Becoming an Everyday Rockstar

Speaker A 00:05 Welcome to 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. Hey, everybody. Welcome to what was previously known as Wisdom Parlor. Wisdom Parlor has changed its name, effective about 30 minutes ago, to the Professional Experts Podcast. Because that's what this has been about all along and am a mentor to professional experts. And everything we do on what used to be Wisdom Parlor is about how can you take your expertise and make a career around it to build your reputation as a professional expert and ultimately become a certified professional expert and a leading authority in your niche where other people are quoting you. Well, today I have as my special guest, my dear friend, my colleague and certified professional expert number 24, Robin Kriseman. Robin Kreisman. Jim Cathcart 01:44 Hey. Hey. Speaker A 01:45 Yeah. He's a professional musician. He's an author. He is a professional speaker, very high level professional speaker. He coaches and mentors and does video production for other top level hall of fame professional speakers. He has toured as a musician and a performer. He's been on Star Search. If you go back that far, you'll remember that show and was a finalist and there hadn't been for Sawyer Brown knowing somebody, he'd probably have been the winner of Star Search that year. And Robin's just one of the coolest guys I know. So welcome, Robin. Happy to have you as an official guest on the Professional Experts Podcast. Jim Cathcart 02:31 Well, thank you so much. I can't tell you how moved I am that you invited me to do this and have been awarded this incredible honor because, Jim, I have followed you and looked up to you for so, so long. We've been friends for a long time, but I knew who you were before you ever knew who I was. And so I knew that you were the guy. And when I found out that you were a musician, that's when we hit it off so well. And. But I've respected you and I've got so many of your books and I have followed you and we've been, you know, good friends and spent a lot of time together over the years, and I'm just honored to and now be a part of the group. And 24 is actually a special number for me because 24 is the car number of the infamous F. Gordon, the third winningest NASCAR driver of all time. And I happen to have produced his Biography and three other specials for ESPN and TNN on Jeff Gordon's life and his work within nascar. So when you owe me that, I'm going, oh, my goodness. How cool is that? So I've got all my stuff right here. Speaker A 03:38 There you go, the certificate. And there's your medallion hanging on the wall in an honored place. Your guitars. That's always an honored place. And if you look at my wall, Jim Cathcart 03:49 one thing that's very important right here, Speaker A 03:52 father of the father. Oh, well, that outranks any. Jim Cathcart 03:56 I got the big. I got the big trophy for that one. Speaker A 03:58 Yeah. So here's my wall, you know. Yes. Robin's wall behind it. That's beautiful. Beautiful. Well, let's talk about expertise, you know, because the whole point of this is everyone has areas that they're a specialist in, and some people take that to the level where they become an expert in that specialty, and then they can teach others, counsel others, be an advisor or mentor, coach, whatever. Well, you've certainly done that. And you've done that in two different fields. One of the. Well, actually three, if you consider television show production. So you've produced TV shows multiple times. You've done Troubadour, Texas. You've done the Jeff Gordon show. You've done other shows. And then you've also made your bones as a professional speaker and been on the main stage at the National Speakers Association. You have coached and mentored other people at the top of the profession of speaking, people who've been inducted into the speaker hall of Fame, people who have made millions of dollars in speaking fees. I mean, that's pretty serious stuff. And on top of that, you and your guitar and your voice and your personality have entertained audiences all across the country and around the world. So you've made your career with your band Backstreet. You've. You've made your career on your own as a performer, and you're still performing to this day. I know because I showed up at one of your performances, and you let me do a couple of guest songs, and we shared a performance together recently on the top deck of the Lone Star Riverboat in Lake Austin, or Ladybird Lake, they call it, in downtown Austin, Texas. So, man, I mean, you're a guy that's just overflowing with creds. Where would you like to go with this? Let's tell the world about. About what's possible through Robin. Jim Cathcart 05:58 Well, you know, in our conversations we've had before, we recently were at the summit that Jim led for this group, and it's amazing learning Time for that and reflection. And Jim asked me a question and I had a hard time answering it because he said, what was your goal? What was your path of your setting these goals for it to have achieved so much success in different areas? And I thought about it, I thought about it kind and candidly. I just said I really didn't plan this because the opportunities came my way through various connections. And I had a thought process in my mind that I can learn something new if it feels within the scope of what I enjoy and what I feel compelled to do. And I can, I will study it and I will work like, like an athlete to figure out what to do. Which has become kind of the mantra of my speaking, teaching success principles from the world of music, sports and entertainment on what these pros have done to get to from the beginning to the top. And I remember early on as a musician when we did not win Star Search, we finally start finalize our tour. I was asked to come to be through a connection, the marketing director for Christian Record Company. I was a national marketing director, the sales and promotions director as