Achieving Unparalleled Success Through ReLaunching

Hey everyone, it is the ReLaunch podcast. And you know what happens to me when I have somebody come onto the show that I've been like thinking about? I've been like looking at all of the information that is out there on this individual and I just keep having more and more questions that I know are going to be so incredibly impactful for you to hear his answers. The person I'm talking to what a career he has had and he continues to dominate in Jim Cathcart is the past president of the National Speakers Association. He is the author of 25 books. He is the speaker Hall of Fame. He is sales and marketing Hall of Fame. He is a top 1% TED X speaker and you have to go check it out. Because if you haven't seen it, 2.6 million viewers have it. He's a mentor to experts, and entrepreneurs and today, he is going to absolutely give us tangible takeaways on how you can be elevating and impacting more people.

You're listening to the ReLaunch podcast and I'm your host Hilary DeCesare her best selling author, speaker and transformational coach widely recognized in the worlds of neuro psychology and business launches, which cultivated the one and only three HQ method, helping midlife women. Yep, that's me to rebuild a life of purpose, possibility and inspiring business ventures. Each week, we'll be diving into the stories that brought upon the most inspirational relaunches while sharing the methods and the secrets that they learned along the way, so that you too, can have not just an ordinary relaunch, but an extraordinary relaunch.

Jim, so good to have you.

That's a great setup. Thank you. That's, um, I'm ready, roll.

Well, you know what, it's a great setup. Because when you hear all of the accolades, all the things you've done, I mean, you know, Guru status isn't even enough for you. There's so much wisdom, I feel like, you know, maybe this should be a 10 part series I'm doing on you. So but so let's get started because I want to jump right away into, I wouldn't even say it's your most significant relaunch, but for our audience that really wants to kind of understand how to be able to get on stages, be able to captivate to be able to understand the process behind it. You actually had to completely redefine a lot of the life you would had on stages when COVID hit Oh, yeah. Can you share with us? You know, again, I want people to be able to understand what can they do now?

Well, in 2020, I was just coming into a year, where I had about $270,000 worth of speaking engagements booked in China, mainland China. All of them dry it up overnight. Gone. I had for the last five years 2015 to 2019 December, I had been touring China on lecture tours, as many as in 2019. I did six round trips from the United States to mainland China for 71 days total in country that year. And I spoken 23 major cities over that time to 10s of that were maybe hundreds of 1000s of people live it was like the big Tony Robbins or Grant Cardone events, you know, huge audiences of excited people, spotlights and music and you know that wow, like a like Rocky Balboa, you know, and I'd come in I had an entourage of security, protecting me from the audience because they literally did want to, you know, take souvenirs and get selfies with me. And so

you're out there, you're like,

experienced that before. You know, I've been successful and gotten a lot of big awards and all that but I'd never been a rock star. And over there it wasn't rock star. It was good. Odd, you know, with a small g, but they treated me like a deity. And I mess with them. Because when they would bring me into the room with all these security people, they expected, you know, the Royal March. And so we would start into the room and everybody's screaming and cheering. And they're all trying to get a selfie with me as I go by. And as soon as I saw that my security detail was in a rhythm, I would take off running, boom, boom. I did in real time, I'm going for the stage as if I'm in a sprint to get away from a bear. And there Oh, no, oh, no master has taken off, we must catch up. And they're they're holding hands with each other. And they run down the the aisle sideways trying to catch up with

you are terrible that you. But I had so much fun a lot of people to take away lives of their life. Because of that.

I can literally show you that if you would like to see a video of it.

Like that, you have to send it to me. This is too good. But all of a sudden, you have this massive success. And you've had it for years and years and years. You have all day. And all of a sudden, it's literally done so long. You don't know how far I mean, it could be it could be a month, it could be years. And so what goes through your mind?

