The Dynamics of Hope

Jim Cathcart 00:05 Welcome to the Wisdom Parlor, a thoughtful discussion of important ideas among people who are committed to succeeding in life. This is a gathering of leaders from a variety of industries, and our role here is to help you reach the top 1% of your field of choice. I'm Jim Cathcart, so come with me and let's discover how much more successful you could be. Welcome to Wisdom Parlor. I'm here with Robin Kriseman. We've got enough wisdom bubbling over here to fill the entire show, but you're welcome to join in from anywhere, and I hope you are. It's good for these to get a replay, but it's even better when we have them. Live participation. And today's topic is hope. My family has a motto going back to the 1500s, when Cathcart, which is a place in Scotland, first produced a family. And Cathcart is a castle, or was a castle by the Cart river in Glasgow, Scotland. Families motto is I hope to speed. I hope to speed. In the 1500s, or whenever it was they came up with that, speed didn't mean riding fast on a horse. What it meant was prosper. Now, that's interesting. So let's take speed out of the context of going faster and think of it as to flourish, just to prosper, to be abundant, to thrive. Okay, not a bad aspiration, but let's look at the second word, hope. There's two ways of looking at hope. The most common is hope is kind of begging. Oh, I hope we don't get sick. Oh, I hope we have enough money. Oh, I hope it doesn't rain. Oh, I hope we don't get stuck in traffic on the way there. Oh, I hope against, I hope against. I hope against, or I hope for. Right. Well, there's another aspect of hope. There's a whole lot healthier to think about, and that's what this is about. Hope in its original meaning was in the context of, ah, I see a way out. Now there's hope. In other words, hope is the anticipation of good with an expectation that it's coming. It's not a wishing for, it's an expectation that it's coming. Now, let's throw that into a different context for a second goal setting. Well, you know, yeah, I hope I can. I can do great things, but, you know, what I really expect is blank. Well, whatever you say you expect, that's your real hope. That that is what you're setting all your. Your gauges to, to. To lead you toward. And if you're setting your expectations low and you're Wishing for something above that and using hope to fill the void. Like they say, hope is not a good strategy. Right. But take it. Take it back and reset from the start. Here's what I want. Is there hope that I could achieve that? Well, I don't. Don't make excuses. Is there in some scenario, under some circumstances, with certain help with information you've newly discovered, is there a way probably that that could be done? Yeah. Okay. There's hope. Now let's fix our minds on that. John Mitchell, my colleague and friend of Robin's in mine who lives here in Austin, Texas. His company is called Think It Be it. And it's built around the principles in the book Think and Grow Rich. And what he says is what you vividly imagine on a daily basis with emotion tends to show up in your life. So what you vividly imagine with emotion on a daily basis, what does that mean? It means think about, dream about what you want. Get it clear enough in your mind that you feel it in your body that the emotions get evoked, that you can see yourself living in that home or running that business or getting that award or marrying that person or living in that ideal location or whatever it happens to be. See it happening and see it with such vivid accuracy, which has to be practiced day after day over time, getting clearer and clearer and clearer each time that you start feeling it. And then make a discipline out of doing that every single day. The more often you do that, the more likely the goal is to become yours. And I think that's a pretty powerful way to get it. Years ago in La Jolla, California, I had been officing in my home for a while, and I was getting tired of that. I had a staff, and it was awkward with them working in my home. So I went downtown La Jolla, and I looked around at office spaces, and I found one that was just dandy. I mean, it was big enough. It was about. I don't know, it was more than. Yeah, it was close to a thousand square feet and had a Dutch door on the front, you know, where the top half of the door is open and people walking by greet you. And, you know, you could stand there at the door and give out cookies or something. It was that kind of a door, and that led into our lobby. And then there was a big office for my marketing director and all of our files. And then there was a big executive office for me and a storage room and a bathroom and all. And I thought, man, this is perfect. And so I went to the building manager and I Said, when's that coming open? He said, it's not. And I said, well, that's my future office. He said, yeah, yeah. Well, good. Let me leave you my contact information, because that's going to be my office, and I want. Whenever Mr. Bell, the guy that occupied it, moves out, I want that office. He said, yeah, okay. Okay. You know, I've got. Got your card. And he went on about his business. Well, the next day I came back. His name was Jerry. And I said, hey, Jerry. He said, oh, hi. I said, jim Cathart. He said, yeah, about the office. He said, but the office is leased. I said, I know, but I just want you to know I want that office twice a week for at least a month. Now. That's a lot of visits. I came by the office. Hi, Jerry. Jim, would you please stop by? Hey, I'd let you know that when that office comes in, you're going to see a lot more of this space. So I just do that just for like, 30 seconds. I didn't take much of his time. I didn't interrupt. I didn't become an obnoxious jerk. That's arguable from his perspective. Maybe I was right. But son of a gun. If he didn't call me several weeks later and say, hey, Jim, Mr. Bell is going to sublet 75% of his office space. Would you like. Yes. To move into it? Yes. And so I did. And Mr. Bell was my tenant for a while, and then he retired, and I took over that space. And I was there for years, happily. But it was. I vividly imagined myself and my staff in that office. I saw it, I felt it, I thought about it, and I thought about it on a daily basis. And sure enough, it came to be even proactive. Speaker B 08:04 You were proactive, too. Jim Cathcart 08:06 But everybody else would have just gone away and said, that would have been nice. Yeah, right. Speaker B 08:13 Yeah. You took action just by being in front of him every time. Jim Cathcart 08:17 Tell me about how hope has manifest itself in your life over the years. Speaker B 08:22 Well, you know, as