Every Founder Has a Story. Few Have a Message. | With Jim House | Founder’s Office™ Lunch & Learn

Well, hello there. It is Wednesday and we are here with Lunch and Learn. Uh, our general counsel Jackie is off playing around, I think, somewhere over in Europe. We were just talking about Europe. And, uh, Candace is, uh, out toodling around with my grandkids. Uh, some of them, I think two of them, or one of them is being held hostage. The 9-year-old is what I heard. Um, and, uh, so I, I gotta do a little background story on Candace. So Candace and her husband has the family's first grandchild and sells her house and buys a fifth wheel and then spends the first year of the first grandchild's life traveling around the country. Hit what, 49 states, 7 countries, 3 continents? Not all on the travel trailer, but I think that was Scout's first year. Is that right?

Yeah, we were just saying her first birthday was spent in, um, in Taipei.

In Taipei.

Yeah, we flew to Taiwan, right, right, the, the day of her first birthday.

So yeah, that, that is a super cool experience. And, uh, today we are going to be talking about experiences with a good friend of mine, uh, but I'm just going to start with it. Most founders believe that writing a book is about sharing what they know. But what if the greatest value of a book isn't what you write? It's the clarity you gain of who you are, what you stand for, and the legacy you want to leave. The reality is that every successful founder has a lifetime of experience, lessons, and wisdom. Yet too many struggle to transform those experiences into a message that others can understand, remember, and act on. They don't need more content. They need greater clarity. Our guest today has dedicated his career to helping leaders find that clarity, including me, myself, and I and our family. Jim House is the founder of The Book Carver, along with many other things, where at The Book Carver, he spent nearly 15 years helping founders, CEOs, celebrities, Olympians, and thought leaders transform the book in their head into a book people actually read. So I'm going to talk about that as well, because it's not just about, ooh, have a book because it's your business card. No, this is a book he wants people to actually read because people want to get their thoughts out there. So what's fascinating about Jim is that before helping leaders shape their legacy, he spent more than two decades as an award-winning educator and principal leading schools in some of the toughest environments imaginable, where he learned something every founder can benefit from. Lasting influence isn't created by having all the answers. It's created by earning trust, creating connection, and communicating with clarity. Clarity. Today's conversation isn't just about writing a book. It's about discovering the message only you can share, cutting away everything that doesn't matter and creating something that continues to influence people long after you've left the room. Please help me welcome Mr. Jim House.

Thank you so much, Tom and crew. It is truly an honor to be here.

Yeah, well, thank you. First of all, I got to tell you this. So I, uh, Jim and I are friends, and, uh, it's of course because of skiing. Uh, he was a rep for Dynastar, right?

Correct.

We gotta start there. Come on, tell me about the life as a ski rep.

Hell, you know, I think I was the only rep who didn't actually have a World Cup racing career. I kind of was good at talking. And so everybody assumed, and I never, they knew I lived in Vail and it was, and did all the things that one would do in that lifestyle. And so, when someone was looking for, uh, for the rep for Southern California, they said, I know a guy. And, uh, and actually at the time there was more skis sold in Southern California than any place in the world. So it was a, it was a, it was a good place. Every time I walked into a ski shop, it was kind of funny. There was this, this very unearned mystique about me that I would be great.

Yeah, because it was super cool, right? So we've got the, we've got the Meara brothers that are going on at that time.

Yeah.

Totally. You had Klammer not too far removed from that being on the stage, you know.

Icon. Absolutely.

Yeah. You had the Wide World of Sports that came on that you see them coming across on the, you know, thrill of victory and the agony of defeat type stuff. And you're selling Dynastar, which was like competing against Rossignol.

Totally. Rossignol at the time was in every— if you remember, the Gumby Green ski was in every ski shop in the world. And we had just started to win. People like Tommy Moe and others were winning on Dynastar. So it was, the time was right because everybody was tired of Rossignol and this was the new one. And Dynastar actually kind of, I don't know if you remember this, invented the category of the intermediate ski. So that was kind of the foot in the door.

I don't actually remember that.

The Olmisoft was the—

You know, it's probably because you never were an intermediate skier.

I think that's what—

Well, everybody has to be an intermediate at least for one day, I guess, in travel. Exactly.

Yeah.

It was, this is exactly what that is. All right. Well, so, uh, Jim, the other thing that's gonna be super interesting, cuz it does start to the fact of what I was talking about with Candice. So you guys are, uh, both these people that would rather live without a house, although you do have a house and it's even in your name, right? So Candice is out here traveling around in her RV with my grandkids, for a month. Um, and it used to just be her mother that would get upset because the grandkids are going out for that long, but now it also seems like the 9-year-old's going out there. You also are a nomad, right? Like defined nomad.

