The Noticer

Jon Perry  00:09

How would you feel? If there was somebody watching every single move you made? Every single breath you took, they’d be watching you, the immortal Lyrics of Sting. Welcome to the Master Mind Library. I’m Jon Perry, the Reach Architect together with

 

Derek Egeberg  00:26

Derek Egeberg. The Approval Coach. Good morning.

 

Jon Perry  00:29

Good morning. And this morning, we’re going to talk about The Noticer by Andy Andrews. A book about noticing things, you know, kind of right on the nose with the title on this one.

 

Derek Egeberg  00:40

Did you happen to listen to that on the way over? Have you been working on that intro for quite some time?

 

Jon Perry  00:45

I literally came up with it five minutes ago.

 

Derek Egeberg  00:48

Okay, so Andy Andrews, this is the second book that we’ve featured from Andy. Yes. I’m curious why two of his books this early in the in the Master Mind Library.

 

Jon Perry  01:01

I think partly because they resonate with us they are, there’s a touch of humanity, there’s something that we can aspire to, they’re inspiring, to say the least they can show what the best is without making excuses or putting us in positions of compromise. They are wholesome, they have that little bit of Aw, shucks-ness. You know, he mentions, I don’t remember where his favorite TV show is the Andy Griffith Show. And there’s just a sense of that, you know, small community help everybody out. And being in a relatively considered smaller community down here in Yuma. I think they’re just something that connects on a deeper level with at least my mentality, and I believe yours as well.

 

Derek Egeberg  01:57

Agreed. You talked about resonating. And so I think that’s a really good word for me on this is you. My personality is a type A high D bullet point. Sometimes it takes that little bit of perspective is what he says in the book. It For Me, it resonates that it’s the life wisdom, intermixed in a story that you can get engrossed into. And yet see lots of philosophical things within these books. Yes, that you go, Wow, he really knew how to put this thing together. I mean, if somebody was going to make a absolute wonderful stew, this is it. And so, for me, having Andy Andrews, twice, this early in the Master Mind Library, I think just fits because of kind of watching you and I grow. And it’s it’s kind of like what he’s doing in the book, maybe is helping people like you and I in the background that we know he’s not watching. But maybe we’re noticing because of his watching.

 

Jon Perry  03:04

That’s a very fair assessment. I think one other thing that we can’t neglect is he’s got a volume of library at this point. He’s got well over a dozen books, features, and probably other books as well, references and everything else. When you have that kind of sizable library, it makes it easier to find one or two things to talk about. Where as a lot of the other books that we’ve read or have read or have talked about, it seems to tap out the author’s have two, maybe three. And they do a lot more. In other ways, they maybe have more educational products at this point or more or groups and I know that he has a podcast as well, the blue paper plate special, and several other things. I think it’s the volume though that also helps us because we find other things. And we found something we liked. So we’re going to continue doing things we like and he is an author whose style I like it’s a modern day fairy tale. There’s one part believability, one part fantastical. And you just kind of want that all together. It’s a Hallmark Christmas story. It’s a not far off, not far off. And because there was just enough facts, including a little bit in this one, getting back to this book, there’s a touch of an autobiographical nature and it because he he is a main character in this book. And he also pulls points from his real life and interweaves it into the story. And it’s up to you to figure out what’s real. What’s not you can always fact check it but but it dispels a little bit of the magic. It’s like looking, you know, from Disneyland and a magic card So from a different perspective, and all of a sudden, it’s not as grand. That is, because it’s perspective.

