Are you ready for an open discussion with the best of the best and the best of what's next? Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. Join in on a great conversation today with some of the world's great influencers as they showcase great advice and techniques that made them the game changers they are today. Now here's Tony DUrso. __________________________________________________________________________________ Christopher Salem

Tony:

Welcome, I'm your host Tony DUrso I interview some of the most successful people in the world and I thank you for joining us. You can listen to all our shows on most podcast platforms. If you have Apple podcasts, please subscribe and before we get going, here's a big thank you to some amazing sponsors of our show. Please stay tuned for an important message from ClearBanc who's changing the way entrepreneurs raise money with equity. Free capital. Coming up is a significant message from Rothys about women's shoes, which my wife says are the best she ever wore. And listen for a vital message from Manscaped on giving the family jewels a helping hand or should I say a helping shave more info on them. Just to add, so please stay tuned. Today's show is about Resolving the Root of Limited beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. All right, here's some info on Christopher Salem. Chris is an accomplished life and business strategist, CEO, world-class speaker, award-winning author, certified mindset expert, and wellness advocate, partnering with entrepreneurs, corporate business leaders, and sales professionals to have sustainable success at the next level by resolving the root cause to mindset barriers and being transparent leaders. Here we go. Welcome to the show, Chris. It's so great to have you on. Again. I've interviewed you before on the City Gala and now we're doing a full interview. This is great, is my honor to have you on with us,

Chris:

Tony. It is a pleasure to be here.

Tony:

Thank you, Chris. We've got so many great things to talk about. I'm interested in limited beliefs from various angles, but before I get into that, Chris, I love to know what's your story? How did you get started in this?

Chris:

Well, Tony, I mean, this is something that goes back about over almost 20 years now. And it wasn't until a baby around eight years ago that I decided to go full time with this to really help people on a fulltime level. But this all goes back to my own experiences, struggling with limited beliefs, not knowing what it was at the time that even know what limited beliefs were, but just knowing at the time that my life and my business just weren't where I wanted to be. And I was struggling big time. And I also had struggled with addiction. So addiction was my crutch to do really escape these, things that I was going through. So it was through this personal experience that I was able to come up with a process to overcome my struggle, which was through limited beliefs and to get into the solution to where I am 20 years later, where I'm at today. And then what I've been doing for the last eight years, working with people full time to help them do the same in their business and personal life.

Tony:

That's incredible. Chris and I must say and comment on that, that sometimes we have to be taken down to zero down to the ground in order to come back up and become and rise and be very, very successful. I've had something that has taken my business down too many times and it's really interesting. Sometimes it's like the universe is calling. We have something else that we're supposed to do, so I think we're brought down to zero to find that correct, right path for us to go back up and I think I could be wrong because you're the expert on this. I think this ties into the limited beliefs and I'd love to know, well, what is it and really why is it important? It's like we know the words. What's so special about it?

Chris:

Well, I mean, here's the thing, Tony. You know, limited beliefs play a role. I'm such a major role in why people never live up to their full potential. Why people never seem to feel like they've served their true purpose. Why many people have went through life with regret? Why many people have struggled with depression or issues throughout their life and really lived their life in a period of anger and unhappiness rather than joy, peace, and harmony? So limited beliefs are powerful and they impact us in so many different ways. So when you look at codependent relationships in the workplacein your personal life, all of these can be traced back to limited beliefs. You know you look at people that struggle with addiction, a lot of times it's tied to a negative emotion or emotions that again, are tied to limited beliefs. So a lot of times people will hear the term, but they don't really know at a deeper level the impact that it plays that can really wreak havoc on someone's life, in business, either in a very subtle way or in a very, very pronounced way. So it's really something that I've seen many people not knowing what's getting in their way and to let them know there is a solution. And it's something that I went through 20 years ago. But it's often, sometimes a, an area that a lot of people don't want to hear about. And so it's kind of like a gray area. But in my opinion, it's the only way if you're ever going be able to get to the next level and have sustainable success no matter what's going on in your business, in life, whether it's good or bad, to really get ahead.

Tony:

I see we have a number of entrepreneurs, small business owners, corporate-level executives, and even career-minded people in our audience. Give us some examples so that it can jog our memory here in our mind of what this is. What are some limited beliefs and why are they so powerful in a bad way? Why do they hurt us back? How Limited Belief Impact People

Chris:

