Secrets of the Pros: How to Become a Certified Professional Expert

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. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Professional Experts Podcast. Today we have a very special group of guests with one who stands out in. In very unique ways, Mr. Les Brown. Leslie Calvin Rucker Brown, son of M. Brown. He lives in Georgia now. Got Don Hudson here and Kevin Davis and Brian Livingston and Robert Kriseman. We may have others dropping in on us, but, Les, thank you for agreeing to join us today as the certified professional expert number 11 out of only 25 that have currently been awarded. What I want to do with our time today is explore how you became a Professional Expert because you had a number of other career paths going and had done well a number of times, and then you decided to focus on this one. And, Lord, now you're a worldwide name. And you, you've lived a life unknown in common hours. As they often say. How in the world did you do it? Jim Cathcart 01:46 Well, first of all, I want to thank you. Because of friends like you, I am who I am today. Because I got a lot of help and support from you and the members of nsa. And when I look back, and I've been doing a lot of reflecting, On February 17, I will be 80ish. Speaker A 02:06 Wow. Jim Cathcart 02:07 Oh, my God. Who does this? I used to think people in their 40s were old. Now that I am 80, I feel like I served in the Lord's supper, but I got some good tips. Speaker C 02:18 Okay. Jim Cathcart 02:23 But, yeah, I was talking to my grandchildren the other day, and I said to them, live your life the way that you want to lead your life and find something that resonates with you, something that you love it so much. It's a calling. A calling is something that you love so much that you do it for nothing. But you do it so well that people will pay you to do it. And when I was in the fifth grade, I was labeled educable, mentally retarded, and put back from the fifth grade to the fourth grade. And I failed again in the eighth grade. But I had this high school teacher who challenged me to work out a problem. And I told him, I said, sir, I'm not one of his students. I'm just here looking for my friend MacArthur Stevens. He said, do what I'm asking you to do. Anyhow, I said I can't sir. And the other students started laughing, saying, he's Leslie, he's got a twin brother, Wesley, Wesley Smart, he's dt. And he asked what's the teeth? What's dt? And they said he's the dumb twin. And they started laughing and he looked at me and I agreed with them. And he came from behind his desk and the kind of spirit and energy that you exude, he said don't that again. Someone's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. Do you hear me? And I said yes sir. And what I learned from that experience, as we all know how people live their lives is a result of the story they believe about themselves and what we do as coaches, as consultants, as speakers when we speak. And I training speakers now at this stage my life, I had one of my Most famous students, Dr. Miles Monroe, he said Les Brown, there's no success without successors. And so what I people how to do and what made me stand out in the industry. The majority of speakers are operating under the philosophy of the Dale Carnegie course, which is a very good course. Tell them what you're going to tell them. Tell them and then tell them what you tell them. I'm opposite of that. I train speakers and I say to them, never let what you want to say get in the way of what your audience wants to hear. Find out who they are, what is it that keeps them up at night, what's stressing them out, what are their pain points. And when you find out who they are, use your story strategically so that they can see themselves in your story. Create an experience that allow them to step out of their current history, their self explanatory style and go into their imagination. And there you can dismantle their current belief system as you share your story and take them to a place in themselves that they can go by themselves. And they develop the courage to become self persuaded to make some new decisions about their life. And so by creating an experience, it sets you apart. See, we're in a time where people don't need us for information. They can google the information, they can go to ChatGPT and get the information. What allows you to stand out? And what I've been doing for years is creating an experience with the audience. Oliver Winderholme said that once a man, a woman's mind has been expanded with an idea, concept or story, it can never be satisfied to going back to where it was. Speaker A 05:56 Yeah man, that, that's some life wisdom right there. Well, when you were starting out on this path, you know, I met you, I was on the board of NSA and I was taking the shuttle back to the airport in Tampa. You had been at that meeting as an attendee and that, I think that was your first NSA meeting. Jim Cathcart 06:18 Yes. Speaker A 06:18 And I remember you're standing up and holding on to one of those little straps and I was one of the lucky ones that got to sit down. So I got in the bus earlier and you said, you're Jim Cathcart, aren't you? And I said, well, I try to be. And you laughed. You said, well, I'm Les Brown and I'm going to be a famous motivational speaker. And I said something encouraging, I hope, Jim Cathcart 06:42 but yes, you did. Speaker A 06:43 What struck me about that was you said it with such certainty that there was, you know, not I'm hoping to become, I plan to become. It was just, you're going to. Of course, you didn't have any facts to assure you that was going to happen at that time. Can you go back in your mind to those days of uncertainty, but absolute focus? Jim Cathcart 07:10 Absolutely everything that is ever done has been done from a place of knowingness. Not, I believe, because belief, it sets up residency in the mind. And we've been trained to be practical and to be logical and to be realistic. But when you do something from your heart, the heart knows, the mind believes that you'll find a way to do it. You'll figure it out. You go through the setbacks, the disappointments, the roller coaster experiences of life. You know it is real because it's been accomplished in your mind. And as a result of that, holding on to that vision. That's why we're told a man without vision perish that if you don't have a vision where you see yourself already living the dream that that's in you. Because all accomplishments happen twice. First in the mind and then and without. And so when you operate from a place of knowingness, there's no room for doubt and procrastination and for fear that you move and act as if you are already there. You know, we've heard that saying, act the way you want to be and soon you'll be the way you act. We are taught, call forth those things that be not as though they were. And so operating from that place of knowingness, that's how I was able to make that statement. Speaker A 08:48 Yeah. Now tell you, the thing about you that seems to to be so easily noticeable, it contrasted with all the other