Welcome to the Power of Authority Spotlight. I'm your host, Michelle Prince, founder and CEO of Performance Publishing Group, making a difference one story at a time. We'll be shining the light on successful founders, entrepreneurs, business owners, and leaders that are getting results and making a difference. We'll talk about how they built their businesses, are creating movements, and leveraging the power of authority in their own right. Be sure to stick around to and we'll reveal how you Hey, everybody, and welcome to the Power of Authority Spotlight, where we shine the light on entrepreneurs, leaders, founders, people that are doing amazing things, and they're making a difference along the way. And my guest today is someone I've known for many, many years. I can't wait to introduce you to him. But first, this episode is brought to you by Performance Publishing. Have you ever thought about writing a book? Well, everyone has a story, and as soon as you get your story out of your head and onto paper, you That's when you can start making a difference in the world. If you want more information or to grab a free strategy call, just go to performancepublishinggroup. com. That's performance publishing group. Let me introduce you now to my, my special guest, Chad Whitmire, who I have known since I was, my goodness, in my twenties, but he, his career is very vast. It includes military veteran, entrepreneur, senior executive, COO in the personal development and corporate training field. Antique importer and restorer, business consultant, retail management, and now is heavily involved with his church, nonprofits, and ministries. In addition to every sporting event for his grandson, which is very many. Chad lives in McKinney, Texas, near his daughter, Catherine, her family, and near to his daughter, Elizabeth special needs community. Chad, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you for joining us. Well, I'm excited to be here. Thank you. I know. My gosh. Well, first we have to start with, we have known each other for a very, very long time, but in different ways. I first met you in, let's see, it was 1994. When I cold called on the Zig Ziglar Corporation, trying to sell copiers, I remember, yes, because you were CEO at the time. Yep. And I remember you because you were obviously in leadership. I was in my twenties. I looked up to you, physically and literally like, you know, just, because you were. One of the main leaders in the company. And I knew you, but from a very different place then than I, how I know you today. So it's been really great reconnecting with you all these years later. Oh, great. Yeah. It brings back lots of memories. Yeah. Well, so let's, let's start with, we, we have a lot to talk about today because you do have a new book out and there's so many great things that are happening around that book. And I do want to get to that, but first give us a little bit of background as to. I read your bio, but you have a very vast background. So kind of walk us through where you got started and I'll, you know, up to where you're, what you're doing today. Well, let's see, we moved a lot as a growing up. My dad was in the corporate insurance business, having had a, like a 35 year career in the military. And, so I was always, I went to four high schools. Which meant I was always the new kid. So at that time I had trouble assimilating and, I was very shy. I went to college. I didn't want to go to college until dad pulled me out of bed at 6 AM one morning and, went out on the back porch and we were stood there waiting. I didn't know what for, but then the garbage truck came by and there's two guys on the back in those days, throwing metal cans into the back of the garbage truck and after it pulled away, he looked at me and said, no. Without a college education, boy, that's about the best you can expect. So I said, okay, I'll go to college. And so I ended up, I kind of didn't want to go to college again, but I did apply to an assistance center that gave me dozens and hundreds, actually hundreds of colleges I could go to based on what I filled out on the application. I came back from being a lifeguard that summer and, sitting there going through all this stuff, all this mail. It was a big pile on the floor. Dad's reading the, New York Times, which was pretty thick, you know, and, I was talking out loud and when I got to Oklahoma City, I said, Oklahoma City University, and Dad just piped up and said, That's a good town. I've got an office there, one of his offices. He ran a multinational, insurance company at the time and had been there, I guess, on business. So on Monday morning, I called up the school and said, have you got any room? They said, sure, I'll be there Thursday. So, you know, Thursday I show up on a plane and I'm met by somebody right there. So it was. The people in Oklahoma are super friendly. If, if you think Texans are friendly, Oklahomans are too. So, that was four years of, college in Oklahoma City. Lots of great experiences, but that's another book. Yep, I'm sure it is. If I dare to write that one. And then, I kind of got tired of going to college in 1971 and, kind of told them I was leaving, figure some things out. But I was only about 10 hours short of graduating. And, I went to help my, my great aunt up in the Adirondacks, her, my great uncle had just passed and, she had a business to run and try to sell. So I helped her there for the rest of the summer, got back. I got my draft notice. This is during Vietnam. So I got my draft notice and, I went running around to all the different recruiters to see what kind of a deal they were offering. The only one that I had no idea what they did, what their uniforms looked like, was the Air Force. So I joined the