Mr. Awesome on Building a Brand That’s You

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 the Professional Experts podcast. Look at your screen. You can see two folks right now, both of whom are central to the certified professional expert category. I'm the creator of it. And the recipient number 13 by choice, by the way, he preferred that number is Eric Swanson. Mr. Awesome is his. His tagline. Eric, welcome to the program. Jim Cathcart 01:03 Oh, thank you, Jim. Appreciate being here. This is amazing. Thank you. Such an honor. Speaker A 01:08 Well, what I want to do today is I want just the two of us to chat about how we approach our businesses. Okay. And as you know, I've, I've been a professional speaker, a keynote, or primarily for, well, better part of 48 years. Jim Cathcart 01:25 But it was more like 148 years. Speaker A 01:27 Yeah. So the first millennium that I was speaking, it was as a keynoter. So everything I did was around packaging me as a keynote speaker. Well, I got 3, 500 engagements and toured the entire world. And I still do, but not nearly at the rate I used to do it. That meaning frequency. So that worked for a generation. But then we went through 9, 11, and the world changed. We went through Covid and the world changed again. And at the top of COVID when I moved from California to here in Austin, Texas, I also changed my business model from professional speaker and author. And I've now got 27 books, some of which are co authored with you, from that to being a mentor. And so would a lot of my colleagues. They said, well, yeah, I'm a mentor too. You know, I'm a coach, I'm a whatever. Yeah. But I decided to do it very surgically. I decided I'm not just going to start coaching people. I could do that, but that's not what I want to do. What I want to do is I want to coach people who do what you and I do. People who are experts in a particular field. Ours is the field of motivation, self development, business success. And they are building their business around their expertise. So their business is in fact expert based. So is expertise something that if you're practicing it professionally, can be isolated, defined, trained and certified? Turns out it can. And it took me the better part of a year with a lot of research built on my certified speaking professional Research for NSA to come up with a model that worked for professional experts, coaches, consultants, podcasters, authors, specialists, advisors, people like that. And so I started awarding those in 2021. We now have 25 people who've been certified. You know, Nito Kubain, yourself, Tony Alessandra, Patricia Prip, Brian Tracy, Les Brown, you know, just to name a few. So it's a pretty prestigious bunch of folks, and I want others to learn from us. How do you approach something like this? And here's what I've noticed about you. I mean, besides your uniqueness, your brand as a person, you know, you are explosion of light. You are Mr. Awesome, then you carry a lot more energy than 99% of the people out there. And so people want to be around you because you're joyful, because you're optimistic, and you're growth oriented. But what they don't see that I know is there is you're also a committed professional. When I went to Barnes and Noble in Oceanside, and we were doing the book release for that book behind you, the 13 steps to riches, the addition on auto suggestion that you and I co authored, when we were doing that, I saw a man, Eric Swanson, who was totally on top of that event. You were saying to everybody, hey, come here, look, we got to be respectful of the proprietor here, Barnes and Noble. It's a privilege to be here. It's not just our party. And here are the guidelines, and we've got to do this and that and that. And, you know, you made it really clear to us. Hey, kids, we're not on the playground. We're in class. And this test is going on your permanent record. Right. So that I admire and I want to let you talk for a moment about what you're doing and how you think about it, but then I want to go back and kind of retrace your path from the days of, like, selling tickets for Brian Tracy or things like that to the way your business model structured today. Jim Cathcart 05:39 Absolutely. Oh, I love it. We can go back as far as when I was born. I turned to the doctor and I literally slapped him. Speaker A 05:47 So, Jim Cathcart 05:50 first off, what an honor to be here. I appreciate this. And you know, what's. What, what's such a blessing about? This is. It's just a conversation. It's a conversation with. With two experts in their fields helping other experts in their fields, which I really. So I appreciate that and I honor you and. And I, I. I appreciate you big time. You might see one of my dogs right behind me. Yeah. Speaker A 06:14 Moment to introduce your Staff, right. Jim Cathcart 06:17 One of my assistants, his name is Louis, he works for Treats. It's great, just one treat a day. It's really inexpensive. And there are other gentlemen's apparently taking a nap. He's