a committed Christian, faith comes to mind with. Hope is the same way. Yet I have that confidence in my faith that truth is going to prevail. Hope similar to that. As you all know, my wife has gone through breast cancer recently, and she's doing very well right now, thank you. But, you know, having hope, they're so easy to get depressed and to go into a shell. We have a lady that lives down the street from us. She lost her husband a few years ago, and through Covid, she was by herself. And we kind of courted her and helped her. And she said, you have given me hope again. Because I had lost my hope in my future, my life, with the loose loss of my husband and got to sharing some talk with her. And I began to think about those. There are so many millions of people who are lonely or who maybe have no faith. What would life be like without having hope, without. Without having faith? Because I believe it gives us the chance to start again, the chance to rebuild, to move forward. And I love what John's teaching with think it be it and it's so real. And I've gone through the program and I believe it 100%. And once you can begin to change your perspective that there is hope and you're proactive in believing it and doing those things like you were just doing, going and knocking on the door twice a week, kept it front and center. It gives us a renewed energy. It's like the power of positive thinking. You've got the guy on one shoulder over here and the negative over here. The positive, they're fighting back and forth. If you don't have that hope, that belief, that trust, what do you have? You're going to just fall into feet going deeper and deeper. So Jason probably could talk to that a lot as well. So many people that have. That have struggled. Jim Cathcart 10:24 Yeah, that's right. He's the champion of hope. Speaker B 10:26 Yeah. Oh, my goodness. So it's vitally important to me as well as my faith and just the belief that no matter what the struggle can be, whether it's something emotional or mental or business wise or physical, there is chance. There is a new day, there's a new way of seeing things and thinking about things and doing things. And so, boy, I think it's a powerful, powerful part of our opportunity to live a better life. Jim Cathcart 10:56 I think so too. And it. Let's drill down on it. Yeah. Because I like to look at any subject. What's that based on and what's that based on? And is that valid? And if that's valid, what's that based on? Until you hit solid rock and you know that there's no, no where further down to go looking at the foundation of that way of thinking. When I look at things like optimism, you know, optimism, it's. There's a lot of ways to look at it. There's superficial optimism, which is not really optimism. It's just kind of self delusion. Oh, no, it's going to be okay. You know, everything's fine. You know, I'm happy, I'm healthy, I feel Terrific. The life is good and. And there aren't really any problems. All the world is perfect. Yeah, that may be fun to say, but that really not going to take you anywhere useful. And then there's deeper optimism, which I'll get to in a second. But let's go to the flip side of optimism. Pessimism. A pessimistic worldview is one that says, look at all the limitations, look at all the problems. Look, look, look, look. A cloud. Probably going to rain. Yeah, sooner or later. I bet it does. You know, I mean, it's just in the old Little Abner comic strips from ages ago, Al Cap was the guy that pinned that comic strip. He created a character called Joe Butchflake Btsflk or something like that. And Joe, wherever he walked, he carried a cloud with him. Speaker B 12:33 Yes. Jim Cathcart 12:33 And it was always raining on him, you know, so wherever he went, he took unhappiness and sadness and gloom, and there are a lot of people like that. And that's the pessimistic attitude that what I see is what I get. No, what. What you see is where you start. And let me say that again. That's good, you see, is where you start. Well, I've already started. No, from right now forward, this is your beginning. You know, today's the first day of the rest of your life. Well, right now is the first minute of the rest of the day. So where you start is not the key factor. I mean, that's. It's an element in the mix. But what's beyond this? If all you see is limits, which is easy to do because pessimism requires no training. You just look out and say, oh, no, the door is closed. I can't get out. It's not locked. Yeah, but it's probably stuck. And besides, you know, it's scary out there. I think I'm okay, so. No, no, no, you go ahead. Tell me how it was. Right. The pessimists live life smaller, as if there's some payoff for that. What happens when you start shrinking everything? When you say, okay, guys, you know, we're running short on money, so not going out to lunch. Everybody bring their lunch. Okay? Now, there are things to cut back on, and there are things to not cut back on. If you start living so small in all the various ways that don't really make a difference, then it's not going to help with the ways that do make a difference. What it's going to do is it's going to shrink your thinking and your hope factor is going to be so tiny as to not serve you well at all. And I've been there in the past. You know, I remember I didn't grow up optimistic. I grew up cheerful and playful and creative, but not optimistic. I mean, I figured my life would be extremely ordinary, if there's such a thing. Extreme ordinary. You know, just mainstream. No, nothing noteworthy life. And that was a telephone repairman. Mom was a homemaker. My grandfather was an invalid from a stroke. He was in our front bedroom. Mom and grandmother took care of him. My little sister and I played with the kids in the neighborhood and expected an ordinary life. I figured I'd be a middle manager at best, if not that, you know, somewhere below that, just a worker. And then I'd have a decent life and die at the statistical average of my gene pool. And then I heard Earl Nightingale on the radio, and all of a sudden, I had hope. Now, the listeners to this show, and certainly you, Robin, have heard them the story of my Earl Nightingale moment many times over. But just briefly for those that haven't. In 1972, I was overweight, out of shape, no college degree, no money, working as a government clerk for the Little Rock, Arkansas Housing Authority, assistant to a man who didn't need help. And so I was bored. And I heard in the next room the voice of the dean of personal motivation, Earl Nightingale. And he said, if you'll spend one hour extra every day studying your chosen field, in five years or less, you'll be a national expert