 

Derek Egeberg  05:07

There you go. So let’s let’s talk about what the notice or is is, is his book, his main character, Jones is now his feature character, and Jones is the noticer. And this character, again, whether real or not, we don’t know. And like I say, what I love is when you say there’s fact, and there’s fiction, and I think there’s a gap in between that he plays with that he lets your brain tried to figure out which side of the fence is this on. So I don’t know if there really was a Jones, I have to assume there is a gentleman that resembles Jones based on Andy’s life portrayed in the book. And the reason I kind of gravitate to the book now is you see the difficulty that Andy grew up with, and you learn that biographical nature of what happened to him, and you go, Oh, my gosh, if this guy got through all these difficult things, you know, everybody can get through their difficult things. It’s just a matter of, do you want to purge, you know, I will continue and I will persist. And I will get through this kind of going back to his first book. So his first book was seven principles that work every time whether you know that they’re there or not like the law of gravity, there you go. But this one is perspective. And sometimes, we all need a big healthy dose of perspective. And reading this, if I had never read the first book, I may not have gotten as much of it but reading the first book. Now, this just opens up that that box of Oh, my gosh, look at this, and this is why this was portrayed. And it’s not a difficult read, what was this book, four hours, if you listen to it on speed, One, it’s probably a day or two read. But there’s some healthy nuggets of perspective for most people, if they will take four hours to read the book

 

Jon Perry  07:09

a little bit of time. And I agree with you completely, it’s it’s reading the first book kind of sets the table, this one opens the door. The first book allows you the possibility of acknowledging to admit, you know, that you don’t know. And that there’s more out there to know this one helps just align that with, there’s things that can be seen, and you don’t necessarily see it until it is. You know, one thing that I can’t remember and another book that I read was, most people see more sunsets than sunrises. Now, the reason being for that is most people are awake, when the sunsets most people aren’t awake, when the sun rises, they’re still happening the same amount in a day, there’s a sunset, and a sunrise. Yet one is much more scarce. Because people don’t see it, they don’t choice it, they have a choice, and they choose to get that extra hour of sleeping in this thing helps put those things in perspective of, you know, there’s fact and then there’s perception. And it’s this perspective of that perception that invades our consciousness. Yeah.

 

Derek Egeberg  08:33

So when I when I read the book, and I listened to the perspective of Andy, who really was homeless, under appear, and he talks about it, and if you go online, you can see pictures of Andy, next to that concrete pillar where he had dug that out. And so it’s a real place. And it’s a real thing that happened to him in the perspective of this author, gaining knowledge through reading books and changing his life. Okay, hugely important. And then going through and what I love about his books is there’s teaching and there’s wisdom in them. But it’s not overt. In your face, I’m going to come right out and tell you, you have to learn this, which is what most of us as parents do with our kids, you have to learn this. This is the rule. This is what you have to do. Yes. And so when Andy talks about his four animals and the four personality characteristics, I mean, you and I have heard The Five Love Languages and here’s all these things, but he’s teaching you in a very whimsical kind of a story. What a bird, a cat, a dog, a goldfish are and immediately I’m picturing people in life. That animal it’s not the end, nothing wrong with the five love languages. But the love language book is a very tactical book, you know? I’m checklists, style, take a test. And here Andy boils it down in a whimsical story. And you can see exactly what somebody is based on that animal trait.

 

Jon Perry  10:12

And that’s going into talking about relationships and how to cultivate relationships. There’s a couple of nuggets hear about marriage, there is a couple of characters whose marriage was on the rocks, and is because they weren’t communicating one thing that he talked about was, have they ever been to Scotland or know somebody who’s Scottish? And they said, Sure, and it’s a.

 

Derek Egeberg  10:37

Star Trek Does that count?

 

Jon Perry  10:39

No,let’s Scotty is the original Yes, Scotty count, just making sure. They mentioned that the gentleman you know, nobody understood him, it was a joke. And yet he speaks English, you know, you have the dialect, the acceptation was different. And so it made it difficult. And that’s how people are, where we’re not taking the time to learn what the other person, how they communicate, how they receive affection, how they receive love, or how they try to communicate love or affection to other people. You know, somebody might be, you know, going back to the five love languages, giving gifts, you know, and it might be great to get a ton of trinkets from somebody, yet, all they want is an hour of their time to have a slice of pizza with or drink a beer or, you know, just go on a walk. Yet, we don’t take the time, we’re so much in a rush to take a step back and learn how to be more with other people one

