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Tell me about your vision.

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My vision is that I call it my mission.

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My mission is I'm a missionary to promote American history.

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In Dallas, where I've lived for 46 years,

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for the last 15 years,

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I've been in the business once a month when

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a leading historian brings out his new book.

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He comes through Dallas and he or she and I do

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on-stage interview programs for four different audiences,

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so that people can experience firsthand the excitement of history.

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These are all top-notch historians.

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It's one thing to browse through a bookstore and you come across

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a book and say to yourself, well, that looks interesting.

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Yeah.

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It's something else to actually see the author present,

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have that author really tell his best stories and get you excited about the book,

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and meet the author and get to ask the author their questions.

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That's what happens in my events.

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Yeah.

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That's a big part of how I spread history.

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As I also mentioned,

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I'm a contributing columnist to the Dallas Morning News.

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Yeah.

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Most of my op-ed pieces are presidential history tied to this year's presidential politics.

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Yeah.

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Anybody who's interested in reading those op-ed pieces,

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you can go on my website, talmadgeboston.com and find all of them.

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Not all of my op-ed pieces are about presidential history and politics,

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but most of them are.

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Then I do a lot of public speaking all over the country,

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talking about why history is so fascinating,

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but also so relevant and can be applied so readily to what you're trying to do today.

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You know, Talmadge, I just didn't realize how important history was when I was in high school.

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It was just a class and I wonder,

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is it any different now as kids are going to school and presidential and politics are

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being more spoken about and on social media and everything.

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With that, how do you go about making history relevant and engaging for the modern audiences?

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Well, I think there's two parts to your question.

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One students, particularly high school students,

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the documentary filmmaker Ken Burns says,

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most people cannot remember the last name of their high school history teacher,

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but they remember the first name because it was Coach.

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Too many high schools to fill out a coach's schedule,

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they have him teach or her teach history.

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Typically, that's not their gift.

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Typically, the athletics is their gift.

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So that's a problem.

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In fact, in recent years and decades,

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there's so much more of an emphasis on math and science and so much less of an emphasis on history.

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That's true at universities as well.

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The good news is we have more terrific historians writing wonderful books today than we've ever had before.

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The bad news is those books are largely being enjoyed by people who are way past their college years.

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I think one of the keys to get it back to where students,

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high school and college are enjoying it more is to have better textbooks or have

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universities in college choose these great history books that aren't textbooks,

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but to teach their subject matter.

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To me, that would be one way to deal with this diminishing interest in history by our young people.

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Absolutely. Do you believe that,

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and I guess it just takes me there, just a random question.

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If we knew more about history,

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then we'd be more interested in voting when it comes time?

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Well, voting is a civic responsibility.

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History can certainly be useful as you're trying to decide between the two candidates.

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That's really what my book,

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what are the most important leadership traits that cause a president to be successful,

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and then evaluate the party's nominees as to whether either or both of them have at least some of

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these traits and how much they have these traits,

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how much confidence you have that they will actually use them in their presidency.

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That is certainly part of the process.

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Although to your point with the news and the social media,

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they're not talking about history much.

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They're talking about what was said today,

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what today's soundbites are,

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what today's pundits are saying, etc.

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The best way to enjoy history is to read a great history book

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or listen to a great historian make a presentation.

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How did you get started?

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I've been a practicing lawyer for 46 years.

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I started in 1978 and in 1991,

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when I'd been practicing for 13 years,

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I'd always wanted to be a lawyer.

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I enjoyed being a lawyer.

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I enjoy the people I work with.

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I enjoy dealing with disputes and getting them resolved.

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I enjoy writing as in legal briefs and so forth.

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I enjoy making presentations in the courtroom.

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But in today's litigation world,

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and this basically been true my whole career,

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people who do what I do,

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which is business litigation,

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you don't get to do the fun stuff,

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the courtroom stuff enough.

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Law was not filling me up.

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I felt this call to do something more.

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I had always enjoyed writing when I was in school,

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in college, in law school.

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At the time, I was surrounded by

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some pretty influential people in the world of baseball.

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Baseball books were a lot more widely

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read in the early 90s than they are today.

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Anyway, it was an outlet for me to try to fill my cup,

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something more besides being a lawyer, and it worked.

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Lawyers typically don't get a whole lot of pats on the back.

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The good news is you can make pretty good money.

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The bad news is you don't get a whole lot of affirmation.

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Whereas writers, if you write something that people like,

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you're going to hear all about it or if you give

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a presentation to talk about what you're writing.

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There's a huge area to be affirmed and

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encouraged by putting yourself out there as a writer,

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if you're well-received by the audience.

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One thing led to another and I just enjoyed it so much.

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It helped my legal career,

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it made me much better known in Dallas.

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People thought in terms, I said,

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well, this guy can write that well and speak this well.

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He must be a pretty good lawyer.

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One has gone hand in hand with the other.

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To be a successful lawyer,

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obviously you've got to be good at researching.

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If you're going to be a historian,

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you've got to be good at researching.

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You've got to be able to make your points efficiently.