in that field. Well, that was the moment. It cracked the egg open on my thinking. And I started realizing, when you do the math, an hour a day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, five years, that's 12, 50 hours. One subject. Yeah. Major advancement. The more narrow the subject, the more the advancement. Like, there's a guitar on the wall behind you, Robin. And you and I are both guitar players and enthusiasts and songwriters. If you studied guitar one hour extra a day beyond whatever your normal work would be, then five years later, you'd be a really good guitarist, not necessarily one of the leading experts. But if you studied bar chords or pentatonic scales or lead riffs on. On the top 10 rock and roll songs of all time or whatever, and you did that consistently, getting narrower, narrower, narrower for a year, you'd be exceptional. Five years, you'd have people like Eric Clapton coming over and saying, dude, that's a good job. Speaker B 17:15 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 17:16 Right? Yeah. So the more narrow our field of study, the more rapid our advancement will be. And that simple little statement from Earl Nightingale gave me Hope that I could transform my life. But I didn't know what I wanted to do until many weeks later when I realized I wanted to do what he was doing. And of course, I've done it now for 47 years. Full time, no other jobs. Speaker B 17:41 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 17:42 Yeah. Speaker B 17:43 Amazing. Let me address the analogy with the guitar for a moment. You know, I have played since I was. I probably played 50 plus years, but I haven't been as narrow as your. What you just described. I'm a really pretty good guitar player. We could sing her, know a lot of songs. But I could be so much better had I been more specific into what I was actually learning. Jim Cathcart 18:07 Yeah. Speaker B 18:08 Whether it's skills or whatever to, to be at the Eric Clapton level. Now. My former lead guitar player in my band did that. And he's exceptional. Exceptional. I'm more broad, you know, well rounded and do a little bit more than what he does. But I'm not, I'm not that expert that I could have been and should have been having for this length of time. Jim Cathcart 18:31 Yeah. Speaker B 18:31 So I think part of that is what you just said, narrowing down to the specific of what you do, like what John teaches. Be specific with your role and do what moves the needle the most. Make. Those are the high priorities, you know, so that's a, that's a great analogy there. What was the question again? About hope. Jim Cathcart 18:49 Yeah. At what point do you recall having more hope for an abundant life? Was there a turning point for you? Speaker B 18:58 I have always had that real positive mindset. My dad as a pastor growing up was very involved in Dale Carnegie and friends with Zig. And so I have, I went to go. I got to go to the Dale Carnegie classes with him as a, in junior high school. So I've always had that kind of perspective. And he was very much a outgoing people person, people pastor, loving on people all the time. And I just watched him model that and I kind of just followed in that steps. Jim Cathcart 19:28 Where did you grow up? Where'd you grow up? Speaker B 19:31 Born in Pompano Beach, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, in there through my seventh grade year, then moved to Valosta, Georgia. He took another church there, then moved to Del City, Oklahoma, right outside Oklahoma City. Went through ninth grade there, then moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Graduated high school in Louisville two weeks later, moved to Dallas, went to Baylor for my college years and then moved from Waco to Dallas. And I was in Dallas for 35, 36 years. And then we moved down to the hill country here. It's been seven years now since my last TV show. We moved down here. So it's been a while since we've been down here, but so all over, quite honestly, you know. And so I was moving into new environments with new churches, new schools, and I had a little bit of a heads up, I mean, a leg up, if you will, moving into a new town and being a, a minister's kid in that church. People knew me way before I knew them. They knew who I was, so I was able to fit into groups. They welcomed me. I didn't do anything to fit in. They welcomed me in and embraced me. And I got to have a lot of friends quickly. But some of those places I went to the same school that most of my people from our church went to. As we got into bigger cities, I'd be going to different schools and I maybe not know that many people, but I think moving around a lot for me was a positive because I was. Got the opportunity to start over and, and experience meeting new people and interacting with people. So I've kind of been that, you Jim Cathcart 21:01 know, that's interesting for a while when you think about that. A lot of people I've known over the years have said, oh, man, I had so much to overcome because I moved around so much. And for them it was daunting because they didn't, they didn't have that sense of optimism, you know, I'll find a way. Don't worry about it. I'll figure this out, I'll meet somebody, you know, somehow we'll make this work. No, they didn't start with that assumption. They started with the assumption, I don't know anybody, therefore I'm going to stay home. Speaker B 21:34 Well, I don't. I could have been that guy, too. I could have been that guy too, had I not had that opportunity with the churches. Jim Cathcart 21:40 Exactly. Speaker B 21:41 Because I was immediately embraced. You know, they have a reception force and our family were there and everybody in the church would come through and meet us and all that stuff, you know, so it was a welcome wagon, you know, when you came to a new town. So, yeah, I don't, I don't fit that mold. I think I got a blessing from that. Jim Cathcart 21:56 Yeah, well, I've had friends say to me, I've had many people, friends and audience members say to me, jim, you know, optimism, pessimism. I'm neither. I'm a realist. And I've studied this and I mean, I've studied this sincerely. Yeah, A realist, as usually stated, is a pessimist who won't admit it. It's a person that says, look, I'm not an Optimist. I'm not a pessimist. I'm just saying, look, you know, based on this, we can't do this. Based on this, we can't afford it based on this, that's not a good goal. There is no hope of us doing that, so why even try, right? And that's the realist, you know, the. The supposed self identified realist taking the pessimistic position and not feeling guilty. But I wrote a poem. I've got this in my Intelligent Optimism