 

Derek Egeberg  11:39

and you say learn what his what I took from that, again, is the perspective of sometimes we just have to learn that these things are there. So you mentioned it, that quadrant that has been drawn out that says, you know, you don’t know that you don’t know. And then there’s the you know, that you don’t know kind of thing. Okay, so if we’ve moved from quadrant one, or quadrant two, and we know that we don’t know certain things, and let’s go start looking, okay, maybe the way we deal with relationships I can in the noticer is we didn’t know that we didn’t know that there’s a different way, because we assume everybody is like me. So my filter is everybody knows everything that I know, everybody is like minded of me. And yet they’re not. And, you know, you and I, I go through life thinking, Well, everybody’s thinking about me all the time. No, they’re really not, you know, they’re not. And they’re not even like me. So all of a sudden, that filter of well wait a minute, the personality connections, they’re not like me. So I need to learn what they need and what their relationship calls for. Because like I say, sometimes, it might just be that little bit of time. And yet, I might go way out of my way to go, say something nice or get a gift. And yet those two may be the most unneeded things. But that’s what I like. And it’s that I gotta take the eye out of it and make it more about the you in it, which is the perspective that that Jones teaches in the book.

 

Jon Perry  13:13

Yeah, it’s it’s getting out of the habit of living in the golden rule, and shifting to the platinum rule. And this is something that stuck with me for several years where, you know, we’re taught growing up the golden rule. He who has the gold No, I’m just kidding, though, do you want to others as you’d want them to do on to you. And so we get into that filter of, okay, if I’m, if I want to be treated this way, I treat others this way. And that takes a shift to get into the paradigm of the platinum rule, which is treat others the way they want to be treated. You know, there are some people who don’t want platitudes, they just want to wreck they want to be just told exactly as it is. And in minimal contact. There’s other people who, you know, don’t want to be driven anywhere, they just want to do X. And some of those things are extremely foreign to me, because that is not how I would perceive a quality of anything, if this is the quality that they crave in their life. And who am I to force my beliefs upon

 

Derek Egeberg  14:22

that, and yet, that’s what most of us do on a daily basis. So watch politics. Here we go. So you know, go back to the go back to the book. We talked about the relational piece that the noticer is teaching, and then he talks about business ethics, and he and he talks about work ethic, and yet it’s not phrased that way. He talks about people notice what you do, and you know, using that 16 year old kid, working for a guy who doesn’t treat people well cuts corners, cuts, lots of corners. takes advantage of a position of authority

 

Jon Perry  15:03

and circumstance certain life situation? Yes. And

 

Derek Egeberg  15:06

and you say, you know, well, how could that bad dude really do all of that? And then you realize, no, that’s probably everybody. Because you can cut corners easy, and you don’t realize that what you do today has long lasting implications next week, next month, next year. And now you wrap that into this is the first time that I’ve ever really heard Andy talk about his butterfly effect, then I’ve seen him do huge, long presentations of it. But this is the first time that it crept into the book, talking about how the peanut in George Washington Carver and everything you do has an effect, not tiny effects today, but huge, long lasting effects over generations. Yes. And those two perspectives again, talking about, you know, what a business owner or a person in authority can have, and that yet every decision you do in life matters. You think, Geez, are we doing this well enough. And you go back to the word perspective, sometimes we just need that bit of perspective to go, you everything we do matters. Maybe this Master Mind Library matters. Andy Andrews book sure matters. And maybe Andy Andrews book is one of the reasons that He flapped his little butterfly wings and allowed you and I to notice, and this Master Mind Library is here as

 

Jon Perry  16:28

a result of it. Absolutely. You know, and going back to the butterfly effect, I mean, that when you think about the timeline and where we’re at today, that is 160, 170 year ripple in the pond of the world, and has now been responsible for just going back to those four points that he talks about. And I don’t want to share the story, because although it’s one of my favorite ones, erupt about 3 billion people saved because of that butterfly effect of a farmer in Diamond Bar.