Air Force. And I spent four years doing that, most of it overseas, in Europe, Germany to be specific. And that's when I started getting entrepreneurial ideas about it, I just wanted to be in business for myself. I didn't want to be a corporate employee of somebody. I guess this is because my dad had been forced to move many times and I felt like the kids were on the short end of the stick. So when I got back, I went back to college to pick up some courses and two friends of mine were going to Oklahoma, were going from Oklahoma City down to Dallas and they were going to sell antiques because they had a guy that could buy antiques in Europe. For them and ship it to them. And I just said, Hey, can I go too? So I up and ended up in Dallas in 1975. we learned from the ground up how to be entrepreneurs, how to, how to sell antiques, how to put together antiques. And it was, everything came in pieces and I learned how to restore them. I hired a, Old gentleman from Jamaica who was, turned out to be a master craftsman and taught me how, how to do everything. He took all my tools away from me at first and said, when, even though I was the boss, he said, when, when you learn how to sharpen these, I'll give them back to you. That's the first thing. Put you in your place. That is a, that's a analogous to life itself. You got to sharpen, sharpen your tools. Before you can do a good job in anything. So, and then one of my partners went on a date, he went home to North Carolina. And he came back with a wife, kind of surprised us. And she went to work in a little linen shop down near downtown, a boutique shop, high end. She met a girl there that she thought would be perfect for me. I had burned out on the dating scene in Dallas. and so I've signed off. I'm not going out. I'm not looking for anything. Took them, took her and her husband, Chris, four months to convince us to go out on a date together. So we did, and it was kind of magical. And that was it. And nine months later we got married. So, but then for the second date. First date was a success. Second date, I asked her out. She said, yes, but you have to answer a question. Okay. She said, do you know who Zig Ziglar is? I said, What is that? I had no idea. It was an odd sounding name. And I said, No, I don't. I said, Okay, we can go out. It turns out later, I learned, she told me, she said, I was just tired of people, salespeople trying to date me to get to Zing. Because it was becoming very popular at the time as a motivational speaker and sales trainer, pretty famous in the sales world. So, but it was all going to be. I didn't think anybody had to be motivated in life. I either woke up that way or you did, you know, you. You walked that talk or you didn't. So, about a year later, I've started, I left the antique and restoration business and went to work with Zink. And we had, I think we had three or four people in the office at the time. And when I was starting to travel with them to, sell the book at the back, at the back of the room. We had one book and one tape set. So when I wasn't traveling with them, he said, go door to door, business to business. I'm gonna sell one book and one tape. And I said, how do I do that? He said, listen to the tape. And that was my sales training. But, so as the company grew, we, We grew from there to about 70 people by the time you walked in the door to sell copiers to me. That's right. I built a fully automated distribution center, high speed duplication for audio and video recording studio. I essentially did all the packaging, all the. Books did all the contracts for intellectual property, pretty much did everything. So, you've seen a side of that world that very few have seen. And, and what's really interesting, you know, having worked at Ziggler too, I, people always ask him, what was it like working for Zig? You worked for him, but you were also. Married in the, like, to his daughter and in the family. So I'm sure you get that question a lot too, but what was it like, you know, and basically being related to, well, first of all, it was pretty much 24 7 family vacations turned into board meetings, family dinners turned into. Many, many conferences. And how about this new product? But Zig himself, people always ask me, what was he like? Well, I tell him as soon as he steps off the stage, he's an introvert. And he, but he was, what you saw on stage is Zig Ziglar. Everything about him was, Clear, honest, transparent, and even as family things, the girls would have to go get him because he'd be sitting in a chair thinking about either a speech coming up or a new product, and they had to drag kind of drag him into the family. activity, whatever it was after a while, I got into it, but he was an introvert, but he was, it was, it was interesting just being part of the family is, it'll figure out later when I had to, when I came to write the book, but, I pretty much had developed a mask that I wore about, what I thought other people would want to see me and as or act like. And, so I was pretty good at it. Yeah, I think, you know, and I really want to segue to the book, because I think this is so important because and. Having known you in a period of, of that, you know, I, I, there was so much I didn't know about you, but to your point, you wear a mask. I mean, I, I've worn a mask and so many times in my life, and especially the, when I was younger and, and I think there's a lot of people listening that can relate to that because we're all masking something. So let's talk about the book and talk about, you know, first of all, it's confessions of a wondering generality explain the title to us. Well, it is a play on words. I have always wondered what my purpose was. Why am I alive? What am I, what is my role