off today. So let's see, what was the question, you know, addressing what you were talking about a second ago? I love what you just said and thank you very much, Jim, for just honoring me with that gift of, of what you just said to me. Because, you know, I'm hearing that a lot lately. It's interesting. It's for me, my personality and so forth. A lot of people see the, the fun, like rock and roll, you know, because I am, I do, I get out there and I like to have a fun time. You know, when I walk into Loud. Yeah, I love it in a calculating way, you know, like I like to have fun like when I walk into Starbucks or wherever I'm for a second. Speaker A 07:05 In a calculated way. Folks, that's a keeper note. In a calculated way means Eric is intentional about being Eric out loud. And you went into a Starbucks and Jim Cathcart 07:19 what, what were you Eric Loud. I'm going to get that website. That's a good one. I have 242 websites right now, URLs that go to my websites and I'll tell you more about that later in a business talk in a second. So it's a great opportunity. So I'll let you know about that. I mean, great opportunity for your, your listeners to do the same thing I'm doing. So, so, you know, in a calculating way. So I do things intentionally. So if I go into a scarbox or if I go in, wherever, it doesn't matter, you know, I'm going to have a great day. I have a choice. Either have a great day or you know, complain like everyone else in do. So I'm going to go in and be like, hey, what's going on? I'm opening the door, by the way, for everyone who walk. Pretty much anyone who walks in, okay? And they think I'm like, I work there, but I don't. Now they see me on the way out. They're like, wait, the guy's in line. He doesn't even work here. So now calculatingly they've noticed me, which is great. Isn't. Isn't it cool to be able to be an expert in your field but also get noticed, like who you are? Right? So it's, there's always reasons for doing. Speaker A 08:17 Plus you're the brand. You know, when you think about it, I mean it's not Mr. Awesome. That's a brand. It's Eric Swanson's a brand. Jim Cathcart's the brand. They say, no, you're the acorn. No, the acorn is a metaphor for growth, the seed of potential. And that, that's my logo. But I'm the brand. Jim Cathcart 08:36 You are the brand. Exactly right, Exactly. So, and, and people see, you know, I just had a, another person. This is so apropos. Because I wanted to say the word apropos to sound smart. Anyway, this is apropos. I don't even know how to spell it. But the, the point is, though, just yesterday, another top name speaker such as yourself, Jim, was, was complimenting me. I was like, wow, this is amazing. He said something to the fact he left me a record of voice recording. And it said something like, eric, I really love surrounding myself with you and what you're doing in business. I totally want to partner with you on this new mastermind you have because, you know, you're, how did he say it? You're, you're, you're very fly, the seat of the pants kind of style, but you strategically take care of business at the same time. And I thought that was kind of cool. And that's the way he interpreted it. And that's the way I intentionally do live my life, you know, and do this because I want people to. Speaker A 09:31 I want to interrupt just briefly. The fly by the sea, the pants thing, that's from the outside looking in. Jim Cathcart 09:37 Exactly. Speaker A 09:38 The inside looking out. What you're doing is making room to be spontaneous. That's a big difference. When someone's flying by the seat of their pants, that means wherever the seat of their pants is pulled, that's where they're going. It's kind of like you get on a bicycle, head downstairs down a hill and you don't grab the handlebars. Jim Cathcart 09:58 Hello. Speaker A 09:59 That there's a wreck in your future. But when you are leaving room for spontaneity, then you allow yourself to have a little creative moment. Like you go hold the door for people. Like, I went in with Tony Alessandra a thousand years ago in Virginia. We were to Friendly's ice cream and we went there for breakfast and the service was horrible. Usually it's good, but that nobody was attending to the guests. And so we're sitting there at the table thinking, you know, surely they'll come before lunch and take our order. And a couple of women came to the front door and I looked around, didn't see any servers. So I jumped up and grabbed two menus I walked over the door, I said, good morning, welcome to Friendly's. First time here? No, we've been here before. Well, welcome back. Would you prefer a booth or the counter? Well, let's, let's go to a booth. And I took him back to a booth. I said, your server will be with you in a little bit. And I went back and said I would, Tony. And he's just rolling his eyes, but that's probably added. Jim Cathcart 11:02 I hope. Speaker A 11:04 I can so totally see you doing that same thing. Jim Cathcart 11:08 I do that all the time. You know, I