Biography

Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE, author, professional speaker and business leader, is the CEO of Cathcart Institute LLC (founded in 1977), an organization devoted to helping clients create and grow High-Value Relationships. A top 1% TEDx speaker, his video has been viewed over 2.3 million times. He’s a professor in the Executive MBA program for the School of Business of California Lutheran University and their Entrepreneur in Residence. Jim’s four decades of study in applied behavioral science has resulted in The Acorn Principle, a guide to understanding the many elements that make us who we are. This breakthrough work achieved international bestseller status. In fact, it was the nation’s #2 bestselling e-book in the year 2000, second only to Stephen King. As the author of 20 books, a popular podcast guest and scores of recorded programs, his students number in the millions.

Inducted into the Sales & Marketing Hall of Fame, Jim Cathcart is the man who popularized the term “Relationship Selling.”  His recent revision of this bestselling book explores the eight competencies of top sales producers in the twenty-first century. It is also the primary course in the Cathcart Online Academy.

Jim is considered one of the world’s leading professional speakers and business authors. He regularly coaches others in building their career and serves as a “Virtual VP” for a variety of organizations. He has presented over 3,300 speeches in every US state and around the world. Jim Cathcart is one of only 5 speakers in the world who hold all of the following honors: past president of the National Speakers Association (NSA), recipient of the Cavett Award, member of the Speaker Hall of Fame (CPAE), Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a member of the exclusive Speakers Roundtable (20 of the world’s top speakers) and recipient of the Golden Gavel Award from Toastmasters International. He’s also a Certified Virtual Presenter, 2020. In August of 2008 he was inducted as one of the “Legends of the Speaking Profession.” Every year since 2010 he has been chosen as one of the “Top 5 Speakers on Sales & Service” through an online survey of 27,000 businesspeople.

When he’s not on camera or on a platform, you can find Jim running mountain trails, riding a motorcycle, or playing guitar and singing in nightclubs. He’s committed to living life fully and helping others do the same.

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High-Rev Leadership

Get people to want to perform at their best

Think Like A Start Up, Lead Like A Pro! The main challenge of leadership is not a skills challenge; it is a motivation challenge. Getting people to want to do what needs to be done. That is the main job of a leader.

Purpose
• Regain the energy and drive of a new entrepreneur! Give people the confidence to press forward despite uncertainty or challenges.
• Show people how to take the lead and keep it.
• Empower them to lead themselves and to help others grow.

What Audiences Learn
• Ground-Level Leadership, getting things done
• How to leverage your connections into assets.
• 336 ways to get people to do what is needed.
• The critical variables: What you know & what you contribute.
• The Mastery Grid: Purpose & Contribution = Fulfillment.
• How to be a thought leader in your field.
• Mindset: Rethinking the purpose of business (To make life better for people).
• Mindset: Rethinking the purpose of sales (To build a profitable clientele).
• Mindset: Rethinking the purpose of management (To help people grow).
• Mindset: Rethinking the purpose of great service (To increase the satisfaction).
• How the way you think about work shows up in your output.
• Lead with your heart, but guide with your head.
• Know the motives behind the motivation.
• The importance of keeping people in the right frame of mind.
• How your nature & your nurture (experiences) determine your potential.
• Achieving Ph Balance: Profits High, and People Happy.

Time Frames
• Speech: 20-60 minutes
• Seminar: up to 3 hours
• Workshop: up to 6 hours or 2 days

Applications
For Managers, Owners, Leaders & Sales Professionals
• Coping with Change & Challenge

Relationship Intelligence®

Turning Contacts Into Assets

High-Rev Selling: “Increase your Sales IQ! Wouldn’t you rather get ALL the business instead of just one transaction? Relationships must be treated as Assets! A relationship without a sale is merely a social connection. A sale without a relationship is what one gets from a vending machine. Our clients deserve to have us as their partner in problem solving.” - Jim Cathcart, Original Author of Relationship Selling

Purpose
• Remove people’s fear of making commitments in an uncertain economy. Change the way people think about sales relationships.
• Teach them specific techniques in order to generate more sales with less resistance.
• Build their confidence and give them a clear direction for action.

What Audiences Learn
• How to get all the business, not just one transaction.
• The eight competencies of sales readiness.
• How to turn “cold” calls into first calls.
• Learn to read the ways people will teach you how to sell to them.
• How to sell to buyers as they like to be sold to.
• The true difference between gross and net revenue.
• Rethinking the purpose of sales (To build profitable business friendships).
• How to gain the edge over competition.
• How to sell naturally, without pressure.
• Studying needs and wants rather than just pitching product benefits.
• How to keep the sales pipeline full.
• Sell the idea not just the product.
• Targeted Curiosity: Learning what to wonder about.
• Advanced listening and questioning techniques.
• How to be a Partner, not just a Persuader.

