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Interview with Jim Straw

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Michael: Welcome to Logical Soul Talk. My name is Michael Craig and I’m your host for this

weekly talk radio program. This is a show where I get to interview some of the best, brightest

and the most creative people in the world or talk about subjects near and dear to my heart.

During this 60 minute program today I’m gonna focus on a very special guest Mr. Jim Straw but

first, a little background. You see, as a chiropractor for many years, I discovered that most

people including myself have an underlying pattern of what I call hidden decisions that we

made as small children or picked up from our parents, teachers or even our ancestors.

These subconscious decisions form our reality and affect our motivation and our destiny and

our actions. Consequently these hidden decisions can either propel us to greatness or lead us to

self sabotage and failure.

Quite by accident many years ago, I discovered I could access and change these hidden

decisions to allow amazing results to happen in my own and other people’s lives and you can

get information on my technique and how I’m training life coaches and others to use and

spread this technology at www.mycoachtraining.com.

My goal today and in every show is that you walkway with something powerful that you can use

in your life that will add to your motivation and nourish what I call your seed of success

whether you’re a coach or just wanna transform your life this, show is for you.

So listen and take notes. After about 10 or 15 minutes usually I have you call in for your

comments and questions to our show hotline but today with our special guest, we’re doing a

pre-recorded show so that’s not gonna be possible.

However, I wanna thank you for listening and stay tuned every Tuesday at 6 PM Eastern Time

for more great interviews. Now, back tonight’s guest, Mr. Jim Straw. We’re talking with Jim

Straw from Dalton, Georgia.

You might call him the marketing guru. He’s been doing this more than I’ve been on the years I

guess and he knows more in his little fingers than probably most guys know in their whole

experience and Mr. Jim thank you for letting us come and talk to you today.

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Jim: Goodness, I’m glad to have you here. I’ve been in business for over 50 years now. I owned

and operated successful business in retail, wholesale, manufacturing, mining, publishing and

when I bought a bank, my mother said ‘Jim don’t be silly. People don’t own banks.’ But I did.

Michael: Right.

Jim: And I’ve written about 700 books, booklets, reports, articles, manuscripts, programs over

the years. Most of them have been self published except the one I’ve got now that I’ve let a

publisher publish. He’s gonna make a book out of it.

Michael: What’s the name of that book again? You mentioned it earlier.

Jim: Mustard Seeds, Shovels & Mountains. It’s how to achieve success with using physio-

psychic power. It comes from that if you have a faith of a mustard seed, you can move

mountains if you get a shovel.

Michael: But you need a shovel.

Jim: Almost all of like the magic of believing and think and grow rich. They lead you to believe

that all you have to do is believe it and it’ll happen. That’s like believing you’re gonna win the

lottery but if you don’t buy a ticket, you’re not gonna win the lottery.

Michael: That’s true.

Jim: And it’s the same thing in anything in your life. You have to do something. There has to be

a physical application to your psychic abilities. I call it physio-psychic power. It’s strictly using

your brain to create a thought but then doing something to make that thought come to

fruitition.

It’ll be published I think within the next week or so. I think you’re supposed to have some

books…

Michael: This is being recorded. What’s the date, today February 23rd 2012 talking to Mr. Jim

Straw, marketing genius. I remember you said something during a recent event that we

attended coz I talked to you. I said ‘did you know a guy named Joe Karbo?’ and you said yeah

you did.

Then you talked about I was doing business with – you wanna tell a little bit? Coz I remember

Joe Karbo. I bought his book The Lazy Man’s Way to Riches and I think that’s published mid 60’s

or something.

Jim: Something likes that, yeah.

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Michael: Yeah and I thought that was great. I read everything. Of course I didn’t get rich but it

then plant the seed for me to do a whole lot of stuff later on.

Jim: Everybody thought that Joe Karbo started with that book but actually Joe Karbo started

right after World War II. Have you seen those little ads in the comic books that say you can see

through doors?

Michael: Yeah.

Jim: That’s Joe Karbo.

Michael: Really?

Jim: He bought a close out of these little deals you put in the door to look at, there’s peep holes

and I think he bought it for like a nickel a piece or whatever and then he sold them for a dollar a

piece.

[0:05:09]

He did that and he had other little items that he sold, mail order and then when he wrote The

Lazy Man’s Way to Riches, he originally wrote the ad. He took it over to Don Perry at Money

Making Opportunities Magazine.

Don set the ad up, put him in a magazine. Joe hadn’t even started writing the book. He didn’t

know what the book was going to be about. And then he hit big. God he hit big. He’s still a big

seller.

I got to know Joe over the years and exchanged letters and telephone calls with him and about

a week and a half or so before he died, he and I were making plans to get together in Las Vegas.

He had his society of partners and I had the American business club.

We were gonna put them together and like I say, I got a call saying that Joe then left.

Michael: He passed on a greater rewards…

Jim: Yeah.

Michael: Well that’s fascinating. So how did you get started? I mean I know you’ve been doing a

long time. What was the first seed in your mind that just sort of started grabbing you and

getting you involved in this entrepreneurial marketing stuff? What was that?

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Jim: Well I’ve been doing it all my life. I started off at the age of 9 or 10 selling Cloverleaf salve

and Grit newspaper and I was one of the first dealers for TV guide. It was 15 cents a week and a

little TV guide. We had three channels.