Well, I mean, if you don't mind, I'll use a company or a corporation as an example. But before I get into that, I'll tell you how it impacts people in that environment. So again, you know, limited beliefs are often tied to a negative motion or group of negative emotions. That could be anger, jealousy, shame, guilt envy or any combination thereof. Those emotions that are tied to what we call a root cause to those limited beliefs. It's often a parent. It can be both parents, but it's often maybe one specific parent that had more of a greater impact on your limited beliefs. So it's your father or mother or some type of an authoritative figure in your life. It doesn't mean that you've had to have a traumatic background or chaos in your home when growing up, but it can give you something very subtle, but it just got internalized in a way that didn't serve you. And so let's say for somebody that's struggling with limited beliefs, but they don't know that it's limited beliefs, they just know they're not where they want to be in the workplace. When people are dealing with limited beliefs, it has an impact on our level of self-confidence. So when we don't have a high level of self-confidence, we often are reserved. We don't make decisions swiftly. We don't take massive action. Fix Mindset Versus Growth Mindset We have a cluttered mindset versus a clear mindset and what I call a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. A fixed mindset means that we do the same things each and every day. Not even knowing what we're doing or not doing certain things that are truly not serving us to really raise our game to the next level. And we just continue to do the things again that just get us by. In a growth mindset, we are aware of the fact that there are certain things that are holding us back. We may not know what they are at the moment, but we've made a commitment to accept and make a commitment to find out the root cause to what's holding us back. And again, that's the limited beliefs tied back to a parent that is experienced through a negative emotion or group of negative emotions. So for me, it was anger. It was due to the fact that my father was usually not present. It was very hard to communicate with my father because he had his own limited beliefs. Now, I didn't know that time and throughout my life, I was constantly seeking validation. And because of that validation, I always got involved in codependent relationships in the workplace in entrepreneurial ventures. Even my personal life, not even knowing it because I was seeking that validation outside of me because I never had it grown up as a child and not knowing that the only validation I really, truly needed was myself. So in order to really operate in a healthy environment in the workplace, instead of being codependent, I needed to be interdependent. So I had to take ownership for the fact that my own struggle was an internal one. No one was going to be able to fix me even if they validated me or not, that only I can do that for myself. And as I took ownership and responsibility for that, then I could be the example for others around me to hopefully do it for themselves. So they become more interdependent. And the more people that become interdependent around you, you have the ability to get more things done, but yet bring it together for the common good to get things done at a group level. So when you think about in a workplace where there's codependency and limited beliefs in play, a lot of times people are disappointed because they put that that on other people, I expect you to do this for me, I expect you to do that. And then if you do something, they've raised that level of expectation. What happens with expectation is oftentimes you're going to be disappointed and when you're disappointed it leads to further continue the cycle of codependency to re-experience that negative emotion of anger and other negative emotions. And the cycle continues and it goes both ways with the person or the people that are involved. So to create an interdependent environment, it requires that we all take responsibility for our own limited beliefs or things that are holding us back and finding the right habits and disciplines that are going to position us to be more interdependent. To be more clear in terms of a mindset that'd be decisive and take massive action and then coming together as a group to do that together to do bigger things. So we are operating within the solution rather than the problem where this impacts a company or it doesn't matter what size it is, is that it will drastically improve workplace communications. It will allow us to do effectively communicate better, learning to relate and listen to understand versus listening to respond. It will also increase engagement with one another because again, we know that this is the people business, no matter what product or service we sell that we learned to really understand people and to really observe their body language and know what they're looking for, but be able to provide to them in an empathetic kind way, not in a way of entitlement enablement or people-pleasing is a big difference. So by doing that, we're creating an environment for interdependency and then when you have an improvement in communications and engagement, that is going to lead to higher productivity, efficiency, thus leading to greater revenue generated by your group.

Tony:

Chris, I want to get my head around this because to me it's a little new.

Chris:

Yeah,

Tony:

It's a new concept. Is this something like secretly someone is against or hates a certain class of type of people or ethnicity or let's call them green people always hate green people but doesn't let, is that something that would limit that person in the workplace as an entrepreneur in the work or also could be, could it be also something like jealous of father or people that have happy relationships and just really kind of almost despises them? Is this the sort of thing that you're talking about when you say the negative emotions impact people like this?

Chris:

It can be Tony. It's not exactly just that, but it doesn't mean that somebody has to be racist or sexist because that's not good, that can be a part of it, but it could be something. Again, just very subtle. It could be something that people, even while they might look happy and have a smile on their face and they look like a good person and they are a good person, it's just that they're experiencing anger or shame or guilt and it goes back to certain things that they observed growing up in their households. At that time that got embedded into their subconscious mindset that they end up playing out, not even realizing what they're doing to create situations to experience it over and over again. It's like me prior to going through this process, which I'm happy to talk about the process that I not know that I was being a part of it, I thought the world was against me and I was the victim that I had a part in creating these situations to re-experience those letdowns and setbacks to experience my anger over and over and over and over again, and I had high expectations from other people because I was codependent. Being Interdependent So being interdependent, we don't have expectations. We learned to give without expectation and to receive without resistance. And again to come from a place of serving others from empathy and kindness, not from a place of entitlement and enablement and people pleaser big difference.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUso show just ahead. The chat continues about resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. But first, it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. This is the Voice America Influencers Channels; be inspired. This podcast is brought to you by ClearBanc. Clearbanc has changed the way entrepreneurs raise money with equity-free capital. Cofounder Michelle Romanow star of Canada's Dragon Den Canadian version of Shark Tank co-founded ClearBanc with her partner Andrew D'Souza. After seeing how many companies were willing to part with precious equity in exchange for a bigger marketing budget, ClearBanc believes that founders shouldn't give up a piece of their company to fund marketing and inventory expenses. Clearbanc makes equity-free investments from $10,000 to $10 million and can get you a term sheet in less than 20 minutes. They charge a small flat fee for the capital and you pay them back using a win-win rev share. This is not a loan. There is no rate, no fixed maturity date, no personal guarantees, no credit checks, and no financial covenant. Clearbanc has relationships with marketing agencies, e-commerce professionals, venture capitalists, accountants, and more giving you a true unfair advantage in the market. Clearbanc invested over $150 million in 2018 and is on track to invest over 1 billion this year. Some notable portfolio companies are Public Goods, Lisa Sleep, Le Tote and Buffy to name a few. So if you're doing over $10,000 a month in revenue, find out how you can receive ClearBanc capital by getting your 20-minute term sheet at clearbanc.com/tony that's C L E A R B A N C bank with a c.com/tony Clearbanc. Stop pitching and get back to doing what you love growing your business. We don't follow; we lead. Join us the VoiceAmerica Influencers Channel. You are listening to the Tony DUrso show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony at tonydurso.com now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show. Today's show is about Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die; with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. Chris is the originator of the term Prosperneur an individual whose health and wealth are in alignment in a way that leads to true prosperity. His book Master Your Inner Critic, Resolve the Root Cause, Create Prosperity addresses this and when international bestseller in 2016 all right, and now back to the chat with Chris. I would love to know some of the resolutions that you have to that. Steps to Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs

Chris:

Absolutely. So, I mean some of the things again is just to be aware that you're not where you want to be. That whether if it's an individual or an organization, the next step is to accept where you are. Because without accepting where you are, you can't embark on going where, where to find where the problem resonates from. So again, you're just managing the problem if you're not accepting where you're at. So by accepting where you're at, you have the ability now to commit to a process to find the root cause to those beliefs and where they come from. So it's a simple process of, well, there are a few other things, but I'm just going to focus for time sake here, three important habits that will help you get to the root cause of limited beliefs and then also doing it consistently will keep you in the solution going forward. So one would be a simple organizational task that you would do every day. So for me, when I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is I make my bed. I wasn't in the military. It was not something that my mom or dad said you had to do every morning as part of, you know, my chores or whatever the case may be. Its just something I took on as part of this process. I've been making my bed for 20 years. Even if I'm in a hotel, I do the same thing. The maids love me for it, so I make my bed. What it does is it allows me to focus on something attainable. In this case, making your bed is not complex. It's easy, but it's attainable. So in the fact that I do that gets my mindset for other bigger tasks and priorities that matter throughout the day. Second, Soon after I meditate and I meditate because I get into the rhythm to help myself keep present. Because in the present moment we can become more clear. And when we're more clear, we can be more decisive and when we are more decisive. We can take massive action. What people don't realize is from limited beliefs, they operate in the past and the future simultaneously. They don't even realize it's even happening in the past. You trigger certain things that bring up fear. That fear then triggers stress, which raises cortisol in the body, which leads to inflammation, which is not good for you physically. But what it also does that fear, it also leads to more cluttered or a lack of clarity. With your mindset, you're not able to make decisions. Clearly, you're not able to take massive action. And then when that is projected into the future, that fear now becomes anxiety. So in the future, you're now you're becoming anxious about something that hasn't happened and that can be on various levels. And then because of anxiety that leads to what we call procrastination. And this is why a lot of people will put off until tomorrow, next week, next year, and never actually never getting around to do it happens. This is where people leave this earth with regret. So the fact is, is in order to break that pattern of living in the past and the future simultaneously called race mind, it's learning through meditation how to be in the moment more often than not cause in the moment fear and not reside at that level, neither can anxiety and it allowed you to be more clear, more focused, and be able to take massive action. Now when you get into that rhythm, this is also getting a way to help trigger the subconscious mindset to reveal certain things to your conscious mindset. So certain things will come up that you were not aware of that can lead you to find out where the root cause is to these limited beliefs and oftentimes can be traced back again to a parent. So it's in that place. Once we get to where that root cause is, that triggers these emotions. So, for instance, a lot of people have road rage, right? Or somebody could say something at work and it gets them upset. It's not that that person who said something got that person upset, that was just a trigger that actually ends up going the deep roots of all that goes back into their childhood back to a parent to reinforce that that negative emotion over and over and over again. That's why it lingers with them. But I'm saying if you forgive the source, it doesn't matter if your parent is still alive or are deceased, it does not matter when you truly forgive from every cell in your body and release it, you will know that anything that triggers those negative emotions will now not linger with you. You'll feel it. But it will come and go versus stay with you like before. That's when you know you've resolved the root cause and it's then that same place that you'll be able to then find the solution. Who, what's your purpose? What are the habits and disciplines that you don't currently have in your life that will serve you to build your foundation for success in everything you do? Now, one of the components I did not talk about that goes hand in hand with the meditation is journaling. So your journaling right after meditation, you're not over-analyzing, overthinking, you're just writing down whatever comes to mind. Getting it out of the subconscious and the conscious mindset onto paper and how you feel. So this way you can look back at yourself like a third party. We're looking at you to determine where what's been going on and where are you now and where are you going forward. Those three habits that become a pattern over a period of time are going to be the foundation of your success to get out of the problem into the solution. Coupled with some other things that I'm happy to talk about that will lead to a pattern of success no matter what setbacks or challenges are happening in your business or when things are going really well, it won't matter. But I'll let you go from there. If you want to ask any other questions and I can expand on that.

