Speaker 1: Everybody. It's Bill Courtney. Welcome. Hold it, did I say
Speaker 1: I'm with an army and normal folks? You're okay?
Speaker 2: I think they know we're good.
Speaker 1: Okay, this is Courtney.
Speaker 2: You just said it.
Speaker 1: Well I am now okay, this is Bill Courtney with
Speaker 1: an army normal folks. Welcome to Shop Talk number one twelve.
Speaker 1: Welcome into the shop, Alex. Thanks Bill, Welcome into my shop, Alex. Whatever,
Speaker 1: it's my shop. Okay. The army and normal folks thing
Speaker 1: was your idea and everything, but my shop.
Speaker 2: Red Free, Baby Free.
Speaker 1: That's Shop Talk number one twelve, the pyramid that explains
Speaker 1: almost everything. Do you know?
Speaker 2: Could you know what it's about?
Speaker 1: I was that's weird that you asked. I was just
Speaker 1: about saying, don't say I have not prepped this at all.
Speaker 1: I think I know what this is about. But the
Speaker 1: listeners that are going to be this is going to
Speaker 1: be build to us together right after.
Speaker 2: The job first, what happened one hundred and twelve years ago.
Speaker 1: Well, okay, we can do that. After the messages. We
Speaker 1: never do, but we can switch it up to my shop. Sure, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, We're going to have brief messages and then
Speaker 1: we're going to come back after that and talk about
Speaker 1: the one twelve. Then we're going to the pyramid. How's that?
Speaker 1: That's good? Okay? Right after these brief messages from our general.
Speaker 3: Sponsors, everybody, welcome back into my shop the shop talk
Speaker 3: number one twelve.
Speaker 2: Say my house with Lisa.
Speaker 1: Uh No, that's her house. I'm allowed to stay there.
Speaker 1: So shop Talk number one twelve, the pyramid that explains
Speaker 1: almost everything we need to know. Alex, what happened one
Speaker 1: hundred and twelve years ago?
Speaker 4: So there was nineteen fourteen, Yeah, the assassination of Archduke
Speaker 4: Franz Ferdinand really, which led to World War One.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's kind of a crazy thing.
Speaker 4: I have once heard from a relative that our distant
Speaker 4: relative way back was his driver.
Speaker 2: Really is that crazy?
Speaker 1: Lucky you're driver didn't get capped too. Yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 4: World War one begins, the Panama Canal opens.
Speaker 1: Holy smokes. That that would have made sense because we
Speaker 1: gave it back to Panama after one hundred years, which
Speaker 1: was about twelve years.
Speaker 4: It revolutionized global shipping by eliminating the need for shifts
Speaker 4: to sail around Cape Horn at the southern tip of
Speaker 4: South America.
Speaker 1: Oh, the Panama Canal. I can't. I read something about it.
Speaker 1: It's I won't recall the numbers, but it's Its influence
Speaker 1: on the world's gross domestic product was greater than any
Speaker 1: single thing in the history of man.
Speaker 2: Have you been there?
Speaker 1: No? I have not.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it'd be cool to do one day. It would
Speaker 4: be the Christmas Truth. Have you heard the story before?
Speaker 4: I don't even know what it is.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: December nineteen fourteen, thousands of British and German soldiers spontaneously
Speaker 4: stopped fighting along parts of the Western Front. They exchange
Speaker 4: gifts and Carrol's and, according to many accounts, even played
Speaker 4: in formal soccer matches. It's one of history's most enduring
Speaker 4: reminders of shared humanity amid war.
Speaker 1: I love that story, but then it's so horrific to think.
Speaker 1: Then the next day they went back shooting at each other.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? I don't understand. It's weird
Speaker 1: out there. It is weird out there. Okay, that's it.