It was 15 cents a week and a penny tax. I had to collect sales tax for Kansas coz they said 15

cents and they got a penny more for tax. I sold Christmas cards and everything else, anything

else and of course I also ran hay-hauling crews.

I had a truck and a load room of crew that we hold hays of bay out of the field, also did all kind

of ranch maintenance work so that was…

Michael: You pretty much been a jack of all trades just doing…

Jim: Master of nothing.

Michael: Getting experience and stuff. Actually I heard that phrase. My dad used to called me

that and sort of derogatorily. Jack of all trades, master of none but I recently heard from

someone more successful entrepreneur that’s what they want to be.

Because it’s like you wanna know a lot of things but not master them because you wanna

delegate that stuff.

Jim: Yeah. Well you can delegate but you gotta know what you’re delegating.

Michael: Exactly.

Jim: Unfortunately too many people try to delegate and don’t even know how to do it

themselves. A lot of things I didn’t know how to do that I hired people to do but I watched them

and learned from them.

When I got into any kind of business venture, I spent money on books. I went to the library and

studied those kinds of businesses and when I went to the banking industry, I bought over

$3,000 worth of books on banking.

Michael: Wow.

Jim: How it’s done, how to do it and all of that and of course I bought some beautiful export

courses, found out most of them were ridiculous. They were unnecessary because it’s nothing

more than selling something overseas and shipping it to them.

Michael: That’s about it. So what happened? You went and bought a bank and then you learned

how to run a bank?

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Jim: Yeah.

Michael: Okay just making sure that was…

Jim: Well I needed a bank for my customers.

Michael: I gotcha.

Jim: And so if you need a typewriter, you buy a typewriter. You need a bank, you buy a bank. I

mean that’s part of the game.

Michael: Then buy books and learn how to use it.

Jim: That’s it.

Michael: I like your style. That’s great. So essentially you weren’t afraid to take chances. You did

a lot of – I wouldn’t call it risks. I mean there’s a difference between risk taking and being risky.

Jim: Yeah. They say entrepreneurs are risk takers. We take calculated risk. If something’s way

too risky, nobody’s gonna touch it. I won’t touch it. There are a number I had – I had a guy who

contact me last year who had a deal…

Gonna make us a gazillion dollars and it probably would. He wanted to setup a legal marijuana

shop. That’s quite an – but that’s not exactly my cup of tea. That’s a risk I really wouldn’t wanna

take.

Michael: Exactly. So bungee jumping off of assessment is probably risky.

Jim: Yeah.

Michael: So what was the thing that inspired you as a kid? I mean what sort of reached out and

grab you and say this is what I wanna do. I wanna be an entrepreneur. I wanna be a business

man. Was there any one particular answer that you…?

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Jim: Yes.

Michael: What happened?

Jim: Well I lived in Kansas, oil country.

Michael: You’re born there?

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Jim: No, born in Oklahoma but raised in Missouri and Kansas. I was a kid and this big Cadillac

drives up and a guy leans out ‘where can I find so and so?’ you’re looking for so and so’s place.

So I told him and then he sput his wheels and sped out and threw dirt all over me.

And I said ‘that’s it my god, I’m gonna own me a Cadillac too’ and I’ve driven Cadillac’s over 40

years now. I’ve driven this last one for 15 years coz Cadillac hasn’t build another car. They kept

coming out with these little sardine cans with a Cadillac and I’m not gonna have one of those.

Michael: So the guy spit dirt on your face and it just made you mad and you just thought

becoming successful and you’ll buy your own.

Jim: That’s right.

Michael: You can spin dirt in other people. You probably haven’t done that.

Jim: In my new book I tell how I established my goals, how to establish your goals. Most people

establish goals like I’m gonna be rich. Alright that’s fine but then you have to break it down and

keep updating it.

People write their goal once. You’re supposed to write your goal, read it, set a date for its

completion. That’s fine and dandy but I set a goal to be a millionaire by my 25th birthday. I set a

date. I wanna be a millionaire. I was 25 years old. I was pretty close.

Three months later my businesses were robbed. All of my inventory was stolen. They wiped

out. They picked up everything of any value. I had to start all over from zero again.

Michael: Right.

Jim: So you can establish those goals and all that. I like to set immediate goals like by such a

date, I want to be here and go from there. And then in some of these books they say you have

to have passion. You have to be obsessed.

Well you know what they call a guy that’s passionate, starts stalking women, hey it’s the same

way in business. Some of these people get like Enron and like that. They get so involved in the

making of the money that hey they’ll do anything in the world to make that money.

That’s the same way in business. You can’t establish your goal and be obsessive about it

because if you are, its libel to bite you.

Michael: I’ve heard passion expressed in different ways. Some people say I’m passionate about

collecting stamps or I’m passionate about whatever.

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Jim: As long as…

Michael: You’re passionate about being an entrepreneur.

Jim: Yeah. As long as they don’t go out and steal the stamps.

Michael: Right. Well yeah there’s a sense of ethics. The golden rule works hand in hand with

that.

Jim: I brought a lot of it as it brought on by our educational system because the school teachers

themselves teach these students that business is corrupt and in order to make any money you

gotta be corrupt.

Then they go off to business college and they figure I’m gonna have to be a little sneaky in

order to make this work and so they end up with Enron or Solardyne or one of those where –

and they say the job market, you gotta have jobs.

They keep looking at the big companies. Only 20% of the employees are on those big

companies. 80% of the employees are employed by people like me, small entrepreneurial

operations.