here? And what am I supposed to do? I was just seeing, seeing in the world what was going on around me. Picking and grabbing things as that's my purpose, or this is my purpose, or that's the point of it all. even after I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior in 1978, I'm still doing that. It's, you don't make this instant change. Many people don't. Some people do. But, One of the cassette programs we created, I recorded it, edited it, created the packaging for it, and it was supposed to be a gold program, three audio cassettes, and the subtitle was, don't be a wandering generality, be a meaningful specific. It was wandering with an A. After I'd sold 500 copies of it, manufactured sold 500 copies, I realized I had misspelled wandering. With an O, made it wondering. But I told Zagan, he didn't even think about it. He just spat. It's okay. It fit the message. Yes. So later on when I'm writing the book and I'm trying to come up with a title, my first title was, what's the point, you know, the point of life, but I figured it'd be kind of hard to grab that title. But then I came up with a wonder, I think Flanagan even might have had something to do with it because I had a lot of them written out and I was just passing them around to see what, what would be good title on that one jumped out everybody. So I said. Good. Good enough for me. Let's do it. I love it. It is a great title and it is your, your story and your journey, but kind of give us the, give us the high level overview of what the reader can expect by reading this book. Well, 2019. My I remarried after Susan passed away in 95, 1995. I remarried in 99 and that was a 20 year marriage but all along I think I'm still suffering from depression and getting deeper, deeper, deeper into it. I call it living in my head. In fact, my second wife, Tracy said, you're living in your head and we don't have a real relationship anymore. So, and I'd withdrawn from a lot of friendships, relationships, and I'm kind of just living day to day. So we separate and I'm sitting in that dark apartment, and I haven't lived in an apartment in 40 years and wondering what's going on and what am I going to do with my life? And then COVID came along, and so in 22, 1922, 20, 2022, I suddenly was awoken up at 5am in the morning, out of a dead sleep, with in my head, I'm hearing, you're going to write a book. I had always told everybody. No, I'm not. I'll never read a book because they always said, well, you, you hang around Zig Ziglar for all these years. You meet all these wonderful people that he knew everybody. He knew I knew, you've done all these wonderful things, but you write a book. And I said, no, because I didn't think I had it in me. I didn't. So I jumped out of bed. And I ran to the computer and started writing this book. And it evolved. This is my life story. I picked my life apart from age four on. Why did I think that? Why did I do this? They figured out all the, the, cultural things, all the familial things of why I did this and that. And. Getting to a point where, as I, as I'm writing the book, I'm also seeing a Christian psychiatrist briefly, and then a biblical counselor. So, the combination of writing everything out, and seeing a biblical counselor like every week, we, we rewired my brain. I've started reading books, probably over the course of two years, read about 45 or 46 books, spiritual books, Christian books, got involved at church where I'm studying the scripture. We have a class called Equip every Monday night where we, and it takes two years to go through all the different courses, but I just absorbed and everything, it meshed myself and everything up to my neck. And, Plus, I retired from retail work at that time, and so this became a full time, more like an obsession because I, I carry journals with me in my pocket, in my car, everywhere, so I can write things down as I think about it. And the book started to take shape. And then, my daughter, Catherine said, you ought to talk to Michelle, who, she owns a publishing company now. I said, Oh, really? That's convenient. And then I found out you went to church here with us in the same church. We have a big church. So you don't, you don't see everybody every Sunday or even. Every year, so, I contacted Michelle and, we, devised a plan. So I started writing it and I finished it in a year and a half, but it took me six months to call you back and say, I'm ready. You're not alone. A little bit of fear there. So courage just go from the writing to, okay, I'm actually going to put it out in the world. That, that. That's a big jump. but I'm so grateful you did because there's so much about your story. obviously it is your story and all the ways you have. wondered through life. But faith is a big part of this. And, you know, talk a little bit about that and how you kind of already did where you started to immerse yourself and that became such a big part of your life. How has that evolved even since you started writing? Well, one of the key things I identified in myself is that I accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior. Not fully knowing, I think anybody does, but fully know what that means, but also I didn't never believed all through my growing up years and later, that Jesus and God really loved me, me personally, and what that meant, and I still didn't know the point of life. I just started picking up pieces, studying them, understanding one thing after another, to where, to the point it came around. And all the reading, and all the studying, all the praying, I really came to a point where I understood that God did love me. And that changes the way you look at everything. Yeah. Then I, then I could understand Matthew 22, 37 to 40, where, love