Well, first thing was the same thing that went through my mind at 911. In 2001. I realized that morning, after I saw the news in California, of what it was happening in New York, I realized this could be World War Three, it could be as bad as World War Two where everything shut down. And the only thing any citizen does is feed the war effort. So I thought, okay, my career's gone for now. Because there aren't going to hold conventions, how can I be a professional speaker? And do any anything meaningful? This is 2001. Nobody had zoom. And I said, Well, what do I know that could contribute to the survival of the United States? I know leadership, I know how to teach leadership at the ground level, how to teach people with no experience and no credentials and no power, how to organize a project, how to find resources, how to motivate volunteers, and how to get things done. I can show them how to lead meetings, how to how to be a good follower, how to set goals, you know, all those kinds of things. So how do I do that? And I reached out and I got Pepperdine University, Cal State Channel Islands, California Lutheran University, Ventura County Sheriff's Department, the Reagan Presidential Library, the Boys and Girls Clubs of that area. And I got them all together for a summit. And I said, let's all join hands and share resources and teach people without power. How to lead because we need each other. And we don't know if we can even have gasoline to travel 3040 miles. And they all said, Okay, we're in. And so we did a series of training programs that ended up after things got better, again, extended for three or four years. I called it the 101 highway 101 liters Alliance. And so I was thinking at, you know, at the beginning of COVID got to reinvent. So, notice this,

start up again, me, huh? A lot that I often say your need. I often say you're the CEO of you. So let's make it the company you've ever seen and had

no I said, Okay, what what do people need? Well, first off, they need the same things they needed before COVID. But now they're not able to even go down the street because the store is not open. Nor is the restaurant nor is a movie theater. Nor is it okay to get together with friends. Because in California, they were telling us wear a mask at the dinner table with your own family. So people are afraid. Alright, good. I will be available to them to rethink their entire career, their lifestyle, their major goals and their choices. And so I did I organized a three month long program that I call going pro. And at first I call it startup again.me. But I changed the title to the going pro Experts Academy and so it's a three month or 12 month process and I've done And four of those now, and they we meet every week, for an hour to 90 minutes on Zoom. And then within that three month period, now we get together here in Austin, Texas, where I live and do a two and a half day mastermind. And then some people drop out of that and others renew for the year because they want to earn a CPE, which is certified professional experts on Kafka. That ends with a summit at the end of the year, which is an additional mastermind longer, and probably going to be in La Jolla Shores community in Southern California, we both know and love that. So

Jim, let me go back here, though. Because something that you said First off, you had a career, you were at the top 1%. It's shut down, you have to literally what I call do a mass every launch, you had had some some of this happen in the foresight during 911. That now you're like, What can I do, and you chose to create a zoom online program a three month as you said, or you can continue on.

And by the way, at the beginning, at the beginning of it, I hired a guy that does that, to teach me his method. So I spent several $1,000 with him, just learning how to do what he was doing.

And you know why you are a man after my own heart, because that is what I always talk about with three HQ, head, heart, Higher Self, the higher self is really that best version of you. It's your growth zone. And if you want to have accelerated growth, time is something we don't want to waste. And so being able to go out and find those experts that can help because you weren't an online expert. But yet you went out you found the right person. And what did you if if people are listening right now, and hearing that you how long did it take you to actually come out with your online course, your first zoom?

About eight weeks, I think, because I want to

get everyone to hear that. You're right.

I was I was creating it. And I launched it before the eight weeks were over. So I was getting feedback on my early experiences. Before I even completed my process with the other guy by the way. I think I should probably be a charter member of the four H club. Another h four H club, healer, art had higher self.

You're so great. Okay, that's so perfect.

Your logos of four leaf clover, because it's it's a miracle of nature. It's super rare. And everybody looks for it, but not too many find it. Oh, okay, everyone,

this has been recorded. You don't see that in the next couple of days somewhere. We have missed the mark. So

why you know why? Why that is such a perfect choice. Because the green color, which needs to be a green from nature, not an artificial green indicates that this is natural, it's alive. And it's unique and rare.

