Latest / The Action Catalyst / Education is Freedom, with James Keyes (Learning, Business, Leadership, Change)
Transcript
- 0:00Adam Outland: Today's guest is James Keyes, a longtime business
- 0:03leader, currently serving as the chairman of Key Development LLC.
- 0:07His career has included serving as CEO of two Fortune 500
- 0:12companies, Blockbuster, Inc and 7-11. His new book, Education
- 0:17is Freedom, The Future is in Your Hands, highlights his
- 0:20passion for lifelong learning, and is out now. James, thanks
- 0:24for joining us.
- 0:25James Keyes: Sure. Yeah, you better call me Jim, though Adam.
- 0:27I put James on the book because I wanted to be more formal. But
- 0:31nobody will know who it is if youcall me James.
- 0:34Adam Outland: Oh no, okay.
- 0:36James Keyes: The nice part about Adam, at least nobody calls you
- 0:38like, Ad.
- 0:39Adam Outland: Yeah, you can't reduce it any further? Yeah, you
- 0:41know, I'm always curious what someone thought was going to be
- 0:45their wife path in their early days, and then what some of the
- 0:48twists and turns were that caused it to be quite different
- 0:51than maybe what they expected. So, what path were you thinking
- 0:54you were on? And then what changed?
- 0:57James Keyes: That's a really good question. I literally grew
- 1:00up in circumstances where I didn't even know what options
- 1:05were out there. Business to me was the factory My dad worked
- 1:09at, and I didn't want any part of that. So business was kind of
- 1:13dark and dirty and hard, or the alternative was, it was typing
- 1:17class. I remember in high school we had typing class, no frame of
- 1:21reference whatsoever. But I was inspired by the space program at
- 1:25the time. As a kid, I grew up watching, you know, the Apollo
- 1:29missions and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon, and Charlie Duke and
- 1:33guys like that. And so I thought, okay, these guys came
- 1:36from nothing, and they become astronauts. So maybe that's a
- 1:41path for me. I want to be an astronaut, and I can do really
- 1:44cool things. So that was my first dream to be an astronaut.
- 1:48Set out to do that fell a little bit short of the astronaut day,
- 1:51at least so far in my life. You never know, though.
- 1:53Adam Outland: Yeah, like, what did that even look like?
- 1:54James Keyes: Well, Adam, that would imply I even knew the path
- 1:57to be an astronaut. All I knew is that to be an astronaut, I
- 2:03better be smart. And so literally, I said, Well, if you
- 2:06really want to be an astronaut, you better study because they
- 2:08have to be smart. I dove into learning, and I dove into
- 2:11school, and I loved science, you know, trying to learn as much as
- 2:15I could. One of my failures, I said, I'm going to I'm going to
- 2:19learn how to be a rocket scientist, and that will be my
- 2:22path to be an astronaut. And a guy named Robert Goddard, like
- 2:25the father of modern rocketry, grew up in this town, not too
- 2:29far from where I grew up, so I was kind of inspired by him, and
- 2:32I said, I'm gonna work on my own rocket. So I took an old
- 2:35flashlight, and I put some fins on it, a nose cone on it, at the
- 2:40body of the flashlight, and I took a baggie and I put gas in
- 2:43it. I thought, well, you know, if I put gas in it, and if I
- 2:47control the flow of gas, I maybe make it lot, pretty silly. I was
- 2:52like, seven years old, or eight years old, something like that.
- 2:55So I set this thing off, almost blew myself up. Didn't manage to
- 3:00get off the ground, but it did create quite a little fire. So I
- 3:03snuffed out the fire, and then left, came back and discovered I
- 3:06had nearly burned down half the neighborhood fire took off. So
- 3:10here's a kid trying to learn, trying to be a rocket scientist,
- 3:15and I was dubbed a bad kid in the neighborhood because I
- 3:17almost burned the place down.
- 3:20Adam Outland: But you know, it's a good early lesson that failure
- 3:22is going to be a part of the journey.
