Diana Alt [00:00:04]:
Hey, Diana Alt here. And this is Work Should Feel Good, the podcast where your career growth meets your real life. Each week I share stories, strategies and mindset shifts to help you build a work life that works for you on your terms. Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to Work Should Feel Good, the show where your career growth meets your real life. I'm your host, Diana Ault, and today my guest Terry Weaver and I are going to talk about how the world needs your thing and you need the right community to make that thing happen. Terry is a speaker, author, and founder of an event series called the Thing, an event for creatives and entrepreneurs that want to turn big ideas into real results. He's spent over 30 years helping leaders find clarity, take action, and build lives of perfect purpose, impact and income, working with everyone from solo everyone from solopreneurs to major brands. Terry also hosts the Making Elephants Fly podcast and wrote a book by the same name.

Diana Alt [00:01:11]:
He's all about dreaming big, acting bold, and building in community. Welcome to the party, Terry.

Terry Weaver [00:01:17]:
Thanks for having me. It's the Work Should Feel Good podcast. I remember when I tried to talk you into doing this in the year 2000. I don't know, nine. It seems like. Yeah. And I'm glad. It's been fun to watch this journey get started.

Diana Alt [00:01:34]:
And I think what's really funny about it is that, like, we talked about podcasting then, because you knew I could talk without any problems, but you thought that the phrase work should feel good was non starter. He did not like it. Do you remember that?

Terry Weaver [00:01:51]:
Well, just in the. I. I didn't. I didn't. And. And so your audience knows I'm so far away removed from employment that I can't imagine work not feeling good.

Diana Alt [00:02:07]:
That's a bold statement.

Terry Weaver [00:02:08]:
I can't im. I. I can't fathom a life that I'm not doing something I love.

Diana Alt [00:02:13]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:02:14]:
Because I have. I have been blessed to be able to build a life around doing the things that I love, working with people I love. That's not to say that. I mean, nobody loves to do their taxes right. But the majority of the work that I do is. Is work I would. I would do if I had won the lottery. Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:02:37]:
I feel this. I got there. I finally feel the same. I wish more. And the whole reason for the show and my business, and to some degree your business is to help people do that. So I want to wander around. Like, I definitely want to talk a little bit about your career journey, like how you got to where you're going, because those Stories are always of interest to people. But before we do that, we've said the thing like 40 times already on the show.

Diana Alt [00:03:05]:
You have a shirt that has a big yellow logo that says the Thing. How on earth did you end up deciding to have an event series that you called the Thing?

Terry Weaver [00:03:16]:
Well, have you ever, like, been going somewhere? It really started as a joke. I mean, full transparency. Anytime we would go somewhere and you'd be on the phone with somebody and be like, yeah, I'm gonna go. Do you know Bill Smith's thing that he's doing in. In Denver and. Or whatever, you know, it's like, you know, it's that that work should feel good thing. I'm gonna go do that. And so it was kind of a label.

Terry Weaver [00:03:42]:
And as I kind of like, as you. You. You kind of make decisions to brand things certain way, you sort of realize our friend Angie managed to use everything pun she possibly could in our conversation a few months ago. But then I realized that everyone really does have a thing. They have this. Everyone. I mean. And I live in Nashville, Tennessee, which is a little bit of a weird city because it's kind of a city where people come with a big dream.

Terry Weaver [00:04:12]:
And it's not just music, but it's a lot of people who come here aspiring to do something. I met a couple a couple of weeks ago that moved here just because they're like, man, I want to be near entrepreneur. I want to be around people who are doing just weird things that other people don't understand. Yeah. And they moved here from West Palm Beach, Florida. And so, you know, people just. There's a. There's a certain reality that we all have this desire to do something.

Terry Weaver [00:04:40]:
And it's. For most people, it stays in the back of their head.

Diana Alt [00:04:43]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:04:44]:
And they kind of. They kind of stay on a path towards, you know, the.

Diana Alt [00:04:51]:
I sometimes say that people's thing gets shooted out of them if they have something that they want to do. And I don't know when it. When I don't know when it starts happening. Like, it's gradual process, though, because I think when you're like six and you say you want to be an astronaut, people are like, you go like, you can definitely be an astronaut. And then when you're like 16 and you have Coke bottle glasses, people are like, no, you're not going to be an astronaut anymore. We aren't really sending people to space. It's only on a space station. You can't get through the Air Force because your eyes like, no astronaut for You.

Diana Alt [00:05:30]:
And it happens with everything. So we beat it out of people.

Terry Weaver [00:05:35]:
Yeah. And we. We stop there. You're right. There is that childlike wonder, which is one of the reasons which, if any of your listeners are actually viewers and seeing the fact that I kind of live in a child playland with. Full of toys and goofiness and funko pops of my heroes.

Diana Alt [00:05:54]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:05:55]:
But one of the weird things behind me on that side is a. Is a giant crayon. And I remember reading when. When Leslie, my wife, was getting her master's degree, I picked up one of the books because she's like, this is the only book that's been worth reading, you know, so far. And it was this book on leadership. And it told the story of, at the time, the president of the United Way, who kept crayons on her desk. And they. She kept them there because she used the crayons when she was taking notes for an important meeting, but needed to think.

Terry Weaver [00:06:32]:
We needed to think through an impossible task. Because the smell of the wax and holding the crayon versus holding a pen activated in her this childlike sense of, I can do anything. And, you know, I. I sometimes describe myself, Diana, as. I'm a professional child because my. My goal, a lot of time is to activate that muscle in your mind. Yeah. You know, you've been to the.

Terry Weaver [00:07:03]:
You've been to the thing as much as anybody else on the planet. And, you know, people always like, why do we go to Disney? Why is it Disney World? Why is it Disney World? Well, it's a Disney World. Because if I can get you to stare at a castle and put a dole whip in your hand and a turkey leg and make you think like you thought when you were a child. If we can go into a business conference thinking that way, it activates some different things in your mind. And I think anyone that's a coach, anyone that's in sales, anyone that's in business is in the possibility business. And Walt Disney might be the greatest example of someone who taught what happens when we make the impossible possible.

Diana Alt [00:07:48]:
Yeah, I'm with you on that. And I think that whenever I run across somebody that most doesn't believe that they can do their thing or most doesn't believe that work can feel good, they have lost the sense of possibility somewhere along the line. And it isn't confined to people who are unemployed or people that maybe have jobs that are on the lower end of the wage scale. Like, I've met people that make half million dollars and more in a corporate job. Which is a lot. And they've lost all sense of possibility and sometimes end up trapped because they got the big mortgage and the big private school to go with the big job and they have no idea how to make a move. Let's go into your origin. So you, you've been, you've been public speaking and communicating since before you could drive a car, if I remember correctly.

Terry Weaver [00:08:47]:
Legitimately.

Diana Alt [00:08:48]:
Legitimately.

Terry Weaver [00:08:48]:
Got my driver late in high school.

Diana Alt [00:08:52]:
Yeah. And so talk a little bit about how you went. And we don't need all 30 years of all of it, but I'd love to hear how you went from the kid that was speaking in high school to ministry to what the heck you're doing now. Because these all seem very disparate, but to me they make sense. Once I hear them, I'll kind of.

Terry Weaver [00:09:14]:
Do it like on like a, we'll kind of go to the key, like if we're, if we were making a timeline right. In seventh grade. So it started with our church, had a how to. Private school. Do not recommend. But, but it.

Diana Alt [00:09:34]:
A lot of time.

