The Law of High Numbers: The Counterintuitive Sales Strategy That Separates Winners from Quitters

I lost my safety net and so I'm on food stamps and unemployment, but really I didn't care. I really didn't care. You know, it was a temporary, it was humiliating and it was almost nothing. But I had my eye on the future. Hello, everybody. We're Happy Holidays. This is our Thanksgiving edition and we have a, a Canadian on here. Joining me today, Jolene Janke from outside of Toronto. And Jolene is in our community and she is, she's a front runner on most likely to become the first million dollar earner to graduate out of our community if we took a poll today. So, you know, the whole idea of the community is, and behind the podcast and everything you do is to get more. The world needs more million dollar earners. The reason I wrote my book serial winner was the world needs more winners. And now it's elevated. We need more big time leaders and great things happen to you can't get really big. You can't make a million dollars a year, you can't go to the top, you can't win a championship without it. What happens is you get your fundamentals down and then you build a team and then all, you know, the ripple, the benefits ripple down to everybody. So we need more, unapologetically, we need more big time winners and we need more million dollar earners, dead government and above. You know, we don't need fewer billion dollar, I mean, billion billionaires. We need more. And so lots of good things happen when somebody decides to climb the mountain and break because you break barriers, you know, you do special things. You take a lot, you have to have a lot of people involved in it. So Jolene has got, is on track to do that and she's got enough craziness inside of her to keep her on track for a long enough period of time to where that could happen. And so I asked Jolene to come in and my producer said, you know, people want to know more about, you know, they wonder about who does the podcast behind the scenes. I said, okay, let's get Jolene and let her ask questions because you know, she's, she comes from a unique vantage point of someone who's on the way up, had a lot of success, had a lot of experience, a lot of companies, a lot of organizations, been all over the country to big events, you know, in the last, I mean, you were in big event where in Vegas here in the last month or something that you, you know, you've been down to Lauderdale in the last month. You know, you, you travel all over the country quite A bit. And so you got a lot of exposure, know a lot of high profile people. And so I thought if I had to be grilled by somebody, I'd make it, I'd get. Make it gentle. And I, we, we. We'd get Jolene involved. So, Jolene, jump in and put me on the hot seat here. What do you think people would like to know?

Yeah, by the way.

Yeah, by the way, Jolie, Jolene, you know, as far as your background and things like that, you could tell them, but, I mean, she's respected and you respected all across the country and Canada in the financial services industry. She's a big organizer for the women in financial services, among other things. And so she got a lot, you know, a lot of awards and recognition. And so we, we would talk about that, but this is. I'm in the spotlight this time, Jolene, so.

Perfect, Larry, perfect. All right, well, let's, let's get, let's get started then with our questions. So, you know, Larry, one of my things about you is that you are just always on the grow. So I have a question. You know, how do you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