well. Amy Grant was. We owned her publishing and had a lot of Christian artists that were hot during the 80s. And I had no experience doing that. But I knew music and I loved music. And I was where there's a will, there's a way. And so I began to do whatever I knew, dug deep into it. And then the owner of the record company was a big record producer, Christian Christian. And he had a number of hits himself as well as. As an artist and then tons of producer credits and songwriting credits. And so I mirrored him. I. When I left five years later, I started my own recording show and I learned from scratch. I'd never done that, of course I would, you know, knew how to mix in my music world. But then. So I had a successful studio and I did that for three years and recorded about 15 albums. My point is I would learn what I had to do. I thought like a producer, a producer in a television position. They go back and they map out every step for success that's needed to achieve the end goal. So if you see it and believe it and you can achieve it. And so I mapped those things out and then I. I basically rehearsed like an actor rehearsing, meaning whatever I needed to do to be prepared for whatever that called for, whether it was TV or live music performance or speaking engagement, I would rehearse like an actor rehearses. And a lot of times, you know, people think, well, you can't rehearse that much because it'll be stale and, you know, stiff. Well, how many times do you see George Clooney in a role or Brad Pitt or somebody like that, and you think, oh, they're just acting. No, they just own the idea of. To put it in their bones. And so that's what I've done. I plan like a producer, work out all the things that need to be done, starting from the end result. What do I want to have happen at the end, and work backwards and then go diligently in rehearsing like crazy to where I know that. I know that I know what I'm doing without having to think about it. And then the next thing is, well, time to go perform, whatever that is. Speaker A 09:27 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 09:27 And if you've got that much planning and that much rehearsing there, you're ready to go, man. You're ready to go. Speaker A 09:35 And so in my talent party that you did, all the press. Jim Cathcart 09:39 Yeah, yeah. So they'll get paid for the performance, you get paid for the work. Speaker A 09:44 That's. Jim Cathcart 09:45 That's right. Speaker A 09:46 So many performers of different types, including professional speakers, have told me over the years, I do this for free. Right. Well, of course they would. I know, because it's so much fun to do, but the getting ready for it is not necessarily fun. I heard an actor the other day say. He said, an acting career is a lifetime of auditions interrupted by occasional performances. Jim Cathcart 10:14 It's good. Speaker A 10:15 That's not bad, you know, because when you can. What is a professional speaking career, which we both had. Right. I've done 3500 paid convention speeches all over the world. Well, but that's the party. The party planning and the party preparation was getting the bookings, studying the clients, doing all the preparation, all the travel, all the keeping myself in good shape so that I could get on stage and. And connect powerfully with the audience. But, you know, people think, well, I'm going to be a professional speaker and get high fees. Yeah, but you're going to spend a lot, like 80% of your time or 90, acquiring the engagements, and then you get to do the other. But if you bring you personally, Robin, you bring an enormous joy to whatever situation you're in. It emanates from you. It's. Your presence is a joyful presence. It's so easy to like you. I guess the. The Hollywood people would call that the it factor. You've got that. You've got that. And it seems to me, knowing you as well as I do, that it comes from a happy spirit looking for ways to Spread that spirit. Because when you come into a situation, you come in optimistically, not defensively. And I've seen you in all kinds of settings. You're bringing more life to the moment. Jim Cathcart 11:50 Well, thank you. Thank you. I so appreciate that. And I have to give credit to my father. My father was a Baptist pastor growing up, and he was known as a people's pastor, and he was always loving on people. He. I've got a great shot of him someplace where he's at the church service is full, and it's before the service starts, and he's working the room, and it's a big church. He's out there, and there's. There's a shot of someone in the pew. He. He's reaching across, shaking hands and got his hands on top of them and just doing this. And it's just. He loved on people. He always was there. If you walked through the Costco store with him or something, he would be greeting everybody, you know, and all the kids and, you know, and he always talked, how you doing? Where you go to church? Well, come join me over the church. No, Sunday, come see you. We've got great classes. I mean, he just didn't. Never met a stranger, you know, that was amazing. And I saw that with a lot of the artists that I was working with. We put them on a pedestal, you know, their own stage under the big lights. And yet when we're backstage or we're on the bus, I did a series called Full Access on Tour behind the Scenes look at country music artists on the road for tnn, the Nashville Network for four years. And so from Brooks and Dunn to Trisha Yearwood to Travis Tritt to George Jones and Temi Wynette, Alan Jackson, it went on and on. And there were so many great artists in that timeframe that we got to go spend, you know, five or six days with them. And I would go out, scout with them prior to coming out there and coming back and write the script idea and then go back with my crew and we shoot. So I get to know them pretty well behind the scenes. Speaker A 13:25 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 13:25 And they're just like us. They're. Most of