Well, so nearly for about nearly 2 years, I, I, I sold my house. Uh, this has been a process probably 10 years ago and lived on the harbor in San Diego for nearly a decade. And then I just decided that, you know, I kind of nursed my parents through— they both passed of Alzheimer's during COVID at the end of COVID And then I had been in San Diego virtually my entire life except when I lived in Vail. And it was— the world was calling. And it was— now, I never had the call— I love the wilderness, but unlike Candice, I never had the van that tug never— for me, I wanted to go to different countries and different cities. And so, it's always— for me, it's been— I live a life of one-way tickets. And so, it's been lots of good countries, lots of— and you and I have collided in lots of cool cities. Yeah!

Including most recently, we were in Mexico together.

Yep!

Like, 2 weeks ago, right?

Right!

Yeah!

So, Cabo, as we were sitting down there, which was awesome! Well, Candice, how do you live in a van with 2 kids and your husband? And Jim, back to you on that question, how do you live an entrepreneurial lifestyle out of basically your suitcase?

Candice, do you want to go first?

Sure. Yeah, I mean, uh, it's easier this time around. So like you said, we started almost a decade ago doing this, and Good Wi-Fi is the key. Oh yeah, shout out to Elon, even though, you know, I know, yeah, my kids now call our Starlink Elon, and if Elon's acting up, he hears about it. They're like, Elon, get it together, uh, because now they care about the Wi-Fi, um, as we're trying to work. It's a good— it's, it's a blessing and a curse. The point is for them to be disconnected, but we still need to be connected to work. I love that it flexes a muscle of problem solving. So for instance, today I've got a webinar. I had meetings this morning. I have meetings after this and our van door broke. So we are, we found a great spot with Wi-Fi. I was able to multitask, get some laundry done. The van's in the shop and—

You gotta show your office. You gotta show your office.

Oh yeah, my office. Is this actually the most beautiful laundromat I've ever been in, which is saying something because I've been in a lot of laundromats. So shout out to Speed Laundromat in Tacoma. But I think that it actually speaks to something that I think a lot of founders can relate to. And I think there's like an itch that I still like to scratch with like having to punt and problem solve and and figure it out, and not really knowing where the day is going to take me, but knowing that I'm going to be okay at the end of it is, um, kind of fun. I don't know, I like it. And I like— what I really enjoy now is it's teaching the next generation, it's teaching my kids that no, today is not how we planned it, and that's okay. It's, it's all working out exactly how it's supposed to work out, and we're really smart people who can problem solve and navigate challenges. And in many ways, it worked out better for us So there you go.

I love that. That is a story of resiliency, but also confidence that no matter— which is one of your strongest attributes is, you know, it's going to work out because you will make it work out. You'll be creative, figure it out.

Well, and the funniest thing is, so we show up to this laundromat. I picked it because of the aesthetics. I was like, oh, this is pretty enough for me to be on a webinar. There's something going on in the community today that's a giveback thing in the community. It happens to be free laundry in here today. With, which is so crazy. I have my little baggie of quarters that I keep, and, um, and it's just been the loveliest owners who we connected them by asking about their machines. And it's a mile away from the, the shop. My husband was able to ride his bike to meet up with us. So it's amazing how it gives you that confidence of like, I can do anything, I can— everything works out exactly how it's supposed to. I love that about the nomadic lifestyle is truly everything just works out because it has to.

All right, Mr. House, your turn. Now, how do you do this? Because you do— instead of yours being on wheels, you actually flip around and fly and set up a house and then move on. And you're not like some of the nomadic friends we have that literally live in like hotels or Airbnbs for just very short periods of time. You kind of settle somewhere for a while.

Yeah, well, it's seasonal. Sometimes I'm settling, sometimes are depending on the travel schedule. You know, I really have lived a life that could have been nomadic for the last decade because my clients always fly me to them generally. So, it's a— so, I've been nomad ready for a long time and finally just pulled the trigger a couple of years ago. The big— the trade-offs for me, I imagine there's something similar when you're living in your home on wheels, is that you get very— scrutinizing about what makes it in the suitcase and what doesn't. And if something new comes in, something else has to go out. You know, when I was a principal, I was the best dressed principal. And, you know, we raised test scores, but we also did it in really fine clothes. You've seen, Tom, I travel with the same sport coat and 3 dress shirts. That's my— that's what makes the suitcase, you know, for— for— for—

That's pretty amazing, though.

So it's—

and you still always look very dapper.

Well, thank you very much.

