S3E57 - Surf and Sales Bonfire - If You Don’t Invest in Yourself Why Should a Company with Larry Long Jr

Hey. Hey everybody. Thank you for joining us. Really appreciate you taking the time. I got a lot of messages today where people are yelling at us about doing this during the World cup. So apologize for, for those who couldn't make it. But I'm glad you're here. Would love for people to actually put on their camera because this is not meant to be a two way conversation with just Larry and I. It's supposed to be interactive with all of you. We want you to ask questions, we want you to put stuff in the chat. So with that in mind, why don't everybody just go into the chat, tell us where you're dialing in from. We'd love to know, we'd love to talk to you, hear about it and, and we'll go from there. The quick shout out to all of our sponsors of Sandoso and Scratchpad and Outreach, IO and Vidyard. We appreciate them. If you're looking for tools in the future, let us know or let them know and I don't know, give them the. Larry Long said you could get it for free for 24 hour discount. I don't know. Is that true, Larry?

I wish, I wish I had those powers.

All right, so, so really appreciate folks being here. I'm going to leave the beep on only because if people come in the waiting room, I don't want to miss it. By the way, our good friend Scott Lees is not here because of the World cup so you can harass him online, please.

But in the meantime, let's talk about why we're here. We're here to talk about investing in yourself, right? And it's really, really important and I think it's important to acknowledge that, that it's a tough time right now, right? People are being laid off. People are, you know, concerned about being laid off. So, so Larry, where do you even start? Like, if I'm like, I don't even know where to start. I'm so frazzled by what's going on. I know I should do this and I know I should do that. And I, you know, where do you, what's the first thing you do around mindset?

Well, the first thing is realizing you can only control what you can control. And we, we all know that, we've all heard that before. There's nothing mind breaking, mind boggling. It's, but it's really believing that. And that's the tough part is taking what you know and actually applying it to belief. I can't control what moves an organization makes. It is what it is. I can't control what my prospects and my clients do. It is what it is. But I can control my attitude every day. I can control my emotions. And we're in sales, so we know how that roller coaster can go. But I also know that we have control. And my question to a lot of folks is, who's in your corner? Do you have a coach? Do you have a mentor? Do you have a mini mentor that can really help you along this path? You have colleagues. So it starts with just understanding that there's a lot that's out of your control, if you can control the controllables. And first, I want to say thank you. Thank you, Lydia, Jason, Dave, Danielle, David. Thank you for taking the time. You could be anywhere, anywhere in the world. You could be watching the World Cup. My wife is pissed off at me because she's from Argentina. She said, if we lose, I'm blaming it on you.

Oh, I didn't know she was from Argentina. I didn't know that part.

Yeah, I'm really in the doghouse, Richard. But it's all good because it's so important to invest in people that want to invest in themselves, that want to elevate their game. And by taking your time, by taking your energy, by taking your resources, that just tells me so much. So I'm here to serve.

Yeah. I got a question, and I talk about this, too. Like, who's in your corner? Right. Who's on your personal board of directors? Right. And this is a really important thing, and you can have different kinds of people, and the best way to get people on your board of directors is to nominate them, saying, hey, Dan, guess what? I've nominated you to be on my personal board of directors. I want to come to you for advice about blank from time to time. Now, I don't really know Dan, so I don't know what you know. Dan, you're still welcome to be on my board of directors. Like, you tell me what you're good at, but.

But.

I'll think of for a minute what we'll fill the blank in with. Sounds good.

So.

But. But these are the types of people I think you want on your board of directors. You definitely want someone on the finance side, maybe someone on the career side, someone on that emotional side. And I speak primarily to guys like, you need to have a guy buddy that you can go talk about relationship stuff with. Like, it's really important, and we're taught not to do these things. Or, you know, maybe not my generation. So don't. Don't talk about your feelings, talk about career guidance. It could be, maybe you need a friend on the board of directors. That's your golfing buddy. I mean, that's your golfing. But like Larry played golf last year in all 50 states and didn't invite me to one little shirt. And now he's stealing my serpent sales idea and going, doing Gotham sales and didn't even invite me. So. But Larry is all my personal board of directors. I remember calling Larry to ask him about speaking and how do you get into the speaking world and some things. So, so it's important you do that. And I think it's really important. And I will say the same for men. I actually have a board of directors of a woman with business in sales that I go, help me understand. There's another woman who is minority in sales. Help me understand.

Right.

And you know, I, and I've talked to, I have some mentees who are women, people of color and people of color non gender specific. And I tell them, like, I will give you any advice I can know that it's coming from a white straight male, like, go find someone else just like you if you can. Take my advice if you want it. But I recognize where my bias will just be inherent and it's not a slight on me. And I don't feel bad about it. It's just, that's the reality. Like, it's just the way the world is. So one, you know, one admit it as, as Larry said, like, acknowledge it, surround yourself with people. And then my tactical example is this personal board of directors piece. So, so Larry, so you decide that, you know, okay, I can control what I can control. Where do I start? Like, am I, is it career? Is it personal? Is it like, you know, we're here for a lot of reasons.