- 3:24James Keyes: It's a part of the journey. I have a quote by
- 3:26Nelson Mandela that I use all the time. I never lose. I win or
- 3:30I learn.
- 3:30Adam Outland: Yeah, the town survived. No one died in that
- 3:33explosion.
- 3:34James Keyes: Exactly. And I learned I was not cut out to be
- 3:36a rocket scientist.
- 3:37Adam Outland: Maybe not. But you found a way to reconnect with
- 3:41some of that passion, right? 40 years as a pilot?
- 3:44James Keyes: I am a commercially rated pilot. I don't fly
- 3:46commercial airlines. I fly a citation, which is, I'm at 40 to
- 3:5145,000 feet above most of the commercial airlines.
- 3:55Adam Outland: Wow.
- 3:55James Keyes: Without a need for a co pilot.
- 3:57Adam Outland: That's pretty cool.
- 3:58James Keyes: Yeah, it's, it's beyond cool.
- 4:00Adam Outland: You know, you've had such a storied career
- 4:02between your time as a CEO, you know, at 711, Blockbuster, and
- 4:06we'll get into a lot of that. But I thought something that
- 4:09really drew me was actually all of your, I think it almost goes
- 4:12beyond to say hobbies, but I mean, you composed and CO wrote
- 4:16a song that was performed. So composing, flying, sculpting,
- 4:22painting. You know, to me that that's reflected of someone who
- 4:25is innately curious.
- 4:28James Keyes: Yeah, it's curiosity, creativity.
- 4:30Interestingly, Einstein called Creativity intelligence, having
- 4:34fun. And it's so true. I mean, think about it, playing music is
- 4:39actually a form of mathematics. People think about it that way,
- 4:43but if you look at a score, it is mathematically correct in
- 4:48terms of beats and notes and structure and the way it comes
- 4:52together. It's almost a subliminal use of mathematics
- 4:56when you learn how to play an instrument, but it's also fun.
- 5:00And so it's kind of it makes learning fun and curiosity is is
- 5:04that innate thing that we all have as children. I mean, how
- 5:07many kids do you know that don't run around asking why, and
- 5:11they're just curious about everything because their minds
- 5:15are just developing and they just can't get enough want to
- 5:18learn more and more and more. And if we can learn as adults
- 5:23also to keep asking why there's just so much more richness that
- 5:27we can enjoy, why just look at art? Why not practice it? And
- 5:31then the next time you go to a museum, after you had a canvas
- 5:34and played around with some paint and mixing colors, the
- 5:37next time you go to a museum, you look at a great masterpiece,
- 5:41it's so much more meaningful when you've actually done it
- 5:44yourself.
- 5:46Adam Outland: On the business side of things, taking on the
- 5:50role of president and CEO of a tremendously large organization,
- 5:56I can only imagine, comes with a certain amount of stress and
- 5:59pressure. What were some of the things that you felt were most
- 6:05preparational and taking on this role? What were some of the key
- 6:08things or events that you felt equipped to you to lead so many
- 6:12people?
- 6:13James Keyes: Well I'll share a story with you. I use this story
- 6:17sparingly, because honestly, it sounds a little flaky. Shortly
- 6:22after being named CEO, I ended up with a dream. Now you see why
- 6:27I don't tell the story very often, but it was an incredibly
- 6:30powerful dream, and I was probably having that natural
- 6:34hesitation that we all have, maybe a little imposter
- 6:37syndrome, whatever it is that says, Oh my gosh, I'm the dog
- 6:40that caught the car. Now I worked my whole career to try to
- 6:44be a CEO. Now I am 1am. I able to do this? Am I capable of
- 6:48doing this? And in this dream, I was told I was going to get a
- 6:51gift, and I was given tasks, and I was sent off to do these
- 6:55tasks, and I came back from every task, then I woke up. Darn
- 7:00it. I woke up too early. I missed I didn't get my gift, and
- 7:03I write down three words change, confidence and clarity. I said,
- 7:09What the heck does that mean? The next morning, I'm thinking
- 7:12about it. And this, I didn't get my gift, and then I started
- 7:15talking about it. Virtually everybody that I shared that
- 7:18story with said, that is your gift. How do you think you got
- 7:22there? You were able to take the worst kinds of change from the
- 7:26time you were a little kid and turn that into a positive so
- 7:29you've recognized that change equals opportunity. That is the
- 7:34very acronym CEO. Change equals opportunity. That's the role of
- 7:39a CEO, and you're the best person we know at being able to
- 7:43deal with change good or bad, and you've got this weird sense
- 7:46of confidence that you can do anything. I realize now that all
- 7:50it is is a matter of learning. I learn do anything. And then they
- 7:53said the third thing is, you've got this weird sense of clarity
- 7:57that you break complex things into really simple terms, that
- 8:01you can then communicate it out clearly, change confidence and
- 8:05clarity. That was the gift of those three things that I didn't
- 8:08even know I had, I think anyone can use to find their own
- 8:12personal or professional success.