Where I, I travel with always carry-on. I mean, I can go to China for 4 weeks and also include skiing in there. Now, skiing stuff does get sent, but I have my traditional black t-shirt.

Right, right.

Which is just the easiest thing in the world because it always makes it in there and it doesn't make it really hard to decide what the hell I'm doing. Whereas I used to have the suits and all the various things as well. So, you know, it's great. Well, so we do have one person that already liked our, our talking about skiing. And Jay, I will tell you that I don't— I have not personally met Sean, but I do know Sean Callagy. And he's talking about an athlete who has a vision impairment. And actually his YouTube says blind. So you never know where you go on this, but an amazing, amazing athlete. And shout out to, again, the father with him that works with that. So I'm going to take a jump here. Not only are we going to talk about the books, but you have a new venture that you were telling me about down in Mexico, which is super cool because again, I get the benefit of working with my children and as adults and everybody's always amazed at— it makes me actually look great because my kids are so great, right? They're like, well, you really can't be that bad of a person because these people are just amazing humans, right? And it's true, right? So they look at my wife, they look at my kids and they're like, wow, you actually kind of got to be kind of a good person. Um, and so you have a new program that's helping parents communicate with their children, right?

So essentially what I'm doing is helping high-achieving parents better connect with their kids so that their kids will ultimately come back and visit when they no longer have to. It's the goal. And it's not a full parenting program. Everybody has to have some semblance of that already. These are just super powerful tools kind of the gateway drug to connection that you can add to what you're doing. And it's derived and distilled from working with thousands and thousands of poorly behaved kids in tough gangs, schools, and in affluent neighborhoods as well. So, that's the new one. And I think while I'll always do the books because they're fun and deep— when I— after Mexico, I went to Houston to work with a scientist who's blending spirituality and now— super unfortunate, you know, I'm on a bunch of NDAs, but the— The cool thing about the— it's called Resetology, the parenting— is that I think this is my calling. I think this is why I'm here to help. You know, we live in such a disconnected time that here to help strengthen families by becoming more connected.

Well, and it certainly brings some of your skill sets. And I think as we age, one of the things, you know, I see this in some of our peers that have been specifically in the workforce, they're they're winding down. And then I see some of our other peers that are, uh, revamping, retooling for what the next venture is going to be. And then I see others that are ramping up exactly for that, like they are ready to go, they're excited about the next venture. I just got off a friend— off the phone with a friend who is last week's guest, Lee Brower, and he's turning 79. He goes, this is going to be my best year ever. I'm in the cocoon, I'm coming out. And if you know Lee Brower, this is a guy that has worked with, you know, the people down in Venezuela on changing the country's government, you know, 30, 40 years ago. I mean, this is a guy that's just amazing. But that's, that's, that's the people we like to hang around, right? So tell me about what's the most— well, maybe you can't tell me, but what's the most difficult book that turned out amazing?

Hmm.

Well, it's interesting. I work— I'll say a couple— I work with people at a couple of different levels. What my gift is in architecting the book So, sometimes we take people through to all my, with my team to completion so that we're not marketing, but here's the book that looks and reads like a New York Times bestseller, hopefully better. But the part that's unique about me is that they, everyone has to spend 2 intense days with me back to back. And, and we're going, I'm the first part of the day, I'm working on them before we even, before we even get to their content. And that's kind of the, piece where God slips in, not, not directly, but just that, that I have to get them to become and embody that they're the authority of their own experience. And from that place, then we write the book that they're supposed to write. Because what happens is people, you know, our friends are all accomplished people who have far too many good stories, lessons, wisdom, insights, experiences that would benefit their readers. So if the goal— and the goal for me has always been to get the, to have a, write a book that someone will actually finish. Because for me, if your information is valuable, it's a travesty to not have the person read the whole book. And, and the, and, and the, and the, and really the reality is no one knows how to do that because no one cares. They could figure it out if they were concerned about that. And I actually have some interesting, I, I'll tell a very short snippet. When I, when I left Principal and I spent 20,000 hours over 4 years reinventing myself from the top of the, of the food chains to the very bottom. And I snuck into this traditional publishing conference. There was no such thing as self-publishing. And I just, the one, it's, it was a lunch and learn. And this is called Lunch and Learn. It's a nice coincidence. The, and I heard a statistic about prescriptive nonfiction that, this is back when every book, the author was paid to write it and every book was purchased in a brick and mortar bookstore. Only 2% of those books purchased the previous year in this person's State of the Union address. Only 2% were read in their entirety. This before, before self-publishing existed. And that, that to me, what, as a former educator, I, I thought, oh my gosh, you have a 98% failure rate as a, as an industry. And then they went on the next one and no one guffawed. And I thought, oh wow. And not only that, but your industry is okay with that. So that became that.