better known names in speaking, is that you absolutely exude the encouragement of other people Something you said a moment ago, I wrote down because it really resonated with me. You said, the heart knows, the mind believes. And that goes hand in hand with a statement I made to my pastor the other day at church. I said, it occurred to me, and I don't know if this is true, but I think it is. It occurred to me that the brain is the mind of the body and the heart is the mind of the soul. And he said, I like that. I need to think about that. But it seemed to kind of click with him. What do you think about that, Les? Jim Cathcart 09:48 I'm not familiar with that, but here's what I know about the heart. Speaker A 09:51 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 09:52 When you feel something in your heart and it's something that, as Viktor Frankl said, that it gives your life a sense of meaning when you read man's search for meaning and purpose, that it gives you the power to pursue something because your heart is pregnant with your reason for being here, your why for living. And life as when we remember Forrest Gump said, life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get. And I received an award from Cancer centers of America. 39 year, fourth stage prostate cancer conqueror, 39 years. I received this award, and they asked me, how you still here? That was the CEO of Cancer Centers of America. I said I had a very good doctor. And he said, what do you mean? I said, Dr. Goldson, who was a very brilliant oncologist, he did something. When he told me, he said, Mr. Brown, you have prostate cancer. I said, is that right? He said, yes. He said, you PSA is 2,400. I asked him, what does that mean? He said, One to four is normal. And I asked him, is there anything else? He said, yes. And I asked, what is it? He said, it's metastasized to seven areas of your body. And I started smiling. He said, why are you smiling? I said, man, I said, Seven is my lucky number. I said, I was born February 17th. I'm one of seven children. Joshua marched around the walls of Jericho seven times. Naaman dipped himself in the River Jordan. Seven times seven is my lucky number. I said, is there anything else? Speaker C 11:59 He said, yes. Jim Cathcart 11:59 And I said, what is it? He said, and you're ugly, too. I said, dude, it just called me up ugly. He said, yes. I said, but this is serious. He said, I know. I never tell my patients they're permanently ill. What I say is that my knowledge and my skills have terminated. I determine the diagnosis. You and God determines the prognosis. Wow. You got this beautiful. Speaker D 12:25 Wow. Speaker A 12:26 Wow. Jim Cathcart 12:26 Yes. And so, in fact, in the UK the doctors no longer tell a patient they're terminally ill because the capacity for your immune system to protect you drops by 40%. Just those words. That's what we taught in Scripture. Death and life is in the tongue. And so. But when he said that, he said, my skill set has terminated. I determine the diagnosis. You, and God determines the prognosis. You got to fight on your hands, and you can do this. That encouraged me. Distract, dispute, and inspire. He distracted me from being frightened because cancer is the most feared word in seven different languages. And so he distracted me from that and the collective belief that it's a death sentence and inspired me to become, as Mother Teresa would say, to become a pencil in the hand of God and start writing a new chapter in my life on how I was going to kick cancers behind. And I've been doing it now for 39 years. Don't come for me. I didn't call an Uber. Oh, behave. Speaker A 13:37 God bless you, man. I'm prostate cancer survivor. When the doctor told me the diagnosis, I said, get it out. He said, no, you could live with this. We could treat it, you know, and you could live with it for decades and be okay. I said, get it out. I got a whole lot more living to do, and I'm not ready to walk around with a cloud over my less professional expert. It's the certification that all of us have received, and. And it's sort of the main theme of what I do through Cathcart Institute now is I take people who are an expert in something that's worth paying to learn about or have them do for you, and then I show them how to build a profession or a career around that and to become, like yourself, a specialist who's hired for his unique ability, usually hired on a temporary basis, hired by lots of people, as opposed to having one employer. So that's coaches, speakers, consultants, advisors, authors, specialists, people like that. And I want. I want that to become as popular as the speaker hall of Fame CPA E Has become, and want people to aspire to be a certified professional expert. And that's why I have highlighted people like yourself, like Don Hudson, like Nito Cobain, Brian Tracy, you know, folks like that as examples of what a professional expert looks like and ought to look like. So that's where we're headed with all this. Jim Cathcart 15:18 That's good. Well, that's admirable, what you're doing. I think it's very important and needed because what you're saying is you're operating out of the thinking of Henry David Thoreau. Do not go where the path may lead, go where there's no path, and leave a trail that when you hold yourself to a high standard and your real certification is determined by the kind of quality of impact that you make with the people that you serve with integrity, with determination, and always elevating your thinking and elevating your skills. We're in this place where Peter Drucker said we must unlearn, learn and relearn. There are many speakers and coaches and different professionals who have the capacity to be more successful. However, they're trying to open up new doors of opportunities with old keys. And so what you're doing is operating as Abraham Lincoln said. And Jim Roy used to say this a lot. If I had said six hours to cut a tree down, I've been. I'll spend four hours sharpening my ax. Speaker C 16:22 Yeah, yeah. Speaker A 16:24 Well, I will open up to our group now. If anybody's got a question or comment you want to make for less. There you go, Brian. Brian Livingston. Brian's the Canadian who's down in Florida. We need the cold for the moment. Speaker E 16:39 Getting out of the winter last. Nice to meet you. Longtime fan. It's great to be able to speak with you. Thank you, Jim, for facilitating, but Jim's still my man. I will put that in for sure. I wanted to know where. When you're saying, when you're saying what you just said, where would you think a person is best suited to focus then based on their level of expertise? Like how do you go about promoting that expertise level to others? Jim Cathcart 17:11 What is it that you do? Speaker E 17:13 I actually represent people in court for their traffic tickets. I have a traffic ticket businesses. Jim Cathcart 17:22 How did you get into that? Speaker E 17:23 I'm a former police officer. Jim Cathcart 17:26 I see. And when you decided to become a police officer, when was it that you said, and all of us have what I call a moment, a moment in your life. You