Purpose! Nothing in my industrial professional journey has impacted me greater than realizing the need for Purpose in my personal and professional life. Giving of yourself for other to succeed is extremely rewarding and the richness of life. This weeks interview is with Mr. Jim Whitt the Founder and Managing Partner with Purpose Unlimited. Jim discusses his journey in Helping People and Businesses Reach Their Full Potential! Find out more about Jim at:

Website:  http://www.purposeunlimited.com/

LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimwhitt/

Podcast Transcript:

[00:04] Welcome to the industrial talk podcast with Scott Mackenzie. Scott is a passionate industry professional, dedicated to transferring, cutting edge industry focused innovations and trends while highlighting the men and women who keep the world moving. So put on your hardhat, grab your work boots and let's go.

[00:22]                   All right. Thank you very much for joining the industrial talk podcasts. You know that we hear celebrate the human power of industry and I'm so glad that you are able to make it. This is the next week. I can't believe another week has gone by. It goes by so fast and if you're out there on youtube, you're looking at my channel, you can say, Hey Scott, standing up. Yeah, I thought it gives us a different look and, and try to change things up and because I tend to be one that likes to move around, I'm not really fond of being confined to a year, so let's get this show on the road. Thank you very much once again. And uh, all right man, we've got a great interview happening this week. Yeah, the gentleman, his name is Jim wet

[01:02]                   and he is the founder of purpose on the limited and I got a great story to tell you about how I came in contact with Jim and how important he is in my life as a mentor, as a, as a dear friend. And I was so glad that he just said, hey, yeah, I'll get on your podcast. So, but before we get on with that, and before I make that introduction, let's get going on with some good stuff that we need to be aware of. Okay. Tailgate talk number one. Okay. If you've been following the industrial talk podcast, we've been talking about, uh, the industrial academy and uh, for me personally, fortunately I come in contact with a lot of great industrial professionals, uh, anywhere from leadership all the way through to technology and everything in between. And so what we're doing is we're creating a well and in an industrial academy that we're going to highlight and you can go out there and you can get some training on some of the best industrial specific training out there.

[01:59]                   So it's all broken up into, let's say, leadership, a finance operations of course sales and marketing, which I'm so passionate about. And then the final one is technology. So please stay tuned. It's coming around. Number two. Alright. Books, books, books. We always got to keep on learning, right? We always got to keep on learning because if you don't, your competition is going to learn. So this week's book, and I'm going to be interviewing this gentleman, not next week. He's going to be highlighted and his name is Steven. Steve Miller right there. If you're out on youtube, you can see it on copyable. How to create an unfair advantage over your competition. Not a bad read. Easy number one best seller on Amazon. That's right. I'm going to be putting him out. He's, he's been on the podcast, but once again that's unconscionable and that is a Steve Miller. Go out there on Amazon and it's great.

[02:52]                   Read. Very well done. Steve. Number three. All right. Food, right? All about industrial approved food. So I went to a place called Acme Oyster House and if, if, if you've ever been to New Orleans or part of Louisiana, Acme Oyster House is a, is a, you know, restaurant that provides oysters and then of course all the other, a cajun, you know, South Louisiana Fair, one of the things that they have and that you've got to put on your bucket list and that is grilled oysters. Now you're going to say, oh gosh, I don't like oysters there. Uh, they're this or that. I'm telling you right now, grilled oysters will way to go. I'm just telling you, man, it's drenched in butter. Parmesan cheese and whatever else, magic that they put on it. But I gotta tell Ya, if you come on down here, you need to be a part of that grilled oyster family and, and there are other places, but acne is where I've been.

[03:48]                   And I take some pictures and it's out there. You can see it. Okay. Onto the interview. Once again, the story that I have with Mr Jim Witt here, as you can see if you're out on youtube, the I was running this company, he was a keynote speaker and what made him so spectacular and what made him so special, what made him transformed my life and, and, and put into perspective the necessity for purposes that purpose unlimited. He talked about purpose and I and I just realized at that time, and this was many years ago that unfortunately I didn't have a purpose. I didn't have really any clear distinction. So you're going to hear about Jim Witt. He's a published author. He's got a couple of books writing for the brand, which is a great book. I highlighted it in my newsletter and then the other one is of course, this one right behind me if you're out there on youtube and that's a finding and fulfilling your purpose in life.