them are just like us and cool and fun and, you know, nothing, no big deal. They're not pretentious. And so I started watching that and looking, why can't more of us be that way? And then, you know, my story about Paul McCartney, I'll just share it real quickly for the listeners. This was a big, big moment for me. I was producing a series, a documentary on the Life of Buddy Holly for Decker Records and MCA Records that aired on the BBC and TNN. And we had 17 artists that were doing remakes of the Buddy Holly songs from Grand Nash. Waylon Jennings hosted the show. He was, you know, used to be in the Crickets back in the day. Speaker A 14:06 Sure. Jim Cathcart 14:06 And didn't get on the plane. But Paul McCartney owns the catalog, the publishing catalog of Buddy Holly. And he purchased that because he was such a fan of Buddy Holly. The Beatles second, first song they recorded was a Beatle. I mean, a Buddy Holly song. And we were in London because every September he hosts annual celebration, week long celebration in honor of Buddy's birthday. All these rockers would come all over from America to do four nights of shows. And so it was a Thursday night. We were there with the Crickets, traveling with the Crickets, his band. And I'd been working with Paul's management company to see if we can get an interview with him. Finally, the day of, I get a phone call from his road manager that we're already in town and said, yes, we think we can do it. Be in the theater in the afternoon between sound check and the start of the show and we'll try to see what we can do. So we're all there, set up, ready to roll. We don't know if we're going to get it or not. Speaker A 14:59 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 14:59 Paul McCartney. Speaker A 15:01 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 15:01 In London, in Fox Theater. Yes. Yeah. And so we're all set up, ready to go. And typically in a situation where you're getting a quick interview, a manager is going to come up to the producer, introduce the artist to the producer, the guy, the artist sits down, you talk for five or six minutes, get a few sound bites, and they're gone. Yeah, well, full access on tour was, was not like that. It was all about, you know, engagement cameras rolling 247 type of thing. Well, all of a sudden you hear he's in the room, he's here from the bartenders, getting the decks cleaned up and everything. And all of a sudden he's walking right toward me. And I'm waiting for Gary to probably introduce me. And he reaches out, his hand goes, you must be Robin. I'm Paul McCartney. I go, yes, you are. Oh, my goodness. Well, as you can tell, I talk real fast and have a lot of energy. And so my immediate thought was, let's get him set down and let's start the interview so we don't, you know, lose our time. And I said, have a seat, Paul. And he goes, oh, no, no, no, introduce me to your team. Introduce me to your team. Well, I had Kevin Hill, who was the vice president of TNN at the time. His wife Paula, who happened to look like Linda McCartney, who had passed away recently. Very similarity there. And Kevin not only is the vice president of tnn, he has this amazing collection of acoustic guitars, and he's so proud of that. And then Bill Landers, who was my mentor and my next to my father. He's my guy. And he was our Paul McCartney, wonderful songwriter. Christian had a major influence on me and all things and basically taught me everything I know about television. And he is our Paul McCartney. And so I introduced to Paul Kevin. Helen explained that he's the TNN vice president. He has a great guitar collection. Paul, his wife loves the Beatles, but she also loves Wings. And he's hugging on him and everything and saying, kevin, I love tnm. Whenever I'm in the States, I'd always turn on Home of country music, Heart of country music. And I'd love to see your guitar sometime. Oh, Paula, you're so beautiful. You look like someone special to me. And thank you for loving Wings. I love Wings as well. And, Bill. So you're the Paul McCartney of the group. Oh, we need to write some songs together, actually. We should get Kevin together with his guitars and let's all write a song together. Bill almost started crying. I mean, literally was just shocked. And he went over to our camera director, our director of photography, camera operator Charlie Wilson from Sand Springs, Oklahoma, says, Charlie's a lot of sand in Oklahoma. I didn't know that. Speaker A 17:34 My wife is from Springs, Oklahoma. Paula is Paula Kath, born in Tulsa and lived in Sand Springs as a. As a young. Jim Cathcart 17:44 That's. What's Charlie. He lived in Tulsa, but actually, you know, it was based right there in Sand Springs. Speaker A 17:49 Yeah. Yes. Jim Cathcart 17:50 And he said, so there's a lot of sand in Sand Springs, you know. So my point is, he not only remembered their names, he remembered what I said about them. Speaker A 18:02 Wow. Jim Cathcart 18:03 And so by the time we got to the end of it, I said when I told him the names, and I said, let's go ahead and sit down. That's when he said. That's when he went back to them and started talking to them. He made it special. He put them first. It was not about him. And he sat down and. Speaker A 18:20 The biggest rock star of all time. Yeah. Jim Cathcart 18:24 He's Sir Paul McCartney. Speaker A 18:25 I mean, he's the wealthiest. He's a knight, you know, from the Queen of England. He's Sir Paul. He's a milestone in the evolution of human Society. Wow. Jim Cathcart 18:39 His song Yesterday has been recorded over 3,000 times from other artists. The song Yesterday has been. Has over 6 million plays on radio. 