Tony:

Well that's very interesting. So far, Chris and I met someone a few years back who had a very simple way of doing that. Simply said, just look around, just look around and get into the here and now is probably one of the fastest, easiest ways and I thought that was very interesting and I find it highly effective to just get into the here and now. Just look around because what you're looking at is not in the past. It's not in the future. It's right here, right now and it brings you back to the present. So was a very interesting way to do that. I wanted to ask you because you specialized in this and you bring people and corporations through this process. I would just love to know what kind of successes people have to their productivity, to their income, to their business as a result of having assistance in resolving their limited beliefs.

Chris:

Well, I mean I've been doing this now with people individually for quite some time. So the people that have worked the process, and I've only given you just the first beginnings of the process, there are other components to it. But that being said, those individuals that have done the process verbatim have had tremendous results in terms of increasing not only the revenue in their business, but their income levels, their relationships with themselves and other people are also taking care of their wellbeing. That's looking at the eight pillars of wellness, social, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, occupational, intellectual, environmental, by striking a balance with those pillars of wellness to not only maintain but to sustain their success going forward. So it's finding harmony with their business, their personal wellbeing, and the relationship. So it's never going to be perfect, but you're going to see a definitely an increase. So even when there are challenges and setbacks, you have a different attitude. You think differently, you begin to see the blessings and the opportunities disguised in the setbacks and as a way that has actually been a propel you even farther ahead than you would have had you not gone through it. So you don't look at the setbacks and challenges as a bad thing like you did in the past. You look at it as a good thing that it's part of the process. So the key to this whole program is learning to really trust and embrace the process. Shifting from fixed to a growth mindset, because again, there's no timetable to this. It's a different frequency for people. Some people could do it in six months, some people a year, two-three years. It's all different. But by making that shift, again, and the way we think, we can really sustain and really get ahead, you know, our more than if we're doing it, managing the problem from a fixed mindset or limited bullets.

Tony:

This is Christopher Salem talking about resolving limited beliefs. You can find out more about Chris at christophersalem.com and we all know how to spell Christopher, C H R I S T O P H E R and Salem is S A L E M .com. Chris, while we have a few minutes left, I'd love to know you are the originator and you coined a term called a Prosperneur. Tell us about that. This is the Tony DUrso show just ahead. The chat continues about Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. Change starts now; Change starts now. Join us The VoiceAmerica Influencers Channel I got a pair of Rothys shoes for my wife. The box is a great presentation in itself with the beautiful Royal blue tab that you pull along the perforation to open the box. Over and over she said they're the best fitting shoes she's ever had ever. They were so comfortable that she didn't want to take them off. She wears her Rothys around the house and says they massage your feet. I'm blown away by her response and we'll be getting her another peer ASAP. They're definitely worth every penny plus some, you know, Rothys come in a wide range of colors and patterns and they're available in four different silhouettes. Plus they're constantly launching new styles, so you're guaranteed to find a pair or three you love. Another major bonus. They're fully machine washable every time they need to refresh, you can simply toss them in the washing machine. It's like getting a fresh pair every laundry date. Check out all the amazing styles available right now at rothys.com/tony R, O T H Y S.com/tony these are the shoes you've been waiting for. Head to rothys.com /tony today. Hey guys, I understand that there are times when you have to shave down under, we all have our reasons. A good shave is always great on a hot day. It's also great when exercise, hiking, bicycling and so forth, and it's probably good when wearing tight jeans too, so I get it. But usually, the regular shaver has its disadvantages, serious disadvantages. That's why the people that Manscape took it seriously and came up with some great equipment to clean up your equipment with Manscape. You can tidy up yourself whenever you need. Now that's cool. Check out manscaped.com/durso and give the family jewels a helping hand, or should I say helping shave get 20% off free shipping and a free travel bag with the code D U R S O at manscaped.com. That's 20% off with free shipping and a free travel bag at manscaped.com using the code D U R S O, that's M A N S C A P E D.com/durso Here the story. Be motivated; Be inspired. Join us today VoiceAmerica Influencers. You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony at tonydurso.com now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show. Today's show is about Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. And now back to the chat with our guests. The term called a Prosperneur.

