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00:00:01
Jim Keyes
4 Plays18 minutes ago
Join Alasdair and Jim Keyes, former CEO of 7-11 and Blockbuster as they discuss the importance of education in ALL forms and the opportunities it provides. We talk about the lessons he has learned throughout his career, and what success looks like to him now.
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Transcript
Introduction to Outdoorsy Educator Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Hello and welcome to the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, where learning gets a breath of fresh air. I'm your host Alistair, and each week I talk with people from all walks of life to explore how education, the outdoors, and real-world experiences shape who we are.
00:00:19
Speaker
From classrooms to campfires, trails to town halls, we dig into the lessons that move us, challenge us, stick with us, and can make the world a better place.
Introduction of Special Guest: James Keyes
00:00:35
Speaker
And on this week's episode of the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, we have a very special guest with us, James Keyes. Mr. Keyes, how are you today? I couldn't be better. Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much for joining me. where I'm excited for the audience to get to know you. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
00:00:55
Speaker
Well, I guess the most important thing is I was born on St. Patrick's Day. Right. A very good day. was a very good day. Yeah.
James Keyes: Career and Focus on Education
00:01:05
Speaker
No, I i am um formerly CEO of 7-Eleven and Blockbuster. I've had ah quite an adventure in my career and most most recently reinvented myself as an author, um taking a lifelong passion, which is the transformative power of education because it made huge difference in my life,
00:01:29
Speaker
And ah being able to spread that message with the world to see if I can help um elevate human learning. I love that. and this whole conversation is going to be about education and the transformative power. Why don't you start with your own story? Because obviously this story started at home for you. How did education really change and shape your life?
00:01:50
Speaker
It did.
James's Upbringing and Views on Education
00:01:50
Speaker
it it I grew up in one of those environments in central Massachusetts, but in ah in ah in a mill town, a factory town, ah with too little money and too many kids in the family and no expectations for career or education other than the public school that i attended. um The difference for me, perhaps because I was the youngest, I got to to watch my siblings and their challenges in life. um
00:02:23
Speaker
and My parents didn't know what to tell me because they had not gone beyond the sixth grade themselves. Wow. Yeah, but they but they they did understand that the correlation between personal freedom, not just money, but freedom is the way my dad used to describe it,
00:02:43
Speaker
And education was a link that that the more knowledge you had, the more freedom you would have to live your life the way you wanted.
00:02:54
Speaker
and And so that translated to me into I better get get busy and and learn. and and i And that I did. I love that. Reminds me, my father-in-law said to me several years ago now, and there may be an exception to this rule. I can't think of one. But um I was talking to him about going back to get my PhD. This was quite a few years ago. And I was humming and hawing about the investment and this and that.
Turning Childhood Challenges into Strengths
00:03:22
Speaker
And he said, the education is the one thing nobody can ever take from you. You can lose your house. You can lose your cars. You can lose everything. But the knowledge you gain in your education will be with you for life.
00:03:34
Speaker
Yeah, that was exactly, that's exactly what my father used to say. In fact, we did, we lost our house and they, the house was condemned when I was growing up. I came home from school one day and saw a note on the door, a red sign on the door. um and but but but, but, but, you know, the irony is that that adversity that I faced as a child ended up being my superpower.
00:04:00
Speaker
It propelled me and gave me the necessary strength, I guess it is, to ah withstand any adversity that comes my way. And combined with the power of knowledge, you know I sit in a position today where I truly believe there's absolutely nothing that I couldn't accomplish if I just put my mind to it.
00:04:27
Speaker
Absolutely. um Something that I think about a lot is formal versus informal education. I'm sure you've experienced this. Some of the the the brightest, smartest people who say the most powerful things perhaps do not have a formal education, but there is, of course, strength in a formal education too.
Role of Formal and Informal Education
00:04:46
Speaker
How do you kind of find balance those in your life?
