April 7, 2025 • 55 mins
What if the one thing you can’t stop thinking about is the exact thing the world needs from you? In this week’s episode of No More Mondays, I’m joined by longtime friend, speaker, author, and creator of The Thing, Terry Weaver.
We dig into the big questions—why we get stuck, why we don’t start, and how to finally act on the thing that won’t leave you alone.
From the illusion of safety and the power of community over competition to why your gifts aren’t meant to stay hidden, we're covering it all.
Whether your dream is a whisper, a calling, or just a nudge you haven’t quite figured out yet, this conversation will light a fire under you to stop waiting and start doing.
If you’ve been sitting on an idea, wondering when it’s “the right time” to act—this is your sign.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Happy Monday. Everybody. HappyMonday. Everybody. Terry said it
to me right before I hit record,so I figured I would say that to
you. I hope you are having agood start to your week. It's
just started here in Colorado,where it's a bright and early
10am and welcome to no moreMondays. I'm your host, Angie
Callen, helping you kick offthis week with inspiration to
(00:21):
live and work moreauthentically. And if you are a
frequenter of my program first,thank you. And if you've, if
you've listened to a fewepisodes in the last maybe three
months, you picked up on atheme, and then I've had a ton
of incredible guests doing big,bold, meaningful things with
their lives and their works, andI met them all at one place, the
(00:44):
thing. And so this morning,you're in for a treat, because
we are tying it all togetherwith today's guest, Terry
Weaver, the creator of thething. It's a creative and
entrepreneurial event that hasbecome a hub for dreamers, doers
and makers and a whole circle ofmy new friends. Terry is also a
(01:04):
speaker and author, a businessconsultant and an all around
encourager of those who want tostop waiting and start building
he has been a trusted part of mynetwork for well over 10 years,
and I am so excited for you tohear the thing from the man
himself on how you can figureout your thing, why it matters,
and how you can actually dosomething with it. So without
(01:27):
further ado, the man behind thething and so many podcast
episodes over the last fewmonths. Terry Weaver, welcome to
no more Mondays. Yeah, I've beenwatching no more Mondays, and
I'm like, Hey, I know that guy.Hey, I know her person. I'm
like, wait a second, I shouldstart a podcast booking agent
and start charging these peoplefor all these interviews.
There's probably, there'sprobably a business model to be
(01:50):
had there. And we were talkingbefore we started recording.
Terry's like, there have been somany podcast recordings come
from that event in November, andit's, it's actually really fun.
I've been on a bunch. There'smore to come that haven't even
been recorded or aired yet, andso clearly, your thing is doing
some things. Terry, well,
that's kind of the deal is it'slike so much of what we do. I
(02:11):
mean, I'm here in Nashville,you're in the middle of nowhere
Colorado, and we're sitting herein our offices doing our thing
alone. And I realized that was atrend, and we needed to put a
stop to it, because being aloneis it gets really hard to go
far. And you know, one of mycore values is, I call it if you
(02:33):
want to, if you want to go fast,go alone, if you want to go far,
go together. And it's and thelonger that I have been like,
chasing that idea, the moreessential I realize it
is. Yep, it's like, the truerand truer it becomes. And you
and I have a similar, I wouldthink, principle or an ideal
there, because I talk about howcollaboration is better than
(02:53):
competition every single day,and it's really, you know, same
two sides of of the same coin.And I think this is probably a
good opportunity to let all ofthose who aren't on the who
aren't part of the inside joke,in on everything you know,
because we've talked about thething for months around here, I
want you to tell me what it isand where the concept for the
(03:15):
thing, the event came from
well, so the thing kind of had,like, a two, like, it's
obviously a double entendre,right? So, like, but there was,
like, two parts of it, right?Like, anytime, like, a group of
people, I've been speaking at,like, like, publicly since I was
like, 17, and got paid for thefirst time when I was, like,
(03:38):
about that same age.
And street cred.
And that's been a minute, as thekids say today, it was in the
1900s Oh God, and so. Butanytime, like, I'm with
something, or I'm with a grouppeople, and they're like, Hey,
(04:00):
man, what are you going to do?And I'm going to go do Bill
Smith's thing. It's in, youknow, it's, it's, he's got that
thing that he does for people.And, you know, you know,
there's, I know a guy namedRoger Wakefield who's actually
speaking of the thing this year,and he, he's a, he was, he was a
plumber that figured out YouTubeand is now multi millionaire
from it. And, you know, it'slike, Oh yeah, I'm going to go
(04:21):
do, Roger I'm gonna RogerWakefield. I have a thing we're
doing. And then there's the flipside. Is that I realized, and I
live in Nashville and and I, andI kind of feel like we, we sort
of invented this. We're a citywhere people move to to do
something. Yes, most peoplemoved here with a we're they
call us the third coast, butwe're a place where people go
(04:43):
because they want to disrupttheir life. And there's, there's
a typical, there's a there's aculture happening where people
are, you know, where it's normalto be doing something that
people look at you, like, what?Yeah. And so I realized that,
like, I. Has a thing. Everyonehas this, this, you know, you
(05:05):
can say it's a calling, you cansay it's a dream, you could say
it's a it's a passion. Butthere's like, something that is
burning deep inside of them thatif they don't do that, that, you
know, their life feels like it'smissing something, and in
reality, the world feels likeit's missing something. And in,
(05:26):
you know, I realized that thatat this, you know, the other,
the other, kind of, third pieceof this is I realized that I had
like, two groups of friends, onewho were these, like, brilliant
communicators, these brilliantspeakers, these brilliant
leaders that were kind of likeliving below the radar. They
weren't necessarily like NewYork Times best sellers, but
(05:49):
they were nicer and betterpeople than all the people that
I know, because I know a lot ofthose people, because I it's
natural and we're a lot of usare here and and then I realized
I kind of had this other groupof friends was like, these
people who, like, who wanted tobe and do that, but didn't
really know how. And so Ithought, what if there was a
place where there was an evil,evil, an equal. It's also sort
(06:11):
of like, Hmm, it does kind ofhave a little evil thing,
because when people startcollaborating and doing things,
you just can't help yourself butdo the thing.
Mischief occurs, but, but Iwanted to create an equal
playing field where it's like,man, these people come together
and they collaborate. And youknow, what's interesting is the
people that you've had on yourpodcast haven't just been
speakers, they've also beenattendees. Yeah, you know, they
(06:34):
in, you know, we're kind of a noGreen Room event, and so there's
no place the speakers aren'thiding off in a corner, and I
get it like I, I, when I go tospeak at conferences, a lot of
times, I if there's a greenroom, I tend to escape there
just because it getsoverwhelming. But I wanted to
(06:56):
create a place where, wherethere could be collaboration,
not just at the event. But afterit, and you, and you've, you've
literally proved that, that thatworks, that that's a that's a
viable model, you've actuallytaken, you've actually taken,
you know, the the other ideathat we had was, we were going
to call it the assemble
conference. The thing has such abetter ring to it.
(07:18):
Oh, yeah, simple conferencesounds like a bad Vacation Bible
School theme, where somebodymakes macaroni crafts, but, but
yet, the the, the heart of thatidea is, is that we so often go
places and like, we take thethings home and pack them up,
and it feels like you get thoseIKEA directions, if you ever
(07:39):
bought anything from Ikea, likethere's weird looking Swedish
gnomes, and no words, no words,and like, there's no like, how
the heck do I put this together?Because, you know, I don't know.
I've kind of given I let my wifeassemble the Ikea furniture that
we get when we do get it,because I always have a lot of
extra parts left over. And fun
(07:59):
fact, Jim assembles thingsbecause I may be a former civil
engineer, but I just don't havetime for the directions, and so
I will get 80% through it andgo, Oh, crap, this is on
backwards, at which point Jimdisassembles and reassembles it
while reading each step of theinstruction. So I appreciate
that, Terry,
we do have an Ikea bookcase inour library that it's like, if
(08:22):
you ever had to turn it around,you would realize that it's a
symbol backwards,
slap it up against the wall andno one will ever know. Yeah. So
there's this idea that the thingis the event, because really,
where we're going is to talkabout the other side of the
entendre is our things. Butthis, the idea of this event was
to create a place and a spacefor people to come together and
(08:45):
really start doing their thingand doing something with this,
you know, purpose, callingpassion, whatever we we wanted.
It's a it's a doer place, is howI see it, yeah, and that's
definitely,
it's one of our you know, weactually have a T shirt that
even says, you know, we're forthe creatives, we're for the
leaders. We're for theMavericks. We're for the doers.
(09:07):
You know, we don't want to justbe the place where you come and
dream and I, and I spent, youknow, my previous life, I worked
in the music industry, sofrequently I need to be in the
van or the tour bus going downthe highway, and you need to be
sitting in the van driving allthrough the night, or the tour,
about sitting in the lounge andtalking about, you know, oh, we
could do this. And like, therewould be these awesome nobody,
(09:28):
and nobody ever did them. But itwas always, like, this imaginary
and like, I don't want to talkabout things that aren't going
to get done. Yeah, I think, as acoach, I really believe that
we're given, like, stewardshipover our ideas and the things
that are given to us. And Idon't want any orphan ideas. I
(09:53):
don't want my my my things thatI dream and like create to be
like homeless I want. Them toget acted on. I want them to.
And I'm not saying I do everycrazy idea, but I kind of have a
differentiator for me that thatat the point where, you know,
there's some ideas that I chaseand kind of play with, and then
(10:15):
there are things that sort ofstalk me, and when I feel like
that point, that's when I can, Ican't, I can't shake it. And the
thing was definitely that it wassomething that I could not, I
could not shake. And from like,you know, since we're, since
it's a, since we're talking on aMonday, you know, to be
transparent. It's, it's, it's,it's probably a really bad
(10:37):
business model, because eventsare really difficult. Yes,
and rarely, where rarely do theybreak even, let alone make
money. But, again, that's notbut, but there's different goals
of different businessinitiatives too.
Yeah, I always tell people inyour business, everything
doesn't have to make money.Something has to make money,
(11:01):
yes,
and the net has to be black,except
for when you do your taxes.Then, then you come up, then you
don't care what you give everypost it note that you very,
very, very good point everycoffee meeting that you had,
exactly.
And and in case, for any of youout there who are listening to
(11:23):
this podcast instead of watchingit, I want to paint a little
scene for you as we, you know,as we move from talking about
the thing the event, and westart thinking about, start
talking about the fact that thething the event was something
Terry had to do because histhing is helping people do their
things, right? That's thatthere's like meanings upon
(11:43):
meanings here. But when we talkabout kind of dreaming and
turning it into doing, I have topaint this picture for you,
because Terry's sitting in hisoffice wearing a lovers, a
dreamers and you t shirt that isfrom a past thing we all love,
Kermit the Frog, and behind himis a giant, colorful Mickey
picture with no less than about100 stuffed Mickey's jiminy
(12:08):
crickets. I see a dumbo and thelike, and so it just gives you
an idea of of this kind of, likecreative mind we're working
with, and why it's so and whatand how he's been able to take
these Do you know, a lot oftimes creatives aren't good at
channeling ideas into do. And Ilove that you found that to be
your thing. And I'm, I'm curiousnow that we've painted this
(12:32):
picture of like, who good oldTerry Weaver is. You know, if
your thing is helping others dothe thing, why do so many people
not do it? You mentioned earlieryour two groups of friends, and
there was one who were, like,amazing and kind of living under
the radar about, you know, aboutputting their themselves out
there, whether it was becausethey didn't realize it or didn't
(12:53):
feel comfortable. But why do somany people either feel unclear
about their thing or arereluctant to step into it.