- 8:15Adam Outland: No, that's fabulous. Yeah, I love that. You
- 8:17know, you came into Blockbuster during a tough time. I wanted to
- 8:21know, and maybe Blockbuster's not the right place to ask this
- 8:24question. But where did you hit a wall?
- 8:26James Keyes: Well I've hit a lot of walls in my career. People
- 8:29forget that 711 was bankrupt and back back in 1991 shortly after
- 8:33I joined the company, and I thought, Man, what a bad career
- 8:36decision. I went from a major oil company to 711 thinking that
- 8:40it was going to be a great career trajectory, and I find
- 8:44them now bankrupt. This is one of those things that change
- 8:47equals opportunity. The company had 10 years of same store sales
- 8:51declines. Was really on a difficult trajectory. It was
- 8:54growing still, but it was having trouble keeping up with
- 8:58competitors, and it ultimately had to file for bankruptcy, but
- 9:02that gave it the opportunity to reinvent itself. We were able to
- 9:07look at the success of our licensed operations around the
- 9:10world, places like Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, bring those
- 9:15learnings back to the United States. So we were able to
- 9:18reinvent the company and come out of bankruptcy as successful
- 9:22entity. For me personally, it ended up being a great
- 9:25opportunity, because I thought I was going to lose my job like
- 9:28everybody else, but we came out of bankruptcy and I ended up
- 9:32with a promotion and was put in charge of strategic planning for
- 9:35the new enterprise. Led to then a career trajectory that gave me
- 9:38an opportunity, ultimately to be CEO of 711 so we took adversity,
- 9:43crisis and then turned it into the next 10 years, 15 years of
- 9:49significant success, which when we sold the company in the year
- 9:522005 gave me the opportunity then to take on the challenge of
- 9:57blockbuster so I went into blockbuster eyes. Wide open. I
- 10:00knew it was going to be a challenge. Didn't know the kind
- 10:03of challenge we would face. Yeah, because no one thinks
- 10:07about blockbuster 711. Is the same thing, except they're two
- 10:10iconic brands, right? Think about the nature of
- 10:12blockbuster's business. It wasn't renting DVDs. That wasn't
- 10:15their business. Their business was convenient access to media
- 10:19entertainment. It's a convenience business. Not unlike
- 10:22711 they made the pivot from VHS tapes, which is where the
- 10:27industry started, to DVDs. DVDs were more convenient access to
- 10:31media entertainment. So they made that pivot successfully.
- 10:34The digital transition was coming. Clearly it was coming. I
- 10:38wanted to take the company there. The very first act as CEO
- 10:42was to buy a streaming video company called blockbuster on
- 10:45demand. So we had a massive competitive advantage versus
- 10:49Netflix, because Netflix had DVDs by mail, very little else.