Michael: Right.

Jim: But like I say, and I found it on the business community, the more honest the business

person is, the bigger and better their business is.

Michael: Who are some of your mentors growing up? I mean I know you had probably a few of

them. Anybody you wanna name or…

Jim: Well not actually anyone you’d even know because I like to sit and visit with the old rich

men around town when I carry my newspaper at the old man blood – owned all the orchards in

that area in Kansas.

And of course he’s just retired and living there by himself and every time I go to collect for the

newspaper we’d sit and talk for an hour and he’d tell me about things he had done and how he

had done them.

And then there were other old business people like that, that I would sit at their knee and listen

to them and they would tell stories and I would do what they said to do.

Michael: That’s great. You think any particular advice that they said that you can remember

that was a real helpful at the time or just a whole bunch…

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Jim: Just a whole bunch of stuff. It was all good information about how they had done things,

why they had done – talking about blood, I went to his house to collect my newspaper one day

and he showed me some piggy banks sitting around.

He said those saved my life. I said how about? He said when the banks all failed, there was no

money anywhere. He said ‘the wife and I had this collection of piggy banks.’ They were sitting

all over the house.

He said ‘I went and open those piggy banks and I had enough to make payroll.’ He said ‘I had

enough to stay in business.’

Michael: Wow.

Jim: And then another time he showed me a stack of letters with stamps on it, envelopes with

stamps on it. He was telling me how many thousands they were worth. He said ‘I collected

these over the years right out of the mail.’

Any fancy looking stamp or whatever, he said ‘I threw it in a box. I got a box filled with old

stamps that I collected over the years.’

Michael: Really?

Jim: But they’re [0:16:09] [Inaudible] and things like that and he said ‘back then they weren’t

worth anything today, they’re worth a small fortune.’

Michael: That’s an interesting idea. Yeah. I know Dave Ramsey. I don’t know if you know about

him but he talks about developing an emergency fund or hiding an emergency fund and just put

it in the side. Don’t touch it. That’s for living for bad times.

He said it’s the same advice your grandma would give you which I guess would be the case. So

you were born in Oklahoma, grew up in Iowa…

Jim: No, grew up in Missouri and Kansas.

Michael: Missouri and Kansas.

Jim: I was born in Oklahoma and then I had two brothers and two sisters born in Missouri then

we moved over to outside of Wichita, Kansas then went to work for a Boeing aircraft.

Michael: So your dad was an engineer?

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Jim: 10th grade education but he can read a blue print like even the engineers couldn’t and he

built the first jigs for the B52 and worked on the first jigs for the 707 working for Boeing. He

became a master jig builder. Like I said, 10th grade education but he can do the job.

Michael: Yeah. You all have any questions you wanna ask Jim?

Siya: I have a question.

Michael: What’s your question Siya?

Siya: [0:17:34] [Inaudible] not in the business game, what is one thing that no matter what the

in it is trying to do that it cannot emulate or try to do in turns of being successful in a business.

Jim: How do you mean?

Siya: Like for example maybe something to do – like there’s something that said no matter what

offline can do it better than online can do it. Is there one thing or two things that you can think

of that you can’t?

Jim: Not really. Business is business is business. It makes no difference whether it’s a grocery

store or a bank. It’s all the same procedures. If you’re in the specific of some kind, get books on

that specific subject.

One of the big problems with the internet is that there are so many people out there claiming

to know how to do things and tell you how to do them and they’re just rehashing the old crap

that’s been around that no one has ever done but they keep saying it can be done.

As a matter of fact I tell people ask the guru what he’s done besides write about it. Has he ever

done it? I haven’t written about anything that I haven’t done. All of my reports and everything

are from my own personal hands on experience.

Michael: So give us the example of what’s on the marketing without naming names obviously

but some examples of the things you’ve seen that just don’t work. Actually I’ve heard

somebody say advertising is legalized lying but I bet you can shed some light on some of these

examples that people get.

Jim: Well according to Thomas Jefferson, the only truth in the newspaper’s the ads but

unfortunately they’re taking that too far now and well these gurus tell you that you can make

money. All you gotta do is have this program and push a button.

Michael: Yeah, one button.

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Jim: One button like push a button and you start making money. The sucker that I am said I’m

gonna find out and I’ve tried three or four of them. Not one of them worked and I’ve got a good

following so it’s just…

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These people are like ‘oh I can tell you stories of people that made gazillions of dollars in the

mail order industry’ and they tell you those stories like you can do it.

Michael: Right.

Jim: But that’s one time that one person did it and you’re not him.

Michael: Yeah. I know some marketers say ‘well you can earn $193,000 in four hours’ and they

point to the PayPal or whatever click bank receipts and show and I’ve done them. Of course

they only did it once in their life and then they had to pay the affiliates out of that 100,000 and

then they had to pay for the pay per click another 50,000. So they netted what? 10,000 out of

that?

Jim: Yeah.

Michael: Those are the things they don’t tell you.

Jim: I’ve known some of the one timers. I can mention some names and probably you know

who I’m talking about but one time in their life, they hit a [0:20:58] [Inaudible] and they got it

right and made a gazillion dollars over night.

They’ve never done it again and they’ve tried over and over – Joe Karbo. Joe made money

constantly in mail order since right after the war. I mean he was there constantly making

money in mail order.