I have a rule. That's one of thefirst questions that I ask, and
it's actually part of a freecourse. If you go to discovery
your thing.com, it's in there.It's one of my rules. It's, I
call it the Spice Girl rule, andSpice Girl song, not zigzag. Pa,
(13:20):
but tell me what you want, whatyou want, what you really,
really want. Most people don'tknow what they want.
Why
I was had a speaker that we hadat the thing this last year.
Who's a billionaire or close toit? I um, or he's definitely
(13:43):
moved that much money in hisbusiness. And I asked him, and
he was like, I don't know what Iwant. So many people on every
level just don't know what it isthey really want, because we're
so used to being, I mean, youknow, here in America, and I
(14:04):
know you have probably globallisteners too, but like, there's
this idea of like, the Americandream, of like, this is what
your prescribed life should looklike. You know, you should go
and have 2.5 kids and a dog, andyou should go and work a job
that you know is going to goingto protect you, and it's going
to be there for you, you know.And you know, a lot of people
(14:27):
are probably waking up on aMonday morning and realizing the
America dream is a nightmare forthem, and they want something
more. They want somethingdifferent. And so I know, I
think, obviously it comes downto a lack of clarity, and it
comes down to what it is theyreally, really want in life, and
the ability to say to everyoneelse, I'm doing my thing. I
(14:50):
can't not do this, you know? AndI, I think one of the like this
is really more but, and Iapologize. Yeah, but I think one
of the things that's the mosthelpful is to ask yourself, what
do you want to be said about youon your on your deathbed, and
what are the things that youreally you know? One of Stephen
(15:12):
Covey's rules is beginning withthe end in mind. And if you were
to look at your life backwards,What? What? What are you What
are you like steering towardswhat, where are you driving? I
remember when you had theschooly, you know, when you had
the bus, like, where's your busgoing? Uh huh, right? Because at
some point you can't justrandomly drive that thing
around. It sucks gas, right?You've gotta, like, have a
(15:35):
mile to the gallon on diesel.Baby. When diesel was four miles
a gallon, we parked that puppyand saved all the money to buy a
house, is where that schooly wasgoing. But we knew that's what
the goal was,
right? You had a goal, you had adestination, and you were
working for it right? Like youwanted a lifestyle and you
wanted the ability, you wantedthe freedom that you have now,
yeah, and I think a lot ofpeople are led to believe that
(15:58):
that freedom isn't possible. Imean, even think about the
culture we're in right now. Imean, what we're recording this
we're just, you know, we'redealing with, like, this news
of, like, Bill Gates, whobasically just came out, you
know, Bill Gates, the man thatgave us the blue screen of
death. I haven't used a Windowsmachine in a long time, so I'm
free of you. Bill Gates,
(16:19):
yeah, but you got the beach,you've got the spinning beach
ball of fury. So let's, let'stalk trade offs,
but, but what I'm saying is, hebasically said that this, like,
you know, the AI has got toreplace everyone, like the
doctors, like, okay, you know?And I think that's sort of what
we do, you know, I mightrecommend a recommendation to
(16:41):
some of y'all, man, unplug fromthe news and go live your life
less
news. Read less because, youknow, and we will, we will avoid
that soapbox specifically. Butyou know, when you talk about
the American dream and howchallenging it is, it's very
challenging right now for a lotof reasons, a lot of reasons.
And you, I You will be shocked.You would not be shocked.
(17:02):
Actually. How many clients Ihave told literally their
homework is scroll less readless news. And it doesn't mean
completely be in non informed,but if you are always focused on
external things that suck yourenergy and your hope, you're
never going to turn around andlook outside and figure out what
your thing is,
yeah, and here's, here's kind ofmy general rule, I want to be
(17:26):
focused on the things I cancontrol. Yes. The reason I left
the music business is because Ino longer felt like I could make
a tangible difference in thatspace. I did not have the
relationship capital, and I hada lot of relationships, but I
wasn't ever going to be able tomove that sinking ship. I wasn't
(17:47):
ever going to be able to writeit, because it was so wrong and
broken. And the model was, it isso funny, because the things
that I was shouting in the late90s when I first got in there
are all things that have come tome and a lot of us think big and
dream big. A lot of times we'retoo early, you know, we're too
(18:08):
big to fit in the box thatthey've tried to put you in.
Yeah, but
that doesn't mean, and I thinkthis goes back to your orphan
ideas. What's funny, the moreand more I, you know, I hang out
with Terry, I realize how muchwe have in common. We just say
the same things in two differentways. Which is why the world
needs us, because others willgravitate towards it. You know,
when you talked about orphanideas, a lot of times I pay I
say, pay attention to commonthemes, because it's the, it's
(18:31):
the nudge that you'recontinually getting that like
there is a thing there. And youknow, to this to this point,
about being too early, itdoesn't mean you're shouting
into the void. The people whocame after you that were able to
kind of carry change over thefinish line may have very well
done so because you primed apump. Yeah.
(18:52):
Well, it's, you know, it's the,you know, it's the garden
analogy, you know, at some pointand somebody had to plant this
seed, yeah, somebody gets toreap the reward in the end. And
often those aren't the samepeople.
It's usually not the gardener,it's the it's the it's maybe the
farmer. But I also think thatthere's, there's a layer in here
(19:12):
and about people don't know whatthey want. That's why they don't
do the thing. But they alsodon't create the space, the
time, the intention, to figurethis out. And a lot of times I
think that's because of thesesocietal norms and conditions
that, like you said, we'reconditioned to think it's
(19:33):
impossible or that we're notallowed to and what I think is
so beautiful. And one of myplatforms for career vendors
over the last seven years hasbeen stop playing small and stop
being mediocre, because you havemore control and more agency
over your life and your careerand your circumstances then you
typically exercise, because wetend to just accept where we're
(19:56):
at instead of analyzing it andseeing if it's where. We
actually want to be, or if thereis something better, and that's
really what drilling down intoyour thing is all about.
Well, I think one of the likepieces of this is you under when
you understand what it is thatyou want to do and where you
(20:17):
want to go. I think it's supercritical that you surround
yourself with people doing thatas normal. I think a lot of us
put ourselves in environmentswhere, you know, one of my
there's a great, there's a greatquote by Oprah that said her
life changed. In fact, DanClauser, who came to the thing,
(20:40):
I used this quote in my talk atJustin Shanks for a very first
event that he did is that Oprahsaid that her life changed when
she stopped surrounding herpeople. Her life changed when
she stopped surrounding herselfwith people that ask why. But
ask, why not? Yeah, and you wantto be around people who where,
where doing the crazy thing isnormal. And I think that's why
(21:02):
the communities that you're apart of and the coaches that you
allow yourself to be surroundedwith, and obviously, like,
there's a practical piece. Don'tget me wrong, when I'm working
with somebody, I'm always like,trying to go through, like,
okay, but like, you've got toeat this month exactly where you
want to go long term. Let'sstart charting a course. Yes,
(21:26):
and I think this is where, youknow, in the career space, where
you've where you've been livingfor a while, right? Like this is
where, what, you know, I callthe bridge job, you know, it
might be a bridge to get you towhere you want to go. Or, I
think sometimes our skills allowus to have our own, like side
(21:47):
hustle, meaning this is ourmain, like passion and project.
But yet, we also have a skillwhere we can do graphic design,
we do website design, or we arewe, you know, are graded like
this or that, and it could besuper practical, or it could be,
you know, you're great atmaking, we talked about the
person that makes the little,you know, crochet potatoes, you
(22:09):
know, you may be a great crochetpotato, where that could be your
little side hustle that enablesyour bigger dream of doing
something more and doingsomething bigger.
I feel so empowered to go orderpositive potatoes now, because I
really want to. And Terry'slike, those things are awesome.
And so here's where I want to dothere are, there are small
(22:31):
little threads throughout thisthat I hope some of you out
there might be picking up on.But now we're going to go at it
directly. I want to know, Terry,what would you say to somebody
out there who were starting tokind of make a little nervous,
right? They are like, yeesh. Imeant for more, but I can't
figure out what my thing is.What would you say to that
(22:52):
person?
I mean, if you look at if you'rewatching this on video, you're
seeing my office, and there's agreat guy. I've had him on my
podcast a couple times. I gotinto Kentucky, and he talks
about one of my favorite toysgrowing up, which was the tinker
toy. But tinkering is a verypowerful process to go and start
(23:13):
experimenting. You know, thepeople that you look at and the
world that are like, wow, theyare super, super successful. You
know, a great example of this,and I hate that he's a
politically charged name is likeElon Musk. He didn't launch a
rocket into space until theycrashed a rocket into the ocean.
(23:34):
And I think that we need tolearn that, that people who, I
mean, we talked, we talked aboutBill Gates in the blue screen,
right? Like, these arebillionaires that at the high,
that are at the highest of highlevels, that we know them for
their failures,
yeah, which is a great sothere's, I think that there's
this idea of, like, even if youdon't know what the thing is,
(23:56):
just start doing something, yes,instead of being caught up in
fear, perfectionism, I think, isa huge, huge culprit, and why
people stay small in societytoday, because we can see the
failures so much more readilybecause of social media, but
distractions or excuses, right?There's there, I can guarantee
(24:20):
you, every single one of you outthere has has an inkling in the
back of your mind of the thingTerry and I are talking about
and kind of, kind of pushing youto lean into you just don't
start for a various quote,unquote reason, which is, ie, an
excuse, yeah.
And you know, perfectionism isjust a different way to label
procrastination,procrastination, it's, it's, and
(24:46):
I get it like, you know, one ofone of my coaching clients is
based on what I've known for thelongest time. And he comes from,
like, you know, thestereotypical Asian family. And
like he wants to make a changein his life, but he doesn't feel
(25:09):
like he can make that change,because he feels like he's going
to be letting someone else down.And I want to challenge you that
if you're kind of like, youknow, at that point where you're
a little, you're you feel antsyand you feel like it might be
time to do something different.Make sure the regrets that you
have at the end of your lifearen't that you didn't live the
life you wanted to, that youdidn't go out there and do the
(25:32):
do the the thing that you weremade to do. Because I really do
believe that each of us has beengiven kind of an opportunity or
an assignment, and that weshould go do it. And, you know,
with with with the crazinessthat's happens in the world, I
think that some of us are goingto get it, going to get to be
(25:54):
given the opportunity to dosomething new, whether we want
to or not. And, you know, I lovethat. I love the I love the
story that they just announcedthis week that there's a college
that's going to have Carmen thefrog do there. And of course, if
I'm wearing their shirt today,Kermit the Frog is going to do
(26:15):
their commencement address. Sojealous, you know, why can I
enroll in a class I want to go?But I think of that great speech
that Jim Carrey famously didwhere he talks about his dad,
and you know that his dad livedthis his whole life, chasing the
safety and security of a jobthat he eventually lost, rather
(26:36):
than doing that thing that hereally always wanted to do, and
that, that, you know, we allhave the opportunity to do that,
to go and do the the thing thatwe've always wanted to do. And
it can start small, right? Itcan start as a side project or a
(26:57):
and eventually you'll know it,what it might be is that might
be the first stepping stone onthe way to what you eventually
end up doing. Very, very firstof us, the very first idea we
have, is what we do for Yes, Imean, you know, you and I even
had a conversation earlier todayabout, like, how things are
evolving and how things areshifting. And, you know, I mean,
(27:20):
this is the ninth year thatwe've done the thing. So of
course, the thing has shiftedand changed, and our dreams and
our priorities and our and ourgoals and the people we want to
help, because there's kind ofthe the underbelly of this, if
you will, that there's a groupof people that I really wish I
(27:42):
could help, but I can't, becausethey'll never actually do the
thing. Nick Saban talks aboutthis, the former head coach of
the Alabama Crimson Tidefootball team, and they're my
least favorite fan base in allof America. But Nick Saban talks
about how and the culture of agreat team, that achievers and
(28:05):
people who don't want to doanything are never comfortable
in the same space, yep, and thatthat, if you have people that
are just dead weight, thataren't doing anything, that the
achievers are eventually goingto either leave because they're
Going to go somewhere else, oror, and, you know? And I'm all
for a space, right? I'm all forcreating an environment where
(28:26):
people, people, some people,grow slower than others,
but I think there has to be thewill and the intent and the
motivations, because otherwiseyou'll have a group who's
getting bored and a group whoyou know is never going to come
up to meet the challenge. It's alittle bit like you can, you
know that that group of peoplethat you'd love to help, I
(28:47):
agree. You can take you can leada horse to water, but you can't
make them drink, and unless theyhave the intrinsic motivation to
pursue whatever the thing is, noexternal force is really going
to create momentum.