said, this is what I want to do. You said, brian, this is the direction that I'm going to take my life in. What happened? What was going on? What did you experience that brought you to that position, to the decision of Speaker E 17:51 being a police officer or starting business? You know, I was always, I was afraid to break a rule, let alone a law. You know, I was always very law abiding and I felt like I wanted to serve people and help them and protect them. Unfortunately, I realized that by becoming a police officer, you're really very limited in actually really being able to perform that service. Jim Cathcart 18:22 And so what are you doing now? Speaker E 18:24 I represent people in court against the police for their traffic tickets, actually. Jim Cathcart 18:30 And you have. Let me share something. If I were in fact you, I would talk about that. It was a director out of New York. Speaker F 18:42 He wrote a movie. Jim Cathcart 18:45 It's called do the Right Thing. Ladies and gentlemen, as I talk to you right now, as a former police officer, as I look at the profession where I am right now, where we literally now are examining and looking at the profession that I was once involved in, here's what I know. Living from a place of integrity and integrity is to judge a man not by what he does, but what he does that he doesn't have to do. And what we're doing, we're not anti police officers in that profession because they put their lives on the line every day to serve us. But we all know that an absolute power corrupts absolutely and that we must hold ourselves to a higher standard and that we must be willing to do the things we can to maintain the level of professionalism and service and the protection that we're providing for the public. I'm encouraging you take a stand with your life. Join us in this effort to begin to create a new kind of thinking and upgrade the values that we have. And that represents the next greatest version of ourselves. Speaker E 20:00 Listen, thank you very much, Les. Speaker C 20:02 I appreciate that. Jim Cathcart 20:04 You're welcome very much. Speaker A 20:06 You may not have heard. Jim Cathcart 20:07 Is that helpful? Speaker A 20:08 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 20:09 But was that helpful? Speaker E 20:11 Beautiful. Yeah, no, it really, really is. And that gives me me a new direction, I thought. I think I will go with. With Jim's help. Jim Cathcart 20:20 All right, well, Jim can do it. That's the math. Speaker A 20:23 And something else about Brian Livingston is that he's a senior consultant with Grant Cardone's network. And so he works with people in a coaching capacity as well, outside of his business as the traffic ticket representative. Jim Cathcart 20:40 Oh, yes, I know Grant very well. I've spoken for his organization. Speaker A 20:45 Yes, I noticed Brian Tracy just tuned in. I don't know if you're able to come on on Mike or not, Brian, but if you are, unmute yourself and say hello to everybody. Jim Cathcart 20:56 Brian Tracy. Speaker A 20:57 Look at that smiling face. Jim Cathcart 21:02 I am here because of Brian Tracy. I was listening to him at a very challenging time in my life and trying to find my way. And he said the average American reads one book a year. If you take the time and just be intentional and read one book a month in an area of your interest, and five years when the average American would have read five books, you read 60 books, that will make you an expert. I Took that to heart. And because of Brian, that's why who I am now, I'm. I know more quotes than anybody except Brian. Because when it comes to information, that is the man. How you doing, my brother? Speaker F 21:52 I love you, Les. You know that? Speaker A 21:55 Yes. Jim Cathcart 21:55 I love you until. Good to see you. Speaker F 21:57 And I love your kids as well. It's just a pleasure to see you. Jim Cathcart 22:02 Thank you. Same here, man. Speaker A 22:04 We've got some royalty with us today. We've got Brian Tracy, Don Hudson, Les Brown. Whoo. I feel really honored that you guys have chosen to join us today to help all of us get a deeper understanding of how do we spread the. The message that you were just talking about, Les. That the importance of starting from a place of integrity, that is so powerful, because from that point forward, everything else makes sense in a whole different way. When you start from a place of integrity, technique is negotiable. Changes along the way, completely optional. But staying the course on what's right, what matters, and what will make a difference, that is powerful stuff. Speaker F 22:52 I have an answer for that. When. When I was a young man, I went off to see the world, and I traveled all over Africa, from Tangiers all the way to Cape Town with a Land Rover. And I worked with Dr. Albert Schweitzer when he was the greatest philanthropist in the world. And he had this one liner. He said, men must be taught at the school of example, for they will learn at no other. And that basically the answer to your question is we must be the example. We must be the person that we feel that other people should be. Because your kids will look at you and they will hear what you say and ignore everything you say, but they will watch what you do, and that will shape their character. Speaker C 23:47 Wow. Speaker A 23:48 Wow. Jim Cathcart 23:48 Yeah. That's powerful. That's real. Speaker A 23:51 Brian Tracy is CPE number 10. 10 and 11. Let's see where Don Hudson falls into this. We've got Don Hudson at number six, Robin Kriseman, 24. Brian Livingston, 23. And number 15 is Kevin Davis. So what a lineup of awesome people. Speaker C 24:10 For the first time in my life, Jim, I finally ranked above Brian Tracy and something. Speaker A 24:20 Well said. DH well, let's see. I've got a chat open here. Somebody said something. I'll see what this is. Oh, I thought just Brian said, and you forgot about Robin Griezman. Yeah, No, I can't forget about Robin Griezmann. He's in my mind every day. Speaker C 24:39 Wow. Speaker A 24:40 There's so many directions I could go right now. I want to just take a couple of moments, see this book what to do when you're the speaker. Both people have endorsed this book that are you're looking at on the screen right now. Les Brown and Brian Tracy both. And I think the reason they were so willing, other than just friendship with me, to endorse that book, is that I wrote the book not to teach people how to be a speaker, but to talk to people like us in this group today about the things we need to know. To be able to deal with a room that is terribly cold or immensely hot. Or somebody comes into the meeting during your speech and they say, president Reagan's been shot. Or someone else comes in and said, oh my God, the Twin Towers have been, you know, whatever. When we look at our careers and we look at all these moments, these powerful, life changing moments that have had an impact on us, how do you think about that? How do you cope with things like that? And that's who I wrote the book for. So that people would feel much more confident, no matter what their topic, when they get