do that all the time. In fact, what, what I do is I, I love joking around. Okay. So, you know, I'm in a place wherever it is, and let's. I was in Verizon Wireless store the other day and someone's coming in and I see them, I go, hi, welcome to Verizon Wireless. I look at the scientist and they know what I'm doing. You know, I'm like, come on in. Everything's. I always say, like, everything's half off, but you got to buy two of them. And they're like, wait, what? And it's on. It breaks the ice and so forth. But what's interesting also is I do it calculatingly. You know, the fly by the seat of the pants. That was an interesting way he said that. I think he means, like, I get this compliment a lot as well. Like, man, you just, you do things right away and you just, you're spontaneous and you, you know, you, you, you just decide to do this and boom, it's 30 of the website's up and you've got members and people are signing up. People are flying different places. Little do people know by calculating set all of that up. So it's not just opening up the space for spontaneity like you mentioned, it's actually a strategy. I do. So that people are looking at it going, it's so easy for him. Yet they don't see, you know, the, the practice all the way Monday through Saturday and then Sundays, the day, the super bowl or the, or the football game. You know, they, they don't see the practices leading up to game day. So. So it's interesting. And if you can make it. Speaker A 12:35 Muhammad Ali said the, the fights aren't one in the ring, they're gym. Jim Cathcart 12:40 That's right. Yeah. Speaker A 12:42 They're just made official in the ring. Yeah. Jim Cathcart 12:45 And I love, you know, love Jim Rohn talking about you can't pay other people to do your push ups for you. You do have your own push ups, right? It's interesting. Speaker A 12:54 Exactly. Well, when, when you look at your business, how many things are you looking at? You've got so many moving parts like masterminds and, you know, book collaborations and so forth. How many things are on the radar screen? Jim Cathcart 13:08 Thanks for asking that. So I use the Sir Richard Branson theory. So I have about six or seven different entities and companies going on at the same time, yet I focus in on three of them and three things during the day that lead directly to those three. That's all I do. So it's 33 is my favorite number. So things every day that leads to three of my focuses, my companies. So at any given time I have anywhere from three to seven big items going on, but three of them are being focused on at all times. Speaker A 13:43 And what are those three? Jim Cathcart 13:45 So those three are my Habitude Warrior masterminds, which is. It has about three entities within the masterminds. One is the intimate habit to Warrior Mastermind. The other one is the. Oh, thank you. I just check marked myself. Look at that, look at that. It's pretty cool. Wow. I could do the hearts. Check this out. Ready? Let's do the hearts again. Right, There we go. Speaker A 14:08 I like that. Jim Cathcart 14:09 It's magic though. The first one is the Habitude Warrior mastermind. The second mastermind we have is global speakers Mastermind where I bring in top name amazing celebrities and experts in their fields such as Jim Cathcart and many others such as my, my main mentor Brian Tracy and from Sharon Lecter to Les Brown, you name it, everybody. You know, Scott McCain, we're talking about him earlier. It's all of my Tony Alessandro we had on recently. He's amazing. Yeah, he's what a great individual, great human. We also have something called Cafe Mastermind where we read and review and Mastermind over one of the number one best selling books that's out there in the market. Speaker A 14:50 Mastermind, one of the three. Jim Cathcart 14:53 Those are. Speaker A 14:54 Sorry, it's in the Mastermind silo, so to speak. Jim Cathcart 14:59 Yeah, we're adding one more. We're actually adding two more masterminds. One's going to be a Breathwork Mastermind. So it's all going to be breathe 33 is what it's called. So it's all about bringing in people once a week to really start their whole week off in the, in the best possible way. And I breath work experts there to, to assist us. Beautiful. Exactly. Yeah. And it's all breathwork all through, through here, through zoom. And then the other one that we're. We're just launching because I want to get out there and play. It's called the Adventure masks to mind. And that simply is. I pick a place like today I just got off. I told you earlier, I was just mountain biking down. Like you just see my home. I'm in my home right now in the mountains and I like to be off the grid. So I'm in Utah and right now I'm looking out in front of me past the camera. Right now there's a 360 view of mountains everywhere. So what I do is I climb the mountain, I go to the top. I could take a helicopter up top, but I don't. I literally get shuttled up to the top and we put on, you know, major helmets and dump on my mountain