- 10:54They had streaming, but they had very old movies. Movie link had
- 10:58new releases, which is was 80% of the blockbuster business. So
- 11:03we had a much better offering, arguably a streaming platform,
- 11:08DVDs by mail stores. In case you didn't want the one you got by
- 11:11mail, you could exchange it. We had kiosks. So we had something
- 11:16called total access, which is any way you want your media
- 11:19entertainment. We have it pretty compelling competitive
- 11:22advantage, right? So you say, what happened? Well, we also had
- 11:26a billion dollars debt that occurred from an IPO in other
- 11:30words, a public offering that Viacom once owned blockbuster,
- 11:35and they spun it out and created a new entity, a public company
- 11:39called blockbuster in 2004 put on a billion dollars of debt,
- 11:44third of which was due in 2009 now, if you remember what
- 11:48happened in 2008 something called Lehman Brothers occurred.
- 11:53Financial market collapsed around Lehman Brothers failure
- 11:56and others, and we had a refinancing that we had to get
- 12:00done. It's like being in a commercial airline or at 40,000
- 12:06feet, and all of a sudden the air gets sucked out. You have a
- 12:10decompression. That's what happened to Blockbuster. We had
- 12:14to put the aircraft in a bit of a dive, if you will, preserve
- 12:18cash and get to a safe altitude to be able to then climb back
- 12:23up. So we took it through a restructuring and had a
- 12:25successful sale of the entity to dish networks. So in spite of
- 12:30popular belief, Blockbuster didn't liquidate. They didn't go
- 12:33away. They were sold the Dish Network, who ultimately had a
- 12:36different strategy, or 100% streaming and 100% streaming via
- 12:41mobility. They were a bit early and their strategy and
- 12:45ultimately closed the stores down. They still own the brand.
- 12:49You never know it may come back one day.
- 12:51Adam Outland: Yeah, wow. So you know, this is something I've
- 12:54thought about over the last just few days, thinking about this
- 12:57interview, is a reluctance of leaders to be honest with their
- 13:02CEO. But I'm kind of curious how you dealt with maybe some of
- 13:07those challenges, or how you generated a culture and the
- 13:10leadership teams that you formed where you got reality.
- 13:13James Keyes: There's an expression for that technical
- 13:15expression. I'll give you the technical business term. It's
- 13:19called a grinf***. Yes, sir, yes, sir, that's a good idea,
- 13:23sir, that. But it's true. It occurs, and it's just so
- 13:27frustrating. You know that? Look, the root cause of that is
- 13:30fear. People are afraid they're going to lose their job. Fear is
- 13:34the biggest killer of careers, of companies, even societies.
- 13:39They're coming to get you to take something from you. They're
- 13:42gonna they got something that you don't have. Isn't that
- 13:45unfair? Fear is the lowest common denominator. It works.
- 13:48It's a motivating tool. There's only two ways to motivate
- 13:51people. You motivate them through hope and through
- 13:54inspiration, or you scare. So take that same reaction now. Put
- 13:58yourself in a corporate environment, somebody does
- 14:01something that you think I may lose my job, I may fail, or I
- 14:05don't think that's a good idea, but I don't want to tell him
- 14:08it's either fight and be disruptive in the work
- 14:11environment. We all seen it somebody being obnoxious in a
- 14:14boardroom and demonstrating non productive behavior, just being
- 14:19argumentative for no reason, or it's the corporate version of
- 14:23flight, which is inertia. I do nothing. Yes, both are bad. Both
- 14:29can be cured, but only through knowledge. Because what happens
- 14:34when you're afraid? If you're afraid of the dark and you turn
- 14:36on the light, you realize, oh, that's silly. I didn't have
- 14:41anything to be afraid of. Well, knowledge is light.
- 14:43Communications is a way to spread the light. So in a time
- 14:47of crisis, communications from leadership are critically
- 14:52important, because that's the light that takes away fear
- 14:57throughout the organization.
- 14:58Adam Outland: Sure. Is there anything you did in particular
- 15:01with your leaders to make them feel they could approach you
- 15:06about challenges?
