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Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Yes, welcome to the biz communication Show. I’m your host Bill Lampton the biz communication guy, bringing you communication tips and strategies that will boost your business. And I know boosting my business as well because of what I hear and what you hear from our terrific guest today, who shares communication tips and strategies that have given her a successful business career over three decades. The guest today is Cathy Hogan Smith. Cathy lets us know how lively our conversation will be. When she describes herself as an all around firecracker. She says sassy is my middle lane. So fasten your seat belts. This is going to be an exciting ride. Cathy is a serial entrepreneur. I love her title as owner and chief happiness Officer of cache corporate gift services. Meanwhile, she continues her 32 years in sales in the luxury homes real estate market. Somehow recently, she found time to launch a new podcast chasing excellence. We’ll talk about it I’ve heard it is terrific. In addition to Cathy’s demanding business schedule, she stays active as a volunteer and charity organizations engages in public speaking, motivation and travel. Her motto is have passport will travel. Obviously, adventure is her middle name. I saw a recent photo of Cathy ziplining. I can tell you, I was not in a harness nearby. Cathy Hogan Smith identifies herself as mama to three great kids and sports enthusiast and fun lover. So join me as we learn plenty and have lots of fun with Kathy Hogan Smith. Hello, Kathy.
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Hey, Bill, how are you?
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I am so delighted to host you on the biz communication show and from what we included in the introduction, it’s very clear that you have a zest for life, that you, you stay constantly motivated. And that, of course, is extremely important for us and our professional communication, and in our business communication. And if we’re going to succeed and interpersonal relations and in business, we have to maintain high motivation. So I will benefit we all will benefit if you explain to us what are your keys to remaining such an upbeat person because with a world where all and now there are plenty of reasons that that would not be the case. So please share with us your motivation keys?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Well, Bill, the biggest motivator for me is curiosity. I’m quite curious, I always want to learn new things. I always want to learn how to improve myself, my business and my community. So being curious, keeps the shape of the soil sharpened, if you will. For me. It’s just that simple. Curiosity.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I like that. And I will share with you and with our listeners a phrase that I came across for my own motivational boost and that I’ve shared with many audiences and readers every chance I get this happened when I was presenting a program in downtown Atlanta and I had to wait Kathy to catch an elevator to the 16th floor. And there was a line there. So I started talking to the the official at the head of the line. And somehow we started talking about elevators and we said kind of like life they have their ups and downs and she said something I wish I had caught her name because I’ve benefited from it ever since she said yes. life has its ups and downs but it’s up to us which button are we going to push? So I then started thinking of life. When we get out of bed in the morning. were put up we put our foot on the floor, feet on the floor and we’re really not in a bedroom. We are in life’s elevator. We have a choice. Which button are we going to push? Are we going to push the up button or are we going to push the down button and you found and I imagine you’ve shared this With many of your friends and colleagues, you found that whichever choice you make is going to, strangely enough determine the outcome of that. Dave, is that your experience?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
It certainly is. It’s a mindset thing for me. You know, I always put put in my head that when I’m having a struggle with something, it can always be worse, it can always be worse. And I’ve been in situations where it was a lot worse. So I can speak from experience there. And working with people who are less fortunate, I guess, you see a lot of things that have gone the wrong way. They’ve gone south for them. But so you keep them motivated. And to keep things going forward or up in your elevator, you got to get your mind straight, you know, because the mind is a powerful tool. And it can take you in many directions. And it’s up to you. Yeah, like you said, push the button, because you can you can wallow in the lower level or you can go all the way up to the top. It’s choice choices.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Yes. And the choices is very important. And I don’t know if you’ve read any of Augmon Dino’s books, but Augmentee know, one of the main benefits I got from his books was how he constantly talked about one of the greatest opportunities we have in life is choice. And it’s also as you and I know, it’s also one of our great responsibilities. Kathy, you described yourself as a Midwestern girl by birth but a Southern belle by choice. Yes, you started out in Indiana, you wound up in Georgia? Yes. And as a person who has studied studying language all my life, there’s, there’s a question I want to ask when you came to the south when you’re moving to the south. We have a different language. They’re all people think of the United States is one language, but it’s not I grew up near New Orleans, New Orleans has its own language. Boston has its own language. New York has its own language. So I’m curious if you can recall, what were some of the words and phrases that you had to maybe even ask what they meant, or get adjusted to when you move to the south?