It's all the above. I mean, I think they go hand in hand. And Richard, I did some thinking when we had the conversation about this discussion and we talked about, I'm an expert at balling on a budget, so low cost and no cost strategies. Number one place to start is you just got to get started doing something. So you talked about, I talked about control, the controllables. You talked about the board of directors. That's community, that's network. That's an opportunity to collaborate with other minds. In order to do that, you got to get out. Whether it's in this virtual remote world or whether it's in the real world where I'm at in Durham, North Carolina, events are starting to come back in person. I'm like, A kid in the candy shop. I mean, I just got the reason why I'm dressed up like this. I just got done emceeing in an event. Richard said, you're way overdressed. I said, I know, I'm sorry. But essentially, it's the connection with peers, it's the connection with colleagues, it's the connection with people who've been speaking for 30 plus years that I'm learning from. This was an event with speakers Academy graduates. These are newbies that are looking to me like I'm the expert. I'm like, I'm no expert. I'm learning from y'. All. Y' all are inspiring me. But it's really that intentional of putting yourself out. But number one, what I think about Richard, we all. We all have these things at our fingertips, and this is a library. You can find the answer to anything. How to do your own heart surgery. I don't do my own heart surgery. How to change your oil. I don't say I leave that to the experts, but if I needed to, I could find it here. So you think about content, educational, informational. It's everywhere. LinkedIn. I think everyone is on LinkedIn. I'm looking at these names, and I recognize some of these names from LinkedIn, YouTube. I don't know if y' all have ever, ever been hit by the YouTube algorithm, but if you watch a Tony Robbins video, it'll pop up. A ET The Hip Hop Preacher, it'll pop up. Inky Johnson, it'll pop up. A Jim Rohn. Like, that algorithm works. And I love it because I love watching motivational stuff that gets me hype. And then it just continues to Snowball.

YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok. Even if you're not a dancer, there's a ton of information out there. So that's number one. Richard, is the content. The educational content information.

How do you. How does Larry. Yeah. Not get sucked into the vortex, though, Right? Yep. I agree with you. Like, you know, this is the challenge I got with my kids of, like, I'll go look for some motivation. Right. But TikTok is like, I wake up an hour later, and it's like, I just lost an hour watching, you know, silly stuff, which is. Okay, so how do you. How do you do it with intent and purpose and try not to get sucked into the distractions.

Your calendar, for me, I live by my calendar. I would have missed this if I didn't have it on my calendar. And I'll be honest with you. I set an alarm. I have an Alarm that's called zoom reminder that I set normally for. I said it today at 1:43. I think I normally set it three to five minutes in advance of when I have a call. So you can use your calendar to say 30 minutes is going to be the time that I dedicate to these social platforms.

And so on that reminder thing, because I was digging in. First of all, I love what you said. Nice. Sorry I interrupted.

You just do like the verb, hey, Siri, set a reminder for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You know, I'm, I'm, I'm old school. I just got the old. I got my alarms to wake me up in the morning. I got my zoom reminder. I got my carpool pickup so I don't forget about my most precious cargo, my kids. I got it. If it's not in my calendar and not on my reminder, I will, like, I can't guarantee anything, but I can guarantee I'll probably forget it.

So. And that was one of the reasons people here, right, Is that we're like, hey, here are three low cost, no cost strategies, right? Yeah, you can do some research, you can reach out to a board of directors, you can reach out to me. Like, I mean, I think most people know me here on LinkedIn or have heard of me. And same with Larry, that send me a message. I have an inbox, zero rule, not only in my regular inbox, but, excuse me, in my LinkedIn inbox. So I really do get to everybody. So it's really important.

So, you know, I'd love, I'd love for people, if you want to come off mute and ask a question, you know, feel free to do so or you can send it to me anonymously and if you want to sort of be discreet about it, you know. So Larry, you know, I know you, you're always up every time I talk to you. Just what do you do when Larry gets down? Because I think it's really important to talk about that.