[04:42]                   And this is the transformation, transformational power of purpose. Great Little workbook right there. I went through it and, um, nonetheless, as Jim Witt purpose unlimited, it's going to be a great interview and, um, we're going to highlight him more and more just because I believe just in business alone, you need to have that clear focus in that organization that is driving to a purpose, right? So nonetheless, this Jim Witt, dear friend of mine, incredible individual, so enjoy and, uh, I'll be back on the other side. All right. Uh, welcome to the industrial talk podcast. Thank you very much for joining this interview. This interview comes from the heart. This interview is something that is very special to me. This gentleman has been a key motivator in my life, a mentor. And uh, when I reached out to him he said yes, which was a quite humbling quite frankly. And uh, he is the founder of purpose unlimited and he helps people and businesses reach their full potential. And I just want to give just this open hand gratitude there. Jim Witt, welcome to the industrial podcast. Thank you very much for being here with us and the listeners.

[06:02]                   You just made my day with that introduction. Thank you very much. And uh, now we're going to wrap it up because I don't want to go downhill from here, but no. Well, and you know, uh, we met, I can't remember the last time. You probably have a better understanding of what, what, why you impressed or, or impacted my life in such a positive way is that you were the first individual that truly communicated to me about the importance of having a purpose. And then from that point on gm, everything that I do, everything that I try to start, everything that I contemplate starting always starts with a purpose. And I think the listener needs to know how you came about and how you started this company purpose unlimited.

[06:50]                   Well, it all started because I was searching for or something. Uh, I had spent 10 years in sales with Ralston Purina company working with a large commercial feeding operations in the high plains of Kansas. No Coleman, Texas. And uh, I was a successful salesperson, a top 20 producer out of salesforce for $500. And, uh, but after 10 years of that, I, uh, I felt like a bad engine that was hitting on about four cylinders. I, uh, I knew I had more ability than I was using more potential than I was using and I didn't know what I was going to do, but I knew what I wasn't going to do that anymore. So I quit my job and I went to work for another large agribusiness corporation, a central soya, and I became their national cattle product marketing manager. And after about a year and a half, I took my product group from being the forest performing group to have the largest percentage increase of all the product groups in a years time I still felt like I was a v eight engine hitting on about four cylinders. And so I, again, I didn't know what to do, but I knew what I wasn't going to do anymore. So I quit my job again.

[08:15]                   I quit my job, but I was getting good at being unemployed events. Your wife like that, didn't she? The story gets better from here. So. So anyway, I came up with this idea, I called up a couple of old feed yard customers are buying commercial feed yard customers in Kansas and I said, hey, I've got this crazy idea about to work with you guys. I'll be contract marketing work for you. And at that time nobody had ever done this. This is back in 1988. Uh, you know, because of the industry was still only, you know, about three or four decades old and had not completely yet. So these two great friends of mine that owned and ran these car and said, yeah, we'll give it a try. So after I quit my job, my wife a bit bloated up our kids and, and drove back to Oklahoma because we were living in Indiana now and the company headquarters or central soya and I discovered they do not speak Okie in Indiana.

[09:20]                   So we needed to move or we're going to have to hire an interpreter for our children. And she, she called me one day. I still was finishing up my, my tour there in Indiana and she said she was looking for a place to live. So she's starting to with folks and she said, Jim, she says, I think I found this house. And I said, really? And she goes, yeah, she says it belongs to fill us in. Oregon will fill us in a word or a friends of her folks and they, they had a farmhouse out in the country and I've never seen this house before. I said it was on the state line, the Kansas, what moment? I mean literally on the state line. And I said, well, I don't recall this house. I said, why don't you describe it to me? And she goes, well, she said, it's livable.

[10:08]                   I need some information. I said, what are they going to charge us for rent? And she said, nothing. That answered all my questions. The price was right and yeah, yeah. So I jumped in my Chrysler, New Yorker, Fifth Avenue and drove 14 hours back to Oklahoma, spent the night with her folks, and the next day we drove over to take a look at this house. We're gonna live in for free. When I pulled up into the yard and I saw this house, it gave new meaning to you get exactly what you paid for it and you remember the TV show green acres. Well, this, this place was worse than green acres. Mercy. Mercy was an old farmhouse. It had the asbestos siding. I don't Scott deal. Absolutely. It's a lovely citing. Yeah, because you remember you. You throw your baseball against it when you're a kid and then crack and fall off and say you had a big holder.