Time Frames
• Speech: 20-60 minutes
• Seminar: up to 3 hours
• Workshop: up to 6 hours or 2 days
• 12 week online course available

Applications
For Sales Managers, Owners & Sales Professionals
• Knowing how to reach and sustain the top 1% of sales leadership.
• Teaching non-sales professionals how to generate new business.
• Advancing the skills of already-successful top performers.

Presentation Skills

Confident, World-Class Communication

Imagine getting the Super Bowl Winning Quarterback to teach you football or the winner of The Voice® to teach you to sing.

Jim Cathcart is a Certified Speaking Professional, Speaker Hall of Fame inductee, Past President of the National Speakers Association, Winner of The Golden Gavel, The Cavett Award, The Legends of Speaking Award, The Lifetime Achievement Award and co-founder of The Professional Speaking Institute. Top 1% TEDx speaker.

Sometimes, it is more valuable for Jim Cathcart to train your people to speak more effectively than it is for him to personally address your group!

Purpose
• Collaborate with you to design enterprise solutions for your communication skills needs.
• Large or small groups can be trained directly by Jim Cathcart in workshops and seminars.
• Private personal coaching tailored exactly to the needs of each individual.

What Audiences Learn
• Online Presentation Skills vs In Person
• Structuring your message
• Managing the speaking environment
• Telling Stories effectively
• Using humor
• Platform mastery and stage techniques
• Strategies for each different type of presentation
• Handling difficult audiences
• Customizing your message to the audience
• Speaking to: persuade, inform, motivate, educate, train, entertain, etc.
• Build Confidence... and so much more.

Time Frames
• Determined by the size and needs of each group. Online Academy and in-person optional.

Applications
For Service Providers, Workers, Managers, Owners, Leaders & Sales Professionals
• The Message
• The Delivery
• The Audience
• The Setting
• The Process
• The Speaker

The Acorn Principle™

Helping People Grow

“The Seed of your future Success already lives within you.” – The Acorn Principle,
Bestseller by Jim Cathcart

Purpose
• Discover your greatest strengths. Generate initiative and build self-reliance.
• Show people how to grow themselves and their businesses by learning to find the natural
strengths in situations and people.
• Empower them to help people grow.

What Audiences Learn
• The Mastery Grid: Purpose & Contribution = Fulfillment
• How to become a Thought Leader in your field.
• The eight vital elements of empowerment.
• How to isolate the traits that make you unique.
• How to align people into roles and relationships that bring out their best.
• How to determine “how” a person is smart.
• How to recognize your priority values.
• How to motivate people without over or under doing it.
• How to measure a person’s potential “velocity”.
• Ask yourself: How would the person I’d like to be do what I’m about to do?
• How to structure jobs to increase productivity.
• How one hour a day in study can make you a leading expert in 5 years or less.
• How to achieve “optimum” performance.
• Role agreements vs job descriptions.
• Three essentials for productive relationships.

Time Frames
• Speech: 20-60 minutes
• Seminar: up to 3 hours
• Workshop: up to 6 hours or 2 days

Applications
For Mentors, Service Providers, Managers, Owners, Leaders & Sales Professionals
• Self Awareness: help people understand why they are as they are and how to motivate themselves to be their best
• All leadership begins with self leadership
• Mastering Change and Staying on Purpose
• Bringing out the Best in People

UpServing™

The Simple Solution for Lifetime Customer Loyalty

“Customers experience the people, products and processes of dealing with you but what they
remember most is how you made them feel.” - Jim Cathcart

Purpose
• Change the way people look at their customers, their business and what they are paid to do.
• Get everyone to understand the importance of standards and systems in creating customer satisfaction.
• Get them to recognize the profit potential and fun that exists in exceptional service.

What Audiences Learn
• You must be loyal to your customers before you expect them to be loyal to you.
• The difference between Touch Points & Trust Points.
• Why some things must always be done right.
• How to get people to WANT to provide great service.
• UpServing vs. UpSelling.
• The importance of knowing how what you do makes life better for the recipients.
• The “Causation Chain” from Mindset to Actions to Habits to Reputation to Relationships to Opportunities & Outcomes.
• The “Grandma Factor” of keeping customers.
• The purpose of business: to make life better for people, profitably (so you can continue doing it.)
• How to convert average customers into great ones. (Where the leverage points are.)
• How to discover how your customers see your organization.
• How to identify both internal and external customers.
• How to bring life to your mission statement.
• The difference between Cash Flow and Profit.
• How to eliminate the “termites” of bad service.
• How to treat different customers differently yet as they want to be treated.
• The difference between Service thinking and Operations thinking.