book. Very intelligent Curiosity. Let's see if I've got it handy here. I think it's page 50, so it's a pretty easy thing to find. Here it is. By golly. It's the book I wrote with Lisa Patrick. Intelligent Curiosity. And you can get that on wherever they sell books. I wrote this in 2014. Not the book, but the poem. Think, feel, do. Think, feel, do. When you think you can or you think you can't, you're right. It's a matter of mind, not just a matter of might. To see it through your point of view is key. And you don't need to see, think the same as me. It seems completely plausible to say something's impossible. When you don't see how, you just assume you can't. But pessimism leads to less. The doubters don't clean up the mess. It takes no talent to tear others apart. The critic may be smart but has no heart. Or you could choose to be among the brave, the one who stands and faces every wave with certainty that peace and joy are near. If you only learn to look beyond your fear. Think, feel, do. If you think you could, you might. When you think you can, you're right. If you're pretty sure that somewhere there's a way, then you'll stay the course until you find the success you hope for in your mind. Hope sustains, doubt refrains, dreams appear when we avoid the fear. What you think defines the way that you will feel. If you doubt and criticize, you'll make it real. But with optimism you can make it so. Yes, you can. You'll gain the strength to still get up and go. How you think is what you do. What you see can make things new. When you think you can or think you can't, you're right. It's a matter of mind, not just a matter of might. See what you want, feel the positive flow. Think of the best and make it so. Wow. Speaker B 25:14 That's awesome. That's. That's. That's so good. It's hard but that's so true. That is so true. And I've had the good fortune to come through hard times thinking like that and doing that. But other times, I tell you, it's been struggle going through some of the things that we've gone through with our health in our, you know, last few years has been a struggle. John's been very instrumentally helping me with that. You as well have that. And then just talking to my pastor and my faith and just believing that. But it's. It's. It's hard. It's hard. But that's. Those are. That's so true. So true. That's beautiful, man. Jim Cathcart 25:51 Thank you. I appreciate that. Was there a particular part of that that you thought? Well, I. Speaker B 25:58 Every line. I thought every line was right on whether it was sharing the negative part of it, what the reality is. If you don't, that's going to happen. And I've been there. I know that's true. But also the truth and belief and what you're willing to think and do about it, it's going to come to fruition. And, you know, you've got to be on the right side of the coin. So it's. You're covering both sides of the story, and they're both truthful. So what do you decide to do? You know, however you think you feel do you know? Jim Cathcart 26:31 Because your actions always grow out of your feelings and your feelings are guided by your thinking. Yeah. They're not controlled by your thinking, but they're guided. You know, that's the thing a lot of people say, well, I'm just not going to feel angry when such and such happens. You don't have control over that part. You can control what you do with your anger. Speaker B 26:52 Yes. Jim Cathcart 26:53 But you can't control whether you have the anger unless you can completely shift your mindset and see whatever the stimulus is in a different light. You know, like if somebody yells at you. Like, one day I was on a hiking trail, the early parts of COVID out in California, and I was all alone on the trail, and I'm going along at a pretty good clip, and the guy comes by me on a wide part of the trail with a dog, and he's wearing a mask three, four miles away from any humanity. Right. And. And he sees me and he gets all way over to the side. You know, clearly I'm going to infect him and we're all going to be killed. So anyway, I'm just going along doing my fitness thing and. And he's there with his dog and he Says, are you with that group of hikers I passed a moment ago? I said, yeah, I am. And he said, well, you guys are, you know, you're going to spoil it for all of us. You need to wear a mask and you intervene. He just ranting and raving now. I could have gotten angry, you know, I could have just said, hey, you know, gone over there and shoved him and been in a fight or been attacked by his dog or who knows? But what I did was I just stood there and I looked at him and I said, find somebody else to scold. And then I just walked on. You know, I didn't invest in him. And that's the point where we've got a. We've got hope to free ourselves a little bit from our emotions. Because if you allow your emotions to rule, then your life's going to be a mess because you're going to have a lot of drama. Speaker B 28:33 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 28:33 And a lot of go back and repair what happened moments. Right. But if you can learn to shift the underlying mindset from despair to hope and to realize that there's an endless resource of all material things in the cosmos, there's like, people say, well, no, you don't get it. No, things are limited. No, actually things are virtually unlimited. Every time we set a limit, we find something exceeds it. People say, well, what about, you know, like climate change? You know, it. You can't, you can't do anything about that. Climate change. Okay, first off, if climate doesn't change, we all die. Climate has to change. Climate is never constant. It. There are patterns. There are climate norms in certain regions and those shift over time, know, around the earth. But life on Earth is not worse than it used to be, climate wise, except in certain regions. Okay, I'll accept that, but is there a shortage of water on our. Oh, the droughts. Oh, my gosh, Jim. I mean, there are people, but. Excuse me, are there floods? Well, yeah, but not here. Oh, so there's plenty of water. It's just a distribution problem. Well, yeah, I guess there is, because if somebody's flooding and somebody's just, you know, dying of thirst, it's just a distribution problem. It's all the distribution. You don't have to create water, you just go find the water and reroute it. Right. You could do that to any subject. Whatever it is, there's plenty of it. Speaker B 30:20 Are you familiar with the. The app next door? Jim Cathcart 30:24 I am, yeah. Speaker B 30:25 I think it's all across the country. Well, we live in this little community here in the hill country, and I Looked for that, depending on what's going on and