Yeah. I even talked about thisin my mastermind group this
week. Somebody used that leadHorse to Water quote. And I
(29:07):
said, Yeah, and I always take ita step forward, that I will lead
you to water, but I can't, Iwon't waterboard you. Yeah, I'm
not going to torture you intoactually taking action. The
opportunities here I've givenyou instructions, and I think
that this is a when you'retrying to create a product or a
service that helps people, atsome point I have to put the
(29:28):
obligation on you to take theaction. Yes, you know much, yes,
great gift I was talking about.I'll hold it up. I love this.
You know, it's a desk dumpsterthat I've had now for two years,
that I haven't yet assembled,but it's still here, and it's
literally I, actually, I movedit from the pile in the corner
(29:49):
to my desk, which is, you know,not the Oh, I'm just
sitting here thinking, I wish wecould see the rest of this room.
But now, now is the time for thedesk. Top dumpster fire to be
opened. And I you, I you've saida couple little tidbits that I
kind of want to pull together,because we talk a lot here about
(30:10):
values, driven purpose, drivenwork as a pathway to a more
fulfilling, more authentic life.And I think it's so important to
highlight and just call out thefact that, in a way, that's what
we're that's what we're talkingabout with the thing, and Terry
and I are completely on the samesoapbox in the same echo
chamber, or whatever you want tocall it, when we talk about the
(30:31):
idea that we all have been givengifts to carry out some sort of
purpose that is intended to havean impact on this world, and
that that could be the world, orthat could be a single human in
it, and by not doing so, you arekeeping it from that person. And
that is a pretty audacious thingto do. Who are you to keep your
(30:52):
gift and your light in thisworld from the people who need
it? And the last thing I'll addis that in doing so you will be
more fulfilled and have noregrets, because the worst
person you can disappoint inthis world is you.
Yes, absolutely, yeah, and I'lleven go, I always kind of, I
(31:19):
like to take things and put themin like, as you can tell,
they're they're trinketseverywhere in my office. And the
reason there is a lot of theseare a souvenir or a moment. And
one of the things we do is wegive out random things tied to
stories. Because I think objectsteach us
lessons and stories, teachesteach us lessons. Right?
Absolutely, I always thinkabout,
I always take it to this, like,extreme when I talk about people
(31:40):
and their gifts, imagine howupset you would be if you found
out someone had the cure tocancer and wasn't sharing it
with us, you and I and everyoneelse has the cure to someone's
cancer. We have you have thatgift and that skill and that
ability and that way of thinkingthat is keeping someone up at
(32:03):
night, but yet you could do itin your sleep, and once you
discover that you know, and youyou mentioned purpose and
values. And I, actually, I'vebeen going through a lot of that
work, because I think it reallyall goes down to our core
values. And I just wrote anarticle about this that, you
(32:23):
know, there are three things forme lately that that I've noticed
of the people that I want I wantto be around the people that I
want around my community, andit's the people that believe
that community is greater thannetworking. You don't want to
just go someplace and justyou're there for a transactional
relationship. I want to bearound people that give more
than they take. I want to peoplewho, you know, I heard a podcast
(32:47):
interview with one of myfavorite leaders, and they
talked about that. I don't, theydon't want to serve the they
don't want to work with peoplewho want to come over for
dinner, but want that. Want itto go. They just want to, like,
skip the whole, you know thatpart of it, and the third, the
third piece is, I want tobelieve in I want to be around
people who value people morethan they value profits. And
(33:10):
that's not to say that moneydoesn't matter. Money matters.
In fact, you
right. Yeah, absolutely. But,
but yet, understanding thosevalues, and and I think that's
that's one of the things thatI've learned myself, is I have a
real hard time helping someonewho doesn't do the work to root
(33:31):
themselves on their purpose.Yeah, because if you don't have
a rudder, and if you don't havea destination, and I'm not
saying I'm not willing to helpyou find those things, but if
you don't get to the place wherethose things are really, really
clear, and you have to distillit down, right? You have to do
the hard work. These are, theseare hard work things. These are
go and find, yes, these are goand find a journal and write
(33:52):
them down.
Inner work is the hardest workyou'll ever do, which is
probably one reason why many,most people, don't do it, and if
you're not willing, you'llnever, you'll never, you'll
never get to the heart of thematter. And if
I'm being honest, all three ofthose things are probably trauma
informed for me, interestingthat I've been around people who
(34:16):
just wanted to network. Yeah,I've been around people who want
to who value people less thanthey valued money. I've been
around people that that onlyonly are there to take and not
give, and I think we all right,yes. So for me, my answer to
(34:36):
that was, what if? Why not me?Yeah, you know, why not me to
actually solve some of theseproblems? Yeah? And I think, you
know, if you're listening today,and you're, you're sitting there
and you're, you know, I lovethat it's no more Mondays,
right? Because Monday is a daythat a lot of people dread. You
know, Sunday night is the numberone night that people have heart
(34:57):
attacks because they dread. You.They dread going to work on
Monday. And, you know, I, youknow, I think of one of the
people that I've worked withover the years who works in a
federal job and hates, like,hates their job. And what keeps
them there is, like, our what'skept them there is the idea that
(35:19):
these things could never betaken away. And now that there
are things, you know, that couldbe taken away, they're kind of,
I believe, system is gettingshaken to its core right now,
right?
And, you know, there's some goodand there's some bad in that,
right? You know, we can argueabout whether the timing of how
that's being handled, orwhatever, we can argue about
(35:40):
that all day, but the realityis, like, don't outsource your
future to someone else. Yes, and
I want to, can I jump in and sayone thing here, what Terry and
I? Because I agree with that. Ithink we lean into employment as
a with a false sense of securitythat we don't have control over.
But also, not everyone is meantto necessarily be an
(36:01):
entrepreneur. I think our pointhere is to take the agency that
you have so that you arecontrolling what you can
control, and you're not leavingyour destiny up to chance or
someone else. No,
I think very much the samethings the best employees are
ones that have anentrepreneurial mindset. Mm,
hmm, if you go to a restaurant,and there's great employees that
(36:25):
are treating it like it's theirbusiness when they're motivated
by, you know, when you gosomewhere where profit sharing
is a big part of it, you couldtell those people here, because,
you know, I think of, I thinkI'm in 2001 when, when Chick fil
A and then sort of In and OutBurger about the same time, went
(36:48):
to the Ritz Carlton to figureout how they could do
hospitality at a higher level,because it wasn't normal. And I
think really what we're sayingis not just do your thing, but
stop chasing normal. Start beinghappy in what you bring. Start
bringing you to the table. WhatI don't want you to do. I don't
(37:09):
if you want a nine to fiver man,and that's what makes you happy,
and you're thriving. Do it.There are a lot of people that
are great number twos. Yep.There are a lot of people that
are great in the third seat.There are a lot of people that
that is like their gift andtheir talent and their skill.
And sometimes, as anentrepreneur, I realize that
maybe I, you know, mostentrepreneurs will tell you that
(37:32):
they would dream of having a CEOto take care of and doing all of
that other stuff. In fact,that's actually the number one
thing that I see a lot of reallyhigh level entrepreneurs.
Russell Brunson is a big namethat's done that, where they
bring in, you know, they bringin a CEO to run the company so
they can be the chief dreamer,you know. And I think whatever,
(37:56):
whatever, whatever you havediscovered, is your thing, and
that thing that you bring to thetable, you know. And I talk
about entrepreneurship enough,and you know, and I don't want
to ever in dog someone, if theyreally, if you want, if you want
to. I have a great friend thatyou know is a is a producer of a
media show, and he's awesome atit, and that's the perfect
(38:19):
opportunity. But he also has areally thriving podcast on the
side that he does about apassion project. And he makes
really great money, and heprobably could quit the other
job, but he loves the other job,so he does both.
And that's a really good point.So I one thing, I A lot of times
will say, like being employedversus being an entrepreneur.
One is not better than theother. They're different. And I
(38:40):
tend to find that you're wiredkind of one way or the other, if
you find yourself with a littlecross wiring. Terry brings up a
good point that you don't youknow, I think part of living and
working authentically is justdistributing your identity
across some things. Yes, one isone. Part of it is knowing the
purpose that you feel, becausethat's where the vocational
fulfillment will come from. ButI also find a lot of times,
(39:02):
people will put too much stockin 100% of their existence and
fulfillment coming from thevocation and the work. And as
soon as you kind of back offthat belief and start
distributing across a fewdifferent activities,
volunteering as a side hustle, apodcast, whatever it is, you
know, you start to kind of fireon all cylinders. And the big, I
think the big message here is,don't take things at face value,
(39:28):
but challenge. Let's call it thesystem a little bit. Put
yourself under question and makethis proactive decisions on how
you want that to look, versusaccepting the default so many of
us are willing to accept,because that's where the thing
gets lost.
Yeah, and I think now, now, morethan any time, and you're seeing
(39:50):
it globally, that I think peopleare rebelling against this idea
of, I'm going to hop in line.You know, I talk about it in my
book, fly. Uh, you know what?Elephants are trained in
captivity. They're, they'rethey're taught this idea of
tailing, which is when theelephant takes its trunk and
(40:11):
literally grabs the tail of theelephant in front of them. And
we teach kids that inkindergarten in America, they're
taught to stand in line and getin line. And that's not just
something we do to maintainchildren's safety at school.
It's something we're taught as asocietal norm, that you get in
line and you follow the rules
and that you have a place fromthe time you're small in that
(40:34):
line. Yeah,
you know, because, you know, oneof the things we did at the
thing last year is I brought uplike this, you know, the the
cardboard like rocket fort,because I wanted everyone to
remember, like, when was thattime when you dreamed that
anything was possible, you know?And you're wherever you're
watching this today from, andyou're sitting there going, Man,
(40:54):
I'm not really sure what's next.I want you to kind of go back to
that moment where, like, nobodywas telling you that that
couldn't be done. There was amoment where the the the
refrigerator box that theappliance got delivered in, was
the the, you know, the EmpireState, anything was possible, or
it was a rocket ship, or it wasa submarine, and nobody could
(41:15):
tell you otherwise. And which iswhy, you know, sometimes it's
like it turn off the screenskids and dream again. And so I
would say the same thing thatyou're probably telling your
children to you, you know, dreamagain and think about what,
what? What did you think wasimpossible when you were a kid?