Yeah, yeah, it happens. It certainly happens for me. And this is timely. I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be very vulnerable. The seven, the seven year anniversary of my father passing was on Sunday. It's never a good day, but that's how I make it. This Sunday. I made it a great day. My family, we went out to brunch. At first watch, we celebrated my father's life. I sent a text message. I couldn't talk to my mom and sister. It would just, it would have a bad impact on me. But I sent him a text just letting them know That I love them. It's okay. Don't be sorry. We're all marching to that finish line. Richard. We're sprinting. We don't know when we're going to get through that finish line. So for me, it was a reminder that, hey, Larry, life is short. I think the millennials call it yolo. You only live once. What are you doing to take advantage and make the most out of each and every day? Because tomorrow's not promised. When I go to pick up my daughter, my son got picked up early to watch this Argentina soccer game. Don't tell nobody else, but when I go pick up my daughter, I'm not guaranteed to come back home. And oftentimes I'm guilty of it, of just kind of going through and coasting through life. You talked about intentionality. I looked in the mirror and said, larry, what are you doing intentionally to touch someone else's life? Let's revisit your why. What is your why? And, yeah, it's my family, my kids, my father's legacy. And my why is also to have a positive impact on everyone that I touch. Every person, every individual, every organization. So when I get down, I turn to my wife for me. I turn to my Bible, I turn to my kids. I turn to YouTube. YouTube. I turn to Pandora. I don't even know if Pandora is in people like Spotify. I don't. I have Spotify, but I listen to Pandora. I got my favorite tunes that'll put a smile on my face. But that's just me. Recently, I've gotten back in the gym. Richard, you've seen me before. I was getting a little plump.

My.

My grandmom, who I lost as well, her voice was coming down. Boy, little Larry, you look like you put on some weight. I could hear that voice coming. I said, I can't wait until January 1st. I might be pushing 303 bills. I came in at 2:22. I'm on a goal to get the 199.

I'm right there with you, Larry. Right there with you.

So the company you keep, my wife is encouraging me. Hey, you going to the gym today? I'm like, I am. Come on. I need your support. I need that swift kick.

So I got a question. So let's shift a little bit back. Sometimes I have to interrupt Larry because he'll go for a few hours. Oh, I'll roll.

I will.

But when you think about companies, right? And they, you know the title of this is, if you don't invest in yourself, why should a company now I do believe companies should invest in their employees. I think they all claim that they do. If we look at it from this business perspective, though, it's. It's a little different than this personal side. How do we choose the right kinds of things to invest in ourselves? How much? Because sometimes it can feel overwhelming. Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna go try and take Richard's course on John Barrow's site or John's site or John's site con, which is like, oh, my God, I don't have time. What are the other ways to invest in yourself on the business side? Like, we get. Understand the personal side. Let's shift to business. What do you think?

There should be internal resources within your company. And if not, you got to put your thinking cap on and get creative. And there's a book by Rory Vaden, Take the stairs. Human nature is, we want to take the easy route. There's no easy route to success. I'm sorry. If you're looking for a silver bullet or magic dust, you came to the wrong place, because it doesn't exist. But for me, I look at it in five pillars, and we start off as beginner level knowledge. We try to work our way to intermediate level knowledge with the ultimate goal to get the subject matter expert. Column number one is company. That's our company. Whoever you work for, what's the who, what, when, where, why, how, the mission, the vision, the values, the major players internally, the partners externally. That's something that you can do whether they provide it to you or not. I think I can go to any company website and see what they're talking about internally. There should be some resources. Number two, the industry, whatever industry or industries you work in. What are the trade journals? What are the thought leaders? What are they talking about on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Twitter, you name it. Are they talking about different things? Number three is your product or your service. How well versed are you? I'll never forget Emily Dunn Williams. She was a sales rep. She was a sales engineer trapped in a sales rep body, and she ended up moving to sales engineer. And she knew our product inside and out. The. The cracks and crevices. She knew the product so well. It was just uncanny. And there was a. There's no mystery why she had success as a sales rep. Number four, the tools and resources. I think a lot of people use Salesforce. Do you use it well? I'll never forget Excel. For me, Excel is columns and rows, columns and rows. I guess that's the way it goes. But can you do pivot charts. Can you actually leverage that tool? Or is it just a tool on your tool belt that you don't really know how to operate to the maximum? Salesforce, all these other sales stacks that we have, are you an expert at it? And if you're not, can you budget 20 minutes of time a day? I guarantee you it'll at least get you to intermediate. If you go on YouTube and you say salesforce tip of the day is gonna give you some gold. Whatever those tools are, that's number four. And four is tools, resources. That's tools. But it's also people. Who are those people? I mean, you talked about board of directors. I talked to Morgan Ingram earlier today. I just sent a message to Scott. I've got hall of fame speakers on speed dial. Not because I'm someone special, but because I took the effort to show that I care. And I've asked people to be a part of my board of directors and they said no, I don't have time. No worries. I understand. I'll move on to the next one and ask them. And I let them know it's a two way street. I'm looking for advice from you, but I'm also willing to share what crazy thoughts I got in my mind. Bucket number five is sales skills. And you talked about your program Barrows. There's so much sales information, I would encourage people to filter the information. You want to take in the info, but you want to filter it and make sure that you make it your own. So where do you start with all this information? Start. Start at the first one. Company. That's easy. Get. Get your. Get your knowledge of your company from wherever you're at today. Beginner, Intermediate. If you're a subject matter expert, then you need to be teaching it to someone else, which will help you retain it. And maybe you'll learn something new as well. But that's a great place to start is company industry. That's another great place to start. So you got to get started. Just take that first step right now.