I just have kind of like, that's just the approach. You know, it's like I have things, I have places I want to go, things I want to do, and I'm in a hurry to get there because, you know, I'm interested in a lot of things. You know, you actually and your team have actually been out and you're among the very, very few, have been in the inner sanctum of my West Palm beach studio and got a studio tour, and we'll be doing more of those in the future. But, you know, the. I'm able to do, you know, a lot of things now that I couldn't do on the way up. And so I learned from people. You know, I get energy from people. And so in terms of doing the podcast, you know, you give, you get. And so when we start, when I started out, it was like, you want to do something great. First you're interested in survival, but then you want to think, well, I'd like to be able to make above average income, but then I want to be able to feel like down the road that I haven't just been out there making money. You know, you've made a difference in other people's lives. You're making an impact. And then way down the road, when you are super successful, you feel kind of, you know, more and more of. I don't know if it's an obligation to pass it on, to write these things down. Because I know when I went through my accident and I was immobilized on the couch there, you know, one thing I realized was that I was sitting on a whole lot of valuable information that I got in my probably, you know, 20s, pretty much in my 20s, because I, I'm through family connections or business connections or church connections or one connection or another. I met some like really high profile people and got to know them. And you know, you pick up things and I picked up principles there that stayed with me and I read some, you know, the other thing is that I also read some great books and that where, you know, you get ideas that stick with you, not everything sticks with you. So I had enough there to where if I hadn't gotten those things, I had those insights and those principles to organize my life around, I wouldn't have been successful. And as a result, the insights from using that of the track record from that and the, what happens is, you know, the, the experience of explaining it, you know, because we were in financial services, opening recruiting, training, opening up offices, you know, distribution for financial products. And as a result, you know, you have to train people. And so I, I was able to pass on and that became my life really. But why I go at such a high level, I just hate mediocrity, I guess. I don't know, I just despise. Be mediocre at anything because I know everything is more fun at the top. And I also know everything is more fun when you move up. You know, like if you're climbing a mountain, the scenery is more beautiful when you move up 100 yards, you know, you don't have to get to the top of the mountain and see, it's. You can see more things. You know, every fifty yards, every hundred yards you climb the mountain, you get a bigger view and you know, so if you, you're. We're only here for a limited period of time, 24 hours of the day, you know, I play to win and so I like winning. Everything's more fun at the higher, highest levels. So that kind of thing. Yeah.

And what, what book would you say, Larry, has been the most impactful in your life? And also what leader would you say has really had the most influence on your life?