Chris:

Well, first of all, Tony, I kudos to you for actually pronouncing it correct cause I, I've been on a lot of radio shows and TV shows that I'd get. It's a lot of people can't say it. They'll be like pop, pop, pop, pop. They can't come out right, but yeah it is Prosperneur. So, what the term means. It doesn't mean you have to be an entrepreneur. It's the life in doing business and it all comes down to the daily habits and disciplines that you do each and every day that lead to sustainable success in your life. It means that you put your wellness first. That is everything that we talked about. That's the eight pillars of wellness, emotional wellness, and getting that right when we have a strike of balance with emotional wellness that has a positive impact on our physical wellness that has a positive impact on our financial wellness, social wellness, that we go from a codependent relationship to an interdependent relationship. It impacts our intellectual wellness as well as environmental, which means are we operating in an organized environment in our homes, cars, and workplace or one of being cluttered and disorganized. So you could see that when you have your wellness strike a balance with your wellness. When we have that in alignment with our wealth principles, that is getting in your business, growing your business, that's your personal wealth. That means, you know, what are you doing to grow your wealth in terms of money, assets, that type of thing. And then more importantly, that you have the time to, you know, serve your purpose, to do the things that you love and you know, and to really experience life on your terms and not someone else's. And when you have that alignment, never perfect between your wellness and wealth principles, then you can experience true prosperity. That's the lifestyle of a Prosperneur.

Tony:

I love it, and now we have time for one last question. You have a very good radio show on Voice America. Tell us about it.

Chris:

Well, yeah, I mean it's we're on the same channel, Tony, I mean the influencer's channel. So it's called Sustainable Success and it's every Thursday from 12 noon to 1:00 PM East coast time, nine to 10 Pacific standard time. And the show is really about what we just talked about, you know, it looks at life and business as one and it looks at the whole Prosperneur philosophy, you know, putting wellness first and having that alignment with your wealth principles or if it's a business. Again, putting people first and looking at the, you know, the wellbeing of your people from an emotional intelligence side versus just intellectual intelligence and using the two then to align with your business goals. So the the the wellness side would be more of our companies, people, emotional intelligence, the wealth side would be more of the intellectual intelligence. Those are the things, like stacks and trends and certain things that companies require to grow their businesses. So you need a combination of both. So, the show really targets all different topics related to these areas and we just have great guests from all these different areas that come on and share their wisdom and just getting that message out there to really influence people that draw their own conclusions to make these changes in their lives and businesses.

Tony:

Chris, if people go to your website, christopher.com, can they get access to your radio show through that?

Chris:

Well, that's a good question and that is something I'm going to be loading. You won't find it on there, but the best thing to do is yeah, you go to my website, you can find everything else. If I mean, I got to get that on there. I don't know why I have it, but if you simply Google sustainable success radio show in Google, it'll pop up there. We've had a lot of great guests. We've had Bob Burg on the show. We've had Dr. Parker Nandy, we've had Jason Hoffman from Varidesk,CEO. We've had a lot of great guests on our show. So you can find a, a lot of information who just, they're on Google, just sustainable success radio show and it'll pop up.

Tony:

And also just as a convenience perhaps if the audience goes to voiceamerica.com then you can search for Christopher Salem

Chris:

You could find it right there too. Yep, absolutely.

Tony:

Any way you do, you'll, you'll find it. And again, Christopher Salem Resolving Limited Beliefs. You'll find out more about him at christophersalem.com. Thank you so much. Christopher is very interesting. Lots more to talk about. We're going to have to have you back because there's more here to discuss, to help other people. There's a lot more stuff.

Chris:

Tony, I can't thank you enough and we definitely, we got to trade. You're going to be on my show as well. We'll have some things going on in July going forward and love to have you on.

Tony:

I would love that. Really appreciate you sharing with us. _____________________________________________________________________________________ James Mustich

Tony:

And now we have James Mustich joining us. Jim began his career in book selling at an independent bookstore in Briarcliff Manor New York in the early 1980s in 1986 he cofounded the acclaimed book catalog, The Common Reader and was for two decades its guiding force. He subsequently worked as an editorial and product development executive in the publishing industry. Here we go. Welcome to the show. Jim is so great to have you on with us today. James: Tony, I'm very pleased to be on with you. Thank you for having me.

Tony:

My pleasure and my honor, and this is quite an interesting topic. We're going to be talking about 1000 Books That are a Must Read, but before we get into that Jim, I like to know how did it all start for you? What's your story? James: Well, it started my reading life started as a young kid. My mom was a constant reader. She's still at 90 years old, the most voracious reader I know. And she modeled reading for me, took me to libraries and bookstores. My dad, not a book reader, but always very supportive of everything I did. And over the years, as I got out of school, I got into the book business in a small bookstore in suburban New York. And then I launched a mail-order catalog called The Common Reader in 1986. And I ran that for 20 years. It was kind of before the internet. It was a book, blog and social network of readers. We had about 250,000 subscribers across the country and that built and built until finally I was asked to write this book, which we're talking about today, called a Thousand Books to Read Before You Die. And that's the, in a nutshell, my background.