bikes. I have 20 mountain bikes right now. It's crazy. And then we hold on for dear life and go down the mountain. It's. So we're doing Adventure masterminds where one day is going to be all on Masterminding in a certain place. We'll have nice lunch and chill out for the whole day and really learn and then the next day we just survive through whatever adventure it is. So those are the masterminds. Speaker A 16:28 Now, people, what are the various price levels that you've structured this at? Because I know that the cafe that's, that's simply reading a book together and going, you know, taking that inspiration in and building on it. So that's pretty simple. Adventure Mastermind, that's pretty complex because you got to commit to being there and then you look at your other like Habitude Warrior and. Let me pause. Habit attitude. Habitude. Habitude Warrior is your trademark and that's, that's got its own pathway and you hold events and I've been on that. And you, you do coaching with people and, and a number of other things. So what are the, how do you structure pricing entry points for people? Jim Cathcart 17:15 Yeah, so, so basically what we do is, I mean, I'll just give you the, the broad strokes. It's 20,000 for the year for my mastermind. For the Habitude Aware Mastermind. Yeah. And then we have different price structures for like you said, the, the Cafe Mastermind is only 250amonth to be part of it, you know. And by the way, I'll take your credit card. Whoever's listening, just go ahead and jot it down now. I'm just kidding. And then the Adventure Mastermind, that's what we're doing there is we're bringing in only 10 people to join us for that weekend. So it's it's quick, it's easy. Just fly into a different city. Like one adventure mastermind. I'll give you another example. I just added this this morning to the adventure masterminds. We're going to do a San Francisco trip. Now. I used to live in San Francisco in the Bay area, in city. And I love the restaurants. Love it. One day this rich family, okay, the Alioto family, they were the mayor and so forth. The whole. Okay, so I was best friends with Alolfo Veronese and Alioto. He was, he was one of the sons. Anyway, he's like, hey, Eric, come on. I was 20 years old, I was 19, something like that. He goes, eric, come on, we're meeting at 9 o'. Speaker A 18:20 Clock. Jim Cathcart 18:20 We're going to go get. Get some breakfast and so forth. I'm like, all right. He goes, clear out the whole day. I go, okay. So they picked me up in a nice Rolls Royce or Bentley or something like that. There were like six of us, seven of us. And I went with this whole family. I got home at like 9 o' clock at night because we went, we went to a espresso place first, then we went to breakfast. Then we went to an aperitif after breakfast, whatever that was called. Then we went to tea time, then we went to lunch. Then we went to after lunch, something. These are all little restaurants and little places. And then we went to an appetizer place and then a dinner and that. And none of us drank either. So this was just. Just enjoying the cuisines. We're going to do that as an adventure mastermind. It's literally going to be a whole day of eating. Like eat little. But here's the scoop. And you know this, Jim and I want to emphasize this. It's not about the location, it's not about the food. Sort of it is. It's great. It's not about, you know, the, the any. It's about who you're surrounding yourself with and the, the nuggets of information that you'll get from the stories. Almost like we're doing right now. And that's what it's. That's what it's all about. So that's where the master more than Speaker A 19:34 the stories, it's the point of view. You know, it's like Nito Cobain when he. He's currently president of High Point University and one of the most successful people in America by every single measure known to man Nito when he was young. I met him in 1979 and we were both aspiring motivational Speakers. But he had already built a business doing training, selling training programs to youth leaders in churches. And he said, jim, my mom told me when I came to America and she was still over in the Middle East. And he came to America with a handful of money and. And some local church contacts and enrolled in. In a college there in North Carolina. He said, she told me, walk hand in hand and side by side with people who are great. And he said, today and back then, he said this many, many decades later, still says the same thing. He says, my best friends or people I aspire to be like. He said, when I was in my 20s, as a young businessman, I was hanging out with people in their 60s who were established business leaders. I wasn't partying with my buddies. I was hanging out with people that inspired me. And now, years later, 1986, I was invited to join the premier Speaker Mastermind group Speakers Roundtable. At the time, we called it Speakers Associates, and it goes back to before the National Speakers association, all the way back to