Booster #1: Garrison Wynn From Who I Was to Who I Wanted to Become

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Excellent. We are recording and hello and welcome to the Gap, the Get Attitude podcast where we bridge the gap from who you are to who you want to become. I am Glenn Bill, founder of the University of Attitude, best selling Author of the ABCs of Attitude and America's Number One Attitude, keynote speaker and authority. Today. Boy, we got a really, really special guest, good friend of mine, one of the nation's leading speakers. He's a speaker that actually speaks like more than 85 times. And unlike most speakers who say they speak and they maybe get five gigs a year, this is one of the most traveled, highly sought after speakers in the nation. His name's Garrison Wins. So Garrison, hello and welcome.

Thanks. Glad to be here, Glenn. Absolutely.

Very good. I just want to let our guests know that our guest today, Garrison, his clients include most of the Fortune 500 Companies from American Express to the bank of America to Berkshire Hathaway to ge, Hewlett Packard, Verizon, Walmart, who don't you speak for? And the national and regional associations in almost every industry. He's an Amazon.com number one best selling author who has spoken on five continents and been featured in the Forbes and Inc. Magazines. He is also a former professional stand up comedian and a former Fortune 500 leader who has developed and marketed products that are being sold in 30 countries. So that is our guest, Garrison. Pretty, pretty impressive resume. Tell me how you got to be where you are from where you were to where you are now.

Just lack of other skills, really. Just lack of other skills. There's a lot of stuff I didn't do very well. I do like five things well and 80 things badly. And so I just kind of do a lot of what I do well and very little of what I do badly. I think now, I mean, I focused on my strengths, you know, and avoided what I didn't do well and I worked hard enough to get lucky. I think that's the best I can tell you.

Yeah, yeah. So many People, you know, are always focusing on what they've done wrong in sales, presentations and relationships, whatever. And that message, that, boy, you really need to focus on what you do right is the key. The purpose of our show, Garrison, as you heard, is we are reaching out to people who are may be feeling down, who may be feeling disempowered, who are not feeling abuse of life. And they need an attitude boost. They need to fill the gap from how they feel now to how they dream and desire, how they feel. One way we're doing that in this season of podcasts is we're focusing on the 10 attitude boosters. I sent those to you and I said, garrison, which attitude booster would you like to talk about? And we're going to put it in a context that for the person listening today, the attitude booster that Garrison chose was be nice. And boy, being nice is fundamental to life, fundamental to success. Talk to me a little bit about why you picked the theme Be Nice and maybe a real life story on how being nice got you from where you were to where you want to be today.

Well, the reason I picked it, because it's backed by so much in society, in the world, I think it's the big truth that sometimes we've forgotten about. We have this idea, if you're good enough or skilled enough or wanted enough, you can kind of be a jerk and succeed. And statistically, over time, not so much. I mean, most people are really screwing up because they're not nice enough. They just don't know that. They don't really know it. So when I say supported. So the number one thing that all humans value is feeling valuable. Like the number one thing that people value is feeling valuable. That's not a feel good story or theory or an opinion. That's the cumulative results of 70 years of Gallup surveys and 70 countries, sorry, 46 countries, 27 languages. It's kind of what we actually know about people. And if you make people feel valuable, they'll value you. You take a look at that. That's a giant stat. And it's really about being nice. If you're nice to people, they feel valued and they'll support you and they kind of want you to win. You just kind of create a bunch of advocates on your side. And all things being even, they tend not to choose who wasn't nice. You know what I mean? And there's this weird idea because remember the TV show House? House was like a drug taking jerky doctor, right? And we love that. Well, this guy's a total Jerk. He's an ass. But you know what? You know, he's a good doctor. So in real life, House would work at a hospital for about 45 minutes before he would be fired. People don't put up with that stuff. They just don't. We like to pretend like that maybe there could have been maybe 50 years ago or maybe 25 years ago, we would somehow value someone who had terrible behavior. But these days, ask somebody who's under 40 years old at swipe left, they will not tolerate someone who's just totally unpleasant.

That's a fact.

Yeah. So I think it's huge.

Garrison, as you look back in your life, being a stand up comedian, being a leader of a Fortune 500 company, who would you consider to be the nicest person that you've ever run into or who or what circumstance when you were nice or when you saw somebody else completely win a sale or completely win a relationship just because they're nice? What comes into your mind from your past experience?