- 15:08James Keyes: Change, confidence, clarity. Well, the clarity of
- 15:11communications is both inbound and outbound. So listening is
- 15:16critically, critically important. As humans, we are
- 15:20often guilty of trying to formulate our response before
- 15:25fully understanding what someone's trying to tell us,
- 15:27trying to hear and truly understand what that person's
- 15:30trying to tell me, and then trying to be very clear in my
- 15:35communications also so that I'm not triggering that fear
- 15:39response. Because once I triggered that, once I've made
- 15:42them afraid, I've lost I won't get truth. Yeah, what I'm trying
- 15:47to communicate in my book is that leadership is about change,
- 15:52constant, inevitable, lifelong change. It's constantly changing
- 15:58as a leader, being able to adapt to different circumstances,
- 16:02different times, different styles, because you have
- 16:05different people with different reactions, and that constant
- 16:09adaptation to change as a leader, I think, is what's
- 16:12critically important. Leadership's about change and
- 16:15evolution. It changes the root of all commerce. You think about
- 16:19it, someone needed something, and someone satisfied that need
- 16:23and got paid for that service. Commerce begins, right? It's the
- 16:27heart of all commerce. And then that person got a little bit
- 16:31complacent, and somebody else said, Hey, I'm going to change
- 16:34things and give you another way to satisfy and then change
- 16:38occurs, right again, and someone profits from it, and someone
- 16:41else, perhaps doesn't. And so change is at the heart of all
- 16:44commerce. And yet when change occurs, as humans, we naturally
- 16:50resist. We get worried, because it creates that fear thing.
- 16:54There's only two responses to change, and either respond
- 16:57favorably and see it as opportunity, or you can start
- 17:01blaming feeling sorry for yourself, put your head down. So
- 17:06it's not the change that matters. Change is good. Change
- 17:09good or bad. Change and be positive. It's response to
- 17:13change that separates winners from losers.
- 17:16Adam Outland: You know, I think one other tactical thing I
- 17:19wanted to ask before we do, like, kind of a quick lightning
- 17:23round of questions...
- 17:24James Keyes: I thought this was a lightning round?
- 17:25Adam Outland: Yeah, the whole thing, the whole thing. The
- 17:27question I had was about time, where to invest it, when there's
- 17:32so many areas, places, people asking for it, anything that
- 17:37you'd share on that that's been a good process or system. For
- 17:41you about how you funnel your time and leadership.
- 17:46James Keyes: For me, all about where am I going to either learn
- 17:51the most or contribute the most, one of those two things? So
- 17:54somebody comes to me with a board seat and maybe a company I
- 17:56know nothing about, or an industry I know nothing about,
- 17:59but if they're if it's an opportunity to really learn a
- 18:02lot, because there are really good people on that board, and
- 18:05it's a dynamic company that I'm going to learn from, learn a
- 18:09whole new industry, I may go do it. And that's my that's my
- 18:13criteria. Is it, am I going to learn from it, or is it
- 18:17something, man, I can really help these folks get to the next
- 18:20level. And I'd like to use my many, many years of experience
- 18:24to help them, because I believe they're on the right track, but
- 18:27I can really contribute to this entity. And then there's
- 18:31probably a fun factor too. Is this going to be fun?
- 18:33Adam Outland: Yeah, that's fair. And, you know, looking at all
- 18:36the hobbies that you've developed, you feel that to some
- 18:39degree, having some of these things that are more artistic or
- 18:42creative in nature were supportive of your your
- 18:45business.
- 18:46James Keyes: Absolutely. I am always amazed at how people try
- 18:51to specialize so early in their career. We've got kids now
- 18:55trying to be an engineer when they're, you know, in the sixth
- 18:58grade, it's great somebody thinks they know what they want
- 19:01to do, I know what? Yeah, maybe, maybe I'm the exception, but I
- 19:05don't think most of us are mature enough, even throughout
- 19:08high school, to truly know what things will excite us for the
- 19:12rest of our life. So I encourage more breadth of knowledge and
- 19:18understanding, and I've become a bit of a junkie about the more I
- 19:22learn, the more I can do. So I'm just passionate about learning
- 19:25more stuff, because I find it's it's interesting. I can go
- 19:29anywhere in the world now and mix in different cultures very
- 19:32comfortably, because I've learned about those cultures and
- 19:36I've learned about the people in those cultures, it makes it far
- 19:39more interesting to travel when you know what you're dealing
- 19:43with. It's not just taking pictures of recognizable
- 19:47buildings and monuments and things. It's really, really
- 19:50mixing with people and getting to know them. And when you're
- 19:54doing that, if you can talk about flying airplanes, that's
- 19:57one of their passions, or or new. Is it? It just makes it
- 20:01even a richer experience. And I think anyone can do that like it
- 20:06takes that curiosity.