His Lazy Man’s Way to Riches just broke the bank. Joe was telling me before he dies, said ‘Jim

just one more time before I die I’d like to come up with another Lazy Man’s Way to Riches.’

I’ve never had a winner like that. I’ve never really had one of those big one time winners. I just

keep those getting those singles and just keep bringing in the money and some of my material

is over 30 years old but it’s still reliable. It works every day.

Michael: Yeah, give us some examples of that so we can promote a little bit what you got going

on. Get your website out while you’re at it.

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Jim: I think there are 12 different reports out there, businesslyceum.com and I’ve got my mail

order marketing manual you can make a fortune in mail order and all that does explain all the

things that these 99% of the crap out they’re about getting rich in mail order is a bunch of

hooey.

I’d break it down exactly so you can follow it. If you can follow it, you can make money but I’m

not gonna promise you’re gonna make a ton of money coz you’ve got to do the work and I tell

you how to step by step piece by piece same thing I’ve got an internet marketing book.

I didn’t write it ‘til I was making money as an affiliate marketer because many of these guys tell

you how many millions of dollars can you make but it’s just not there.

Michael: [Cross-talk]

Jim: And so I tell people how to do it, how to create your email campaigns and all of that and

sell American is an export course. What brought that about is I have a review copy of a new

export course that came in 600 pages. 8 and 9 point type on how to setup letters of credit, how

to write letters of credit, how to do all your own – everything.

But anybody that’s in export doesn’t mess with that. You make a sale overseas. You get a letter

of credit paying for it. You take it to the bank, call a freight forwarder, the freight forwarder

takes it, sends it.

The first export course I took, I made my first export order. I filled out all the documentation,

the paperwork and everything and took it down to red way express, delivered it with all the

paperwork and the guy looked at me and say ‘you took that course didn’t you?’ I said ‘yeah.’ He

said ‘well I need this’ and threw the rest of it in the trash and that’s what all you need.

And that’s what I explained in the export course that it’s nothing more than selling and

wherever you’re selling and then ship it to them. They make such a big deal out of it. Your

banker will handle all the financing work. A freight forwarded will take care of getting it out of

the country and to your customer. You don’t have to do anything.

Michael: I know a good freight forwarder’s important coz I know we do – my wife does a little

bit of that to Canada mostly.

Jim: Yellow pages in the telephone book, just look under freight forwarding. There’s a ton of

them.

Michael: Like someone will do special services to you like [0:24:56] [Inaudible] for some others.

I don’t know the exact words…

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[0:25:00]

Jim: Back sometime when I was getting in banks, forwarding and doing some – if you exported

through the post office, every package had to be tied with string. A lot of times people come in

with a package they wanna export and the post master have a ball of string and ties a string on

it because the regulation said it had to be.

Nowadays exporting, freight forwarding, you can take it to UPS office. They can ship it

anywhere in the world. They’ll handle all the paperwork and everything.

Michael: Yeah, pretty much. So you’ve got another question over here. David you got a

question you wanna ask?

David: If you started completely from scratch, what would be the first thing you’d do?

Michael: That’s a good question. Go ahead and answer that Jim.

Jim: I’d probably go in to just local retail. That’s the easiest business to get into. It’s the quickest

money. You just open the door and sell the things. Of course you have to do one thing that

most of them don’t do, that’s advertised.

Michael: Any type of retail or just…

Jim: Any type of retail.

Michael: Hopefully something people want.

Jim: Yeah. I’d look around and see what was popular and that’s what I’d probably get into.

Michael: I know up here in north Georgia and thinking of Tennessee and places, the dollar

stores are real popular.

Jim: Yes.

Michael: There’s a dollar store franchise and like that.

Jim: But of course I’ve been a freighter all my life. I’ve always done that. Like when I was on the

farm as a kid, farmer Smith had a tractor and farmer Brown needed a tractor, I’d introduce the

two and earn a commission on it.

I’d been doing that. I’ve done it with just about anything and everything you can imagine all

over the world and I can still do that. But as far as if I was going into a business, it would be just

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the local retail business otherwise I would probably simply go out and do some binding, find

some things and find some buyers for it.

That’s what I teach in my how to be a millionaire course. So many people worry about having

something to sell, gotta have something to sell. No, you need somebody who’ll buy it and so a

friend of mine and I developed a little plan of creating a list of buyers.

We know what they buy, how many they buy, how much they pay and when we come along,

we were something that they need to use and simply call them up and say we’ve got it. There

was no selling to it.

Michael: Just order fulfilling. Yeah, that’s an interesting way to do it. You just go around canvas

your neighbor, canvas your local business or industry and find out who needs what and start

making a list and make a few phone calls and start connecting the dots.

Jim: That’s it but not like I say, I haven’t done that for a few years coz I’m old and tired. I don’t

have to chase the rainbow anymore.

Michael: Right.

Jim: All the others have to keep chasing rainbows. I caught mine.

Michael: That’s interesting coz really you’re talking about being an affiliate, a source. You’re

basically representing or buying from the source and connecting the dots and putting two

together.

Jim: Really I never do any buying. I never do any buying or…

Michael: Maybe as an affiliate.

Jim: No, the seller does the selling. I just introduce the buyer.

Michael: Right.

Jim: But well someone has 100,000 widgets and you know a guy that buys widgets and can use

100,000 of them and you’ve got a pricing he can’t get anywhere else, you just tell him and the

seller write you a commission check.