Well, there are two things. One was Rodney Dangerfield, who I think was probably the only accomplished comic who was on TV and had done very well, who would be in the Comedy Store in LA actually helping other comedians and giving them notes to make them better. Almost no one else did that but Rodney. And here's a guy that in many ways lacked a lot of what it would take, you know, in the 80s and 90s to be successful. And he kind of, in many ways didn't get much respect. But he was on TV every week, he was making movies and he was booked like crazy. Made a lot of money. A very successful guy and a very nice, I mean really a nice person, very helpful. I don't know him very well at all. I didn't really know him. I saw him a couple times. He only said one thing to me. So I'll tell you the one thing Rodney Dangerfield said to me. He goes, hey, kid, lose the dolphin bit. Dolphins aren't funny. That's what he told me. So I lost a dolphin bit. So it was. Yeah. The other thing is, I had a sales manager named Lee, we'll say. And Lee, when I was unorthodox and when I didn't quite have the product knowledge I needed, I was the only person probably without an engineering degree in that space. I think that this guy, I mean, I learned from him because he was so kind and so nice, I could listen to him because he was so kind and so nice. And I think I learned something about sales and about managing people from him because it's a lot of things that he was not perfect at doing. But everybody in his presence knew he cared, knew he was interested and really wanted to help. And I think that's why that group was so successful. The other thing I can tell you was I ended up as a young person. I was a 27 year old Fortune 500 VP, which is ridiculous. But what happened was I had a boss who was smart. And I mean smart. And I learned under him, but he wasn't nice. And when it came down to nitty gritty and they came from corporate headquarters into our satellite office in Florida and interviewed him, I got his job. That's what happened. I wasn't better at all. I had a nice suit and a cool 80s haircut, but I was not better. But they chose me. That's true. They just, they didn't like him. They just didn't. They just thought that he would be abrasive with the group and they were a bunch of friendly, very chatty talk, nice people and he was just not that way, good person and meant well. Learned a lot from him, but that's true.

Tell me, when you think about being nice, how does that manifest itself in your daily life? What types of actions do you take where you go, hey, I was pretty nice, or I was nice, or what type of actions have you received? What I'm looking for is the person sitting in the car that's asking himself, am I nice? You ask people, hey, how nice are you? On a scale of 1 to 10, they go 7. I go, well, take it down 2. Give me some thoughts on actions and things like this.

Well, you know when you're sitting in the back of a car and your driver's taking the airport and you're tired because it's the fourth gig in a row, alright, and you're getting ready to go get on a plane and fly for four hours after that fourth gig in a row and you're just, you're tired and maybe not enough sleep and the driver tells you, wow, you know, I really appreciate how they acknowledge your niceness. They go, okay, well if I'm this tired and this not feeling great and someone thinks I'm being nice, there's two things it tells me. Number one, people aren't very nice, right? I wasn't that nice. I wasn't that nice. You know, the other thing is maybe I realize that when I'm not feeling great and all that, sometimes all I can do is try to help other people. And I kind of focus on treating people well and exhibiting Some kindness. And it's not always easy to do. I think you shouldn't judge yourself too harshly on this one because you may not feel great and feel nice, but sometimes it's just what comes out of your mouth.

Right, right.

Just what's flying out of your mouth that makes the difference. Or, and this is a big one, you can have a problem and not be nice sometimes, but you can do what I do, which is go, you know, look, I'm sorry, you know, sorry about that. I'm just having a bad day and I want to let you know that I know what just came out of my mouth. I'd like to retract that if possible. And people will respond very well to that, you know.

And as a person that flies and goes to airports 85 or more times in a year, I'm guessing when we talk about the airlines, the customer service end of things. Talk to us a little bit about what you tell Fortune 500 companies about being nice about customer service. What are two or three of the biggest lessons that you like to share on customer service and being nice?

Well, typically I want to call out a company, but I'll do it today because what a good job they do. And that's United. United does something that's really special. What they do is if they're going to, there's a reason United doesn't have the best on time percentage. And I'll tell you why. Because when a bunch of planes are late and they're all coming in late to an airport, that United flight will stay if they know that's the last destination, that basically this is their last flight. And it's late in the day, seven o' clock in the evening, not very many connecting flights. They'll wait for those people to get to the gate. Even though those other flights are late, they actually give up. Maybe some on time percentage they could win just to make sure the people actually get their destination. And there are many airlines that fly empty because the on time percentage is more important than getting people to destination. That's called being nice.