Time Frames
• Speech: 20-60 minutes
• Seminar: up to 3 hours
• Workshop: up to 6 hours or 2 days

Applications
For Service Providers, Managers, Owners, Leaders & Sales Professionals
• Making managers aware of how to get employees to want to deliver genuine, enthusiastic service consistently.
• Reorienting employee thinking toward ongoing relationships with clients both internally and
externally.
• Educating your leaders on how to manage and structure the organization for quality service at
all levels.

Tailored Presentations

The Seed of your Success already lives within you!

With over 44 years of professional speaking around the world, and delivering more than 3,300 presentations to audiences in every state of the US, most provinces of Canada and countries from Scotland to China to Poland, Dubai and Singapore, Jim has an outstanding ability to customize and deliver a message that entertains, inspires and transforms your audience and resonates with your event theme.

Testimonials

You really did blow me away. You were the rage of our conference. Not only was your style and warmth fantastic, but the quality of the knowledge and material you presented was absolutely incredible!
– Ken Blanchard, Author, The One Minute Manager
I strongly recommend Jim Cathcart as a speaker of excellence. I know his work for his participation at Crestcom program "The Bullet Proof Manager" and his ideas and strategies certainly will help your business perform at its highest level.
– Carlos Ramos, VP, Crestcom Portugal
Jim Cathcart is one of the sharpest and best- grounded speakers and consultants that I know. He has a special knack for helping others figure out how to succeed when they are facing challenges and uncertainty. His coining of "The Acorn Principle" is a landmark concept in the field of business and personal development.
– George Morrisey, Chairman,The Morrisey Group
I have worked with hundreds of sales experts, authors and speakers during the past 26 years and have never come across someone like Jim Cathcart. When he speaks, you can hear a pin drop in the room. Why? Because his message comes from a rare universe that's filled with compelling stories, powerful analogies and infinite wisdom
– Gerhard Gschwandtner, Owner, Selling Power Magazine
Simply, Jim Cathcart is a speaking legend and an believably generous person!
– Mohamed Tohami, Egypt’s #1 Motivation Expert
Jim, you are the first professional speaker I have brought into this organization. Our distributors, from all over the U.S., Canada and a dozen foreign countries were absolutely delighted with your comments, observations and humor.The standing ovation they gave you at the end of your presentation is a clear statement of how they felt about you.
– Brian Tracy, Author, Maximum Achievement
Jim Cathcart is one of the finest speakers I have had the pleasure of knowing. He is the ONLY speaker I have recommended to replace me when during two family emergencies. His clients get a big bang for their buck as he can also sing and act as his own opening entertainment! Any association or corporation would not go wrong hiring Jim Cathcart for their meeting.
– Patricia Fripp, Past President, National Speakers Association
Jim, is a seasoned sales and business psychology expert. More than that, he carries a special gift. His orator y, stor y telling and business wisdom often captivates an entire audience. I watch them watch, write and listen while he speaks. Beyond motivation is inspiration and Jim continues to inspire..and educate his audiences....as he has me.
– Art Hobba, CEO, Transcende
Very seldom do I recommend someone without reservation -- as Vice Chairman of a company that owns nineteen businesses, I take this very seriously. However, that is EXACTLY the endorsement I would give Jim Cathcart. He's someone who makes a profound and positive difference.
– Scott McKain, President, McKain Performance Group, Inc.

Booksby Jim Cathcart

The Acorn Principle

The Power Minute

Relationship Selling

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Blog Posts

 

Embrace Radical Generosity This Giving Tuesday

As the season of gratitude unfolds, we're reminded of our shared humanity and the power...

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Celebrating Thanksgiving: Grateful Hearts, Bold Milestones

🦃 This Thanksgiving, we at The Keynote Curators are reflecting on what truly matters—our community,...

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“Find a Way” Philosophy to Overcome Life’s Challenges

Overcoming Challenges with Merril Hoge’s Find a Way Philosophy Challenges are a universal experience. Whether...

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The Power of Music in Events Few things unite people as effortlessly as music. Whether...

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Five Life-Changing Lessons from Recording 100 Podcast Episodes

How Creating a Podcast Can Transform Your Perspective in Life What if the simplest conversations...

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Celebrating International Men’s Day: Fostering Positive Change and Health

On International Men's Day, we celebrate their contributions and tackle the challenges they face through...

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