6 million times. Yeah. It's amazing. Speaker A 18:55 It was originally called Scrambled Eggs or something like that. Jim Cathcart 18:58 Yeah. When he was trying to write it. Speaker A 19:01 Older name. Yeah. Wow. Jim Cathcart 19:04 Yeah. Yeah. So we sat down and I'm kind of trying to, you know, get myself together. Goes. Hey, Robin, so tell me about this. This documentary which you guys are doing with Buddy Holly. Well, I knew the answer, so I told him that. And then he asked me another question and I knew the answer, so I answered back and told him that, so. Oh, yeah. Speaker A 19:28 Oh, good, The Kevin's. Jim Cathcart 19:30 Yeah, about 20 minutes worth. And I mentioned there just in passing, my wife Elizabeth loves the song Blackbird. Speaker A 19:36 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 19:37 Right there on the spot. Blackbird. Singing in the dead of night Take these broken wings and learn to fly he starts singing to us. Jim, I can't tell you. It was the most magical moment ever. And so the takeaway for me was he was doing what my dad was doing. He was loving on us. He was putting us first, making it about us. And part of my messaging is. Messaging is, be the host. Wherever you are in your. In your world, be the host. Who told you you're the host? Nobody. Just take on the role of introducing people to others and being kind, asking them questions, making them feel good about themselves, helping. Helping them shine. That's what I've kind of lived through my life doing that from being in the band. And, you know, you got a lot of people coming up to you all the time. Well, you know, trying to, instead of be the cool dude, just make it about them and, you know, have fun with them, take pictures with them and so forth, and it's just been a positive thing. And I think, quite honestly, that mindset of think like a producer, act, prepare like an actor, perform like a rock star, and serve as a host, that is what's gotten me job offers after job offers after job offers. Because I never put out a resume. People would come to me, and they wanted me to be a part of their team. And they saw what I had done previously, and apparently they liked some of that idea and realized that I'm teachable. I was also very teachable. And so the doors just opened for me. And I think God's will had a lot to do with that, quite honestly, personally. So I just want to share that message with so many people. That's what my new direction is, where with my speaking is. I use it to do this. The rockstar Principles of Success. R O C K s T A R 8 principles and had stories and it was a fun, entertaining program. But I really want to push home the idea of what I call the four Ps perspective, preparation, performance and people skills. If you can master those four things on your personal, personal performance, no matter what is happening around you, you will stand out from the others. Man and boy, we need to stand out. Speaker A 21:52 I mean, that right there was a keynote speech. I would like, if I owned multiple corporations, I would like to assure that that message was presented to each of my organizations. Because it's so succinct, it's so compelling. I mean you just all us in with the storytelling and of course your energy and your nature is pleasing. And so there's no problem with connecting. But I mean, prepare like a producer. Rehearse like a actor. Jim Cathcart 22:22 Actor. Speaker A 22:22 Actor. And perform like a rock star. And be the host. Jim Cathcart 22:28 Engage like a host. Speaker A 22:29 Engage like a host. Jim Cathcart 22:30 Engage like a host. Speaker A 22:31 Yeah, that's good stuff. You know, I teach how to lead meetings as one of the many things that I focus on. And I did an album on how to lead meetings because so many meetings are poorly run. And it's because people come in and they think that the agenda is going to be the meeting and that their job is to regurgitate the agenda and people's job is to read reports. Now it's a meeting, for heaven's sakes. And we're co creators of where we go next then. So I would teach people item one. And I didn't articulate it like you be the host. You don't have to officially be the host. You could be a stranger, but come into the room and if you see a need, like if there's a glare coming through the window and all these people are squinting, offer to go over or just take the initiative, go over and move the blinds a little bit to take the glare out of their eye. Be the host. I love that. Wow. Tell me more. That's what you know, say anyway, isn't it? Jim Cathcart 23:39 Yeah, yeah. I think the people skills idea is really, really impactful, really important. I mean, a lot of people can be really good and you know, we both as musicians, we've seen people that are amazing and those that are good, those are. Some are really good and many that are not. Speaker A 23:59 But. Jim Cathcart 23:59 But if you're really good at something, but you're a jerk. Not a good hang in the world of music. A lot of these headlining acts are like a Keith Urban or Trisha Yearwood or whoever that's not a band, but they're the front person, they're the name. They have a band behind them and they are hired players. And the goal is to get the best that you can possibly get. But one thing that's widely known in the touring industry is you can get a great guy, but if he's not a good hang, you don't want him. Speaker A 24:34 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 24:35 What does that mean if you're not. You're on the bus constantly. You're on tour, you're on the bus riding after you go get your, you know, 90 minutes or two hours of glory, just like as a speaker where that's time on stage is the magic, but all the other stuff is the work. And if you're with other guys around you or guys or gals that are jerks or are just not fun to be with or not positive, it's a drag. And I don't care how good they are, I can get somebody that's a little bit less than they are, but likable. And I'm going to go with that guy. Speaker A 25:06 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 25:07 So that applies in business too. Whether you're in sales or customer service, customer experience, leadership. If you can't connect with people in a way that they want to be around you or look up to you, I like to say be the one people want to work with, trust, buy