How To Reach The Top 1%: Mindset, Public Speaking, and Personal Development | Jim Cathcart

What does it really take to reach — and stay in — the top 1% of your field? Legendary speaker and bestselling author Jim Cathcart shares the exact mindset, daily habits, and career strategy that took him from “likable ordinary guy” to National Speakers Association President, Professional Speakers Hall of Fame inductee, Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame (London), and author of 27 books including The Acorn Principle, Relationship Selling, and Mentor Minutes: How to Reach the Top 1% of Any Field.

In this eye-opening conversation, Jim unpacks the idea that changed his life: one extra focused hour a day for five years can make you a national expert — if you pick a narrow lane and stay the course. He explains how to transform fear of public speaking by reframing it as fear of judgment, why selling is “helping people for pay,” and how to build authority step by step until opportunities find you. You’ll hear the full-circle story of Earl Nightingale — from inspiring Jim on the radio to Nightingale-Conant selling Jim’s program a decade later — plus practical ways to design a career that compounds for decades.

You’ll learn:

• The “Hour-a-Day” approach to becoming a recognized expert
• How niching hard accelerates credibility and demand
• A simple reframe to eliminate public-speaking anxiety
• The difference between vendor thinking and solution thinking in sales
• How to architect a career that consistently creates serendipity
• What Jim teaches in his Certified Professional Expert (CPE) mentorship

Resources & Mentions:

• Jim’s site: Cathcart.com
• Free download: What to Do When You’re the Speaker → BookCathcart.com
• Books: The Acorn Principle, Relationship Selling, Mentor Minutes

Jim Cathcart: Founder & CEO of Cathcart Institute

Website: https://cathcart.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cathcartinstitute/

X: https://x.com/jimcathcart

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jimcathcart

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@JimCathcartvideos/videos

#SmallBusinessPivots #JimCathcart #CathcartInstitute #Mindset #PersonalDevelopment #CertifiedProfessionalExpert #Top1Percent #MentorMinutes #RelationshipSelling #NationalSpeakersAssociation #NSA #TheAcornPrinciple #PublicSpeaking #SalesTips #ExpertPositioning #AuthorityBuilding #BusinessGrowth #Entrepreneurship #MichaelDMorrison #BOSS #BusinessLoans #BusinessCoaching #OklahomaCity #GetSerious 

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Jim Cathcart
• 6:26 The One-Hour Daily Formula
• 18:57 Jim's Journey from Nobody to Expert
• 26:56 Escaping Mediocrity Mindset
• 36:48 Nightingale's Impact and Mentorship
• 43:03 Public Speaking Fears Conquered
• 52:38 Connecting and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots. Today we have a very, very special guest, but, as you know, if you listen to our podcast, no one can pronounce their name and their business like the business owner. So I'm going to let you have the stage and tell us a little bit about yourself.

Speaker 2: 0:17

Thank you, michael. I appreciate that. My name is Jim Cathcart and I'm a professional speaker and author, but primarily today. Today, meaning in recent years I work as a mentor to professional experts. Now, what's a professional expert coach or a personal coach, a consultant, an advisor, an author, someone who has a specialty and they're building their business around that specialty, as opposed to, say, owning a Subway franchise? That's, you know your specialty sandwiches but you're not the sandwich expert. You're a Subway franchise owner. But if you are, say, a negotiations expert and you sell your skill as an expert in negotiations or teaching others how to do it, then your brand is you and the way you package yourself, communicate yourself to the community of the marketplace determines the level of success you're going to reach. So everybody has an area of expertise that kind of stands out around, I mean, above the other things that they do. And if yours is the focus of your business, then you're the kind of person that I work with.

Speaker 2: 1:37

I've written 27 books. I've been a professional speaker all over the world. I've been president of the National Speakers Association, inducted into the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame, sales and Marketing Hall of Fame in London. I'm best known for my books, the Acorn Principle and Relationship Selling and more recently, the book Mentor Minutes how to Reach the Top 1% of Any Field. I wrote a book a couple of years ago called what to Do when You're the Speaker, and it's for people like us, michael, who are already speakers. But this gives instructions on what do you do when the building catches on fire, literally, when a person dies in the audience, when the speaker before you goes 45 minutes over time and eats up your time frame, when the sound system goes out, or the lights, you know, or someone comes in the room and said, oh my God, the president's been shot. All of those things have happened to me, all of them, and so that's what I wrote that book about no-transcript. So I've received from Toastmasters though I'm not a Toastmaster, I received their highest award for non-Toastmasters, the Golden Gavel, which my heroes had received Zig Ziglar, Earl Nightingale, walter Cronkite, people like that, zig Ziglar, earl Nightingale, walter Cronkite, people like that the Cavett Award, which is a lifetime service award to the National Speakers Association, and so forth. I've got a TED Talk, tedx video that has about 3 million views. So I've hit some home runs Absolutely, and in my field I've held most of the major positions, received most of the major designations or awards, and I know the players, personal phone number of people like Brian Tracy and you know Tom Ziegler, zieg's son, who hired me to speak to the Ziegler group shortly after Zieg passed away. You know people like that. Les Brown is a friend of mine, and on and on. So I'm well connected in my field.