into a situation that they had never even considered might be possible. Like right now. Imagine if you were booked right now to speak in the Los Angeles basin. Wow. You know, at a time like that, you don't think about yourself, you don't think about the speech, you think about the audience and the world. And you say, okay, we are a group of people and everything great in the world that's ever been accomplished had been accomplished through a group. As Margaret Mead said, you know, a group, a small group of people who are committed to the same cause. Indeed, that's the only thing that ever has changed the world. And so you look at that as an opportunity to get the collective mind and energy of those people focused on the greater need. And I think that's, that's a powerful point to, to come from when you're standing on a platform or sitting in front of a microphone with anybody. I'm here to make the world a better place. The rest of this is committee work. Speaker F 27:04 One of the, one of the things that my son is also a speaker now and doing very well. My daughter is a speaker. They're earning between 15 and $20,000 a talk, which is a good indication. Speaker A 27:18 Yes. Speaker F 27:19 And one of the things that we talk about is preparation, preparation, preparation. Where really obsessed with the importance of preparation for every talk, even if we've given the talk many times. Always prepare. And I think that's what you're saying, Jim, is one of the things that people who read your book realize how important it is to prepare. So you're ready for almost anything that can happen. And especially prepare for your material no matter how many times you've given it. Speaker A 27:55 My son, Jim Jr. You both know, and Don knows him as well. Jim Jr. Is 53 years old. He has had a 26 year career with the Four Seasons Hotels as a senior executive most of those years in the human resources area. In the last three years he's been resort manager of the Four Seasons Biltmore Resort in Santa Barbara where he was first hired as a sales clerk. Brian, back when we were there for the speakers roundtable meeting, remember that? Long ago. So Jimmy started there as a sales clerk long ago. And then 26 years later, after having been the HR exec and then finally the corporate HR guy that was sent around to New Orleans and San Francisco and LA as a hired gun from corporate to help fix everybody. He is now starting yesterday, his first day on the job, he's left the Four Seasons and he's the assistant general manager, soon to become general manager of the Santa Barbara Inn, right on the beach in downtown Santa Barbara. Jim Cathcart 29:05 Wow. Congratulations. Speaker A 29:06 Of his dreams. And that's from. And that's where his son, my grandson, lives in Santa Barbara. Jim Cathcart 29:16 Yes. That's great. You know, you said something about handling disruptions and things that we don't expect. I had to speak at an event in Detroit and for a guy named Jack Boland. It was called the Church of Today. And the air conditioner went out. Speaker A 29:44 How many people? Jim Cathcart 29:45 It was filled. It was 3,000 people. Speaker F 29:48 It was filled. Jim Cathcart 29:48 Standing room only. And when I came in, everybody was fanning. And I'm searching my mind, what can I talk about today? And so when they introduced me and people were fanning, I said, tonight I'm going to talk to you about Joe versus his volcano. I said, what is it you experience when you near a volcano? And they said, you're hot? I said, yes. Shake someone. Stand on your right and left and say, when you're hot, you're hot. And when you're not, you're not. And they did that. They stopped fanning. They listened to how I was going to deliver that message. The response was so strong, I got so fired up and excited myself, I ran off the stage because people were seated around the stage and jumped over the people that were seated near the stage and bust my behind on the floor. Just my point. Saying, that'll teach you, that'll learn you. But when people stop fanning. Because I took the heat out of the equation. Speaker F 31:04 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 31:04 And sometimes you have to flow with, how do I make this Work for me. If somebody have a room next to you and they got a log PA system that's coming through the walls. I've had those experiences, and I know you have, too. I say, ladies and gentlemen, this is a good example of our life. Listen to me right now. Part of listening to this thing called life is that you got to focus on what's important. And the book that's by OG Bandino called the University of Success, he said most people never achieve their goals because they become sidetracked by secondary activity. The secondary activity of the noise coming through the wall represents the noise of life and the people that are going to make it and can hear the things that I'm saying. Because of the discipline of their thinking and their focus, they get something of value out of it. And so I made it work for me. I said, this is life and it's going to be noisy. That's the way it is. Think it not strange that you face the fiery furnaces of this world. You will not. You might. You will have tribulations and distractions. Speaker A 32:16 Wow, that's. I feel like I just fell into a bowl full of money. You know, it's just there's so much value in what we're doing here. Don Hudson, would you come on the screen? Can you do that? But I'd love to get some of your observations and comments here because we're looking at. You know, let's just mentioned Og Mandino, one of the great, great influencers in the field of personal development of all time. I mean, he's up there with Earl Nightingale and W. Clement Stone, who was his boss, and. And a whole bunch of others. And all three of us knew Og Mandino, worked with him in various ways. So that's pretty powerful stuff. Don, you were there in the earliest days of this profession taking shape that we call professional speaking. Give us some observations on what you picked up in our dialogue so far. Speaker C 33:06 Well, you know, I'll give one of many, Jim, who had such a great influence on all of us at our somewhat younger ages, if I may, let me say something to less first. Sure. This. When I hear you speak, when you really get wound up and you're talking about Miss Mamie and you're telling your stories, you know what you remind me of. And please accept this as the compliment it's intended to be. Reverend John Wesley was asked as he was approaching the pulpit to give his sermon one Sunday morning. Before he went up, someone said, reverend Wesley, how is it that you, Sunday after Sunday, are able to Provide such an intense inspiration for everybody in your audience. You're. You just captivate everyone. He said, oh, when I share all my feelings about the love for the Lord, As I approach that pulpit, I set myself on fire. And people come from miles around to watch me burn. That's Les Brown, man. I love that you set yourself on fire and people come to watch your bird, brother. Jim Cathcart 34:18 Yeah, thank you so much. I like that. I'm. I'm going to borrow