00:04:51
Speaker
Well, I think both are important. I think ah the the formal education, basically, I characterized my degree as a license to learn. It taught me how to learn and the tools that I needed to keep learning. But I had to keep learning, and that was the differentiation in my career, was the idea that I didn't just have a degree. i had a set of tools that let me keep learning, and that continuous learning quest for knowledge, that natural curiosity propelled me literally throughout my career, provided a point of differentiation versus those who just sat back and said, well, I've got a degree. well What else do I have to do?
00:05:34
Speaker
Right, absolutely. it's um It's something I think about a lot, um and especially in the world today. um Something that you've also talked about is we do have so much access to information, and we need to learn how to blend that, I feel, and I'm paraphrasing you, with with talents and skills and ability. um Do you feel that public education has adapted to that wealth of information we have our fingertips? well Let's talk locally here in the States, or not you yet, because I've got feelings on that too.
00:06:04
Speaker
Yeah, not yet, sadly. And and it and it was built, yeah but it rather than blame, which is what a lot of people do, they throw around blame and they throw around excuses. It's perfectly understandable if you realize throughout history what our public education was built for. It was built to ah create an educated worker for the industrial age.
00:06:28
Speaker
And everything about it was standardized. It was like stamping out a Model T Ford. But the industrial age has evolved. We're now in the information age. And yet we're still teaching with the same principles, the same practices, the same standardized testing, the same standardized procedures that we incorporated 100 years ago. And we haven't evolved, um especially with the access to information and the use of technology available to us today.
Critique of the U.S. Education System
00:06:57
Speaker
which could elevate human learning at rates we have never experienced before, yet we have to adopt those.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yes. I mean, it's something I think about a lot. I spent most of my career in pre-K to grade five elementary education. And there's, again, not pointing fingers, not blaming anyone. It's complex.
00:07:18
Speaker
But so much of it feels antiquated. And we've got to be able to embrace, embrace that i mean, what incredible world we live in where almost every piece of information is at our fingertips. And are we utilizing that?
00:07:32
Speaker
Well, and let me give you a great example. And as I've traveled the world, I've been in 14 countries this past year talking about education. And I discovered countries like Malawi that are are are committed. They've seen the progress of the United States driven by an educated populace. And they are issuing laptops, not laptops. They're issuing a tablet PC to every kid born in the country with the intention of providing an AI tutor that can have that child, by the time they reach the first grade, fluent reading and writing in two languages.
00:08:08
Speaker
Now, think about the power of that for an entire country and contrast that to the United States, where we have literally, as measured by government sources, 31% functional literacy. In other words, at fourth grade, kids reading at a fourth grade level are only 31% of our population, of our student population.
00:08:33
Speaker
That contrast is is shocking because we in America haven't yet harnessed the power of technology to be able to bring those tools to every child in our country, which we must do and we must do immediately.
00:08:48
Speaker
That's fascinating, isn't it? that's this Those sort of things make me sit back and look at the big picture. What is it we are doing and what can we do we do better? Yeah. um A longstanding dream of mine, i try to go at least for a walk most days, if not try and go hiking once or twice a week. And something I think about a lot is I've got a longstanding pipe dream of visiting ah public at a school, both elementary and secondary, in every continent around the world and creating a documentary where we compare, contrast, learn from each other. What does education actually mean in these communities? And if we immerse ourselves in those educational settings that are vastly different from our own, what can we all learn from each other? And it sounds to me like you're doing a bit of that already.
00:09:35
Speaker
I'm doing a bit of it, um but here's what I'm finding. I'm finding that one of the biggest problems with education is um not dissimilar to the problem with society. Fear has crept in.
Impact of Fear on Education and Society
00:09:49
Speaker
And that fear of what are they teaching my kids? How are they teaching my kids, et cetera, et cetera, is causing us to cast a lot of blame, to do a lot of hand wringing, as opposed to embracing the tools that are available and being willing to have a vision. Here's here's my vision. And I'm not an educator, I'm not a technologist, but having run a couple of global companies, I have a vision for what could be.