Tony:

That's very interesting. And it's quite an interesting book. I've got a couple of questions and I know you've just commented on this, but take us into how and why this book started. What made this book important to write? James: At the time, the publisher Workman publishing approached me about the book in the early two-thousands. I was doing the catalog I mentioned The Common Reader. And so Peter Workman, who was the publisher and founder of Workman, liked what I did at a common reader, liked the way I wrote about books and he had just published a very successful book called A Thousand Places to See Before You Die by a woman named Patricia Schultz who has since become a good friend of mine. And that book was so successful. Peter wanted to kind of franchise the thousand things to do before you die, the bucket list idea in a series of books. And he asked me to do one about books, about reading books and it was a big project. It took me 14 years to do it.

Tony:

Wow. James: But it was published this past October to some wonderful reviews and great reception. We toured around the country September through December, talking at libraries and bookstores and readers are quite excited about the idea of the book, about arguing with me about things that I left out that they think should be in a book like this. But that's part of the fun part of the motivation for me was to promote the conversation around books and the books that people love.

Tony:

Very cool on that. And I do recall that book, The Thousand Places that You Must See. I remember that. I have to have some good marketing on that. James: They did. Yes, it was very successful. It's, it has sold a couple of million copies at this point. It is still going strong. There are revised stations all the time and I highly recommend that to your listeners if they're looking for a bucket list of places to see.

Tony:

Very good. And I got that it took 14 years to write this book. That's quite something now. So that begs the question, Jim, did it take 14 years to write the book because you had to read a thousand books? James: Well, I have read the vast majority of the books in here, many of them I knew from the work I had done in The Common Reader and from my previous lives as a student and a bookseller. So I've been around a lot of these books for a very long time. But when you're writing about a book, you have to know enough about the book to say something interesting and you also have to know enough about the book and the author, the period it was written in to know what not to say and to deliver information to readers. That'll be an invitation to the book, give them context, but be just enough to serve the purpose. So that took a lot. And deciding which books to choose was actually the biggest list in the whole project because there are so many books that have been published across time. My book starts back in ancient days with the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was published 4,000. Well were not published but composed 4,000 years ago on tablets in Babylon. And it goes all the way up to 2017 with a book called Life in Code written by Ellen Almon about technology in our lives today. So in that vast period, there are thousands, millions of books and there are tens of thousands being published every month. So narrowing it down to something that made sense to put together in a book was a large part of the work.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show. Just the head the chat continues about Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read before you Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. But first, it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. We don't follow; we lead. Join us today the Voice America Influencers Channel Would you like a lot of people checking out your sales page, your branding page, your podcast like a lot of us are just trying to do it all yourself? Are you taking webinars, seminars, and workshops to learn how to grow your social media and how to bring visitors to your site? Are you downloading free eBooks, buying books, buying classes? Doing this and that just to learn how to get more sales, more people, more exposure. Been there done that. Why not just get good targeted traffic and cut to the chase, skipped the extra steps and get the visitors you want. Now imagine how you would feel if you had thousands and thousands of consumers coming in each week and checking out what you have, including downloading your podcast, watching your videos, checking out your webinars, reading your stuff and so forth. Most people can't do it all. The learning curve is too steep. You need help to get her done. My roots are lead generation and marketing and I have cut through the chase to get a sizable audience. I've learned from some of the best. These people are the real deal, organic. That's what you want. Let me help. Go to tonydurso.com and find clicks on the navbar. Follow the link and let's set you up for a trial. That's Tony D. U R S O.com and find clicks on the navbar, C. L. I. C. K. S. here's to your success. Hey, check out my other great interviews at tonydurso.com. This Voice America Influencers Channels; Be inspired. You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with key influencers. We'd love to hear from you via email. Be sure to send questions and comments to Tony at tonydurso.com now back to Tony and his guests.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show. Today's show is about Resolving the Root of Limited Beliefs and 1000 Books to Read Before You Die with Christopher Salem and James Mustich. Jim says, "1000 books to read before you die is my own treasury of essential reading. It is neither comprehensive nor authoritative, but rather an invitation to Ameri argument about the books left out as well as those included. Because the question of what to read next as no definite answer". And now back to the chat with Jim. You are such an expert on this. What do you say? And I don't need to Google it. I want to ask you, what would you say is the average time that a person takes on average to read a book? James: Ah, well, depending upon the length, it's, you know, the book books vary in length from, you know, a hundred pages to a couple of thousand pages. But I think you're onto an important point. Let me approach it from a slightly different angle. When we buy a book, generally speaking, we are committing to an investment in time that's different from other media that we engage with. For, instant if you watch a movie, no matter how good the movie it is, after two hours you're done with it. It's done with you. You may remember it, but it's not an ongoing conversation that you have with a book, which may take you a short book, could take you an evening, but some books can take you a couple of hours a day for a week or a month. So we are really investing time in the book just as the author did. And that's what makes people so passionate about the books that they've come to love.