Terry Weaver [00:09:36]:
But it also gave me a foundation for what I do now. So maybe I do recommend, but there's definitely, there's definitely some scars and baggage that come with that. But we had this weird thing called a competition. And I entered it one year because I, I, I kind of had this sense that I knew I was supposed to be, that I had, that I was good at talking as like a five year old, I used to line up my stuffed animals and mimic like Billy Graham and Tony Robbins.

Diana Alt [00:10:04]:
Oh my gosh.

Terry Weaver [00:10:06]:
In fact, I still have the Oscar the garage. That was part of the lineup those days. We had one of those weird two seater, like lazy boy lean back recliners. And I kind of set them up like they were in an audience, in an arena and I would, you know, I did my thing. And so I, I was asked, I was given the chance to do that one time and people were like, whoa, like doozy. They called me Doogie Howser. And so I realized that I had had this gift to communicate and we had had these competitions and I went, you know, I went to the big one and, and won the competition.

Diana Alt [00:10:43]:
And it was speech competition. Right?

Terry Weaver [00:10:45]:
Like, what was competition?

Diana Alt [00:10:47]:
Preaching competition.

Terry Weaver [00:10:48]:
Okay.

Diana Alt [00:10:48]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:10:48]:
And so, and like the president of the school that it was at, freaked out, was like, man, you got to come to school here. It's on me. Whatever. Just, just get here. And you know, I, I kind of knew that that school was wacko and it wasn't really My path. But I. But I began to speak. I had some mentors that kind of, like, pulled that out of me.

Terry Weaver [00:11:09]:
And I had a mentor that. That. At the time, I had just gotten finished being the chaplain for the University of Alabama football team.

Diana Alt [00:11:18]:
Oh, that's a job.

Terry Weaver [00:11:19]:
Yeah. And he knew people that. He started referring me and connecting with people and said, hey, man, you should go and speak at this thing and this thing, and they would love to have you. And that kind of led to one another. And I realized that there was a kind of a career path there. So I really spent the better part of. From, like, 1996, really, until 2012, doing some form of that.

Diana Alt [00:11:44]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:11:45]:
Through that process, I picked up music because everywhere I would go, I would have a musician with me.

Diana Alt [00:11:53]:
Ah.

Terry Weaver [00:11:54]:
And it was weird. One one of the guys that had happened to travel back in the day was on the national stage this weekend at a huge event. And it was just. It was just kind of weird to, like, see some of the things come full circle. At the time, he was just a kid wearing wranglers and a cowboy hat, and now he's one of the biggest songwriters in the world, writing with Christian and country artists. And so I did the country, the music thing, and I started realizing that these people needed mentorship, they needed leadership. So we started helping them with the business side of it, because I had kind of figured it out on my own. And so we started booking them shows, and that eventually led us to move to Nashville.

Diana Alt [00:12:39]:
Okay.

Terry Weaver [00:12:39]:
And as I'm traveling, every time I'd fly into a city. Diana. I would normally. Like. This was back in the day before. This was when you were just, you know, no one was gonna buy me a. Rent a car, you know, so, like, I'd get picked up by somebody.

Diana Alt [00:12:54]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:12:55]:
And it was normally a youth pastor. And you're gonna find you're gonna. Some of this will start to show some. It was normally a youth pastor that was miserable in the job they had.

Diana Alt [00:13:03]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:13:03]:
And I'd found myself, like, trying to, like, coach them. Not knowing I was coaching them, while at the same time, these bands that I was working with, I was building their brand. Not knowing I was building their brand. I just kind of accidentally. It accidentally happened. And I think a lot of times we try to do things with great intention, but sometimes opportunity happens just because we're doing stuff. Have.

Diana Alt [00:13:26]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:13:27]:
And we're showing.

Diana Alt [00:13:28]:
That is a really important point right there. Because I'm gonna rabbit trail for a minute and then get into more what you're doing now. But like that thing of intentionality can be overdone. And the work that I do is mostly with people who are in corporate America, usually in tech, highly analytical people. And they want. They don't want a map. They want GPS directions. Turn left, turn right, have this exact conversation, get this certification.

Diana Alt [00:14:02]:
And the more that you fall into that and can't handle the way life like throws you a curveball and you have to recalculate in GPS terms, the more trouble that they have. So.

Terry Weaver [00:14:14]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:14:14]:
And I think that openness is huge.

Terry Weaver [00:14:16]:
I think as a coach, I talk a lot about giving people maps and I say the phrase map because I can't give you like map quest directions. No, for those we used to print them out and it was turn by turn right. Like.

Diana Alt [00:14:29]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:14:31]:
No one can give you that. I can give you like a pirate map or like, this is where the treasure is. These are the things to avoid. And I don't know what side quests are going to show up along the way.

Diana Alt [00:14:45]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:14:46]:
You know, you and I share an affection for the Kelsey brothers. And I love last as the night we the day we recorded this like on Monday Night Football. Old Jason Kelsey's in like the. The. The Ravens band playing.

Diana Alt [00:14:59]:
I got the chills whenever I saw.

Terry Weaver [00:15:02]:
It'S funny and it's something he wanted to do.

Diana Alt [00:15:05]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:15:06]:
You know, I. Almost everything I'm doing in life is because of a side quest.

Diana Alt [00:15:12]:
Yeah. It's because are totally underrated.

Terry Weaver [00:15:15]:
I was. I. I have always been curious. I have always kind of explored and realized like. And then normally looking back, I find that that's how the dots connected.

Diana Alt [00:15:26]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:15:27]:
So as we continue this, we moved to Nashville in 2001, spent a lot of time, you know, helping bands get really successful. Had some guys go on to win, you know, big music awards, Christian Music Awards, cup couple ended up on the Grammy stage opportunities. And I started to get kind of burnout on that mainly because that the better the talent, the normally the lower the work ethic was. And the artists that I had that were seeing the most success were not the most talented.

Diana Alt [00:16:07]:
The.

Terry Weaver [00:16:07]:
They were the ones that were just willing to get dirty and sloppy and work hard.

Diana Alt [00:16:12]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:16:14]:
And at the same time, music was changing and so I started to kind of study just influence. And at the same time, Michael Hyatt was coming out with all of this platform conversation blogging was coming about. So I started to blog and started to write about about more than just music or faith and started to write up a lot more about business doors started to open some friends Started saying, hey, can you help me? You know, you seem to know these things. Can you help me do this? Help. Helped. Helped a friend at the time that I. That I had met on a cruise and we connected on Twitter back in the day when before Twitter was accessible, where it was just people talking to each other, which I kind of wish we could just all go back to talking with each other in general.

Diana Alt [00:17:14]:
People talk to each other there, huh? Substack notes. People talk to each other there.

Terry Weaver [00:17:22]:
And so I began to realize, like, I had this. Some skills, that I have a particular set of skills. I began to realize that I did have some skills and they started to show up in the area of, like, I was having a lot more coaching conversations, and so I was doing a lot more things that look less like speaking and more like consulting. And I'd open some weird doors. And we helped. I helped some friends make a good bit of money. It was fun. But during that time, I kind of began to get the itch to do my own thing.

Terry Weaver [00:18:01]:
And I was very hesitant because I didn't think. I didn't think that I had the celebrity power. I've always been very cautious. You know, you've probably never even heard me talk about this. I've always been very cautious about making it anything about me. And because I. I don't think it's about me. But there's a certain requirement that all of us have to put ourselves out there in a way as, as a brand.