Michael: Right, that’s the way you do business. I remember as a kid, I share this with my folks as

well in my book. I talked about it and as a kid, I never ate much candy so during Halloween I’d

go around collecting all these candy and then a week later when all the kids having their sugar

rush, I’ve got my little cardboard store out in the front yard and sell the candy.

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These kids have to have their candy so they come over to buy the candy. So yeah, just supply

and demand, what people want, what you’re willing to sell.

Jim: The whole thing is to know what you’re [0:29:37] [Inaudible] and people say you’ve got so

many different subjects out there. Yeah, because I’m not looking for specific buyers anymore.

My efforts in publishing material is to have it out there available for the next generation. That’s

all.

[0:30:00]

Of course I’m making my little piece of change doing it. But the thing is it’s not so much to sell

into those items as is simply make them available because there are so many young people that

want to get into things but they don’t know how to start. They don’t know what to do and I’ve

already done it.

Michael: Well you’ve got a wealth of information and experience came along with it. That’s for

sure. What’s the name of – give me your website again so people will know.

Jim: Businesslyceum.com. It’s got all the information out there about me and about my books

and then there’s 11 years worth of my e letter with all kinds of topics.

Michael: I imagine that to be something – pretty fill stuff.

Jim: 12 years. 13 years. A long time.

Michael: So you gave us a little bit of information about how you got started, about what

inspired you to get started, Cadillac’s and your first mentor which was Mr. Blood I think it was?

Jim: There was one [Cross-talk] because there was Jack Bannon and Jim Taylor…

Michael: All the leasers…

Jim: Just local business men that have made it. Some of them retired and just living there.

Others who’re handling in their businesses and I listen to them. All the parents love me. Kids

couldn’t stand me but all the parents love me coz I sit and listen to them.

Michael: Right. That’s a rare talent. Well you got three of us come making pilgrimage in Dalton

to sit at your feet and get some pearls of wisdom here.

Jim: Yeah. I don’t see any of you juniors…

Michael: [Cross-talk] David Wright and Siya Jackson and I’m Michael Craig. We’re here

interviewing Jim Straw.

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Jim: Just Jim. Mr. Straw was my daddy. I’d have two sons that like to be Mr. Straw. One of them

lets his wife calls him Mr. Straw.

Michael: So if you don’t mind me asking, how old are you? When’s your birthday coming up?

Jim: I quit telling my age when I was 16 years old. I had put together a contract. I was doing

ranch work and I put together a contract where I would handle all of that for five ranches and I

would handle the crews and everything and they would pay me and I would take care of all the

crews.

I set the whole thing up, had a lawyer draw up the contract and when in to sign the contract,

everybody was in agreement, looking good and then one guy at the table says ‘Jim how old are

you?’ I said I’m 16. He said hell I don’t play damn kids games. And he tore up the contract.

I said that’s it and I haven’t told my age since.

Michael: Really?

Jim: Even my wife wasn’t exactly sure how old I am.

Michael: You still don’t want people to know you’re not over 18?

Jim: No.

Michael: Okay. Well let’s put it this way. Jim’s have a lot of experience here so we’re gonna

leave it at that over the next…

Jim: I’ve done a few things.

Michael: I know you got a lot going on now. Tell us a little bit about with some other people

that you got involved with over the years maybe during the 60’s or 70’s and things that – some

of the more interesting experiences that you had in marketing or business.

Jim: I’ve put together a major seafood’s contract out of Salam now Sri Lanka. Lobsters and

shrimps and…

Michael: Which company was that? I was there for 4 ½ months.

Jim: Where?

Michael: Sri Lanka.

Jim: It was [0:34:13] [Inaudible]

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Michael: Colombo?

Jim: Ringo.

Michael: I don’t know them but I know Colombo.

Jim: Used to work with the Sarasavi Institute – that was a long time ago.

Michael: Yeah, before it was Sri Lanka. I was there in ’87 so…

Jim: This was before 70…

Michael: Before Bridge on the River Kwai I guess.

Jim: 72 or 73 somewhere along there. Worked with a guy on that contract by the name of Frank

Sousa. You’ve probably seen his name around.

Michael: I know Frank. He’s [0:34:50] [Inaudible]

Jim: Yeah. Frank Sousa and I worked together on that deal for two years. So, any who whatever.

[0:35:00]

Michael: So that worked out okay?

Jim: No. It ended up the buyer was no damn good and the seller wasn’t worth a damn. We had

the contracts and all of that but I did make some money although while I was there in Salam.

We were putting together same shipping palettes and I told the guy get me a hammer and he

brings me this damn hammer and I said I want a claw hammer. ‘What’s that?’

Michael: They don’t know what claw hammers are.

Jim: Didn’t know what a claw hammer was so I shipped a bunch of claw hammers over there

and made a nice piece of change selling claw hammers. Everything can lead to an opportunity.

Keep your eyes open and you wish about it.

Most people walk past more money than they ever make and that’s true that dropping over

dollars it pick up dimes.

Michael: That’s true. This is not a pleasant subject, what are the most frustrating things that

you’ve noticed in business that you’ve been able to overcome or have advice for people to

watch out for and there’s probably so many to name but name one of the biggest ones there.

17

Jim: There was an old black millionaire here in Atlanta for many years used to come by my

office a couple of times a month and have coffee with me. If I have white business men in my

office, he’d step up to the door and say ‘Mr. Jim I was going over getting me a sandwich. Would

you all want a sandwich?’