Yeah, because they sell books. Yeah, they sell books. Exactly right.

Exactly right.

Hey, but by the way, your roommate there, he, he starts with a shirt on, then he comes with a shirt off. If he comes in with the pants off, this is really gonna, we're gonna I'm gonna have to put a new rating on the show. He's showing up in the mirror.

I did not even see him. This is okay.

Because right before I went down to join you down in Mexico, actually I was down with Prime and I was in San Diego and it's just kind of an overcast day and I go to record outside and 5 minutes before recording starts, I'm down at the pool, the sun comes out and all of these young ladies in, you know, very scantily clothed and hard bodies because there's a wedding going on. All of a sudden they show up behind me. Now I think it was one of our most viewed shows, but my daughter certainly made fun. But I'm just waiting.

So focused on you, I didn't even know what's going on in the background.

Well, it's through the mirror that it's going on, that he's popping into the mirror. So, so, so yeah, so what's going on ever in the kitchen is your— is going to be fun.

Uh, so I can tilt a little bit this way.

There we go.

There we go.

Now we see. There we go. That's hilarious. Just want— well, so I want to get to something because you texted me a couple days ago, I guess, and said, hey, before we get started, uh, I would like to, uh, go into prayer for 3 hours, right? So you are a very spiritual person, um, and you're going to go into prayer for 3 hours on something, an outcome that we would like to have from the show. Right. And this is before reading what the team had put together for your intro, which is great. I mean, I loved your intro in there, but I had not read that yet. Right. And so from our standpoint, one of the things we've been working on, especially as I've just come out of this battle with the SEC and we won, you know, 52-year fight of violating the Constitution and violating tens of thousands of people. And they stopped because of Powell v. SEC. But that's a— that's because of that fight. Then you get to the end of it. It's like, okay, so what's next? Right, right. Type scenario. And so we're, we're looking for clarity and we're out there talking. And part of that clarity is we are— we started this show because it's sharing our information with the people that are out there going through these things so that hopefully founders are saying, oh, this is, this is actually Everything is normal in being a founder, right? All of it's being found. But clarity was the message that we asked you to pray on. And it happens to be also how you are building your book. So talk about clarity and talk to— maybe talk about, if it's okay, what came up while you were— while you were praying.

Yeah. So clarity, I mean, the one thing that my clients hear me say over and over for the 60% of them we plan it, they write it. The other ones, my team will take it all the way through to, to finish. The thing they hear me say is clarity over clever every time. That's just clarity. You know, it doesn't matter if it doesn't land, it was wasted words. And we're writing an experience for the way we saw someone who's never, doesn't know your reputation, doesn't know anything. They've never met you. All they, they're gonna interact with some black symbols on a white page. And our job is to move them and make them, help them become a different person by the end of the book, help them have a transformative, you know, you know, I, I, I, I don't write about this very much, but basically, I, I, we're in the thought leadership space. And for me, with thoughts without leadership are just, it's just contribution. And, and leadership without a finished book is just intention. So you have to be, so a little bit about how we construct that in the process in the 2 days. Out of all of that information that would be beneficial, that— and that's where most of the founders and professionals that I work with, they're paralyzed with— they have too much. How do I, how do I put this all into a book? And when the goal is to create a book that gets finished and that will transform the reader, then through this process, we figure out first what's, what's the valuable information that goes in, and then more difficult, more difficult process is what's the valuable information that gets left out. And again, no one knows how to do that because they don't care. But then once you, once you know what goes in it, there's 100 different ways you can structure that. So, it has to be custom every time. We can't put this information into a template and make it land. So, then we have a process of how do we structure it so it accomplishes two things. It has to be, it has to keep them in the book. And anytime you lose clarity and the reader has to do any heavy lifting on behalf of the heavy lifting you should have done, the book's gonna— we know the book closes forever. If it's just, if it doesn't close for a specific reason, they're gone forever. So you get one chance with a book. And then, you know, if we want to, my books, we don't do straight memoir, but we've done some very story-heavy, story-laden ones like Kate Flannery from The Office. Her book started out as a— she's the one celebrity who didn't make me sign an NDA. She's super generous. The and her book's coming out in, in November. Um, she plays Meredith.

Yeah, I saw that on your website.

Yeah, she's such an amazing person. And her, um, her book, she thought she was writing a memoir, but then as we talk through it, like, she has these specific learnings she wants women of a certain age to be able to walk away with, to benefit from her life. So it's, it's very story-driven, but the process will— you have to create that You— there's no— I always say that positive impact is never accidental. If you want the reader to end up here and you're starting here, you have to have a very clear map. And clarity becomes— unfortunately, if you lose clarity, you lose the reader.