your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, love your neighbor as yourself. And that's really what it was. That's really the point of this book is, that's the point of life. That's where it begins. And there's, of course, there's a lot more behind that, but you got to start there. If you don't, you can't love God if you don't love yourself. And your neighbor can't love your neighbor unless you love God and yourself, and you can't love your neighbor unless you love God and yourself, it all works together and figuring out that, really brought me to the understanding where the book makes sense. I can show other people that doesn't matter where you are, what you're doing. You've got, we've all gone through the similar things. Why are we here on Earth? God, why did God create us in the first place? It's led to a lot of other discoveries and biblical realities and truths that really make every day a great day. I know it's so, I used to think it was silly where anybody would ask Zing, how are you doing? And Zing's answer was always super good, but I'll get better. And it makes, now it's total sense. I say that the other things that he said that didn't make sense to me before. And I thought were kind of silly, but now they're not. Now that makes sense. Every day is a super day. I remember, so we had many years in and out and we, you and I would run into each other because we, we lived in the same area, sort of any, McKinney Frisco area. And I remember running into a few times through the years at Home Depot or somewhere local, but 1 of my favorite times that I ran into you, and this is before we talked about the book or anything was, I think it was the 1st. I don't know if it was your 1st day at the church, or it was your 1st day in the rooted class that I was, we went through it as well. My husband and I, but I remember you just, you were new to the church and not really sure yet. Right? Like, like, just trying to find your way a little bit and then to see you today. And especially after seeing you at your book signing, it's like. It's just this. I don't know. It's just really amazing. And we talked about this a little bit before we hit record is, you know, it is really who you become when you write a book, it's something changes in you. And it's not, it's not about you though. It's, it's just this, this I'll speak for myself, but this realization of like, wow, there is a, there is a bigger purpose in life. And it's not about me. It's about sharing my good, my bad, my ugly with someone else. Because when you do that, that's, That's how you change other people's lives. That's how you inspire and give them hope and give them a testimony. And I see you doing that and, and it seems to me like it's been a short period of time to you. It might feel longer, but, it's just a really cool to, to have witnessed this. Well, it's, you say it, a short period of time versus long at my age, which, everything is going by a lot faster and, people are growing up. People are, things are happening faster. When I retired, I had one, one concept of what retirement was going to be like. And that was totally different. It's like I have a fourth career here is it's other people. That's my careers. I'm on the board of a nonprofit now and help them extensively. a mentor in high school and, got about four different bench groups. I'm part of our we mentioned rooted, which is really Played such a big part in my turnaround. If you think, how can you turn around so quickly in 10 weeks? It's possible that the effect is lingering and you're still turning after you leave that 10 week program. And I like, and I wrote something the other day about, you know, if you think of a seagoing tanker, a huge, huge ship, half a mile long, how long it takes for them to either stop or make a turn. And it. Is it did calculate? It's about a mile and a half or two miles to make a full circle, but it doesn't happen overnight. Doesn't happen right away. And the effect keeps going on. It's like throwing a pebble in the lake and seeing the ripples move out. You really don't know where those ripples stop. They may stop at the edge of the pond, which they usually do, but if you're at the ocean, those ripples may go on. Right. And it's the same thing. Changes, one person changes something, and it'll ripple through time, as, as we all know. Yeah. That's why I love books so much and it's not about the book itself, but it's, it's that it is, it will live on long, long, long before or long past, you know, our lives, our own books. And so it is. You know, it is that it's a legacy and you're leaving a legacy for your immediate family to for Catherine for Elizabeth Hudson and everyone else. And, and it's just, it's a, it's really, it's really pretty amazing. What is a couple of things I want to make sure people who are listening, you get a copy of your book and they can do that by going to your website. Correct? Chad Whitmire dot com. Yes. Okay. It's Chad Whitmire. Just in case, just to be sure y'all know how to spell it. It's W I T M E Y E R. Right. Amazon will send you down the wrong path. If you can spell it one time and it won't auto, it auto corrects you over and over again. Crazy, right? Also on Amazon. Yes. Barnes and Noble online too. And if you happen to catch me running around town, I got some in my trunk. As a good author, always should. That's right. Zig always did. Yeah, absolutely. Well, what is one thing from the book, a story or what is, for those who are listening and you know, they're getting a little bit of sense of your story, but what is one thing that was your greatest lesson learned or the main thing you want someone to take away from this book? for most of my life. I thought I was going through life on my own. I had to figure