100% Backed by Science with Catherine Barton, Ph.D.(c)
Catherine Barton [00:40:42]
Yeah. So basically you’re saying I found my people.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:40:44]
Maybe so. One of the things I’ve learned. So as I started studying business and and marketing. So they talk to you about. What you have to do that you go out there and you use your voice and you say what you think and what you mean, and you’re going to find some people or push some people away. And that’s how you know, you’re going to be successful, because if you if everybody likes you, then you’re nothing to anybody. You’re just kind of there. But if some people are like, I don’t care for this guy or stronger language than that, then good, because you’re not going to help that person anyway. But what you’re doing is you’re cultivating a message that’s going to resonate. It’s going to be this beacon that calls out to the person that you are going to help. And so what I think is by being true to who I am, I’ve slowly but surely I’ve been cultivating a bit of a following of people that I’m actually interested in hanging out with. I would actually enjoy helping and and that sort of thing. So I think that it’s it’s one of those things where, well, we see it hyper these days on social media that you only have to listen to what you’re interested in listening to these days. And that’s a little unfortunate. But there is a psychology to that, that that people do try to seek out the sort of things that they’re interested in, the sort of things they like. And so I think if you speak your message to people, the folks out there who are entrepreneurial, who are in business for themself. Be yourself, speak your message to your people and you’ll develop a following that fits you, because that’s how they got to you, because they enjoyed spending time with what you were saying.
Catherine Barton [00:42:26]
And I can only be Cathy very well. Yeah. I can’t be anybody else. I’m not good at it. I can model people for while with something in leadership that people helps them become a better leader. They can model someone they appreciate.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:42:44]
You can learn from other people and you can take what they do and try to make it your own, but you can’t do what they do. The thing my business coach is like just harps on is like, you know, you’re you that’s what you’re selling is the fact that you were you. When people want that, they’ll come to it and it’s going to be worth quite a bit to them because you can do things to help people. So you are being yourself is really, really important, because eventually if you’re if if you’re not yourself, then it’s going to be really hard to come to work today.
Catherine Barton [00:43:14]
If it’s tough, I can’t be a princess, so I can’t pretend that far. I have had a quite a few coaches or consultants surprised that I would recommend them to someone. You know what we’re supposed to grab up everybody as our client. But I would know that I don’t fit that person. Yeah, maybe they need a sweeter person or whatever.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:43:43]
Well, when we when we bring in a new student, particularly with the dissertation program, but also expand your authority program because it’s a it’s a cohort is the family that comes together there. But in our dissertation program, there’s a certain thing that we do. There’s a way that we bring people through that process. And I have a conversation with everybody that we would consider bringing on board. And there are some people who I don’t I’m not rude about it, but I’m gently steering the conversation away from us, helping you to hear some things you can do or hear something else or maybe just later on when you’re ready. Here’s what we could do for you. I, I think that that’s the right thing to do because what we’re doing is relationship oriented. If, number one, the person is a fully bought into the fact that I can help them, then they’re right. I can’t help them. That’s just the way it is. If you sell someone here, take this pill and and they say, well, what is it? It’s like it’s a magic pill. It’s going to get you everything you want. And they’re like, well, I don’t know if I should take it or not. Why not? If they just trust me, they’ll take the magic pill. They’ll get everything they want. If only it were so easy. But again, that’s what relationships are like, is that you could literally offer a person the magic pill. They’ll give them everything they want. And if they don’t trust you and if they don’t trust your process, then they’re going to look at this thing and say, I don’t know if I should take it.