00:10:21
Speaker
And here's here's the way I would characterize what could be. Imagine a world where you have, um and i'm I'm looking right now at my iPhone and my iOS.
00:10:35
Speaker
capability And what iOS did for all of us, and it it then spawned the Android operating system, but what these operating systems did is it provided a platform for everyone who with a tool to bring those tools into a common environment where it was accessible now to everyone.
00:10:59
Speaker
And the three criteria that Apple set out to establish was interoperability so that the tools communicated back and forth. I can go into my calendar and hit a calendar appointment and a map pops up from a different source. Right. And I can then navigate directly through GPS also in my calendar. operating system to that location. That's called interoperability.
00:11:29
Speaker
There's also privacy. i am safe in this environment from hackers, um intrusive third parties. There's security that protects me in this environment. If you take all three of those things, security, interoperability, privacy, and we were able to build that operating system that for all students in America, let's say 55 million students, the cost of that is virtually nominal per student. We could invite all of the powerful, very powerful,
00:12:06
Speaker
very effective education technology tools to come to bear in this in this one operating environment and then truly provide to every student, every teacher, every classroom, and even every parent a portal that allows them to see what tools are available, how am I doing to transform credentialing, transcripts,
00:12:37
Speaker
Even scholarships could be brought forward in this universe to incentivize young people to study and to pay them literally along the way in micro in the form of micro scholarships.
00:12:49
Speaker
This vision of an educated ah education operating system is one I'm trying to advance in America. Right. Because if we build this for America and truly transform the way our young people he we way we teach and learn in this country, pair it with goals like 100% literacy, like top three and in OECD countries in math and science, we could then take this operating system and share it with the world and truly elevate the knowledge of humanity in every country across the globe.
00:13:30
Speaker
I love this vision. It actually ties in beautifully to my next question, but I'm just sitting here thinking about my days in and elementary school teaching and what this would actually look like. I'm thinking of my former co-workers and colleagues. And I mean, this could be...
00:13:47
Speaker
Life-changing. Absolutely. It's not just game-changing, it's life-changing. Absolutely. So what an exciting proposition this could be, um if we can make this happen. and You've tied this in beautifully. I wanted to ask you about something related to being homegrown, even though you are now you know traveling around the world doing wonderful work.
00:14:06
Speaker
I must admit, I'd never heard of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. And I was reading about this and it it ties into my own story a little bit. So I wanted just to ask you about it. But for those who don't know, like I didn't know, um I'm taking this ah from their website. It's for individuals who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate, their wealth of knowledge, ah their courage, boundless compassion, unique talents, and selfless generosity. And they do so while acknowledging their debt to their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirits of America, which is
00:14:41
Speaker
Beautifully written. Past winners included Susan Lucci, Muhammad Ali, John McCain, Yogi Berra, John McEnroe, and yourself. And I think about this this idea a lot. I'm an immigrant myself. I became a citizen two almost two years ago now, I believe.
00:14:58
Speaker
And when people talk about the American dream, if I talk about with people from other places, my friends and family back home, oh, well, there's freedom to do that everywhere, which there is. There's lots of wonderful countries where you can build a business from the ground up and become successful from nothing. And and that's obviously wonderful. But I don't know if there's anywhere else in the world where it is as ingrained in the culture and and who or what the country is.
00:15:27
Speaker
And it's something I'm very proud of being here. I started this podcast a year ago because I love meeting people, educating myself, talking to people. Who knows where it will go? But I know here it it it could go anywhere.
00:15:41
Speaker
And it's something I absolutely love. um Could you talk to me a little bit just about what did that award mean? Because my assumption is it would give you to some time for reflection. Yeah, I was i was grateful for the ah for the recognition, but it was really more, as you said, what it stands for, which i would translate into um something that I call cultural literacy.