Now this guy could’ve bought and sold all of them in my office including me.

Michael: My goodness.

Jim: I used to curse him about playing that damn step and fetch you but he taught me so many

lessons and one of them being whenever everybody plays a race cart of any kind, get the hell

away from them.

It makes no difference whether it’s a white man playing a race cart or a black man. He said

getaway from them. He wouldn’t deal with them.

Michael: Yeah.

Jim: And that is probably one of the biggest problems we have in business is – it’s not just a

race cart. You won’t do business with me because I am [0:37:16] [Inaudible] and they got some

idiotic stupid idea why you won’t do business with them or why they can’t do business with

you.

The whole thing is none of it means a damn thing. People who do – business is the actually the

only level playing field in the world because you only get what you earn. You don’t get

advantages for being ugly.

You get advantages for doing something. If you don’t do it, you don’t get it. He said any time

somebody plays those damn cards, forget it. That’s the kind of people you gotta get the hell

away from fast.

Michael: Would you make one exception and that would be integrity and that was if a person

lacks integrity or lacks honesty…

Jim: Well if they lack integrity or honesty, you just won’t deal with them to begin with. I won’t.

Michael: Right, exactly. So that would be a disqualifier.

Jim: Yes, definitely.

Michael: Yeah.

18

Jim: Lately there’s too many of them. They follow a bad attitude. You gotta be a little crooked

to make any money.

Michael: Guys here are sneaky. You gotta have an angle. You gotta have something going on.

That’s an old business. Internet marketing or other kinds for that matter. So what other pearls

of wisdom would you have to share with us?

If somebody were just starting out say being a coach or a mentor or being a business person or

entrepreneur, what would you say would be the first thing they should do?

Jim: Quit thinking about it.

Michael: And start doing it right?

Jim: People think of business to death. They think of a thousand different things that need to be

done, a thousand things they should do. A thousand things they shouldn’t do. You gonna do it?

Then do it. You’ll learn as you go.

An old Greek saying is – I can’t even remember it now. Something about the…

Michael: Those Greeks sayings are great.

Jim: Well the weaving will teach you how to do it. If you’re doing the weaving, it will teach you

what to do as you weave. It’s the same thing with business. You’re gonna make mistakes that’s

for sure.

I mean I spend all that money on banking books. I still made mistakes. I’m human

unfortunately.

Michael: But you only make mistakes usually once.

Jim: You better just make them once. I was smart. Not lucky. Whenever you make a mistake,

don’t do it again.

Michael: Make a new mistake.

Jim: Yeah. Find a new way to make the same mistake.

[0:40:00]

Michael: Done that for sure.

Jim: Yes.

19

Michael: So we’re talking with Jim Straw. This is Logical Soul Talk and Jim Straw is a marketing

expert and a very experienced business man. Tell me Jim, what is the – I guess the question

would be more a generalized question about business itself.

How do you see business going in the country? How do you see the economy shaping up? How

do you see entrepreneurs? Do you see more of that coming out? Do you see less of it? How do

you see the business in general?

Jim: It’s always the same. I’ve made money from Eisenhower to Obama. Through thick and thin,

I’ve seen inflations so bad it was pitiful and now already got recession 2% or straight. Back in

the 70’s it was like 17%-20%.

Michael: Yeah, coz they own mortgages.

Jim: You just do what you’re doing. You decide you’re gonna do something, do it. You may get

knocked down and dragged out but hey you can pick yourself up and start over again. That’s

the problem. People fail once and quit.

I can count my success on my fingers and toes. I count my failures; I gotta use the hair on my

chest.

Michael: When somebody asked Babe Ruth how many times he struck out he says ‘well I know

every 11 times I struck out, I get a home run.’ He says how he made a record of home runs.

Jim: Yeah.

Michael: That’s how you do. You fail a number of times. You can keep a record of how many

times you’ve failed for success and you can pretty much…

Jim: Bill Gates said it a couple years ago. Success doesn’t teach you anything. You only learn

from failures. I mean I’ve known guys that have hit it real big. All of a sudden one time

[Phonetic] and never again because it was an accident. It was a fluke.

Michael: Wow.

Jim: Where if you start something and you make a mistake and fail, you won’t make that

mistake again. You try again and you make another mistake. You won’t do it and then you got a

while bunch of mistakes you’re not gonna make and guess what, it works.

Michael: Yeah.

Jim: You learn from your mistakes.

20

Michael: That’s true. Sorta like climbing a mountain. You’re gonna slip a little bit. You get

another flip hole. You go a little higher, a little higher and you’re gonna slip some more. You

might get beat up, bruises gonna take you sometime but you’ll get there.

A lot of people just wanna take the helicopters and peek, pay the driver and hopefully the profit

for being at the peak will pay the driver and the trip down.

Jim: People keep buying into that wanna get rich quick. I got rich quick. Took me about 20

years. I got rich quick.

Michael: Willie Nelson said it took me 30 years of being an overnight success.

Jim: That’s it. That’s what it takes.

Michael: That’s fascinating. Is there anything else you wanna ask? Any of you guys out there or

any other questions for Jim?

Jim: I have flabbergasted them.

Michael: I knew you done that. I’m running out here. Help me. We won’t take a break. We can

keep going here. I mean there’s so many things I wanna ask. I just got this brain and far that

comes along…

Jim: You got the same disease I got. Some timers disease. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I

don’t.