That's amazing. You know, so do you know Sandeep Swadia or know the name?

Yeah.

So he has these, you know, he's a monk. Then went to MIT, then ran a multibillion-dollar company, a few of them, sold them, exited. He does some great shows. And it's interesting because it's almost at the opposite angle of what you're talking about here. So I want to come back around this. But what he said recently was that we need to pick up the tough books, the books that challenge our minds, that it takes us time and time again to get through. And I'm sitting there going, That is a really interesting part. And he was talking about how to combat AI and the instantaneous of getting answers and the need for instant gratification. And so that is what a monk in many ways would say, right? Because it's, I've gotta sit with this for hours and be uncomfortable. And what you're also saying is there's another way, and this is how maybe you reach the children at different times and now the parents and the children, is you're meeting them where they are. So you're writing a book, you're helping people tell their story of where the reader is, as opposed to asking the reader to do the heavy lifting. And that's clarity.

And that's, I think, one of the big distinctions between us and the book factories is that we're not writing a book for the author, we're writing a book for the reader.

Amazing.

I love that. I, I could ask you probably 100 questions because I'm fascinated by this process. And I had a really good transition, but my dad jumped in before I had the chance because I was gonna say, we were talking about you have to make hard choices about what to pack to live the nomad life. And that's such a, like, kind of a symbol for what you do with these authors, with these founders as they're going through the book process. How do you help them pack? I mean, because there's a lot that they— that you probably have to pull out, and there's some that maybe they don't see as valuable. I think there's like two types of founders. So obviously I'm just cramming in a lot of questions into one. I meet people who think they've done nothing interesting and they— there's no book that could be written about them. And I'm like, you're one of the most fascinating people I've ever met. I don't know how you could possibly think this. And then I meet people who it seems like they're pumping out books every year. Every time I see them, they're like, I'm writing another book. And I'm like, right, okay.

62 books. I've got 62 books.

Yeah. How do you find the middle ground on that? How are you helping them actually, like, pack what's important into this book? I mean, I'm fascinated by this process, and we've got a bunch of founders on the call today. I want to make sure everybody— the questions aren't just for us. Please feel free to chime in on the Q&A, especially if you're thinking about writing a book.

Well, yeah, I was even putting out there. So I think that's great leading, Candice. If you're out there and you have any thought of writing a book, because as Candice said, all of you along your journeys, this helps get clarity just even for yourself. But wherever you are, that is something that somebody else needs sharing with as well. And so if you have questions, if you want to come in and ask a question about— of Jim about what's it like to go through the process, or would this be a good book story, or I've got this thought of please put it in there and that's awesome. So anyway, back to your question, Candice.

Yeah, go ahead, Candice.

My 7-part question about how you unpack the empath.

I'm up to question, to part 5.

Yeah, I know that was a multi-part question. Like I said, I know we've only got so much time and I've got 100 questions, so I'm trying to cram them into.

So if I can remember, so that there are some people who write a ton of them all the time and some people who are nervous about putting one out there, right? Is that, is that the distinction?

Yeah, but then how is your process helping them actually decide what should be in the book? Like packing the one suitcase for a whole trip. How do you decide? Because that to me is like the secret sauce of what you do. Not the 62 books. It's about the powerful piece and having the right pieces in there.

Yeah. And people who have written many books, I've had authors who then go through my process and they're like, oh, I wish I had done this from day one, even if they were going to write those specific books. So, refocus me again on the question.

I did a terrible job leading into it.

That's okay. I'm just not going to answer. I don't want to answer the wrong question.

No, I appreciate it. How do you— what is this 2-day process that you go through? How do you guide people on the process of what they're prepping for this? Like, what are they— what's value? And how do you get them to pull out the things that maybe aren't? Is that part of your job of like pulling out, like, you don't need the bedazzled t-shirt in this suitcase. We've got a limited suitcase. You— this is not necessary.