from and tell others about. And so how do you get to be that person? Someone who they want to work with, they want to follow, they'll trust, they want to buy from, and they want to tell others about. Well, you got to be prepared. You got to have the right mindset to be able to do what you need to do, like a producer idea and then prepare like an actor and then perform like a rock star. Be really good at what you do, but also be likable. And the best way to be likable is. Is to put others first and make it about them and help them shine. At church, a lot of times we hang out afterwards and there's a meal there and so there's a lot of visitors and people are coming all the time and we're all gathering around and I've got a lot of young guys that, you know, we kind of hang out together. I guess I'm their. Their old guy, you know, they're cool old guy or something. But I see all these people coming around and they don't know anybody. They're just, you know, wandering and looking at. And I'll go get them. Hey, guys. Welcome. Are you first time here? Good to See you. My name's Robin, and let me come introduce you to some people. I'll take that role on myself and go bring them and introduce. This is John, this is Debbie, this is Sarah, this is Bill, and this is Jim and Joe or whatever, you know, and whenever that happens, they now feel a little bit of comfort. Yeah, they feel a little less awkward. And then I've kind of trained up. The people are the hang with when I do that or when you do that, everybody else engage them. So I'm kind of teaching on the fly at church, by the way. Speaker A 26:56 And it something that I say to people is it's not enough to welcome people. The goal is to make them feel welcome. Jim Cathcart 27:08 Yes. Speaker A 27:08 That's the extra. Jim Cathcart 27:09 Yes. Speaker A 27:10 Yeah. Yes. Jim Cathcart 27:12 And that's where, you know, you asking them question, engaging them. It's the first time here. What's your background? Where are you from? San Antonio. Are you from Austin? Where are you from? All that stuff. And you just feel engaged with them. And so I've had this happen a number of times, and this is what validates it for me completely. So everybody kind of, you know, scatters a little bit. We're moving around and doing other things, and I'm getting ready to leave. And a lot of times the people I have introduced someone to, they come after me and they say, thank you. I didn't know what to do. I'm new here, but you made me feel so good. Thank you. Dude. That's worth, you know, a hundred bucks. Speaker A 27:52 You bet. Jim Cathcart 27:53 Or more. Speaker A 27:53 You bet. Jim Cathcart 27:54 You know, and so I really do have a bunch of guys at church that. That I'm kind of grooming. They're looking up to me, and I've actually been hired by a couple of them to work on the side with some coaching for them as well, because they're all business people. But it's been pretty fun. It's been pretty fun. And you know what? You do the same thing, man. You do the exact same thing. You are so kind and welcoming, and you've always got a smile on your face, and you always have so much wisdom when you share. I mean, you encapsulate things that are someone saying and you repeat it back to them. I saw this happen numerous times at the summit and. And other times we've been together, working together, and everybody just go, oh, I'm writing that down. Oh, my goodness. I'm writing that down. That was really good. You know, so thank you. It's about pouring into other people. Yeah. Speaker A 28:47 And. And you've. If you're not paying attention. If you're not genuinely listening or tuning into what they're doing or saying, then you don't have any material to come back with. What I would do at the Professional Expert Summit, we were recently in Austin. We've been in other cities together, and I've done these in La Jolla. Next one, Santa Barbara, California. But what I do at the summit is I sit in that room and as a person is talking about their message or their market or their whatever it is their issue is, I'm trying to hear it as a participant, not as an observer. And that's. That's kind of a big deal if you listen as a real big deal. Yeah. If you listen as one who has an emotional investment, intellectual and emotional investment in the experience, you hear better than if you're just an information collector. And so I listen like I'm them. And then I think, okay, how would I say that if I were them? And then I'll say, well, hang on, Robin, here's what I would say. And then I just kind of let it flow. And people often say, whoa, say that again. And I'm not sure I can because I really was. Jim Cathcart 30:07 I don't remember blowing it. Speaker A 30:09 You know, it like being a portal instead of being a source. Interesting thought. Jim Cathcart 30:15 Exactly. You know, as a producer of television and a lot of speaker videos, I always come at it from the audience's perspective. When I'm watching a show or we're crafting a show, I want to make sure that I'm seeing this through the lens of the viewer, particularly as a speaker coach and a speaker producer. There's usually two or three cameras in the room, and most of them are pointing toward the speaker, but there's one or two that's pointing back to the audience. Right. I look at those camera angles completely to see what the audience is doing. If the audience is not engaged and they're on their phone and they're, you know, you can tell that. And then all of a sudden the speaker goes, you know, it was last Tuesday at 4 o' clock and there was raining outside. And all of a sudden that head comes up. Speaker A 31:01 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 31:01 All of a sudden they start telling a story versus just blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they come off of their phones and they start listening. So I think that's an important thing that you just said, listening for from the outside perspective, not necessarily from the voice of