[11:11]                   It was had a hip roof, green shingles, half of them are blown off and this house was so old. The roof is sagging, the forks was sagging, and when I stepped up on that porch I would say, but I'm a positive thinking person because I've lived ziglar and you can't help get pumped, man. I'm telling you. Right. I understand. So I said, it's got to be better on the inside. I was wrong. The ceiling caving in from more of the roof and lead. It was heated with a wood burning stove in one propane wall furnace. The plumbing was rusted. You turn on a faucet and nothing would run. Then I walked into the living room and um, the living room looked like the inside of a box car. It was a long narrow room. And in the middle it had a slope and the floor. Now anybody that ever grew up in an old farmhouse, when you add it onto the farm house, the foundation would settle differently from the original foundation. So what happened was, is you had the ski slope in the middle, but somebody had taken care of that they covered up with carpet, must've been about 1970 because it was the ugliest green and orange shag carpet you've ever seen. He probably borrowed it from my mom.

[12:30]                   We just happened to have a, a couple of slabs of that. It was designed by somebody on a bad LSD trip. Lovely. It is. So I now remember, I've quit my job to start a business that's never been done before. And as I'm standing on that green and orange shag carpet, the two by four reality and these square between the eyes. And I thought, what in the world are you doing? You've quit your job, you're moving your wife and two kids and a shack to start a business. It's never been done before, so I turned to my wife. Now remember, she's the one that picked this house out and I said, have you taken leave of their senses? I said, do you really want to live here? And I'll never forget what she said, Scott, because I was expecting it or say, oh no, I was off my meds that day in my right mind.

[13:26 ]                  I realize what a terrible mistake this was, but that's not what she said. She said, Jim, we can live here. Temporary temporary turned into 18 months. The longest 10 years of my life. During which time I got a master's degree in Murphy's law. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong at the worst possible time. After six months, my business was a failure. I was also in the cattle business. I've lost $30,000 a feeding cattle and I went into a state of depression and I don't get depressed. I mean I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm almost positive thinking person. He changed my life, my friend. Well, what I went through after what I went through, uh, you know, you, you, you always say, be careful what you pray for it. You might get it, will always wanted to know what real faith was. Well, I got to find out every morning I'd get up, I was so depressed I'd get up my national myself.

[14:27]                   Two questions. How, why did you do this and how can you be so stupid? Yeah, everyday. And uh, I didn't know what to do. And then one day I was sitting by the, uh, the wood burning stove and I was sorting through a bunch of old files of mine and the ones I'm wanting to keep three back in a box and ones that wanted to get rid of the fire, which kept me warm and busy, opened up a file folder. And inside my file folder was a yellow legal sheet. And at the top was written a date, March 20, first 19, 88. And underneath that date was written the question, what is your purpose in life? And I recognize these as notes that I had taken from a seminar a year earlier when I was still gainfully employed and whenever I saw those notes, my mental dvr cranked up and I had a flashback because when I was in the seminar and I was asked that question, here's what I thought.

[15:27]                   I was going down the road out in western Kansas and a young salesman was ride with me and uh, he was a sharp young guy, graduate New Mexico State University and uh, but he never worked in a feed yard before. And he was frustrated because you'd call on those old feed yard managers and they show you up and spit you out. They did their very best to run you off, make sure you never called off again. So he looks over at me and he says, Jimmy says, I don't even know what questions to ask a feed yard manager on the first call. And I said, well, my good grief, it's not that hard. I said, get out a pad and pen and start writing. And you know, this is before we had computers and laptops and everything. So he's writing this to write down pad and pen and I've going, I don't know what those are just for the younger viewers.

[16:17]                   So we're going down the road and he's writing down all these questions that I've never written down myself and I never thought anything more of it until two years later when I left the company and I resigned the day they gave me my 10 year service award, my cross pen and pencil set. Do you remember the cross cutting cross made a living office giving those things out, man. So anyway, Mike comes up to me and he says, I want to thank you for something. And I said, well what's that? And he says, I still have the 10 questions that Jim went, gave me to ask a feed yard manager on the first of all. And, and right then my mental dvr stopped and it freeze framed on his face. And I'm looking directly in the Mike's eyes. And you know, the eyes are the window to the soul.

[17:08]                   Absolutely. And when I looked into his soul, here's what I saw, I saw the tremendous potential this young man possessed. And I thought, you know, he just needs somebody to help him get there. And I looked down at the answer that I'd written a year earlier to the question of what is your purpose in life? And I had written my purpose is to help people reach their full potential. And right then it was as if God spoke directly to me and said, Jim, you figured it out. You know, why I put you here. Focus on this and watch what happens. And Scott, it transformed my life. And I tell people you've heard me speak because you're in the were in the audience years ago. And I tell people that they're looking at somebody and old cowboy who grew up in the cab business, old feed salesman who has traveled around the world as a consultant and speaker, written three books, written hundreds of articles on leadership motivation and change it. Someone who's considered to be an expert in their field. And um, just as amazed about it as everybody else because I really don't consider myself to be anything but an ordinary...