Yeah, I love it. I love it. And I think that's again, those are back to those free things, right? You can go watch a, you know, a YouTube video on Salesforce. Advanced skills, Excel, Advanced skills. You could sometimes even listen to it without watching it. You can crank it at 1.25 or 1.5 speed.

Right.

I think a big piece that I encourage people is I don't expect people to learn and retain everything. I want them to learn and retain one thing they can do right. So you Know, one of the things I always ask, and we might even ask at the end of the session is, and we should have asked, is what's the one thing Larry and I could do better? Because we'll take that advice, right? Every day I'll take that advice, right? And I think that that's a really important thing. If you can be that vulnerable.

And just, and, and when you get that advice, just thank you, I'll think about that. Doesn't mean you're going to. Even if you want to fight it, which we often do, do you know, that's, it's, you know, just say thank you because maybe I do need to absorb that. You need to hear it, you know, So I love that, that, that Jason, Elena asked you to come off mute if you're willing to. I said, you know, if you had 500 bucks and time was not an issue, you didn't have to worry about kids or job or whatever you could invest in yourself, what would you do it? Improv. Is that a personal thing, Jason? Like I want to go be a stand up because I actually did this. I actually went to an improv class in San Francisco.

So I love it. I'd love to learn more. So improv for me is personal and professional. And the reason I say that is why I'm doing improv is because it's a passion of mine, is comedy, engaging people. But what improv also does is it teaches me to think on my feet, it teaches me to act, interact with other people differently, and it teaches me how to handle pressure in different situations. So it's a multifaceted thing. But the reason I pointed it out is it's something I'm interested in that has byproducts that benefit both parts of my life.

Yeah. Are you, do you do stand up? Did I hear you right?

I mean, I make people laugh on occasion. So.

Yeah, it's like, Larry, like I'm in class.

Yeah, See, I think, yeah, naturally. Yes. But will anybody pay me for it?

Probably. Yeah. No, that's great. I actually did a class in San Francisco on it and, and it was interesting because they teach you how to architect a joke which is actually teaching you how to arch architect to architect a sales pitch or a part of your conversation. Right. It's really interesting to learn those things. I also love the fact that it's different. It's not a book, it's not Tony Robbins. It's to your point. And by the way, everything we learn is, has cross dimensional support. Right. Like, you know, I love reading you know, I love reading the real life business books, right? Like, I loved reading the one about Theranos, and I loved reading one about.

This guy named Joe Lowe, who was actually the finance guy behind Wolf of Wall street and all the money he. Wait, like, he literally flew people. They had New Year's in Vegas, and I mean, people like Paris Hilton, Jamie Foxx, then they got on a plane and went to Australia, or they did Australia and then went to Vegas and had two New Years, like, and allegedly the guy's like. He's disappeared off the earth. He's, like, floating around on some boat in international waters. And so anyway, so it's just a fascinating. I love hearing those stories. Those things are great to me because you learn so much, and they're different.

So.

And I.

So I read a lot of those things. So I love the improv piece. I love something that's different. It doesn't have to be a sales book. Although I will mention a new sales book, which I don't think I have a copy of. Larry, where's your book, brother? Plug your book. You're allowed to. This is your place.

Oh, good, Joe. Oh, it's. It was therapy for me. But really get zapped into intentionality. Rediscover, and believe in your inner greatness. And one of the things I think about is know thyself. Make sure you know yourself truly, especially as we go into 2023. Ask yourself the question.

Yeah, what.

What is my personal mission statement? What is my vision for my life? What is my why? And once you know your why, now you know, kind of how you can start to develop the what, the how, the who. But I appreciate it, Richard.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So go check it out. I'd love to, you know, write something about it, but he never sent me a book, so.

I need your address. The shark ate it.

Yeah, it's all good. It's all good.

The. You know, I know a lot of times, you know, people talk about technology and certifications. Larry, this. This is like, a little bit deeper than sort of like, the industries, like going out and getting certified, which I think is super, super important. So if that matters in your world, I think it's important to try and do it. And granted, you know, I asked a question. If you had 500 bucks.

You know, you know, you may not have it. I got it. So the question is, how else can we find it? And to Larry's point earlier, it's all over there. There's a lot of stuff out there in a lot of places. It May not get you the certification. I get it. I understand that piece, which is super, super important.