The Bible. And because I've been learning out of the Bible my entire life, most of the time, you know, not understanding a lot of it and everything, but the, you know, in the New Testament, you know, the basics of the New Testament and Jesus Christ and Salvation and things like that. But how, what happens after that, you know, is a big mystery. And what's helped me in my spiritual growth and really business growth is that a guy gave me a book called Principles of Spiritual Growth of the Green Letters was the first chapter of that five chapter, five book kind of combo compilation thing. But he gave me the first chapter and the first book which is Principles of Spiritual Growth by Miles Stanford, still available for sale. And I pretty much read it almost every day for the last 50 something years because it takes a while to get it, it's one of those things where it takes a while to get it through your thick head but over time principles get in there. But I think that's kept me on track and that's kept me moving in the right direction because basically if you're not in line with what God's plan is for you, you're pretty much dead. You're limited to what you can do for yourself and we're all capable of working like dogs and doing great things and then somehow doing something stupid that blows the whole thing up, you know, and you know, puts a, you know, toxic spin on it. You know, you say something, you know, or you get angry and you have a temper tantrum and you blow it all up. And so, you know, it's the more you can get your spiritual life in order, you can stay on track and you can have keep that momentum and keep moving forward. And you know, so that's, that's the idea of, you know, I had the advantage of parents, you know, aunts and uncles, extended family, all very spiritually grounded in kind of a stable world. I came out, they weren't wealthy, they weren't making money, they weren't doctors, lawyers, Indian chiefs, senators, governors, you know, you know, high achievers. They were, weren't inventing, they weren't like Henry Ford or some scientists inventing the cure for some major disease. You know, they were, they weren't that kind of high achieve but they did have strong backbone and spiritual values. And really it's amazing, you look across the our family, how many monster leaders have come out of that really high achievers. And we all came from very meager backgrounds and so I would say those two things but I, I, I, I read everything. So when I was getting started, you know, I don't like to be ignorant. And so once I got it in my mind this statistic, which was true and probably true today, but I, I'd have to go to my chat GPT, my pro chat 5, 2, 300amonth version of chat to find out if this is true or not. But they did say back then, before we had Google and everything, somehow it was floating around that 80, 85% of the people who made big incomes were salespeople and the other 15% were the, you know, they're flying planes, they're surgeons, they're, you know, professional doctors, lawyers, architects and so accountants. And so if you, you know, you throw the profile, all the professional athletes on there, it doesn't really didn't turn out to a very big percentage. And so it's a great equalizer. You can learn how to do sales. Sales are learned skill. And it's just, it's the same thing today. The people who make the fortunes like on online and build big companies and everything, they get out there and they talk to people and there's a thing with. Jeff Bezos was telling one story at one for about one stage he went through in the development of Amazon. And they were, you know, they were way on down the road. But he got a point where they needed to expand, needed more money, needed to raise a million dollars or the whole thing was going to blow up. And he made money. 100 presentations face to face to get, I think 20 people to be giving $50,000 a piece. 80% of them said no. And, but he was willing to do that. You know, it wasn't that he was the, you know, and in the beginning he was willing to get down on his knees. They didn't even have a table to, to wrap and box up these products they were sending out before they bought a table. He tells that story too. But he was willing to do that. But the, you know, so you think of these things when you see him on his, you know, 500 foot yacht that he's sailing around on now and you know, with, with the spectacular new wife and the billion dollar wedding in Venice and everything that, you know, when you see all these things. Yeah, but this is a guy who started and he got that because he was willing to grind it out and doing those presentations. Let's let salespeople, you know, that's how salespeople distinguish themselves. They're willing to go