just kind of get an idea. And I tell you, if there is not every single post that has probably at least a quarter of the people, if not more, that have a negative perspective about whatever the person has talked about. A dog got out or there's cars driving by and honking their horns are what, anything it might be is so negative so many times. And I get these notifications so I like myself to not to look at them because it just kicks me off. And it's like, really? You? Why would you even say something like that? If you don't have something positive or constructive to say, don't invest the time to write some negative crap about it and, and it blow up and you know, just like, wow, they need help. Jim Cathcart 31:22 Yeah. When I moved to Texas four years ago, in our house, I discovered a little critter, a little lizard looking thing. And it turns out it was a tiger gecko. You know, it's got scrape stripes on his tail and if you grab it, it separates from its tail and gets away from me. Well, anyway, I found one in my bedroom and I captured it and didn't mean to kill it, but I. That's the only way I could stop it from going in behind the furniture. So I took a picture of it and I posted it on next door and I figured, you know, I'm a new neighbor, right? Yeah, you can see it's a danger. I didn't see it coming. Anyway, I said, what is this creature? And the first response I got was a guy saying, oh my gosh, you, you California people. It's a gecko, for God's sakes. Oh man, you know, grow up, grow up here. And I just, I thought about responding in kind and then I, I just decided to respond differently. Now, I shouldn't have responded at all probably, but I felt the need emotionally at the moment, so I responded. Your personal insult is duly noted. Thank you for playing. And then I just clicked out of next door. Speaker B 32:41 If you went back there today and found that post, there'd probably be 45 different responses about why you killed it. Why are you not smart about that? Jim Cathcart 32:49 You know, so what do we do? What do we what? You know, what's a girl to do? What, What, What's a guy to do? In a world where there is so much natural weakness, meaning an inclination toward the, the small inclination toward the negative, toward the pessimism, toward the limits, what do you think? What, where is hope for people to make the transition if they're not Naturally optimistic or naturally cheerful or naturally proactive to where they make their situation better. What do you think? Speaker B 33:27 Well, personally, without having a stage of some sort of. I just remove myself from the situation. I don't want to have the negativity of that filtering my mind. Same thing with watching the news all the time and hearing everything about that. I stay aware, but I just don't want to be fed that stuff because we have a platform, whether it's in our speaking or in our social or whatever, speaking about that and offering observations. But I think, Jim, it's hard because my everyday rock star program has a lot to talk about. Being the difference maker. Jim Cathcart 34:04 Yeah. Speaker B 34:05 The one people want to work with, trust, buy from and tell others about. You have to achieve those accolades by doing your actions speak louder than your words. And so if you're not modeling what, what it would take for someone to want to work with, want to work with you, trust you, buy from you and tell others about you, you're not going to, you know, change anybody. Jim Cathcart 34:26 So. Speaker B 34:26 And when in speaking to them, I've got to be able to paint a picture that they see what I'm talking about without feeling insulted or that I'm talking about them or tearing them down, but give them a reason to look at it from a different. With a different lens, through a different set of glasses. Storytelling and giving examples can allow that to happen. There are those that will always see the negative. And I don't think you're going to win everybody over, but. And then I go back to this lady up the street from us. She wasn't this. This way, but loneliness. There are a lot of people that are alone physically, and then there are a lot of people that are alone within a group that just don't have any confidence or feel like everyone's against them. And it makes me sad. Jim Cathcart 35:20 Yeah. Speaker B 35:21 And I really believe that they probably don't know what they're doing. It's just their. Their viewpoint. They're. They've got colored glasses on that they just can't see. And if they could clear that out and have a different perspective and if someone could love on them and care for them and show them that they matter, then I think they might have a better opportunity to, to change and see things differently. But boy, we have so many people that are hurting. We are facing so many struggles right now. I. It's sad. And I don't know if there's ever a place or time that that will ever change, you know, outside of the coming of Christ, you know, who knows Jim Cathcart 36:03 it gives me hope for our profession. We share the profession of being professional speakers and kind of harbingers of hope. We are people that go out there to give hope to other people by showing them a way to do it or showing them how to do it, or showing them that others have done, you know, something. And storytelling is a powerful, powerful tool and all of that because culture is grown from stories. And I was forgotten what the source was. I do so much input every day, you know, through news feeds and watching other programs and listening to other speakers. Someone was talking about culture and defining the source of the word culture. And it's to grow, to cultivate. It's. It comes from agriculture, you know, agriculture, growing a plant or growing whatever. And if you look at life that way, growth is the natural course of life, not decay. Growth. Decay happens after, after life, you know, but growth, when alive, is the natural state. And anyone who's not adding more information or understanding or practicing the skills they've been giving or given or using their own thoughts and feelings to stimulate some kind of a positive outcome in not doing so, they begin the death process and they just start shrinking smaller and smaller until finally that, you know, their light goes out. But it's, it's my sincere belief that we were intentionally created now to keep from going all, you know, religion specific on this, philosophically, everything is created had a creator. Not a person, not a big guy with a beard in the clouds, but a source that caused it to be created. Right. Everything that's ever been created had to have something that created it. And it doesn't make sense to the