Terry Weaver [00:18:35]:
You know, I've always kind of hidden behind a logo or a brand of something else. And so I began to really let people know, hey, I want to start coaching. You know, I was going to start. I started the very first Mastermind group back ten plus years ago. Our friend Ian's Craig Frazier and a few of those other crazy friends were in that group. I had no idea what I was doing, but I did was figuring out along the way, learning about it, but yet had had a lifetime of experience. And I think, especially for knowing your audience, one of the things that I think people often shortchange themselves on is the knowledge and the wisdom that they've gained from a lifetime experience of experience.

Diana Alt [00:19:27]:
I think you're so right on that. And what's really interesting about it what. One of the things that struck me the most when I first walked into a thing event, which, full disclosure, like, the very first thing event I went for, Terry was in Orlando. It was in 2020, in November. It had been postponed. It was supposed to be in May, and it got postponed. And like, the format totally changed because Covid and I walk in this room where all these creative entrepreneurs are, and I found out a boatload of them, like, a much higher percentage than I expected, actually had a technology background of some kind of. So, you know, maybe they're doing art now, or maybe they're doing something with music, or they have a podcast and a leadership book.

Diana Alt [00:20:13]:
Like, there's all kinds of different things. But on paper, if you look at here's the business I'm creating and here's the work that I did for 15 years before I started that business, it doesn't always make sense. But when you strip back, where was the value for most software engineers, the value isn't their code as much as we think it is. It is. Can I untangle a problem? Can I create clarity somewhere? Can I analyze stuff? Can I work with a team? All those things that are not necessarily what was on the job description you applied for end up being incredibly valuable if you decide to start a thing that has nothing to do with your day job. And if you start a thing that does have to do with your day job, like if you become a freelance consultant and the thing you did is W2, boom. Like, the wisdom and experience factor are just that much more.

Terry Weaver [00:21:13]:
Well, one of the processes I've always walked people through when they go to, like, look at making that leap, right? The leap from, like, ah, the leap. And I always say, like, let's go ahead, because your mind is already going there. Just talk about what the worst case scenario is, Right? Like, what is the absolute worst thing that's going to happen? You're going to be out there and you're going to fail. Right? Okay, so you fail. Well, spoiler alert. You probably could fail at your job there. I mean, we're in a. We're in a kind of a culture in a time where there's really not a job market or, you know, a industry that's immune to change right now.

Terry Weaver [00:21:59]:
And. But when you look at the worst thing for most people, it's like, worst thing that could happen is you'd have to update your resume. Right. And potentially start having conversations.

Diana Alt [00:22:12]:
Right.

Terry Weaver [00:22:12]:
But in reality, you know, and I think one of the illusions that people have when they go and, like, make that leap is they have to go and just do one thing.

Diana Alt [00:22:22]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:22:23]:
You know, when I met you, when I first started, you know, when you sat down and my. During 2020 for coaching at my dining room table.

Diana Alt [00:22:37]:
You.

Terry Weaver [00:22:38]:
You had. What you're doing now looks way different than what you had in mind.

Diana Alt [00:22:44]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:22:45]:
And even, even at that moment, and even way considerably more than what you had in mind when you quit your job.

Diana Alt [00:22:52]:
When I quit my job, I thought I was going to do technology consulting, which I did for a year and a half, and then I realized I was totally sick of it, which is part of the. I didn't even realize how sick of it I was. It's part of the reason why I needed to leave and I abandoned it. So talk about a leap. Like there's leaps to leave W2 and then there's leaps to make a shift in your business. And I gave up 60%, what had been almost 60% of my revenue in 2020. I just said, I'm not going to do that anymore in 2021 and replace not all, but most of that income, which was pretty cool. So, yeah, it's funny because I feel like the spirit.

Diana Alt [00:23:37]:
What's interesting about that story is the spirit of what I was trying to do or what we were Talking about in 2020 is very in line with what I'm doing now. But the details are not. And what I created was better because side quests and discovery and all of those things. So.

Terry Weaver [00:24:00]:
And I, and I think one of my favorite, you know, me, I love some Andy Stanley quotes that we need to be stubborn on our vision but flexible on the details.

Diana Alt [00:24:10]:
Totally agree.

Terry Weaver [00:24:11]:
You know, we need to be really stubborn about the things that really, really matter and then be kind of flexible with how it might play out.

Diana Alt [00:24:18]:
Yeah, I ask a lot of, I keep that, that kind of thing in mind a lot when I work with people. I, I, you know, I have a lot of people that have worked in big tech, and there's a few, like, online tech career discussion forum things that I spend time in. And one of them is a group for product managers, specifically women in product management. And I'll see people in that group all the time say, I want to get into a FAANG organization. If you're not familiar with the term faang, it stands for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google, like the top six or so biggest tech firms. And I always ask, what are you trying to do? Because if they're looking for a culture thing, like those are six very different cultures. And really what people want to do is be in an organization that's big enough to have resources, but innovative enough that they can do cool shit. Well, when you know that you suddenly have broadened everything, you know, you're not going to be in a little startup sitting around like the card table in the garage with Steve Jobs and Woz.

Diana Alt [00:25:25]:
But you also know that you don't have to be in one of those six companies either. So think that's a really important point.

Terry Weaver [00:25:32]:
It's interesting when you talk about those companies because the, I'm immediately going in my mind to the people I know that work for some of those organizations and I know people who were at the, you know, at the seven figure mark at, at the G and you know, people who are, you know, at the, you know, the bottom lower end at the A. And either of them would give it up in a minute for an opportunity that made them thrive. Yeah, you know, yeah, there's, and there.

Diana Alt [00:26:11]:
Are plenty of people that are thriving there.

Terry Weaver [00:26:13]:
Yeah. And they're both, they're both actually and both are one organization. I mean Amazon's here, you know when Amazon's doubling down on like in person work and like it's probably going to cost them talent. And then you know, like Google has been pretty much like, I mean Google, anybody that's in Silicon Valley knows that they can't keep the talent there because no one can afford to live there. You know, they've got engineers living in, in you know, three bedroom apartments, six up, you know, in their 30s and nobody, nobody's going to do that for very long. And you know, I think, I think we all kind of get, get this like almost like vision board look at like how this stuff works and it never works like how you anticipated, never pans out quite how you wanted it. And you have to be willing, you have to be willing to go and try and Risk and dare and all of the people that started those organizations, which are those, those are the people that I'm enamored by had an incredible sense of like, you know we've all seen that picture of like Bezos with the Amazon handwritten banner and yes. You know the, we've all seen the, the commercial with it.

Terry Weaver [00:27:35]:
All of them started in a garage and like when you think of those organizations you think about them at their now, you know, fancy and like, you know you think of Google and you think of a fancy cafeteria and a private chef but you know, most of them were like having lunch at 7:11 and you know, hanging out in a garage with no air conditioning to get started. Yeah, I think, I think we have to be prepared especially. And I think, I mean in the, in the climate of opportunity right now that we have, I think there's a lot of people that are going to win because they were willing to get scrappy and they weren't they weren't afraid. They weren't trying to be fancy. One of the.

Diana Alt [00:28:20]:
I remember when I leaped because I had. There was a lot of weird. I was very burned out, had a change in leadership that made me go, this is not good. And I left knowing I was going to leap and that my desire was to never go back to W2 if I could avoid it. I still got years to work, but I've avoided it for six years. And I remember talking to my mom and I was very nervous about talking to my mom about it because my mom worked for the same place for decades. She was a teacher. My dad was also a teacher.