Speaker 2: 4:19

Now, ok, yeah, good for you, jim. Yeah, you're a big deal, but I didn't start out that way. See, this isn't about me. This is about how do you the listener or viewer today, the person who's been hanging out with Michael and following this podcast how do you use a field either the one you're in or a new one you want to get into get to the top 1% of the people involved in that field and stay there for decades? How do you do that? I know how to do that. I've not only done it, I've coached others in how to do it and they've done it in their fields and this has been going on. You know, I've been at it for almost 50 years, so I got a lot of people from way back when who have gone on to achieve worldwide significance in their particular niche. So that's the thing I help people become an expert in their niche, or more of an expert, and then reach the top of that category.

Speaker 1: 5:20

That's amazing. Well, listeners, you are in for a treat today. Let's hurry up and introduce the show and we'll be right back. Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast produced for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, founder and CEO of BOSS, where we make business ownership simplified for success. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. All right, welcome back to Small Business Pivots, my friend. So you did. You mentioned you didn't just start here. So can you catch us up in life, like how you kind of grew up a little bit? Just so we kind of know, because a lot of us small business owners were challenged with mindset. It could be something that happened in our childhood and we can't quite get over the hump, but, like you said, you didn't start here. So what was your childhood like? So everybody can kind of catch up.

Speaker 2: 6:28

Clearly I had an advantage. I grew up in Little Rock, arkansas. My dad was a telephone repairman. I mean, how could I not be a great success? Right Right, I was a homemaker. My grandparents were in our home when I was growing up and they needed constant care. And I was not an athlete. I was not an academic achiever.

Speaker 2: 6:49

I graduated 176 out of the 430 in my high school class and academically, so you know, I didn't have anything much going for me. I didn't know anybody who had any money, never had known anyone, and so I didn't have that going for me and I didn't have a mentor. But well, first off, what I expected from life was mediocrity. I expected to be a statistic. You know, if everybody in my gene pool dies at 73, that's when I check out. If everybody retires at 65, that's when I check out. If everybody retires at 65, that's when I would retire. So I expected to have like 1.175 children, live in a suburban home of moderate means, have maybe two cars, retire at 65 and die at 70, something.

Speaker 2: 7:41

Okay, then what changed? Well, I didn't have a college degree. I got married in 1970. By the way, I'll be 79 in a month, so that'll keep things in context, but I got married when I was 23 years old, 1970. And we had a baby shortly thereafter, years old, 1970. And we had a baby shortly thereafter and I had had all kinds of jobs, none of which stuck, and I was working as a clerk at the Urban Renewal Agency, the housing authority in Little Rock, arkansas, making $525 a month, 50 pounds overweight, smoking two packs a day and not doing pretty much anything to advance myself in life, just hoping to, you know, get a little tenure and then get promoted over the years. And then I heard the radio playing in the next room. By the way, for those of today's generation, radio is what came before these things.

Speaker 1: 8:48

Yep and eight tracks and cassettes.

Speaker 2: 8:52

Though there weren't podcasts, there was a show, a little five-minute show, from Earl Nightingale, the dean of personal motivation. He was on 900 radio stations all over the world. Personal motivation he was on 900 radio stations all over the world and he said that day in 1972, if you will spend one hour extra every day studying the field you've chosen, in five years or less you'll be a national expert in that field. Michael, that hit me like an oncoming train. I thought that's actually true. I mean, well, that would even apply to me. Me, with nothing going for me except ambition. Wow, hour a day extra, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, five years, that's 1,250 hours on one subject. If the subject was narrow enough, yeah, now you could say well, okay, jim, what if you want to be like the next John Maxwell, you want to be the world's leading authority on leadership? Well, leadership's a broad category. So if you don't start from a high level beginning point, like John did, then you got a long road ahead of you. But what if it's crisis leadership of small teams? Oh, okay, if you study that, then you'll study military leadership. You study disaster response teams. You study all kinds. You know medicine. You study business crises. You study fire departments. You become a really knowledgeable person within the first year on the subject of crisis leadership of small teams, and then, within that year, you would start noticing opportunities to advise others on how to prepare for crisis leadership. So what do you do when a pandemic hits? What do you do when a weather disaster occurs? What do you do when name your poison right? And the second year other people would start knowing you as a knowledgeable person on that kind of thing and then you would probably have gotten connected a little bit in the community and in your industry or maybe multiple industries contacts list of several folks and on the local news reporters list of subject experts they could call in the event of a crisis. So now you're being interviewed for news shows. Now you're being asked to sit on a committee to help with local disaster preparedness. Now you're being consulted by people who are interested in what you do. Third year, you're still an hour a day of new study on this, not just working in that field, because that doesn't count. This is an hour extra every day studying the field you've chosen. Third year, you're the go-to guy or gal. People are saying well, you want to know about it. Contact Michael, contact Ellen, contact Jim. Right by the fourth year, you are probably a member of any national associations that are or societies that exist in that field, and you may have served on some committees or gotten elected to the board of directors, and so your voice has been heard. You're writing articles for their publications. You're doing blog posts and interviews on podcasts Fifth year you're on national news.

