Command the Stage and Become a Leading Authority in Your Field

Jim Cathcart 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. Hello, folks. Welcome to the Professional Experts Podcast. Today I've got a super special gift for you. I've got professional expert number four, Patricia Fripp. I'll tell you about Patricia Moore in just a second. Let me tell you what this podcast is if you're tuning in for the first time. I am a mentor to experts. I've been a professional speaker and author for 48 years, done 3500 talks all over the world, written 27 books, and won most of the top awards in the world that they give to professional speakers. For that matter, so is today's guest. But the purpose of Cathcart Institute is to be a mentor to professional experts, people whose business is basically built around them. They are the product coaches, consultants, speakers, authors, podcasters, specialists, advisors, people whose business centers around them being the product. Learning to think of themselves as the product. Choosing the right business model, the right value message, the right brand identity, the right optimum clients to be targeting, the right operating policies and standards and systems to put in place so that they are in a position to continually grow through all the stages of taking them from competent to excellent, to expert, to leading authority, to celebrity, to star, if they aspire to go that far. Well, our guest today is Patricia Fripp. Patricia is a past national president of the National Speakers Association. She's been inducted into the Professional Speakers hall of Fame. She's written multiple books. She is known worldwide. She's a certified speaking professional. She has received the Cabot Award, which is the highest award given by the National Speakers association to the person most generous and professional, like our founder, Cavett Robert, who started the association in the first place. In 1978, I went to Louisville, Kentucky, to my first ever national speakers convention. And I had rosy cheeks and lots of black hair. And I was a, you know, young kid full of piss and vinegar, eager to go change the world. And I got to the convention in Louisville. There were about 200 members at the time, and most of them were there at that convention. And I ran into someone sitting on the front row like me showing up early for every session to get everything there was. And it was Patricia Fripp, and she was a hairdresser from San Francisco, who had been giving talks around San Francisco and then was encouraged to give talks more broadly and got into the business as a full time speaker. And she and I hit it off instantly and have been dear, dear friends ever since then. Colleagues, served 10 years together on the board of directors of the National Speakers association. And she has coached some of the most impressive speakers in the world. And she has also coached me. She is as good as anyone alive when it comes to speech coaching or helping you be a more compelling presenter. Now, I don't say that lightly. I mean that sincerely. So let me welcome my dear, dear friend, Patricia Fripp. Welcome to the Professional Experts Podcast. Speaker B 04:23 I am thrilled to be here and I wish my parents had lived long enough to hear you talk about me so generously. Jim Cathcart 04:33 Well, folks, as you can tell, her San Francisco accent sounds a bit more like jolly old England than it does San Francisco. Patricia, you came over from England. You lived where? In Dorset. Speaker B 04:47 Yes, the county of Dorset in the south of England. Jim Cathcart 04:50 Yeah. And you came to San Francisco. Tell that story how you ended up here. Speaker B 04:55 Well, a quick version of how I got to America. When I was a hairstyling apprentice. I was from 15 to 18, my best friend. Jim Cathcart 05:06 He's 15 to 18. Speaker B 05:08 Yes. Jim Cathcart 05:08 Okay. Speaker B 05:09 Because in England at that point, if you were to serve an apprenticeship, they wanted you as young as possible and you could leave school at 15. And so when I was 16, my best friend was Wendy Roberts, who was two years older than I was. She worked in a lawyer's office and she was blonde and sophisticated and my, oh, my hero. I wanted to grow up and be as sophisticated as I thought Wendy was. And she said, when I got a pen pal in America and I'm going to go see her. And I said, wait till I finish my apprenticeship and I'll come with you. Then we went on a double date with Warren and Peter and Wendy married. Warren, Peter and I stayed best of friends until he died in 2019. Even though we married a couple of women, we were still good friends. And Wendy and Peter and I would always have lunch every time I went home. Well, of course. So now I'm thinking, well, Wendy's not goname America. And young women who