human mind to understand infinity. So we can't understand anything going back forever. There had to be a starting point because that's the way we're built. And our mind has to have those kind of limits in order to put a. Put our arms around any subject we're trying to grasp. But let's look at this. People say, well, look, you know, I don't believe in all this church stuff. I believe in science. Oh, so science is your church? Well, no, it's not like that. Science doesn't require a church. Okay, but what science based on, well, science, you know, it all started with the Big Bang. Who ignited the Big Bang? It was, it was a spontaneous of what? And where was that. Whatever that was that banged right? What, where was that located? And what were the parts made of? And where'd that come from? And so you. They don't have answers for that. Yeah, and it's kind of like people say, well, look, everything could be explained with. With science sooner or later. Yeah, but that doesn't mean it can be done. For example, people can explain how life is created, but nobody can create life. We can be participants and hope that we'll have a child, and we can do the things that people do to have children, but it doesn't mean we're going to have children because there are people that try all their lives and never have children. And there are others that have children never really thought they were trying, you know, so something is deciding whether life is going to exist beyond what we understand. And even though science can explain how life functions and. And where it initially happened, they can't explain why this one worked and that one didn't work, and so they can't create life. Well, that's just, you know, you just have to suspend belief. Suspend belief? Oh, you mean you have to have faith about what took place in that gap? Well, I wouldn't use that word. Yeah. Oh, you know, hope grows or, you know, like two sides of the same leaf. Right. Everything requires a leap of faith. Speaker B 40:28 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 40:29 You know, when you open a door, you're pretty much expressing faith that there's not a man eating tiger on the other side of the door yet. I'd be coming, but it's not here yet. So I'm going to peek out and see how far away it is. Right. So everything we do requires faith. Everything all day long. And we, you know, we feel pretty hopeful that when we get in our car, we'll be able to drive to the store and back without a wreck. Speaker B 40:59 I was just going to say that. Jim Cathcart 41:00 Yeah, it's out there. It could get you. You know, it's just, I think that there's a desperate need in society to get more people to intentionally cultivate hope, not only in themselves, but in their family and their community, in their city and their everything. Right. Because everything starts with one, and then it's applied in your immediate family, whatever that shape that family takes. And that's where we. That's where we live the vast majority of our life. Speaker B 41:35 Hope gives us permission to change our perspective, you know, and we choose one way or the other, just like in your poem. But it does give us that opportunity to. To change. If we don't, if we're not proactive in making the steps that it would need to make that change, then we're, you know, might as well play the lottery every week. And, you know, how often does that win? Yeah, but it is. Jim Cathcart 42:01 I won $2 in a lottery the other day. Speaker B 42:03 Aren't you lucky? What? You had to go buy it. Jim Cathcart 42:06 One of the big lottos, you know, I bought a ticket and sure enough, I won the lottery. Two bucks. Speaker B 42:12 Yeah, but what did you do to win that? Well, I had to take the step to go invest. Yeah, you had to buy the ticket. Jim Cathcart 42:19 That's true. Speaker B 42:19 Otherwise you sit at home. I wish I'd win that lottery. We'll go buy a ticket. Jim Cathcart 42:23 Yeah, but they say we wouldn't do any good anyway. Yeah, yeah, right. Oh, man. When I talk with people about goal setting, you know, I do the mentorship program. And for those that are not familiar with me, I'm a mentor to experts and entrepreneurs, to people that make their own decisions and they're seeking success proactively. That's my market. Not beginners, but winners that are capable of much more winning still. Speaker B 42:52 Here's the best of the best that do it as well. Trust me, again, I said you're the best of the best that do that. Jim Cathcart 42:59 Wow. Wow. Thank you for the. Thank you. Yeah. We've been together for a few years now, and it's been really fun to see all the. All the growth that's taken place in the. In the groups that we've been working with. Speaker B 43:12 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 43:14 Yep. Speaker B 43:14 Buddy, you've got more success and accolades than virtually anyone I know personally, and I know a lot of people in that category. And, man, you give and give and give. It's unbelievable. And the insight that you offer, Jim, it's profound, and it shows that you have been diligent in your process and learning and your narrow lane of focusing on what Nightingale told you back in the day. And yet you have taken that narrow lane of knowledge, and yet you have spread it over multiple industries. You're not just an Eric Clapton lead guitarist. You're a crafter of writers and mindset. You can lead an orchestra of success principles out there. So you have really excelled in so many areas. So I'm proud to be a part of you, man. Jim Cathcart 44:03 And back at you. Thank you for that. Well, what keeps me going? People say, well, Jim, aren't you going to retire? You mean die? Because I. To me, if I. If we had to stop doing what I'm doing, man, that. That takes the joy out of my, you know, big chunk of my life, plenty of joy from my family and, you know, that side of my life. But my career, my main activity, has been very fulfilling for me all the time. And it's. It's because I haven't sought those awards. You know, I didn't. I didn't seek the golden gavel from Toastmasters or Cabot Award from the Speakers Association. I, I didn't seek to be in the halls of fame, but I wanted to be. Yeah, but I didn't visualize it. I didn't, you know, I didn't make it a active goal. I had it on sort of my dream list and I did what Nightingale said and I've been doing that since the 70s, 1970s, and that is develop the traits of the person who would have the future you want to have become the person you would like to be. And the things you would like to do and have will come along as part of the package. It's kind of like if you go to the beach, you will be able to enjoy the beach. But if you're not at the beach