Speaker 2: 12:42

You've written a couple of books. You're conducting seminars. You're holding summits and retreats to train other people in your field. You see what I mean. Now, that was just one I pulled out of the air Disaster preparedness. You know things like that musician.

Speaker 2: 13:01

I want to be like Garth Brooks, or you know Carrie Underwood, or name your person. Right, okay, but I don't play an instrument and I can't sing. Fine, do you still want to do that? Yeah, all right. Do you have to be the performer or do you just want to be in that world and be at the top of the industry, the music industry? Well, I'd like to be a performer, but I don't have to, okay, Well, what are you going to do?

Speaker 2: 13:32

I don't know. I got to get a job. What kind of job are you qualified for? Well, no, college degree, no musical training? No, I don't know. I guess I'll just have to go entry level.

Speaker 2: 13:44

So what are you going to do? Sweep floors and run errands? Yeah, I guess. Okay, for whom? What do you mean? Why not for a music shop? Why not for a musical instrument maker? Why not for a college or high school or professional band? Why not for a broadcast station for their entertainment side? See what I mean.

Speaker 2: 14:10

Yeah, if you gotta sweep floors, sweep studio floors. Why? Because I'm only going to make minimum. Excuse me, who are you going to be around? Yeah, but I'm no low level. Listen to yourself.

Speaker 2: 14:26

If you're in a studio, you're going to be talking with the other people in the studio a little bit and you're going to hear them talk to each other. So you're going to pick up the language and the ways of behaving and thinking that people in studios do. And you're going to meet performers who come and go from the studio and you're going to maybe you're going to clean up after them and while you're in there, you're going to say, yeah, I really enjoyed that performance the other night and they're going to strike up a conversation with you and they're going to say, hey, we're going out for burgers in a bit. You want to join us? Yeah. And then they say, hey, we're looking for somebody to work as a roadie, to help us with our local gigs. Could you help us set up our gear and take it down, absolutely. So now you've got a higher paying position. See what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1: 15:13

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:14

And one of them says hey, do you play an instrument? No, but I've always wanted to learn to play the blank. Well, let me show you, and they teach you how to play guitar, banjo, keyboard, whatever it happens to be, and you learn some fundamentals and, the next thing you know, another door opens, and another door opens and one extra focused hour every single day, nonstop, no exceptions, even on bad days, even when you're ill for five years.

Speaker 1: 15:51

Top 1%. Yeah, that's amazing and it really isn't that long. I mean, an hour a day is really not that long.

Speaker 2: 16:01

It's organic if you just stay the course, right. But you've got gotta pick a lane. Let's say you decide okay, I'm gonna be top one percent of the experts in the world on music. Yikes, yikes. You're gonna have to put in 15 extra hours a day. Music's too broad. But how about music in the key of B flat on a zither? You'll be the world's leading expert by Tuesday. Exactly the narrower the field, the faster the advancement.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Yeah, yeah. Well, what did you decide to do after you heard the message? What was that first thing that you started spending an hour on?

Speaker 2: 16:45

I was overwhelmed. I was blown away by the idea because it never occurred to me I could matter. You know, I was just an ordinary kid from the neighborhood, didn't, didn't stand out, so I thought I'm probably not ever going to. And then Nightingale says this on the radio and I get inspired and I think so if I really got serious, honestly, I could make a difference. I could matter. Wow, I could be somebody.

Speaker 2: 17:18

And then I thought what do I want to be an expert on? Well, it wasn't urban renewal, though. That's where it worked and it wasn't any of the other things like banking that I had done before. I'd worked as a bank teller and a bill collector and things like that. And then it hit me after a couple of weeks I want to do what that guy on the radio does. I want to be like Earl Nightingale. Well, I didn't know a Michael Morrison, you know, I didn't know someone who was in that world, so I didn't know what it was really like. I just knew it felt right to me and I had two conditions that would tend to limit one's professional speaking career I'd never given a speech and I had nothing to say. That pulled off. Well that's two strikes.

Speaker 2: 18:13

So I thought, okay, if I want to be like Earl Nightingale, what does it mean? And I thought, well, okay, his world is like how to succeed. I found out there's a technical term for that applied behavioral science. And the study of human achievement is applied behavioral science, not clinical behavioral science, but application-oriented behavioral science. So I thought, okay, I'll start studying Earl Nightingale, I'll listen to him every day or week on the radio and then I'll go to the library.

