Tell me about your vision.
My vision is that I call it my mission.
My mission is I'm a missionary to promote American history.
In Dallas, where I've lived for 46 years,
for the last 15 years,
I've been in the business once a month when
a leading historian brings out his new book.
He comes through Dallas and he or she and I do
on-stage interview programs for four different audiences,
so that people can experience firsthand the excitement of history.
These are all top-notch historians.
It's one thing to browse through a bookstore and you come across
a book and say to yourself, well, that looks interesting.
Yeah.
It's something else to actually see the author present,
have that author really tell his best stories and get you excited about the book,
and meet the author and get to ask the author their questions.
That's what happens in my events.
Yeah.
That's a big part of how I spread history.
As I also mentioned,
I'm a contributing columnist to the Dallas Morning News.
Yeah.
Most of my op-ed pieces are presidential history tied to this year's presidential politics.
Yeah.
Anybody who's interested in reading those op-ed pieces,
you can go on my website, talmadgeboston.com and find all of them.
Not all of my op-ed pieces are about presidential history and politics,
but most of them are.
Then I do a lot of public speaking all over the country,
talking about why history is so fascinating,
but also so relevant and can be applied so readily to what you're trying to do today.
You know, Talmadge, I just didn't realize how important history was when I was in high school.
It was just a class and I wonder,
is it any different now as kids are going to school and presidential and politics are
being more spoken about and on social media and everything.
With that, how do you go about making history relevant and engaging for the modern audiences?
Well, I think there's two parts to your question.
One students, particularly high school students,
the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says,
most people cannot remember the last name of their high school history teacher,
but they remember the first name because it was Coach.
Too many high schools to fill out a coach's schedule,
they have him teach or her teach history.
Typically, that's not their gift.
Typically, the athletics is their gift.
So that's a problem.
In fact, in recent years and decades,
there's so much more of an emphasis on math and science and so much less of an emphasis on history.
That's true at universities as well.
The good news is we have more terrific historians writing wonderful books today than we've ever had before.
The bad news is those books are largely being enjoyed by people who are way past their college years.
I think one of the keys to get it back to where students,
high school and college are enjoying it more is to have better textbooks or have
universities in college choose these great history books that aren't textbooks,
but to teach their subject matter.
To me, that would be one way to deal with this diminishing interest in history by our young people.
Absolutely. Do you believe that,
and I guess it just takes me there, just a random question.
If we knew more about history,
then we'd be more interested in voting when it comes time?
Well, voting is a civic responsibility.
History can certainly be useful as you're trying to decide between the two candidates.
That's really what my book,
what are the most important leadership traits that cause a president to be successful,
and then evaluate the party's nominees as to whether either or both of them have at least some of
these traits and how much they have these traits,
how much confidence you have that they will actually use them in their presidency.
That is certainly part of the process.
Although to your point with the news and the social media,
they're not talking about history much.
They're talking about what was said today,
what today's soundbites are,
what today's pundits are saying, etc.
The best way to enjoy history is to read a great history book
or listen to a great historian make a presentation.
How did you get started?
I've been a practicing lawyer for 46 years.
I started in 1978 and in 1991,
when I'd been practicing for 13 years,
I'd always wanted to be a lawyer.
I enjoyed being a lawyer.
I enjoy the people I work with.
I enjoy dealing with disputes and getting them resolved.
I enjoy writing as in legal briefs and so forth.
I enjoy making presentations in the courtroom.
But in today's litigation world,
and this basically been true my whole career,
people who do what I do,
which is business litigation,
you don't get to do the fun stuff,
the courtroom stuff enough.
Law was not filling me up.
I felt this call to do something more.
I had always enjoyed writing when I was in school,
in college, in law school.
At the time, I was surrounded by
some pretty influential people in the world of baseball.
Baseball books were a lot more widely
read in the early 90s than they are today.
Anyway, it was an outlet for me to try to fill my cup,
something more besides being a lawyer, and it worked.
Lawyers typically don't get a whole lot of pats on the back.
The good news is you can make pretty good money.
The bad news is you don't get a whole lot of affirmation.
Whereas writers, if you write something that people like,
you're going to hear all about it or if you give
a presentation to talk about what you're writing.
There's a huge area to be affirmed and
encouraged by putting yourself out there as a writer,
if you're well-received by the audience.
One thing led to another and I just enjoyed it so much.
It helped my legal career,
it made me much better known in Dallas.
People thought in terms, I said,
well, this guy can write that well and speak this well.
He must be a pretty good lawyer.
One has gone hand in hand with the other.
To be a successful lawyer,
obviously you've got to be good at researching.
If you're going to be a historian,
you've got to be good at researching.