came in our salon talked about Jersey in the Channel Isles. So I went to Jersey for two and a half years, and that was a tax hanger. Wendy would be making the equivalent of $30 a week and paying a good portion in tax. I was making the equivalent of $90 a week and paying no tax. Jim Cathcart 06:45 Wow. My money, you make five times what she was yet. Speaker B 06:50 And because Jersey is 12 miles by seven, you know, you'd be there with all the guys you're going to go out with. You'd been everywhere you wanted to go. And I had a great job, but I knew I'm going to America. And everyone I'd met understanding I'd only ever met two people who'd been to America. But everyone said, if you're going to America, you have to go to San Francisco. I believed everyone. I went home for a couple of months, went to London, got my visa to come to America. Little did I know, one week later, they changed all the rules and I would never have got it. Jim Cathcart 07:31 Wow. Speaker B 07:31 That's why I can say God meant me to come to America. Jim Cathcart 07:37 Thank you, Lord. Speaker B 07:38 Yes. So I. So what I did, I got on a boat to go to America. I left on January 13, 1966, and I got off the boat January 18, 1966. I had a few days in Las Vegas, in New York, and then I got on a bus and went across country to San Francisco. Got every day, had a little look around. So it was a great adventure to get here. Checked into the ywca, which I've been told to do, and I had met one young lady who had lived in San Francisco. She was the daughter of one of my hairstyling clients, and she had given me names of salons to write to, because my dad said, you got to write to them, you got to send a photo. And only one had replied, the person who ran the hairstyling salon in the Mark Hopkins Center. Jim Cathcart 08:38 My heavens. I mean, you started at the top of the food chain. Speaker B 08:41 Yes, it was perfect, because I knew nobody. I had nobody to call and say, hey, I'm working here. Come get you in here style. So, of course, I could make a comfortable living working in a hotel because there were always guests and conventions, and my boss had never seen anyone work like me. He said, go back to England, bring over 28 of your friends, and I'll become a multimillionaire. I said, charles, I've never worked with anyone who worked as hard as I did. Because in America, what I discovered was hairdressers get paid 50% commission. I mean, no sick pay, no guarantee, no holiday pay. Whatever you bring in, you get half of it. And to me, that was a license to stay. So that's how I came over. Now I. And interestingly enough, the first day I was here, I went to see Ann Bridges, the one young lady who told me where to write to, and the manager of the apartment Building said, oh, she moved to New York a week ago. So I said, well, I know she's a respectable young lady. I said, well, do you have any apartments? And I rented a studio apartment. Charles took me to beauty school because I had to get my license. I had five and a half years experience, but I had to get my license. And Nicole was in the Beauty Scope. They saw how fast and how good I worked on a Saturday when people came in and paid whatever they paid for the students to work on, well, I could churn out five while somebody else was fumbling with one. So I was a money making machine for the school. Jim Cathcart 10:26 And Charles, man, that is beautiful. Now, the biggest challenge you and I have is not covering all the great stories we have, because I'm so tempted to go down two or three avenues with you that I know are rich with, with fabulous stories. But what I want to do for our audience here is I want to emphasize the elements that they can learn from your example and the other guests on this show as to how you became a professional expert and built a career around it, and what sort of changes or decision points along the way required you to rethink some things and approach them differently. So let me make a couple observations. Number one, you were committed to succeeding regardless whether the work was much, much harder than you thought it would be or whether it took longer or whatever. And that's rare in the world. That's what I call high personal velocity, which is a personality factor. And you've always been talking about velocity. Speaker B 11:40 And then this zip, zip, zip, zip, zip. You remember that? Jim Cathcart 11:44 Yes, I do. I talked about people's velocity, like metronome on a piano, keeps time to the music. Low velocity, click, click, click, click. Medium velocity, click, click, click, click, click. High velocity. Like you could use it for a fan, and I'm a fan of yours. So you came to America, you took plenty of risks. You know, you put yourself out there saying, I'll figure it out, right? And people, people who