Speaker 2: 18:47

And at the time bookstores were few, there was no internet and at the library the number of books on how to succeed in life were probably less than 12. Wow, seriously, there was how to Win Friends and Influence People, the Power of Positive Thinking, think and Grow Rich, and a couple of others, but that was about it. So I read those and then I met other people that were interested in this and I got around them. And then I joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce, the JCs, which at that time was huge 350,000 members in the US. And the purpose of JCs, unlike the Lions or Kiwanis or Optimist Clubs, the difference in JCs was it was only for young adults and its purpose was not social or civic activity. That's what it did, but that's not why it did it. You know the others are called civic clubs and they serve the community. Well, the JCs serve the community and they are a civic club, but their purpose was leadership training To train young adults in the skills necessary to be senior adults so that they could practice by serving the community and then enter business at a higher level. So I learned goal setting, I learned project planning, I learned how to organize and motivate the staff of volunteers, how to find resources and acquire donors, how to build excitement for a cause, how to speak in front of a group, make reports, how to run a meeting. You know things like that. And I learned that through 400 JCs meetings in the state of Arkansas in two years, after work and on weekends for no pay. 400 meetings in two years for free, actually for out-of-pocket expense. And the first year I was just an active participant. The second year I started getting appointed or elected to positions like district director in charge of servicing five chapters in my neighborhood or my broader neighborhood, and then I was the state. I was local chapter president and then I was the state chairman in charge of leadership training for all 280 chapters in the state of Arkansas back then and JC's Today is a tiny little organization. Back then it was huge. And so I went from nobody and knew nobody to somebody who knew a lot of people, to somebody who was known by everybody in the state in that organization.

Speaker 2: 21:41

In a couple of years, two and a half years, and in 1975, now this all began in 72 here in the radio. Okay, in 1975, in August I went to Tulsa, oklahoma, to the national headquarters of the Jaycees to interview for a position on the national staff to be in charge of leadership training for 350,000 people. I got it. Wow, september 1, I started that position, 1975. Now I heard Earl Nightingale on the radio in probably January of 72. In probably January of 72.

Speaker 2: 22:22

In 1974, in a seminar I wrote a goal to become a national expert in the field of personal development by five years hence, which was September of 1979. But one year later I was the national expert in charge of leadership training for 350,000 people at the JC's headquarters. Wow, at twice the salary I was making back at the housing authority. And then I got a raise to three times the salary I was making back at the headquarters and I flew all over the country and I wrote training manuals and I conducted workshops and trained trainers and did all kinds of communication to motivate people. And then, in 1977, I formed what is now Cathcart Institute. Back then it was Jim Cathcart Individual and Leadership Training and I've done 3,500 paid speeches and done all those things I mentioned earlier.

Speaker 2: 23:35

What, how on earth is that possible?

Speaker 2: 23:40

I mean, I didn't suddenly become a PhD on human development or achieve Zig Ziglar level speaking skills or you know things that would just kind of turn the key and open the doors for me.

Speaker 2: 23:55

I got every one of them at that bus stop on the way to my ultimate destination and slowly grew, you know, made a lot of mistakes, invested in things that didn't pay off, spent a lot of time doing things that didn't help at all, listened to a whole bunch of the wrong people and made stupid decisions and then recovered.

Speaker 2: 24:19

And finally, you know, president of the National Speakers Association, the other day I got a call from a woman I had done a TED talk coaching for. She's from the Philippines and she's a world expert on AI and the metaverse. She said, jim, look at your text. I got to show you something. So I get my phone out and look at it and there's a photograph of her in front of a wall in a shopping mall in Manila, philippine Islands, and it shows a bunch of hot air balloons and there's a quote in the middle of it and the quote says the future you see reveals the person you'll be. Jim Cathcart, my quote was on the wall in the Philippines, in a shopping mall. I guarantee you, the son of the telephone repairman in Little Rock, arkansas, did not ever, ever, ever even dream of something like that occurring spontaneously.

Speaker 1: 25:29

And that seems to be like almost every person on this planet. And I have a quick question, since you're in the personal development space what do you think that trigger was at that time? Because I'm sure there were other people on the radio or other things that you'd seen, but at that moment, what do you think it was that lit that fire? Because I know a lot of people that are stuck. They want something better. They just can't seem to get motivated to do it.

Speaker 2: 25:58

Well, up until that time, I had literally 40, 4-0 different jobs.

Speaker 1: 26:05

You're listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is produced by my company, Boss. Our business is helping yours grow. Boss offers business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. Now let's get back to our special guest. What do you think that trigger was at that time? Because I'm sure there were other people on the radio or other things that you'd seen, but at that moment, what do you think it was that lit that fire? Because I know a lot of people that are stuck. They want something better. They just can't seem to get motivated to do it.

Speaker 2: 26:55

Well, up until that time I had literally 40, 4 zero different jobs. If you count mowing lawns for my neighbors, you know, for pocket money, running a paper route, working as a teller in a bank, being a warehouseman, unloading trucks and boxcars, things like that. 40 different jobs by the time I got to the housing authority job. Since that time I've had the JC's job and my current job period. I've been a professional speaker and author, an expert in the field of business skills and success skills training ever since.

Speaker 2: 27:35

Okay, when I heard that radio broadcast, I had the ambition. I had the. I didn't have the expectation, but I had the desire. I had this wish it could be more, wish it could be better, wish I could be somebody others would admire, respect or ask for advice. Right, it didn't have an outlet and I didn't have the mindset to believe I could pull it off. And Nightingale showed me, at my age 26, a formula that, when I thought it through, made total sense and I realized it would work for pretty much anybody. One of the things I also did at that time is my job was boring. I was an assistant to a man who didn't need one, so I was an assistant loan specialist to Bob Moore and Bob Moore wasn't busy so I had hours every day of idle time. I read the Bible cover to cover in three months at work.

