Video Transcript: Knowledge

Hi, we are in the effective communication class. In this next session, I want to  talk about knowledge. Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of  knowledge, but fools, despise wisdom and instruction. communicate what you  know. There's I don't know who came up with this phrase, some people think it  was Abraham Lincoln, I don't know who came up with this. But I like it. Better to  remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt. So  it's talking about speaking without knowing. You all know people who have a lot  to say, but they really don't know what they're talking about. Don't be one of  those people. And the way to not be one of those people, is to always be  learning and growing and knowing more stuff. But what do you know? First of  all, you know, things that have happened to you the experiences that you've had in life, things that you've learned. So there's things you've learned through  experience, there's things that you've learned at school, reading a book, talking  to people using things that have happened to you. So for example, your  childhood, what are the things that happened to me, that become something of  which I can talk about when I was 12 years old, for example, was a hot day I  was sitting with my friends, and we had filled water balloons, you know,  balloons, we filled them with water, and we were throwing these water,  projectiles, water missiles at things. We were done. And then a little bit later, my  brother snuck up from behind me and he threw one of those water balloons at  the screen and the screen diffused the water soaked me and so I was mad at  him. And so I ran after him, we're outside. And he was running for the door of the house because he wanted to get inside the house because he wanted to get to  the bathroom, the only door in our house that had a lock, he could get into the  bathroom, locking the door and I wouldn't be able to get him. So I knew I had to  catch him before he got to the house. So I was right on his heels. And he swung  the side door open our house. And it was it was glass. And I put my hand right  through it. And the glass went flying. Some of it landed on my hand, but a little  sliver went up and hit me right here in the neck. And it cut the artery that goes to your brain. And blood became shooting out, like you like you turn the faucet on.  And my father heard it, he was at home and he came running out and he took  his thumb and he stuck it in the hole. And he found the artery and put his, you  know, plugged up the artery with his thumb. And off to the hospital. We went the  doctor later said that if it happened next door, which is 50 feet away, I would  have been dead by the time I got home. Okay, so that's something that  happened to me. When I was 12 it becomes a story that defines who I am and  how God saved me and how my dad saved me. And you know, all the things  surrounding the whole family involved in all the things around that event. What  things happened to you in your childhood Number two, your marriage.  Supposed to save the staredown when I was dating my would be wife at the  time we were at a college, same university together. And we were talking and  and we were disagreeing about something and finally she she just walked away. 

And I said don't walk away. And she just kept walking. And she walked into the  dormitory and had a big plate window and glass door and she walked about 15  feet in to the dormitory area. And I was outside and she turned around and  looked at me and I was staring at her through the window. She stared back at  me and our eyes met and when I Our eyes met. It was game on. I stared at her,  she stared at me. And we stayed that way. This was like, seven o'clock at night.  We were staring at each other all the way to 11:59 At night, people have gone to the library, they had come back, they'd come back, they would see me staring,  they wonder what I'm staring at. So they would look, they would see that she's  staring at me. I'm outside, it's getting cold. Some of my friends brought me a  coat, they brought me hot chocolate. I mean, it became a big thing. There's all  these people hanging around, seeing what was going to happen. You know,  once you invest, invest 20 minutes, you're not going to look away, she's not  going to look away, and we had this thing. And finally, at 12 o'clock, the door had to be closed, she was standing just on the other side of a door at 12 o'clock, that door closes, and the door closed, and the whole contest was over and no one  won. Okay, so that is a great story of stubbornness. It's a great story of how you  get it, you know, it's something that happened to me that I have now something  to share, I have some knowledge, something that happened in my relationship  to my spouse, your family, I have four boys, the whole boy culture, all the  different things that happen. Those are things that I know, your work. I grew up  in the city, but in ninth grade, my dad bought a farm. So one day, I'm in the city.  Next day, I'm milking cows. I worked in a warehouse. I worked in church. So I  have all these experiences in my life. What experiences do you have? What  jobs did you do? And what things do you know, because of them. Your hobbies. I love sports right now I play a lot of pickleball. Golf. You name it, you name the  sport, I enjoyed it. Right now, I'm into drones, I fly these helicopters that fly  around, take pictures and so on. I love oil painting. So these are the hobbies  and things that I have gotten into that I know something about I built my own  guitar. These are the things that I know about. So I know a lot about wood and  how wood works and the different kinds of woods and how that relates to  musical instruments and vibration and all these things. Because I got into that.  So what things have you gotten into? That's a source of the thing of things, you  know, your failures and your successes. I did a planner, I invented a planner,  and they probably sold over a million over the years. But I I've had some you  know, I did a president's planner with quotes from all the presidents and it went  nowhere. So I have things that I've done well, and things that didn't work out at  all. But I know about these things. I know from my successes and from my  failures. So what do you know, from your successes and failures, using things  that you've learned from your parents, your parents have taught you things, from school, books, learning, whatever schooling you've had, from reading, you don't  have to experience everything that you know, you can experience a lot of things 