00:16:07
Speaker
I captured this notion in my book because you know we talked about technology and we talked about um education, but here's what I think is creating a lot of the angst that's out there in the world today.
00:16:24
Speaker
The world's changing very, very quickly. It's shrinking. Technology is making it possible for us to migrate in ways we never did before. Well, the United States is the model for what's possible with that melting pot, if you will, or I prefer to call it a ah quilt um where all these different cultures come together and transform who we are and what we are.
00:16:53
Speaker
ah It can also create a lot of fear of change because people are naturally afraid to change. But here's the way I look at it. Technology is shrinking the world.
00:17:06
Speaker
Those of us who recognize that that's not anything to be afraid of, that creates opportunity, will leverage something that I call cultural literacy.
Cultural Literacy in Global Business
00:17:17
Speaker
In other words, the more we understand each other and other cultures, the more opportunity we have to do business globally.
00:17:25
Speaker
And who while others are looking inward and pulling back from a global point of view, i think those who embrace other cultures and look outward are going to be those who really succeed into the future. So cultural literacy, I think, is the key to success for a young person today.
00:17:46
Speaker
And we have it. Here's the advantage. In the United States, we don't have to travel to another country. country to understand that culture. We've got it in the next neighborhood. Absolutely. We have to be open to it and open to learning from it and understanding it.
00:18:02
Speaker
Absolutely. i mean, we could come up with the greatest educational tool and platform known to man, but if it's not culturally sensitive or reflective, it's going to stall out. um I love that thinking. It's something I think about a lot. And I just know in my life and my my personal experiences, life is better when I surround myself with people from all over the world. And I can just absorb and learn and discuss. And I always leave these conversations with a new perspective I maybe didn't have going into it.
00:18:35
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Well, there's a ah ah definition i love of humility that came from... um Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote The Power of Positive Thinking, and his definition of humility is when you're smart enough to know that what you don't know and that every other human being walking the earth knows something that you don't, and to the extent you can extract that from them, It makes you a more complete human. And if you think about the power of other cultures that are so different from ours, the more we can understand someone from another culture and truly learn from them, we can end up being truly a child of the world, a more complete human because of our awareness of cultures from all over the world.
00:19:30
Speaker
Absolutely. And the it just it just opens the floodgates for us all to work together for a common good. Exactly. I absolutely love it. And why wouldn't we? And that's the irony. With all the noise out there, why wouldn't we embrace our fellow humanity to be able to make this world a better place?
00:19:50
Speaker
Right. it's It's the only way is up when we do that. Exactly. I'm 100% with you. um I first came across you by ah following you on Instagram and hearing about your book, and we're going to get to your book. I want to talk to you about that. But there's five things I've written down here that you said on Instagram that I'd love to ask you about, just to just to extrapolate just a little bit. um The first one is, fear is the biggest killer of potential.
00:20:18
Speaker
You know, what what does that mean? Where did that come from? What what lessons does that carry?
Managing Fear and Neuroplasticity
00:20:22
Speaker
Well, if you if you just look around and you see so many people that are so smart, so capable, and yet they're trapped in their own view of reality and they're afraid of their own failure, they're afraid of others, someone's going to take something from them, they they have a victim mentality, and all of this is manageable. It's a very human trait. It comes from our our our caveman uh origins when we had to protect ourselves from natural predators and and and it created fear in us that that sadly today still exists and shows up in places like the boardroom why the halls of congress and do people ever stop and ask themselves why that's a very good a very good thought
00:21:12
Speaker
Exactly. But it's infinitely manageable. In fact, I'll give you an analogy. i'm I'm a pilot. I've always had a passion for flying. Well, fear has no place in the cockpit. if if Right. if you're if you're afraid in you know you have a a problem You fly into a thunderstorm or or you know have an engine problem. if If you freeze in fear or fight, either the flight or flight scenario right are not something you want your pilot to be experiencing when you're in the back next time you're on a commercial flight, right? A hundred percent. I'm not the world's best flyer, but I might be the world's worst pilot. I think if that ever came across, I am that guy who, yes. But it's fixable. See, here's the thing that very few people realize. The reason that pilots aren't subject to fear is they have reprogrammed their mind. It's neuroplasticity. That's all it is.