Speaker 1: 28:44

Wow, that is a lot of time on your hands.

Speaker 2: 28:49

The state of Arkansas paid, through their taxes, my salary, for me to read the Bible at work, and of course that you know I mean reading the Bible, for heaven's sakes will transform your worldview, of course and that just created more questions than answers, and so I started exploring religion, and you know different worldviews and ways of looking at philosophy and psychology, and all that At the same time. I'm thinking about business and about career, and so everything was kind of in a state of churn for me at the time, and that was perfect timing, because I had already had a job selling mutual funds and life insurance for investors, diversified services and my boss this was a couple of years earlier had given me the book Think and Grow Rich, which I read, but it went right over my head.

Speaker 2: 29:46

I didn't get it because I wasn't ready for it, and so I tried selling for a couple of years and then flopped. So I left that job and did other things things when I was at IDS one of the ironies they didn't train me well in how to sell. We had motivational sessions every Monday morning and then we were told to memorize the sales talk and go out and make calls. And I did, but I wasn't making sales because I didn't see the job as helping people solve problems and getting paid for doing so. I saw the job as getting people to buy products, and that's the way I'd been trained. So I was a vendor. I was not a helper, not a problem solver, not a solution source.

Speaker 2: 30:38

Since that time I've completely changed my mind, my view about selling, and I see selling as helping people for pay. So I've written, as I said, 27 books. Nine of those books are on sales. I've been inducted into the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame in London. I mean my name's up there. Yeah, it's a category of sales. I wrote the book the original book, relationship Selling in about 1985. And it's been translated all over the world. So I was ready. But the teacher hadn't appeared yet until I heard Earl that day. And then I started thinking, okay, I'll just follow his formula and everything will be fine. But I never, never dreamed it would go anywhere beyond maybe me being on the local radio or I don't know.

Speaker 2: 31:35

It never occurred to me to write a book, and now I've got 27 of them. You know, I mean jeepers.

Speaker 1: 31:41

Yeah, that's amazing. That's amazing. So in your book that you referred to earlier, getting to the top 1%, is that part of the formula? Spending the hour?

Speaker 2: 31:53

Yeah, Mentor minutes is 336. One minute ideas Each of these things takes one minute to read. One minute ideas Each of these things takes one minute to read. How do I know? Because I first wrote them as scripts for a radio broadcast called Acorn Minutes, Because my book the Acorn Principle and my logo is the acorn.

Speaker 1: 32:16

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:18

Why? Because an acorn is the universal symbol of potential. Tall oaks from tiny acorns grow. So in this book, every idea it's 336 life lessons. Why 336 and not 365? Because I had 365, and I had a bunch of other people review them and they said to me Jim, you know there's a good 40 of these that are just so obvious as to be useless. Okay, so I made it 336 instead of 360.

Speaker 2: 32:58

And then I wrote the book around the concept of how do you take the field you've chosen and reach the top 1% in that field and stay there. How do you become a certified professional expert if you choose to? Because that's what I do with the people in my mentor program. When people sign up with me for mentorship, I take them through a learning process that sharpens their their skills in all those key areas I was referring to earlier that make them capable of achieving, no matter what field they're, in a high level of advancement. And so at the end of that, I present them with a medallion as a certified professional expert, a certificate, and then they become one of the certified professional experts.

Speaker 2: 33:49

Now let me tell you who's on the list. There's only 31 people so far. I'm not going to read the whole list Dr Nito Kubain, Tony Alessandra, Patricia Fripp, Don Hudson, Ivan Meisner, founder of BNI Business Networking. Brian Tracy, Les Brown, Victor Antonio, sales expert. Todd Duncan, mortgage industry leader. John Mitchell, who wrote the book the Missing Secret from Think and Grow Rich. John Mitchell, who wrote the book the Missing Secret from Think and Grow Rich. Dr Terry Paulson, who's a psychologist and a professional speaker and author. And Dr Dennis Waitley. I mean, that's some heavy company.

Speaker 1: 34:36

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 34:38

Got television producers, I've got movie stars, I've got all kinds of people in the list from different fields and they are certified professional experts and so on. Cathcartcom, there are many, many, many pages of content. If someone wants to see some videos or, you know, explore CPE, certified professional expert or any of that, all I've got to do is go to MyLastNamecom and click around and there are free things, there are inexpensive things, there are more expensive things, but it's a fun thing to click around in.

Speaker 1: 35:18

I know you saw a picture of me skydiving. It's a smorgasbord of everything. Just pick your poison, as you said earlier. So on those, oh, I got to tell you a quick one.

Speaker 2: 35:32

This will put a cap on what I was saying about Earl Nightingale. Now remember, when I started out I was just a likable loser. Okay, I wasn't going anywhere, but I was a nice guy and I was reasonably intelligent. But I never hit high numbers on IQ tests or anything. So that's where I start out.