(41:38):
What did you think that and thateverybody said, no, no, you
can't do that. But you didn'tbelieve. You didn't believe it
was true. You believe that youcould be that, be and do that.
And I still believe that'spossible for you. It may it may
look different than how youoriginally dreamed it, but you
have the ability to design thelife and the experience that you
(42:00):
want, and it's just a matter ofthe only difference between the
people who have it and don't arethe people that decided to take
action, the people that decidedthat they were going to make the
choice, and noone else was goingto tell them otherwise. And
that's not to say that the otherthe people in your life, whether
that be your family or yourspouse even that's going to look
at you like you're nuts. But,man, I'd rather have a little
(42:25):
friction over a discussion of,like, the next phase of my life,
to get to the end of it and haveregret then miss it entirely.
Yeah, and you know, that's,that's the saddest, you know? Do
you ever I'm a plane sleeper. Iget it on an airplane, typically
by the by the time they'retelling me to put my seat belt
on, I'm passed out, unlessthat's Jim. And I know that I
(42:51):
want to drink. I know that I'mgonna I've got a drink you bone
or I want to. I want, I want my,my Mr. T's Bloody Mary mix, or
my ginger ale for the flight, orwhatever I want, right? I don't
know why I order those things,but those are typically things I
get on the plane that I don'tever drink in real life, but,
but, man, I normally pass outand like, you wake up and it's
(43:12):
like, oh, we're landing. I'vemissed the whole flight, and
that's the way that a lot of uslive our lives. We like, we, we,
we get lulled to sleep, and allof a sudden we've arrived and
realized we're not where weintended to go. Yeah, joke at
the front door when you're like,hey, we're on our way to Dallas.
I wasn't gonna go to Dallastoday, you know. And I think a
(43:32):
lot of people have gotten to adestination. And I'm here to
tell you that it's not too lateto change it in you may be 30 or
40, maybe in your 60s. It's nottoo late. It's not too late. You
still have the power to changeyour best days are ahead. If
you're willing to take action,and you know, bet on yourself,
(43:55):
go all in on you. Like a lot ofthings, we're willing to go in,
go all in a lot of things, butmost of us aren't willing to go
all in on ourselves.
What's that saying? The besttime to plant a tree was 20
years ago, and the next besttime is today. Yes, you don't
need all of the answers. Youjust need to start my
favorite Japanese proverb, yep.And that's and that's so true,
(44:19):
you can't control what youdidn't do 20 years ago, yeah,
but you can control what you dotoday.
From this moment on, you don'tneed all the answers. You just
need to get started, because thelast thing you want to be is a
passenger in your life headed tothe wrong destination, and if
you feel like you need thesupport of a community who is
(44:43):
doing something similar. Terryand crew has it. So this is a
great time Terry to telleverybody about the thing,
because there's a couple eventsupcoming where can they find out
more about it. And
the best website to go to is thething. Dot. Five and they can
get all of the things fromthere, we're in the plans of
(45:05):
going to a couple of bonuscities to do some one day
events. I know we're going toDallas for sure, in Tampa for
sure, and a couple other citiesthis fall, late summer,
yours truly will be at Nashvilleat the end of June, and at the
big thing in Orlando inNovember. So there you go.
(45:27):
There's your shameless plug.Incentive to come see me. I'll
give you a hug in real life.And, you know, I have to roll
something back to kind of bringthis all together. And what
we've been talking about, I, youknow, going, Terry and I have
known each other for a longtime, and not even in passing,
but hadn't really been immersedin each other's communities for
a long time, and for variousreasons, all of a sudden, some
(45:48):
worlds collided, and I foundmyself in this in the room in
November at the thing, and itwas so strange, because it was
just one of those Inklings. Itwas, it was the orphan idea I
didn't want to leave homeless,that it felt like a place I
should be, and out of it cameall these amazing connections
that you've gotten to hearflourish. But what was so
amazing to me, and this is justgoing to reinforce this idea of
(46:12):
you don't need all the answers,you just need to start and you
need the support to keep going.Because I remember walking out
of there thinking, man, it'sbeen a long time since I was in
a room of people who dream anddo the thing that they dream
about, and it was justinspiring. Isn't even the word.
It was almost comforting andcathartic, as somebody who is an
(46:32):
entrepreneur doing things anddreaming and implementing them
to be in a room, in a spacewhere that wasn't even just the
norm. It was expected andencouraged. And so I can't
whether it's the thing orsomething else. I can't
reinforce the importance ofputting yourself in a community
that will help you nurture thisidea of getting started and keep
(46:54):
going, you know?
And one of the, one of thethings I've had to like, because
when I look at it for myself.Like, the thing is, these are
just, these are things I wouldjust do anyways, right? Like,
I've had to, I've come to theunderstanding, through your eyes
and other people's eyes thatwhat we do at the thing is
special. I don't know why it'snot the norm. I don't know why
(47:15):
there's not tons of environmentsthat are that way. I don't know
why every conference doesn'tmake that the environment, but
we are, you know, and
that's what's special about it.Terry, it's not the norm, yeah.
And you know, it's that, it'sthat great Dr Seuss quote about,
you know, nothing will change,and says, unless the person that
cares does something about it.You know, it's that, it's the
(47:37):
who, the or, here's a who quote.I don't, I don't remember the
exact quote. But you know thatat some point you have to
someone, someone has to decidethat this is the way it's going
to be, and not accept any less.And we're, and we're kind of,
when I see people come in and Iknow that they're, you know, if
I sense that people haveulterior motives, they get
uninvited, especially from thestage. I don't want people
(48:01):
coming in and kind of, I wantthem to experience what happens
when, you know, everybody kindof comes in and just leans in
and encourages people. And youknow, I'm glad that you are
back, and I'm glad that you'veyou've found this, you know that
(48:21):
you're coming back to the bothbig events this year, and you
know, I think that shows acommitment on your part to your
personal growth. Because I oneof the things I've understood,
and I think one of the veryfirst things that we did when we
started this, is everyone'slike, you need to do a bunch of
this. And you went to justsurvey. So I was like, surveys.
(48:43):
I was like, here's the deal. Ionly know the kind of event I
want to go to. So if I cancreate and curate a space where,
regardless of how familiar thisis to me, I'm going to learn and
gain something from it, then Imust that. I imagine other
people will too. And that wasall the knowledge I was armed
(49:06):
with. Was, Is that, wow, I wouldbe really cool to hear from this
person about this. I bet youother people be interested in
this. And that's the same wayyou probably started what you
had the podcast. I'm like, wow,I had a fascinating conversation
with somebody. We should shareit with more people? Yeah, you
know. And I'm on here because,you know, we had a conversation
(49:26):
like, why do we not record thatconversation for one of our
podcasts? Like, and that's, andthat's, that's how action
actions get started, is becauseyou're around people, you dream
and think differently, and, youknow, where being not normal is
the norm, and you know it's it'snot normal to have these
(49:48):
conversations we're having inthe to kind of rebel against
safety, or at least the illusionof safety. And. So, yeah, I
appreciate you and yourinvestment in, you know, it's
very obvious when you came toOrlando this last year that you
(50:10):
came with open hands. You know,you came to get, came up, but
you came to give way more thanyou came to get. You were you
were there to you were there tobe around something you you had
sent, you had you'd beenmagnetized to the people that
were there you since there wassomething there for you. Yeah,
but you showed up to first servefully out. And man, if more
people just showed up like thatin more environments. And I
(50:33):
really do believe that you know,as you experience that most
people, the majority of peoplethat do show up to the thing,
especially those that are on thestage and in the core of the
community that they do, they docome with that spirit, and they
do want to there's a sense oflike curiosity, which I think is
a real differentiator in ourcommunity, is everyone is just
(50:57):
curious about what other peopleDo, and they're curious about
how they can actually connectthe dots for people. And you,
you've you've experienced thatthe people have been on the
about on your podcast, havewhere they've experienced like,
wow, wow. This connects. Wecould do this. We this. We could
collaborate here. And, you know,a lot of these people do similar
(51:18):
work to what you do, but there'sno sense of like, when you shift
your life from like, a scarcitymindset,
yes, those are the words I washoping you were going to say,
yeah,
that you know, scarcity says webetter put up the dam and keep
the water we Have because it'sgoing to run out. And abundance
(51:42):
says, Take down the, you know,take down the dam and let the
waters roam free, because it'llrain tomorrow. If it doesn't
rain, we'll make it rain. And Ifeel like the the thing is a
place where Make It Rain isnormal, yep, and where people
are going to commit to and thatdoesn't mean that it's people
(52:02):
aren't they're still notstruggle. There's still not
difficulty, but there's a senseof, like, you know, those goofy
trust falls that we all had todo in some corporate meeting,
but that there really is someonethere to catch you when you need
that, and they're they're thereto give you advice and help, and
actually, you know, tactics thatyou could deploy to fix a
problem that you're having,because, for the most part, the
(52:26):
stuff that you and I do are big,massive changes that people are
making. They're just tiny littletweaks, you know. And the shift,
the shift from abundance toscarcity, is, is not that big of
a shift, but once you make it,everything changes.
Everything snowballs. And that'sa I think that's a great way to
(52:46):
kind of put a stamp or anexclamation point on this kind
of whole conversation, becausewe talked a lot about the thing
the event. But ultimately, whatTerry and I want you to do is go
find your thing and lean intoit. And I'm so grateful for for
what you do, for these types ofcommunities, and for creating a
not normal place for we, notnormal people, to be Terry. And
(53:08):
thank you for like, kind wordsfor me that's I wasn't I wasn't
hoping to like, I'm gonna haveTerry for some compliments, but
mostly I appreciate you beinghere with me today and sharing
your wisdom with with everyonewho needs to hear it, and for
helping me create, just even inthe last 45 minutes, a place for
people to really start thinkingabout this, and where you just
(53:30):
left us off, where you just kindof took us to is, I think, the
perfect leaving off point forthis conversation, as we leave
you with the food for thought ofWhat's your thing, and, more
importantly, what is one smallaction you can take to move
closer to doing it? It doesn'thave to be a big leap. It just
(53:50):
has to be the thing that getsyou started. How can you get
started? This week? Terry, one
slightly step further. Who canyou go and encourage Yes, in
this, in your world, to do it,to do it with you, so you don't
have to do it.
Do it with you. Don't do italone. Yeah, is the extra piece
of it. The
(54:11):
greatest gift that you couldgive with to another human on
this planet is the gift ofbelief. And sometimes when we
lack the belief in ourself, wehave to borrow it from somebody
else. So be a great Lender ofbelief.
There you go, everybody. How canyou lend belief to have more
(54:31):
belief in yourself? Don't takenormal at face value. Push that
system and go do your thing. Ilook forward to hearing more
about that thing from all ofyou. So this is, this is a
different call sign off thanusual. I want to hear your
thing. Reach out to me, findTerry at the thing. Wait, what
is it? The thing?
(54:52):
Or just Terry weaver.com Terryweaver.com if they're watching
on LinkedIn, they can leave,leave the comment down below, or
they can go to the panel and.We'll
put links here. We'll put linkseverywhere, but Terry and I are
here to help you. Shout yourthing from the rooftop. So start
with us. Find your thing.Encourage others through it.