about 1960. And so I was invited to be one of the 20 people in that organization. And I was for 29 years. And in that were Cavett Robert, founder of the National Speakers Association, Jim Tunney, NFL referee Patricia Fripp. You know, it's a big name, people. And we invited Nito to join or invited Tony Alessandro and others along the way over the years. But what I got out of that was the point of view. When you've got a speaker in his late 80s or early 90s, and he's still getting up in front of the group and practicing his stories for feedback, when you've got a speaker who's in their 40s and they've established a beautiful pipeline for money and in doing research for people, but they want to work on their keynote stories, you start seeing these different points of view and you go, oh, my gosh, man, I. I gotta stretch the files. I'm taking in more than I can think about it. My old point of view, I love it. That's the mentorship. Yeah. So people. The entry level for people with you on Masterminds is like 250amonth. Jim Cathcart 22:40 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Get them in for something inexpensive like that. 250. Speaker A 22:45 And then what are you do. Your other category, do you. That's one of ten. Jim Cathcart 22:49 So that's one of one of three. The other ones are the speaker hearts, and the other one's integrity publishing. So speaker hearts. I'll tell you about that if you'd like. That's. It's part of my habitude Warrior conferences. As you know, I, I started, you know. Well, I started working in this industry 27 years ago. My, my anniversary was January 5th, 27 years ago, which is actually ironically Brian Tracy's birthday, January 5th. And I started working with him when I was 20, in my 20s and became a senior trainer and so forth. And I ended up meeting you because we had a scheduling conflict with one of our speakers and someone recommended you to us and I was like, oh my gosh, this is amazing. And I was so nervous. I think I hung up on the phone with you once and I think I threw up right after I talked to you. Anyway, so nervous. Speaker A 23:37 But the Houston event. Jim Cathcart 23:40 Yeah, that was Houston. That's right. Yeah, yeah. So let's see. So the habitat Warrior conferences. Ever since, you know, we ended up having the pandemic. Can you believe the pandemic was five years ago? That's, that's crazy. So, so we switched gears and instead of doing the live events the way we were doing them before, we switched it around. Almost like a TED talk style where we bring in our speakers. But it's, it's speaker hearts which has three components. Everything has threes in my, in my life. So three components. And the components that the speaker hearts has is, the first component is a 13 week long module. Like it's, it's 13 different programs that I teach people what I've done to grow my speaker business. Which is awesome. And it's on a video and they can train themselves through, through those video courses. So that's the first module. The second module of speaker arts is the speaker flies in to. And it's, it's of course a pay to play model. So they, they come in and we don't take, just take anyone. We want a speaker that's coming, coming from the heart to share with their story with the world. And we put them on stage, it's a studio audience and we record it, we videotape it professionally and then we broadcast it out and we sprinkle in some amazing top name celebrity speakers that I, that I'm friends with like yourself and Nito Cabane and, and you name it, you know, Brian Tracy, Les Brown, all these different amazing individuals. So we sprinkle them in depending on which city it is and we broadcast that to the world as well after the, the actual event. So it's a, it's a fantastic event. So two day event, day one is all masterminding and day two is we walk from the mastermind room around. It's Kind of cool. Don't tell anyone, but we literally, let's say this, this room right here, this is split in half. And one side is the mastermind side of the ballroom. And then we have the air wall that separates. Right. Nobody knows this on day one, but the air wall. My whole team is setting up the other side. Speaker A 25:44 Okay. Jim Cathcart 25:45 So it's the whole stage. You know how I do my stages. And it's all really cool and the lighting and everything and the chairs. But we don't put all the chairs until we open up that door and it opens up for the rest of the room. So basically, they were in the whole room the whole time. They just didn't realize it. So we go over there and we teach them towards the end of the day, on day one, we teach them, you know, where the stage is and how, you know, how to work the audience, how to really present. Present the right way. So much fun. And then. And then day two, they. They perform on stage. And some people do. Not speaking. Yeah, we video everything. Exactly. And. And it's. It's funny you. You bring that up, because I. I was just looking through. I'm sitting at one of my desks in my house