Speaker 2: 35:54

I hear Earl Nightingale on the radio. I get inspired by him. A couple of years later I meet a guy who's selling Earl Nightingale's audio recordings and he said, jim, you should buy these. I said how much? He said $560. I said, oh my gosh, I only make $525. He said, well, let's work out a payment plan. So we did and I listened fanatically to those recordings for better part of five years. During that five-year period I went from hearing Earl on the radio to becoming a representative selling Earl Nightingale's recordings to businesses. So I'm doing door-to-door calls, selling, and this time I'm succeeding. So I've changed my worldview regarding selling and when I go to call on people, I'm not trying to sell them something, I'm trying to help them and show them how my product will do it and it works.

Speaker 2: 36:53

And so I start getting invitations to give speeches. Well, hey, okay, and we'll pay you. Really, a lot of times it was just hey, we'll buy your lunch and I would still do it. But then somebody offered well, tulsa Junior College, because I'd moved to Tulsa from Little Rock. Tulsa Junior College said we'd like you to speak as the opening keynote speaker on our faculty orientation day at the beginning of the school year. There'll be a few hundred people in the audience, full and part-time faculty, and I thought I are you sure you know who you're talking to, right b, to give a speech to college teachers. Holy smokes, never saw that coming. They we'll give you a hundred bucks. Would that be enough? Absolutely. I just said yes, at five, you know five bucks. So I did that speech and then things just kept getting better.

Speaker 2: 37:57

Okay, so I do the job at the JC's headquarters and I go out on my own as a speaker and trainer, and I ultimately moved to California for 37 years. I'm in Austin, texas, now, but for 37 years I was in Southern California, formed a business with a college professor, dr Tony Alessandro. And one day I'm sitting in the office in La Jolla near the beach, phone rings, I pick it up and it's Earl Nightingale himself asking to speak to Jim Cathcart. I almost wet my pants. I couldn't believe my hero was calling me. He said I've read an article of yours that would make a good audio program. And I said well, that article is in fact an audio program we sell. And he said, well, send it to me and if we like it, my company will produce it Nightingale Comic Corporation. I sent it. He liked it. We re-recorded it. In 1984 and 85, earl Nightingale's company sold three and a half million dollars worth of my audio program with Tony Alessandro.

Speaker 2: 39:05

Yeah, that is awesome 72, I heard him on the radio. 74, I'm selling his products. 84, 10 years later, he's selling mine.

Speaker 1: 39:13

Mine yeah.

Speaker 2: 39:17

Blew my mind. And then in 1989, I was president of the National Speakers Association, which is about 2,500, 3,000 professional speakers, you know, like the Ryan, tracy, zig Ziglar, liv Brown type people and I was the national president and I called Earl Nightingale and I said would you please come to our convention, join me on stage and let me interview you in front of thousands of your peers? He said I might. He said it's not paid so I can't say yes and turn down other business, but if I'm open I'll do it. And I said okay.

Speaker 2: 39:56

So a couple of months go by, I get a call from diana nightingale, his wife. She said Jim Earl passed away. Oh, I was crushed. She said we're not going to have a funeral. We had a little service here at home. We cremated him and spread his ashes here. But I would like to have a memorial service for Earl at your convention, because you are his people. And I said absolutely, we would be more than honored to do that.

Speaker 2: 40:30

So at the Anatole Hotel in Dallas at our annual convention while I was president, we held a memorial service for Earl and there were hundreds of big name professional speakers in the audience and one of the people in the audience was David Nightingale, his son, and the only two speakers were his widow and me. I had the honor of being a presenter at the memorial service of my mentor and when she initially asked me, I said no, it wouldn't be appropriate. I mean, he's a big deal, I'm not. She said, jim, you don't get it. You're a product of his product. You are the result he was seeking to produce by delivering these messages. You've lived it and proven it and you're totally appropriate as a presenter. So she spoke, she showed a short video message from Dennis Waitley and then I got up and I spoke, and I've never felt so absolutely blessed and, at the same time, completely unqualified for a moment in my entire career.

Speaker 1: 41:48

That's so inspiring because I think most people are brought up with the same mindset that you had and they just can't seem to see themselves being any different. Right, and so you didn't either. But look what happens when you apply yourself. And that draws me to that one book, because you said, each of those things are a minute long, and I know for a lot of business professionals that I work with sometimes they're like OK, I have this grand plan, here's the goal, but I don't know what to do tomorrow, the next day. Is that a book that can help them then?

Speaker 2: 42:25

Give me a number between one and three thirty six.

Speaker 1: 42:29

Oh, two eighty four.

Speaker 2: 42:31

Best one of all.

Speaker 1: 42:34

Oh, I hit the jackpot. Does that come with a prize?

Speaker 2: 42:38

No matter what number you had said. That would have been my response.

Speaker 1: 42:41

That would have been the best one.

Speaker 2: 42:43

OK, here it is. What do you need to learn next?

Speaker 1: 42:47

Perfect.

Speaker 2: 42:48

If you look over your life, what do you think will be your next big challenge? Wealth, health, relationships, career choices, philosophical concepts? Why not get ready for it before it arrives? Just ask yourself what do I need to learn next? Then start today to prepare, as if it were already scheduled to appear. They say that many of the lottery winners quickly squander their newfound wealth and become poor again. That's because their thinking doesn't change, just their bank account changed.