You've got to be able to make your points efficiently.
No rabbit trails run that bore a judge,
bore a jury, or bore a reading audience.
The overlap of skill sets for the lawyer and the writer are there in many places.
It was a logical way to use my creativity to get more affirmation and encouragement
from life and to grow my writing and speaking skills,
which would enhance my capacity as a lawyer.
Absolutely. I do see how that goes hand in hand, definitely.
What's the biggest impact you hope your books and talks have on the audience?
Each of my eight chapters ends with a section I call personal application.
What that is, is a series of questions that I've created for
the reader to ask him or herself,
how am I doing in these areas of leadership that I just read about in this chapter,
that I just got through reading?
How am I doing in my integrity slash credibility,
the way George Washington had it and used it to maximize his leadership?
How am I doing in knowing when to speak and when not to
speak in order to maintain unity in my organization?
How am I doing at building relationships with people who I frequently have disagreements
with so that we can thereby find ways to work better and more
productively together because we have a positive relationship,
the way Thomas Jefferson did during his presidency?
How am I doing with my magnanimity?
In other words, taking the high ground,
not taking the bait,
not getting consumed with interpersonal quarrels like Lincoln potentially could have,
had he not been magnanimous with his team of rivals cabinet,
with his union generals,
and with his very difficult wife, Mary.
These are the kinds of questions I want the readers asking themselves,
I need to be thinking about this stuff.
I need to be doing better at incorporating
these traits into how I go about my leadership efforts.
That's why I think the book has done as well as it has because there is
such clear application to people's lives today.
It's not just a bunch of history stories that are interesting,
but they don't give you takeaways.
My book is nothing but takeaways.
Yeah. I like that.
There's not many books that have you to check in,
to figure out how you're doing.
Most books you're just reading to read to add some fulfillment or guidance,
but to check in is definitely a big difference.
I'm definitely going to have to look for it.
Where can you find the book at?
Well, the best place is Amazon.
That's the best price.
The book's retail price is $32,
and because it's sold so well on Amazon,
it's now a little over $18.
I encourage everybody to go on Amazon.
Many bookstores have it,
but 70 percent of books these days are sold online.
Yeah.
An author knows that if he's going to have success selling,
it's going to be online.
Of course, Amazon, when they're starting to run out,
they reorder and that's really the focal point.
Any of your watchers or listeners who live in the Dallas area can reach out to me.
I'd be happy to sign any if anybody wants to give it.
But they're readily available on Amazon.
You have five books out right now.
The last one just came out in April,
and then you're working on your sixth book?
Correct.
Okay. What will that be about? Same line?
It's presidential history and it's going to be about the same eight presidents.
I'm hoping to bring it out in 2028.
It's great if you're bringing out a presidential history book to bring it out in
a presidential election year from a marketing standpoint.
The theme of that book is,
whereas this year's book,
How the Best Did It, Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents,
the theme of my next book is What the Best Believed,
the books and faith that inspired our top presidents.
I'm really going to go into their interior,
what they were reading that made them vote the way they did,
that influenced their decisions and
their personal faith that impacted their moral compass in their leadership.
That's what the next one will be.
That is awesome.
I tell you, I'm going to definitely ask for a book because I'm very interested in it.
I will say, Tamaj,
I am not the most educated on history.
With that being said and the way that you're describing it,
I'm like, this would be something that I would read that is
actually different from what I'm used to reading, if that makes any sense.
It makes a lot of sense and that's really what drives the book.
Is to try to appeal to people
whose favorite books are not necessarily history books,
but who like books that actually give them
good ideas about how to be more successful in life.
Yeah, definitely.
What you do.
I have to say, if I or the audience agrees with me,
I think we look at each other to determine what leadership looks like.
Definitely not history.
I believe this is the first conversation that I've had that is related to
leadership in today's time based off of leaders in history,
especially when it comes to presidents as the eight that you've mentioned.
I am definitely intrigued to know more and to actually check in to see how I'm doing.
Obviously not well, but.
Yeah, we're doing great.
The book is not one of these monster doorstops.
In terms of the text of the book,
it's around 300 pages.
Each chapter is about 25, 30 pages, whatever.
Each chapter is standalone.
I mean, if you care the most about you can read Abraham Lincoln first,
if he's who appeals to you the most,
or you can read John F. Kennedy.
There's no particular order.
The chapters are organized chronologically.
Chapter 1 is George Washington,
Chapter 2, the next great president after Washington was Thomas Jefferson,
Chapter 3, Abraham Lincoln, and so forth.
But you can read the chapters in any order where they
most appeal to you based upon your prior experience with presidential history.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show,
and thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.