are more timid would say, well, what if? And what if? And what if? And you say, well, if that had Speaker B 12:24 happened, I was so naive, it never occurred to me anything would go wrong. And it never did. Jim Cathcart 12:33 I love it. I love it. They say there are three types of people in the world. Optimist, pessimist, and realist. I've studied that. Literally, Patricia. I mean, I have actually studied that. And there's never been an occasion once that the one that says I'm a realist was not actually a pessimist. So a realist Is a pessimist that won't admit it. An optimist is a person who looks at reality and says somehow, somewhere there's a way. Speaker B 13:03 Well, I always say I would think I am a very practical person. Yeah, that's it. I'm practical. I know my limitations. However, like you, I am a life long learner. Jim Cathcart 13:20 Yes. Speaker B 13:21 When I was so I'd been in America three years and I got a job in the first men's hairstyling salon. Posh is when hairstyling was, was new. Jim Cathcart 13:33 Wow. When men's hairstyling salons instead of barber shops, you know, women's salons, men's barber shops. I remember when that came about and they had the Roefler sculpture cut and the razor cut. Oh man, that was so sophisticated and sexy. And women started cutting men's hair and it was like, like getting a massage or something. It did seem so exotic for a woman to cut my hair. And that was years ago back in Little Rock, Arkansas when you were probably in San Francisco. Speaker B 14:10 So this was 69. And Jason Hollywood, hairstylist, took over. But just like you, Jim, I have learned to take advantage of opportunity. And sitting in my chair all day long were business people, successful entrepreneurs. And I would say I turned that into a learning experience. And then I went into business for myself. And so often, you know, you talk to your hairstylist and I would say, well, I'm traveling nationwide for a hair product company doing speeches and demonstrations. And they said, oh well, if you're speaking, come to my Rotary Club, Lions Club Breakfast club. Jim Cathcart 14:58 Yes. Speaker B 15:00 In the early days because like you, I went to the NSA convention a year ahead of you, look at it and thought, this is what I want to do one day. Jim Cathcart 15:12 Yeah. Speaker B 15:12 Didn't know when knew it was a long term goal because I still love my business. But many of my hairstyling clients, I might speak at the breakfast. And all I say, let me tell people where my hairstyling salon is. I used speaking to promote my business and to give me more freedom. So between learning from my clients, accepting invitations to speak for them at their service clubs, people started saying, what would you charge to say that to my group? Jim Cathcart 15:43 I love that. Speaker B 15:45 And what people always say is, well, you know, I like speaking. What do I talk about? You talk about, you know, what's your expertise? And my expertise, Jim, what I realized was I know how to get, keep and deserve customers. Nobody ever had to tell me, when you have a new client as you're saying goodbye, give them three cards and say one is for you and two for the next two people how tell you how good your hair looks. And then I say, here's your three cards. I already have one. I'll give them three. To the next people who tell me Jim Cathcart 16:21 my A looks good program, you know, that's. You said get, keep and deserve that. I love that. Nobody else says that. Get and deserve customers. Be worthy, be a professional, be somebody that they come to you for the solution that they've got in mind, and that's what they actually get. Wow. It's like the opposite of a government agency. Speaker B 16:49 Well, and what I used to ask, as you know, Jim, the quality of your questions determine the quality, the answer and the information you receive from a well crafted question. Had a new client. I was to say, just as a matter of interest, how did you get here? Jim Cathcart 17:10 Yeah. Speaker B 17:12 Because the chances are they left another stylist to come to us. And I often heard, well, I moved into this building or everyone in my office comes here a lot of the time. I heard my last hairstylist treated me really well. And as soon as they considered me their client, they relaxed. So the secret is with all your clients, treat them as if they are new and you want them to come back, even if you've been cutting the hair for 15 years. Jim Cathcart 17:50 Exactly. And I love the. When you went into speaking more aggressively and made it, you know, the major portion of your career as opposed to addendum. Speaker B 18:02 Yes. Jim Cathcart 18:02 You said I stopped working on the outside of their heads and started working on the inside. Speaker B 18:09 Inside of. Yeah, that line got me on 60 