Speaker 2: 43:19

If you knew that you'd soon come into a lot of money, wouldn't it make sense to learn how to manage money? You'd soon come into a lot of money. Wouldn't it make sense to learn how to manage money? Wouldn't it make sense if you knew a big challenge was coming with another person? You'd sign up for some webinars on dealing with difficult relationships. The time to learn life skills is before. We need them. Think of how your life may unfold and start today to learn what you will someday need to know. When you are ready for them, your challenges transform into opportunities. So that's the kind of guidance that's throughout the book. I call my grandkids, who have a copy of that, and I say hey, jason, hey, amber, 76. What? I'll just pull a number out of the air and they go hey, amber, 76. What? I'll just pull a number out of the air and they go and we read it together and it's just a fun thing to do.

Speaker 1: 44:13

That is fun Well, on the speaking stage. Do you have any tips that can help our listeners on that, because I know a lot of people would rather not speak in public, and so I know that's a big challenge for them.

Speaker 2: 44:30

And you've spoken a lot, yeah, a lot, thousands of times, and I coach a lot of people who are doing TED Talks and corporate talks and organizational presentations where they feel like they've got a lot on the line, and so they buy a few hours of my time and we go through it on a Zoom call or in person. So the most popular phrase or statement about speaking public speaking is that it's the number one fear that came in, even above death, on the list of fears in the book of lists back in the 1970s. Well, that may be true for the book of lists, but in life it is not that terrifying, but it still is terrifying for some people, and I've had people say well, I'm one of them. Man, I am terrified of speaking in public. I'll say, no, you're not. Well, jim, yes, I actually am. No, you're not.

Speaker 2: 45:44

How could you know that? Hey, didn't you go to Lake, whatever, this weekend? How was that? Do you answer them, well, sure, in private? Or do you tell the whole group Well, that's my family. For heaven's sakes, you speak in public if the public's your family. Yeah, yeah, you're not nervous. Well, of course not, it's your family. Yeah, yeah, you're not nervous. Well, of course not. It's my family, ah. So your problem is not speaking in public. Your problem is feeling like you're being judged truth everything else is just a matter of your attitude.

Speaker 2: 46:23

You've got the skills. You've got the knowledge. You don't need training in how to speak. You need training in how to not be afraid of something that doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 46:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 46:34

So come with me and let's discover how much more successful you can be. And then I walk them through a process. First we've got to reframe their fear and help them realize they're not afraid of the speaking part. So they've got to get over the fact that some of these people might judge them. But every single person in the world is afraid of something. The biggest, bravest, most scary CEO in a boardroom that you've ever seen in your life is afraid of something, is ashamed of something, is embarrassed about something, hopes desperately. Nobody asks about something and they dream of something and they're proud of something. In other words, everybody's got the same humanity, and when we learn to connect with that humanity, the judgmental things just fall by the wayside.

Speaker 2: 47:35

If you've got to scream fire to a group of people that are in a burning building, are you going to do it timidly? Are you going to yell it out like you're in charge of all exits? Well, you're going to yell it out. You're trying to save lives. For heaven's sakes, you don't care how they judge. You Get outside before you die, right? If you're screaming at a group of people to get their attention for anything that might be an emergency or might be important to know your fear goes away because your purpose was focused on the audience instead of your attention focused on yourself. Quickest way in the world to be afraid is think about you.

Speaker 1: 48:21

Yeah, that's true. How do I look?

Speaker 2: 48:24

Did my voice sound? Okay, you know, air out of place.

Speaker 1: 48:28

Air.

Speaker 2: 48:28

yeah, Is there air left, you know, is there whatever I'm getting there.

Speaker 2: 48:34

So when I'm coaching and I've coached lots of Hall of Fame speakers I've had people who are literally in the Professional Speaker Hall of Fame call me in the middle of the night. Where they were this one I'm thinking about was in Egypt and she called me and she said Jim, I've got a speech in the morning for a big group of executives from around the world. I need you to talk me down off the ledge, I'm terrified. I said you are terrified. None of them can do what you do on the platform. Yeah, but you know. And so I talked her through the whole thing, got her focus off of herself, helped her realize they don't know her subject and her fear dissipated and she called me back and said man, knocked it out of the park, quick story, yep. And she called me back and said man, knocked it out of the park, quick story, yep.

Speaker 2: 49:26

The American Medical Association hired me when I was in my 30s, had rosy cheeks, a lot of black hair and looked 10 years younger than I was. They hired me to speak on leadership, which I knew a lot about through my JC''s experience and other experience. And so I'm at the Los Angeles Biltmore speaking to a room full of chiefs of staff of hospitals, doctors who are the chief doctor among doctors I mean, it's like a doctor is not scary enough and they are from hospitals all over the Western part of the USA and I'm going to speak on leadership and I look like their grandson, right. So I go into the room early and the presenters are getting up and putting on their half glasses. You know the nose end of nose glasses.

Speaker 2: 50:19

Chuck Schumer. Look, and they're reading their papers to each other and the audience is going to sleep. And then they introduce me and I come to the front and they see me and they realize it's a young kid, you know, a young adult. What could he know? And so they all roll their eyes. And it was one of those lectern microphones that's wrapped around a gooseneck.