Diana Alt [00:28:55]:
And they grew up on farms. I mean, I don't think my dad had paychecks for more than like four places in his entire 72 years. And my mom, not very many more. And she can worry because that's what moms do. And she just basically said, like, girl, you can't take it with you. And part of the reason that I left is there was a reneged promotion. There were two of us on our team that were strung along, told we were going to get promoted at a certain time and we're killing ourselves for it. And then they said, psych, we're not going to do that.

Diana Alt [00:29:30]:
We're only having one. At that level. You guys are welcome to apply. There's external applications too, which is basically. Basically a fuck off to both of us.

Terry Weaver [00:29:37]:
Yeah.

Diana Alt [00:29:38]:
Although they did end up hiring the other girl. And I had a conversation with my mom and I was like, I think I'm gonna leave. And here's the situation. And she's like, I think the best thing in the world is that you didn't get promoted. And I was like, say more. She said, you would have stayed there for three more years, still miserable, feeling like you owed it to them because you got promoted. And that was like an unlock for me. The decision had been made, but it.

Diana Alt [00:30:04]:
I felt a lot more at peace with the decision to leap whenever she said that. So I want to. When you think about where you're at now, how do you actually describe what you do now for people that are working with you?

Terry Weaver [00:30:26]:
You know, I think one of the things that I've had to kind of embrace, you know, we live. We. You and I work in a business that talks a lot about frameworks and modalities and processes. And I realized that I work with a bunch of weirdos that have big visions and don't necessarily know how to build a bridge to get from where the vision is now to where it looks remotely like success to them, you know, and obviously one of the first things I typically try to do with people is I want to define what success is.

Diana Alt [00:31:05]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:31:06]:
I want to figure out what it means for you to actually win.

Diana Alt [00:31:10]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:31:10]:
Because we can't win a game when we don't know what we're trying to do. And most of us go through life chasing a goalpost that's moving. And so, you know, the problem is, is a lot of the words that we use to describe the word coach is a great word, but, you know, it's a word that's had a lot of abuse.

Diana Alt [00:31:35]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:31:36]:
Because I think of myself like a coach. More like a college football coach. Pre. Nil.

Diana Alt [00:31:44]:
Say more about that.

Terry Weaver [00:31:45]:
Huh?

Diana Alt [00:31:46]:
Say more about how you view yourself as a college football coach.

Terry Weaver [00:31:49]:
You know, Alabama football fans are the most obnoxious on the planet. But when you hear Nick Saban talk about how he led students and how he brought greatness out of them and how he taught them how to lead and do more together, I really ate way more with that than I do about the modern day coaching conversation, about asking people a lot of questions.

Diana Alt [00:32:13]:
I think it's a mix.

Terry Weaver [00:32:15]:
Oh, I do too. Because, you know, I mean, girl, I ask you a ton of questions. Yeah, I'm always angry, I'm always asking you questions, but I'm not asking you questions because I want the answer. I'm asking you questions because I want you to wrestle.

Diana Alt [00:32:32]:
I want people to wrestle. There's. I ask question a lot of questions too. And I'm. I'm a little. My people tend to want to be a little bit more linear, like they're used to a process. And so what I like to do is be a pattern interrupt that makes them wrestle with stuff, makes them say shit out loud that they've never had the courage to say out loud. And then I have like, methods to the madness to bring them closer.

Diana Alt [00:32:59]:
But it's not MapQuest.

Terry Weaver [00:33:00]:
Right.

Diana Alt [00:33:01]:
It's the pirate map.

Terry Weaver [00:33:03]:
And I. And I, you and I have a.

Diana Alt [00:33:05]:
Lot of similarity in that way.

Terry Weaver [00:33:06]:
I've realized that I get a lot of people in triage.

Diana Alt [00:33:10]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [00:33:11]:
And so how I approach you in triage is very different than how I approach you. When you come to me and say, this is my plan. I can't say that I've actually had anyone ever come to me and say, this is my neat, planned out path. Help me figure it out. Most people come with their hands in their face. Now I'm actually working. I mean, you were on or Mastermind called a couple weeks ago when we talked about how I want to. I want to begin shifting away from some of those people.

Diana Alt [00:33:43]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:33:43]:
Because there's. There's only so much energy that I have to help that kind of person. And I do know this when I sit down with really high level people who have it together, they are most able to take advantage of my genius. They are most able to take advantage of the things that I know. Because what I'm best at is when I'm able to just turn the knobs just a little bit when I.

Diana Alt [00:34:14]:
It's like you're running a soundboard.

Terry Weaver [00:34:16]:
Yeah. But a lot of times what it looks like I'm doing is the. Is the first nine minutes of an HGTV show where we're slinging sledgehammers and doing a lot of demolition.

Diana Alt [00:34:28]:
Yeah. Which is scariest.

Terry Weaver [00:34:31]:
Because a lot of people, A lot of people come to people like you and I and what they really need you to do is give them permission to tear down their old life and then let's build a new one. And the building a new one. You know, if you've ever watched one of those HGTV shows, there's a lot of steps in that process and there's a lot of things that are out of my hands.

Diana Alt [00:34:59]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:35:00]:
I. I can't control that whole process for you. I can't control. You know, there are things that you're actually doing now that you and I talked about you doing four or five years ago. But you had to. I saw it. But until you saw it, it didn't matter. Until.

Terry Weaver [00:35:21]:
Until it was something you wanted and you believed. And that's. Not that you're stubborn, which you might be, but. But sometimes. You know, Diana, when I think about you and our work that we've done together, you've had something. But even before we met, you've had more defining moments than anyone I know.

Diana Alt [00:35:43]:
Wow.

Terry Weaver [00:35:44]:
You've had moments that have. That other people probably would have like, bailed on like life. You've.

Diana Alt [00:35:51]:
I mean, I did have actual brain surgery this year, so I feel like if I didn't give up on that, I'm doing like.

Terry Weaver [00:35:57]:
You've had more wise in the road than most people in the short period of time right before I know you and that a lot of people wouldn't have made it through. And that says a lot about you as a person. As like, it is just how you were raised. Right. You were raised by farmers and teachers, Midwest corn fed folk, you know, with ranch dressing flowing through your veins. And you were going to figure it out. And that. And that might be one of the most powerful skills in life and business is the ability to power through.

Diana Alt [00:36:34]:
I think it's really interesting because if power through is no longer the language that I use for that, because it sounds so hard. And so much of what has to happen in order to make this stuff work is to take your foot not completely off the gas, but a little bit off the gas and leave a little bit of margin and breathing room. Because if you. You know, when I think about powering through, I think about going hard all the time.

Terry Weaver [00:37:04]:
No, no, no.

Diana Alt [00:37:05]:
And there's no, like, space to figure out how to adjust.

Terry Weaver [00:37:10]:
Maybe more like Matthew McConaughey grabbing onto the wheel that. All right, all right, all right. And. Yeah. And just riding it out, you know, like. And just holding onto the wheel and knowing on the other side that. And I think that might be really what it is, is there was, like, there's been a lot of seasons of unknown. Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:37:33]:
And you've been okay with that? You've been. You've been antsy about it and worried. Unnecessary. I mean, I did give you the Miss Over Thinker sash that hangs on your wall.

Diana Alt [00:37:43]:
Yes. For those of you watching online or anybody that's ever been on a coaching or networking called me. The yellow Ms. Overthinker sash was bestowed.