Catherine Barton [00:45:04]
Yeah. So that my clients get tired of well, they get tired and quite a few things that I think as I repeat some things. But one thing that I say is the capital letters, bold, the word “trust” and you’re kind of talking about nothing happens until the people trust you. So if I give them a fake Cathy, they’re gonna figure it out and contracts over.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:45:32]
The thing I hear all the times they have to know I can trust you. So they have to they’re arguably there should be a little bit of celebrity. They should feel like they know you better than you know them. That’s the first part. And then they have to there has to be some sort of affinity. There has to be some some issue upon which you get along. They have to like you in some regard, maybe not have a beer with you like you. But I get what you’re saying. I understand you, I see that you can help me, they like you in some way there and also trust that what you’re doing is honestly something that should benefit them and and that you do that. And to make it clear that you’re willing to push somebody away. If it doesn’t seem to fit. That’s a great way to engender trust. Right. And do it authentically, truthfully. I mean, you have to you have to be willing to be asked to do that. Yeah, absolutely not. So I don’t know if you’re the right fit for us, but if you sign this contract, you might be the right fit. It’s going to be like, really? I think there are other things that you can do. And I’ve had a couple of people who’ve talked me into bringing them on board. Like I said, I don’t think it’s right for this reason or that reason. They’re like, no, but I can do this and I can whatever. And because of that, I think we had a good relationship. But if I didn’t push back, I don’t think it would have been a right fit necessarily. I think the dynamic would have been well, and I don’t think it would work as well. And I was legitimately ready to walk away and say, I don’t know that I can help you where you are, what I do. I don’t know that there’s a good fit. But as we continue that discussion, we were able to change that dynamic and get it to where it needed to be.
Catherine Barton [00:47:08]
Yeah, I, I will start out a contract by saying, OK, there’s going to be a curve here. You’re going to love me, you’re to be like me. There’s going to be some hate moments. You hate me. I’m going to kick you out of my comfort zone like you’ve never experienced. And then you go come back, you’re like me again. It’s going to be a lot of fun.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:47:32]
And you get to the other side. You see what you’ve done. Yeah, that’s all right. I want to I want to go into this business scientist thing just a little bit more. Who is your favorite scientist?
Catherine Barton [00:47:49]
Well, Clara Barton.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:47:57]
OK, tell me more.
Catherine Barton [00:47:59]
Tell me more. I like the the free thinking. And I like I like that she did things and thought of things that were so ridiculous, so ridiculously practical and common sense and made them work in the world like nobody’s business. And for some reason nobody else talks about her.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:48:20]
So mine I’ve had. Like I said, I had this this background in physics, and so a lot of the folks I think about are in that vein. When I think about folks that are alive today, I would be thrilled that to be able to have a conversation with Neil deGrasse Tyson, he is just so much fun. Whenever I’ve watched any of his videos. He’s got podcasts and all sorts of things out there. But he’s just so much fun the way that he presents things. And it kind of reminds me again of when I was first kind of getting into science this way of being able to look around the world and know certain things that you never studied because you learned this. And this applies to all of these different places. So that’s that’s really cool. But I when I was at the University of Chicago, I had I was there at the same time as the guy who basically first decided when a star could become a black hole. His name was Chandrasekhar. And he was he was there. He was emeritus faculty member. The one of my instructors who was just a brilliant guy, had the office beneath him. And he told me at one point, it’s like, you know. I took this office intentionally because I thought maybe some of the the knowledge and the brilliance of the genius would just sort of soak through the floor and sleep on my desk from time to time. And if I’m lucky, it might land in my head. He said that that that that man had written more before I was born than I have since. And the gap is continue to widen. That’s how the faculty member at the University of Chicago was a brilliant guy. Thought of this. This person, this person, Chandrasekhar, at the end of his career. He was going through Newton’s Principia. So the book that Newton wrote, who was like the book on physics, he was going through it and he would see, OK, I know where you’re going to close the book and I’m going to see what I can figure out. And he knew the physics. He knew where it was going. He had like three hundred years of math on the development of math on the guy. And he said I would open the book and Newton always did it better.
Catherine Barton [00:50:42]
Wow.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:50:43]
And that to me is just like mind blowing. That professor who was teaching me who I really respected said the guy in the office above me. I just hope some of his knowledge could drip through the floor on me. And the guy in the office above him is like, this guy always did it better, right?