out my own way. I grew up in a family that culturally being, Scandinavian, Northern European and, descent Pennsylvania Dutch. we, we take care of ourselves. we make our own way. We get over it and move on. And, I always thought I had to figure things out. If you remember Frank Sinatra's song, I did it my way. That was his anthem. It became his theme song, but I just thought I had to figure it out all on my own. We are part of a larger body. We are the body of Christ. If you're a believer, you're part of the body of Christ and everyone has a gift and everyone works together with each other to make God's plan for humans a reality. And without it, without everybody contributing, it'll work for sure, but slower. Everybody contributes. Everybody helps each other. You know, depending on what kind of church you go to, great churches are built like this where everybody's volunteering. Everybody's helping each other. And, and you know, we support a lot of Like over 68 or 70 groups around the world through our volunteers to our giving and but that's how we're meant to do things as a group as the body. That's like grapes on the line. Yeah. No, that's so good. Cause some, it is very easy. I can speak for myself even, especially if you are. An entrepreneur or business leader or something. It's easy to think you can just kind of plow ahead and do things on your own. But the truth is we need each other and and and sometimes we need to be a part of community, not for what we get out of the community, but what we can give to someone else, even if it's just a smile or a little bit of hope. For inspiration and you are so involved and I just love it. And it's just it's so great to see. Well, it's it's Kim's full circle is at first I joined all these groups because I knew they could help me. But then once I realized that I can contribute as much or more to them. Yeah, it became that's part of my purpose. it's like we do have a, talk about entrepreneurs and we have a group at church. We started, faith driven entrepreneurs. There's a global organization called that and that's wonderful group. And that's how I got introduced to it. Me and a couple of other guys started it in the church and we're having a big meeting tomorrow. We're expecting up to 100 people being there, but we also meet every Friday because we, we ask each other, what, what problems are you facing? How can we help you solve a problem? And we are, we are helping each other and they're all, everybody's in a different kind of business, but there's some things if you're any business involves people, you all have common. That's common problems, problem, interest and common solutions. So we can help each other that way. I love it. We're not meant to do it alone. We're not. No, we're not. And I definitely want to make sure everyone knows to again, go to Chad Whitmire dot com to grab the book or go to Amazon wherever is most convenient for you, but definitely read this book. There are stories in here and I won't give away any of them, but stories that. You know, every bit that I know everyone can relate to because we've all been through seasons and of our lives that are up and we've been through seasons of our lives that go down. But in the end, you know, what's the most important thing. And I love how you just pulled that all together, Chad, that it is really, don't go at it alone. Do it with community and with God. And, I'm just so excited for you. What my last question for you is what is your next? Well, I kept writing. I can't stop writing. Once you start, you cannot stop. It's so true. I do need to give, properly promote this book and get that going to help more people. And I don't know what the next one's going to be about, or I've just got so much material now. I probably have an entire book ready to go. And once you start, you can't stop. It is fun. It really is fun. I love it. Well, Chad, you are awesome. Thank you so much for being on the show. And I, I, for one, can't wait to see all the amazing things that are going to continue to happen. And I'm, I couldn't be more honored that you allowed me to go down this journey with you. And, I I'm here cheering you on and, and I can't wait to see what comes next. Well, thank you very much too. Of course. Well, all right, everyone. That is it for the power of authority spotlight again. Go to Chad Whitmire dot com. C h a d w i t m e y e r dot com. Grab the book. You definitely want to read it and and take it. And remember, I think what I took out of this or so many great Takeaways, but I think that last thing that Chad said about just don't go at it alone. We need each other. We need community. We can do more, you know, the same rising tides, raise all ships. So, let's all join together so we can go out and make a difference in the world. We'll see you next time. Thanks everyone. Thanks so much for listening to the Power of Authority Spotlight. If you are a successful founder, entrepreneur, business owner, or leader that's getting results and making a difference, and you'd like to be on this program, please visit performancepublishinggroup. com forward slash podcast to apply. That's performancepublishinggroup. com forward slash podcast. Also, if you got something out of this interview, please share this episode. Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to me. To a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag, the Power of Authority Spotlight. I love seeing your posts and guest suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content, so make sure you don't miss any episodes by subscribing your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and mean a lot to me and my team. Wanna know more? Go to our website. 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