Terry Weaver [00:37:52]:
By Mr. Terry Weaver in 2021 at the thing, Orlando.

Diana Alt [00:37:56]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:37:56]:
And. But I don't. I don't. I don't know that you deserve that sash anymore, because I think you've finally gotten to the point where you've been through enough where overthinking isn't necessarily.

Diana Alt [00:38:09]:
I still, I. I think it used to be an identity and now it's a reminder. So.

Terry Weaver [00:38:15]:
Yeah. It's not like, as the kids say, your whole personality anymore.

Diana Alt [00:38:19]:
Right. Yeah, for sure. So basically, we've wandered a lot, but Terri went through. You went through public speaking, starting when you were a kid, you wandered through the music industry, started helping people with their brands. Now you're helping people with their brands, making the leap, getting organized, drawing pirate maps to the destination they say they want to go. I know that you and I have outlined three books. Three. Someday, actually, I'll write a book, but.

Diana Alt [00:38:52]:
And they're all timeless, like one of them we outlined three years ago. And it'll still hold whenever I finally write it. So that kind of stuff, like pulling people's genius out, is what you do for people. So I have a question that occurred to me this morning and that I've talked about with some other entrepreneurs, but I don't know if you and I have ever really talked about it. And that is. What are some of the bad reasons to become an entrepreneur that you see from people?

Terry Weaver [00:39:23]:
Bad reason would be you're looking for the easy way out.

Diana Alt [00:39:29]:
Yes, I agree. There's really nothing harder than this.

Terry Weaver [00:39:34]:
No. Yeah. And it's, you know, and I, and I, I want to promote. I want to live a life of ease. You know, like I said, I don't do a lot of things now that I, that I. That I hate. I don't. But that doesn't mean there hasn't been hard work.

Terry Weaver [00:39:48]:
I mean, heck, I'm trying to sell a live event in 2025, which events used to sell in the early. Everybody that used to buy a ticket in the early bird phase now buys it in the last two weeks before the event, which, which feels like something devised by cardiologists to improve their business plan. You know, like. And so, you know, another, another. Another bad reason is small thinking.

Diana Alt [00:40:20]:
Say more about that.

Terry Weaver [00:40:21]:
Because I think in order to really be an entrepreneur, you really have to think impossibly big. That if you just think small, all you're going to do is create another employer that happens to be you.

Diana Alt [00:40:35]:
Well, I'm the worst boss I ever had, so I sign on to that.

Terry Weaver [00:40:39]:
But I'll say this, but you've also gotten way better. And maybe, maybe you've the song that was big back in the day called the Hard Way. You know that some people have to learn the hard way. And you've been provided a few hard things to go through that have forced you to rethink some things about work and about work ethic. Because it may be difficult, but it shouldn't be miserable.

Diana Alt [00:41:08]:
No, it shouldn't be miserable. And I want to say something about the thinking big thing because there are a lot of people that will listen to this and they will think about. Like when people are in the tech world and they hear entrepreneurship, they often think of being a SaaS founder. That's like a SaaS or an AI or an AI SaaS founder. Like, that's a big thing. And the, the. So they're thinking, how do I get the venture capital? And all of this? And that if you want to walk down that fast, that path, that's fine. That's not the only way to think big, though.

Diana Alt [00:41:43]:
So when I want people to think big or when I'm having conversations like this with people, a lot of times what they want to do is make their Life feel bigger and their work feel like it supports that life instead of the other way around. Like, when all of your life force is supporting your work, that is not a good place to be. And I freaking love working. But for about six months before I had surgery in August, all I could do was the work that I was obligated to do. Even though I loved it. I was like, crashed out every night after I got done coaching people. That is not a way to live. And it's not a way to live if all you can do is go to work, whether it's in your home office or somewhere else for five days a week and put dinner on the table and take the kids to soccer and you don't have anything left for yourself to do.

Diana Alt [00:42:39]:
Anything fun. So think about what kind of big you want. I tend to think in terms of impact, so I've never wanted to start a large business in terms of employees. I want a lean team that can be in front of a lot of people. That's my take, so.

Terry Weaver [00:43:02]:
Oh. Oh, yeah. For me, I'm totally same.

Diana Alt [00:43:05]:
You're the same way. You think big.

Terry Weaver [00:43:07]:
But I also, when I've had coaches tell me, you need to build a big. No, I want to build a simple business.

Diana Alt [00:43:13]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:43:14]:
I want to build a business that requires of me to do what I'm great at. Yeah, that's what I. But sometimes thinking big. Thinking big looks like it means expecting bigger. Other than packing yourself into the cultural norms that everybody else has prescribed.

Diana Alt [00:43:35]:
It may be a little. It's as much think big as it is think different.

Terry Weaver [00:43:39]:
Absolutely.

Diana Alt [00:43:42]:
I'm always reminded of the Apple computer with the line that says, like, I want to put a ding in the computer. I want to put a ding in the universe. Like, that's what I want to do. I don't care if I. I don't want 500 people working for me or 50 people. Like, the five VAs that I have with a project manager is plenty. But I would like to put a ding in the universe. So when you think about.

Diana Alt [00:44:07]:
Let's talk about community for a minute. Because I said in the intro, you want to find your thing and you need the community to help you do your thing. What helped you land on community as a vehicle and what does community mean to you? Because right now there's a lot of people pushing that. The idea of community is something that costs $99 a month and you're going to sell it through a funnel and you're going to get 500 people to sign up for it. And, and, and, and it turns into something that I don't think is exactly what you're talking about. So talk to us about your view.

Terry Weaver [00:44:42]:
And that doesn't mean it can't play out through that.

Diana Alt [00:44:44]:
It can.

Terry Weaver [00:44:45]:
Yes, it can.

Diana Alt [00:44:47]:
But how do you think about community?

Terry Weaver [00:44:50]:
So I had a realization that in actually starting a community like that, that was, I think, 99. I think it was 99 when we started. It was 79.99, 129 somewhere. It quickly escalated this project that I was working on for someone else. And I quickly discovered the thing that got people in the door was the content. You know, they wanted to learn how to do the, the, the deal. Right. They wanted to learn the skills what, what they stayed for.

Terry Weaver [00:45:23]:
What made them never want to leave the, the product was the community, was the people, was the relationships. And I see that all the time. You know, and curating community is a very. It can be very challenging. I mean, example. We've been in a very volatile here in the United States political climate. So I've been bringing new people to my community as speakers for the thing Orlando coming up. And I've had to pay very close attention to what everybody's been saying online because a lot of people have been going nuts online.

Terry Weaver [00:46:06]:
And I don't want to expose anybody into my community to like, hate and division. And, and so I've been. You have to. Community is something that is like. I almost look at community, like, like, I look at. I just watched the, the series on, on David, on Amazon, which is a great little series. And I always think of, like, the castles of that era of like, how community is this. Like, a lot of times is this thing that you've put aside where you've kind of walled it off, you've kind of protected against some outside things and, and against people coming in, you know, lack of a better phrase, a disease.

Terry Weaver [00:46:54]:
Because the wrong people in a community can quickly become like a cancer.