Yeah, no doubt. And that's called heavy customer service. Unless you're, unless you're the poor bastard sitting on the plane waiting for the other people to get on well.

But here's the thing though. This is seven o' clock at night. You're getting ready to go home to a single destination. It's not like you've got to connect and that's it.

Right.

And I've been on other airlines, none, which I will mention where I'm sitting, I'm in seat 1B and I look behind me and there's nobody on the plane. We're taking off, like, wait a second, where are the people? You know, oh, they're late. Well, forget we're going to go, we're leaving. So that's not good in my opinion.

Tell me any other stories. Companies, and you don't have to name them, but an example of the worst, the worst experience, customer experience that you've had and or another great example of great customer service.

I think some of the worst customer service I ever had was at a very, very posh, posh nice hotel that's known for their great customer service. And I talked to a young woman who all I wanted, I checked in and I went to my bed and it said feather free, feather free room. When I got to the room, not only was my room not feather free, there seemed to be like a hole in the, in like a pillow leaking feathers. They're like feathers floating in the air. It was like one feather free room ever. It was like crazy. So I went back and I told her, I said Kayla, Kaylee, Kelly, whatever. I said, you know, I didn't say that. I didn't mispronounce her name, but I forget what her name was, but I said Kayla. I asked for feather free room and I went there. And I mean like there's, not only is it a feather free, they're like feathers floating in the air. It's like an experiment for people who, who love feathers. I don't know what's going on. It's just unbelievable. She goes, well, who did you talk to? Well, I don't work here, Kayla. I don't really know. I mean we called in and I have a event coordinator who called in and always says feather free and all that. And that's what they do for a living. So it's kind of part of what they do. So we know, we requested it and I understand somebody missed it, but I just want another room. Well, you don't know who you talk to? No, I don't because I don't work here. I'm a guest. I'm a guest at a hotel. I'm kind of allergic to a lot of feathers and I'm in a feather bowl of feathers here in my room and I just would like a feather free room. Well, you don't know who you talk to? No, I do not know who I talk to. And if I knew who I talked to, I would still have feathers in my room. I mean, I don't know what? And this girl had the worst look on her face, it occurred to me. And right in the middle of that conversation, a very nice manager with a big smile on his face literally grabbed her, like, literally by the shoulder and just removed her. Just dragged her out of the picture and said, okay, no problem. We'll put you in another room. So that's something that's happened recently where I just couldn't understand why it was important for it to be my fault if I'm a guest at a hotel. That's ridiculous.

What's your advice to people that deliver customer service or people that are in relationships? When we talk about reacting to negative people or reacting to an aggressive spouse or significant other, what's your thoughts on turning the tables or how to turn a negative person positive or how to. How to flip a negative situation positive, what do you. What are lessons that you can teach?

Well, most of the time, what you can do and you have to be the key to this is your level of sincerity. I mean, you got to pause and get real. And so I'll tell you what you say, and I'll go back and talk about how to get. Be sincere. But what you have to say is like, I'm sorry there's a problem, you know, and I understand you're upset, you know?

Right.

I get it. You're upset. I do understand. You're not giving them an excuse for saying, I do understand that you're upset. You know, just. Just by acknowledging that, you know that they're upset.

And that works for you.

Yeah, it works for a lot of people, but it only works if you're sincere. And how to be sincere is to understand this, and that is that a lot of people have a lot of problems that have nothing to do with you or what's happening.

Right.

They got kids on drugs and financial problems and work problems and life problems and relationship problems that have very little to do with you. And sometimes you have to treat people. It's almost like a sickness. Some people are so angry and upset in that moment. It's like they're a sick person or a crazy person. And to understand that people have bad moments, they have bad days, they have bad decades. They really do.

Yeah. I have a saying. I always like to say, do you know people in your life that aren't happy unless they're miserable?

Right. Well, but here's the thing. If you're going to change, you got to get honest with yourself about the benefits of staying stuck.

Right?

Yeah. You got to be honest with yourself. What Am I getting. What am I getting from staying stuck? And the benefits of staying stuck are one of the bones. Oh, I guess you get to avoid the pain of growth. You get to say, well, did all it could. But how do you know what you're capable of? How would anyone know what they're capable of? No one knows. That's why you never stop getting better. What are you going to do? Become like a historical footnote? They used to be great. Now they're terrible. What does that mean? So that's why you never stop trying to get better. But back to what I was trying to say is. And it's a tough one. And that is people do the best they can. And sometimes the best they can isn't very good. You have to be real and say, you know, how would I treat someone who was sick? How would I treat someone who had the flu? This person is having a sick moment. I can't fix them. I'm not the cause or the cure. I mean, I didn't create this, and I can't really change it. But what I can do is acknowledge to them that I understand they're having a bad day. You know, And a small percentage of people will not react very well to this. But it's pretty small. Most people will, you know.