- 20:07Adam Outland: I love it. So just for some quick responses to a
- 20:10few of these questions. You know, we looked at what you just
- 20:13said, culture places, what just right now? What's, what's the
- 20:17culture country that you're most fascinated in and want to travel
- 20:22James Keyes: If you were to say, where would you go if you had a
- 20:22to?
- 20:25preference? I'd say, Well, tell me what you're going to let me
- 20:29do. If I'm going for food, I'd probably go to France and parent
- 20:34because the restaurants are fabulous. If I'm going for
- 20:37relaxation and killer beaches, I'd probably go to Thailand. I
- 20:42love the Thai culture, and I love the beaches there and the
- 20:45food and the people are so sweet. If I wanted to just have
- 20:50fun, I'd probably go rent a car and blast around the streets of
- 20:56southern the southern coast of France, the Amalfi Coast in
- 20:59Italy. I want to go to a show and see theater. I'd probably go
- 21:03to London. There's so much richness out there. Anyway,
- 21:06these are, this is the lightning route. I gotta stop.
- 21:08Adam Outland: Yeah. Because you've composed, I just wanted
- 21:12to ask you this question, what are you listening to right now?
- 21:16James Keyes: I listen to everything, and this is the
- 21:18problem. We talked about, time. There's not enough time in my
- 21:24life to listen to everything I want to listen to. Last evening,
- 21:27I was former chairman of the Dallas symphony. Last evening, I
- 21:30listened to Mozart, cello and violin. Today, I'm going to
- 21:34speak at a school, and I'll be introduced to to Snoop Dogg's
- 21:39Drop it while it's hot. That's that's a bit of a range there.
- 21:45Adam Outland: Yeah. What's a piece of advice that you're
- 21:49really glad that you ignored. So thinking back your whole
- 21:53business career, was there a time where someone tried to give
- 21:55you some advice and you willfully ignored it to a better
- 21:59benefit?
- 22:00James Keyes: Yeah, two things. I was working at McDonald's, and I
- 22:04had two interesting career opportunities. One was a guy, I
- 22:08don't know what I don't know Gui was, but he was this kind of
- 22:12buggy looking guy, and he used to call me Jimmy. Jimmy got a
- 22:16deal for you. Come to work for the boss. Come work for the man
- 22:19would take care of you, Jimmy, be an interesting life. And this
- 22:23is up in the Northeast, and I kind of knew what he wanted me
- 22:26to do. And he's like, Hey, Jimmy, you're going to make a
- 22:28lot of money. Jimmy, I'm really glad I didn't go down that path.
- 22:33Guy was right out of the Sopranos. You know, I could have
- 22:35been in one of those bad movies. So that was one. Thank you. But
- 22:39no, I don't think, I don't think I need to meet the boss at the
- 22:44same time, the same time I was offered an opportunity to go to
- 22:48hamburger use. So here's two alternatives, Hamburger U and
- 22:52become a store manager within the McDonald's system.
- 22:55McDonald's was just growing at the time, or that. Don't know
- 22:58what the job was, but I'm turning both of those down, and
- 23:00instead, getting a degree gave me far more options than I would
- 23:05have ever had at hamburger youth. While it may, my life may
- 23:09not be as colorful as it would have been, working for whoever
- 23:12that was, I think it was a good decision.
- 23:15Adam Outland: Absolutely. You know, in a lot of conversations
- 23:18with a variety of people who've had a variety of different
- 23:22successes in their career. There's something that I always
- 23:26want to help our listeners define for who we're
- 23:28interviewing, that's what success actually means to you,
- 23:33and how you know when you've achieved it?