Minutes because what people. Jim Cathcart 18:15 That's. Speaker B 18:15 Yes, yes. What happened in 2000. And I bet you were there, Jim. In 2000, 60 Minutes spent five days at the convention and they filmed Zig and Tommy Hopkins, who I had dinner with in January. Jim Cathcart 18:30 I'm sitting at Tommy Hopkins desk right this moment. Speaker B 18:33 Yes. Isn't that amazing? Jim Cathcart 18:36 Good. Speaker B 18:37 Anyway, people were standing in line in the breaks to be interviewed. And I realized standing in line there, if I have any chance of not being on the cutting room floor, I have to say something short. A tweet length quote before Twitter was invented, but short, pithy and perhaps amusing. So when they say, oh, you're a hairdresser's gotta be a big difference between being a hairstylist and a speaker. I said, as a hairstylist, I worked on the outside of people's heads. Now I work on the inside. There's only half an inch difference. Oh, and I like to say that that line got me on 60 minutes. That half inch has made me Millions of dollars, but not all in the same year. Some people will let you think they made their career, they made a fortune in one year. Jim Cathcart 19:33 Yeah. My question was, oh, yes, take you a coaching mode and we're talking to a listener. Let's say the person called in and said, look, I'm an expert at X, whatever that happens to be, and I want to build a business around that and I want to do it like you and Jim have done. I want to, I want to, yes, get to the top of my industry food chain and be considered a leading authority and you know, make my, and keep my place at the top. So what are the critical elements that I have to pay attention to? I'm already an expert. I've got that part. Content I have. Now then what do I do? Speaker B 20:15 I would ask how much are you speaking now? And then are you multifaceted in delivering your expertise? For example, can you deliver a speech, an interactive breakout, a full day seminar? Can you deliver it as well, virtually as in person? Can you deliver it as coaching or consulting to one person or a team? Do you have other materials that people can learn from you, that you never meet? You know, books, learning systems, etc. And then assuming, oh yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. I'd say, all right, well, if you got a call this afternoon, say I have $10,000 budget, I heard of your expertise. I want to book you next week because our speaker has had an accident. I want your best speech. I don't care what the content. I just heard you're the expert in what we, the type of program we want. And I would say is, so you got $10,000 next week, is that speech ready? And they might say, yes, probably. No, I say, well, let's put it together. And my next question is, if you had one sentence rather than 45 minutes, what would you say? And I think, no, that's good. But he gave me a paragraph. I want one sentence. Because what we're working on, first of all is every presentation has a premise, a big idea, and so we want to get it. So they might. So let's just say everyone's going to learn how to be a better leader. Great. Now if they take your advice, what is the result of them becoming a better leader? Jim Cathcart 22:22 Yeah. Speaker B 22:24 Well, they'd have more productivity. And the result of that is. And the result of that is. And the result of that is it's Jim Cathcart 22:31 like he says, what's important about X to you? Speaker B 22:34 Yes. Jim Cathcart 22:35 And what's important about that to you? And he keeps drilling down until he can't get a different answer. He said, there's your message. Speaker B 22:44 Yes. Because you can either sell the subject, how to be a powerful, persuasive presenter. Fine. Or you can sell the outcome. And if you're talking to high level leaders who already think they're a good leader, whether they are or not. So it would be, you are teaching them how they could perhaps double their, their profit next year, they're always looking at, there's your subject. But what is the result if assuming everybody takes your suggestions, they won't. And then I say, all right, well, left to your own result, how would you open your presentation? And then they said, such as? I said, well, that sounds very good if you're the incoming president of your Rotary Club. But however, I think for $10,000, we can come up with something better. Jim Cathcart 23:41 Yeah. When people ask me, by the way, I ask them often my clients, I ask them, what's your core message? What's sort of the essence or the theme of what you bring to the world? And I say, here are some examples. Zig Ziglar can be summarized in one sentence that affects or shows up in everything else he did. You can get everything you want in life if you'll just help enough other people get what they