying that is a policy or standard practice or SOP is to a business what a habit is to a person. If I have good hygiene habits, then I tend to stay healthier longer and be more pleasant to be around. If my business has good hygiene habits, there's less waste, less spoilage, fewer losses, greater profits. So just think of your E course that way. And then I don't have a book Speaker H 48:31 yet, so mine is gonna maybe be the reverse where I do the E course first and maybe a book. I don't even know if I need a book. Jim Cathcart 48:38 My book that's coming up, the what to do when you're the speaker was an E course first. I went into a studio in North Carolina in the 1990s, and I stood on camera and did 54 little lessons about how to be a professional speaker and. Or a public speaker, and also talked about professional speaking. And we put that into a system called the professional Speaker Success System, Bill Brooks and me. And then years later, I had it transcribed. And then I put it into a book that we published in China and did it in Mandarin and English side by side. And then I brought it back home and I wrote some more around it and turned it into the final book that will soon be published soon, meaning April of 2023, what to do when you're the speaker. And it's. It's one of the biggest books I've done since the ACORN principle. Speaker H 49:35 You have an amazing history and a following for the rest of us who. Nobody knows who I am. You know, when they even buy from me, they don't know they're buying from me. You know, they buy on Amazon. They think they bought from Amazon. They have no idea there's outside sellers on Amazon. So for other people who don't have the following yet, you know, how do we get to that point where we can sell that? Jim Cathcart 49:57 Course I'll answer, and then I want the others to answer. And I'd like you to start at Rex. The. My answer is this. When you don't have the personal identity to draw people to you yet, use your topic or your brand as the draw. So it could be number one Amazon seller shares the secrets of marketing. You know, it could be. Create a hit product that goes viral in the first 60 days. And that's the. That's the thing that you lead with. Doesn't matter who it came from. If that's what it actually teaches, I'm in. So people will be drawn either to the subject or the solution that it provides, the problem it solves and the solution it provides, or to the source. I like that the alliteration works, the S's, but the source is you. So if the source has a strong brand, go for it. Like on my earlier books, my name didn't have any draw. It was all about the title. And now that my name's got some recognition, I can springboard with that. But then again, I'm springboarding off of a lot of the names that have endorsed me, you know, like yourself, Jody and Les Brown and Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins and Tom Ziegler and, you know, and on and on like that. Rex, give us some thoughts on that. I can't add anything to that, Jim. Like, you like that version of it? I love it. Yeah, it's either. I mean, yeah, it's either the person or the topic. Yep. Rex has a number of tools, like little booklets that have just great stuff that a lot of it's been around for a long time. Like the man in the Mirror, you know, the Burton Braley poem, things like that. But these are things I grew up on and Rex grew up on in the motivation field that I think need to be revived and shared today. Because there's. There's a poem called the man in the Miracle. It was written at a time when gender was all male in. In publications. You know, everything was he. And so it says, when with pleasure you are viewing any work that one is doing and you're liking or you love him, tell him now, don't withhold your approbation till the parson makes orations, and he lies with snowy lilies on his brow, for no matter how you Shout it. He won't know a thing about it. He won't know of any teardrops you have shed. If you think that praises do him, now's the time to show it to him. Because a man can't read his tombstone when he's dead. And then the one the man in the mirror is. You know, when you get what you want and you struggle for self and the world makes you king for the day, go to the mirror and look at yourself and see what that guy has to say. It goes on. But that Rex just has an abundance of those little treasures. Speaker B 53:02 Robin, I saw your hand go up as well. So did you have a comment on the courses? Speaker F 53:08 Well, first of all, that was brilliant what you all just did there. Rex and Jim, awesome. That was, that was beautiful. To Jody, we've talked about it before, but I want to bring it up again. The idea of a mini workshop as a precursor to growing your following, whether that's for another course or a coaching program. If you go to Wake up to freedom wakeuptofreedom.com this is a couple. They're not married, they're partners. And they have done extremely, extremely well with many courses. And the first course they did, they've sold about 800 of those, 8,000 of those when they had nothing at all. And as basically it's the simplest thing that you can do. You have Jody, you think of the problem that you, your audience, that your ideal audience has and you pick one of those problems and it's a simple thing that you can show them how to solve that, learn something or what you're trying to teach in one 45 minute to 60 minute workshop and you really want to give it away for free, but you don't. And you the ideal is going to probably be worth, it's going to be worth hundreds and hundreds of dollars but you're going to charge 2737, 47, something like that. Something that's a no brainer that if you can show to them that you can solve this one problem for them in this hour and you do it very nonchalantly. It's not highly polished. You use a Google Doc for your payment path. You have in your Facebook and social media groups. You, you preface this by hey guys, I'm thinking about doing a workshop, 45 minute workshop on how to do this and the ultimate result will be you will be able to achieve this by the end of the program. Would you be interested in that? Let me know in the chat. And then you dm you direct message everyone that Makes a comment on them and it's all about not you necessarily your name, it's the topic as Jim was talking about is the problem you solve. And they go into this and right now they have Mini Workshop Magic is a program that I bought initially for I think $17. And it led me into doing four different mini courses that ended up having anywhere from three to two to 300 people that came and bought those courses. That led to my bigger courses on my how to Rock your keynote to book more gigs and