Yeah, I agree with that. Who is the nicest person that you've ever witnessed, seen, or met, besides Rodney Dangerfield?

It's kind of weird I mentioned Rodney. That's kind of a weird name. I don't fly Southwest very much, and I forget the guy's name. Is it Herb or Frank? Who's the guy that owns Southwest? Right. So I'm flying Southwest, and there's an older man standing up in the back of the airplane, and it doesn't make any sense.

He's.

I mean, he's a flight attendant. He's the oldest male flight attendant in the history of the. You know, and he's handed out peanuts. And I'm. Who is this dude? You know? And it's that guy, the guy that owns it. He owns the airline and he goes on the planes. He did. Then it was, you know, and he talked to me for, like, five minutes, you know, just talking and gave. The nicest. Nicest guy in the world. I mean, just as nice as he could possibly be. Just shockingly nice. So, yeah, I was definitely, you know, that.

Was it the president of Southwest?

Yeah, the president, yeah.

You gotta be kidding me. Yeah. If you look at the Southwest magazine when you fly Southwest, he actually writes a letter on the attitude Of Southwest.

Yeah.

So I probably need to call and get him on the podcast if he's around.

I mean, this was 10 years ago and he was not young, but he was. I mean, it was very interesting to watch somebody. He must. I watched him shake the hands of 30 or 40 people in the back of the plane. He was handing out peanuts. He had like a basket of peanuts.

Right.

Talking to people. I mean, and he was. And he wasn't introducing himself. That was the weird part. You know, it was like he just didn't say, hey. But, you know, I asked this flight attendant said, who is it? They go, oh, that's Frank or whatever his name was. He's the owner of the airline.

Oh, my God.

I know, I know. So he was really nice.

But I met.

I met some, you know, this is a few years ago. I was in a restaurant and I heard this voice and I said, wait a second. I've heard that voice all my life. I think it's this most distinct voice in the world. And I'm like, who is that? And I look up and I see this very old. Oh, I mean, really 90 year old woman with gleaming blond hair that's cropped, you know, behind the ear. And it's like, it's, you know, I don't know, it's 90 year old Carol Channing. Carol Channing was. Yeah. And she's talking like Carol Channing and she's talking to people and she's standing up in a restaurant. You know, I think her last. I mean, I'm not young and she made her last movie when I was born. Whatever. This is not a young woman, but she's walking around and she's talking to people and, you know, and the older people know who she is. The young people like, wow, I can't believe this age has such good posture. She was like, really in really kind of good shape. Yeah. So, I mean, very kind. I've seen a couple of movie stars who were really nice. And one thing I remember, and I won't name the other baseball player, one was not so nice, but. So when I was a kid, my dad did several things. One of the things he did was work for Magnavox, and he was in marketing for Magnavox. And after Hank Aaron hit home run 714, Magnavox signed him to be a spokesperson. And my dad, I was involved with the Odyssey, the very first video game ever on the market. Matter of fact, I took the original demo for Odyssey, the first console video game ever, to schools for show and tell in 1971.

Fantastic.

Another story. So we hire Hank, and I think Julius Irving was involved too. But we hired Hank. And I watched that guy after a game sit and sign baseballs till his hand got sore. All the other. I saw another baseball player push kids out of the way to get to a limousine, right. But I watched Hank sit there. This is. What would they call that? The Grapefruit League. It was in Florida then, you know, offseason, whatever. And playing those games down in Vero Beach, Florida, I believe. And he was signing those things. I met with him, hung out with him. We did radio show with him. This was like 1973, you know, I was like, literally, like, you know, a grammar school kid. And he was just. Could not a nicer person. Was amazing. Just amazing person.

Did you know that this podcast is now a part of the Seller die Network, a network of the best podcasts on sales, business, and personal development. You do. Now, the Seller die Podcast Network is committed to bringing you podcasts that will help you become more successful and more fulfilled. Whether you're on the treadmill at work or in traffic, the Seller die Podcast network will help you learn, learn more and earn more in a New York minute. All you need to do is visit sellerdynetwork.com and make our podcasts a part of your daily success routine. Now, Garrison, one of the things that you are known for out as you speak around the country is your philosophies on influence and the power of influence. And if you could talk to me a little bit about your message when it comes to influence and how that might tie into being nice, being happy, or influencing others.