Find others doing the thing. Andthen, most importantly, once you
start, never ever stop, it ishow you are going to change the
(55:16):
world, even if it is one humanat a time. And isn't that an
amazing way to live and workmore authentically. Terry
Weaver, thank you again forjoining me for no more Mondays,
everybody out there, thank youfor listening and spending this
Monday morning with us. Thankyou for giving me a place to do
my thing. I'll see you next weekfor another episode of no more
(55:36):
Mondays podcast. You.
Happy Monday. Everybody. HappyMonday. Everybody. Terry said it
to me right before I hit record,so I figured I would say that to
you. I hope you are having agood start to your week. It's
just started here in Colorado,where it's a bright and early
10am and welcome to no moreMondays. I'm your host, Angie
Callen, helping you kick offthis week with inspiration to
(00:21):
live and work moreauthentically. And if you are a
frequenter of my program first,thank you. And if you've, if
you've listened to a fewepisodes in the last maybe three
months, you picked up on atheme, and then I've had a ton
of incredible guests doing big,bold, meaningful things with
their lives and their works, andI met them all at one place, the
(00:44):
thing. And so this morning,you're in for a treat, because
we are tying it all togetherwith today's guest, Terry
Weaver, the creator of thething. It's a creative and
entrepreneurial event that hasbecome a hub for dreamers, doers
and makers and a whole circle ofmy new friends. Terry is also a
(01:04):
speaker and author, a businessconsultant and an all around
encourager of those who want tostop waiting and start building
he has been a trusted part of mynetwork for well over 10 years,
and I am so excited for you tohear the thing from the man
himself on how you can figureout your thing, why it matters,
and how you can actually dosomething with it. So without
(01:27):
further ado, the man behind thething and so many podcast
episodes over the last fewmonths. Terry Weaver, welcome to
no more Mondays. Yeah, I've beenwatching no more Mondays, and
I'm like, Hey, I know that guy.Hey, I know her person. I'm
like, wait a second, I shouldstart a podcast booking agent
and start charging these peoplefor all these interviews.
There's probably, there'sprobably a business model to be
(01:50):
had there. And we were talkingbefore we started recording.
Terry's like, there have been somany podcast recordings come
from that event in November, andit's, it's actually really fun.
I've been on a bunch. There'smore to come that haven't even
been recorded or aired yet, andso clearly, your thing is doing
some things. Terry, well,
that's kind of the deal is it'slike so much of what we do. I
(02:11):
mean, I'm here in Nashville,you're in the middle of nowhere
Colorado, and we're sitting herein our offices doing our thing
alone. And I realized that was atrend, and we needed to put a
stop to it, because being aloneis it gets really hard to go
far. And you know, one of mycore values is, I call it if you
(02:33):
want to, if you want to go fast,go alone, if you want to go far,
go together. And it's and thelonger that I have been like,
chasing that idea, the moreessential I realize it
is. Yep, it's like, the truerand truer it becomes. And you
and I have a similar, I wouldthink, principle or an ideal
there, because I talk about howcollaboration is better than
(02:53):
competition every single day,and it's really, you know, same
two sides of of the same coin.And I think this is probably a
good opportunity to let all ofthose who aren't on the who
aren't part of the inside joke,in on everything you know,
because we've talked about thething for months around here, I
want you to tell me what it isand where the concept for the
(03:15):
thing, the event came from
well, so the thing kind of had,like, a two, like, it's
obviously a double entendre,right? So, like, but there was,
like, two parts of it, right?Like, anytime, like, a group of
people, I've been speaking at,like, like, publicly since I was
like, 17, and got paid for thefirst time when I was, like,
(03:38):
about that same age.
And street cred.
And that's been a minute, as thekids say today, it was in the
1900s Oh God, and so. Butanytime, like, I'm with
something, or I'm with a grouppeople, and they're like, Hey,
(04:00):
man, what are you going to do?And I'm going to go do Bill
Smith's thing. It's in, youknow, it's, it's, he's got that
thing that he does for people.And, you know, you know,
there's, I know a guy namedRoger Wakefield who's actually
speaking of the thing this year,and he, he's a, he was, he was a
plumber that figured out YouTubeand is now multi millionaire
from it. And, you know, it'slike, Oh yeah, I'm going to go
(04:21):
do, Roger I'm gonna RogerWakefield. I have a thing we're
doing. And then there's the flipside. Is that I realized, and I
live in Nashville and and I, andI kind of feel like we, we sort
of invented this. We're a citywhere people move to to do
something. Yes, most peoplemoved here with a we're they
call us the third coast, butwe're a place where people go
(04:43):
because they want to disrupttheir life. And there's, there's
a typical, there's a there's aculture happening where people
are, you know, where it's normalto be doing something that
people look at you, like, what?Yeah. And so I realized that,
like, I. Has a thing. Everyonehas this, this, you know, you
(05:05):
can say it's a calling, you cansay it's a dream, you could say
it's a it's a passion. Butthere's like, something that is
burning deep inside of them thatif they don't do that, that, you
know, their life feels like it'smissing something, and in
reality, the world feels likeit's missing something. And in,
(05:26):
you know, I realized that thatat this, you know, the other,
the other, kind of, third pieceof this is I realized that I had
like, two groups of friends, onewho were these, like, brilliant
communicators, these brilliantspeakers, these brilliant
leaders that were kind of likeliving below the radar. They
weren't necessarily like NewYork Times best sellers, but
(05:49):
they were nicer and betterpeople than all the people that
I know, because I know a lot ofthose people, because I it's
natural and we're a lot of usare here and and then I realized
I kind of had this other groupof friends was like, these
people who, like, who wanted tobe and do that, but didn't
really know how. And so Ithought, what if there was a
place where there was an evil,evil, an equal. It's also sort
(06:11):
of like, Hmm, it does kind ofhave a little evil thing,
because when people startcollaborating and doing things,
you just can't help yourself butdo the thing.
Mischief occurs, but, but Iwanted to create an equal
playing field where it's like,man, these people come together
and they collaborate. And youknow, what's interesting is the
people that you've had on yourpodcast haven't just been
speakers, they've also beenattendees. Yeah, you know, they
(06:34):
in, you know, we're kind of a noGreen Room event, and so there's
no place the speakers aren'thiding off in a corner, and I
get it like I, I, when I go tospeak at conferences, a lot of
times, I if there's a greenroom, I tend to escape there
just because it getsoverwhelming. But I wanted to
(06:56):
create a place where, wherethere could be collaboration,
not just at the event. But afterit, and you, and you've, you've
literally proved that, that thatworks, that that's a that's a
viable model, you've actuallytaken, you've actually taken,
you know, the the other ideathat we had was, we were going
to call it the assemble
conference. The thing has such abetter ring to it.
(07:18):
Oh, yeah, simple conferencesounds like a bad Vacation Bible
School theme, where somebodymakes macaroni crafts, but, but
yet, the the, the heart of thatidea is, is that we so often go
places and like, we take thethings home and pack them up,
and it feels like you get thoseIKEA directions, if you ever
(07:39):
bought anything from Ikea, likethere's weird looking Swedish
gnomes, and no words, no words,and like, there's no like, how
the heck do I put this together?Because, you know, I don't know.
I've kind of given I let my wifeassemble the Ikea furniture that
we get when we do get it,because I always have a lot of
extra parts left over. And fun
(07:59):
fact, Jim assembles thingsbecause I may be a former civil
engineer, but I just don't havetime for the directions, and so
I will get 80% through it andgo, Oh, crap, this is on
backwards, at which point Jimdisassembles and reassembles it
while reading each step of theinstruction. So I appreciate
that, Terry,
we do have an Ikea bookcase inour library that it's like, if
(08:22):
you ever had to turn it around,you would realize that it's a
symbol backwards,
slap it up against the wall andno one will ever know. Yeah. So
there's this idea that the thingis the event, because really,
where we're going is to talkabout the other side of the
entendre is our things. Butthis, the idea of this event was
to create a place and a spacefor people to come together and
(08:45):
really start doing their thingand doing something with this,
you know, purpose, callingpassion, whatever we we wanted.
It's a it's a doer place, is howI see it, yeah, and that's
definitely,
it's one of our you know, weactually have a T shirt that
even says, you know, we're forthe creatives, we're for the
leaders. We're for theMavericks. We're for the doers.
(09:07):
You know, we don't want to justbe the place where you come and
dream and I, and I spent, youknow, my previous life, I worked
in the music industry, sofrequently I need to be in the
van or the tour bus going downthe highway, and you need to be
sitting in the van driving allthrough the night, or the tour,
about sitting in the lounge andtalking about, you know, oh, we
could do this. And like, therewould be these awesome nobody,
(09:28):
and nobody ever did them. But itwas always, like, this imaginary
and like, I don't want to talkabout things that aren't going
to get done. Yeah, I think, as acoach, I really believe that
we're given, like, stewardshipover our ideas and the things
that are given to us. And Idon't want any orphan ideas. I
(09:53):
don't want my my my things thatI dream and like create to be
like homeless I want. Them toget acted on. I want them to.
And I'm not saying I do everycrazy idea, but I kind of have a
differentiator for me that thatat the point where, you know,
there's some ideas that I chaseand kind of play with, and then
(10:15):
there are things that sort ofstalk me, and when I feel like
that point, that's when I can, Ican't, I can't shake it. And the
thing was definitely that it wassomething that I could not, I
could not shake. And from like,you know, since we're, since
it's a, since we're talking on aMonday, you know, to be
transparent. It's, it's, it's,it's probably a really bad
(10:37):
business model, because eventsare really difficult. Yes,
and rarely, where rarely do theybreak even, let alone make
money. But, again, that's notbut, but there's different goals
of different businessinitiatives too.
Yeah, I always tell people inyour business, everything
doesn't have to make money.Something has to make money,
(11:01):
yes,
and the net has to be black,except
for when you do your taxes.Then, then you come up, then you
don't care what you give everypost it note that you very,
very, very good point everycoffee meeting that you had,
exactly.
And and in case, for any of youout there who are listening to
(11:23):
this podcast instead of watchingit, I want to paint a little
scene for you as we, you know,as we move from talking about
the thing the event, and westart thinking about, start
talking about the fact that thething the event was something
Terry had to do because histhing is helping people do their
things, right? That's thatthere's like meanings upon
(11:43):
meanings here. But when we talkabout kind of dreaming and
turning it into doing, I have topaint this picture for you,
because Terry's sitting in hisoffice wearing a lovers, a
dreamers and you t shirt that isfrom a past thing we all love,
Kermit the Frog, and behind himis a giant, colorful Mickey
picture with no less than about100 stuffed Mickey's jiminy
(12:08):
crickets. I see a dumbo and thelike, and so it just gives you
an idea of of this kind of, likecreative mind we're working
with, and why it's so and whatand how he's been able to take
these Do you know, a lot oftimes creatives aren't good at
channeling ideas into do. And Ilove that you found that to be
your thing. And I'm, I'm curiousnow that we've painted this
(12:32):
picture of like, who good oldTerry Weaver is. You know, if
your thing is helping others dothe thing, why do so many people
not do it? You mentioned earlieryour two groups of friends, and
there was one who were, like,amazing and kind of living under
the radar about, you know, aboutputting their themselves out
there, whether it was becausethey didn't realize it or didn't
(12:53):
feel comfortable. But why do somany people either feel unclear
about their thing or arereluctant to step into it.
I have a rule. That's one of thefirst questions that I ask, and
it's actually part of a freecourse. If you go to discovery
your thing.com, it's in there.It's one of my rules. It's, I
call it the Spice Girl rule, andSpice Girl song, not zigzag. Pa,
(13:20):
but tell me what you want, whatyou want, what you really,
really want. Most people don'tknow what they want.