that. Okay. And I'll give you credit for it. Speaker C 34:24 Yes, go for it, man. Speaker A 34:26 Just for the record, Wesley was the founder of the Methodist church, so no small deal there, right? Jim Cathcart 34:33 Yes. Speaker A 34:35 Don Hudson has something that very few people in the world have. He has a world class. And when I say world class, I'm talking Smithsonian Institute. Right. World class library of personal development and inspirational works. He's got it going back to, you know, the Early Early Days with Samuel Smiles, Richard Halliburton and Orson Martin. Oh, Orson. Jim Cathcart 35:05 What about Dare to Be Great? Do you have those? Speaker A 35:08 Say it again. Speaker C 35:10 What is the list? Jim Cathcart 35:11 Dare to Be Great. Do you have that series? Speaker C 35:14 Oh, I absolutely do. Jim Cathcart 35:16 No, you don't. Oh, man, I would love to get a copy of that. Speaker C 35:23 Now you're talking. Dare to Be Great. That was. What was his name? Glenn. Jim Cathcart 35:27 Glenn Turner. Speaker C 35:29 Glenn Turner. Jim Cathcart 35:30 Yes. Speaker C 35:31 I think I've got that list. But I hadn't seen it for a while. I'll have to look for it. But I one time had his works. Jim Cathcart 35:39 Yeah, he was a great speaker, man. He. Another great speaker was Bill Bailey from Best Line Products, man. Speaker A 35:47 Yeah, in the early days of. Speaker C 35:48 I didn't know him. But you know, my, my greatest blessing was having the opportunity to know and sit at the feet of and learn from the Norman Vincent Peels. And the early days of the positive thinking rallies is one of the greatest blessings the Lord ever gave me. I was the emcee and I was. I was one of the most fired up teenagers fans of Paul Harvey. And he was so, so big, was bigger than life. And I was a teenager with a part time job. There you go. Speaker E 36:19 Yeah. Speaker C 36:19 Jim Positive Living magazine. Speaker A 36:21 Yeah, but look at this. Speaker C 36:23 Who's that kid on the bottom right? Speaker A 36:25 That's Don Hudson. Speaker C 36:28 Paul Harvey. Cabot Linkletter Nightingale. Speaker A 36:33 Yep. Jim Cathcart 36:34 Well, that's a powerful line up there. Yeah. Speaker C 36:37 But when I was a teenager with a part time job, I would arrange to leave on my lunch hour just in time to get Paul Harvey News at 12:15. And from 12:15 to 12:30, I'm 100% zeroed in on Paul Harvey. Well, for me to have the opportunity to know him and to become his friend and to introduce him some 40, 50 times was a great blessing for me. But Harvey was just such an incredible American, a great patriot, a great inspirer of men. So he was a great influence. Dr. Kenneth McFarland was also, Jim, one of my great influences. Speaker A 37:17 Mine too. Speaker C 37:18 Yeah. He's one of the people I heard very early on, and he's the reason I'm in this business today. He was such an amazing influence. And a little bit later, several years later, it took me like five years to talk him into joining nsa, but he finally did, because I remember distinctly over dinner one night, I said, Doc, Dr. Mac, you need to be a member of NSA. He said, Don, at this juncture in my life, I just don't need that. And I'm not much of a joiner. And, you know, he gave me three or four reasons. I said, Dr. Mac, I know you don't need NSA, but NSA and its members need you. And he said, well, if you feel that strongly about it, I'll join. And then shortly after that, we got him to speak at the Louisville convention, and he was wonderful. Speaker A 38:06 That was my first. Speaker C 38:08 Such an incredible influence. It was such a blessing for me to have an opportunity to get in this business early. At age 21, getting hired right out of college to sell tickets to seminars with zigler and Cavett, McFarland and all of them. It was just a real blessing. Speaker A 38:26 Isn't that true? Zig was a seminar salesman like you were at first. Speaker C 38:31 Yeah, my first 1500 speeches were 30 minute freebies to six or eight people trying to get them to sign up to come to our seminar. Yeah, but this is where I learned how to speak and really develop my skill. Speaker A 38:43 That NSA convention in Louisville, Kentucky in 1978 was my first ever. And I was just squeaking by to have enough money to get there. And so I couldn't come to the luncheon where the speaker hall of Fame Awards were being passed out. And you were in that room. It was $40 for that lunch, and I couldn't afford that, so I went across the street and got a hot dog and stood in the hallway. And whenever someone would open the door to go the bathroom, I would hold it open a little bit so that I could hear what was going on in the room before it closed fully. Speaker C 39:17 Wow, what a great story. Jim Cathcart 39:20 Yes. Speaker A 39:22 Brian, when you first got involved in nsa, you had. You still lived in Canada, right? And. And we met in New Orleans. I was speaking at the New Orleans, I think it was the Fairmont Hotel down there at the NSA convention. And you were in the audience of my breakout session. And I talked about having moved to La Jolla. And you said, hey, can I bring Victor, my associate, and come to La Jolla and meet with you and Tony Alessandra and talk about what it's like living and working in California? Is that doable? I said, absolutely, this is. And I vividly remember lunch with you and Victor at George's Restaurant overlooking La Jolla Cove. And the next thing I know, you're not only moved to California, you're a citizen of the United States and you run for governor. Wow. Speaker F 40:16 Well, thank you very much. I gave a speech in Calgary, and Ogmandino was there, and he gave me some advice that I never forgot, he said, because I was. I was trying to get as much into the talk as possible. He said, brian, he said, you've got to romance your points. Romance your points. And I never forgot that my wife was there. We still remember that. To slow down and take time and romance the points. And then he told me, I've got to join nsa. And so I joined NSA when Patricia Fripp was the president. And then I remember meeting you coming to. Coming down to explore San Diego. And I've been here now for 35 years, and you weren't there the first time, but Tony was. And so you had. Remember to. Was it called Cathcart Alessandra and Associates? Speaker A 41:18 Yeah, I won the toss. Speaker F 41:20 Yeah. And Tony and I and you and have been friends ever since. It's been a wonderful life. Wonderful. Speaker A 41:28 And by the way, folks, notice behind Brian, there are books and books and books and books. I'm sure less is house and office looks the same way, filled with books, because you've been quoting them all day long. Less. And Don Hudson. And, you know, I got a few myself. I got a whole bunch more in storage in other places, and I donate the extra to a library about once every two years. And just I contributed as the Cathcart Institute Leadership Library to a association or agency or something like that. So there's. For your excess books, folks. Wow. Les, give us some more observations based on where we've been in the last minute or two. Jim Cathcart 42:18 