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No rabbit trails run that bore a judge,

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bore a jury, or bore a reading audience.

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The overlap of skill sets for the lawyer and the writer are there in many places.

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It was a logical way to use my creativity to get more affirmation and encouragement

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from life and to grow my writing and speaking skills,

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which would enhance my capacity as a lawyer.

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Absolutely. I do see how that goes hand in hand, definitely.

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What's the biggest impact you hope your books and talks have on the audience?

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Each of my eight chapters ends with a section I call personal application.

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What that is, is a series of questions that I've created for

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the reader to ask him or herself,

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how am I doing in these areas of leadership that I just read about in this chapter,

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that I just got through reading?

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How am I doing in my integrity slash credibility,

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the way George Washington had it and used it to maximize his leadership?

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How am I doing in knowing when to speak and when not to

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speak in order to maintain unity in my organization?

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How am I doing at building relationships with people who I frequently have disagreements

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with so that we can thereby find ways to work better and more

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productively together because we have a positive relationship,

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the way Thomas Jefferson did during his presidency?

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How am I doing with my magnanimity?

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In other words, taking the high ground,

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not taking the bait,

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not getting consumed with interpersonal quarrels like Lincoln potentially could have,

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had he not been magnanimous with his team of rivals cabinet,

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with his union generals,

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and with his very difficult wife, Mary.

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These are the kinds of questions I want the readers asking themselves,

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I need to be thinking about this stuff.

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I need to be doing better at incorporating

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these traits into how I go about my leadership efforts.

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That's why I think the book has done as well as it has because there is

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such clear application to people's lives today.

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It's not just a bunch of history stories that are interesting,

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but they don't give you takeaways.

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My book is nothing but takeaways.

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Yeah. I like that.

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There's not many books that have you to check in,

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to figure out how you're doing.

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Most books you're just reading to read to add some fulfillment or guidance,

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but to check in is definitely a big difference.

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I'm definitely going to have to look for it.

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Where can you find the book at?

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Well, the best place is Amazon.

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That's the best price.

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The book's retail price is $32,

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and because it's sold so well on Amazon,

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it's now a little over $18.

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I encourage everybody to go on Amazon.

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Many bookstores have it,

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but 70 percent of books these days are sold online.

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Yeah.

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An author knows that if he's going to have success selling,

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it's going to be online.

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Of course, Amazon, when they're starting to run out,

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they reorder and that's really the focal point.

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Any of your watchers or listeners who live in the Dallas area can reach out to me.

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I'd be happy to sign any if anybody wants to give it.

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But they're readily available on Amazon.

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You have five books out right now.

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The last one just came out in April,

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and then you're working on your sixth book?

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Correct.

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Okay. What will that be about? Same line?

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It's presidential history and it's going to be about the same eight presidents.

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I'm hoping to bring it out in 2028.

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It's great if you're bringing out a presidential history book to bring it out in

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a presidential election year from a marketing standpoint.

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The theme of that book is,

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whereas this year's book,

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How the Best Did It, Leadership Lessons from Our Top Presidents,

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the theme of my next book is What the Best Believed,

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the books and faith that inspired our top presidents.

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I'm really going to go into their interior,

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what they were reading that made them vote the way they did,

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that influenced their decisions and

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their personal faith that impacted their moral compass in their leadership.

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That's what the next one will be.

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That is awesome.

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I tell you, I'm going to definitely ask for a book because I'm very interested in it.

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I will say, Tamaj,

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I am not the most educated on history.

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With that being said and the way that you're describing it,

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I'm like, this would be something that I would read that is

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actually different from what I'm used to reading, if that makes any sense.

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It makes a lot of sense and that's really what drives the book.

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Is to try to appeal to people

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whose favorite books are not necessarily history books,

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but who like books that actually give them

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good ideas about how to be more successful in life.

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Yeah, definitely.

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What you do.

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I have to say, if I or the audience agrees with me,

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I think we look at each other to determine what leadership looks like.

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Definitely not history.

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I believe this is the first conversation that I've had that is related to

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leadership in today's time based off of leaders in history,

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especially when it comes to presidents as the eight that you've mentioned.

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I am definitely intrigued to know more and to actually check in to see how I'm doing.

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Obviously not well, but.

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Yeah, we're doing great.

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The book is not one of these monster doorstops.

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In terms of the text of the book,

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it's around 300 pages.

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Each chapter is about 25, 30 pages, whatever.

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Each chapter is standalone.

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I mean, if you care the most about you can read Abraham Lincoln first,

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if he's who appeals to you the most,

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or you can read John F. Kennedy.

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There's no particular order.

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The chapters are organized chronologically.

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Chapter 1 is George Washington,

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Chapter 2, the next great president after Washington was Thomas Jefferson,

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Chapter 3, Abraham Lincoln, and so forth.

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But you can read the chapters in any order where they

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most appeal to you based upon your prior experience with presidential history.

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Thank you for being here today.

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I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.

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I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.

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This is going to get more and more fun.

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We'll have more and more engagement as well.

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We'll invite people to participate in the show,

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and thank you for giving us your time and attention.

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Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.