Jim, you're already proving once again, why you have been so successful, that is awesome. We will make sure that we're gonna, we're gonna try to end this on time. But I'm gonna get you afterwards to talk more because this is really great. But here's something that I do want to ask you. So you create this online course you've had multiple successes even before you were playing the guitar, and you were singing and you've had awards there. And, and I even asked you, I said, Is there anything you're not good at? And I am going to say this. I'd like to know from the audience so everyone can hear. What do you really believe that? You know what? I'm not touching that one? What would that be? What haven't you shared with people that you know what, hey, I've got I actually have a fear here. I'm not good at this. I've got like, I'm not good enough for that. So what would what would that be?

I don't know. Because I know that anything I put my heart to. I'm going to find a way to master it. I know how literally to go from nothing to the top 1% in a field that I choose. But I'm not going to choose a field that I know I could do intellectually but I'm not going to have my heart and higher self in it.

Well, you just you're leading me down the path I wanted you to take which is a very faint misquote that has come out is one extra hour each day in your chosen field, and you'll be a national expert in that field in five years or less. Yep, I want you to explain where did you first hear this? And how have you literally put yourself into this mindset in everything you do.

In 1972, I lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, where I was born and had grown up. And I was newly married, got married 1970. And we had a new baby at home, Jim Jr. and I was making $525 a month, and my wife at a secretarial job making 400. So between us, we're killing it $925 a month. And I was a clerk at the urban renewal agency, the Little Rock Housing Authority, Little Rock, Arkansas. And I was an assistant to a man who didn't need help. His name was Bob. And Bob was bored. So you can imagine what assistant assistant was just for days on end, you know, reading books on urban renewal, which I didn't find interesting. And waiting for him to say, Hey, Jim, do this assignment. And occasionally I did. But most of the time, I was doodling and goal setting and dreaming and things like that. And now remember this 1972. So I was 26. I'll save the math. I'm 76 now, but 26 years old. I've had 40 different jobs in my life, if you count, throw in a newspaper route and selling door to door to door when I was a kid and things like that, but I'd had a lot of different jobs. And I'd done okay at most of them. But I had failed at selling mutual funds and life insurance. And then I failed at selling automobiles. And then I went to work second groceries. And then I got the job at the Housing Authority. So I'm convinced that I can't sell. And my dad's a telephone repairman. And I've never been around money, or people that were highly educated. And so I'm not encouraged to do really well, I'm encouraged, be a nice person don't get in the way. And that's what I was doing. And then the next room, there's a radio, and it's playing a little short five minutes show called our changing world. Is it ever and the voice was Earl Nightingale, the Dean of personal motivation. said that day, literally he said, If you will spend an extra hour every day studying the field you've chosen, you'll be a national expert in that field in five years or less. And I thought enough, that actually works. day, five days a week, 50 weeks a year, five years. 12 150 hours on one topic. Yeah. And the more narrow the topic, the more you would advance. There's not accounting. It's cost accounting is not cost accounting. It's cost accounting in the construction industry, not just the construction industry, lumber, you know, school. I mean, you'd be the world's leading expert on this that are one of them in less than five years. So pick a lane, and it is sure didn't want to study urban renewal. And so, weeks, I'm wondering what to do, and then it hits me. I want to do what he does. Well, I didn't know what he did. I just knew it felt right to me. I wanted to help people grow but I had two problems. I had never given a speech and I had nothing to say. That'll hold you back. And so I thought well, I'll take him at his word. So for an extra hour every day. I was reading you ready? Thinking Grow Rich. This is First

Person Oh favorites, the absolutely Friends and Influence

People early another hour positive thinking Norman Vincent Peale Psycho Cybernetics how to be a genius and the Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles

and what I love I love these are all views these these books Jan look us you really have these are probably like they've been around I love it.

Oh, yeah. And I still got my notes in some of them. This my word? Wow, what I haven't looked at this in like forever.