through reading, reading is one of the most important things that you could  possibly do. From mentors, people that you hang around. I've had some really  good mentors in my life. And they've taught me a lot of good things from the  internet. Now, the ability to learn stuff from people, you know, people that you  would never have access to. Some of the most successful people in the world  have a lot to say, and it's all on the internet. Christian leaders Institute is on the  internet, all the different courses that you see, it's, it's like, I remember when I  went to college, and at the college I went to there was a big book. It was a book  of all the courses that you could possibly take. And I remember just sometimes I  would just page through them think, wow, you know, if I just took all these  courses here, I could be an engineer. If I took all these courses, I could be a  doctor. If I could took I mean it was just like it was like candy in a jar. It all you  have to do is take these things. And a whole world would open up to you is  incredible. Look at the courses that we have at Christian leaders Institute and  you can just take them and once you to take the first course you can take  anything that you want. It's amazing and it's all free. From biographies that  learning about people, Thomas Edison how he invented the light bulb,  missionaries to have, you know, brought Christianity in different countries. I  mean, you read these stories, Hudson Taylor, and all these different people, it's  unbelievable. Documentaries. And my son is my oldest son is a software writer  developer. So he spends his whole day typing code. And some of it is sort of  mindless, like it's just busy work that you have to do. So he has a documentary  running on his computer, eight hours a day, he codes eight hours a day, he  watches, eight hours a day of documentaries, five days a week, he has been  doing that for 15 years. There's nothing that he doesn't know something about. I  mean, it's, I mean, it's anything any topic that you bring up a whole thing of, you  know, so when we were there in Ecuador, this past December, we watched a  few documentaries on things. And, you know, garlic, a whole documentary on  garlic, and how China is doing things with garlic and garlic dumping and  unbelievable, I'm like an expert on garlic now, and I didn't care before, but  there's a whole world of garlic, there's a problem with with honey, and countries  that are dumbing it down, and laboratories set up to try to catch it and what  pollens exist in what part of the world and it's unbelievable, and you can learn all the, you don't have to be a genius, you just have to watch, you just have to  learn, it's all right there. From interesting people find interesting people in your  life and ask about them. I'm reading a book on Leonardo da Vinci. You know,  he's the one that did painted the Last Supper, but he was an inventor too, he  had the idea for, you know, helicopters and flying machines, he was and he  analyzed, he watched the birds and, and how they, you know, how they did their  wings, he observed that some birds push faster down and slower up in some the other way around, and how it works. And just, he was fascinated with all these  things. But what I what I found interesting is Leonardo kept you know, notebooks

about everything. In the notebooks, often, you can find he would write, talk to  the Smith, and find out about, you know, and find out about metal. Talk to this  guy and find out about that talk to, you know, he had a list of all these people  that he needed to talk to, to find out how, what they knew about how something  

works. So maybe take a notebook and start writing down who are the people  you should talk to? I know another guy who he would call up, you know,  inventors, famous, successful business people. And he said, Look, you don't  know me. But I would like to for $300, I'll give you $300 If you let me just  interview you for a half an hour. Because I think it would be worth it. And half the most of the time, people were so impressed with that. They would give him the  time free. So who are the people that you find interesting that you can talk to?  Why is knowledge important in communication? Well, first of all, you'll have  something to communicate. I mean, if you're going to communicate, that's what  this class is about how to communicate effectively, if you're going to say  something, then you should know something of what you're going to say. I  mean, what's the point of talking? If you don't know something? Number two,  you will communicate with confidence. See, a lot of times, people when they first give a speech somewhere, they talk about something that they don't know very  much about. Maybe the teacher gives you a topic and now you have to talk  about it. Well, you don't know that. If you had to talk about the thing you know a  lot about whether it's a hobby or you know, whatever it is that you do for work,  whatever it is that you do for work, so you got to get a five minute speech about  that. No problem. I know this topic. For me to talk about sermons is easy. Why?  Because I do it every week for the last 30 years. I know this topic. You will  satisfy the hunger many people have to learn something interesting and/or  useful. People want to learn and if you have something that they might be  interested in that you know my son when he hangs around, you know, I He gets  me into things that I never would have gotten into. He somehow got into cars.  He didn't know the thing about cars, I don't know a thing about how they work  and the distributor cap and the, you know, the rotors and all these different  things. You know, I heard of these terms, but I don't even know how it all works.  He didn't either. But all of a sudden he got into it, he knows every little thing  about it. So he got me to buy this 1968 Datsun roadster, little tiny car, old car.  But it's a mess. It's a total disaster. And so we're working on it. And you know  how this works. And here's a problem. So we fixed that. And I remember the day we got it started. In fact, I videotaped it is the first time it started, it was like,  wow. But people who know stuff, sort of get people excited about things that  they wouldn't have gotten excited about before. If you want to be an interesting  communicator, you've got to know some things. pitfalls in communicating what  you know. Number one, people dislike the Know It All attitude. So there are  people that know stuff, or at least think they know stuff. And they're, they're  always, you know, well this is how it is. This is how, and they have this know it all