out there and take the nose and sort through it and you get it in your mind. But on most things you offer them things even as, you know, like how could they say no to this? They're going to say no. And you have to go through the numbers and the law of averages says and this kept me half, you know, this kept me on track during my tough Times. It's like the law number says that everybody's not stupid. You know, the law of averages says that somebody's going to need whatever it is you're, you have to offer. And if you're a decent person, you're, you're making a semi decent presentation and there's value in it. There's going to be somebody needs it, but not everybody. And you're going to have to go all the no through the no's to get to the yeses. And that means you're going to have to go through the law of high numbers. Because the law of high, you know, I had to learn all these things. I got it out of book. The law of high numbers makes the law of averages work. And so you have to get past what new people do when they go into sales. They talk to one or two people. They, the people say no. And they said they, I'll never do sales. No, that's not how it is. There's no miracle way you can save the sale presentation. And then everybody goes, wow, go sign me up. It's a matter of getting the right person at the right time and you give them the right offer and you know, you're pleasant and agreeable. You know, you don't shoot yourself in the foot. You make it possible for them to like you and to like the company and then they'll like, you know, chance, they'll like the idea. And if they're liking you, the company and the idea, they'll do business with you. And so anyway, I read there was a period of time, a long period of time where I read everything. There was no way you could take me into a bookstore of any size and take me to the business section, the sales, management training, entrepreneur leadership, whatever it was called, that section of the bookstore. There's no way you could find a book in there. I had not read, I read them all. And so, you know, I went through the, you know, I picked the brains and because I'd gotten the idea early on. And one of those things is probably where I got the idea. I don't, I'm not sure exactly where the idea came then. Great ideas don't care who used them. And I was looking for great ideas because I came up with a solid foundation. You know, I'm, you know, reasonably intelligent. You know, I went to small schools. So I did well, you know, that's a good thing if you want to do well in life and have a good self image, go to small schools, you know, you know, you could be, you could be class president if there's, you know, like three or four or 500 people. But if it's three or four or 5,000, maybe it's going to be harder to be class president or president of the school. I was president of everything. National Honor Society, school, class, you know, but there's, you know, there's only 14 people there or something, a few more than that. But the thing is, you know, I looked at it like I could figure, you know, I can compete, but I've got to find something I can get excited about and. But the technical side of the skills, like the sales thing, if that's where the money is, I can learn how to do it. I got. Because once I learn it, I've got the rest of my life. So I was sorting through and I was getting myself mentally organized for success on a skill. On a skill and a schedule and a. I was setting myself up for success from thinking way before I had the opportunity to really apply all that other than with myself, you know what I'm saying? And kind of like Jeff, kind of like Jeff Bezos in the garage with him and one or two other people, shipping orders, you know, it's like in the beginning, you just have yourself. But that's important because you gotta. You gotta learn how to be your own best self coach. And it's. I would say this to you, you earn the right to get bigger by being able to coach yourself successfully because you can think your way through things in a way that you stay on track, doing the right things with the right responses, and you don't lose your momentum and you don't run home to mom, and you don't start blaming other people. You know, you, like, you take your. You take your medicine and, you know, it doesn't matter if what went wrong is your fault, someone else's fault. It's, you know, it's like, here it is. Deal with it. And what do you got to move forward? You know, you're the only one who's got to move forward. And you can't go to say, hey, look, it's not my fault. Yeah, so what? Who cares? And so you gotta deal with it. And so that kind of beat knowing that and working my way through that really set me up for what came down the road, I think.