How do you do this? Never in competition for my suitcase, but I appreciate the metaphor. The, uh, so, and that's part of the, uh, and admittedly, the secret sauce, but I kind of alluded to it earlier, is that before we get to actually working on your content, we work with you. And that's a process that I've distilled over. And the goal of that was, if I spent 20,000 hours, how can I reduce that down, that process, so that someone can get to writing the book that matters most in them? And so, we can't— I couldn't start just on the content piece. And have the same outcome. That first part, sometimes it's half the first day, sometimes it's nearly the full first day. It depends on the person and the book. We're working on them in relation and we're kind of hovering around their topic. It's very nuanced. It's super intelligent or intentional so that by the time we get to— we've— the process has created the clarity for us. And I'll give I have to give God some of the credit for this process because it's magical. It really is. So, the short answer without that making it sound— to make it sound a little more clear is that I've developed a process where we're working on them so that at the very least, I would say the low end of the outcomes, it's eliminating imposter syndrome. Is there something about a book that, you know, that people who are very comfortable in front of a camera or putting a— people putting a microphone in front of them, they talk with ease. But as soon as you start working on their book, they freeze up. And there's something— I think there's a forever quality to a book. You know, it's not kilobytes, it's molecules. They close it, it's still sitting there on the coffee table. So I have to— that we have to deal with that first. It's well beyond imposter syndrome. I mean, the way I say it is, is helping them become the authority of their own experience. But they have, I have to enroll them in that in a way that no one has seemed to be concerned about before, before we actually start tackling the content. And that helps us determine what goes in. Does that make sense?

I think everyone, yeah, it totally makes sense. I can see that a book feels very legitimate. Yeah, like a book feels really tangible and real. Do you think everyone has a book in them?

Yeah, so I, I think, yeah, yes, because people have stories worth telling. Now, what the definition of a, of a book is, so I think there's a space for, or what the intention of the book market is. I did have one mother who paid an awful lot of money to help me help her write a book for her 3 kids. So, she wrote it for an audience of 3, figuring they'll take this more seriously, these 5 lessons I've learned in life, if I take the time, they watch me invest in this whole process to do it. So, that book was written for 3 people. Now, she's leveraged it into some college speaking and a different type of thing. But Not every, so I'd say everyone has a story to tell. There's an old, there's an old, uh, survey that's been bounced around the publishing industry for a couple of decades that 8 out of 10 Americans say they wanna write a book someday. Um, and, and, you know, and, and, and I, I, this is gonna offend some people. I always say the great thing about self-publishing is, is that everybody can write a book. And the tragic thing about self-publishing is that Everyone can write a book. Yeah.

Well, the funny thing is, is I don't think the readership— I saw a study on readership in America. It's not that high. Like, people that are— that people that actively read something like the average number of books an American reads every year is like, I think it's like 5. It was— it may not be 5, but it was, it was kind of, kind of low. So that's kind of funny that— but there's this burning desire to write. A book.

And what's interesting, and I think I heard AI can write a book in 4 seconds now. So, if you just want to have your name on a book, you don't need to pay a lot of money to do that. You can just get that done. For people that really care deeply about the quality of the information and that it's presented in a way, if you don't have that desire to have your body of work that you have gone through pain to create distinctions in your industry or in whatever, that makes it worth being presented in a way that gets consumed, then you can do it in AI and get it done, you know, and just get your name on the COVID So that made me think of something different.

So let's go to skiing for a second.

Okay.

If you— for somebody to ski effortlessly, effortlessly, it takes 10,000+ hours, right? Maybe more. And I'm talking about on the steepest of most craziest of terrain when you're seeing— and I stand up, you know, I gave a speech at Joe Polish's a couple weeks ago and I'm talking about standing at the top of a 15-foot cornice looking down, hitting 60 miles an hour before heading in between two, you know, granite crevasses that, that ski through. And I'm with a bunch of Olympians, right? And so that took decades to get there type scenario, and it looks effortless. And so when we use AI, it's effortless, but it's not your effort that made it effortless. It's all the other things in there. So you produce this product that is not— it's not going to be authentic, right? Because when we were down in Mexico, we were talking a lot about authenticity and with AI. And one of the gentlemen in there, he'll go unnamed forever in my life, but I am always going to call him out. He said he gets 10 texts a day from his mother and he's figured out an agent that responds to his mother. And Richard Weilman and I are in the room and, and all the other young kids, Gen Zs, are like, yeah, yeah, me too. I get all these texts from my mom and dad and they just bother the shit out of me. Buh-buh-buh-buh. So I figured out, and I'm like, all I want to know is that you're still alive and I love you and I'm sending you these thoughts to just go in there, send me back a heart. I don't care, but don't send me something from AI.

Well, even before AI, I've had this belief that drives what I do, that books are consumed at the same energetic level at which they're created.

Oh, I doubt that. I'm going to argue because I will tell you this. So I've got, I think I've got 9 books that I've written, right? Um, and the longest, hardest book that I wrote also has the longest title. That's your dissertation.

That's my dissertation. How many people have read that?

An awful lot of effort in there. I don't think my wife finished this book.

I tried.

No, I didn't say effort.

She was my editor.