want. Earl Nightingale can be summarized in one sentence. And that is, you become what you think about what he called the strangest secret. And we can go on and on, you know, with different thought leaders throughout the years. Mine is become the person who would achieve the results you want and you get the results as your byproduct. And you can do it again and again and again. So become the person is, is mine. And it's, everything I do is about nature. It's about, you know, my acorn is, is my logo because an acorn is a symbol of potential. So my slogan is in the spirit of growth. That's how I sign all my letters. And growth from what? Growth from your nature. Your nature. In other words, you're not going to change you, you're going to evolve you to a higher level of being. And two years ago, Daniel Rex, who we both know from Toastmaster, the executive in charge of Toastmasters International, called me and he said, jim, I was driving here in Texas that day and answered the phone and he said, jim, Daniel Rex from Toastmasters. Are you available to come to Nashville in, I think it was August for our international convention and be the opening ceremony's keynote speaker? I said, probably, and if I have to move something, certainly I would be honored to do so. I said, you do know I did that 27 years ago. Yeah, in 1995 in San Diego. He said, yeah, and I was there. He said, I was also there when you got the Golden Gavel Award in Anaheim in 2001. Speaker B 25:57 He said, was I? Jim Cathcart 25:58 Yes, you were. Thank you very much. And you're known throughout Toastmasters better than I am today. Anyway, he said, we want you to come back. And I said, well, I'm thrilled. That's wonderful. Thank you. And he said, what's your topic going to be? What? You know, you're calling me while I'm driving in my car and you tell me right out of the blue and now you want to know? I said, I don't know. I'll have to think about it. He said, okay. I said, wait a minute. I do know. Here's my topic. How to be attractive. He said, well, I'm intrigued. I said, well, I'll get back to you. And my speech was, there are two ways to get the future you want. One is as a archer shooting an arrow at it, in which case all the accuracy, the initiative, the everything has come from you. And the other is to be a magnet drawing it toward you. And I recommend you do both. Be attractive to what you want. Be the kind of person that deserves. I love that. The customers that you get now, I Speaker B 27:09 love that idea of being attractive. You, you're thinking one picture, and it's much more important. You're attracting what you want. Jim Cathcart 27:18 Yeah. Because if you're not an eligible receiver, you never get the ball thrown to you, you know? So Gosh says, I want to be like Jerry Rice. I want to be famous, you know, I want to be a famous football player. Great. Okay. You can have all the skills you need, but if you're not downfield and in the open, they're not going to throw to you. So you've got to not only bring to the table the qualities, but you've got to create the space for the opportunity like you did when you came to America. You had the qualities and you created a big space where everything was on the table, including working in a restaurant for a while if you had to, just to. To get by, you know, you were able to land a job early on. Speaker B 28:09 However, talking about waitress, when I was 12 years old and my father was more successful than many of my friends. However, my brother and I always liked to have money, but we liked to work for it. So when I applied for a job as a dishwasher at 12 to a local restaurant, you had. It was the hidden house cafe. And at 12, the owner. So I had such a nice personality, he did the dishwashing and I waited on tables. So yes, I did work as a waitress. Jim Cathcart 28:42 Yeah, that's a great, great story. Oh my. You know, when I was 12, I was selling donuts door to door in my neighborhood and then my dad said, I've got a better idea. He said, don't, don't go to the donut shop and grab donuts and come back and go door to door, call all the people in the neighborhood the night before and say, how would you like hot, fresh doughnuts delivered to your door tomorrow morning? And I did that. And I ended up with a regular route, you know, ongoing customers, so that every week or two I'd get an order from Ms. Smith or Ms. Wage or whoever it was, and then between times I would mow lawns and things like that for, for pocket change. But the. Wow. Now let's go back to being a professional expert. All of this is relevant, by the way. You know, for anybody that's tempted to believe we're just telling stories and having fun together now. We're telling meaningful stories that illustrate a key point and having fun together because this is what we do and we