 

Derek Egeberg  17:08

And yet, how many people could you go backwards that decisions were made, that it may not have been that farmer in Diamond Head? It might have been X person before generations before? And you know, you think it’s no different than in in your life for my life? I mean, what happened? If your great, great grandparents hadn’t made one decision? What happens if you know, your decision for your great, great, great grandchildren? Absolutely. You know, maybe, because you and I took the time to read the Andy Andrews series in the noticer. And we have perspective. And you do this Master Mind Library, maybe generations from here will have a different perspective. And maybe not maybe they’ll laugh and look at those two goofy guys that were on camera. Who knows? But that’s still perspective.

 

Jon Perry  17:59

Absolutely. And although we’re doing this now, today, could we have started doing this 10 years ago? Absolutely. The thing is, we’re taking the chance in the time to do it. Now. To see exactly what that legacy could unfurl with it’s never too late. And that’s another point that they talk about in the book is that the best is yet to come. It’s never too late. You can you don’t have a small effect on the world, you have a large impact on the world. There have been some recent, there was a recent suicide in the news last couple days of a celebrity personality, who did a lot for so many communities, kind of under the radar. You know, he had some success on a children’s superteam show. And he went back into communities and taught and educated and lifted up. And during the pandemic, he donated almost a half a million dollars to keep businesses afloat, small mom and pop style businesses, businesses that help support him during his career, inadvertently and it’s just and just seeing the outpouring of the people who have he’s touched over the past almost 30 years, it’s it’s crazy to know the demons that somebody runs with because again, perspective is a thing because outwardly people can be fine. And inwardly you don’t know unless you get to know them a little bit too.

 

Derek Egeberg  19:42

So one of the ending points kind of tying that in is is when Jones The main character who carries this this while good, cool looking suitcase and it reminds me a lot of a suitcase that I have at my house that was my grandparents. They open up they find the suitcase. Jones has gone. And in the suitcase spoiler alert is is spoiler alert. Well, he is he gone? You know, in the store, he is in the store, he’s gone, but we don’t really know. But they find a suitcase. How would you know if he’s there because they don’t know where he stays or sleeps. He just appears if you will, throughout town, so, but they find a suitcase, and they open up the suitcase, and they find packages of seeds. So metaphorically, now we’re talking about planting seeds in life and you can’t harvest what you don’t grow, and you’ve got to germinate things. And again, it’s this teaching thing that isn’t in your face teaching, but metaphorically. Wow, did he really lay it on thick there? And the seeds that you plant going back exactly to what you’re talking about with with that? Actor, if you will? Think of go back to Robin Williams. Yes. Okay. similar, very similar story. And you think, you know, all of the movies that I’ve watched with Robin Williams, I mean, for crying out loud, you felt like a new him based on how many times you’d ever seen him and the goofiness of Mork and Mindy, and the things on Saturday Night Live, and then all of the the very dramatic movies, Dead Poets, society, Hunter Goodwill Hunting, and you think all of the things that he did to provide laughter and entertainment for people. And yet, he was suffering. Yeah. And

 

Jon Perry  21:37

did you ever hear about the rider he added to his claws about the local population? So that was one, let’s

 

Derek Egeberg  21:43

talk about that. But so so

 

Jon Perry  21:47

first of all, Robin Williams, I think, for those who don’t know, he was a huge social activist, he cared about community, he cared about people. And one of the clauses in most of his movie contracts was, they employed a certain amount of the local homeless population. He did comic relief on HBO, for years help raise funds for these kinds of things. To make sure that they that he was contributing back to making these people’s lives a little bit better. Now, some people are homeless, due to circumstances, some people was by choice. The point being is though it’s perspective, it’s harder to get a well paying job when you don’t have a residence. There’s a lot more hoops to jump through. And it’s funny, because now I see this reminds me of the Bagger Vance story to where anyway, but point is, he always made sure that there was a certain amount of people that he could touch and help and benefit. It was not always about him. And it was just one of those things where he just cared so much. And again, like you said, people thought they knew Him because they saw him. So long, decades upon decades, from Popeye, to the genie. And so we thought we knew this, this amazing man. And yet, at the end of the day, we didn’t know enough that he was hurting, because who checks on the person who’s taking care of everybody else?