Diana Alt [00:46:58]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:46:59]:
And, and, and it will quickly spread all over the entire. And so, you know, I, I heard the quote, you know, back in the Gulf War about, you know, if you want to go. I think was Stanley McChrystal that said it, that if you want to go, you know, if you want to go far, if you want to go, go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together. And as I wrote my book, Making Elephants Fly, that Diana had mentioned, it's [email protected] I began to realize that that was more of a battle cry for my life's Work that when you really, truly think of this idea of going far together through the context of the. Of the fact that it's an African proverb, of the fact that it's really speaking to the fact that if you're going to survive on the African savannah, the plains of Africa, you know, God bless the plains of Africa and the reigns of Africa. Right. And. But if you're going to survive there, you better not be in the back of the line because there's a lion coming for you.

Diana Alt [00:48:06]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:48:07]:
And the only way. And I've watched way too many nature documentaries, but the key to survival is being in a group, to being around people who will protect you. To being around people who will protect you from yourself. And I think as leaders and entrepreneurs, there's no other species on the planet that needs community more so than leaders, that human leaders. Because there is always someone coming for you. There is always someone coming for your vision. There was always someone trying to attack you. And I'm not talking about, like, you know, physical attack, but I'm talking about, you know, there's always trying to take your market share.

Diana Alt [00:48:54]:
They're trying to do something. They're trying to iterate on the next phase of innovation in your world. Like, it's not even malicious necessarily, but it's just that other people are moving, so you have to move, too.

Terry Weaver [00:49:06]:
And there's a lot of distraction. Right? There's a lot of things. That's one of the things I'm. I'm trying to communicate really clearly is like, guys, man, I get it. There's a lot going on in the world right now, but we can't do the thing we're designed to do if we get distracted by every little thing out there. And so I think a great community helps you provide some blinders for you and not getting too distracted from. Because when I look at Diana. I know, and I talk about this all the time in our group meetings and stuff that I think about the people that don't get helped when Diana doesn't show up.

Diana Alt [00:49:48]:
Mm.

Terry Weaver [00:49:49]:
You know, and. And if she's distracted from her mission, she can't do that. And I think. And I've seen. I've seen community. You've been on both sides of it. Of, like, when life got tough, the people were there for you, and you were there for people. You were the first.

Diana Alt [00:50:11]:
Yeah, I've tried to be that. And the other thing that's really wild is the people that show. When you're going through it, as the kids say, the people that show up are often a surprise.

Terry Weaver [00:50:26]:
Yep.

Diana Alt [00:50:26]:
The people that don't show up are often a surprise.

Terry Weaver [00:50:30]:
Correct.

Diana Alt [00:50:31]:
And if you are limited, like, I don't think anybody needs to try to pretend they have a hundred best friends. But if you work in like that hyper independent mode that a lot of us try to do, whether it's in business or corporate, not asking for help, all of that kind of stuff, you have a higher risk of exposure because someone that you thought was going to show up did not either couldn't or chose not to show.

Terry Weaver [00:50:59]:
Up.

Diana Alt [00:51:00]:
So I experienced that in some really unexpected ways this summer. And it's. It's fine. I'm fine because I had other people. So I can't wait to talk about that at the thing in Orlando. November, what is it, the 14th to 16th? I don't know. I just go to Orlando for a week and we have a conference. Tell the people a little bit about what the thing is, why you created it, what it's like.

Diana Alt [00:51:32]:
I'll chime in since I've been to a few of them.

Terry Weaver [00:51:36]:
Well, you know, at the end of the day, it's a business conference. Right. But I think it's a lot more than that. We've tried to curate a space where there is a balance of great content that's helpful for your business, that's super practical, but also stuff that is encouraging because this work can get, can get discouraging.

Diana Alt [00:52:02]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:52:03]:
That most, most of us in reality, you know, got up this morning and are in our, in our community, you know, we didn't go to a co working space. I looked at my dogs and walked upstairs to my office, you know, and that was kind of. That's my day. And so to have a room full of people, I think one of the things that makes the things the most unique that I love about the thing and who's. There is there's a room full of people that are doing stuff that other people told them they couldn't do. And when you start to show up around people that it's like, wow, there's somebody. You know, six months from now, when you get home from the thing, you're able to think back on that space to go, man, there's somebody else that got up and is doing this today.

Diana Alt [00:52:54]:
Yeah, there has to be. There has to be someone.

Terry Weaver [00:52:58]:
And you now know their number because you sat with them at lunch.

Diana Alt [00:53:02]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:53:03]:
And you send them a text and say, hey, I'm struggling with this. Can you help me through it?

Diana Alt [00:53:08]:
Yeah, I'm gonna, I'm gonna throw. Since I'VE been to so many of the corporate death by PowerPoint conferences.

Terry Weaver [00:53:17]:
Oh gosh.

Diana Alt [00:53:17]:
Where I want, I'm gonna throw a little information at the people so they can see the difference. So a conference that I, there's conferences that I've gone to, especially here in Kansas City, in the tech world that shall remain nameless. But for the most part it is show up at 8 o', clock keynote speaker that the, the place paid a ton of money for. But oftentimes you don't relate to very well. Then there's breakout sessions, there's rubber chicken for lunch, there's more breakout sessions, there's some sort of raffle at the end of the day and then you leave. And the only time that there is for community is over lunch. If you're lucky and can get through the line. When you go to those, you will meet lovely people.

Diana Alt [00:54:06]:
You'll connect to a few of them on LinkedIn. And if you're lucky, you have one or two people in a two day conference that you feel like you met and you can connect with again. And I'm telling y', all, go to those, especially if they're tied to a certification that you need to maintain. Like get your CEUs, get all your CEUs for like 5.99 of the two day conference. Absolutely. But when you're walking into something like the thing is very different, you may.

Terry Weaver [00:54:34]:
Actually walk out with an actual rubber chicken.

Diana Alt [00:54:37]:
I literally, I was looking for mine. It's in the living room. It's in the living room. But there's a whole lot. Yes, people are talking at the thing, but number one, the speakers are actually good. I like to think that because I am one. But there's a lot of things that are designed to just be a pattern interrupt from your life and the people that you talk to have opportunity to get to know in a deeper way. Especially the speakers.

Diana Alt [00:55:06]:
Because there's no green room, there's no keynote speaker coming in. You actually get excited about what you have to to hear and then. Oh, they actually left an hour after the keynote because they had to catch a plane. Like everyone's there for at least the whole day they're speaking and they sit right next to the people that paid to be there to learn even more.

Terry Weaver [00:55:27]:
So I don't know anyone right now that's only going to be there the day they're speaking.

Diana Alt [00:55:31]:
That's awesome.

Terry Weaver [00:55:32]:
They're almost, I mean we're, I'm. And that's the thing when you do something. I mean, this is the ninth year We've done it. And so you eventually start to figure out how to make it better.

Diana Alt [00:55:41]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:55:41]:
And you know what? And let me say this. I feel like everyone that I put on the stage is there because they deeply care about it. Most of them are investing their time, energy, and money to be there on their own. Many of our speakers are paid attendees as well. You know, they are registering to be there as well. And so that makes us weird. It makes. It's a different approach.

Diana Alt [00:56:06]:
It's a different approach that leads to the kind of ongoing communications that turn into something later. It's not the I'm on the stage and here's my $5,000 offer that you're going to be pressured to buy at the end of it. The other thing I'll say for those people that are considering going to an event like this because they want to figure out their thing or grow their thing, is that there's a lot of experiences alongside it. So if you buy a VIP ticket, there's a day at Disney to mess around. You pick apart. Have you picked the park this year? Do you know?

Terry Weaver [00:56:44]:
We're going to do something a little. This year's providing us because we're later in November than we are.

Diana Alt [00:56:49]:
Ah.

Terry Weaver [00:56:49]:
So we have something a little merrier than normal to be.