love each other. But the structure for a professional expert revolves around five key elements and that is being very clear on your value message. What do you do that bring that's worth paying for? Paying to access it. Okay. Second, what is your brand identity like mine with the acorn? You know, how do you. What's distinctive about you that, that you put out there? Number three, what client are you going after? Well, my dream client would be. No, no, no, I don't want to know about your dream client. I want to know about the clients you can reach on a reasonable basis, affordable and justified effort basis today to get you to the next level so that you continually grow your business. Who's your ideal current client? Not your dream client. And then the next one is, what's your business model? Are you a speaker? You coach, you a consultant? Are you an assessment person that goes in and does personality profiles and things like that? What are you? Right? And so that business models, and it may be that your business model is publishing. Like Tony Alessandro. We both know Tony is my best friend for life. We went to get business together. He was a college professor and I was a full time keynoter. And so I'm going out as a speaker and he wants to do that. And we did it together and did really, really well. We published books and audio albums and things like that. And that did really, really, really well. But then we started disagreeing on next stages and I went further into professional speaking and a broad spectrum of content and they went deeper into consulting and training with one narrow focus on personality assessments. And today his company is a multimillion dollar business with employees all over the nation. And they're doing the, the branded assessments, the white labeling, you know, for Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone and Brian Tracy and Dale Carnegie courses and Action Coach International and on and on and on. Wow. Different business model. But he started as a professor, then as a consultant, then as a speaker, then as, then as a trainer and an author and so forth. So when you're looking at people from those perspectives, what advice can you give that fits into one or more of those categories? Speaker B 32:24 I would say don't compare yourself with exceptions and be realistic about making. We have to make decisions for the longer term and decide what are we going to do today. And be open. For example, when I was like you out delivering 100, 120 keynotes a year, I never really thought long term. I did say it is unrealistic for, for us who were in demand to expect we would be the flavor of the month with speakers bureaus for more than 20 years. And we probably both mixed it to death for a long time. What really changed my life and got me on track to be in demand still, as a 48 year old, 48 year member of the national Speakers association was. And this would be true for every business, listen to your clients. For example, I was speaking for a company that sold food services to hospitals and the national sales manager came up and said, oh, I liked your speech. However, I loved how you delivered it. Can you put together a seminar? Because it takes us a year to be in a position to deliver a one hour presentation to a hospital board. It's worth $9 million a year if we get the business. Jim Cathcart 34:19 Wow. Speaker B 34:19 However, we are losing business not because of our offering, not because of our price. I keep hearing the presentation skills of our competitors are more powerfully persuasive than ours. And when I put together that seminar, little did I know she had just given me the answer to always be in demand, no matter what the economy did. Even when I perhaps looked pretty good, but not quite as good on imag as I might have done at 45. And I remember the first time after that seminar, the first time I looked out at six people, four of whom had flown in and I realized I was getting my keynote fee to talk to six people about how to improve this sales presentation instead of 600. I realized this had been a turning point. And then, you know, I had always invested a lot in speech coaches and screenwriting classes. I was a junkie. Make me better. I'll learn it. I'll give you money. Jim Cathcart 35:32 Yep. Speaker B 35:34 When often people said, can you coach me? Can I hire you as a coach? And, well, I was busy keynoting, and I said, well, go to Don, you know, go to Dawn Bernhard. Go to Ronald. And then I was delivering a luncheon speech or a speech before lunch for a small personnel company In Walnut Creek, 45 minutes from home, and I gave the president, gave her speech, I gave my speech. We had down lunch. And she said to me, remember the quality of the questions? Do you do any speech coaching? I used to word little for