Speaker 1: Let's all all right. Chop Talk number one twelve, The
Speaker 1: pyramid that explains almost everything. Have you ever noticed that
Speaker 1: when someone's life starts falling apart, it's usually not because
Speaker 1: just one thing is wrong? Maybe they lose their job,
Speaker 1: maybe they can't pay the rent. Then that creates stress
Speaker 1: at home, health starts to suffer, they withdraw from friends.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon one problem is turned into five. Well, the
Speaker 1: opposite of that is also true. Sometimes one act of
Speaker 1: kindness doesn't just solve one problem, it's solving several. Provide
Speaker 1: a child a bed. Now they sleep better. Now, they
Speaker 1: pay better attention in school. Now their parents sleep better too,
Speaker 1: because someone's mentor. And they don't just gain advice, they
Speaker 1: gain confidence, hope, someone who believes in them. It turns
Speaker 1: out that our needs are connected. Back in nineteen forties,
Speaker 1: a psychologist named Abraham Maslow tried to explain this with
Speaker 1: a simple idea. He believed and by the way, yes
Speaker 1: I know all about this.
Speaker 2: I know you do. That's why I did it right.
Speaker 1: He believed the human beings have different kinds of needs,
Speaker 1: and they tend to build on one another. Before most
Speaker 1: of us can chase our dreams, we usually need a
Speaker 1: a safe place to sleep before we can become the
Speaker 1: best version of ourselves. We need people who love us
Speaker 1: and believe in us. Whether his model is perfect or not,
Speaker 1: I think he stumbled onto something really important. Human Flourishing
Speaker 1: doesn't happen all at once, it happens one need at
Speaker 1: a time. Maslow pictured these needs like a pyramid at
Speaker 1: the bottom, or physical needs, which are food, water, sleep, shelter.
Speaker 1: It's hard to think about your life's purpose if you
Speaker 1: hadn't eaten in two days. It's hard to focus in
Speaker 1: school if you've spent the night on the floor. It's
Speaker 1: hard to dream big when you're simply trying to make
Speaker 1: it to tomorrow. That's why organizations like Sleep in Heavenly
Speaker 1: Peace matter so much. They're not just building delivering beds
Speaker 1: to kids without them, They're creating the foundation that makes
Speaker 1: everything else possible for that kid to flourish. The next
Speaker 1: level of maslow hierarchy and needs pyramid is safety, a safetyhood,
Speaker 1: a stable job, reliable transportation, healthcare. Knowing your lights will
Speaker 1: still be on next month. When those things disappear, fear
Speaker 1: takes over, and fear has a way of shrinking our world.
Speaker 1: We stop taking risk, we stop trusting people, we stop
Speaker 1: thinking about tomorrow because today feels uncertain enough. That's why
Speaker 1: Habitat for Humanity doesn't just build houses, they create stability.
Speaker 1: Organizations that help people find jobs don't just increase incomes.
Speaker 1: They restore security. When people feel safe, they begin to
Speaker 1: look beyond survival. Then we arrive at what I think
Speaker 1: may be the most overlooked level of the entire pyramid. Belonging, family, friendships, neighbors,
Speaker 1: a church, a team, a community, Dare I say a club.
Speaker 1: We were never designed to do life alone. There's a
Speaker 1: reason loneliness has become one of the greatest challenges of
Speaker 1: our time. We can have thousands of followers online and
Speaker 1: still wonder whether anyone would notice if we disappeared. Most
Speaker 1: of us don't need another Dad gumb app We need
Speaker 1: a friend. One of the reasons I believe so deeply
Speaker 1: that our local service clubs aren't just about serving, they're
Speaker 1: about belonging. You stop being someone who volunteers once in
Speaker 1: a while. You become part of an army. You start
Speaker 1: recognizing faces, You start knowing names. You start celebrating birthdays,
Speaker 1: helping each other move, showing up when life gets hard.
Speaker 1: Service becomes the excuse. Friendship becomes the gift above, belong above,
Speaker 1: Belonging becomes esteem. That's a fancy psychological word for something
Speaker 1: pretty simple. People need to know they matter. People need
Speaker 1: to know they're capable that they have something to contribute.