00:22:11
Speaker
They lock me in ah in a in a um simulator for three days once a year and try to kill me. Right. Throwing every possible catastrophic event at me. And what they're really doing is reprogramming my response to an external stimulus.
00:22:30
Speaker
That's really interesting. Oddly, I was talking to a friend just yesterday morning about something unrelated. I'd gone up to Washington, D.C. last week, and there was just a bit of turbulence, and we were just having a conversation, and he had said that he's not the greatest flyer, but if there's any turbulence, he ah puts himself in the position of the pilot. He literally sits there and imagines he is in control, yeah and and that gets him through turbulence or whatever whatever it might be.
00:22:57
Speaker
Well, that process is is is literally called neuroplasticity. It's a way to, if you think of your brain as a computer, our computer is pre-programmed and it's pre-programmed to protect us. Therefore it creates a fear response to external stimulus so that we can run away if we have to, or we can fight if we have to. But what they've trained pilots to do is to reprogram that response just like a computer.
00:23:28
Speaker
It's a new pattern that's established. What happens with the new pattern? Oh, we have turbulence. Here's the new pattern. I know what's causing it. We've just flown through um a frontal system and it's causing ripples in the air that I can't see, but I can feel. And so so this idea of training pattern.
00:23:50
Speaker
and preparation being able to reprogram your mind helps you go from a so a fear reaction to a knowledgeable reaction using your prefrontal cortex instead of your amygdala it's all neuroscience And it you the the words you're using, I'm thinking we could, again, apply this to a multicultural society. and anything and Anything. Anything. Anything. Yeah. I love that. why ah Why are two cultures at war with each other? They're afraid of each other. They think they're going to take something, do something. Can we...
00:24:27
Speaker
create as individuals and collectively as society, a different response to that aggression that's coming in. Where instead of fighting back and having an eye for an eye, instead, we we are able to understand what's causing the aggression.
00:24:49
Speaker
carefully try to find a solution to the aggression that doesn't lead to more aggression and more fighting. Right. This is, it's, it's, it's actually, if you step back from it and you look at how silly we are as humans, sometimes the ultimate antidote to war is curing fear with a combination of knowledge and, and our beliefs and ourselves. Right.
00:25:16
Speaker
No, it's not even silly. it's Absolutely. It truly is. It can be that simple for so many situations. It can. but Speaking of being silly, some that something you said has stuck with me. And I think about this quite a lot just because of the mental image it puts in my head, which is actually a good thing. You said that most people go through life with their antenna down.
00:25:39
Speaker
Yeah. And I think about this quite a lot when if if I go for a hike, I've often, not always, but I've got my headphones on and I'm trying to listen to an audio book because that's a good thing to do and I enjoy it.
00:25:51
Speaker
And I think that, well, my antenna is focused on that, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's not always focused on the birds chirping and the all of those things. So I think about this quite a lot, but my antenna might be up, but where's it pointing as well?
00:26:06
Speaker
Yeah, that's true. but And what i what I really meant by that is, you know, so many of us, um we just we just block out external stimulus and again sometimes it's because we're bored sometimes because we're afraid um but so much opportunity occurs when we're in tune to the energy of those around us and i you know i i so i start sounding when i start talking about this stuff i'd sound a little woo woo but you know we're all we're all a form of energy but ultimately yeah
00:26:39
Speaker
No, I'm right there with you. I couldn't agree more. Yeah, and there are beautiful examples of science taking, um you know, I just saw one recently where they take water samples and, you know, someone yells at the water sample versus someone saying nice thoughts, nice words to a water sample. And then, you you know, you freeze both water samples and one creates beautiful crystals and the other is just a mass of water.