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Well, I’m from Southern Indiana, so it’s almost Kentucky. So we have a heavy southern influence there. But the number one is obviously going to be y’all. Yes. Hey, y’all. I grew up saying you guys and I still say you guys I sound more northern Indiana when I say that than southern Indiana. But and fix into that one just bought a bug, fix it.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Would you believe I was going to bring that one up? I was going to bring that one up myself. We’re fixing sounds like something’s broken. But But fixing to means I’m just about to do something. Yeah. I lived in the Midwest for a while I had a rather nomadic career before the last 26 years when I’ve been a Communication Consultant and one of the one of the language. I thought it was an idiosyncrasy, of course, because it was different from what I was accustomed to. But in the Deep South, we would save for example, we don’t do that anymore. But in the Midwest, I found people saying anymore, we don’t do that. And the sentence comes out and the the meaning comes out the same, but the first few times I heard anymore, it was strikingly different to me. And
Cathy Hogan-Smith
that one, I’ve never heard it but that way.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
But while we’re on this topic, it was just yesterday that I read an article on LinkedIn and I reposted it because I thought it was so interesting and timely. It talked about how the traditional Southern dialect as a southern accent, over the last two or three decades has been diminished, and in some ways practically disappearing. Of course, one of the reasons is that I think there are two major reasons. One is that the people that we hear in the media, the radio and television broadcasters, for the most part, have a what we call a middle American English, it’s it’s, you’d be it’d be difficult to find what their origin was. And then secondly, of course, the southern part of the United States has had a great influx of people from other states who Don’t talk like we used to talk.
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Those darn northerners just keep coming down here.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
You didn’t say Damn Yankees that was very courteous. very courteous. Thinking of your various stellar and varied and enduring business career. I remember, I believe it was when I listened to your podcast, when I heard you talk about, yes, during the intense time of COVID, we all had to make vast adjustments, some totally revolutionary, and you’re told about going to a, I guess it was a trade show, you bought $20,000 worth of equipment for the luxury gifts part of your business. And then all of a sudden, all of a sudden, you had $20,000 worth of merchandise that you didn’t know what to do with one of those COVID surprises. So tell us how you adjusted to that, Kathy?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Okay. Well, I had, we travel, those of us in the business, travel several times a year to different trade shows either food, trade shows, gourmet food, trade shows, gifts shows all around the country, there’s different ones. So I had just gone to the Atlanta show, and headed out to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. And while we were out there, our flight got canceled. And we were getting all kinds of strange messages about than not being able to reschedule us. So we found that while we were out there that it was because of COVID. And we’re all laughing. But what is this? You know, so I didn’t think anything about it went back home. And two months later into, it’s when everything started shutting down, I think time wise, and I just kind of mentally shut down every you know, seeing how this was going on further and further than the two weeks they originally spoke of, I thought I will have no business and I’m sitting here with all of this product that I just bought for clients who are no longer going to need it. So got myself in a little bit of a funk over that and then said, No, I can’t do this, this is crazy, mentally is crazy. Financially, it’s crazy, I’m not gonna throw this stuff out, I’m not gonna write it off, there’s got to be something I can do to utilize this product and use my creativity in this time, I thought not only would it helped my business, but it would help me mentally get out of that funk from COVID. So what I did was I came up with this idea that I would take the products and package them in what came to be known as the send a hug box, I have a girl that does cookies, specialty cookies for me. And I had her design these cookies that were hugs, and they were different colors, different skin colors, but it was a cookie and it was like a hug. And so we would include that and little bits and pieces of all the inventory all the product, most of it was food products. So I throw in everything I could into these boxes, and offer to sell them to people who needed to get something to friends or family who were maybe in this example, college lockdown, or nursing home lock downs, things like that. And it became a big hit. And I ended up selling most of the product. So I added have since added that send a hug box program to my regular rotation. So I took a bad situation turned it around after I pulled myself out of the fog. But it worked out to my advantage and I got more more clients out of it than I ever had.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I’m reminded I don’t know if 20 or 25 years ago, you read the book Who Moved My Cheese had ever read that one. That book to me, I thought at the time it was timely and timeless. And to me, that book could easily be reissued now are recommended are retaught and seminars, because the whole theme of that book was what if all of a sudden your world turns upside down. And that is what happened to you. And to me, it’s a wonderful example. The creativity, the bounce back, the spunk, the the forward moving action that you took. I think that’s really terrific. Kathy, I mentioned at the outset in the introduction about your podcasts. And so and just a couple of seconds. We’ll be back and talk about that.