What do you what are you holding right now?

mental muscles and the spirit of growth by Jim Cathcart you already have every muscle you need is just a matter of developing them and growing them. Total Fitness in just 30 minutes a day, let's say you are wondering about the value of activity in a go, man, that's in my Zig Ziglar book. And the time I got the goals, I weighed 200 pounds. I had never been an athlete or an academic success, though, I became a fanatic at studying personal development for five years. And I joined the Junior Chamber of Commerce Jaycees, and attended 400 meetings in two years after work and on weekends for free. And every meeting, I either gave a report letter discussion or gave a speech. And so at first, I was horrible. And then I was just bad. And then I was lame. And then I was unimpressive. And then I was okay. And then I was decent. And then I got better. Okay, but 400 of them. Right?

You actually saw the proof of this hour a day?

Oh, yeah. And no.

And here's the thing, Malcolm Gladwell says, 10,000 hours get you to be an expert, right? And what you're really

saying, is based on a different approach to the whole thing. Here's, it's not like the Beatles, he talks about in his book. They've got their 10,000 hours on stage in Hamburg, Germany and these other places. And he tells about how that was. That was their proving ground. Yeah, well, mine was the Jaycees, those 400 meetings, and spending at least an hour every single day, listening to Earl Nightingale on recordings, and reading these various books, and finally changing my circle of friends, to get less time spent with the people who weren't growing, and more time spent around people who were eager to grow so that we feed each other's growth. And sure enough, my life transformed. In a matter of 30 days, my wife said to me, why don't you figure out how to buy those Earl Nightingale recording so we can keep them. And so I bought a $560 cassette library from Earl Nightingale when I was only making 525. Now, that wouldn't be $3,500 today, and I bought those and listen to them all the time, to the point that it bothered everyone around me.

You can recite it. But wait, it would be it would be remiss if I did not ask you this. So in today's world, there are more people wanting to be a speaker. There are organizations and you have been honored in Toastmasters, you've been honored in national speaker Association when you are also president, you have had all of these but what would you say if somebody is listening right now we've got you know, entrepreneurs that are trying to scale their business six to seven to eight. How do you first as you just said, you're listening, you're joining 400 of these meetings, and you are always speaking in your wine from bad to good. Great, as we have now seen. What do you suggest people do today isn't joining one of these organizations.

Today? Here's the danger. Familiarity breeds. contempt, it says, but I think familiarity breeds apathy. So when when someone says something about Earl Nightingale or Tony Robbins or name your person, people say oh, yeah, I saw one of his things on YouTube. And they think that does it. That's the same as getting a doctorate in that topic. I mean, they seriously take the posture. Oh, yeah, I've heard the name or Oh, yeah, read an article or watch the tick tock, or I've watched an entire speech. And now I get it. So I don't need to learn goal setting. I don't need to develop my my listening skills. I don't need to take a course in strategic thinking I don't need to bloodier than that. Because it's right here in my phone. And if I need it, I'll just tune into it. Incorrect. You today are at the spot you're at. Because you are a combination. You're the sum total of all of the skills, attitudes, experiences and such that you have right now. If you want your future to be different, don't carry the same you into the future. Expand you. What does that mean? It means there's got to be a day when you decide, okay, everything else aside, today, I'm taking charge of my life, I'm gonna make my life substantial, I'm gonna get successful. Now, does that mean being a professional speaker? No, that now means you could that you could also be a lumberjack, whatever you choose, go at it with gusto and commit to reaching the top 1% of the people in that field. If you love that field, if not change fields, your Will I want to be a speaker I can when I was in China, on all these lecture tours, people would say, Teacher, how do I become great speaker? And I would say, become a great person. And when they asked you to speak, say yes. And they would look at me quizzically and I'd say, No, I'm serious. You could learn speaking techniques, and become one of the greatest machines that giving a speech that ever lived, but it won't make people want to hear from you. It'll just make them want to observe you. If you become the kind of person that other people want to learn from, you can become one of the world's most successful million dollar speakers with a speech impediment with a face that scarred and ugly, with difficulty putting together a sentence with name it, you know, with with physical disabilities of epic proportions, you could do that. It is not about the speaking techniques, or the content of the speech. And the way it's structured, it's the vehicle and the value of the message to the listener, the audience. So look at your business, if you love the business you're in, even if you don't look at it, as a vehicle for becoming more of what you're capable of being what I say to people, in my websites, and on my going pro Experts Academy. Come with me. And Let's Discover how much more successful you could be. And so I have people coming to me who are exceptional in their field. I mean, highly successful people, multimillionaires, in some cases, self made. And they say that I say, Why are you coming to me? You obviously don't need Well, I don't need you for what I have done. But I need a guide like you Gu IDE guide like you to get to where I want to go next faster. And so I become their, their, their mentor.