So let me clarify what I didn't say. The most effort. I said the energetic level.

And well, there was a lot of energy in that one.

Yeah. And more about the frequency, intentionality of the impact is more what I'm, what I'm—

and the one that's gone around the world is this one, The Six Secrets of Raising Capital, right? With my, my mentor, Bill Fisher. And then the funniest one is one that I still get a lot of royalties off of, believe it or not. Is Standing in the Rain. So I have these other books that I read that I wrote back in the '90s. And then the way I got to teach at Harvard was because I wrote a book at Harvard that helped analyze a very complex concept. And then, you know, no one other than people at Harvard read that one. And the other books, they were more calling cards. But the Six Secrets was— it helped solve a problem and we were very basic in there. But the Standing in the Rain, the quick, funny Funny story on that one is I don't think my kids read it either until later. Candace lived it because it was about the economic downturn and she was just coming into the business world. So she was really part of that. And that goes to Ernest's question, which I'm going to get to in just a quick second. But it was my youngest daughter who's been on here a couple of times. Katie was going to school down in Chile and they're talking about that. And so The Big Short had come out. Now, my book came out before The Big Short. I had some of my kids go like, after they saw The Big Short, they're like, Dad, that's your book. Like, no, it's not my book. It's just similar circumstances that we're going through there. I said, we're two, you know, geeks that are looking at the economics at that time. But my daughter says, hey, Dad, I've got to write something about, you know, the 2008 meltdown. Do you have— do you know anybody that knows anything about that? And I give her the book. I give her the book and she's like, oh, that's the book you wrote. I'm like, yeah, that's what you know. So it's, it's hilarious to go into that. So it does lead me into Ernest's question, which I think is great.

Do you—

how— so this is for you, Jim. How do you balance personal story sharing versus professional or business experience? And these are all founders that are mostly on our show. So think about that.

It's, it's, it's a very good question. And what, you know, the What I found is that at least initially, and this is going to sound so trite, but they— people don't— people don't want to listen to you until they care about you. I mean, if you have a resume, they may have one ear open and scroll on their phone while you're talking. But if you want to capture their attention, And there's a reason why storytelling is started at the dawn of communication and still around is that when good storytelling happens, it ceases to be you and me and it becomes we. You know, that's the power of good storytelling. And so, when you could— no matter whatever venue I'm talking in, I will always tell a story. If I'm on stage talking about books, if I'm teaching about parenting, I'm always going to— I have a really incredible story about my divorce. It wasn't so incredible at the time, but I always open with that story because everybody in that room is going to remember me after my talk is done. Now, I've made a connection with them. And when we tell personal stories, half of my brain— this is not— the percentage is not right, but you'll understand this. Half of my brain is listening to your story and half of my brain is saying, oh yeah, if we're talking about your dad, like, you know, I— you're talking about your dad, but I'm now— half of my brain is thinking about my dad for whatever the story topic is. And so it's a great way to enroll them into listening to what you want to say. And I'll say this, that people are horrible storytellers generally. People— and I mean this just as This is an indictment of the human race. The, the, we tell a story once and we usually tell it chronologically and then we tell it that way forever and ever and ever. It just gets anchored in that way. And so the example I use is think of a, think of a great song that every time it comes on the radio, you feel good and you sing along with. If you just think of that song. Now imagine you're in a karaoke bar and some drunk guy gets up there, sings the same song that you love, gets all the words right, but just butchers it. Does it have the same impact? No, it doesn't. And so you can have great stories. Just make sure you take the time to learn how to tell them well.

You know, so for our people participating, we say that capital requires clarity. So for capital to come into a business, the right kind of capital requires clarity. And we start with storytelling, right? We've got the 6 Cs of capital, and that's a whole storytelling methodology that goes back to one of the earliest stories. It's basically a hero's journey. Now, there's lots of ways to raise capital. This is our way of raising capital, right? But it's so pertinent. And it's because part of it, part of what you're talking about is inserting yourself. So to Ernest's question, when, when, when a founder is raising capital, it's important that they insert themselves into the story, but it's more important that they insert insert the listener or the person participating into the story, because what we want to get out of them is a me too, a me too feeling, because it's either interesting, you know, or they're interested. And the whole point of the capital raising is to get the people who aren't going to invest to go on their way or make a recommendation. But if they're interested, to hear the part that they need and actually get in there. Right. And that's what you're talking about with these books. This is critically important.

Very good. It's a great analogy. I'm glad you're doing it that way.