Speaker 3
Okay, do you wish you felt confident about giving speeches? Do you want to deal with difficult people constructively? And what about becoming more persuasive in sales? Then keep listening now to Dr. Bill Lampton he spent 20 years in management, so he knows the communication skills you need for success. I urge you to call the biz communication guide today. For a no call, but very valuable 30 minute discussion about your communication challenges. Call now. 678-316-4300. Again, that’s 678-316-4300.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Back with Kathy Hogan Smith on the biz communication show, and as I mentioned a few seconds ago, Kathy has started a podcast. And so, Kathy, what’s the nature of your podcast? What’s the purpose of it? What do you expect to accomplish with it? And how can we find it?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
All right, thank you, Bill. First of all, it’s an excuse me, another byproduct of the COVID situation. I was in my little funk there trying to figure out what I was going to do with my business. I noticed that, you know, on the news everywhere, you were hearing just bad things. Horrible things, it was getting so depressing, so depressing. And I just kind of basically snap out a snap out of it. There’s got to be some good news out there somewhere. And so I thought, well, if I don’t hear it, I’ll create it. You know, I’m a connector. And I know a lot of good people that are out there doing great things. So I formed the idea for the podcast with that concept in mind that bringing good news and sharing, I’m a connector. So I want people to know, if I meet somebody that I think is really interesting, or really helpful. I want to share that person with everybody I know. So that’s how it came to be. And it’s a very upbeat, it’s educational, informative, and entertaining. It’s going to be a mix of lots of different kinds of people. Some of it will be interviews, and some of them will be me, running my mouth, doing whatever. The last episode happened to be a friend of mine, who’s a music producer, songwriter. She’s been Grammy nominated for songs she did for Patti LaBelle. The next one is going to be community connectors, which is going to be nonprofit oriented, going to introduce you to people who are out there doing things, getting things done, shining the light on the people that have serious needs that aren’t being met. So it’s going to be rotating, it’s always going to be different, just like me, it’s going to be lively, it’s going to be, you know, unexpected. Sometimes I may say things I don’t mean to say. But that’s part of the fun. So that’s how it came to be. And it’s called Chasing Excellence, which means basically, to me, excellence is not perfection. But you can reach excellence, you just have to keep striving after it and make yourself better, make your company better, make your life better and your community better. You just have to put it in forward motion. Keep it going. So you’re always chasing excellence.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
So how do we find chasing excellence? Your podcast,
Cathy Hogan-Smith
we are on Forsyth Business Radio X, and it’s on all it will be on all the streaming programs. I’m not well versed on but wherever podcasts I will be I promise you, what do you want, wherever
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
podcasts appear? There you are. I listened to your show with the singer, music producer. That was I was very, very entertaining. And you haven’t said much about it to me in detail. But I know that you had something of a singing career yourself.
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Let’s say Bill, I played around in the music industry. I was in a band that right out of high school with a couple of friends did that for about two years. And yeah, it was fun. There was not a whole lot going on with it. But it was fun. Did that in the Louisville area, Louisville, I said it wrong. I’m from there, no Louisville, Louisville. And then they broke apart and went about our business. And I’ve had opportunities to do background vocals for different people. My friend that was on the show you heard I’ve done some background vocals for her sound boards, different things like that. So there really wasn’t a career per se it was more of a just a fun little stroll through the business.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
If I were hired as background vocalist, it would mean that I was in the next county. That’s when my eyes I mentioned to you when we talked about music one time, I may be the only guy that flight karaoke. So I admire those who have that talent. But one thing I learned a while back and I posted this on Facebook, and I posted it on LinkedIn and I tell my coaching clients about it. Don’t ever waste one minute of your energy or one minute of your time, envying the talent that somebody else has. Because every hour that you are envying the talent that somebody else has means that’s an hour when you’re not using the God given talent that you have and that you’ve developed. So envy of somebody else’s talent is just a distraction. And being very frank, it would be easy to envy all of your accomplishments because of what you’ve done and in charitable work, what you’ve done in business, what you’re doing podcasting. One central question, Ken, this is the biz communication show as at the outset, I said, we talk about business communication tips and strategies. Okay, if you go back in your mind and look at your years with your luxury gifts, and with luxury, real estate, tells us a couple of three key communication skills that you have relied on all along and that you’ve continued to develop, which are central to success not only to your business, but to our businesses. Well,
Cathy Hogan-Smith