Catherine Barton [00:50:59]
It’s a man. Or for that kind of even being close to that atmosphere does something for you. I always appreciate simple. I like whenever people take a hard thing or an impossible thing and then they make it simple. I do that like we talked about the mastermind. That was always my goal. Every single month after meeting was to OK, people tell you that you need to write a business model, but they never tell you how. Here, I’ve got ten steps. If you do, this is done and where I’m really not. Yeah, yeah. I appreciate.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:51:38]
I’m trying to remember the quote. I can’t remember who it was now and I want to butcher the quote, but basically the idea was that I wouldn’t give a fig for simple and this other complexity but simple on the other side of complexity. Yeah. I’d give anything. I give it. So that’s that’s right. Einstein’s theory should be as simple as possible, but no simpler. You got to get it right. You got after that. We want it as simple as we can get it.
Catherine Barton [00:52:06]
And then simple’s great. Yeah that’s true. Yeah it’s true.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:52:11]
We, I think I’ve talked about this on the podcast before. When I was an undergrad in physics, we used to have a thing that we kind of pejoratively called Grandma Theorem, and that was you don’t really know a thing until you can explain it to your grandmother. And this wasn’t meant to say your grandmother was an idiot, just that she’s not a theoretical physicist. You can understand and appreciate and maybe ask you good questions about or come up with the next step in the thought process, because it’s something that you taught her. Then you’ve got it. But if you can’t explain it that way, if you have to use complicated math or anything like that, then you don’t get it. I talked to my dissertation students all the time about statistics. And we use things like we talk about like picking Scrabble tiles out of the bag and decks of playing cards and stuff like that. And we talk about it and visualize it. And there is never a formula or a mathematical anything that we talk about, because guess what the computers do that you just have to understand what’s going on. And so I can get you to understand what’s going on, then you’re going to be able to stand up there and talk about what the computer did and what it means. And nobody onyour committee is going to ask you, well, how you derive such and such a formula. No, they’re not going to ask you that. That’s not what you’re studying. You’re not a statistician. It’s fine that you don’t know all of that stuff. What you need to know is what it means. And that’s simple. So, yeah, that’s awesome. Well, listen, future Dr. Barton, tell folks what’s the best way to to reach you if they have they’re needed. This mastermind, if they have a business that needs some leadership development, if they are a diversity, a chief diversity officer and there’s no diversity in their company, what what should they do?
Catherine Barton [00:53:59]
My website tells you everything. I’m so transparent. FutureThinkingConsulting.com.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:54:09]
All right.
Catherine Barton [00:54:10]
FutureThinkingConsulting.com. I tell you my fees without apologizing. I even give you statements of works you could download to see how we would interact. Executive coach to my mastermind’s. I have a little a whole page dedicated to it and you can email me directly. I even have a phone number. I will answer the phone. So email me, call me, leave a message on my my website. I even have a leadership development program that you can check out right on my website also gives you everything about me that you need to know probably more than what you care to know.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:54:51]
FutureThinkingConsulting.com. Yeah, that sounds awesome. Well, I would like to remind everybody that today’s episode has been brought to you by Dissertation Done. So if you all the dissertation stuff we talked about today, if that’s got you thinking about your dissertation and you’d like a little help, support, guidance, direction, accountability, go to DissertationDone.com/done and we’ll have a conversation, see if you might be a good candidate for our Fast-Track Your Dissertation coaching program. And if you’re out there living your unconventional life right now and you want to take your expertise to the next level, you want people to know that you’re a doctor, then think about becoming a published author. We’ll take you from a blank page to a fully published work that is strategically designed to attract your, the audience you’re designed to serve so that you can share your expertise with them. And you can find out more about that DissertationDone.com/book. So that’s all for this episode. Future. Dr. Barton, thank you very much. It was a blast. Thank you for being here.
Catherine Barton [00:55:56]
Yeah, we will talk again, Russell.
Dr. Russell Strickland [00:55:58]
Absolutely. And to everyone else, go out and live your unconventional life and have a wonderful day.
Outro [00:56:10]
This has been an unconventional life. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed today’s episode, subscribe now to keep getting inspirational stories of unconventional lives as soon as they’re released. Until then, go out and live your best unconventional life.