Tony:

That's a very good answer. And I will say generally on novels, which my wife loves to read, it takes her one to two weeks to read a three, four hundred plus page novel, maybe to 500 pages. And what would you say from your professional experience, and what would you say is the average number of books that a person reads per year? James: Sadly, I think that's very low for most people. I see statistics down to anywhere from one or two or a year on average across the population. But people who are readers they always have a book going. So I want to push that number up to say it's probably 10 or 12 a year.

Tony:

All right. Let's just say conservatively it's 10 books a year. I'm not going to say how many I read cause I'm not in the spotlight on this though. I'm sure for you it's like, Oh yeah, I read 500 books a year. No, I'm just joking. If a person on the average, let's just say plus or minus, this is a big general, general sweeping statement. I get it. But if a person read 10 books a year and you're recommending a thousand books, do the math, everyone that's quite a few years. James: You're right it's a very long time. But let me put people's minds at rest. The book is not meant to be an obstacle course or a kind of something that's impossible to do. My thousand books are books that are worth reading in your lifetime. So I like to say to people, the only important book is the one you're going to read next. And you can use my book as a resource for whatever kind of reading you want to do. Whether you want to a mystery to take on a plane with you or to read on the beach, or you want an absorbing historical novel, or you want a book about horse racing or history or just about any subject under the sun, you'll find something that'll speak to, to what you're looking for between the covers of my book.

Tony:

I love that answer. And just for a little info. When I read a book, I find that the nonfiction book, let's just say it's a plus or minus 200 pages, I find those as a fast read a week or two and they're done, but when I read a fiction book, that's a whole different story, especially if it has any bearing on earth as opposed to science fiction somewhere else, but if it has anything to do with earth, what I find myself doing, Jim, is I'll be Googling the place, the location, I'll find out what stories are on there. I get so involved in just a fiction book that I just can't read it because I've got to map out the terrain. I just get into this little additional journey on another level. I don't know if anyone else does like that. I zone into it and it could take me an embarrassingly long time, but it's so much fun. It's like an expanded movie for me. You know what I mean? James: Exactly. Expansion is really the thing because books can, especially when we're involved in a gripping story, it kind of expands our senses. We want to know more about the setting or the place or the historical period. And that's a very rich, it's almost like taking a little trip without leaving your home.

Tony:

Exactly. And I love that using the imagination. The more you use it, the more fun I believe it is. And you know, I am an author, I've written a couple of books and it's, I just, I just love that, because if you don't use it, you lose it. James: Exactly. And you've written a couple of novels too if I have that correct.

Tony:

That's right. We wrote a book called The Pursuit is the first book. It's a, it's a 500-page novel we took out, we had to take out 300 pages, was 800 pages it was too big for the publisher. So we had a call out, 300 pages and we called it a good bed and gold. And then since then I have written some other books, bestseller nonfiction, and then it was advised, and I'll just say this publicly on here, I was advised that publishers are not like actors. Let me explain that Jim. In an actor you could have, he could do a comedy spot. He or she can do a serious spot, could do a thriller, could do the hero, could do the bad guy, and that's all good and fine. But when you're writing books, you either do fiction or nonfiction and I'm told it's bad to have one's name on both, maybe that they don't, you're not taken seriously on the nonfiction though. I don't know why everyone's got an imagination. Why can't you tell the story? I tell a story at the dinner table, why can't I tell the story in a book? But I'm told it's not good. So we've taken the books off the market and then we're going to re-issue them just under the coauthor's name and I'm taking my name off so that I'm not associated with it anymore. As far as in the public. I disagree with it, but I'm told that that's like best practices. Do you have, what do you think on that? James: Well, I'm with you. I think we can tell stories just like we can share our expertise in things that don't require invention. And I'm all for all of it. I can see the publisher's point, but I don't think the publisher is being particularly imaginative in that instance.

Tony:

I'm just told it's best practices and there's no hard and fast rule. But I guess if someone starts writing something and it's considered a fairy tale for whatever reason, it can just make the serious work with the nonfiction work, it might make it seem not so important. But anyway, I digress. Let's get this conversation back to you. We've got a thousand books to read. We've got a few years to read them and I want to ask you, okay. My, listeners, you know my audience through listening, they're, they're hearing this, they're going, okay, so why should they read these thousand books? What do you see them getting in their lives? What's going to happen as a result of these books. Can you tell us from that point of view, tell us more about the book? James: Yes, that's a great question. Again, to go back to what I said before, the point is that the whole thousand for me, what it's really about is reading in a rich way because that's how we kind of nourish, our imaginations and our intelligence and our curiosity. And that's critically important. Reading is the best way that I've found to inform the most important ongoing conversation we have in our lives. And that's the conversation we have with ourselves in our own head where we're trying to figure out what to do next. We're trying to determine what's important to us or what's meaningful in our lives. We're trying to figure out how to build relationships, live with our spouses, raise our children books, give us the reach to get experiences that we might not have firsthand. But by having them in our imagination, they make us larger people. They help us to determine how to live and who to be. So reading can do that because we're quiet and we are absorbing information and images and experiences on a deep level and not reacting all the time as we're forced to do in our very busy lives. So taking that quiet time to talk to ourselves in a way and to have the voice in our ear, not only our own but of the great authors of all time is something that is an ongoing education that's really important. Keeps us fresh, keeps us more curious, makes us more interesting to ourselves and therefore to others.