00:27:05
Speaker
unrecognizable patterns and and humans are like the same are ah very much the same we're very much composed of water we're very much a field of energy and we interact with each other if we have our antenna up we can receive the positive energy coming from other people if we're afraid we're have our antenna down, respond negatively to perhaps a negative energy coming our way. um We're going to be like that water crystal. Do we want to have a ah positive reaction or do we want to have a negative reaction? It's within our control.
00:27:45
Speaker
I love that. That's a, it's a great thought. And no, the the more I work through my career and just life experiences, the more energy comes into my thoughts about situations and people. And I'm i'm right there with you. And it's a, it's a fascinating subject that I could, I need to do some more research into.
00:28:04
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. neuro Neuroscience is an amazing thing. It's come a long way and it's, I think it's helping us understand our own mind and, And and if we can understand our mind better, we can control it better.
00:28:17
Speaker
Absolutely. um Something else, that ah something that I've noticed you do, and i i feel there might be just a good reason behind it. You've journaled since college. I have. is that I assume it's more than just a habit. There's probably a reason maybe. I'd love to hear why, because I think lots of us, like I haven't ever really journaled. I've got friends that do, and they find it very impactful. It's a very good anchor for them in life. And I'd love to hear why you've continued to do that throughout your life.
00:28:49
Speaker
Yeah, i i I started literally when I was in high school. I remember doing some research on a Civil War ah general. um And I had to look up a microfilm, if you remember. Microfiche. Taking us back. Yeah. ah But it was fascinating to just...
00:29:12
Speaker
Read his handwritten accounts of day to day life in a Revolutionary War for fort um right in upstate New York. And i was just fascinated by it. And I thought, hmm, I wonder if if someone would be interested in my life.
00:29:30
Speaker
you know, a hundred years from now. Right. And that was my first impetus to, um to start writing things down. And then I went to, had a chance to go to school in England and I thought, wow, I really need to document this. Cause this is, I may never do this again in my life. Little did I realize the rest of my life.
00:29:51
Speaker
um But I started, i started journaling. Yeah. and And I, I've just kept it up. So ah today I have, many, many years of of generals. I never go back and look at him either.
00:30:04
Speaker
They just sit in the vault. i I find it so interesting. yess It's more the process of doing it rather than like it going back. um My dad did it, I think he still does, actually. He's done for many years. And like you, he doesn't go back and read them, except when if I say to him, I'm going to be traveling to this place. And a bell goes off in his head and he went, 1976, I think it was. Let me go have a look. And he'll bring yeah and he'll tell you what he did on Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon. And yeah it's just, it makes me smile.
00:30:35
Speaker
I won an argument. I won an argument actually with a friend of mine in Monaco. I was there, we were having drinks and having a nice dinner and we started getting into a debate over something that happened literally in 1976. Oh, how funny. Yeah. And, uh, and his version of it was very different from mine. So I went home and I pulled out my journal literally Oh, how funny. 1976. And I brought it back and read him the two pages that accurately recounted what really happened in Monaco, ironically. All this journaling was worth it. have it right here. Exactly. For that one thing. For that one thing. Yeah. I love it. That's a great story. I love it.
00:31:20
Speaker
um We're kind of coming around to the home stretch here.
Inspiration Behind 'Education is Freedom'
00:31:24
Speaker
But before we do, I'd love to hear about your book, because, of course, that's one of the reasons that we got I got in touch with you today was it's on my list of things to read and I can't wait. So could you tell us a little bit about Education is Freedom?
00:31:37
Speaker
Sure. It started, the idea actually started 25 years ago. i was walking across campus at Columbia University going back to teach a class in the business school, and I encountered a kid with this T-shirt on.
00:31:54
Speaker
And i so it stopped me in my tracks because those three words on his T-shirt, I stopped him, shook his hand. I said, I am you. You are me. That that is that is my existence.