Well, one of the things that I learned from Brian Tracy that I think that all professionals must do, and especially this new group of speakers who just speak to sell as opposed to speaking to serve. And that is no more than your Speaker F 42:40 story Jim Cathcart 42:42 that when I listen to Brian, it reminded me of this high school teacher who told me, Mr. Brown there are three things that will contribute to your becoming successful. Number one, develop your mind. You don't get in life what you want, you get in life what you are. Number two, practice OQ only quality people. Whoever you run with, that's who you will end up with. And three, develop your communication skills because once you open your mouth, you tell the world who you are. And so, listening to Brian, I've done so many webinars and workshops and speeches from things that I got from him. He's done so much work. I really should send him a percentage of my checks because he saved me a lot of time of doing a lot of research. Speaker C 43:38 It was not too late. Last good check. Speaker F 43:43 Well, you guys, you guys, all of you have been such inspirations to me over the years. Dawn and Jim and Og and of course, Les Brown. I just. I just love the man. Always have. From the first time we met, I told you to walk up the stairs slowly. You remember that? Jim Cathcart 44:06 Yes. Listen, he told me, when you go on stage, don't run up. Take your time and look at the gap between the stage and the steps. Sort that information on to other speakers. When I was backstage and I told this speaker, I said, look, don't run up. I've seen you run up on stage. Just make sure. Just take your time and make sure there's no divide between the stage and the steps. He said, man, I've been running up on stage for years. And sure enough, he ran up there, there was a gap between the stage and the steps and he fell forward and broke his leg. Speaker A 44:49 Wow. Jim Cathcart 44:50 Did not listen. You know, there's a book called the Kybalion and there's a line that says, the lips of the wise are sealed to the ears of the ignorant. I listened and I take my time. I don't run at all. No. Speaker A 45:08 One of the things I do when I'm in a room and there's that darkness at the front, you know, all the lights are on the stage, the audience is huge. And you're sitting there and you've got that gap between you and the stage is. I look at that whole pathway, what I can see of it in the darkness. And so I gauge everything based on. On calculating that distance. And if I'm going to run, it's once I get on the stage. It is, yes, on the way to the stage, unless it's running down the aisle in the audience. I've done that in China on some of those talks. Speaker C 45:44 Hey, Jim, can I tell a Brian Tracy story? Speaker A 45:47 Would you please? Speaker C 45:48 Yeah. So years ago, in our speakers roundtable group, we met at Silverado in the wine country of California. And typically on a Saturday night we would have maybe cocktails at 6, dinner at 7, and then the dinner would go on. It might last four hours because we would go around the table and the members of speakers roundtable, of which there was traditionally 18 or 20 at the meeting, would get up and do five, six, eight minutes and much laughter. It was just the whole thing was a labor of love and everybody was intricately involved in it. But we had Silverado. We're drinking that good California wine, and we had a good bit to drink that night. But we get seated at dinner and I'm at the same table with Tracy. I said, brian, I want you to get up and recite some Robert Service tonight. He said, oh man, I've had too much wine, I can't do that. Well, I had to ask him like four times over about a 20 minute period. But finally, finally I won him over. And Brian stood up, stood behind his chair, paused, looked over the audience and proceeded to recite Robert Service. Now, Robert Service was one of the greatest poets who ever lived, and he was Canadian and he wrote these compelling barroom ballads from the Yukon. And I mean, he was a man's man. And if you haven't read any Robert Service, get a book and read Robert Service. But Brian got up with all that wine under his belt. I think he did maybe 12, 15 minutes of Robert's service and never missed a beat. With every little moment of emphasis in the perfect place, tears almost came to my eyes. It was just an unbelievable happening. And I'm sure you remember that, Brian, because I had to badger you to get you to do it. But the fact that you remembered and then could recite all that Robert Service poetry was unbelievable. And for those of you who don't know, Tracy does have a photographic memory, so he's better off than most of us. Speaker F 47:55 Thank you so much. Don't. By the way, just, just a little observation with regard to speaking. I learned from Don, from Ron Arden, that studying and practicing poetry is a fantastic way of learning how to be a great speaker. Poetry is so good for you. And I, I gave a speech to a million dollar roundtable. 5,000 people standing ovation. And what I did was I practiced speeches 50 times before I gave that talk because they said I would do a million dollars worth of speaking business if I got to speak for the million dollar round table. And I did, and I did. But I really practiced poetry and I practiced W. Robert W. Service. Poetry. So it's a good thing. You want to help people to become better speakers, show them how, encourage them to learn and recite poetry. It's a wonderful thing. Speaker A 49:02 And you mention Arden. Ron Arden was a theater director from South Africa who had moved to San Diego, and he was hired by Ken Blanchard to do presentation skills training for Ken and his team. And so when Ken was in Speakers Roundtable, he booked Ron to come in and spend a day with our group. And we would sit in a u shape, the 18 members or so that were present, and Ron would sit at the end of it, and then we'd get up one at a time and do five minutes, and then Ron would give us feedback, and then the group would give us feedback because they were all experts. And, and I mean, even Cabot Robert, the founder of the National Speakers association in his 90s, or at least late 80s, was getting up and doing his five minutes. So this was an amazing, amazing forum. The greats of the industry sharpening their craft right there in front of each other. As Ron. Ron Arden used to say, words have shaped and taste. He said, take the word like quick. Don't ever say quick. Say quick. If you say fire, say it that way. Don't say fire. The words have meaning. Rough, smooth, heavy, you know, and I just, I love the artistry he brought into it. So thank you for mentioning that, Brian. Do any of you have any questions or comments for. For our team of world powerful experts here at this point? Speaker D 50:45 Robin, first of all, this has been fascinating, unbelievably honored to be a part of this. I kind of know the answer, but I just want to hear it as from you experts. Having been in the industry for a long time, you guys, and I came in afterwards about 2002 or 3, I think. What are you seeing today with all these new speakers