Tony:

Thank you for sharing that. And I don't know if the following statement of applies to books, but if I in a way contrasted the reading of books, especially classics to current times such as when watching TV, if I watch a 1960s show or TV series, you get into the style and the language and the mannerisms and it is so completely different. It is like an alien on another world compared to today. It's like, it's like this isn't even the same earth and I wonder what people would come away. You, you know, you've answered it. We've talked about this a little bit, I just wonder what people would come away with from reading these various classics. And I know you've got some great classics in there as well as very contemporary books. Sort of like mixes it all up a little bit. James: Well, I think you get different things from different books and oddly the books that are the most contemporary and seem at the moment to be the most relevant, usually date the most quickly. Whereas we can read something like a Greek tragedy were, the kind of fundamental dilemmas of life, the birth-death family, those kinds of things have remained the same. So the starker, those older works are, they can speak to us very, very powerfully. But I think one of the important to emphasize is that we read in different ways, and I like to say that we read the way we eat. So one day we might have a yen for a hotdog, but the next day we're going to have a salad. And the day after that we might have sushi or go out for a nice big fancy steak dinner. All of those meals are nourishing. Sometimes they they're distracting. Sometimes they are just fun, but that sense of different kinds of appetites at different moments in our lives is as true of reading as of anything else. So sometimes we just want a story where we want to find out what's going to happen next, who done it, and other times we want to read a book that might provoke a little more thought,

Tony:

Very good points, Jim thanks, and for our audience you can find out more about Jim and the book at 1000 that's one zero zero zero three zeros, 1000bookstoread.com, of course, you can go to Amazon and those other places, but that's one zero zero zero that's a thousand, in fact, most of you out there in the audience, you're going to read a lot of these books and I think you're going to come away with a whole additional outlook and perspective on life, people and society and so forth. I already can tell from looking at some of the titles, just the joy and the richness of that that it's going to inspire me with. I like that. And one last one before we go I want to circle all the way back to your roots on this, Jim, you were the guiding force or a Common Reader for about two decades. Can you tell us more about that? James: Yes, that was, I'll tell you a little bit of a funny story, Tony. How I started it. I was working in a bookstore and I loved selling books. I loved being around books, but I wasn't always selling books that I necessarily liked. And in a story, you have to be there on Saturdays and so on. And I wanted to write, so I said, how can I put all of these things together? So I started a catalog where I would find books that were a little bit off the beaten path. I would write about them very personally about what these books meant for me, why I was interested in them, how I discovered them, and I put them in a catalog and we did everything through the mail. So we'd have a catalog every month we'd cover a couple of hundred books and we built up a subscriber list across the country and these people were buying the books from us. This was before the internet, so it was a mail-order catalog printed on newsprint and people became passionately addicted to the catalog and we had a couple of hundred thousand subscribers around the country and we had a good business until the internet kind of overshadowed us a little bit. But that kind of personal advocacy of books of telling people here's a book you have to read, that's what really has driven all of my enterprises in the book business. And the rewards I get from that form readers telling me the same thing I've been, have been as rewarding, as the returns on the business.

Tony:

I like that very interesting story. And you would think that even with the internet that you would be able to, to carry on. But I know how things shift so fast on that. James: Well, it is, you know, I think I've thought about this a lot over the years and I think if we were starting at the time it was the shift that was difficult for us because we were set up in one way with a mailing list and so on. And we weren't familiar with all of the technology at the time. Now it would be a different story. So I've started a newsletter and so on. People who go to the website, they can subscribe to the newsletter every two weeks. I talk about books, I'm reading things I'm writing. And so we're gonna take another shot at building a subscriber list of people who love books in the same way.

Tony:

I liked that, Jim. And if we go to 1000bookstoread.com, can we get access to that newsletter and perhaps even communicate with you? James: Exactly, yes.

Tony:

Well, great. Well, there you go. Everyone get ahold of Jim Mustich and it's M, U S, T, I, C H, but it's pronounced Mustich. Jim Mustich 1000bookstoread.com Jim, thanks so much, and if and when you have an update on this or any other books, please come back. I love to talk about it. James: Tony, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure speaking with you.

Tony:

Thank you. Thank you. And again, the honor is mine. And for my amazing audience. Thanks so much for listening. Remember, success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds be righteous. Join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Tony DUrso with his key influencers. Be sure to tune in again next Friday at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, 1:00 PM Pacific Time on the Voice America Influencers Channel.