Speaker 1: One of the greatest mistakes we can make is that
Speaker 1: so many people only need our help. Most people also
Speaker 1: need our belief. Think about the best coach or teacher
Speaker 1: you ever had or boss. They probably didn't just teach
Speaker 1: you something. They convinced you that you could do something
Speaker 1: you didn't think was possible. That's what esteem looks like.
Speaker 1: It's dignity, it's confidence, it's purpose. Beginning to wake up. Finally,
Speaker 1: Maslow talked about self actualization. And by the way, this
Speaker 1: one's huge. That's becoming the person you were created to become.
Speaker 1: That's someone who uses their gifts, growing your character, doing
Speaker 1: meaningful work, living with purpose. But here's the part that
Speaker 1: I find fascinating. Near the end of his life, Maslow
Speaker 1: realized he may have stopped too soon. He began writing
Speaker 1: about another level, something beyond even the tip of the pyramid,
Speaker 1: one he called self transcendence. This idea was simple. The happiest,
Speaker 1: most fulfilled people weren't just becoming the best version of themselves.
Speaker 1: They were helping someone else become the best version of themselves.
Speaker 1: Remember I'm a psychology major. I studied this and it
Speaker 1: you know, as I read this all the way through,
Speaker 1: I start thinking about I've evoked mas Low's hierarchy needs
Speaker 1: and interviews for right And as I read this and
Speaker 1: go back through it, and I haven't done it in years,
Speaker 1: transcendences where the world changes in my mind. So the happiest,
Speaker 1: most felled people weren't just becoming the best version themselves.
Speaker 1: They were helping someone else become the best version of themselves.
Speaker 1: When I think about the people we've interviewed on this podcast,
Speaker 1: I see that over and over and over again. None
Speaker 1: of them seem obsessed with themselves. They're obsessed with someone
Speaker 1: else's flourishing. And maybe that is the secret. Maybe the
Speaker 1: purpose of climbing the mountain or ascending the pyramid isn't
Speaker 1: simply to stand on top. Maybe it's to reach back
Speaker 1: down and help someone else get up there with you.
Speaker 1: I think that's what an army of normal folks really is.
Speaker 1: Some of us are helping meet physical needs, some create safety,
Speaker 1: some are offering friendship, some are building confidence, some are
Speaker 1: helping people discover a purpose. We're all standing on different
Speaker 1: parts of the mountain, reaching for the people below us.
Speaker 1: And here's the beautiful thing. You don't have to help everyone.
Speaker 1: You just have to help someone, and every action you
Speaker 1: take help someone take another step. So here's my challenge
Speaker 1: this week. Think about one person you know, simply one person,
Speaker 1: and ask yourself, where are they on the mountain and
Speaker 1: what do they need? Then ask this question, what's one
Speaker 1: thing I can do to help them toe the next
Speaker 1: step to ascend, just one more little bit up the mountain,
Speaker 1: up that pyramid. Because changing the country doesn't happen through
Speaker 1: one giant leap. It happens one step at a time,
Speaker 1: one relationship at a time, one need at a time,
Speaker 1: one normal folk you doing what they can, one person,
Speaker 1: one step at a time, and together. If we had
Speaker 1: millions of people doing that for one another, that's just
Speaker 1: not help. How we help people survive, it's how we
Speaker 1: help people flourish, and therefore society flourish as a result
Speaker 1: of a group of people flourishing. That's the power of
Speaker 1: an army of normal folks. Love it, Alex, I'm so
Speaker 1: glad you brought up Maslow hierarchy needs. Yes, I studied
Speaker 1: it over and over again. The first time I was
Speaker 1: ever introduced to the idea was in a class taught
Speaker 1: by doctor Ken McGraw in developmental psychology. Doctor McGraw was
Speaker 1: one of the country's foremost developmental psychologists and researchers. He
Speaker 1: actually wrote the textbook that was used across psychology departments
Speaker 1: across the United States that we used. So I was
Speaker 1: being taught by the professor who wrote the textbook on
Speaker 1: developmental psychology, and he spent a few days, which in college,
Speaker 1: if you spend more than two lectures on one thing,
Speaker 1: it's on maslow arc needs. And he really encouraged us
Speaker 1: not to just learn the science behind it, but to
Speaker 1: think about how to apply it in our own lives.