And I would say associate. I talked about trade journals, but I'll go back to my first cold call and experience 150 cold calls a day to CPA and accounting firms. Y' all don't know this, but I got to use my fingers to count. So I'm talking to accountants. It's like I'm putting them on a pedestal. I'm down here. But one thing that I did is I joined the North Carolina association of CPAs as, like, an associate member, as a. As a dummy member who doesn't even know how to count. So when I'm calling them, not only can I reference that, but I also receive. At the time, it was the physical trade journals that they sent out. I don't know if they do that anymore, but it's like, hey, I'm one of you. I'm a member of this organization that you're a member of. I can reference some of the people that are leaders there. It just puts you on that level. And it's. It's something about when you invest in yourself, people. It's unspoken, but people notice. They're like, there's something. There's a vibe, there's a confidence, there's a courage that this person isn't like everyone else. This person has. And from a sports background, you know it. I can give you an example. Ben Risinger, he was from Australia, and he came out in, like, some ripped jean shorts. He didn't look like a baseball player. He looked like a bum. But when he stepped on the field, he had this swagger. Played shortstop. When he. When he feels that first ground ball and whipped it over, it was like, oh, Houston, we got a problem. This dude is a baller. When he stepped in the batter's box, it was like, it doesn't matter what I dress like. Let me show you what I'm working with. And when you put in the time and the effort, just by showing up now, I'm encouraging you to go out and be confident and be bold. As you look forward to 2023, you can. You can seriously do anything that you put your mind to. I believe that.

Totally agree. I know. Danielle, were you. Did you want to come off muted and talk a little bit about the certification piece? I actually had a question.

Okay. So I hope that was okay. So if you don't, I'll put. Danielle and I go way back. She. Many, many, many, many, many years ago, more than either one of us would Care to admit?

You know, you talked about, you put in, you know, you said certifications matter.

Right.

In your industry. You know, it's my belief, and I don't know if it's true that your organization, if that's going to help the organization. Those are, I'm hoping those are the kind of things your organization will support. Right? Yeah. Do you, in your experience, present company excluded, have you found some companies who expect you to do it but don't want to pay for it, or do you find most of them actually do want to support you?

I find that we're doing certifications geared towards the products that we're focused on. But what I want is more broad certification. So something that would benefit me for the long run. You know, not just a specific. So we can take specific product certifications all day long. I just want something more, you know, something more broad for the industry, maybe vendor neutral. And that's what I'm trying to, you know, get focused on.

Do you and, and you know, do you think your organization will support it.

Or do they do it Depends. I work for a really, really small company right now, actually. Just have been working there for about five months. And it's extremely small company, like less than 20 people. So I'm not sure if they can afford to do that. So it would have to be on my own, probably.

Yeah. And that, and that's. I think that's a real life place like. And look, you could go work for Salesforce and they don't. Maybe they do have a budget. I don't know if they have a budget for personal growth. At some point, as an individual, we have to make that decision, like, what's that worth? And you know, certainly not easy to make a decision to spend whatever it costs for a course, particularly in December if you got holidays and family stuff coming up or travel and all those things. So it's a, it's a tough, it's a tough, tough decision to make. And I want to, you know, one, I thank you for sharing and, and acknowledge that. And, you know, trying to find that way to get it done however you can, I think is really important. And I don't know what that is. And I think you have to look at that long tail like Danielle. So if you, let's say you went out and got, and anybody went out and got some certification that's external of your internal product.

Right. You know, does that make you more attractive on the marketplace for the next role? Does it, you know, assuming you stay in that industry or is it. No I really like it. I think it'd be cool. It'll help me here. But you know, what do you think? I think both.

I mean it would make you more attractive just in general for the industry, you know, more knowledge, the more training, the more certifications that you have. And then for yourself. Absolutely. For me, I love that stuff. I mean I would would forever be learning school.

If money was no object. I'd be going to get a PhD in something probably.

That's killer. That's cool. So I think it's important. I'm glad you brought it up and I'm glad you brought it up in the context of like it's a small company and it's look, small companies make this world go round. Most of us work for small companies. I'm a small company, Larry's a small company. Maybe some of us work at a Fortune 2000 company. Not always, but. So it's important, it's important to acknowledge that their intention is good but the pocketbook may not be there and that's okay too. So it's not a blame like I want to make sure we don't have a conversation. Always blaming the company screw down. They don't know. Occasionally that happens, but not today.

So Richard, I've seen it and I, I used to coach baseball players. Now I coach sales leaders, sales professionals. When you put forth initiative and you put forth effort, I've yet to see to, to see it not pay off in some manner. Does that mean that you're going to accomplish that bhag, that big hairy audacious goal? No, it doesn't guarantee it. But if you don't put forth, you're gambling. And I love the gamble, just not when it comes to my professional success and by y' all attending. I keep saying this when I look for people to join my team, I look for epic qualities. The E is entrepreneurial spirit. So even if you work for a big company, a small company, you own your company and you treat yourself as it's a company. It's that business mindedness that you know that you're going to get out of it. When you put in the P preparation, planning. I don't know if Allen Iverson just hopped in, but yes, we're talking about practice. When was the last time you practiced your professional skills? Like truly practice? The I is that internal drive and desire. How hungry are you? I think it was Angela Duckworth talked about. Great. It's yeah, if you're really hungry, you're going to move and you're going to Shake in a different way. And y' all know what it looks like. You've worked with people that had that internal grit, that internal drive and desire. Can't stop, won't stop. The C in epic is communication. That's verbal. It's written, it's listening to skills. It's courage, it's confidence, it's care. It's the give a damn factor. Do you actually care? And then, most importantly, it's commitment. Are you truly committed or are you kind of just.