Michael: You talked about your father just briefly, said he had 10th grade education but he

knew how to build these – what you call them forms or…

Jim: The jigs.

Michael: Of the airplane.

Jim: Right.

Michael: Was he one of the biggest influences in your life? I know he’s one of many coz you

talked to businessmen.

Jim: He had a lot of real great sayings. I found out years later that most of them came from Will

Rogers. He was a hometown philosopher kind of bit. Like I said, came from Will Rogers and

Teddy Roosevelt and some of those.

Michael: Calvin Cooley.

21

Jim: Whatever.

Michael: That’s great. Well how about your mother? What influence was she on your life?

Jim: Ukrainian out of Canada and she still alive she calls me a couple times each week and tell

me how things she would be gone and – yeah. For many years she kept asking my wife ‘when’s

Jim gonna get a job?’

[0:45:00]

Dolores kept trying to explain to her that I didn’t need a job. She said ‘well who writes his

paycheck?’ My customer.

Michael: There’s a lot of little paychecks.

Jim: That’s it.

Michael: That’s great.

Jim: What’s really pitiful is all of these gurus and super business people and everything. Their

customer list is just that. It’s a list of names and addresses. I see my customers as people. I treat

them like people.

You send me an email, I may not tell you what you wanna hear but you will hear from me. And

this idea of we’re so busy I’ll have my flunkies do it, if you’re getting into business, take care of

your customers.

So many of the business people just simply – I mean it’s a name on the list. I mean I know things

about my customer’s families, their lives. I share with them and they share with me and that’s

the way it should be.

Michael: That’s really true. My wife does this business with Canadians and people from

Colorado and a few other places. We do a little bit of shipping around here; computer stuff is

another business we have.

But it’s true. She’s known this one guy for 20 years. She’s never met him but she does business

with him on a regular basis and she would trust him with just about anything.

Jim: I’ve got customers that have been with me for 30 years.

Michael: Yeah, it’s amazing how relationships – if you don’t have that, you’re just missing

something. Even if you’re successful, you’re really lacking something. Lacking the flavor of that

business.

22

Jim: Absolutely.

Michael: So somebody’s just starting out and they wanna get the business going. What would

you suggest we go into? I know you said you would start over retail but say they were young,

they’re 20 something like that, where would you get them starting?

Jim: Who’s the most beautiful woman in the world?

Michael: My wife of course.

Jim: Well it’s the same thing with business. What is beautiful to one guy wouldn’t be to another

and it depends upon what advantages you’re looking for and what disadvantages you’ll accept.

Whenever people ask me what business should I get in, I always say who is the most beautiful

woman in the world? There are businesses that I simply can do but I wouldn’t want to.

Michael: Right.

Jim: And then there are other businesses and so complex and everything I could do them and

probably do well at them but I don’t want that kind of hassle. And then there are other

businesses that are so simple and easily operate to me or they seem to be to me that I just go

ahead and do it.

First, has to look within themselves. Einstein said that anyone can be a genius if they spend just

15 minutes a day on one subject but most people won’t even spend 15 minutes a day on one

subject.

Michael: That’s true.

Jim: So pick what you want and then study it 15 minutes a day.

Michael: So that’s where your parenting comes in really.

Jim: Yeah. When I was a kid, any time it was raining or bed weather, I was at the local Copeland

Memorial Library, little hometown library studying books on business, making money and how

things are done.

I was reading constantly about the things that I might do one of these days. I learned the oil

industry because the oil industry was big around there.

Michael: Wow.

23

Jim: And later on someone called me up and said can you find me a bunch of J5. I knew what J5

was. It’s a pipe that goes down a hole and there had been a problem. They just weren’t making

enough of it.

I found a bunch of it had been pulled from the old wells and they straightened it and pressure

tested it and everything so it was good as new. It was about half the price of new.

Michael: Wow.

Jim: So if you have a little knowledge, it can work into – and someone called somebody else up

and said I need a load of J5, they didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I knew

because I knew J5 was an insert pipe in the wells.

[0:50:00]

Michael: That’s amazing. That brings me to another subject. What kinds of books do you read

now? What type of information do you read now?

Jim: I still read business books, some motivational stuff. My readers send me books all the time.

I’ve got stacks and stacks of it. My library is about 3,000 books all together.

Michael: I know I gave you a book. That’s in there somewhere.

Jim: I read half it, I haven’t gone through it.

Michael: I understand.

Jim: It’s lying in there…

Michael: Those thick ones. I got crazy.

Jim: Just laying right there next to my chair, it and three others. But I read all the time. I mean I

may not finish some books but I’ll read through them. I’ll mark my pages and go at it. You’ll find

books lying all over the house that I’ve got open at different places.

I pick them up coz I’ve got nothing to do. I’ll sit back and read a few pages.

Michael: That’s great. Yeah, I keep mine different places by the bed and the bathroom,

different places I’m gonna be on a regular basis.

Jim: My basement is not finished out and so I brought all of my books and everything. I’ve got

box after box after box of books down there. Got letters from people like Steve Wozniak, Apple

computer, Steve Win out in Las Vegas and a personal letter from Richard Nixon.

24

Had an autographed copy of his memoirs but it got left on the storage shed and got wet and

there’s nothing left of it.

Michael: That happens. Sorry to hear that. He came to do another one?

Jim: No, I guess not.

Michael: He’s gone.