Why
I was had a speaker that we hadat the thing this last year.
Who's a billionaire or close toit? I um, or he's definitely
(13:43):
moved that much money in hisbusiness. And I asked him, and
he was like, I don't know what Iwant. So many people on every
level just don't know what it isthey really want, because we're
so used to being, I mean, youknow, here in America, and I
(14:04):
know you have probably globallisteners too, but like, there's
this idea of like, the Americandream, of like, this is what
your prescribed life should looklike. You know, you should go
and have 2.5 kids and a dog, andyou should go and work a job
that you know is going to goingto protect you, and it's going
to be there for you, you know.And you know, a lot of people
(14:27):
are probably waking up on aMonday morning and realizing the
America dream is a nightmare forthem, and they want something
more. They want somethingdifferent. And so I know, I
think, obviously it comes downto a lack of clarity, and it
comes down to what it is theyreally, really want in life, and
the ability to say to everyoneelse, I'm doing my thing. I
(14:50):
can't not do this, you know? AndI, I think one of the like this
is really more but, and Iapologize. Yeah, but I think one
of the things that's the mosthelpful is to ask yourself, what
do you want to be said about youon your on your deathbed, and
what are the things that youreally you know? One of Stephen
(15:12):
Covey's rules is beginning withthe end in mind. And if you were
to look at your life backwards,What? What? What are you What
are you like steering towardswhat, where are you driving? I
remember when you had theschooly, you know, when you had
the bus, like, where's your busgoing? Uh huh, right? Because at
some point you can't justrandomly drive that thing
around. It sucks gas, right?You've gotta, like, have a
(15:35):
mile to the gallon on diesel.Baby. When diesel was four miles
a gallon, we parked that puppyand saved all the money to buy a
house, is where that schooly wasgoing. But we knew that's what
the goal was,
right? You had a goal, you had adestination, and you were
working for it right? Like youwanted a lifestyle and you
wanted the ability, you wantedthe freedom that you have now,
yeah, and I think a lot ofpeople are led to believe that
(15:58):
that freedom isn't possible. Imean, even think about the
culture we're in right now. Imean, what we're recording this
we're just, you know, we'redealing with, like, this news
of, like, Bill Gates, whobasically just came out, you
know, Bill Gates, the man thatgave us the blue screen of
death. I haven't used a Windowsmachine in a long time, so I'm
free of you. Bill Gates,
(16:19):
yeah, but you got the beach,you've got the spinning beach
ball of fury. So let's, let'stalk trade offs,
but, but what I'm saying is, hebasically said that this, like,
you know, the AI has got toreplace everyone, like the
doctors, like, okay, you know?And I think that's sort of what
we do, you know, I mightrecommend a recommendation to
(16:41):
some of y'all, man, unplug fromthe news and go live your life
less
news. Read less because, youknow, and we will, we will avoid
that soapbox specifically. Butyou know, when you talk about
the American dream and howchallenging it is, it's very
challenging right now for a lotof reasons, a lot of reasons.
And you, I You will be shocked.You would not be shocked.
(17:02):
Actually. How many clients Ihave told literally their
homework is scroll less readless news. And it doesn't mean
completely be in non informed,but if you are always focused on
external things that suck yourenergy and your hope, you're
never going to turn around andlook outside and figure out what
your thing is,
yeah, and here's, here's kind ofmy general rule, I want to be
(17:26):
focused on the things I cancontrol. Yes. The reason I left
the music business is because Ino longer felt like I could make
a tangible difference in thatspace. I did not have the
relationship capital, and I hada lot of relationships, but I
wasn't ever going to be able tomove that sinking ship. I wasn't
(17:47):
ever going to be able to writeit, because it was so wrong and
broken. And the model was, it isso funny, because the things
that I was shouting in the late90s when I first got in there
are all things that have come tome and a lot of us think big and
dream big. A lot of times we'retoo early, you know, we're too
(18:08):
big to fit in the box thatthey've tried to put you in.
Yeah, but
that doesn't mean, and I thinkthis goes back to your orphan
ideas. What's funny, the moreand more I, you know, I hang out
with Terry, I realize how muchwe have in common. We just say
the same things in two differentways. Which is why the world
needs us, because others willgravitate towards it. You know,
when you talked about orphanideas, a lot of times I pay I
say, pay attention to commonthemes, because it's the, it's
(18:31):
the nudge that you'recontinually getting that like
there is a thing there. And youknow, to this to this point,
about being too early, itdoesn't mean you're shouting
into the void. The people whocame after you that were able to
kind of carry change over thefinish line may have very well
done so because you primed apump. Yeah.
(18:52):
Well, it's, you know, it's the,you know, it's the garden
analogy, you know, at some pointand somebody had to plant this
seed, yeah, somebody gets toreap the reward in the end. And
often those aren't the samepeople.
It's usually not the gardener,it's the it's the it's maybe the
farmer. But I also think thatthere's, there's a layer in here
(19:12):
and about people don't know whatthey want. That's why they don't
do the thing. But they alsodon't create the space, the
time, the intention, to figurethis out. And a lot of times I
think that's because of thesesocietal norms and conditions
that, like you said, we'reconditioned to think it's
(19:33):
impossible or that we're notallowed to and what I think is
so beautiful. And one of myplatforms for career vendors
over the last seven years hasbeen stop playing small and stop
being mediocre, because you havemore control and more agency
over your life and your careerand your circumstances then you
typically exercise, because wetend to just accept where we're
(19:56):
at instead of analyzing it andseeing if it's where. We
actually want to be, or if thereis something better, and that's
really what drilling down intoyour thing is all about.
Well, I think one of the likepieces of this is you under when
you understand what it is thatyou want to do and where you
(20:17):
want to go. I think it's supercritical that you surround
yourself with people doing thatas normal. I think a lot of us
put ourselves in environmentswhere, you know, one of my
there's a great, there's a greatquote by Oprah that said her
life changed. In fact, DanClauser, who came to the thing,
(20:40):
I used this quote in my talk atJustin Shanks for a very first
event that he did is that Oprahsaid that her life changed when
she stopped surrounding herpeople. Her life changed when
she stopped surrounding herselfwith people that ask why. But
ask, why not? Yeah, and you wantto be around people who where,
where doing the crazy thing isnormal. And I think that's why
(21:02):
the communities that you're apart of and the coaches that you
allow yourself to be surroundedwith, and obviously, like,
there's a practical piece. Don'tget me wrong, when I'm working
with somebody, I'm always like,trying to go through, like,
okay, but like, you've got toeat this month exactly where you
want to go long term. Let'sstart charting a course. Yes,
(21:26):
and I think this is where, youknow, in the career space, where
you've where you've been livingfor a while, right? Like this is
where, what, you know, I callthe bridge job, you know, it
might be a bridge to get you towhere you want to go. Or, I
think sometimes our skills allowus to have our own, like side
(21:47):
hustle, meaning this is ourmain, like passion and project.
But yet, we also have a skillwhere we can do graphic design,
we do website design, or we arewe, you know, are graded like
this or that, and it could besuper practical, or it could be,
you know, you're great atmaking, we talked about the
person that makes the little,you know, crochet potatoes, you
(22:09):
know, you may be a great crochetpotato, where that could be your
little side hustle that enablesyour bigger dream of doing
something more and doingsomething bigger.
I feel so empowered to go orderpositive potatoes now, because I
really want to. And Terry'slike, those things are awesome.
And so here's where I want to dothere are, there are small
(22:31):
little threads throughout thisthat I hope some of you out
there might be picking up on.But now we're going to go at it
directly. I want to know, Terry,what would you say to somebody
out there who were starting tokind of make a little nervous,
right? They are like, yeesh. Imeant for more, but I can't
figure out what my thing is.What would you say to that
(22:52):
person?
I mean, if you look at if you'rewatching this on video, you're
seeing my office, and there's agreat guy. I've had him on my
podcast a couple times. I gotinto Kentucky, and he talks
about one of my favorite toysgrowing up, which was the tinker
toy. But tinkering is a verypowerful process to go and start
(23:13):
experimenting. You know, thepeople that you look at and the
world that are like, wow, theyare super, super successful. You
know, a great example of this,and I hate that he's a
politically charged name is likeElon Musk. He didn't launch a
rocket into space until theycrashed a rocket into the ocean.
(23:34):
And I think that we need tolearn that, that people who, I
mean, we talked, we talked aboutBill Gates in the blue screen,
right? Like, these arebillionaires that at the high,
that are at the highest of highlevels, that we know them for
their failures,
yeah, which is a great sothere's, I think that there's
this idea of, like, even if youdon't know what the thing is,
(23:56):
just start doing something, yes,instead of being caught up in
fear, perfectionism, I think, isa huge, huge culprit, and why
people stay small in societytoday, because we can see the
failures so much more readilybecause of social media, but
distractions or excuses, right?There's there, I can guarantee
(24:20):
you, every single one of you outthere has has an inkling in the
back of your mind of the thingTerry and I are talking about
and kind of, kind of pushing youto lean into you just don't
start for a various quote,unquote reason, which is, ie, an
excuse, yeah.
And you know, perfectionism isjust a different way to label
procrastination,procrastination, it's, it's, and
(24:46):
I get it like, you know, one ofone of my coaching clients is
based on what I've known for thelongest time. And he comes from,
like, you know, thestereotypical Asian family. And
like he wants to make a changein his life, but he doesn't feel
(25:09):
like he can make that change,because he feels like he's going
to be letting someone else down.And I want to challenge you that
if you're kind of like, youknow, at that point where you're
a little, you're you feel antsyand you feel like it might be
time to do something different.Make sure the regrets that you
have at the end of your lifearen't that you didn't live the
life you wanted to, that youdidn't go out there and do the
(25:32):
do the the thing that you weremade to do. Because I really do
believe that each of us has beengiven kind of an opportunity or
an assignment, and that weshould go do it. And, you know,
with with with the crazinessthat's happens in the world, I
think that some of us are goingto get it, going to get to be
(25:54):
given the opportunity to dosomething new, whether we want
to or not. And, you know, I lovethat. I love the I love the
story that they just announcedthis week that there's a college
that's going to have Carmen thefrog do there. And of course, if
I'm wearing their shirt today,Kermit the Frog is going to do
(26:15):
their commencement address. Sojealous, you know, why can I
enroll in a class I want to go?But I think of that great speech
that Jim Carrey famously didwhere he talks about his dad,
and you know that his dad livedthis his whole life, chasing the
safety and security of a jobthat he eventually lost, rather
(26:36):
than doing that thing that hereally always wanted to do, and
that, that, you know, we allhave the opportunity to do that,
to go and do the the thing thatwe've always wanted to do. And
it can start small, right? Itcan start as a side project or a
(26:57):
and eventually you'll know it,what it might be is that might
be the first stepping stone onthe way to what you eventually
end up doing. Very, very firstof us, the very first idea we
have, is what we do for Yes, Imean, you know, you and I even
had a conversation earlier todayabout, like, how things are
evolving and how things areshifting. And, you know, I mean,
(27:20):
this is the ninth year thatwe've done the thing. So of
course, the thing has shiftedand changed, and our dreams and
our priorities and our and ourgoals and the people we want to
help, because there's kind ofthe the underbelly of this, if
you will, that there's a groupof people that I really wish I
(27:42):
could help, but I can't, becausethey'll never actually do the
thing. Nick Saban talks aboutthis, the former head coach of
the Alabama Crimson Tidefootball team, and they're my
least favorite fan base in allof America. But Nick Saban talks
about how and the culture of agreat team, that achievers and
(28:05):
people who don't want to doanything are never comfortable
in the same space, yep, and thatthat, if you have people that
are just dead weight, thataren't doing anything, that the
achievers are eventually goingto either leave because they're
Going to go somewhere else, oror, and, you know? And I'm all
for a space, right? I'm all forcreating an environment where
(28:26):
people, people, some people,grow slower than others,
but I think there has to be thewill and the intent and the
motivations, because otherwiseyou'll have a group who's
getting bored and a group whoyou know is never going to come
up to meet the challenge. It's alittle bit like you can, you
know that that group of peoplethat you'd love to help, I
(28:47):
agree. You can take you can leada horse to water, but you can't
make them drink, and unless theyhave the intrinsic motivation to
pursue whatever the thing is, noexternal force is really going
to create momentum.