Theory in doing research on you, you do talk about the message versus the messenger. And you just so eloquently said it's not necessarily what you're saying. It's what is the impact what is going to be that transformation, the results that these people are going to walk away with.

And then a quick comment on that. I was talking to a Toastmasters group, I was privileged to be their keynote speaker opening session of their world convention three times over 27 years 1995 2001 2022. And in my most recent speech to them, I said, when when you go into the field of speaking, there are two things you need to focus on the message and the messenger. If you become excellent at crafting a message and even delivering a message, then you know what you'll have a great speech, one great speech, if at the same time you work on you, and you're cultivating the qualities of head, heart and higher self that Hillary recommends. Then you become a messenger, that no matter what you speak on, it's going to be a good speech. Because I could get Zig Ziglar his book, I'd much rather spend time with Zig Zig became by the way, my good friend, and we went jogging together. We attended church together. We served on committees. I call called and he advised me and I advised him on various things. On the back of this book is a picture of him with Norman Vincent Peale. Norman Vincent Peale wrote the power of positive thinking. I appeared on the program with Dr. Peale at least three separate times and he wrote he was in my audience and wrote me a testimonial letter. These people many of the people I worked with were direct person old colleagues of Dale Carnegie. And you know, who managed Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone. I've worked with W Clement Stone and served on committees with him. I've been in his private office as his personal guest. I introduced him on stage a couple of times. And,

Jim, this is very important because you said the word you said Yoda. So you have x amount of time to get somebody to the point where you would be proud of them on stage. Is there a

just on stage, but in a meeting in a leadership role, because I only work with speakers that I work with people like yourself that want to grow a career and be as a natural resource?

So what Yeah, I would like to say, let's use me. Yeah, guy, you are my Yoda. I am not just Princess Leia. But I'm, I'm all of them combined. How would you take me from being like, alright, Jim, I, you know, I want to take three HQ now called for HQ. We've just done a rebrand. And I want to take it out there. How would you work with me? What would the steps what is your framework to have me reach? As you said, the people you're working with that higher level of success,

first thing I would do is I would, I would go through an exercise with you to define in writing the future you in like, eight or 10 different contexts. So tell me about the future, you socially tell me about the future you physically, financially, et cetera, you know, we get a clearer picture of the future huge. Second, is we would go through a process that I call reputation creation, where we determine who are your publics, you know, like, they say, a movie star has a public, meaning their fans and followers. Well, who are your public where you have your customers, your colleagues, your competitors, your fans, your family? You know, it goes on and on. And on. A number of subgroups will a few of those matter a lot. Some of them don't matter much. So we define what reputation do you want in their mind, and then their words, when you're not around, and they're talking about you. And so we literally put that in writing. And then we boil that down to where you can deal with that. All of those combined condensed into one reputation statement that you carry with you day to day, then we look at what one thing, one thing, if you did this, for the next five years, would transform your world. totally change your life for the better. What one thing, and most people can't do just one thing, that if we know what that one is, we can build all the others around it so that they feed the one?

Well, Jim, I have to tell you on this one, on this one, I just had the hair on the back of my neck goes straight up, because I'm like, Oh, I've heard you know, I teach this the one thing, the one thing it's so challenging sometimes to see our own blind spots. And I know my team is listening.