that are coming up, and just the new idea of how we deal with speaking with the type of events we're having now. What is the difference that you're seeing from the iconic days of the good old days to what we're seeing now? And is it a positive or not? What do you. What are your general thoughts? Speaker F 51:26 I could answer that. I. I did a talk for the Texas Speakers association last year and they. Two wonderful women, 20, 30 years experience, and they were interviewing me and they said, why do you think that you're a successful speaker? I said, well, there's three. Three reasons. Three. And just thought of it right off the top of my head. I said, number one, I ask questions, but I watch people Ask questions, and they really aren't interested in the answers. But I would ask questions of the audience, and then I would wait while they articulated their answers, and then I would piggyback on the questions. In other words, I cared about the. The questions. So you don't just ask questions to entertain the audience or as a gimmick. What you do is if you're going to ask a question, ask a question that you really want the answer to. The second thing I told them about was what I call the windshield wiper method. And they said, what is that? I said, well, the key to speaking well is to understand that we are in the business of edutainment. It's. And that means right brain, left brain. See, the left brain is the. The intellectual brain. The right brain is the emotional brain. And if you go too far in either direction, the speech becomes boring and it's no longer edutainment. So therefore, it's fact, story, fact, humor, fact, joke, fact, unquote, and so on. It's always, they said, tell us that again. How does that work? Well, I. They. They never heard it before. And I explained, well, it's. The key to great speaking is Windju and wiper. And I've taught my kids this and I've taught other people this. It is just a phenomenal way of thinking. And the third thing is preparation. Those three. And so if you do those three, I call them the golden triangle of speaking, is to ask questions and leaning into the audience because you really want to know the answer. Like, for example, I always start off with a question. What if I'm speaking to a sales audience? I have 1600 people there. I asked this question. I said, before we begin, how many people here would like to double their income in the next six to 12 months? And everybody raises their hand. So now I've got. Now basically, I own the audience. They're in my hands. And I say, well, over the course of our time together, I'm going to show you how to do that. So let's start with a seminar. They said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Everybody said, no, no, we want to know now. We want to know or double our income now. So I give them a very simple technique. I'm sharing this with you because it's priceless. I say, well, according to research, the average professional salesperson makes two new calls per day on average, half or above half or below. I know some who make two calls a week or even less. So therefore, if you want to double your income, what you do in assuming that you're an average here. What you do is you make four calls per day and because of the law of probabilities, you will double your income. You don't know where the sale will come from, but you on double your income. And people look at me stunned and they look at each other and they say, that's just a piece of crap. I mean, tell me, I've been in my business for years. I mean, I. For 10 years I said, look, just give it a try. And every single person who gives me feedback afterwards said they couldn't believe it. They couldn't believe it. After several years in the field, they doubled their income in a week just simply by writing down, keeping accurate track and making four calls a day. Two calls a day is one every four hours. Four calls a day is one every two hours. Is that doable? And they all say, well, yes, that's doable. All right. And it's up to you anyway, I pass that on to you because I'm no longer using it. But it is priceless. You have the entire audience in your head. And I say, I will give you other ways as well as we go through the day, but this way is guaranteed to double your income. And if you want to triple your income, then just make even more calls anyway. So. But those that golden triangle ask questions and care about the question and answer the question. And windshield wiper. Left brain, right brain, left brain, right brain. If you, if you spend too much time on either side, you actually bore the audience they want, want to be. You are edutainers and so therefore you bring their brains alive. So they're basically with you the whole time. And then the Thursday is prepare, prepare, prepare. You can never fare too much to Speaker A 57:14 the beautiful profound wisdom. Although simple, not easy, you know, simple. A lot of the solutions that we need are simple but not necessarily easy to do. We've got to wrap it together now and I want to give Kevin a chance to ask a question or make a comment. And then I want to go back to you less and to Don for any closing comments that you might have. Okay. Kevin, you have any comments or question for the group? Kevin Davis? Speaker G 57:45 Yeah, absolutely. Thank each of you. It's an honor to be on this call. I mean all of you have been my mentors through listening. I got Don's cassette tapes at a Automotive Oil Change association event. Oh my goodness, 25 years ago, maybe met him there and. Speaker C 58:02 Or more. Speaker G 58:04 Or more. Yes, a long time ago when I first got started in the oil change business. And of course, Brian Les, it's an honor. But less one thing you said. I love how Jim said when he met you and he. And you said you were going to be a famous motivational speaker. And I love the way you said that. The knowing. The knowing is different than beliefs. So what caused you or what point in your life did you decide or you know, that this was what you were going to do? Jim Cathcart 58:34 I was at an event, and I know. And all of us have had experiences of being in an event and somebody was speaking and you were in the audience, and you said to yourself, she's talking to me, or he's talking to me. I was at a Bob Proctor event, and I've been going to seminars for about 14 years. I would go and my heart would say, I can do this. But by the time I got to my car, my mind convinced me that I could not do it at this event. It was a Bob Proctor event. A guy was speaking and he said. He stopped. He said, there's somebody here. He started looking over the audience who should be on this stage. I'm standing in your dream, but you've convinced yourself that you don't have what it takes to do it. And he started talking again on this point. And I had said to myself, I don't have a college education. I never worked for a major corporation. How can I teach and train people how to do something I've never done? And then he stopped again in his speech. He said, this just dropped in my spirit. And he looked around the audience, and I'm asking myself, is this guy looking for me? He