Welcome back everyone to Unlocking Your World of Creativity.

Today we are talking with Joe Hart, the President and CEO of Dale Carnegie & Associates. He’s also co-author of a Dale Carnegie book called, Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want.

In today’s episode we talk to Joe about Take Command, his inspiring journey to embrace change in the modern world, and working alongside the grandson of Dale Carnegie and co-author of Take Command, Michael Crum. 

**A special note: At the end of this episode Mark asks Joe to give his 2-minute talk on Take Command - an exercise practiced worldwide in the Dale Carnegie course in which you stand up and tell your story in 2 mins. Listen to the end for this. 

"Take Command builds beautifully on the ideas in my fathers’ books and takes those insights even further with innovative and effective ways to implement them. For those seeking inner strength, greater confidence, and truly meaningful relationships, Take Command will be an invaluable guide.”

• Donna Dale Carnegie

Take Command - What’s it about?

Joe says he has been told by friends and readers that, “This is not a book that you just read. This is a book that I'm going to need to come back to over and over and over ``. 

The book guides the reader to:

• take command of their thoughts and emotions.
• take command of your relationships 
• Take command of your future, your vision. 

Joe explains he sees this as a manual or roadmap that people will come back to and 

read, then apply, and practice. The goal is for this to be a transformative work in the lives of the readers. Part of what makes all of this book so compelling are the powerful stories. The stories are combined with what might be research or insights or other kinds of lessons. 

“The story teaches.”

Inspired Journey - Embracing Change in the Modern World

“The concept of embracing change, whether it's in something big or something small, is the reality that often the problem with change is our response to it.” 

One of the principles that Dale Carnegie teaches in How to Win Friends or How to Stop Worrying and Start Living is to cooperate with the inevitable.

Joe gives an example: Say there's a change at work or there's a policy at work that changes, or there's someone who says there's going to be a merger. Does our mind automatically go to the worst possible situation? Or do we think to ourselves, where's the opportunity? Part of the book is to help people work on their mindset. How do we reframe our thinking? How do we condition our minds and ourselves for success so that we can become resilient and agile and really strong, face some adversity?

The book teaches you that YOU CAN work through it and keep on moving and find opportunity and thrive even during difficult times. “Embracing change is a really important part of that whole process.”

Co-Author Michael Crum

Joe has known Michael for over 20 years. He says Michael is a “tremendous human being and someone who just has such a breadth of knowledge.” When Joe had the idea to write the book the first person he thought of was Michael Crum. Michale was already interviewing Fortune 30 under 30 people and he’s an extraordinary interviewer. His interviews were a foundation for the book, rich with stories. It was a lot of fun working with Michael, and from a creative standpoint because they were in agreement with pretty much everything so there wasn’t any conflict in the writing. 

*Michael is the grandson of Dale Carnegie and grew up practicing the principles of his grandfather's teachings. 

Check out Joe’s and Michael's book: Take Command: Find Your Inner Strength, Build Enduring Relationships, and Live the Life You Want

You can also find Joe Hart on Linkedin and Twitter (@josephkhart) or go to www.dalecarnegie.com to learn more about Dale Carnegie books, courses/classes, inspiring stories, and teachings.

@joseph_k_hart on Instagram

Joe on YouTube

Copyright 2026 Mark Stinson