00:32:08
Speaker
And I went into the class and I told the the students that I just had an epiphany that I thought I was done with my education. But I those those three words reminded me that my degree was a license to learn, that I had to keep learning, even though I was CEO of a company. Now I had to keep learning through the rest of my life. And then also it it I had thought that my education and that my success was about making money. is I came from business school. That's what you do. right
00:32:39
Speaker
But I told that business school class that my epiphany was money's just a way of keeping score. What i am doing is learning to enhance my freedom because the more I learn, the more I can do.
00:32:55
Speaker
And it's such a powerful thing. epiphany, if you will, that, you know what, I'm not on a treadmill. It's not about making more and more money. It's about richness of life, freedom to do the things I want to do, where I want, when I want, with whom I wish. Right. Right.
00:33:13
Speaker
And so I tried to capture that idea in this book and I set out to help young people learn the importance of learning.
00:33:24
Speaker
And that was a simple that was my simple mission. Right. But as I got into the book and I started to research and I went back to the ancient philosophers and looking at the the power of fear to crush people's dreams and the the opportunity to overcome that fear with knowledge and and started to look at society and how many of society's problems originate from ignorance. Right.
00:33:52
Speaker
Because ignorance leads to fear. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hatred. Hatred leads to violence. It's such a negative cycle. And the world is, is humanity is trapped in that negative loop. But the cure and the antidote ultimately is to replace ignorance with knowledge.
00:34:12
Speaker
The more humanity elevates, the more humanity learns, the less we have to be trapped in our own fear and the less we will resort to anger and hatred and violence. And we can replace ignorance with knowledge and understanding and hope I love it. Yes. So I write this silly book thinking I'm going to help a couple of kids find their way to college. And I've stepped back from it and realized that what I've got here is, is a self-help guide for humanity to elevate all of us through the use of knowledge.
00:34:53
Speaker
Matt, i I cannot wait to get to to stuck into this book. it's it's It's first on the list, first on the list in a couple of weeks when I have a little more time in my hands.
00:35:04
Speaker
um As we we come to the end of this this recording, I always ask my guests, I come up with three questions, but for you, it's actually going to be two because you've just answered one. um i always ask people how the definition of success has changed. So I wouldn't want to waste your time and ask you to repeat yourself because you've just summed it up so eloquently. about ah that shift. um But something I did want to ask you was if there was a, you can choose one of these um or both, if there was a piece of music or a book that has been particularly impactful on your life.
00:35:42
Speaker
I think both. and and And I have a broad range of both books and music. um to turn to but, uh, I think the, I'm going to go with music and just say, uh, any of the, any of the classics, because I, I believe there is a link between our personal energy and the power of music. Music is about energy. It is vibration. And I think it can help us. And I think we know so little about it, but it can help us, um, not only
00:36:21
Speaker
improve our response by calming us and and creating that positive energy within us. But it's also math.
00:36:34
Speaker
Right. Studying music, I believe, helped me. my Being a musician helped my mathematics skills. And there's very little known about that direct connection,
00:36:47
Speaker
But I think in the mind, there is a connection. And it's ah and I'll give you one last piece of the puzzle. ah Einstein called creativity, intelligence having fun.
00:37:00
Speaker
And that's what music is. Music is taking mathematics fundamentally. Turning it into fun, positive energy, knowledge,
00:37:15
Speaker
and ultimately making us uniquely human by taking that energy and making it a very, very positive experience.
00:37:26
Speaker
ah And ah ah in my mind, I'm now taking this to the next step of why is it certain songs make us feel a s certain way? Energy, you know, does it trigger a past response, good or bad, or just something in the frequencies?
00:37:42
Speaker
but Exactly. there's for There's formulas to hit music. There's formulas to, I don't know, love songs. formulas, mathematics, it's, there's something there. I just posted this morning.