Jim: Offered to buy in 5% of a little movie called Superman, some unknown actor with the name

of Christopher Reeves. Now this was right after the lone ranger had gone down the tubes. That

took Clinton Morris’s mask off. They wouldn’t let him wear his mask anymore.

And then the movie came out and absolutely nothing at the boxes and I said yeah, there we go,

Superman. This guys’ name is Christopher Reeves and George Reeves was Superman on

television. Okay, I thought there we go again.

Michael: So you didn’t buy it?

Jim: I didn’t buy it.

Michael: Well, could’ve made your big one there.

Jim: Could’ve bought a chunk at Apple computer. Wife said ‘who in their right mind would buy a

computer called an Apple?’

Michael: Yeah, really. Forest Gump lost some…

Jim: Yeah.

Michael: From your money I suppose. We’re talking with Jim Straw. This is Logical Soul Talk. I’m

Dr. Michael Craig and we’re sitting here with three entrepreneurs and Jim talking about his

experience and loves and hates and business trials and tribulations and experiences and

happiness and things.

We’ve got about five minutes here. We’ve got to go. I normally take calls at this time but since

we’re pre-recording this show, I’m sorry you’ll not gonna be able to call in but please tune in

Tuesdays at 6PM Eastern Time.

We’d love to have you join us blogtalkradio.com/logicalsoul or just go logicalsoul.com we’ve got

links here on the front page usually feature our guest on the front page and you’re probably

gonna see Jim’s picture there and his bio.

25

Were gonna tell all the dirty little secrets we learned here today and post it on the blog and so

you get to learn those things. Final few minutes here, we’re just gonna wrap it up. Is there

anything you wanted to add or anything that you haven’t told us that people just need to know

or you’re dying to tell?

Jim: They need to buy my new book, Mustard Seed, Shovels & Mountains.

Michael: That’s available on Amazon and…

Jim: Amazon, borders, everywhere, supposedly anywhere in another week or so. Its only $9.95

it’s a little short book.

Michael: About 100 pages.

Jim: About 100 pages. It’s a little one. I just knocked it out because it’s something people

needed to know.

Michael: That’s true. People need to know that for sure and your experiences are definitely

gonna help a lot of people and we’re gonna make sure we get it out there and…

Jim: I just want the next generation to be a lot more prepared than I was.

[0:55:00]

Michael: Sounds like you were pretty prepared. At least you had the sense to go talk to some

people who were prepared and didn’t know what they were...

Jim: Right.

Michael: That’s why we’re here.

Jim: That’s what I wanna do for the next generation. I want them to look at the materials they

will – that’s the way it’s done. People say you don’t talk about using computers. No, methods

never change.

Applications change every day. People say ‘you still talk about using a typewriter.’ Yeah, that’s

because that’s the way I did it but a computer does just as well as a typewriter. It’s an

application. The method is what you gotta learn.

Michael: You just need to outsource those books over the Philippines or somewhere and retype

it and put it in different languages or terms.

26

Jim: Don’t try that. I had someone who once wanted to translate my material into German. He

took one of my books. God, that’s 40 years ago now. He took one of my books and translated it

into German; sold fairly well in Germany.

Then I started getting letters and phone calls from people who did not speak any English,

nothing but German and…

Michael: They wrote in.

Jim: I don’t know what they were talking about. I had translators working on the letters and

everything but don’t do it unless you know the language you’re translating into.

Michael: Well my wife is German so no problem with that sometimes the translations are a

little funny. I’ve amused my mother in law in quite a few occasions in my attempts to speak

German.

She doesn’t speak English so I had to speak German and when I first asked for her daughter’s

hand in marriage, this was before I met over the phone. I was gonna call her parents and ask for

her hand in marriage.

Of course hand in German is hand but dog in German is hunt and so I made a mistake of saying

[Inaudible] and there was total silence at the other end and she was like – and my wife asked

later ‘did you call my mom?’ I said ‘yeah, she was very quiet. I’m sure she was very touched.’

And she says ‘no, she was on the floor rolling and laughing because you asked if I can marry

your dog?’ Sometimes translations get a little off.

Jim: I know Charles [0:57:39] [Inaudible] machine works at Marcadia, New York may he rest in

peace. Charles designed, manufactured and have patents and all kind of positioners. Positioners

are used in welding. You wanna think a disposition so you can weld it right there. So he had

positioners.

They translated his advertising into Norwegian or Swedish or one of those countries up there

but in their language positioning refers to a pregnant woman.

Michael: It could be a little tricky.

Jim: He said he had a hell of time with the people.

Michael: This is lost in translation mean something and in business. What is it, Coca-Cola’s

fiasco when they sent coke over to China and the expression coke adds life was translated was

coke brings your ancestors back.

27

But they didn’t do well for that. So anyway we’re talking with Jim Straw and we’re about to

wind this up. Actually it’s been an hour so we’re gonna call it quits today. I wanna thank you for

joining me today.

Jim, thank you for being a part of this interview. I really enjoyed talking with you. It’s a pleasure

listening to you and I got a lot more questions. I’m sure after I leave here; I’ll probably have 20

more that I forgot to ask you. We’ll be back tomorrow. Just kidding. We’ll schedule something

and do it again sometime.

Jim: Definitely. Yeah.

Michael: I’m Dr. Michael Craig. This is logical soul talk. Thanks for tuning with us.

[1:00:00] End of Audio