this person you're talking to. And I also add a piece to that when I'm in a conversation, I think not only as a Host, but as an interviewer, because I've interviewed so many artists, so many people, and when you're interviewing someone, you ask a question and you don't talk, you, you let them have the floor. A lot of times with, you know, phones anymore, we're talking over things and when we're talking it cuts out so you can't really hear. Even in zoom. The idea is just to listen, Listen to what they say and then ask them a follow up question based on what they said. Listen some more, ask a follow up question. You do that for a period of time and those people are going to love you because why they got to talk about themselves. And that's what we all want to do. I do, you do, we all do. We want to talk about ourself. But if someone is engaging you and giving you the platform, you go, dude, that was a great conversation. And my wife will go sometimes. Well, what, you know, what do you know about him? Not much. He didn't really, I don't know. I was doing all the talking. Oh my gosh, I was doing all the talking. Oh, no, no, no. You know. Yeah, but that's a way to make a casual first time interaction positive, to engage them, ask them the questions, make it about them, help them shine. And you walk away being likable and they don't know much about you. Speaker A 32:44 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 32:45 But they will want to know more the next time they see you. Speaker A 32:47 Yep. So rarely do people say, boy, he's a really good talker, but people say he's a really good listener or she's a really good listener. Yeah. And listening is caring. You know, if you don't care, you're not listening. What you're doing is data gathering. And that could be done by AI, you know, you don't. It doesn't need the capacity to think, just a capacity to organize, arrange and regurgitate. And that's not what humans are for. Humans are for that connection. And often people will say things like, well, you know, I just didn't feel it. What? Feel it. Not that I didn't understand it, not that I didn't see it, not that I didn't notice or, or be able to explain it. I didn't feel it. And it's the feeling that transcends everything else. John Mitchell, our friend, was talking about his secret, the. The missing secret from the book Think and Grow Rich. He said that what you visualize daily within detail with emotion tends to show up in your life. What you visualize, you know, what you see vividly in your Mind in detail. What was the catchphrase with Emotion tends to show up in your life. I love that because that really is. That's the thing that turns the key and makes a big difference. So you're a professional expert. Let's talk about what it means for a moment. What it means to be a professional expert as opposed to just being somebody that's good at something. Not. Not asking you to talk about yourself. I'm asking you to. Asking you to talk about expertise and the expression of it in the marketplace. Jim Cathcart 34:41 I think master your craft is kind of a good word for that. I think you have mastered what you're set out to do. You know so much around every aspect of the center of what you do that you're comfortable in any engagement last night? Well, we've seen debates recently, right? Speaker A 34:57 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 34:58 And some of them been good, some of them have been bad. But any kind of. In a conversational debates, you're talking about political debates. Yeah, I don't want to get into that. But I mean, there's. There are times when you're talking about something and you know that, you know that you know what you're talking about and you can go deep, you can answer any question without having notes. You can just speak off the cuff. And it. What you. Comes out of your mouth is, wow, profound. You know that, you know that. You know. Speaker A 35:24 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 35:24 Or you're on a computer and you. Someone, you get on there and you know exactly what to open up, what followed, dah, dah, dah. And you know that, you know, are you going to ask it, you know, play a song and somebody starts just riffing and knows what it is. There's a distinction between someone that's good, someone that's really good, and someone who has mastered the craft. And I think there's a medium lane in between the really good and the master. That is open for all of us. I'm not really sure that it's open to master our craft at this stage of our life. If we weren't a Jeff Gordon who started at 9 years old driving go karts and bicycles and was going left all the time planning to be a champion. His parents put him in champion outfits for every race he went to, they talked to him about being a champion. He was groomed for that many, many years to where he made it to the third winningest NASCAR driver of all time. That was a consistent plan. Most of us don't really have that, but we can get better what we do and we can get to be really good. But we Also can go further than that. At least one or two more steps before we would be called a master. I mean, you know, Tommy Emanuel, one of the premier guitarists of all times. He's a one of four certified guitar players. Speaker A 36:46 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 36:46 Chad Atkins, or very, very, very, very few people will ever reach that status. So, you know, it'd be nice to think that I could and strive for that. But the reality is I don't have the time or probably the willpower to spend as many hours as he has done to get there. And I don't have the dexterity. So, I mean, there are a lot of things. But when you know that, you know that, you know the meat of what it is that you are your industry, that you're in your job role, and you know, all the periphery around it where that anyone can come to you and ask you a question. And without having to go to chat GPT or to Google to look it up, you can just turn to them