Yeah. I even talked about thisin my mastermind group this
week. Somebody used that leadHorse to Water quote. And I
(29:07):
said, Yeah, and I always take ita step forward, that I will lead
you to water, but I can't, Iwon't waterboard you. Yeah, I'm
not going to torture you intoactually taking action. The
opportunities here I've givenyou instructions, and I think
that this is a when you'retrying to create a product or a
service that helps people, atsome point I have to put the
(29:28):
obligation on you to take theaction. Yes, you know much, yes,
great gift I was talking about.I'll hold it up. I love this.
You know, it's a desk dumpsterthat I've had now for two years,
that I haven't yet assembled,but it's still here, and it's
literally I, actually, I movedit from the pile in the corner
(29:49):
to my desk, which is, you know,not the Oh, I'm just
sitting here thinking, I wish wecould see the rest of this room.
But now, now is the time for thedesk. Top dumpster fire to be
opened. And I you, I you've saida couple little tidbits that I
kind of want to pull together,because we talk a lot here about
(30:10):
values, driven purpose, drivenwork as a pathway to a more
fulfilling, more authentic life.And I think it's so important to
highlight and just call out thefact that, in a way, that's what
we're that's what we're talkingabout with the thing, and Terry
and I are completely on the samesoapbox in the same echo
chamber, or whatever you want tocall it, when we talk about the
(30:31):
idea that we all have been givengifts to carry out some sort of
purpose that is intended to havean impact on this world, and
that that could be the world, orthat could be a single human in
it, and by not doing so, you arekeeping it from that person. And
that is a pretty audacious thingto do. Who are you to keep your
(30:52):
gift and your light in thisworld from the people who need
it? And the last thing I'll addis that in doing so you will be
more fulfilled and have noregrets, because the worst
person you can disappoint inthis world is you.
Yes, absolutely, yeah, and I'lleven go, I always kind of, I
(31:19):
like to take things and put themin like, as you can tell,
they're they're trinketseverywhere in my office. And the
reason there is a lot of theseare a souvenir or a moment. And
one of the things we do is wegive out random things tied to
stories. Because I think objectsteach us
lessons and stories, teachesteach us lessons. Right?
Absolutely, I always thinkabout,
I always take it to this, like,extreme when I talk about people
(31:40):
and their gifts, imagine howupset you would be if you found
out someone had the cure tocancer and wasn't sharing it
with us, you and I and everyoneelse has the cure to someone's
cancer. We have you have thatgift and that skill and that
ability and that way of thinkingthat is keeping someone up at
(32:03):
night, but yet you could do itin your sleep, and once you
discover that you know, and youyou mentioned purpose and
values. And I, actually, I'vebeen going through a lot of that
work, because I think it reallyall goes down to our core
values. And I just wrote anarticle about this that, you
(32:23):
know, there are three things forme lately that that I've noticed
of the people that I want I wantto be around the people that I
want around my community, andit's the people that believe
that community is greater thannetworking. You don't want to
just go someplace and justyou're there for a transactional
relationship. I want to bearound people that give more
than they take. I want to peoplewho, you know, I heard a podcast
(32:47):
interview with one of myfavorite leaders, and they
talked about that. I don't, theydon't want to serve the they
don't want to work with peoplewho want to come over for
dinner, but want that. Want itto go. They just want to, like,
skip the whole, you know thatpart of it, and the third, the
third piece is, I want tobelieve in I want to be around
people who value people morethan they value profits. And
(33:10):
that's not to say that moneydoesn't matter. Money matters.
In fact, you
right. Yeah, absolutely. But,
but yet, understanding thosevalues, and and I think that's
that's one of the things thatI've learned myself, is I have a
real hard time helping someonewho doesn't do the work to root
(33:31):
themselves on their purpose.Yeah, because if you don't have
a rudder, and if you don't havea destination, and I'm not
saying I'm not willing to helpyou find those things, but if
you don't get to the place wherethose things are really, really
clear, and you have to distillit down, right? You have to do
the hard work. These are, theseare hard work things. These are
go and find, yes, these are goand find a journal and write
(33:52):
them down.
Inner work is the hardest workyou'll ever do, which is
probably one reason why many,most people, don't do it, and if
you're not willing, you'llnever, you'll never, you'll
never get to the heart of thematter. And if
I'm being honest, all three ofthose things are probably trauma
informed for me, interestingthat I've been around people who
(34:16):
just wanted to network. Yeah,I've been around people who want
to who value people less thanthey valued money. I've been
around people that that onlyonly are there to take and not
give, and I think we all right,yes. So for me, my answer to
(34:36):
that was, what if? Why not me?Yeah, you know, why not me to
actually solve some of theseproblems? Yeah? And I think, you
know, if you're listening today,and you're, you're sitting there
and you're, you know, I lovethat it's no more Mondays,
right? Because Monday is a daythat a lot of people dread. You
know, Sunday night is the numberone night that people have heart
(34:57):
attacks because they dread. You.They dread going to work on
Monday. And, you know, I, youknow, I think of one of the
people that I've worked withover the years who works in a
federal job and hates, like,hates their job. And what keeps
them there is, like, our what'skept them there is the idea that
(35:19):
these things could never betaken away. And now that there
are things, you know, that couldbe taken away, they're kind of,
I believe, system is gettingshaken to its core right now,
right?
And, you know, there's some goodand there's some bad in that,
right? You know, we can argueabout whether the timing of how
that's being handled, orwhatever, we can argue about
(35:40):
that all day, but the realityis, like, don't outsource your
future to someone else. Yes, and
I want to, can I jump in and sayone thing here, what Terry and
I? Because I agree with that. Ithink we lean into employment as
a with a false sense of securitythat we don't have control over.
But also, not everyone is meantto necessarily be an
(36:01):
entrepreneur. I think our pointhere is to take the agency that
you have so that you arecontrolling what you can
control, and you're not leavingyour destiny up to chance or
someone else. No,
I think very much the samethings the best employees are
ones that have anentrepreneurial mindset. Mm,
hmm, if you go to a restaurant,and there's great employees that
(36:25):
are treating it like it's theirbusiness when they're motivated
by, you know, when you gosomewhere where profit sharing
is a big part of it, you couldtell those people here, because,
you know, I think of, I thinkI'm in 2001 when, when Chick fil
A and then sort of In and OutBurger about the same time, went
(36:48):
to the Ritz Carlton to figureout how they could do
hospitality at a higher level,because it wasn't normal. And I
think really what we're sayingis not just do your thing, but
stop chasing normal. Start beinghappy in what you bring. Start
bringing you to the table. WhatI don't want you to do. I don't
(37:09):
if you want a nine to fiver man,and that's what makes you happy,
and you're thriving. Do it.There are a lot of people that
are great number twos. Yep.There are a lot of people that
are great in the third seat.There are a lot of people that
that is like their gift andtheir talent and their skill.
And sometimes, as anentrepreneur, I realize that
maybe I, you know, mostentrepreneurs will tell you that
(37:32):
they would dream of having a CEOto take care of and doing all of
that other stuff. In fact,that's actually the number one
thing that I see a lot of reallyhigh level entrepreneurs.
Russell Brunson is a big namethat's done that, where they
bring in, you know, they bringin a CEO to run the company so
they can be the chief dreamer,you know. And I think whatever,
(37:56):
whatever, whatever you havediscovered, is your thing, and
that thing that you bring to thetable, you know. And I talk
about entrepreneurship enough,and you know, and I don't want
to ever in dog someone, if theyreally, if you want, if you want
to. I have a great friend thatyou know is a is a producer of a
media show, and he's awesome atit, and that's the perfect
(38:19):
opportunity. But he also has areally thriving podcast on the
side that he does about apassion project. And he makes
really great money, and heprobably could quit the other
job, but he loves the other job,so he does both.
And that's a really good point.So I one thing, I A lot of times
will say, like being employedversus being an entrepreneur.
One is not better than theother. They're different. And I
(38:40):
tend to find that you're wiredkind of one way or the other, if
you find yourself with a littlecross wiring. Terry brings up a
good point that you don't youknow, I think part of living and
working authentically is justdistributing your identity
across some things. Yes, one isone. Part of it is knowing the
purpose that you feel, becausethat's where the vocational
fulfillment will come from. ButI also find a lot of times,
(39:02):
people will put too much stockin 100% of their existence and
fulfillment coming from thevocation and the work. And as
soon as you kind of back offthat belief and start
distributing across a fewdifferent activities,
volunteering as a side hustle, apodcast, whatever it is, you
know, you start to kind of fireon all cylinders. And the big, I
think the big message here is,don't take things at face value,
(39:28):
but challenge. Let's call it thesystem a little bit. Put
yourself under question and makethis proactive decisions on how
you want that to look, versusaccepting the default so many of
us are willing to accept,because that's where the thing
gets lost.
Yeah, and I think now, now, morethan any time, and you're seeing
(39:50):
it globally, that I think peopleare rebelling against this idea
of, I'm going to hop in line.You know, I talk about it in my
book, fly. Uh, you know what?Elephants are trained in
captivity. They're, they'rethey're taught this idea of
tailing, which is when theelephant takes its trunk and
(40:11):
literally grabs the tail of theelephant in front of them. And
we teach kids that inkindergarten in America, they're
taught to stand in line and getin line. And that's not just
something we do to maintainchildren's safety at school.
It's something we're taught as asocietal norm, that you get in
line and you follow the rules
and that you have a place fromthe time you're small in that
(40:34):
line. Yeah,
you know, because, you know, oneof the things we did at the
thing last year is I brought uplike this, you know, the the
cardboard like rocket fort,because I wanted everyone to
remember, like, when was thattime when you dreamed that
anything was possible, you know?And you're wherever you're
watching this today from, andyou're sitting there going, Man,
(40:54):
I'm not really sure what's next.I want you to kind of go back to
that moment where, like, nobodywas telling you that that
couldn't be done. There was amoment where the the the
refrigerator box that theappliance got delivered in, was
the the, you know, the EmpireState, anything was possible, or
it was a rocket ship, or it wasa submarine, and nobody could
(41:15):
tell you otherwise. And which iswhy, you know, sometimes it's
like it turn off the screenskids and dream again. And so I
would say the same thing thatyou're probably telling your
children to you, you know, dreamagain and think about what,
what? What did you think wasimpossible when you were a kid?
(41:38):
What did you think that and thateverybody said, no, no, you
can't do that. But you didn'tbelieve. You didn't believe it
was true. You believe that youcould be that, be and do that.