some of my friends. And she said, I wish I was one of your friends. I drive home an hour later, I get a message on my answering machine. And this is exactly what this dynamic, frippy kind of woman, you know, nice energy sounded like. She said, I don't know if you do this. However, if you do, I want to hire you and give you to my husband for his birthday. Jim Cathcart 36:53 Wow. Speaker B 36:54 Pause. Seven of my salespeople came to one of your seminars and came back raving. And if you are an executive coach, I want to hire you. My husband is a good speaker, but he has the biggest speech of his entire career. I want to hire you. And I thought I got the message gone twice in the morning. And I picked up the phone and left a message for her. Yes, I do, except coaching clients. One, if the project interests me, if the client will do exactly what I suggest, and three, if you pay me some type of other. Jim Cathcart 37:45 Yeah, we come back. Speaker B 37:46 And that was the first official time I put up my shingle. I am now an executive speech coach and. And speech consultant. Jim Cathcart 37:57 How many years ago was that? Speaker B 38:00 I can't exactly remember. It was probably around 2000 maybe. Jim Cathcart 38:10 I remember when it happened. I don't remember that occasion, but I remember you made the shift. And then I saw your. Your coaching business grow and grow and get. And I literally say this to people when they say, who's the best speech coach in the world? I said, patricia Fripp. And without hesitation, I say that. And I mean it. You most. You mentioned something almost as a throwaway a minute ago that I think is a really profound asset of yours. You are a voracious student. You went to choreography classes, you went to. To comedy clubs year after year after year, watching techniques and studying people and Studying the structure of material. You had storytelling coaches, humor coaches. You did collaborations with John Cantu. You did collaborations with Alan Weiss, and, you know, doing the consulting thing. You did collaborations with your Toastmasters buds, the lady and the Champs, doing the World Champions. Wow. You've. You've studied more of the many elements like stagecraft and things like that than almost any speaker, maybe any speaker that I know, and I know easily a thousand top level professional speakers. Speaker B 39:32 Let me give you one simple example of that. Jim Cathcart 39:36 Okay. Speaker B 39:37 I met a choreographer. I said, you know anything about speaking? He said, no. I said, all right, good, I want to hire you to sit in and watch me deliver this 3R seminar. And afterwards, he gave me one piece of advice which is invaluable. He said, patricia, you do a magnificent job using the width of the stage. You don't do enough with the depth of the stage. So what I would now coach someone is you come out because as speakers, especially newer speakers, you get to the end of the stage because you want to be close to the climbs. You're almost leaning into the audience. And later, Ron Arden said, no, you don't lean into the audience. You bring them back to you. Now, a lot of this, you, well, how do I actually do that? What I did with this, I say you walk on stage. You don't go to the edge. You go stand still when you deliver your opening line and then take two steps, one forward into the body of your speech. And there are ways that you can. That I build within them. My recommendations is you. You use more of the stage. Now, it's fine if you stand still. I stand still a lot more than I used to. That doesn't mean I move. But then you have to be strategic with your move. Jim Cathcart 41:02 Yeah. To make everything intentional. Speaker B 41:06 Yes. Jim Cathcart 41:07 That's what professionals do. Speaker B 41:09 And that very first client, that very first executive, fascinating man. He was an illegitimate child in his opening line was. I never met my father until I was 12 years old. I was raised by my grandmother and life was perfect. And as we went through his speech and we made and I said, when you talk about your own success, everyone knows you're a multimillionaire. But what you have to do when you speak about your own success is give credit to others who helped you along the way. So his first hero was really his mother, his grandmother. Then the next hero, he was 20 years old and he was a milkman. And he was on top of the whir because he was eating his breakfast, looking out at people driving the whir and thought, when my day's over. He was in heaven. Then the owner of the company hired a business consultant. It was just like the Jim Cathcoll would buy a one way ticket. It was, he saw potential in this man, encouraged him to get an education. And then the next hero was someone when he was in business for himself, was his mentor. It