Well, what I said earlier was that the number one thing that all humans value is feeling valuable. And the best way to make people feel valuable is to be nice to them. If you're nice to people and niceness comes out in different ways. So, for example, in employee engagement, if you focus on nothing but weaknesses, people typically will leave, meaning that you might get their attention because you told them what they're doing wrong. If you sit someone down and go, hey, all right, listen, here's your job review. Here are the five ways you stink. There's stink, super stink, really stink. If you're doing that now, go out and be good. It's kind of hard to engage people that way. And when you talk to people after their interviews, they simply say, well, I just didn't think my boss was very nice, right? And they were actually trying to help you. So I think that when you sit someone down in a job like you know in your quarterly review is to say, look, here are three or four things I think you do really well. I think you do this well, this well, and this well. Here are a couple things I think you can work on. So that experience of focusing on strengths with the experience that the person has, you're being nice to them. And it's the same thing for sales. Now, you don't think of it as much for client engagement, but it's really important. I can sit someone down and go, listen, looks like you're having some difficult difficulties and some problems. It looks like this is a problem. Let me show you your pain points. You know, the old selling. Let's talk about pain points. This, pain point, that pain point, this pain point. You're having a horrible time pain point. These are all your pains. Let me give you now the cure for your pains. And that's interesting. But what people remember is you pointed out their pains, right?

Yeah.

You sit somebody down and go, look, you guys are doing great. You're a very successful company. You got this going for you. You got that going for you. Here are four things that you guys are doing really well. Here's how I think I can actually help with. Here's a way I think I can help you. I can help you move more in the direction that you're already going. This will support the direction that you're going much more effective. When I've interviewed top salespeople and top people of influence, that's what I find. So to explain that. So over 10 years, we interviewed 5,371 top performers in multiple industries. Some of them were managers, Some of them were people who just moved the culture forward. Some were top salespeople. And the one thing we found was that they didn't use the word wrong. They just didn't tell people they were wrong. And the experience people had with them was they felt this person was extremely nice or kind. They didn't feel criticized. And there's a huge thing about someone who's not super critical. And it's hard not to be critical sometimes. But I. But I. But I would like to let people know if you can. If you take a look at the role that you played in somebody else's bad behavior, then you've got a chance to be influential. It's real easy to look what people have done to you and all that, and we can do that all day long. But we found that the top 1% of that research that were the most influential, they were willing to take a look at the role they played in somebody else's bad behavior. Because first of all, if it's always somebody else's fault, you can't learn anything about yourself, that's for sure. If you're blaming everybody else, you'll learn nothing about you. There's no way to grow. The other thing is when you say, okay, let me. I'm not having a good experience with this person. Let me stop for a second and look at the role that I maybe if they're being a jerk, am I fueling their jerkiness by putting fire on their jerky flame? So if that's the case, then you've got a chance to do something different.

And boy, that's a big miss by a lot of people. And oftentimes, yeah, there's no question the reason somebody's acting like an idiot or negative towards you is because of you.

That's right. Yeah. It's really common to not know that you are actually stepping on somebody's toes and they're just reacting to that. And you know, it's interesting that that information's out there, been out there for years. But when we started to do interviews over 10 years, it was 5,371 people. Some of it was done by, you know, interview forms and all that, but some of it was on live as well. And those live phone calls we heard over and over again. Yeah, I realize people have problems. I need to make sure that I'm not the cause of the problems and make sure that I'm not doing something that is going to fuel their problem.

And not just in business, but it's in personal relationships.

Everything, Everything.

It's that self awareness. I always wonder when we talk about being nice. So many times we frame that in a situation between two people. Talk to me about being nice to yourself. What's your philosophy on self judgment, self awareness? What have you learned about being nice to yourself?

Well, I've learned that humans make mistakes. And you're either a human who's made mistakes or you're lying to yourself. One of those two. Because people make mistakes. Okay.

Yes.

So the thing is that are you willing to forgive yourself? Because it's very difficult to show kindness and forgiveness to others if you've never forgiven yourself. When you see people who are really angry and upset all the time, they usually have not forgiven themselves. And it's hard for us to see that because we think they're self righteous and they're this and they're that or they think everybody else is the problem. But often, very often, the essence of that or the source of that is the fact that they've done some things, situations where they just couldn't forgive themselves.