yet, no matter how hard you dream it, I'm sorry, but you're still in the neighborhood. Right. Speaker B 45:30 So kind of that. Jim Cathcart 45:31 Be an eligible receiver, go downfield, be open and have the skill to catch and run with the ball. Right. So what skills do I need today qualified for the future I want? Speaker B 45:44 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 45:45 Friendships do I need to cultivate today to be in a position to have the network of people that I want, you know, the support network and so forth. Speaker B 45:55 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 45:55 And our upcoming Experts Academy, I've renamed it, it's name I'm using right now is Master Speakers and Experts Summit. Speaker B 46:06 Oh, I like that. Jim Cathcart 46:07 In La Jolla. Speaker B 46:09 I like that. Jim Cathcart 46:09 You know, may. Speaker B 46:11 That's a real clear path. Jim Cathcart 46:14 Yeah. And it, and it takes people like us, you know, who have been professional speakers for, for our careers and adds to us people who are not particularly focused on speaking, although they do some of it. They're building another kind of a business. They want to sell their expertise. So do we. The only difference is how we usually deliver it is on the platform or on through media, whereas how they usually deliver it's in some other way like as an author or as a business expertise provider, something like that. But I am getting so pumped about putting this, this thing to bed because I've got all the moving parts identified and I've got Brian Tracy says he's going to drop in. Tony Alessandro is going to be there. Both of them, speakers, hall of fame, best selling authors and multimillionaires. Les Brown said he is proud to be. He said, thank you so much, brother. I'm so proud to be a certified professional expert. And you know, I've got more people coming in. John Lynn, who I've told you about, who's investor and owns portion of A huge Hollywood studio and builds hospitals and all kinds of things. He went to China with me. He's going to be there. Got other surprise guests that are going to come in. So I'm just going to spend four day, three and a half days hanging with the kind of people I love to be with, people like you. I've rented a big mansion there right on the coast. And so we're going to be in the living room of that mansion each day doing the mastermind discussions. And we're going to talk about brand identity, you know, what's your message? How do you want to be known? Or how could you best be known? Right. Who's your market? What. What aspect of the world are you going after? And what business model should you be refining? Because there's, you know, like, for years I was just a keynoter. I'd go give speeches occasionally, sell recordings in the back of the room. That was it. Then I built training programs, you know, then I created a company with Tony Alessandra for about five years, other iterations of the same thing. So I've had different business models. In my current business model, I still do keynote speaking, but it's primarily mentor and executive coach, serving as a virtual vice president for people, you know, on their team. So that's. That's what we're going to be doing out there. But that's the whole purpose of it, is to take the hope that's in these people and set it aflame, you know, let it roar into a conflagration. Speaker B 48:53 That's going to be awesome. I love just, you know, looking at all the details that you're putting out. I just love it. And I can see your enthusiasm for it. Yeah, it's going to be cool. Can be real cool. Jim Cathcart 49:01 And the more people that enroll, the more I have a little extra margin so I can upgrade everything else that's going to happen. Cool. So it's going to be kind of fun. We got a restaurant all to ourselves. There's a little out there that where I wrote the book, the Acorn. Speaker B 49:16 Acorn, yeah, I saw that. That's cool. Jim Cathcart 49:18 Yep. And I've got the whole place and this is going to be there. This my newest, newest, newest, just arrived like an hour ago. Book. Victor Antonio co authored the 2024 edition of Relationship Selling, which first came out in 1985. And our subtitle now is Managing Human Connections as Sales Assets. So it's. It's quite a refocusing of what we were doing. Speaker B 49:47 Nice. Jim Cathcart 49:48 And. Yeah. And it allows me to kind of hitchhike on his success and him to hitchhike on mine. So that's, that's cool. Very cool. Speaker B 49:57 Are you going to be promoting that as a, to go back out and do new keynotes with it or do a tandem thing? Possibly. Jim Cathcart 50:03 Possibly. I'm certainly going to revive my emphasis on this in my own keynotes. I did the other day, Gerhard Schwantner of Selling Power magazine and selling power.com. he and I've been friends for a generation and he invited me to be the host of day two of Sales 3.0 big conference, global conference. Speaker B 50:28 Nice. Jim Cathcart 50:28 And during that, I did a program on the new 2024 version of relationship selling. Cool. Got a ton going on, that's for sure. Tell me, I believe with you, what's, what's coming up next for Robin Griezmann? Speaker B 50:44 It's hard to say. I'm about to kick things off, I think quickly, finally, but just getting back in the game again after being a while. I had a conversation with a team of people here in San Antonio area that are big investor people. They're just kind of movers and shakers. And one of the guys I know from church, they put together a conglomerate of quarterback hall of Fame quarterbacks to sponsor or be endorse a suicide prevention charity that aired during the Super Bowl. Jim Cathcart 51:19 Yeah. Speaker B 51:20 And they actually were there live at the super bowl and they had it in the big arena and they did a thing at halftime and it was on television. It's called Quarterbacks United. And one of the guys knows my history, was working with a lot of the rock stars and athletes and so forth in my television career and started asking me would I be able to possibly put together a group of rock stars or country stars or the NASCAR drivers and, you know, some of the my industries that I worked with. And I said, I think I could. I think I could. And so we're going to have a meeting later this week, if not Monday, to talk further about it. We've had a couple of discussions about it. They've asked me to send some documents over there and some about my background more. And I don't know if it'll go anywhere or not. But the idea is that the charities are looking for influencers to lend their name to their charity. They will pay them for that. And if they have a foundation that money can go into