I reach out to

them. And I love that and I like all these things. Okay, but I don't want to distract them one

more thing. We we also look at where is your greatest value to the marketplace, and we interview people in the marketplace to find out. And then we take that and add it to some other information to figure out where are the greatest opportunities for Hillary right now. So you look at the greatest opportunities, real opportunities where the people afterwards say, I'm so glad I did that. The one thing the reputation creation and the future you so that all those are one photograph, and you are crystal clear on exactly what you're up to. That means all of your energy flows in one direction. And you get to use all of you instead of just parts.

Yeah, this is so good. But I also have to as we're winding things up, you have written a book, mentor minutes, and what to do when you're the speaker, can you give us what is the biggest takeaway from that book that we need to know?

Here are the two books, man I love

everyone if you're not watching this, I'm telling you, he's got this bookshelf and he keeps bringing out all these great books. It says mentor minutes, reach the top 1% In any of any field,

any field. I started as a teller in a bank, and a few years later I was on the executive faculty, the American Bankers Association, teaching bank presidents and I've never been a bank president I started as a brand new member of the National Speakers Association, having never earned more than $100 for a speech and didn't know a soul, and ended up as the president of the association, then the chairman of the board, and then was inducted into the speaker Hall of Fame. And then was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. And then the the greatest honor they can give, which is the Founders Award the Cavitt.

I, I need the Spark Notes. As we're wrapping up, I need the Cliff Notes. What is it about this book that you're like, hey, everyone screaming

about this book tells you how to do that. And it tells you in One Minute Messages 336, one minute messages. I know it's one minute because it was originally a radio broadcast. And this one, what to do when you're the speaker is not about speaking, what it's about being a speaker, what do you do when the program runs over time? What do you do when the audience is seated three rows back? Instead of filling up the front row? What do you do when the lights go out? What do you do when they told you that you were going to be speaking in a normal setting and you end up in a pavilion outdoors with a microphone that's looped into a lectern on a tabletop and won't carry the sound, and it's hot and humid? And

all the things you don't think about? Because you're so focused on the message

that I have done over the years. And no person in the audience has a medical emergency. What do you do when the building catches on fire? And you're the only one with a microphone, and 700 people in the audience in Washington DC? You know, so that's what do you do when you're the speaker, this, this has been endorsed by Les Brown, Brian Tracy, Tom Hopkins, Denis Waitley, you know, on and on. And on, Patricia,

we got these books on Amazon,

you're clear. And this one 299 for Kindle. Ooh. So please leave a comment on Amazon. When you're

bored. You're the speaker, you can go you can get it 299. So as

one for free, go to free, dot Cathcart the.com. And just download.

We will have all of this in the speaker notes. But as we sign off here, what and I'm going to put you on the spot here, because I know you're so good at that. How do you what is the best way to sign off when you are on stage to captivate to make sure they remember you? Well, how do you sign off?

First off, you don't want them to remember you. You want them to remember the value of the message that you shared with them. I've had people walk up to me in an airport and say something from one of my speeches from like 10 years ago. And as a that's, that's me, how do you remember that I'll never forget it. And it's one me because they didn't remember my name. But they saw my face and remembered that story or that point. So that's the that's the key is, make sure your message is valuable enough to your audience that they want to know more of what you've got to say. So in a speech, bring it back together with your original idea. And if you can summarize with one or two key points that you made using the same words from earlier in your speech in your final statement, then it brings it together beautifully. And then you take your bow and be available for selfies.

And that is the Mic drop. Jim Cathcart. Thank you so much for being here. And everyone. You have heard you've been inspired, you have gotten some, some golden nuggets here. Let's make sure that we use them. Make sure go to the relaunch podcast, read the show notes. Leave a five star review because this was so impactful, and I would be so grateful yet and I want to make sure everyone as you go through your day, you have the three HQ framework that you can constantly be leveraging. But make sure that you're also using our tune in process and stop tuning out because you have this awesome opportunity for growth right now. And you have a message you how are the messenger of that as we just heard, and I look forward to hearing what you are going to be doing from the relaunch that's taking place today. We'll see you next time.