said, I don't know who you are. He said, I do this because I love to do it, and I make a lot of money. But you, you like to help people. He said, the reason I'm standing up here, you're seated out there. I represent the thoughts you have rejected for yourself. When he said that, that was a gut punch. I jumped up. And at this time, you could make a telephone call for a dime. I ran outside to a telephone booth where Superman used to change his clothes. Okay. And I called my mentor, Mike Williams, who wrote the book the Road to youo Best Stuff, who saw this Les Brown. Before I saw him, I said, mike. He said, yes. I said, I'm not rejecting myself anymore. He said, browning, calm down. I said, no. Said, my mother has breast cancer, and I promised her she wouldn't go in a nursing home. I can't get a regular job like everybody else, and I love to speak. This is who I am. I'm not rejecting myself. Anymore. He said, I believe you, Brownie. I said, will you help me? And he said, yes. And I believe. Ask for help not because you're weak, but because you want to remain strong and ask for help and don't stop until you get it. That was a deciding moment in my life. Speaker C 61:15 Wow. Speaker F 61:16 Wow. Speaker G 61:16 Awesome. Jim Cathcart 61:17 Thank you for sharing that moment. Speaker A 61:19 Wow, that's. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. Don, you still there with us? Speaker C 61:25 I'm still here. Speaker A 61:26 Okay. We didn't. We don't see your image at present. That's why I was asking. Can you. Speaker C 61:32 Sorry about that. Speaker A 61:33 Can you give us a. Gosh, my photos even gone. Speaker C 61:36 Okay, there it is. Speaker A 61:37 Give us a closing thought or two. Speaker C 61:39 Yeah. It's been an inspiration being here today. I've got a good page and a half of notes, and I say that only because I've always been an art note taker and it's always paid off. I got so much good material that I refer back to from the research I do and the things that I learned from you guys, and I know most of you do the same thing, I would hope. But real honor to be here with each of you today. And one little gem I want to leave with Robin and Brian and Kevin, who might have come along a little bit behind the rest of us. Is this to the point of humor. I love Brian's story about right brain, Left brain. But I want to say this to you about humor. When I was young in the business, I was not funny, and I just didn't have the ability to use humor. And I realized how important it was, and I started working on it, and I actually became pretty talented with humor over the years. But the difference between a $10,000 speaker and a $20,000 speaker can be their ability to articulately use humor. And. And I want to encourage you to become a student of humor and not only read every little book you can find on humor, I mean, there are books that have thousands of jokes in them. Well, you don't necessarily want to use one of those, but you can take one and read it and you can adapt it to your life, to your audience, to how you can use it. So do all that you can to. To be a student of humor, and you're going to make more money and you're going to create a more vibrant following in your career, and you're just going to be a better and more rewarded speaker. As hard as it was for me, I finally got over the hump and successfully used humor to make all the difference in the world. I would Just encourage you to make that a major course of study for yourself and not something that's incidental. It's too important for you to treat it incidentally. Speaker A 63:36 And I can tell you that Don Hudson's one of the funniest guys I know. We've been driving around in Memphis and we crack each other up so much we'd have to pull over and finish laughing. We've had some great times together. Now, I met don Hudson in 1976, I think maybe 77, when he came to Tulsa to speak to the ASTD. American Society for Training and Development. Today it's ATD association for Talent Development. I was the designated host or contact person for Don and he was just so gracious. And he and I corresponded and he encouraged me. And he's the guy who asked me to join the brand new National Speakers association, which was two years old at the time, 1976, and it cost $60. Now I remember thinking, boy, that's a lot of money to join an association today. It's way over a thousand. But Don believed in me at a time when I needed believing to come from the outside. Because my belief in myself was limited. Kind of like Les Brown sitting in that audience. And Bob Proctor's protege up there is reaching out and touching less his soul and didn't know it was less he was reaching. And you know, likewise with Brian Tracy. Brian and I, both our roots go back to the Earl Nightingale inspiration. Earl inspired me, inspired Brian. Brian's album the Psychology of Achievement came out with Nightingale Conant just a year or two after the Relationship Strategies album I did with them with Tony, Alessandra and Brian and Antonio and I were among the top like 5 out of 30 or 40 Nightingale Authors Bestsellers worldwide. And that was our, our ticket to the big time. So today we've had the equivalent of a 1 hour and 10 minute speakers roundtable gathering. Because this is what Brian and Don and I so many times over the years had two or three times a year. And I got to tell you, this is, you can tell it's just pure gold. And there's so much inspiration from this recording today. I need to hear this three or four more times. And if I got nothing else out of today but the early quotes from Les Brown's comments in the first five minutes, it'd still be a life changing experience. So thank you all three. Jim Cathcart 66:14 Before you go, I would like Brian repeat that quote again about how we should make our lives an example because our kids are watching us. What is that quote again? Speaker F 66:25 It's from Albert Schweitzer. He said that you must teach men at the school of example, for they will learn at no other. Jim Cathcart 66:35 Each man at the school of example, for they shall learn from no other. Speaker F 66:41 I love their school. Speaker A 66:43 And that. Yeah. Jim Cathcart 66:44 Yes. Speaker A 66:46 It's what you are. Speaks so loudly I can't hear what you're saying. Jim Cathcart 66:49 Yes. That's powerful. Speaker A 66:51 Yeah. Well, God bless all of you and thank you so much for joining today. And you three power presenters. Speaker E 66:59 Wow. Speaker A 67:00 Look at. Look at the magnetism you've got. Les, I announce you're going to be on the program. Brian shows up. Don shows up, man. I mean, we start multiplying. Jim Cathcart 67:09 I love it. I love it, I love it, I love it. Thank you so much and God bless all of you were born and preserved for such a time as this. And as Jim Rohn would say, in life, let it find you conquering a new mountain, not sliding down an old one. Speaker A 67:29 Thank you, folks. Speaker F 67:30 Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you so much. Speaker D 67:32 Thank you all. Thank you, guys. Speaker A 67:34 Bye bye. 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.