a foundation, it's not tax free, etc. And it just, it kind of everybody helps everybody out in the whole process. And yet the charity gets, you know, a wider spans of knowledge based on the influence of all these celebrities and their, their reach. So they had 33 quarterbacks a part of the first one that they did. And you really didn't know what they all were saying except that you were just like overwhelmed, like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow. Yeah, you know, okay, I get this. They're, they're all behind it. So with, you know, you know, a lot of our, my friends as well, you bring a lot of those 80s 90s rock stars and the country stars that we've worked with and the NASCAR drivers that I've worked with. I mean, that could be, you know, NASCAR United keynote speakers United or speakers United Fishermen United. Yeah, you know, all those different industries. And so they got pretty pumped about it. So I'm just, I don't want to get ahead of myself. Although I, I forgot we're still recording. So this may or may not, you know, go anywhere, but. Jim Cathcart 53:30 Well, one of the things that you are currently doing and you've done for many, many years is, is coaching top level speakers and presenters, people who want to take their game to the next level up and you, you know, help them with, with their performance, with the staging, with their videos, with everything. And I think that's brilliant. And that's, that's one of the ways in which you and I first got to know each other ages ago. Speaker B 53:57 Yep. Jim Cathcart 53:58 That's something I love as well. I, I don't do the part of it you do, but I, But I love working with people at our level. Yeah. Of the profession. Speaker B 54:08 Well, I've got a new hall of fame speaker that just came into my coaching this past last week, had a session today and a complete remake basically on the direction, adding to what they've already done because they're hall of Fame, they're. They're huge. But I want to change some things and as exciting. So I'm fired up about that one. Jim Cathcart 54:31 Outstanding. Well, I look forward to learning more about that one offline. Okay, let's wrap this together for today and give people hope that they can absolutely whatever they're facing today, somewhere, somehow with somebody's help or with new information or a different way of approaching it, or after a pause to catch your breath and reflect for a moment, somewhere, there's a better way. There is a solution. There is hope. You were created intentionally by whatever you conceive your creator to be. You were designed to be alive. Yes. And that means your life matters. So the greatest sin you could commit would be to live your life so small that you didn't Matter, because think of the positive impact you could have just spreading a smile, just picking up a piece of trash, just adding an idea, offering a little perspective, providing some support or encouragement, giving information, doing something to make an inch of the world better today. Because you exist. Speaker B 55:44 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 55:46 Years ago, I was. I asked on behalf of a friend that was near suicidal. I asked a psychiatrist, what can I tell him? And he said, get him to do anything. I said, what do you mean anything? He said, I mean literally anything. He said, when people get depressed and they're going, you know, so deep into the darkness, they feel like nothing about them matters. And when they do something, even if it's counting paper clips in a box, it gives them a glimmer, just a tiny little, microscopic sense of usefulness. And the bigger the thing they're doing, the bigger the value of the thing they're doing to other people, the more they have a sense of dignity and worth and value themselves. He said, so, you know, I mean, you can get him to paint basketballs green. I don't care what you get him to do. Get him to do something, but it's better if that something is useful. So I would say to everybody, just ask yourself today, how can I make the world better in some little tiny way before this day is done, and then let's do it again tomorrow? Speaker B 57:03 Yeah. You know, my dad counseled a lot of people in situations like that. You know, as a pastor over the years, what he tended to do a lot of times, depending on the circumstances, would take them to a. To volunteer at a facility that needed volunteers. People were down and out. And just the being in a place where they can be a helper to someone else was such a powerful thing for them. It gave them some. A different perspective of where they were. You know, you might think that, well, they would fall into the, you know, okay, I'm just like these people. Well, the encouragement of helping them. I'll allow them to see things from another perspective. Oh, I don't want to be where they are. I do need to make a change, and I've thought a lot about that. I've got several friends that have been a part of the suicide prevention world in other aspects. Not this group I was talking about, but are working with the homeless. And it's powerful what they've done. A lady that used to work for me in my television company in Dallas, a young lady, beautiful lady, well to do, young girl, she ended up getting out of television and she started working with the homeless group in Dallas. And they have built a huge group and big foundation, and she's out in the street with some of her kids, children, her own children, loving on these people. Jim Cathcart 58:31 Wow. Speaker B 58:31 And the fact that she's beautiful and she's obviously doesn't fit in that world and they're seeing her help with her kids, it's. It's been profound. It's really been profound. So. Yeah. Have a new perspective. Jim Cathcart 58:46 Yep. Speaker B 58:46 Yeah. Jim Cathcart 58:46 Well, I'm going to leave everyone today with this thought. It's the translation of the Cathcart family motto, I hope to speed into its current meaning, which is the original meaning just articulated differently. Hope, in the sense of that motto meant to expect positively positive anticipation. There is hope. I see a way. There is hope. Okay, so the new statement is not I hope to speed, it's I expect to prosper. There you go. Speaker B 59:24 Great job. Jim Cathcart 59:25 Thank you. Bye. Bye. Bye. Thank you for joining us today in the Wisdom Parlor, a thoughtful discussion of important ideas among people who are committed to succeeding in life. If you are committed to making more success happen in your own life, go right now to my website, free.cathcart.com and download my free ebook and then watch the video. If you decide that 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.