attitude, and no one likes that. Number two, a way to sort of get around that  begin communication with these phrases. I have heard, I read, I am not sure this is all true. But see, if you if you start talking about what you think you know,  what, you know, if you if you if you soften a little bit, like when you come off, like  I know this, you may have heard otherwise, but I on the planet, I know these  things. Then you're like setting yourself above people, no one likes that. No one  wants to be, you know, standing, someone standing above you talking down to  you like yours, like you're five years old. That's how it feels like we don't like I'm  not five years old. You might be right. But I don't want someone talking down to  me. You probably don't know this. But and then that's what happens when  someone goes to a conference, they go to a conference, they learn a bunch of  stuff. And then they come back and they talk to you like they now own  something and you don't. And that's what's going on. You're stupid. I'm smart. I  know this, you don't. The way to not get into that is to soften. Look, I heard I  went to this conference. And the speaker said this could be true. It might not be  true. But I'm just telling you what I heard. It's not like I own it's not like I've  figured this out. It's not like I am God and I know this. But let me just share what  I learned. See, then I'm being humble. I'm not looking down at you, you would  have learned the same thing. If you had been the conference. I'm no, I'm no  smarter than you are. Do not say what you know is if you are the final authority.  A lot of people do that. They they say things like this is now the truth. Leave  room for people to give their own opinions. If you come in, and you this is the  way it is. Most people will just go Okay, great. And then they'll walk away.  Because they don't want to fight you. You said it so strongly, that the only way  that they can have a different opinion than yours is to fight. And they don't want  to this complex so they just dropped the whole thing. Or if they're sort of made in the same mold and they want to fight and now we just have a game a tennis  game where we're both hitting the ball at each other. communicate what you  know, in an interesting winning manner. The problem you know when you  discover something What's more fun? The discovery or the process of  discovery? Is the treasure is that the treasure in the process of looking for the  treasure and finding the treasure? I think it's the latter. I think people enjoy the  journey more than the destination. When you want to buy something is a  specific thing and you can't find it you look and you look and you look and that's  too expensive, that's too expensive and then you find the right deal and you  finally get it. You get it you take it home you use it and then it goes on the shelf  and forget about the real pleasure is the journey so You've discovered  something, you've learned something, instead of just telling people, here's what  I learned. Take them on the journey. Take them on the journey of your discovery. How did you come to this? Where did you go? Why did you think about this?  Why was this interesting to you, and then fine, leave them down the trail that  you went down. Number two, relate what you know, to the goal of your 

communication. So you, you're talking about something, maybe it's a sermon,  and you're trying to talk about the love of God, or you're trying to talk about faith. And, and, and now you have this story or this thing that you know, you're using it as an illustration. When you're using, you know, you're telling people what, you  know, make sure it serves the purpose, for explaining faith. Why am I telling you  all of this stuff? Am I just entertaining you? So that's something you might think  about, make sure your audience understands why you're communicating what,  you know. Am I just telling you this because I have information and I find it  interesting. And I'm just telling you, and now you know these things? Or is it  inspiration? I'm telling you about Thomas Edison. And this is a new thing that I  discovered, do you know that he, he would sleep three hours and take a nap for  an hour, then he, I mean, he would he would work three hours, take a nap for an hour, then he worked three hours and take a nap for an hour, then he worked  three hours. And he tried to do that cycle. Do you know that? That interesting?  Now, it might just telling you information? Or am I trying to inspire you? He The  reason he did that is because he wanted to maximize his waking time, because  he was so fascinated, so interested in in how the world works, and how he can  combine things into new and exciting ways. He was so incredibly thrilled with the creation that God has, okay. I'm trying to inspire you. I'm using the story of  Edison, to inspire you to see God's creation and maybe do something to be  used by God to make some incredible things happen. Or I'm trying to motivate  you. So what is the point of my speech, and I'm telling you things that I know.  But my ultimate goal is to move you in a certain direction. Most important in  terms of communicating information, keep gaining knowledge. keep learning,  keep growing and taking these classes can be hard. There's videos. There's  tests. But you know, check again, just sometimes, click on All courses and just  go through all the courses just look and see what they're about. I think if you just did that, you'd be inspired, you'd have this list of courses that you wanted to  take. I mean, I do that. That's like I have to, in a way even try out a few. You can  see you can watch a few videos you can see who the professor is and if you  connect, you know that might be the course that you keep growing in knowledge is a gift that God has given us.