in Utah, and I just. I was looking through some. Some older files, and I found a bunch of these. These things. You know, I save a lot of things. You know, a note from my ex. Pre fiance, anyway, a note from my parents. And then I found a old, old CD that Brian Tracy gave me. Look at this thing, Brian. Speaker A 26:43 Positive focus. Yep. Jim Cathcart 26:45 Yeah. And look how he literally handed this to me. He goes, here, train this, and let's sell this later. I. Oh, great. So this is 20 years ago. Okay. And look what was right next to it. Volume one. Volume two, Jim Cathcart. A CD that you gave me back in. What is that? Well, oh, 9,09. It was 2000. And I've got one from Dennis Waitley as well. I've got Dennis Whaley. He goes. He's. Eric, I'm going to give this to you. Don't ever show it on anywhere. Don't. Don't give it away. Don't. Just keep it. And then privately keep it. I'm like, all right, so here it is. Is that kind of cool? Oh, the reason why I bring this up, I think I still need to file this somewhere. This is. This is just. We've already. This is years ago. This video footage to upload. It's on the little drive right there. This. I have every single footage everywhere. Speaker A 27:38 Drawer full of that kind of Stuff, too. It would just find out what's on everything. Yeah, but, you know. Jim Cathcart 27:46 Yeah, exactly. But the thing is, a lot of people don't realize that some of the. The best things literally happen on napkins on a American. No, Southwest airline flight. This was. Speaker A 28:00 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 28:01 I mean, I. Notes to myself. And that's. This is how I've built some of my top three things that. Here's. These are just notes that I've. I've actually created. And again, remember, when it goes back to the person that says, oh, you Speaker A 28:15 know, you're just so loosey goosey and Jim Cathcart 28:16 you're fly by the seat of the pants. Am I though? There you go. Yeah. Speaker A 28:20 Wow. It goes back to the 1970s. Hold that up. Let's hold them up. Yeah. Jim Cathcart 28:28 That's amazing. You know what I was looking for? I think it's down. It might be right here. I can. I can find it quickly. I'll show it to you. Speaker A 28:37 You got to see this. Cabot, Robert, his wife, True Paula Cathcart, and me at a speaker's meeting. Jim Cathcart 28:46 That's beautiful. Speaker A 28:48 Long. Jim Cathcart 28:48 Wow. That's a keeper. That is beautiful. I love it. So there's. I don't want to go off camera. So there was in my other drawer over here, by the way, here's one of our speaker hearts emblems. No, I have in my. In a wallet. Okay. So I have. I. I used to be. I don't know what I was thinking, but back in the day, I would. I would travel a lot. I'd buy. I buy lots of cars and lots of cool, you know, watches and wallets. I had the Dunhill wallets and the, the. What's it called? The roll plexes. And I still have all the. Oh, if you're going to go off camera, I'll go grab something. So I was gonna. I was gonna say, like, I used to have all these things and, And. And now I just. I realize, I mean, I don't need any of that stuff. I just, like. I just need my Garmin to attract my. My workouts and. And I've got this bracelet, which, you know, is the most expensive bracelet I've ever worn. It. That's it. It's just a rubber band and it's an attitude bracelet. Because if I'm in a bad attitude, I snap myself out of it. Speaker A 29:50 So. Jim Cathcart 29:50 So here's the point. I have a wallet that I don't use wallets anymore. And. And I have this wallet that's in my other room over here in my office, part of my office. And Inside the wallet I have a business card that, that says Jim Cathcart. And on the back it says, to anyone who main concern at nsa, please accept Eric Swanson as a speaker. He is more. He has my referral. He's. I literally have that. I can show it to you. Speaker A 30:19 So you can see by all of Eric's sharing that this is a guy who's gotten really intentional about building a career. But he's put at the center of the intentionality, having a blast, having a lot of fun doing it. So he's got a whole pipeline of his mentor programs and he's got. That's one of his three main pipelines of revenue and activity. And he's got three types of mentor programs in it and he's experimenting with more. Okay. Then he's got another one which is Speaker Hartz. And, and that's about training speakers who really care, are sincere and are committed to doing well in their speaking career. And I imagine the third one that we haven't yet had him say is the publishing. And that is where he takes books like the thirteen Steps to Riches and creates co authorship opportunities for people. So you can subscribe to be in the book or you can, like me, he asked me to co author the book with him and be the featured guy on this topic. So I wrote the signature chapter of this one on auto suggestion. And he's got all these other featured authors and then in the book from chapter to chapter, or the folks who have paid