and say, here's what the situation is. You, here's what you need to do, here's why, and here's how to do it. Speaker A 37:31 Or you can do that. Not the question you should be asking. This is the question. Jim Cathcart 37:35 That's the wrong question. Speaker A 37:37 Yeah. That was. Yes. Yeah. Yep. Jim Cathcart 37:40 Yes. Great. Great. That's not the question to ask. Yes. But I just believe that, that we have more power in our own ability to focus and dive deep into what we want to master, try to master. And once we do that, we will find that we are growing and growing and we are excelling. And now we were here, but now we're up here. And I didn't even realize it because I was enjoying it so much. You know, that's kind of a key, Speaker A 38:09 enjoying it so much. You know, professional expert is a person who's building their career or their business around their own expertise. In other words, they're not selling plants for landscaping. There's a landscape designer who anybody could hire to come in, lay out a design, tell them what plants would probably work best, and then go on your way. The thing that distinguishes a professional expert is that they are hired on a temporary basis, like a fractional CEO or fractional whatever, a gig worker. A person who comes in, applies their expertise to your problem or need, and then they're gone. So they're not seeking a job. They're building a career around what they can do really, really well and probably around what they love to do. And so what I chose to do back at the top of COVID when the world was changing, market, marketplace, and everything was changing was to take what I was doing as a keynote speaker and an author and apply it to grooming people who have chosen that path. And be it a speaker, a coach, an author, a specialist, a consultant, an advisor, that sort of a person to show them how to reach the top 1% or above in their own chosen field. But I'm not interested in people who are just about skill, because if they're just about skill, it's kind of like you were saying a moment ago, you know, yeah, they've figured out how to play the guitar really, really, really well. And they could do well in any band as long as it was a performance. But get off stage, been a few minutes with them as a person, and you've. They just run out of material. You guys go ahead. Right? It's. They don't fit in. That's not my market. I want to work with people like you. I want to work with people that love what they do, love other people, and want to make a fortune and make the world better at the same time. That's Professional experts. Jim Cathcart 40:17 Yeah. We need to get everybody in the world to go through your. Your program. Speaker A 40:21 Thank you. Yes, yes. Please use my address. Yeah. Up until today, this podcast was called Wisdom Parlor. The idea was getting people together in a parlor setting and having a small group like Bill Maher did with his Politically Incorrect show for so many years, you know, where he'd have him sitting around in sort of a circle. And I was going to do that and make this show about that and focus on what is wisdom beyond knowledge, beyond intelligence, beyond data, what is true understanding and insight, wisdom. But with my specialty and with guests like you, it makes much better sense. Just call it what it is. You know, if you're looking at a car, call it, I don't know, a car. So what this is, is the Professional Experts Podcast. It's a place for folks like us to talk about the field that we've chosen, the path that is that we've chosen. Although it may be different fields, the path is similar, and to share that expertise with the rest of the world. So you've made my world a little bit better today, and certainly a whole lot happier. And I want to. I want people to know, what are the main value reasons they should come to you, and how do they reach you? So what are the things you offer that other people could benefit from, and what's the best way for them to reach you in that context? Jim Cathcart 41:57 Well, I'm stepping back into speaking. You know, I've been kind of taking a break here the last couple of years. We moved from Dallas, my last television show, troubadour Texas in 17. So we've been down into the hill country now for eight years. Started doing speaking again in Covid but they got canceled and I went to virtual. Started teaching a lot of virtual presentations through NSA and others, but did a guitar course and just was having some fun. Well, I'm back speaking and I want to get back in the name and I got a new presentation that is broad for a lot of industries. Speaker A 42:30 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 42:31 Because messaging what I've just talked about today but customized specific to whether sales or customer service or leaders or managers or musicians. Even to these four principles of the 4Ps and using all stories from my experience being on the road with so many of these artists and have learned so many things and how it can apply to our everyday life. Speaker A 42:51 Yep. Jim Cathcart 42:51 And my little tagline is be an everyday rock star. Not trying to be the rock star, the Tommy Emanuel. Because the way we are in our life, we probably don't have time to master that yet. So putting these four principles together, you become likable. You become people that want to talk about, hang out with you, buy from you, trust you and tell others about. And so I think we all in corporate America, all of us need to up our game because mediocre doesn't cut it. So rock star your performance to win your max H path. How to wow, woo and win others to customers. And I forgot the tagline. It's new, but it's a positive, upbeat performance presentation that can go into a workshop afterwards or go into individual coaching for people afterwards so that you go to robincreisman.com and I'm just now updating the website so robincreeseman.com will get you there. Rockstarspeaker.com will get you there as well. And then on another side, it's