And I still believe that'spossible for you. It may it may
look different than how youoriginally dreamed it, but you
have the ability to design thelife and the experience that you
(42:00):
want, and it's just a matter ofthe only difference between the
people who have it and don't arethe people that decided to take
action, the people that decidedthat they were going to make the
choice, and noone else was goingto tell them otherwise. And
that's not to say that the otherthe people in your life, whether
that be your family or yourspouse even that's going to look
at you like you're nuts. But,man, I'd rather have a little
(42:25):
friction over a discussion of,like, the next phase of my life,
to get to the end of it and haveregret then miss it entirely.
Yeah, and you know, that's,that's the saddest, you know? Do
you ever I'm a plane sleeper. Iget it on an airplane, typically
by the by the time they'retelling me to put my seat belt
on, I'm passed out, unlessthat's Jim. And I know that I
(42:51):
want to drink. I know that I'mgonna I've got a drink you bone
or I want to. I want, I want my,my Mr. T's Bloody Mary mix, or
my ginger ale for the flight, orwhatever I want, right? I don't
know why I order those things,but those are typically things I
get on the plane that I don'tever drink in real life, but,
but, man, I normally pass outand like, you wake up and it's
(43:12):
like, oh, we're landing. I'vemissed the whole flight, and
that's the way that a lot of uslive our lives. We like, we, we,
we get lulled to sleep, and allof a sudden we've arrived and
realized we're not where weintended to go. Yeah, joke at
the front door when you're like,hey, we're on our way to Dallas.
I wasn't gonna go to Dallastoday, you know. And I think a
(43:32):
lot of people have gotten to adestination. And I'm here to
tell you that it's not too lateto change it in you may be 30 or
40, maybe in your 60s. It's nottoo late. It's not too late. You
still have the power to changeyour best days are ahead. If
you're willing to take action,and you know, bet on yourself,
(43:55):
go all in on you. Like a lot ofthings, we're willing to go in,
go all in a lot of things, butmost of us aren't willing to go
all in on ourselves.
What's that saying? The besttime to plant a tree was 20
years ago, and the next besttime is today. Yes, you don't
need all of the answers. Youjust need to start my
favorite Japanese proverb, yep.And that's and that's so true,
(44:19):
you can't control what youdidn't do 20 years ago, yeah,
but you can control what you dotoday.
From this moment on, you don'tneed all the answers. You just
need to get started, because thelast thing you want to be is a
passenger in your life headed tothe wrong destination, and if
you feel like you need thesupport of a community who is
(44:43):
doing something similar. Terryand crew has it. So this is a
great time Terry to telleverybody about the thing,
because there's a couple eventsupcoming where can they find out
more about it. And
the best website to go to is thething. Dot. Five and they can
get all of the things fromthere, we're in the plans of
(45:05):
going to a couple of bonuscities to do some one day
events. I know we're going toDallas for sure, in Tampa for
sure, and a couple other citiesthis fall, late summer,
yours truly will be at Nashvilleat the end of June, and at the
big thing in Orlando inNovember. So there you go.
(45:27):
There's your shameless plug.Incentive to come see me. I'll
give you a hug in real life.And, you know, I have to roll
something back to kind of bringthis all together. And what
we've been talking about, I, youknow, going, Terry and I have
known each other for a longtime, and not even in passing,
but hadn't really been immersedin each other's communities for
a long time, and for variousreasons, all of a sudden, some
(45:48):
worlds collided, and I foundmyself in this in the room in
November at the thing, and itwas so strange, because it was
just one of those Inklings. Itwas, it was the orphan idea I
didn't want to leave homeless,that it felt like a place I
should be, and out of it cameall these amazing connections
that you've gotten to hearflourish. But what was so
amazing to me, and this is justgoing to reinforce this idea of
(46:12):
you don't need all the answers,you just need to start and you
need the support to keep going.Because I remember walking out
of there thinking, man, it'sbeen a long time since I was in
a room of people who dream anddo the thing that they dream
about, and it was justinspiring. Isn't even the word.
It was almost comforting andcathartic, as somebody who is an
(46:32):
entrepreneur doing things anddreaming and implementing them
to be in a room, in a spacewhere that wasn't even just the
norm. It was expected andencouraged. And so I can't
whether it's the thing orsomething else. I can't
reinforce the importance ofputting yourself in a community
that will help you nurture thisidea of getting started and keep
(46:54):
going, you know?
And one of the, one of thethings I've had to like, because
when I look at it for myself.Like, the thing is, these are
just, these are things I wouldjust do anyways, right? Like,
I've had to, I've come to theunderstanding, through your eyes
and other people's eyes thatwhat we do at the thing is
special. I don't know why it'snot the norm. I don't know why
(47:15):
there's not tons of environmentsthat are that way. I don't know
why every conference doesn'tmake that the environment, but
we are, you know, and
that's what's special about it.Terry, it's not the norm, yeah.
And you know, it's that, it'sthat great Dr Seuss quote about,
you know, nothing will change,and says, unless the person that
cares does something about it.You know, it's that, it's the
(47:37):
who, the or, here's a who quote.I don't, I don't remember the
exact quote. But you know thatat some point you have to
someone, someone has to decidethat this is the way it's going
to be, and not accept any less.And we're, and we're kind of,
when I see people come in and Iknow that they're, you know, if
I sense that people haveulterior motives, they get
uninvited, especially from thestage. I don't want people
(48:01):
coming in and kind of, I wantthem to experience what happens
when, you know, everybody kindof comes in and just leans in
and encourages people. And youknow, I'm glad that you are
back, and I'm glad that you'veyou've found this, you know that
(48:21):
you're coming back to the bothbig events this year, and you
know, I think that shows acommitment on your part to your
personal growth. Because I oneof the things I've understood,
and I think one of the veryfirst things that we did when we
started this, is everyone'slike, you need to do a bunch of
this. And you went to justsurvey. So I was like, surveys.
(48:43):
I was like, here's the deal. Ionly know the kind of event I
want to go to. So if I cancreate and curate a space where,
regardless of how familiar thisis to me, I'm going to learn and
gain something from it, then Imust that. I imagine other
people will too. And that wasall the knowledge I was armed
(49:06):
with. Was, Is that, wow, I wouldbe really cool to hear from this
person about this. I bet youother people be interested in
this. And that's the same wayyou probably started what you
had the podcast. I'm like, wow,I had a fascinating conversation
with somebody. We should shareit with more people? Yeah, you
know. And I'm on here because,you know, we had a conversation
(49:26):
like, why do we not record thatconversation for one of our
podcasts? Like, and that's, andthat's, that's how action
actions get started, is becauseyou're around people, you dream
and think differently, and, youknow, where being not normal is
the norm, and you know it's it'snot normal to have these
(49:48):
conversations we're having inthe to kind of rebel against
safety, or at least the illusionof safety. And. So, yeah, I
appreciate you and yourinvestment in, you know, it's
very obvious when you came toOrlando this last year that you
(50:10):
came with open hands. You know,you came to get, came up, but
you came to give way more thanyou came to get. You were you
were there to you were there tobe around something you you had
sent, you had you'd beenmagnetized to the people that
were there you since there wassomething there for you. Yeah,
but you showed up to first servefully out. And man, if more
people just showed up like thatin more environments. And I
(50:33):
really do believe that you know,as you experience that most
people, the majority of peoplethat do show up to the thing,
especially those that are on thestage and in the core of the
community that they do, they docome with that spirit, and they
do want to there's a sense oflike curiosity, which I think is
a real differentiator in ourcommunity, is everyone is just
(50:57):
curious about what other peopleDo, and they're curious about
how they can actually connectthe dots for people. And you,
you've you've experienced thatthe people have been on the
about on your podcast, havewhere they've experienced like,
wow, wow. This connects. Wecould do this. We this. We could
collaborate here. And, you know,a lot of these people do similar
(51:18):
work to what you do, but there'sno sense of like, when you shift
your life from like, a scarcitymindset,
yes, those are the words I washoping you were going to say,
yeah,
that you know, scarcity says webetter put up the dam and keep
the water we Have because it'sgoing to run out. And abundance
(51:42):
says, Take down the, you know,take down the dam and let the
waters roam free, because it'llrain tomorrow. If it doesn't
rain, we'll make it rain. And Ifeel like the the thing is a
place where Make It Rain isnormal, yep, and where people
are going to commit to and thatdoesn't mean that it's people
(52:02):
aren't they're still notstruggle. There's still not
difficulty, but there's a senseof, like, you know, those goofy
trust falls that we all had todo in some corporate meeting,
but that there really is someonethere to catch you when you need
that, and they're they're thereto give you advice and help, and
actually, you know, tactics thatyou could deploy to fix a
problem that you're having,because, for the most part, the
(52:26):
stuff that you and I do are big,massive changes that people are
making. They're just tiny littletweaks, you know. And the shift,
the shift from abundance toscarcity, is, is not that big of
a shift, but once you make it,everything changes.
Everything snowballs. And that'sa I think that's a great way to
(52:46):
kind of put a stamp or anexclamation point on this kind
of whole conversation, becausewe talked a lot about the thing
the event. But ultimately, whatTerry and I want you to do is go
find your thing and lean intoit. And I'm so grateful for for
what you do, for these types ofcommunities, and for creating a
not normal place for we, notnormal people, to be Terry. And
(53:08):
thank you for like, kind wordsfor me that's I wasn't I wasn't
hoping to like, I'm gonna haveTerry for some compliments, but
mostly I appreciate you beinghere with me today and sharing
your wisdom with with everyonewho needs to hear it, and for
helping me create, just even inthe last 45 minutes, a place for
people to really start thinkingabout this, and where you just
(53:30):
left us off, where you just kindof took us to is, I think, the
perfect leaving off point forthis conversation, as we leave
you with the food for thought ofWhat's your thing, and, more
importantly, what is one smallaction you can take to move
closer to doing it? It doesn'thave to be a big leap. It just
(53:50):
has to be the thing that getsyou started. How can you get
started? This week? Terry, one
slightly step further. Who canyou go and encourage Yes, in
this, in your world, to do it,to do it with you, so you don't
have to do it.
Do it with you. Don't do italone. Yeah, is the extra piece
of it. The
(54:11):
greatest gift that you couldgive with to another human on
this planet is the gift ofbelief. And sometimes when we
lack the belief in ourself, wehave to borrow it from somebody
else. So be a great Lender ofbelief.
There you go, everybody. How canyou lend belief to have more
(54:31):
belief in yourself? Don't takenormal at face value. Push that
system and go do your thing. Ilook forward to hearing more
about that thing from all ofyou. So this is, this is a
different call sign off thanusual. I want to hear your
thing. Reach out to me, findTerry at the thing. Wait, what
is it? The thing?
(54:52):
Or just Terry weaver.com Terryweaver.com if they're watching
on LinkedIn, they can leave,leave the comment down below, or
they can go to the panel and.We'll
put links here. We'll put linkseverywhere, but Terry and I are
here to help you. Shout yourthing from the rooftop. So start
with us. Find your thing.Encourage others through it.
Find others doing the thing. Andthen, most importantly, once you
start, never ever stop, it ishow you are going to change the
(55:16):
world, even if it is one humanat a time. And isn't that an
amazing way to live and workmore authentically. Terry
Weaver, thank you again forjoining me for no more Mondays,
everybody out there, thank youfor listening and spending this
Monday morning with us. Thankyou for giving me a place to do
my thing. I'll see you next weekfor another episode of no more
(55:36):
Mondays podcast. You.
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