then how to rock star your virtual presentations and then one called Stand out to win how to do be good on camera when you're doing virtual. And it's just a precursor that opens the door because I have so many different audience are in my following so many different lanes of interest. Some of my music friends, some of my TV friends, some of my speaker friends, some of my church friends, et cetera. And if I just put something out there that's going to be something I want to teach, it's going to reach only a small amount. So if I tease it with this mini workshop and it's a no brainer then and it's something you can do for a book idea or for a speech idea, just put it out there and it's so easy for them to commit to for $17 or whatever. And you do live. And it doesn't have to be really polished except your presentation, your knowledge and your. Your delivery has to be polished. And the takeaway for them has got to be go. Wow, Jody was. That was so good. I learned you did it. What you said I was going to be able to achieve. I was able to do it in that 45, 60 minutes. Thank you Jody. And then you have a little bit of an upsell. A very casual, light hearted. You might wait a day or two before you respond to them even position that. So it's. It's a non salesy sharing of information. It's kind of like what Mark LeBlanc was talking about Jim at NSA Austin Saturday. It's about giving so much that they're overwhelmed by you and they like your teaching and your style and then. But you're not pushy. So that's just a. You know Jody, if you're coming without that, that audience that would know what your topic would be and what your problems you solve. That may be an easy way to get into it. But wake up to freedom. Jim Cathcart 57:15 Very good, very good. Thank you. Who's got a comment or wants. Wants to hop in here that we haven't Heard from much yet? Speaker I 57:23 Yes, I can hop in a little bit here. The thing that I did was almost the exact opposite of that is that I created, as you know, I created a framework of seven level up your leadership, how to be a leader. And then I built that out into a 52 week, 15 minutes a week. How do you keep yourself fresh? How do you relish your leadership role? Role. And now I'm selling that into corporations because it's really not a small business sale. It's more of a, of a large organization. How do you keep people fresh in the work that they have to do when it's harder now than it ever has been? Jim Cathcart 58:05 So yours is more of an enterprise sale as opposed to an individual sale. Speaker I 58:09 Yep. Jim Cathcart 58:09 Yeah. Speaker I 58:10 Yep. Jim Cathcart 58:11 Yeah. And that it takes much more prescribing. Speaker I 58:15 Yep. Speaker F 58:17 This is for, this is for people that really have no following or they don't have identif. They're not identified in their lane. I've got my 7500 programs and my 3500 programs. And that's a different, different process. And I've got courses that are a thousand dollars. It's for when you're starting and you don't have that audience necessarily. This is an easy way for you to somebody to take a chance. In other words, it's just for somebody to take a chance. And it's a one simple idea. But Pamela, what you're talking about is really the big, the big answer. That's where she would, the goal would be to get to that. Speaker I 58:49 Yeah, I skipped the small step. Speaker F 58:53 And a lot of people today would tell you to skip the small, small stuff. You want to jump to that, that, that, that keynote, I mean that presentation, that's the flagship. But if you don't have the following, and I'm in some of these groups that most of these courses are 1,000 to $3,000. And there's constantly people that are saying, I've done everything right, I follow the roadmap, but I'm not getting any buy in. And it ends up being there's a problem with the topic or the presentation of the ask. And so this allows you to do it easy. And if you have 10 people that show up, you learn from that. If you have two, you learn from that. If you have 500, you learn from that. But it's easy to. You get it tested. So that's, you're not wrong. And yeah, this is a totally unique way to try it. Speaker I 59:40 I totally get that and I. Jim Cathcart 59:41 That's pure gold. By the way, we've reached the top of the hour. So, Rich, you want to pull us in for a landing? By the way, thanks everybody for being Speaker B 59:49 here Again, thanks, everybody for your insights and sharing and Great, really great topic. Don't forget next month. We do this every month. Come on back, have another great conversation. Wednesday, Wisdom Wednesday. Yep. I. I just have one final thing. Let's say as we're going to release and let you go. But the question is, is your success going to come from inside you or outside of you? We started with it's probably both. What about the power of collaboration? Because it comes from me, but I'm always stronger when I collaborate with other people. And to me, in this world economically, and everything we're going through right now, we're all feeling it individually and to navigate through it, I'm finding collaboration is one of the best things for me, and it ends up being one of the best things for the people that I get to work with, like Jim. But that's been one of the game changers of inside and out, because it's working on both ends all the time. Jim Cathcart 60:49 If which party is essential to a collaboration, both means you gotta be. You gotta have something you're bringing to the table at the same time. You gotta be open to what comes from across the table. And that's what this forum is the Wisdom Parlor. And I hope you'll come often and maybe every time if you can, because I love the mix of personalities and diversity of backgrounds and interests that we have represented here. And if there's a topic you want to see us explore, bring it on. Because we're. We're here to make the world a better place. One expert at a time. Thank you. Speaker B 61:31 And again, don't forget, this is all sponsored by the Cathcart Institute Experts Academy. If you want to learn more, contact the guy right there or right there. Jim Cathcart 61:40 Okay. Free Cathcart.com. there you go. Thank you. Speaker B 61:44 Thanks, everybody. Jim Cathcart 61:48 Thank you for joining us today in the Wisdom Parlor, a thoughtful discussion of important ideas among people who are committed to succeeding in life. If you are committed to making more success happen in your own life, go right now to my website, free.cathcart.com and down download my free ebook and then watch the video. If you decide that you'd like my assistance in helping grow your success, then come with me and let's discover how much more successful you can be.