- 23:36James Keyes: Very simply, one word, freedom.
- 23:38Adam Outland: Okay.
- 23:38James Keyes: It's why the book is called education is freedom.
- 23:41It's all about freedom. People think it's about money. Money's
- 23:45just tool. Give you freedom. But even without money, knowledge is
- 23:49what gives you freedom. You can have the freedom to you've seen
- 23:52this show billion dollar undercover billionaire. Yeah,
- 23:56yeah. They drop these people on the street with like, 100 bucks
- 23:59and see if they can become rich. Again. Interestingly, it's
- 24:02really not about money. Everybody thinks, oh, that's
- 24:05about making money. No, these people have the knowledge Yes,
- 24:10to then go out and give themselves a lifestyle that
- 24:14gives them freedom.
- 24:15Adam Outland: Yeah. And you know, coming back to this, which
- 24:19is your book, oftentimes, when you're offering a book, some of
- 24:22the advice people tend to give you is, don't write it for
- 24:25everyone. Write it with someone in mind. Who are you writing
- 24:29for?
- 24:30James Keyes: I wrote the book for the 18 to 20 year old. Me
- 24:34that that was a kid that had no idea that he could afford to do
- 24:40it beyond the immediate community and experience of
- 24:44family members who didn't have the opportunity to go to college
- 24:48or live the lifestyle that I live. And so I wrote it kind of
- 24:51for me, it was like what I would have told my 18 to 20 year old
- 24:55self, that, hey, tremendous opportunity, and the secret to
- 24:58your success is. Is in books, and by the way, I'm going to
- 25:03give you a roadmap to even make it simpler, because here's a
- 25:05pathway, what to learn, how to learn, or why to learn. If you
- 25:08do these things, you will be successful. So that that was my
- 25:11target. Now what I've found, though, Adam, I'm shocked at the
- 25:16demographic breath, because while I targeted that audience,
- 25:20the biggest response has been from 25 to 40 that are early in
- 25:26their career, saying, I need to get to that next level. How do I
- 25:30do it? And they're finding that same roadmap applies to them.
- 25:34Even older people can see that lifelong learning really can
- 25:37make their life richer, even if they're retired.
- 25:40Adam Outland: This probably syncs right up for someone when
- 25:43they read the book. But the last question I'd ask would be, if
- 25:46you could summarize the advice you would give that 21 year old
- 25:50version of yourself knowing everything you know now, what
- 25:53would that be?
- 25:54James Keyes: Yeah, to use knowledge to eliminate fear.
- 25:57Adam Outland: Wow, yeah, that's really nice. That's a good
- 26:00concise way to see it.
- 26:01James Keyes: It's what it's all about, because fear is such a
- 26:04killer of individuals, careers, corporations, of society, and
- 26:09the antidote to fear truly is knowledge.
- 26:13Adam Outland: Jim, thanks for sharing some of this knowledge
- 26:15with us, for folks who want to kind of follow your journey in
- 26:19continued exploration of things, and then also your book. Where
- 26:23can they go to learn more about Jim?
- 26:25James Keyes: Well I've got a website, James. I use James for
- 26:29the website. It's very formal. You can tell I'm a really formal
- 26:31guy. So Right? JamesWKeyes.com, and that's my website. And then
- 26:38at JKeyes, first initial, last name at J keyes, author. I'm on
- 26:43Tiktok and Instagram and Facebook and all those and
- 26:47Twitter, all those locations, and I'm trying to put out
- 26:51content that will take little pieces of the book and hopefully
- 26:56help to change some lives. That's my goal in life now, is
- 26:58to help everybody realize their full potential, because it's
- 27:02really not hard. If I can do it seriously, anybody can can use
- 27:07these same things to eliminate fear and to unlock opportunity.
- 27:11Adam Outland: Wonderful. Yeah, I really appreciate the words of
- 27:13wisdom, and thanks for sharing with our audience today.
- 27:16James Keyes: Happy to join you. This has been fun.