Just.

Just scuffling, just shuffling out there? No, I'm. I'm committed. Your actions. So that's kind of my thought.

Yeah. No, I love that. I just put that in the chat so. So people can walk away with it, hopefully.

So. So any other questions from the audience? Like, y' all jump in here like this. This is not meant to be a Richard and Larry show. Or is.

I'm curious to know, how do you currently invest in yourself? What are some of the things that you're doing? For me, I invest in a coach. I pay a little over $1,000 for my coach, Kristin Frade. She's amazing. And just the breakthroughs. But what are some of the tactics or things that y' all are doing to invest in yourself?

Don't all speak at once. Go. I'm sorry. Argentina just scored messy. Oh, I'm sorry. I had to break the ice. One nothing. We're up.

Keeping it real.

Jason, you were going to come off mute and Larry interrupted you.

He did, and I forgot what I was going to say. No, I'm kidding.

What are you going to invest in yourself?

I come from software sales. I actually come from elearning, kind of what we're talking about. But I've actually been working on a side project for about a year and a half, and I've been paying a mentor to help me. Help teach me entrepreneurship. And it's amazing to have somebody that knows what they're doing, that can be an accountability partner and a mentor and a guidance to make sure that you don't have to make the mistakes that most make. And it's made a huge difference. And now I'm close to releasing my product, and I wouldn't be where I'm at if I didn't have the. Take the time. Go ahead.

Yeah. Jason, what was one of the biggest mental hurdles you had to get through to do this?

My belief in myself to do the thing.

Yeah. The imposter syndrome.

The right guy to do the thing that I think I, you know, that I want to do like I can think about it, but can I execute? Can I put the work in to prove the results? Can I work hard enough? Like, it's just those questions that you. The self doubt and just like making the effort to start. So that's kind of.

So what was, was there a moment and I'm kind of going back to, you know, you've got a coach, you said, right?

Yeah. I mean, yeah.

What, what kind of things does that person say to you to try and help you through the imposter syndrome? Because I think we all have this and this could be. I got to go get. Have a job interview next week. I'm not sure I'm qualified. This, you know, it doesn't have to be. I'm building some big service or product and congratulations, by the way. What are the kind of things that that coach, you know, sort of kicks you in the butt and says, Jason, here you go.

Yep. I mean, if I'm just calling it as it is, it's someone that even though I'm paying them, that believes in me and knows what I'm trying to accomplish and has the ability to reassure my belief in myself when I don't have it.

Yeah.

Is how I would say.

Yeah, yeah. And, and you know, this is the interesting piece. Is that, is it something you already knew and you just need to hear it from somebody else?

Probably, or at least parts of it. Like I'm sure, like the know how's there. But I mean the intricacies, intricacies of it, definitely I didn't know but like I could ideate and kind of envision how I'd get from point A to point Z. But a lot of there, there'd be a lot of guessing in there and that's what I don't want to do.

Thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that. Really appreciate it. It's not easy.

You know, a couple things that, you know at the last surf and sales event in November, a couple of weeks ago. Next one's coming up in May, May 12th. Larry is still complaining that he's afraid of sharks. So he won't come. But, you know, someone should come. Larry, come hang out with us. But one of the, one of the most interesting things that someone said that was that was not me.

Shocking, I know, was that, you know, our greatest success will come when we.

Start when we stop believing the lies we tell ourselves. And so often I think we know these things, we hear ourselves. You know, my therapist, because I'm big on therapy, know said when you hear that voice in your head, is it your mom's voice or your dad's voice? And I'm like, I know, exactly. And sometimes it's both. You know, it's not, it's not, it's not just one of them. And, and you know, as, as I explained to, to her in therapy, I said, well, the good news is it's never my wife who's sitting right here. It's not her.

But that's the joke. People, I promise they're not getting together.

But I think that's a really big key. It's like this mental breakthrough. And I think that's, you know, we got to stop believing that stuff. And it's not easy. You know, I can.