 

Derek Egeberg  23:17

Well, and you go back to another book that we’ll talk about at some point with Andy. But so clearly, Robin Williams was fighting what Andy calls in another book, The Black Dog. Yes. And, and you don’t know who’s struggling with those depression and dark thoughts. But again, what Andy has really I want to say teach, he’s teaching, but it’s perspective. And it’s noticing things and it’s being aware of something beyond yourself, whether it’s the relationship how you work with people, it’s planting the seeds, anything Oh, my goodness, that he just put a boatload of life lessons into what is a easy read fictitious story?

 

Jon Perry  24:03

Absolutely. It is. One of those things of it was a privilege to get to read the book. It’s not something I had to do. I got to do it. And good perspective. Exactly. You know, it is a surf and turf on the beach.

 

Derek Egeberg  24:21

So you’ll have to understand what surf and turf on the beach is when you read the book. But, you know, I want to go back to the last piece that is awe inspiring for me. So we know Andy is comes from being homeless after his two parents both perished within a reasonably short period of time. And he was better on life and he weaves himself into the story. And then Jones who is the main character, very fascinating how he describes Jones throughout this book and other books, but then there’s a U turn in the book and it goes back to the same place on the beach. And he finds a young kid in the exact same circumstances in life that he was yes. I really want to know, was that kid real? Is there another kid that Andy and Jones helped pull out? Or was this something that is, is on the fantasy side of the book? And you don’t know? Is it real? Is it not real? And does the brain? Which side does it put it on?

 

Jon Perry  25:25

That’s really interesting, because for those who don’t know, this is the first of three books that feature Jones, the notice or the notice of returns in my favorite test Jones. There’s a similar parallel in another book, with a perspective of strong supporting character that resembles Andy. I wondering if it’s to show and again, I don’t know if that person’s real or not, if you know, because there’s definitely real people in that book, he names them out, you can look them up, they are they,

 

Derek Egeberg  26:02

they were out well, for everybody’s benefit. What’s what’s super interesting is go on his website. And if you go to Andy andrews.com, and you can find lots of I mean, every one of his books for sale, some CDs and videos, but you can also find some coffee, Just Jone’s Java. But you can also find some free resources. And one of them for the noticer is a guidebook for all of the area where he lives. And lots of the real people are featured in there. So the owner of the restaurant and the sea and suds, the UPS driver, some of the gift shops. So I mean, he’s he’s writing about real places and real people. And yet, do we know that they’re all real people

 

Jon Perry  26:48

exactly in those? So that’s the question mark. So I’m wondering if it’s just a parallel, to reiterate a point that there’s many people who struggle through these issues in life. And it’s not just him, he is not the only one who was ever touched with tragedy, and has pulled himself out there as many people in this path every single day from they’re at rock bottom than lubber. They’re, fortunately, haven’t hit rock bottom to they are well off. And we all can start from a point of perspective and head in a more positive direction. And I think that that’s one thing that was that character is real or not, yeah, he wants us to realize is that it’s never too late to push ourselves on a certain path, and have the perspective of going forward being positive being productive. Today’s word is perspective.

 

Derek Egeberg  27:45

So for for you, the Master Mind Library, we’ve got our four shelves and beyond six shelves, if you will, top shelf 13 Second Shelf, the top 26 beyond those 13. Where does this book rank for you?

 

Jon Perry  28:00

Unfortunately, it ranks on the third, third shelf so much. It’s really, really challenging when he

 

Derek Egeberg  28:09

because we forcibly rank. So again, you’re not saying that’s a third tier book for most people, we’re just putting it in the Master Mind Library. Hey, these are the top 13 I want to live by these are the next 26. These are the next 52. So it’s it’s within your top 150 books.