00:37:55
Speaker
ah In fact, I know you've followed me on Instagram at jkeysauthor. And I just posted this morning a piece um that was to stories. And it was Eric Clapton, the music in the background, Eric Clapton, Tears in Heaven.
00:38:14
Speaker
And the video, the visual was i was flying last week and I happened to be right at about 10,000 feet in a descent. They brought me down and level me off at 10,000 feet right at the top of a layer of clouds.
00:38:31
Speaker
And as I was flying through these clouds, it's just such a beautiful thing. This is the blessing of being a pilot, seeing nature billowing white clouds, and you're just skimming through the tops. But in these clouds is also moisture.
00:38:46
Speaker
So the reason I accompanied this song because Tears in Heaven was such a powerful musical piece, but the words were also combination of the music and the words together. But as I was flying along in these clouds, my windshield started to stream up as if it was tears coming across. Oh, what a moment. It's such such a, and and and so ah it inspired me to put that music to that visual image. And what do I ah hope to accomplish? Nothing. Just I hope to move people with the beauty of that experience and the way that music, words and visuals can come together and inspire people.
00:39:32
Speaker
Well, i know exactly what I'm going to do when we finish this conversation is hop on over to Instagram and have a look at that. What beautiful mental image that conjures up.
00:39:43
Speaker
um And I love that you brought up flying again. If we had a lot more time, this being the Outdoorsy Educator podcast, we would talk more about your flying and the outdoors experiences, but maybe that'll have to come another time. However, I was curious if you could take somebody up in the air for an hour. This could be somebody you know, somebody from history, somebody you don't know, famous, not famous, anyone who's ever existed. If you could pick their brain for an hour while you're flying and they're just sitting there at your disposal, who might it be?
00:40:14
Speaker
Ah, who probably my father. Yeah. Right. ain't Yeah. yeah Yeah. that's a Yeah. I was listening to, don't know if you know Nick Offerman, he's the actor and he's an author. Yeah. um And I was just listening, re-listening to one of his books recently. He was talking about the older he gets, the more he has just this deep appreciation for everything his father's done as he is living these challenges that fathers do and And he he he reflects on how his father got through them. but Yeah. Yeah. Well, the, the, the, um, uh, in my book, I dedicated it to my father who taught me to fish.
Dedication of the Book and Personal Growth
00:40:56
Speaker
Ah, you know, a lovely full circle moment. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. i I think he'd be the one in the cockpit. I love it. What a beautiful, beautiful moment. Um, Now, if people want to find your book, if they'd like to get in touch with you, learn more about you, what's the best way to do that? Sure. ah Instagram, as I mentioned, at jkeysauthor.
00:41:21
Speaker
And ah I have a website, jameswkeys.com. It's K-E-Y-E-S. Okay. And I'm out there on LinkedIn. Yeah.
00:41:34
Speaker
lots of other places. The book is available on amazon.com under education is freedom. And I hope ah my only request of you and anyone else that buys the book is don't keep it, give it away.
00:41:47
Speaker
yeah i won I want others to to to be able to share in this idea that power that education truly is a transformative power, not just to help us individually, but collectively.
00:42:02
Speaker
It's got to be passed on. I love that. Funnily enough on that, a good friend of mine and previous guest on, this is not very good for an audio podcast, but I'm good to show you. A good friend recently wrote his second book and I purchased two copies for that reason, because he made one out to me inside the inside, but I want to pass this story on. So purchase two copies for that very reason. These things need to not just live on a shelf and gather dust.
00:42:27
Speaker
Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. Well, Jim, I cannot thank you enough for your time. This has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you for spending this time with us today. Thank you for the opportunity.
00:42:39
Speaker
Thank you again to this week's guest, and I hope today's episode was as enjoyable for you as it was for me, and perhaps even inspired your next adventure. If you did enjoy the show, please be sure to subscribe, leave a review, or follow us wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more information at theoutdoorsyeducator.com or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, or Facebook. Until next time, thank you so much for listening to The Outdoorsy Educator Podcast.