well, first off, it’s always listening. You have two ears to hear one mouth to speak. So I especially in my case, I need to learn to be quiet. Listen more, you learn so much when you listen. And that plays into my business. We do custom gifts for businesses, we don’t have things on a shelf, I’m just gonna give you an example here. We tell people, okay, we need your price point, your theme and your timeline. And anything you can tell us about the recipient, because it’s to make it custom and special for that person. We teach gratitude, through gifting as what we like to say we don’t do gifts, we teach grant, authentic gratitude through gifting. And if you make someone feel special, you know, it’s gonna come back on either with a good relationship or your ROI might improve. In my business, I’ve seen that ROI really improves. But that’s not the only reason we do it, we do it. So you can create a better relationship. Because business is all about relationships Bill, you know that I’m in a lot of networking groups, you have to benefit from finding out what the other person likes, you know, people love to tell their stories. And so I want to give them an opportunity to tell their story, because that helps me understand them, and their needs better. You know, if it’s all about let me sell, let me sell let me so nobody wants to hear that. Nobody wants to hear that. Just like nobody wants mugs as a gift. Remember that. That’s a marketing piece. Be back to being curious. Again, you know, I, I am a people person most of the time. And I want to learn as much about people as I can. So you know, I just that’s part of why I travel too is because I love to I’m not like a sponge, I want to soak up everything. I want to be of service to people. And the only way I can be a full service to people, either business life community is by understanding what the needs are. And unless you listen, and you listen to hear what they’re saying, not just listening to be courteous, you get so much more insight. And understanding that way, and you can in turn, turn that around for your business for whatever. And in personal relationships, even you know, don’t be always one that wants to be talking. You need to be quiet, listen to what’s being told to you absorb it, and then put it to use, either for them or for yourself. However it works out.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
Can you hear my applause? Because I absolutely go 100% with what you said, especially what you mentioned at the outset, and that is listening. I I’m a speech coach. I’m a Communication Consultant. And to many people that image when they hear what my profession is, they think, Oh, he’s going to, he’s going to teach us how to transmit our messages better, clearer, more effectively with motivation there, right. However, I also like to say that listening is one of our most powerful communication tools. And sadly, it’s one of the most neglected. And when you put it back there, Kathy to the conversations we have with people, the people who are going to remember us and who will want to do business with us, or not the people we gave a 20 minute Spiel to, as you say, it’s the people, we gave them a chance to express their needs, their desires, their preferences, and then we we shape our business according to that. And speaking of listening, listening to you has been a marvelous experience as I knew it would be and I know our viewers and our listeners recognize that so Kathy there there are people who will want to get in touch with you. Please give us your contact information.
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Okay. The business contact information shun is via email. And it’s cache CACHETGIFTSVC cache GIFT spc@gmail.com. The podcast, like I said, is on the foresight, Business Radio X or any other podcasts, streaming services, wherever and go, go subscribe. So get the numbers up. Because we want to, we want this to be a big thing.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
It will be I have no doubt that it will be I’ve, I’ve heard you in action. I’ve seen you in action. And I know that those who have joined us today will want to contact you right away. And since you’ve given your contact information, Kathy, I won’t give mine. If you go to YouTube, and you go to the search bar, type in my YouTube moniker Bill Lampton PhD, and you’ll find their 450 Plus more than 450 instructional videos is, As Kathy said, some of them are with guest and her experience and mine and some are solo instructions. And while you’re there, make sure that you hit that subscribe button, you know, it goes along with one of our favorite words, it’s free, just I encourage you to subscribe there. My website since I’m the biz communication guy, my website quite logically is bi Z biz communication. guy.com and Kathy was talking about how you find her podcast, you can find my podcast and subscribe to it when you go to my website biz communication guy.com. Certainly After you have reviewed my services for corporations and for leaders, I invite you to give me a no obligation phone call. I want to hear about your communication challenges and your communication opportunities. And let’s talk about how I can assist you with them. Again, I’m thanking Kathy Hogan Smith for being with us. I thank those of you who were with us on the biz communication show either on video, our podcast, Cathy, we’ve had a marvelous conversation are there a few words you’d like to say to sort of pull this all together and concluded?
Cathy Hogan-Smith
Well just get out there and do good in the world and it will come back on you. If it doesn’t you still did good in the world. And as I in my podcast, I say stay fearLESS friends go live the life that you were meant to have.
Bill Lampton Ph.D.
I could not write a better closing. That’s terrific. Again, thank you so much Kathy Hogan Smith for being with us. Thanks to those of you who joined us and be with us for the next edition of the biz communication Show. I’m your host Bill Lampton the biz communication guy
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