Diana Alt [00:56:53]:
Oh, okay. So they're doing something merry. But in the past, we'd done things like had a VIP tour of all the Disney parks where we got to go hit all the rides. They have to wait like two hours in line. But we were at the front of the line, and it was kind of a special experience just to be able to do that with people. See behind the scenes, you don't get that in most environments.

Terry Weaver [00:57:18]:
And I'm still kind of tired from that one. That day was a long day.

Diana Alt [00:57:23]:
That was a very long day.

Terry Weaver [00:57:25]:
But amazing. And we try to. We try to change it up.

Diana Alt [00:57:28]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [00:57:28]:
And we try to say, you heard how I answered Diana's question. That I'm not. I want there to be elements of surprise for people. So it's. It's a little different. So people don't come expecting. I want to be able to, even someone that's been seven or eight times to interrupt their pattern still.

Diana Alt [00:57:45]:
Yeah. And it's really interesting. We've seen people go like. In my case, I like a few other people started in the audience and then ended up becoming a regular speaker on the stage. And there's other people that have done that as well, including episode 16 guest Liz Wilcox, who is our email marketing guru. That Happens to go on Survivor. She's one of the like, biggest success stories in the community because she used that event as a jumping off point to create something huge. One of the other things I wanted to ask is you've really done.

Diana Alt [00:58:26]:
You've worked with some brands that are pretty big, like U.S. postal Service is one of them, and you've worked with other ones. What is something you've noticed about an environment like the usps, which is as opposite as you can get from being a solopreneur.

Terry Weaver [00:58:43]:
Oh, gosh.

Diana Alt [00:58:44]:
That actually carries into entrepreneurial life. Like sometimes people don't realize they're doing some of the same things that behemoth orgs do to themselves.

Terry Weaver [00:58:56]:
Well, that was a day One of our, One of our. One of our attendees and friends clients invited me to come speak to the USPS and to spend an afternoon with a bunch of leadership at this arm that he worked with. And yeah, you guys are about to get something I don't share a lot about, I don't talk a lot about because this is a. I've never met a more uninspired group of people. Basically, the, the way that culture is set up is you're basically, once you get into that organization, you're just trying to not do something really stupid that's going to get you fired. And you're basically just riding it out until another opportunity that might be better comes along.

Diana Alt [00:59:39]:
Isn't that what entrepreneurs do all the time, especially service providers?

Terry Weaver [00:59:44]:
We see it right.

Diana Alt [00:59:46]:
And so we see it. Not everybody, but there's. Service providers often do this. They will trade their time for money. They will get burned out on what they're doing, and they will be terrified to fire bad clients so that they can make room for good clients. That is the entrepreneurial equivalent of working at the Postal Service, don't you think?

Terry Weaver [01:00:06]:
I would agree. You know, and I think culture is an interesting word because we think culture only exists in large organizations. But I create culture every day for myself.

Diana Alt [01:00:19]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [01:00:20]:
I create an environment in a, in a way that I want to work and how I want to work and what I will allow, you know, what I let happen. And the upside of that piece. Right. Is like there's always one or two people that are like bright lights in there.

Diana Alt [01:00:41]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [01:00:42]:
And there's always one or two people that have the power to shift the room.

Diana Alt [01:00:47]:
Yep.

Terry Weaver [01:00:47]:
Now, it so happened to be the location that I ended up was their headquarters in Compton.

Diana Alt [01:00:53]:
Oh, wow.

Terry Weaver [01:00:54]:
And I was there with my, our buddy McNair, Disney Imagineer, you know, imagine him and I. Rolling through Compton in our picture. Yeah. We were not sipping on gin and juice with Snoop, but we rolled up into the postal service, which was like, you know, security. You can imagine a security compound. And. And a lot of it was just there. People were just.

Terry Weaver [01:01:24]:
It was a. It was a place people worked all over the country, and that's just where they ended up. But there was always a few people that. That you spot when you get to do those opportunities that you see that there are people that think and that are different. Another. Another place that I really wasn't working with them, but I was invited to come in and see the environment was Pixar.

Diana Alt [01:01:54]:
Oh, cool.

Terry Weaver [01:01:56]:
Which was opportunity to connect with. Just. I was invited to just be a spectator in their culture for a day opportunity and eat lunch in their cafeteria and hang out and buy way too many things in their staff gift shop, but just walk around. I got to go see. When I was there, they were making the movie monsters. You. So I got to see some of the animators actually doing that on their screens, which was crazy to see. You know, the front.

Terry Weaver [01:02:26]:
The guy that I knew there, he's, you know, he showed me this one scene in the movie that happened to me, one of my favorite scenes in that movie. And, you know, he had been animating that scene for 13 months. And it runs for, you know, a minute, nine seconds or whatever. You know, he had spent his last 13 minute months on a minute and nine seconds of content. But the. The environment there was the opposite.

Diana Alt [01:02:48]:
Right.

Terry Weaver [01:02:49]:
It looked like the whole. Literally the anim. The animation looked like what would happen if. If you let the frat house be in charge of the entire college campus. I mean, people's offices.

Diana Alt [01:03:03]:
In a good way, guys.

Terry Weaver [01:03:04]:
In a good way. In a good way. In a good way. But like people's. People's. Yeah. It wasn't like a. There were people running around the office topless, but there were people who had literally ripped the ceiling off of their office and built the second floor.

Diana Alt [01:03:20]:
Oh, I remember you telling me about that.

Terry Weaver [01:03:22]:
There are people that had arcades in their office. Not like. Not like sort of arcades, but like an actual. Like the scene from Tron. Like you opened a door and you walked drawn. And I think what that speaks of is, like, I think it's super important that we create an environment where we can thrive.

Diana Alt [01:03:43]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [01:03:45]:
And I think whether you're in a day job working nine to five, or you're in, you know, a home office or you're in a, you know, cubicle somewhere, bring some Joy into your workplace.

Diana Alt [01:03:58]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [01:03:59]:
Space that inspires you.

Diana Alt [01:04:02]:
I don't have. I have some of it behind me, but I have more in front of me where I can see it. I've got Forky. I have the Buddy Christ. I have David from Schitt's Creek. I have a Travis Kelsey Pillar candle like you'd find in a Catholic church. Bunch of Ted Lasso stuff. Savannah Bananas Ball.

Diana Alt [01:04:24]:
Like, I have all those kinds of things.

Terry Weaver [01:04:27]:
I've given you a little.

Diana Alt [01:04:28]:
Some of them are. I have a rubber chicken that Terry gave me. Like, there's a. There's a lot of things that Terry either gave me or he sent a link to Amazon, and I said, damn it, you just cost me some money.

Terry Weaver [01:04:42]:
Yeah. And who doesn't. Who doesn't need a forky pan? Right. Like, everybody.

Diana Alt [01:04:46]:
I love my forky pen. Fork makes me happy. Forky is a very important character as far as I'm concerned.

Terry Weaver [01:04:54]:
So we know why Forky is super important. The entire time of the movie, Forky believes he's trash. He's trash. And so many of us are led to believe that we're disposable in the work we do.

Diana Alt [01:05:06]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [01:05:07]:
Forky may be the best mascot for this podcast because there's a lot of us that go thinking that we've had that moment where we realize how replaceable we are in the work environment, but as humans, we're not replaceable. You may be replaceable in your job, but you are not replaceable on this planet.

Diana Alt [01:05:29]:
No.