Cynthia Barnes. Larry, does anybody here know Cynthia Barnes? May not know her if you don't follow her, please. Genius. And she's like the, the thought leader of, of one liners. A lot like Gil, a lot like Larry. But one of my favorites from her from two years ago was don't let people should on you. You know, Larry, what you should do. Jason, you know what you should do. Danielle, you should do this because nobody wants to be should on. Right. And so it's a really important thing. And so often we should on ourselves. I should do this better. I should do that better. I shouldn't feel this way. I. I should feel that way. And we drive a lot of this angst in ourselves, this internal dialogue, this internal chatter. So I'm really glad you have an external piece to help you there, Jason. I hope others do and hope everybody here knows. When I got time, I'll chat with you about life and mental health and sales and whatever I can do.

Hey, Jason, it's really hard to bet on yourself. I've done it many, many, many times. And I gotta tell you, hats off to you, man. Seriously, it's really hard to do, especially if you're doing it for the first time.

And, you know, it's a big bet.

Yeah.

You know, it's not. It's not only money, it's time.

Yeah.

You know, it takes away from everything else.

Yeah.

And with entrepreneurship, man, you're either in or you're not. I mean, there's no halfway. There's no half measures here. You got to dive in. Once you make the decision, just do it. Have faith in yourself and your idea.

Don't get it to the point where some founders do, they become assholes.

Because they believe in their idea so much. They forget about the people.

Yeah.

You know, and it's really all about people in the end, everything is because you need people to get to the next step, you know, to go from A to B and eventually, hopefully get to the end, you know.

Right.

But, but I'm happy to hear a young guy like you took a step like this and you know, seriously, man. And if you ever need anybody to talk to, connect with me on LinkedIn, happy to help. I am a serial entrepreneur. I've had the good, the bad and the ugly, man. I have had, you know, probably the shittiest X exits, you know, lost millions of my own money, my own hard earned money that I made selling.

And you know, I've had some pretty good exits too. Yeah. Not that it's all bad. Believe me, it's not.

I wanna, I wanna, you know, re. You know, agree with David a lot and say that.

Nothing bad happens when you bet on yourself. Now granted, I don't want you to bet on yourself and like lose the house. I don't want you to like not feed the family or pay the mortgage. I got it.

Yeah, you're right. Don't put yourself in danger.

I mean, you know, but nothing bad.

I've done that.

So. Yeah. You know, and good feedback. So, Jason, I'm excited to hear about it. It sounds like you're trying to remain a little stealthy right now, but you.

Know, I'll tell you all about it.

Yeah, so go for it later.

No, no, I'll do it later. About. I have a.

No, no, I'm prepared today.

I would definitely will.

Cool. Time for a little bit more. If people have question or comment or. Hey, I'm thinking about doing this. You know, one of the things that, that we did in at surface sales last session, which was new, is we basically created Croc Tank because there's this little river where there's crocodiles. Larry, I'll keep you out of that river. But. But it was like people came up with their best ideas. They had three minutes to pitch us. We decided on the four that we liked and then we put everybody on the team and then they had to come back as a team and pitch their idea. Like just like Shark Tank and, and the goal was quite simple. How can you make a business that in two years or three years will make you $500,000 a side? Hustle, whatever. We kept it really simple. We didn't worry about budgets and all that kind of stuff. We just wanted people to go create that idea. And, and I think, you know, I think Jason sounds like he kind of went through a little bit of that. Like, hey, let Me try this, let me go see. And that's what it takes is like, well give myself. And here's the cool thing we gave them before we chose the five for everybody to come pitch it. They had 15 minutes to come up with their idea. 15 minutes because imagine that then all of a sudden four of them all created ideas in 15 minutes. Then another maybe 30 to 45 with the team of how they're actually going to go and execute a half billion dollar business. It doesn't take a lot. You know, it's to Larry's very first point today, which was, you know, first you just got to take a step, right? You gotta acknowledge it and take one step. It doesn't matter where, just step. So any other questions? Comments? Anybody have a question for us or.

A question for the group?

Like I love that, I love so much that David, that you just came off and you know, shared some advice and insights. So thank you. But questions, comments, something you want to share?

Hey, that's in my, that's in my wheelhouse, man.

I can kind of tell.

I bet.

Anyone else, questions or comments or you know, while you think about that, thanks to our sponsors of outreach, Sendoso, Scratch Pad and Vidyard for, for always supporting these events. And we'll go from there. Then I'll even tone change this conversation. Anybody have any advice? Want to ask advice about job interviewing if you're in that spot. I'll even turn off the recording if you want. But if you in that spot of I hate my job, should I look, should I leave? Oh, I've got an interview. I'm not sure I, you know, I'm the right person for the role. I boost my confidence. We'll talk about.

Funny you should bring that up.

Yeah, go for it.

Well, I've been looking and interviewing since I pretty much shut down my consultancy.

My partner in the consultancy was my son. He was offered a huge job with Amazon Business, running a pretty big team over there. I said take it, like take the money and run, you know. His answer was don't even want to. Do you even want to help me negotiate this? I said there's nothing to negotiate here, man, sign it. And so then I wound down the consultancy and I've been looking and I took the aspireship course.