Speaker 1: 50:45

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 50:46

You know, on a tabletop, yeah. And so I walked to the front and I've watched all these other people put them to sleep and I walked to the front briskly and I grabbed the mic and I unwrap it and I step out from behind the table and they all kind of back up because they don't know whether I'm going to approach or what, but they feel threatened right.

Speaker 2: 51:07

Oh my God, what's he going to do? No touching, you know. And so I said they were all men. I said, gentlemen, I'd like all of you to go back in your mind to medical school, to one of the courses you had on leadership and managing people, one of the courses you had on leadership and managing people. I said now, could I see a quick show of hands? How many of you had a course on leadership and managing people? And of course, no hands went up. And I said please look around the room. I said do you know what this means? It means I know more than you do on this topic and you should be taking notes. And they started laughing and then they started applauding Good point, kid. All right, what have you got to say?

Speaker 2: 52:08

I got a five out of five rating and was hired again for the next month in washington dc went in there, intimidated, and then I realized, oh my gosh, they don't know what I know on my subject and I don't know what they know on their subject. So we'll trade.

Speaker 1: 52:24

Shift of mindset. That's awesome. That is awesome. Well, I know you've wet the ears of many. What is the best way to follow you? I know we got your website that has a ton of information. Is there a social media channel, anything like that?

Speaker 2: 52:39

Yeah, if you remember the name, cathcart C-A-T-H-C-A-R-T, you can find me almost anywhere. I'm all over Facebook, linkedin, youtube, tiktok, twitter, instagram, name it. I am saturated in those worlds, mostly LinkedIn and Facebook and YouTube, but the others too. But the best place to start just Cathcart. And, by the way, if you go to bookcathcartcom bookcathcartcom it will take you to a landing page where you can fill in your email and get a free download of my what to Do when You're the Speaker book. So that's a quick way to get something free. And others go to cathcartcom and scroll around and watch some of the videos, because there's no cost for doing that. And I'd love to hear from you If you want to connect with me, connect with me on either Jim Cathcart Mentor on Facebook or connect with me on LinkedIn, because my personal page just Jim Cathcart on Facebook is at 5,000. I can't accept any more without booting somebody off.

Speaker 1: 53:57

Yeah Well, I appreciate that and I encourage the listeners to download that book.

Speaker 2: 54:03

Easy for you to say yeah.

Speaker 1: 54:06

Well, I'm reading it on my screen, the book itself, and I'm talking, so I can't do twice. I don't know why I'm even trying, but what to Do when You're the Speaker. I've got it. It's an excellent read and we kind of talked about that. Yeah, we kind of talked about that a little earlier. That is a book. That is a quick reference. So if you've got a challenge or something you'd like to, you can skip to any chapter and, like you said earlier, not have to worry about missing the chapter before, because each chapter has its own purpose.

Speaker 2: 54:37

Can I add one quick item?

Speaker 1: 54:39

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 54:40

I was sitting at my desk one day and I got a call from Les Brown, the famous motivational speaker, and he said Jim, check your text. And I go to my text and there's a video that he recorded about a minute long of him saying this book is phenomenal, you need to buy this book. Talking about my book, what to do when You're the Speaker. And he said you can use that anywhere you want to. Wow, what a nice gesture. Thank you, Les.

Speaker 2: 55:21

Well, then months go by and I get a call from Les and he says hey, what would it cost me to get about five of your books and have them personally autographed? And I told him and he said great, I want to buy them for my kids for Christmas. Now, wait a minute, One of the top motivational speakers in the world is buying my book to give to his kids as a Christmas present. Wow, Good heavens. I mean, that's kind of like the Earl Nightingale journey, right from hearing him on the radio to this Wow. But when you think about that, why would someone do that? Because I might be saying exactly the same thing he says. But he's dad, Right, and they don't listen to dad. They need to hear it from another voice, right?

Speaker 1: 56:06

yep, yep, yep. Well, jim, you've been a blessing to many today, and you are today's version of earl nightingale. So I. It is an honor that you're even here sharing your insights with me and our audience, so I sincerely appreciate you taking this time you bet, bet.

Speaker 2: 56:25

It's been a treat.

Speaker 1: 56:27

Absolutely Well. You have a wonderful rest of the day and we'll catch you around on the social channels.

Speaker 2: 56:34

There you go All right, thank you. Anybody. If you want to be the boss, follow Michael.

Speaker 1: 56:38

Now you got my heartstrings All right. Have a great day. See you, my friend. Now you got my heartstrings All right. Have a great day. See you, my friend. Thank you for listening to Small Business Pivots. This podcast is created and produced by my company, boss. Our business is growing. Yours, boss, offers flexible business loans with business coaching support. Apply in minutes and get approved and funded in as little as 24 to 48 hours at businessownershipsimplifiedcom. If you're enjoying this podcast, don't forget to hit the subscribe button and share it as well. If you need help growing your business, email me at michael at michaeldmorrisoncom. We'll see you next time on Small Business Pivots.