Terry Weaver [01:05:29]:
And life is too short for you to go through life giving up the things that matter the most to you for people who don't value who you are and what you bring to the table.

Diana Alt [01:05:41]:
And it's especially bad when the person that's not valuing who you are is yourself.

Terry Weaver [01:05:46]:
Correct.

Diana Alt [01:05:47]:
I want to transition. I always close the show with a lightning round that may or may not really be a lightning round. I ask a few questions, and then we'll just quickly button up the details on the thing, since I know you want to make sure everyone's clear on that, since we had kind of a meandering conversation about the thing. So my first question, my favorite question. What is the worst piece of career advice you've ever received?

Terry Weaver [01:06:18]:
Just follow the path.

Diana Alt [01:06:20]:
Yeah. Do what you should do. No, thanks. What's a personal habit that helps you be successful?

Terry Weaver [01:06:29]:
Sometimes pausing before I speak.

Diana Alt [01:06:32]:
It only took me, like, 40 years to learn that one. I'm still working on it sometimes.

Terry Weaver [01:06:38]:
I spend a lot of my life having to be really quick on my feet and having to respond. And as the world gets more wackadoodle every day, sometimes I'm learning that it just like that's not worth my energy.

Diana Alt [01:06:55]:
Yeah.

Terry Weaver [01:06:55]:
Those people.

Diana Alt [01:06:56]:
I say that. And then the other thing that I'll say, especially if it's an online context, like there's banter.

Terry Weaver [01:07:03]:
Oh yeah.

Diana Alt [01:07:04]:
In the comments. I sometimes think if I had never been served this post by the algorithm, would it suffer from me not writing this? And then I delete what I was about to post. So what's something you've changed your mind about recently?

Terry Weaver [01:07:21]:
I thought the Kansas City Chiefs were going to have a great season.

Diana Alt [01:07:26]:
I got 14 more games, so.

Terry Weaver [01:07:28]:
But I was hopeful that my boy tribe was going to go out on top.

Diana Alt [01:07:32]:
But they got 14 more games.

Terry Weaver [01:07:35]:
Yeah, I'm just. I'm giving you a heart, but I, I can't. I can't think of a lot of. And it's not that I'm not flexible to change my mind. I think I'm just at a place in life where I'm. I'm more and more resolved about the things that matter and I just don't care about the things that I don't care about anymore. Anymore.

Diana Alt [01:07:56]:
I think that's a really good place to be. So maybe it wasn't recently, but at least your brain got you there.

Terry Weaver [01:08:01]:
My brain got me there.

Diana Alt [01:08:02]:
That.

Terry Weaver [01:08:02]:
It's just like. They're just. There's just a lot of things that just. I just. I don't care whatever you do. You boo.

Diana Alt [01:08:11]:
Yeah, I, I don't have breath in my body for that.

Terry Weaver [01:08:14]:
You know, Coach, as a coach, I've had. And I say this and people think I'm a smart alec for saying it, and I probably am. But I get to be wrong about your life, but you don't.

Diana Alt [01:08:26]:
Yes.

Terry Weaver [01:08:27]:
You know, and I, I know, I know, I know. I know my gut pretty well. I'm a chubby fella. I'm. I'm pretty. Right. My intuition is pretty. I need to learn to listen to it better for myself often.

Terry Weaver [01:08:45]:
But I'm, I've. I'm. I, you know, I had somebody come to me with one of those. Like a man. Hey, Hey. I know you're about to tell me I told you so. And I'm like, no, no, no, listen, bro, that's the last thing I'm going to tell you because you, you know, you don't need me to tell you I told you so. I don't.

Terry Weaver [01:09:00]:
I'm not that guy. But you know, you know that you should have listened to me 18 months ago. But you didn't want to because you weren't ready for it. You couldn't see. You couldn't see what I saw. And I think that's what one of the things that coaching does for us is it provides someone that's able to hold up a mirror that we may not be able to have access to, or our mirror might be really dirty.

Diana Alt [01:09:27]:
And I think the analogy of a dirty mirror is actually really brilliant. So, okay, we are longer than I meant to be, which is typical for you. And I tell the people about the thing. I've got the website, the Thing live. Tell them about the Thing Orlando, which is coming up in mid November.

Terry Weaver [01:09:49]:
November 14th, 15th and 16th, right on Walt Disney World property.

Diana Alt [01:09:53]:
2025, 2025 later. But the thing Live is actually spoiler alert.

Terry Weaver [01:09:59]:
It's about those same dates next year, because we've already confirmed to them.

Diana Alt [01:10:02]:
Oh, well, good. But, yeah, so 14th through 16th with. With some VIP stuff before, if you're.

Terry Weaver [01:10:11]:
Yeah, we start the VIP stuff on Tuesday night with a dinner. And then VIP day, VVIP day, which is something you've been a part of almost every time, which is kind of a day where we. We get in a suite and spend. Bring in some food and spend the day just kind of working on whatever anybody really wants to work on in their business. Sometimes it's helping somebody start a business. Sometimes it's helping somebody outline the idea for a course or a book or a platform. It's one of the things that I accidentally started doing and realized it was one of the things that I was the best at. I thought that I needed somebody else there to support me in it.

Terry Weaver [01:10:52]:
And we actually will have a guest this year. But I've realized. I've realized that one of my. One of my things that I'm able to do is really help people discover what. What is kind of stuck within them that they can't get out.

Diana Alt [01:11:09]:
Yeah. And in that VVIP thing, which is honestly the reason I signed up for my very first thing was to do that. You're getting wisdom from Terry as the lead coach. You're also getting wisdom from the other entrepreneurs in the room. So you can make some pretty big leaps in a short period of time. And then Thursday, the VIP day at.

Terry Weaver [01:11:32]:
Whatever you're doing, we go to a Disney park. Diana. Diana was smart and she said, hey, I want to do vvip, but I've got to sit out the park day because I'm still know that, like, my energy won't be back.

Diana Alt [01:11:44]:
And I'm going to New York the weekend before.

Terry Weaver [01:11:46]:
Yeah. Hamilton theme park.

Diana Alt [01:11:49]:
Yeah. And so I want that theme park. Put that in Disney.

Terry Weaver [01:11:53]:
Yeah, I wouldn't. Lin Manuel is working on some stuff in the parks. I know he's working on a Encanto attraction right now, so.

Diana Alt [01:12:02]:
Yeah, well, if you want to attend that, the Thing Live is where you click on the Orlando one. But he's also does a Nashville one. And you know, if there's ever any other ones on there, you'll find it at the Thing Live. If you use the code. I'm with Diana, you actually get a discount on any level of ticket that you choose, and I'd love to see you there. So hit me or Terry if you have questions about that. Terry, thank you so much for coming.

Terry Weaver [01:12:34]:
Thanks for having me.

Diana Alt [01:12:35]:
I always love an excuse to nerd out about entrepreneurship and making life and work work together with you.

Terry Weaver [01:12:43]:
Always fun.

Diana Alt [01:12:45]:
All right. Want some more career goodness between episodes, head on over to DianaAlt.com and smash the big green let's connect button to sign up for my newsletter. Let's make work feel good together. And that's it for this episode of Work should feel good. If something made you laugh, think, cry, or just want to yell yes at your phone, send it to a friend, hit follow, hit subscribe, do all the things. And even better, leave a review if you've got a sec. I'm not gonna tell you to give it five stars. You get to decide if I earned them.

Diana Alt [01:13:22]:
Work should feel good. Let's make that your reality.