 

Jon Perry  28:26

And considering I’ve finished over 500 books in the last two years. That’s a That’s a lot. It’s just one of those things. I mean, my personal favorite book isn’t even in the top three shelves, because there’s I my criteria is I need to hand it to somebody, and they can get something out of the biggest impact out of that possible. And although just Jones is a decent standalone book, to me, if you haven’t read The Traveler’s Gift, and at least a noticer. Just Jones doesn’t make as much of an impact as it could. And it’s a good story. Yeah, it just doesn’t have all those little tie ins. And Andy has tied in interweave multiple things in multiple books of his little little nuggets of information that you’re just like, oh,

 

Derek Egeberg  29:18

I have some perspective.

 

Jon Perry  29:19

I didn’t see that coming. Oh, that was someone’s like, it’s almost like an Easter egg in a movie trilogy. It’s like, and again, I’ve gone through all of his books that I have at least twice at this point, if not more. And just earlier last week, I stumbled across one little nugget from one book and a nugget of another book and those universe them

 

Derek Egeberg  29:41

together. Yeah. So it again, go back to the Master Mind Library. If you say the top three shelves, yes, that’s 91 books in total. So really what you’re saying is this is still in one of your top 100. Absolutely. Which, believe it or not, it’s on my third shelf is well, because I still feel me the travelers gift is on my top 13 because it sets the table for all of these. And what I what I genuinely enjoy about Andy’s writing style is it is factual, to some amazing things that I’ve never known before, you know, things that came about from the travelers gift when you talk about Joshua Chamberlain and what really could have won the war for the North. And there’s Norman Borlaug. Well, Norman Borlaug, but there’s also the the talk about Waterloo. Yes. Okay. That was fantastic. And, and you go back, and I did a little bit of research and what I think that actually could be true. I think that those facts are out there that there weren’t nails and spikes to disable can and so maybe one he, he won and then lost because of a handful of nails. I mean,

 

Jon Perry  31:03

oversimplification yet, it just hammers the point home. So,

 

Derek Egeberg  31:07

for me, there’s these factual items that are woven into life lessons in a fictitious story. And it makes it so easy for most of us operate. I do with this very left brain logic tactical guy to do it. And yet, what do we all love to do when we go home, turn on the TV and watch something, you know, that is fictitiously created, we watch sporting events, which is we don’t know the outcome. But it’s, it’s a sport, you know, and all of these battles and things to do. And you know, it’s almost like gladiators challenging each other. And yet, here’s a book that kind of gets into that fantastical realm, but also teaches life lessons for me. And so I love Andy style. Believe it or not, every one of his books that I’ve read is on one of my top three shelves in various orders, I strongly would say go get this book. And And truthfully, I’ve got a couple of friends that don’t like listening to audiobooks. When certain authors play liberally with voices and dialects. I actually like listening to Andy try to put his spin on the various characters, because it gives me a little bit of of perspective of where they’re coming from. So I strongly would say go get the book, I would agree, read it, listen to it, please go get the travelers gift first. But this is a great book that gives you a little bit of perspective. And maybe we all need a healthy dose of perspective as we’re dealing with our spouses or families or kids, our employees, our communities, and just other human beings in general. I see what you did there. You do that? You like that? Yeah. So any parting thoughts from Andy Andrews and the noticer?

 

Jon Perry  33:09

Andy, if you ever want to talk about your books, we’re more than willing to do whatever we can to make that happen. We appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining us this morning on the Master Mind Library. And we look forward to continuing this journey of going over books through different perspectives. And we look forward also to hearing from you and your perspective on this book, too. Maybe add something else that we either didn’t cover or possibly didn’t even see. So thank you so much for joining us. I’m Jon Perry, the Reach Architect.

 

Derek Egeberg  33:47

I’m Derek Egeberg the approval coach and thank you for joining us at the Master Mind Library leave comments down below. We look forward to hearing from you soon.

 

33:55

Bye for now. Bye for now.