Okay. So we got like a couple of minutes left and back to, you know, Jay, I'm sorry, I'm going to check out Callagy because I have not seen this, but maybe you have. Have you heard of Sean Callagy? He's a blind skier and also an attorney and building some stuff on AI. I'm going to have to go out there and do that. Hey, and it's Liz Maddern, Dr. Liz Maddern. I'm going to put that out there. She has a book. I know she has a book because she also has a thesis out there. But let's see what she says here. Centered on housing policy, the impact of segregation and redlining on communities, homeownership as a vehicle for wealth accumulation, and the Black-white wealth gap. I'm going to also layer in chapters on the housing shortage, economics, That is awesome. And CDFIs still working on the framework. Well, Liz, I know you personally. I know Jim personally. I'm going to connect the two of you in there. But we're— you know what? There's a perfect time, Angela. Why don't we pop up the QR codes there of how people get in touch with you? Jim, it's, it's called— get it up here— The Book Carver.

The Book Carver.

Yes. And you said this as we were starting on there, there's the Create Your Book, there's Find Jim on LinkedIn, but the best place to find you, you said, is Instagram, right?

Right now it's— that's a great way to just connect. And you can always even just send me a direct message there on, uh, there's a new website actually that may go live today for The Book Carver. There's not really one for The Parenting Resetology. There's a draft up, uh, if you go searching for that. But the, uh, they can always find me on, uh, on Instagram. And that's The Book Carver.

I love it. Well, so to Liz's point, one, I know Liz and she's a— she's an unbelievable, fabulous person. She would have the right type to be able to create a book that people should read. She's solving problems that are real-world problems on the East Coast, doing research that is impactful, and it's data. So it's got, you know, the truth and a lot of it comes out of a finance background. So, I mean, this is stuff that people just don't know and can be a big part of, right? So that's exactly perfectly there. But I'd say everybody has a book. Some have a bunch of unwritten books that probably deserve AI to be their first round. But when they're ready to tell a story that they want people to actually read, the book cover.

And if someone wants to just have a conversation of What level do I need to do my book? You know, and I'm happy to be just to have a conversation of like, yes, to help them determine if it's important that they do the book well or if it's just more of a marketing asset that they can do quickly.

I love that. Well, that, that's awesome. Well, where are you off to next? Do you know?

I'm, I'm, I think it's going to be Asheville.

Asheville.

Okay.

Yeah.

I've not been, I've not spent much time in the Carolinas.

Okay. Well, that's going to be great. They're going to be lucky to have you. And we— I'm going to see you next, I think, in Amsterdam. Is that correct?

I believe so. Yep.

Okay, so that's with, uh, Joe Stolti and Gassen Group. Uh, we'll be flying over there, which will be, uh, absolutely fun. The only bummer that I have is that it's not ski season, so generally when I'm coming through Amsterdam, it's because I'm heading off to go skiing, right? Um, and so that's, that's my standpoint. Well, as always, Candace, what's on tap for WTF? Jim, you may not know this, but Candace and Jackie— and you know Jackie because you've known Jackie a number of times as we travel together— Candace and Jackie have this amazing show called WTF, Women Talk Finance. And so it's a specific category within here. They have a lot of fun doing it, and more so And, and I got to tell you, I'm going to say this, Candice. She is a reluctant, uh, podcaster. She's very good at it, but I tell you what, it's like, it's like, oh no, get up on this stage. Whereas, you know, I love being a teacher and getting up on stage and talking type scenario. Uh, but she is— what's on tap with Women Talk Finance, Candice?

Uh, we've had just a number of really wonderful guests. So I think a couple of those episodes are dropping. We also did, um, one of our finance mystery, um, episodes, recorded that recently, so that'll be coming out soon. So yeah, we've just— we've had really wonderful guests and, um, we're really excited. We did an in-person episode and we're actually looking to do more of those.

Oh, that's awesome. Wow, it's fun. We're talking even studio and stuff, and it's a great thing if you have ideas for guests, uh, for Women Talk Finance or topics and ideas here. We keep going through the Rolodex, which is a very large Rolodex, but we love to hear what our listeners are wanting and hearing out there. Please reach out to Jim. Uh, you can always reach out to us here at the Founder's Office, and, uh, we look forward to seeing you back here next week on Lunch and Learn. Jim, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate you and the work you're doing out there and for the 3 hours of adulation on clarity. Which is something we're all looking for as we move through this crazy period of time. Any closing thoughts?

It's, it's, it's, it's been a pleasure. And I'm— if I can be of service, I'm happy to just have a conversation, hopefully drop some value with absolutely zero strings attached. So please reach out.

You got it. All right. Well, Angela, thank you as well for running this. Candace, thanks for jumping on the show with me today. And We'll see you guys next week. Have a great week. Take care, guys.

Bye for now.