was, he called him my adopted grandfather who really gave him advice which led to being a multimillionaire. And as he was walking through, through the stage, it was fast forward seven years. Fast forward seven years. And these were the transitions he worked. Jim Cathcart 42:54 That's good. Yeah. Speaker B 42:55 So it was, it was a fabulous speech. Jim Cathcart 42:57 Yeah, that I like that very much. By the way, we've only got a couple of minutes to go and we need to wrap this together. But I don't want to, I want to go on for a couple of days non stop. By the way, just, just to acknowledge the mentor comment, there are 25 people so far who have received the certified professional expert. And the first one, the one I chose, I chose the first eight to set an example for the world of what a professional expert looks like in the the right version of it. And you're one of those eight. But the first one I bestowed was on my mentor from years ago when I was working as a consultant to a life insurance agency, Joe Willard, who is now a retired, very wealthy rancher who's an investor and that sort of thing, but built his fortune as a leader of an insurance agency for Mass Mutual. And that mentorship caused me to value him all these years, to retain that, that friendship like I have with you. And in 2017, I called Joe, I said, Joe, it's been 40 plus years since I worked with you in Tulsa. I always felt like I owed you one. He said, now you don't owe me one, Jim. And I said, well, I'm going to do it anyway. I want to fly you first class to China and have you go on a lecture tour with me as my guest. And he did. And we had the time of our lives, stayed in luxury suites, separate luxury suites, that my client arranged one for Joe as well. And I flew all over the country and I'd speak to thousands of people and then I'd say, and let me introduce you to my mentor. And I gave up on stage and interview him. And then people wanted his autograph as well as mine, which was just great fun. So thank you for bringing up the mentor factor in that. And by the way, you're not just a colleague of mine and a friend, you've been a mentor to me and your guidance and your feedback over the years has made a profound difference in the person I am today. And I want to thank you for that. Speaker B 45:13 You are very generous and it's always fun to get a picture of the cath carts anytime, seeing them have fun. I love that you not only help others but you live your passion singing on stage. I would say dark smoky bars, but people Jim Cathcart 45:38 play some, some honky tongues. Yep. And riding motorcycles, by the way. Quick note and then, then I've got to do the wrap up but Jim Jr is now general manager in training for a luxury hotel on the beach in Santa Barbara, California. Four Diamond Hotel. After having served 26 and a half years as a HR executive for the Four Seasons Worldwide organization, then you were the first speech coach that ever advised him on giving a presentation when he was graduating junior high school, middle school. Speaker B 46:19 I don't even remember. Jim Cathcart 46:20 Oh yeah, you told him. Do you know we were sitting in my living room in San Diego and you were telling him since he was going to be one of the speakers at the graduation ceremony, that he was, I don't know, what, 13, something like that. 14 years old. You said, okay, Jim, Jimmy, this is the way to do the speech. And you've got that down. Now don't use notes. He said, but, but, but as you know, memorize this so well and deliver it so well that you can do it without feeling awkward or feeling like you're worried about getting off script. Script and deliver it with no notes. And he did and absolutely nailed it. I was sitting in the front row just trying to control myself. I wanted to burst into a standing ovation, but I was his dad. Speaker B 47:16 I would have done. Jim Cathcart 47:18 Yes, well, tell people how to get in touch with you. I mean, your last name is the important key to everything. F R I P P P. If Speaker B 47:28 you go to F r I p p.com you can sign up for my newsletter. I have plenty of free special reports. You can check out my FRIPP VT virtual online training or you can send me an email@just frip.com click contact and there there you sending me an email and I will respond. Jim Cathcart 47:52 Wonderful. Speaker B 47:53 If you want to mention friend of Cathcart, I'll know where it came from. Jim Cathcart 47:57 Okay. Thank you my dear. You're a treasure and a treat and you've been an enhancement to my life, I tell you. Thank you for joining us today. Speaker B 48:06 Thank you. The feeling is mutual. Jim Cathcart 48:08 Thank you. Take care. Thank you for joining us today. If you are committed to making more success happen 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.