Yeah. When you see miserable people or negative people, it's mostly a self diagnosis and a manifestation of what's going on inside their head and their attitude.

Well, they've also decided that they just don't like their life or the circumstances they're in, and therefore life is bad and unfair, and therefore their attitude is bad. I'd like to say something about that. It's a tough one. And in life you have a couple of choices. You either play the cards you're dealt or you go and ask for better cards.

Right.

Your choices. What you don't, what you don't want to do is go around and be upset because you think someone has the cards you should have.

Mm. Yeah.

I think if you really believe that life is that unfair, that you've really, you know, just been dealt this horrible, terrible hand you can't get out of, that is a fuel for being a negative, unpleasant person. I've seen it over and over again. But also what happens, this is for teenagers. I do a fair amount of work and we get some discounting in the school system. I speak to rooms full of superintendents, room full of school boards and that kind of thing. And I think one of the reasons we have a lot of kids that are 15 years old and depressed, I think we told 5 year olds that life was fair.

Right.

And it's not. And it's not going to get fair. You do the best you can with what you have and try to improve it, but this idea that life is fair and I think that what happens is we tell them that and then they come out of puberty and life hits them and like circumstances hit them, and they're just crushed because they thought that somehow things were going to be very, very fair and thought that this plus this equals that, you know, that something plus something equals something. And as you know, sometimes great plus great equals crap. Because it was a bad day. You know, just some things, you know, you do the best you can with what you have. I mean, and I believe you can ask for better cars, but you left.

Ask for them.

You can't complain. Somebody else has them.

You know, you just walked us in and segued into our favorite session of our podcast, which is Lessons of the Decade. And what we do, Garrison, is something really, really fun. And I know you may or may not feel comfortable telling us how old you are, but what I'm going to do and this is kind of a rapid fire. There's no right or wrong. But we find that the answers that we get that come to your mind first tend to be the ones that are most impactful. If your answers suck, we can edit them out. And the game we play is this. I want you to give.

I'm an ed to the four. Go ahead.

Yes, yes. I want you to think about your life from birth to where you are now. And we'll stop at whatever decade you're in. And what I want to do is I would like to know. Baby Garrison was just born. He's an infant. He's just out of the womb. What advice would you give the world as baby Garrison before you could even talk?

Well, we're talking about baby Garrison. I'm an infant giving advice. Let me clear this up. I'm a little baby.

Yeah.

And am I giving advice to other little babies?

You're just whatever comes to your mind, you know what, when you were born. And again, it can be a quick answer. It doesn't stop it. As a kid, as a baby, what's the advice you would give the world as a baby?

I would, I would give as a baby. I would say understand that people are busy, that human beings have a lot going on. And as a baby may not really understand that.

Very good. All right, so now what we're going to do is go to the 10 year old garrison, the 10 year old. I want you to think about when you were 10. What's the best advice you could give as a 10 year old garrison? Wayne.

Okay, let's see. I would say that, you know, you probably want to eat your oatmeal.

Good.

Oatmeal is good. Just because you don't think something's fantastic doesn't mean it's poison. I think I believed that oatmeal was poisoned and I was being poisoned by oatmeal.

So mom and dad, they wanted you to eat your oatmeal.

Apparently it was like the most important thing in the world. I was kind of told that if I didn't eat oatmeal, I would never be okay.

Very good for digestion.

Yeah, yeah, I think it was good. No one's trying to harm you with oatmeal. Oatmeal is not a punishment.

And so now we get a little mischievous. And I want you to think about Garrison when he was 20 and advice you could give as Garrison, the 20 year old man. The young man.

All right. Do not drink and drive. Good. Don't criticize the police. That would be the best advice I could give. 20 year old years.

That sounds like that may have been a reality check for you. Maybe at 20.

Well, I'm not going to say anything, but I would say if you're in their car, I would not say anything negative to the police and I would not drink and drive. That's what I would say to 20 year old.

I think that's very good. So you live through your 20s and now you're really rolling and you become a Fortune 500 leader. You're 30 years old, right. What does 30 year old Garrison Wynn have to give us when it comes to advice and attitude?