more of a fun thing that I'm doing. And you will appreciate this, Jim, because you are a solo acoustic musician. I am starting an acoustic performers academy. It's a private group that will be I'm teaching a master class on for local musicians, how to stand out in their local market. And it's talking on these very same principles. Map out your plan. What's your goals? Be. Be really, really, really, really good. A lot of them are not because they don't really understand it. How to build out your set list, how to stand out on stage and how to engage with your audience when you're in the room. How to do your marketing and your Promotion, your social media contracts, designs for one sheets, all that a full blown program that if you're wanting to be a performer, this would be the course for you to go to, to walk away with a master's degree. Speaker A 44:42 Cool. Jim Cathcart 44:42 And I'm going to pour everything I know about it that I've in my own personal experience because I'm still playing right now. Speaker A 44:48 Sign me up. Jim Cathcart 44:50 You got it? Okay, I got it. Speaker A 44:52 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 44:53 I'm actually going to want to interview you a little bit about this too. So we're going to have a podcast and talking to other artists that are out there doing it because it's for fun. But I want people to be able to do it for fun but make money at it as well. A lot of guys are, you know, they're toward the end of their time, their kids are grown, they're made enough money, they're, you know, slowing down. They wanted to go back to playing like they used to play and now they're wanting to go play at a restaurant or a winery. So I'm going to step into that lane a little bit. Speaker A 45:18 They're doing that instead of going fishing or playing golf. Jim Cathcart 45:21 That's right. Speaker A 45:22 Yeah, that's right. Jim Cathcart 45:23 That's exactly right. And they're instead of spending money, they're going to make some money. So speaking, coaching and coaching with the Acoustic Performance Academy are the ways way to find me. And you can go to Robin krishman.com and it's all going to be right there. Speaker A 45:37 And Robin Krish, I'd love to have Jim Cathcart 45:38 a conversation that's interesting that so it's Speaker A 45:42 C R E a S M a N and that's right bottom of his image on the screen so you can see it there if you're watching on video, some many people will hear this on audio and they won't see the joy in your face, but they'll hear it in your voice. And that's the beautiful thing anyway. But that's so cool and what a great way for us to spend some time today. Jim Cathcart 46:05 Yes. Speaker A 46:06 And I'm tempted to break into song and have us grab our guitars, but I won't do that. That would require a little production planning to be prepared to do it well, but yes, that's great. Well, I'm proud that you are one of the first 25 and certainly one of the first 24 of the certified professional experts because I expect that over the years there will be thousands of those as people learn about this and, and follow the path. So if any, any of you would like to learn from Robin. Go to Robin Kriseman.com or Rockstar Speaker.com and just Google him. You'll find Robin Kriseman just about everywhere in the. In the metaverse. And if you're interested in being a Certified Professional Expert, go to CathCart.com/CPE if you want to get specific. But just CathCart.com and let's get you enrolled in the Professional Speakers Academy and. Excuse me, Professional Experts Academy. So many years I've been a professional speaker. It rolls off the tongue out of the file before I realize it. Certified Professional Expert. Okay. And thank you for tuning in to the Professional Experts podcast. Interview number one with Certified Professional Expert Robin Kriseman. Wow. Jim Cathcart 47:34 That's amazing. That is so much of an honor, Jim. I can't tell you. And just, if I can just to speak to those that are listening, this would be the smartest thing you ever do to get involved with Jim Cathcart because he's one of those guys like my dad. Not that you're age wise, we're very close in age, but not, not relative to that. But you pour into people. You pour into people and you want to help them. And no matter where you are on your journey, if you want to excel, if you want to grow, get into Jim's group because not only is he there, there's a whole bunch of great people that, that are wise and have many years of experience and highly successful that will pour into you as well. I've been to two of the summits already and they've been amazing. And I'm in the zoom calls every week, although I may be struggling tomorrow because I'm going to be at the state fair in Dallas. So I may get my phone out and join us for a little while while I'm walking the fairgrounds in Dallas on my phone. Speaker A 48:32 Outstanding. Jim Cathcart 48:33 Yeah, yeah. But it's, it's weekly that we have these calls, and it's worth every penny that you could ever imagine that you would be thinking to other people. How would I get access to that? Well, you're going to get so much value by being a part of Jim's mastermind and his mentoring group. He pours into you personally. He pours into you with the group. And he's just fun as heck to be with. And if you're lucky, he gets. He'll play some songs for you every once in a while. And that's pretty cool because he puts on his big old Texas cowboy hat and he pretty much rocks us out. So we played together before, and it's super fun. Speaker A 49:12 Yep. You are a generous man. I appreciate that. Thank you very much for your contribution today. Thank you for your continuing friendship and for your example for the rest of the world, man. I appreciate you. I love you. God bless you. Thank you for joining us today. If you are committed to making more success happen in your own life, go right now to my website, free.cathcart.com and 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.