Speaker 1: And if we became psychologists one day, which I obviously
Speaker 1: did not enter practices, and I do believe it is.
Speaker 1: I really wish everybody would just google Maslow's hierarchy needs
Speaker 1: pyramid and look at the levels that Alex had us
Speaker 1: share today, and look at the levels and it makes
Speaker 1: just so much sense that you can't self actualize, You
Speaker 1: can't feel good about yourself if you don't have food,
Speaker 1: and you certainly need food and water before you need shelter.
Speaker 1: But without shelter, you're worried about every day. So how
Speaker 1: can you plan and think about the future of your
Speaker 1: life if you don't have shelter and the higher cave needs.
Speaker 1: It just goes up the pyramid until you reach the
Speaker 1: tip top. And if you do all of if you're
Speaker 1: able to satisfy all those needs, you're self actualized, a
Speaker 1: fulfilled human. And if an army in normal folks can
Speaker 1: help folks ascend that pyramid, I think there's some science
Speaker 1: behind the fact that we can help society improve.
Speaker 4: And make sure we're all the way up on the
Speaker 4: top of ourselves. There's a quote I love that you
Speaker 4: can and give what you don't have. Yeah, it's true
Speaker 4: the first doing it yourself too.
Speaker 1: It's good stuff. Alex.
Speaker 4: I have nothing to add. I just had a question.
Speaker 4: Where did you do your grad program? I don't you
Speaker 4: didn't finish, but like, did you take this from him?
Speaker 1: At Old Miss? Your grad program? So at Old Miss?
Speaker 1: This is back then it was a little different than
Speaker 1: it is now. You could take five hundred level classes
Speaker 1: if you got through your undergraduate time, and those five
Speaker 1: hundred level classes were basically the first level of master classes.
Speaker 1: And then when I came home to Memphis after graduating
Speaker 1: and had those, I enrolled at the University of Memphis
Speaker 1: and started on my masters then I'm at Leasta in
Speaker 1: the wheels came off. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2: That's how I just never knew where you actually did
Speaker 2: the grad school.
Speaker 1: It was. It was Memphis, but it was a short
Speaker 1: stint because I had the first levels from Ole Miss
Speaker 1: and then I started at Memphis. And then actually the
Speaker 1: school I was teaching at, I was the assistant football
Speaker 1: coach and was doing the school at night for the
Speaker 1: most part some weekends, and the head coach quit maybe
Speaker 1: ten days before our first game, and here I am,
Speaker 1: a twenty three year old college graduate's assistant football coach.
Speaker 1: Principal came to me and said, we have no time
Speaker 1: for a search here our head coach. And at that
Speaker 1: point I was like, I cannot do all I'm doing
Speaker 1: and be response for this whole football team. So I
Speaker 1: finished classes intending to go back after football season. But
Speaker 1: I met Lisa during football season and that.
Speaker 4: Was that, and you self actualized with coaching and Lisa.
Speaker 1: That's true, I completely did. So that's it all right, Everybody,
Speaker 1: y'all really google as those hierarchy needs and think about
Speaker 1: it and think about where you fit and what you
Speaker 1: need to do for yourself, But also think about one
Speaker 1: person in your life that you can help ascend that pyramid,
Speaker 1: ascend that mountain. It's good stuff. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: please share it with friends on social subscribe to the podcast,
Speaker 1: rate it, review it. Join the Army at Normalfolks dot org.
Speaker 1: Join or start one of our local service clubs. Take
Speaker 1: the ten level challenge, buy our merch look up as
Speaker 1: those horric you need, do anything that you can to
Speaker 1: help us grow an army and normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
Speaker 1: That's shop Talk number one twelve until next week. Do
Speaker 1: what you can