And actually the interview session I only had time for one of them was pretty good, you know, kind of out of practice with that stuff.

Yeah, that's good stuff.

And.

I'm pretty close now. I have two. I'm probably going to get two offers this Week.

Great.

I still haven't finished the assessment first buyership. But you know, it was, it was very helpful. I'll tell anybody who, you know, that's something you should invest in. I mean it's like 200 bucks. I mean God, worth every penny.

Well, I'm glad that's working out.

Yeah. But if, well say I don't get.

These.

Offers that I'm. That I think I'm getting this week. Although this time I'm probably 95% sure on both of them, I'm going to have to pick one over the other. And.

I've kind of a passive business and nerc business that I'm partnered in.

But get to the question because otherwise we're going to be here for.

So I think that's like going to be my choice thing. Like do I give up? Because one company does, partially does those things. They do R and D tax credits, they do ERC credits, but. And the other ones being a director of sales running a team for your software.

So, so is your question which one do I take or is your question do I keep my side hustle billing if I take the job?

Well, I don't want to have a conflict with one of the companies, so. And I've been very, I'm always very transparent, so.

Well, it can't be conflict if you've told them about it because they can only control what they can control, which is after you start working for them. Now.

Yeah, well that, that's the issue. But.

Right. That being said, it's easier said than done.

Right.

So.

So what is the question?

I guess my question really is, I mean the set. The other job is the director of sales for this company. You know, my boss would be a guy that I know and love and he's great.

David, David, stop it.

The question is.

Do I just keep the side hustle and take the second one?

I think the part of that answer is which one's going to make you the most. Which job separate of the side hustle makes you the most happy?

Okay. It's number two anyway. So that's the answer.

That's part of it. Two on the side hustle thing. And if you overlap, it's a lot to negotiate and.

And then all of a sudden you're doing the same job twice and so that could be exhausting.

Yeah, I'm kind of hands off on my side hustle. I have a marketing company that drives people to my link. I very rarely have to speak to anybody.

Then I would.

That's complete non issue and you just need to put it in your. In your employment letter. But, you know, I think it comes back to joy. What do you think, Larry?

You gotta find what's going to make you happy. I mean, that's what it comes down to. Life is too short to be.

No, I'm all about being happy. And I'm not a kid either. So.

Here'S the other thing that people don't think about.

Even when you take this new job, whichever one you take one sounds like you got a little bit of a side hustle, so it makes things a little easier in terms of financial. Not that background. The other piece is, I have no problem for the first time, the first 30, 60, 90 days, telling you to keep taking every interview that comes along because you don't know where the moldy cheese is yet. And there will be some. There will be something that will be like, oh, always is, Always is. Like, you've been around. You know, it sounds like, you know, you said you've been around the block a couple of times, so I'm not opposed. A lot of people don't agree with me on this. Take some more interviews if you want to.

Now. You may.

You again. I also know other people who are like, no, I can't do that. It's too guilty for me. Or I need to go all in on this to make sure I'm. I'm great at it again. If that makes you happy, do it.

But you know the beautiful thing about everybody? I don't care if you're in sales or anything, you're always a free agent. Like, you can always take something else. And if by chance. Sorry, coming out with the statement, if by chance, you take this job and 30 or 45 days later, something better comes along, guess what? Nobody knows. Don't have to put on your LinkedIn profile. No one's gonna know. And David, you got the best thing in the world. You got a side hustle. You got like, oh, it's been doing this while I was looking, so I usually do.

Yeah.

Yeah. All right, Larry, any. Any last parting words for folks on investing in themselves and how to invest in themselves?

Yeah. I love what Jason shared. Believe in yourself, and if you need to find someone that will support you. My. My coach. There's times where I didn't. There were times where I was ready to give up, and I was talking so much trash. I can't write a book. I can't do this. I can't do that. And my coach was like, let's. Let's take it back to what you can do and why do you even want to do it, and are you committed? And when you ask yourself, am I really committed to working out, Am I really committed to being the best that I can be, if the answer is yes, you're going to move in a different way than if the answer is lukewarm. Yeah, kind of. Sort of. That's not commitment. I love what David said. You can't be halfway pregnant. You can't be halfway in.

True.

Either you're all in or you're not. And it's okay. There's no judgment. But be honest with yourself.

Love it. Love it, love it. Thank you, everybody, for spending some time with us. Larry, please thank your wife for us that you stepped away from the game. We appreciate it. And. And Dan, I'm serious. If you want to be on my personal board of directors, reach out. We'll figure out some way you can help me. And. And likewise, I'll help you. As Larry said, it's two way street. All right. Bye, everybody. We'll see you again soon.

Bye.

Bye. Thanks.

Appreciate it. Thanks, everyone, for joining. Thank you, Richard.

See you.