a play, you know, they paid to be in the book, but they've contributed a chapter and then they get the book at wholesale so that they could have their own book and they can sell it. And they can also validate the fact that they have co authored a book with Eric Swanson or Jim Cathcart in this case. And so that anthology model is a proven model. And Eric, I think, has taken that to a new level beyond what most people have, because he'll take a theme like Dale Carnegie or Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill or one of these others. Like one is David and Goliath. And he'll break that into parts. And they do a separate book. As you can see, this is the book of mentors on each one of those parts. Wayne Dyer, Bob Proctor and Zig Ziglar. Wow. Jim Cathcart 32:36 And then I put in, like you just mentioned. Yeah, we, we sprinkle in the famous individuals. There's Brian Tracy co writing with us and, and here's everybody. And you're in here as well. It's just awesome. Speaker A 32:51 I Totally love that. Let's focus on cpe. Certified Professional Expert is a person who is building a business around their specific expertise. Okay, so like I said earlier, that's coaches and consultants and advisors and podcasters and authors and speakers, and it's all the people that are your natural market. And of course, in my natural market as well. And where I don't compete with you is that I'm not doing the number of events or the number of special projects that you're doing, nor am I offering my mentorship in the same way. Mine's much more intimate and personal to each one of the people that signs up with me. So my marketing line is come with me and let's discover how much more successful you can be. Jim Cathcart 33:48 Right. And so we also don't compete on our looks because we, both of us. Speaker A 33:53 Because both of us clearly know. Jim Cathcart 33:55 Let's do a Seinfeld here. Both of us clearly know who's better looking. Absolutely. Speaker A 33:59 Yeah. Tom Cruise and Clark Gable don't compete with each other. Screen share. I want to show you something. Okay. Look at this. Jim Cathcart 34:12 Ah, yeah. There you go. Speaker A 34:13 Oh, no. From the Professional Experts Summit in La Jolla, California, last May. And right in the center of it, of course, is Eric Swanson. Standing above, seated, Brian Tracy and his wife Barbara. And we've got everyone wearing their medallions showing that they are newly acknowledged Certified Professional Expert. Jim Cathcart 34:39 Yes. That was a very special special day. That was a very special. It's extremely special. If anyone's. Look, look, you know, if, first of all, it takes. You can't just call up Jim and say, hey, can I be one? It takes a lot of vetting. He doesn't just pick anyone, which is. It's such an honor. Like, I can't believe I'm sitting with those, those individuals, you know, but if you're doing, if you're an expert in your field. The thing is, it's interesting, Jim. Most experts in the field don't consider themselves expert in their field because they're constantly learning. And they would humbly never say that they're an expert in the field. But you know who you are. If you're doing. If you've been in your field for X amount of years, you've got a lot of expertise, let's put it that way. Reach out to Jim and find out how you can apply for this, because it's. It's fantastic. Especially, you know, just the acknowledgment of what you're doing to change people's lives. It's. It's powerful. You know, and it really helps do Speaker A 35:35 is go to cathcart.com oh, there you go. It's. That's like 30 pages of content in there and videos and things they can watch for free. But it starts on the opening page with me looking at the camera saying, are you an expert? Jim Cathcart 35:51 Right. Speaker A 35:52 Video that they can watch that gets into more of a description of it. But yeah, seriously, if at a point in their career, and this is not for beginners, but it's, it's, nor is it for people that are unreachable. If you're at a point where others are willing to pay you for your expertise, then you ought to take a look at the certified Professional expert designation because it's a pretty doggone prestigious group right now and it's growing, you know, year by year, and it's going to take on a great deal more weight. So it would be really fun to be able to claim for the rest of your career. I'm, I was one of the first, say, 30 that got it because there are five of those positions currently open and in March that might be gone. Jim Cathcart 36:47 Yeah, that's amazing. It's such a great, great experience and, and great designation so that you can really, it's, you know what you're doing. Also, Jim is here. You're allowing the experts to truly know that they are experts so that they can wear that badge with honor and treat the world as you should in your expertise. Speaker A 37:08 By the way, there's another thing that I want to praise about you, and that is that, like me, when you mentor somebody, they get plenty