You're gonna have to acknowledge that people who are older than you have some experience and know that they'll think that you don't value experience because you don't have any. No, they may think that way about you. Okay. But I had 71 direct reports at corporate headquarters, all older than I was. And I was the boss. And I learned the hard way that I had to tell people that, you know, that, you know, it was. I had some older people in my department. I'm like, I know you stormed the beaches at Normandy, right? Shrapnel in your leg. I had to acknowledge that they had experience that they definitely had to see their input and my solutions for me to have any influence at all, for sure, I learned that.

Boy, that's a big one taking.

Yeah.

You know, people that are older, they do have the experience. And there's people that are in your life even today, right now, somebody that's listening is probably being influenced by somebody older. And they're going, I don't get why they're saying that. But it's important to tap in to say, these people have been there before.

Nobody, nobody wants to be a senior beginner. So when you're trying to explain something to someone and it's new to them, you better show them how their existing knowledge has value now and then how it's new or different. What you can't do is say, here, here's a better idea than you've ever had in your entire life. That does not work. Good ideas aren't good enough. You got to show people what they already know now is valuable. And then here's a new idea. Yeah.

All right. Now, I know you may not be 40, but I'm guessing you are. How about 40 year old Garrison Lynn?

A million dollars isn't that much money. So you think it is. It's just $100,000 ten times. You're just money you can spend. And no matter how much money you think you're making, and even though you're making more money than you probably thought you actually would, it's still not a lot of money. Yeah. You can spend any amount of money. I think you have to watch your operational cost and you just have to look at your profitability. No amount of money can cure spending too much money. There's just no. You know, you have this. Wow, I can't believe. Oh, wow. No, you can just. People spend all kinds of money. I keep thinking the story about Wayne Newton when he made $42 million one year and declared bankruptcy the same year. It's just something like that. It's like.

So when I tell me he wanted to take Glenn, buddy, I was saying, oh, my God, you make all this money. He said, glenn, we're all broken at different levels. Trust me.

Right, Right. Well, the main thing of 40 year old is to look at your operational cost and look at profitability, you know, because that I learned. I mean, I'm glad I learned it. I'm glad I learned it then. I mean, I think I learned at the right time.

Yeah. Some people are learning it at 70, right?

Right. Yeah.

So let's go to Garrison at 50, right? Yep. Tell me, Garrison at 50, what's the best advice you could give us?

No matter how good of an athlete you are, Stop, Please, just stop. Okay? There's a reason there are no 50 year old professional sports people playing football or basketball. Maybe Martina Navratilova is killer at doubles at 60 or something, but I mean, wherever else he is. But I mean, it's. Yeah, you have, you can. I was, I was on the beach in Florida kicking a soccer ball, right. And I just had this idea that I'm an athlete, I'm in good shape. I'm, you know, come on, right? I take care of myself. I'm eating oatmeal. I am fantastic, right? And I went to kick a soccer ball and I've been exercising and running around for two or three hours, okay. And I went to kick a soccer ball and I put my plant leg down, right? To kick with my left foot and just my calf muscle popped like a gunshot going off. People actually heard it. It's like kapow. What was that? That was my leg. So, yeah. So I realized that just if you're 50. Stop. I stopped playing tennis at 45. I had some very good advice. I had a tennis pro go the way you swing a racket and move around, you're not gonna last very long. So if you play old man dinky doubles or stop playing.

Right.

Yeah.

So that's low impact. Low impact. Now, I don't know. Have you hit the big six zero yet?

No. No, no, no.

So what we'll have to do, Garrison, is when you do hit the big six zero, if you put promise, we'd love to have you back to the gap. The Get Attitude podcast. The information you've shared with us certainly can help people get from where they are to where they want to go, from who they are to who they want to become. The number one speaker, in my opinion, in America. You know, again, people say they speak, but nobody's out there beating the streets like you, Garrison. So kudos to you and thank you for being my mentor and coach, too. You've been great.

Well, thank you. And you're great. You have something on your side. It's called talent. So that helps a lot. Sometimes it helps to be good. I appreciate what you said, and I think that I could probably come on every 10 years until I just until my last advice is eat oatmeal through a straw. That's my last. Right. Even if you're lying down. Be nice to the nurses. Be nice to the nurses.

Garrison. We're going to wrap it up. God bless you. For those of you who want to follow Garrison, you can go to garrisonwin.com if you want to hire him, as many, many people do, go to his website, garrisonwin.com Garrison, thanks so much. It's been so nice having you on the Get Attitude podcast.

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