of face time with you. There's a lot of our colleagues that have big mentorship programs or the coaching programs, and you pay to get from level 1, 2, 3, 4 through 5000, you know, and they keep saying, oh, you wanted that. Well, you need to upgrade to the X, Y, Z level. But you never get time with them. They don't ever take their focus off what else they're doing and go search out your website and listen to you and, you know, really read into what you're doing to help you improve. They're mostly imparting wisdom, which is fine. I still recommend you buy the books, you know, think and grow Rich how to Win Friends, you know, all of all the classic books, because that does teach you something you ought to know. But don't expect Dale Carnegie to call up and say, hey, I want to spend a little time getting to know you. Jim Cathcart 38:16 Right? It's true. Yeah. It's so true. You know, it's, it's just being hands on, you know, Being hands on and you know, I mean accessible. Accessible, exactly. Yeah. Speaker A 38:26 Easy to reach. I'm easy to reach. A lot of our colleagues are not by choice. Yeah. And that's okay. Jim Cathcart 38:33 And I love what you said about the, the add on. You know the. Of course there's gonna be some add ons here and there, but I don't like the, the little thing where people, they get you in and then you gotta add on this and add on that and then. And it's like 500 000. Speaker A 38:48 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 38:49 A new client of ours just three days ago or four days ago got on the phone with me after, after getting an appointment through our team and we brought him into, he's doing a speech at our, at our events coming up. He's doing a. Two or three of our book collaborations coming up. Oh, by the way, we have two books coming up. The Book of Frequency and the Book of Survival to Thrival. Speaker A 39:08 Good. Jim Cathcart 39:09 I'm so excited about both of these. So. So long story short, he comes in and he goes, all right, I'm in. But just, just be on it. Level with me. Be honest. Like after I sign it and I pay the thing and so forth. What, what's the upsell? What like what are you going to call me for? And you can upsell me. He literally asked me this. He was from Canada. Great guy. This is four days ago. And I said, I said, all right, you know what, I'm going to give you exactly. Friend to friend. I'll be super honest with you. Do you have a piece of paper? And he said, yeah, I go grab a piece of paper, grab a pen. And I literally told him what the episode was and I had him write it down. In fact, I'll have you write it down too. I said write down tacos or sushi for Eric. Okay, so I want you to buy or, or doordash gift card. Just send me some food. That's, that's the upsell. That's literally it. And he started laughing and it's so true. Like I don't like upselling that much at all. I mean there's, of course there's going to be a step process from different things that you can add on, but we don't. I'm not there to add on. And I have a saying in my, in my, my whole team has a saying now in my company. I don't care about the money. I care about you. You as, as a human being. I care about the growth of, of the community. So the money will come as long as you're growing the community and growing the, the world in a. In a great way. And that's what CPE is all about, right? That's what you're. Speaker A 40:25 And just something that I say often is that money is to a business as blood is to a body. Blood's essential to stay alive and it has to circulate. It can't just sit still. Jim Cathcart 40:40 Right. Speaker A 40:40 Money is essential for a business to stay alive and it has to circulate. It can't just sit still. And money's not the reason for the business, blood's not the reason for the body, but it's essential to its existence. So what's the reason for the business? To make life better for the people it touches? What's the reason for the life. To live as fully as you can to make life better for everybody else that you possibly can. And I, you know, come with me and let's discover how much more successful you can be. There you go. Well, Eric, this has been wonderful. How do people contact you? Jim Cathcart 41:17 It has been great. Are we going to start the. The recording? Are we going to start this interview? Oh, we already did. Just kidding, guys. I. I got you, Jim. Speaker A 41:24 Yes. Jim Cathcart 41:25 You people contact me, you can easily go to Speaker Eric swanson.com Speaker. I still with a K E R I K. Yeah, I K. Yeah. Speaker A 41:36 That's an important distinction. Super. Well, thank you, aptitude Warrior. I appreciate you and I admire the good you bring into the world. Thank you. Jim Cathcart 41:44 Thank you. I appreciate you and I appreciate. Look at this. Oh, God. Gotta kiss this. You're in. You're in this book. I love this. This is amazing. So there you go. Yeah. Thank you, Jim. Appreciate you. Thank you, sir. Speaker A 41:57 See ya. 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.