Awesome. And what's, what's one scripture, Larry, that you draw strength from? And then second question. What are some common mistakes that you see leaders make? You've obviously trained a lot of leaders. So what's one. One thing you see Consistent. I see leaders make it as a mistake.

You asked me before about what one leader was a. That, you know, whatever, right? I think what the answer to that, to go back to that is that different ones at different times, you know what I'm saying? It's like. And I'm still the same way today. I'll get what. What I've learned is that there's always somebody who knows what you don't know. Like in Ecclesiastes, it says that. I guess that's the same way with scripture. There's always a verse for whatever situation you're in that gives you the answer. And the idea of those verses are really like concepts and ideas. They're like keys that you can use to open doors which otherwise would be locked. But if you know that you know how things work, well, then, you know, fighting, you know, I'll use that verse, you know. But if, you know, like in Ecclesiastes says there's nothing new under the sun, you're not going to run into anything, any problem that people have not been dealing with throughout centuries and they figured it out and solved it. And so it's just a matter of seeking. You'll find, you know, see, just having things like that in your mind, you know, but it's not one Scripture is not going to get you there unless it's I'm the way, the truth and the life. No one comes from the Father except by me. You know, those kind of singular type things, you know, no one comes into the Father unless they, you know, unless you, you have, you respect him and you know, you. The, you know, the beginning of knowledge is the fear of God, you know, the respect for God, you know, just like where you come to the conclusion where you realize there is a God, it's not you. And your job is to get yourself oriented with the God and the God does not care and the rest of the world doesn't care your opinion about that. You got to get your little mind and life in line with what you're supposed to be doing. And so these scriptures, all of those things, they're all important. They all matter. They all have an application, I think. But I will say that I never read the whole Bible all the way through until I never could get myself to it, until at 50, I discovered the chronological model, the Bible where, you know, I put it in chronological order. And there's a lot of chronological Bibles, but the ones that have the historical context, it kind of explained to you. Then you go into this section and they'll say, okay, now, now they're in this area, they're getting ready for a war here. They just came out of a war here, they just getting ready to go into Egypt or out of Egypt. And so you say, okay, now I know what they're talking about. Rather than just kind of reading through 66 books and 3, 500 pages. It helps you have some context, you know. And so I would say different leaders at different times. And you know, they don't all, you know, you're not going to get one leader that, you know, I don't think you're going to get one piano teacher that takes you all the way to Carnegie hall, you know what I'm saying? From the time you're, you know. Now in golf, I would say, you know, probably in some sports there are people like that. I know that Jack Nicklaus kept the same coach all the way, same golf coach all the way from time he was 12 years old. But most of the time you kind of graduate to higher level coaches or higher level people. And so, you know, you take what you can get from whoever it is that you're working with at the time and then you, you know, you elevate your game, elevate your competition, elevate your, your arena. And then because you, you elevate your opportunities. And so you enter into a new world. We have access to people you never had access to before. And so at different times, I've, you know, it's been different, different people, but they've always been really top people because I learned that you, you know, the, you know, if you can get whatever it is you want to do, if you can get the best equipment possible, take the equipment out of the thing, you know, equipment's not going to be the make or break, but, you know, you can give you that's an advantage you can give yourself. So the thing is that, you know, I like to as good, as good equipment as I get it. I've got two of the state of the art sets of skis sitting in my locker out in Aspen waiting for me to show up, dress fed, with my legs strong, ready to ski in this, probably the end of January when I get out there. But, you know, I want, you know, I don't want to go out there and crappy old skis. You know, I want a state of the art because I take that out of play. You take the equipment out of play. And then as a matter of advice, in terms of operating the equipment, you want to get the best coaching, the best input. And so you're still going to go, you know, hit your golf ball, you still gotta ski your skis, you still gotta run your company, but you know, or go in and paint, you know, you've seen see this in the studio and, but you still gotta do all do it, you gotta make it happen. But the input and the techniques and all of that time saving things, I always wanted to get the highest level person advising me that I possibly could to go with the best equipment. Because what that gave me and this is why we have the community. I mean this leads to everything. This is how I've designed my management development system. This is how I put things in place. When I went to North Carolina, had to have a night. I not only started on food stamps and unemployment, when I changed industries, I went from highly successful in construction. We built 100 houses in four years. And the year after I left, my partner was elected president of the Atlanta Home Builder association. And I built the houses, he stayed inside and did the books. And I left in January, I left in December, end of December. I was the field, field guy. I built the houses. But based off our reputation, he gets elected and what happened was, you know, was a slowdown. There were nobody, nobody was buying houses. It wasn't the, we didn't have people stacked up wanting to buy the houses. They couldn't get financing. And so, you know, I, I said I'm out. You know, this is, you know, we just didn't have any money coming in and I didn't want to have to go through that. I said, there's got, I can't be in an industry where I put in years of 100 hour work weeks and then wind up in a situation like this. Put my name in the bank to change industries. Just like I changed majors at Georgia Tech. I got out of architecture once I found out in the second year that it was going to be another three years of sleepless nights to graduate. And most people didn't graduate. But if you did get graduate, your reward was the first step was three more years of being a draftsman on minimum wage before you could begin to flunk your, your architectural exams, which everybody flunks the first few times. It's like, I don't want to do that. I got a family support. I want to make money, I want to have fun. I don't want to be sleepless nights the rest of my life. So I switched, you know, so that's what I did, you know I did. No, you know, I got, I stated it long enough to get all of the facts. And I said, I'm out of here. And so I took the next best option and that's what I did when I. So I took construction as far as it could go and we did well, you know, I'd excelled at it. But the thing is that, no, not worth it. And see, you don't have to sit there and take it. If you're getting kicked in the teeth or you look down the road and you say, wait a minute, this is not. This road's not going where I thought it would go. So I don't have any enthusiasm for staying on this road anymore. So I switched, it was the same thing. I switched industries. But when I started, I lost my safety net. And so I'm on food stamps and unemployment. But really I didn't care. I really didn't care. You know, it was a temporary. It was humiliating. It was humiliating and it was almost nothing. But I had my eye on the future. And you're looking for something I could get excited about. And I did find, you know, an arena of financial services. I could get excited about helping people doing financial planning, you know, showing them the truth about how money works and not be a victim of all these companies that are basically, you know, predators on middle, middle class people. And I'm talking about all the big names, Prudential, Metropolitan, Northwest Mutual, they're all predators basically since started after the civil war and on concepts that worked for them but nailed the middle income people, people bought from them to the wall. And you know, it's basically a shell game. And so we love going in there telling people the truth and enraging, you know, the 635,000 people in the life underwriter association. They'll all hated us coast to coast taking the good news of bi terminvestive difference to the public. You know, we were the rebels. And so they couldn't do anything about us because we dealt in the truth. And so we put everything in writing and you know, they did take their shots. You know, they did everything. They could lie, cheat and steal and, and you know, but you know, you can't, you know, the truth eventually will win out and, and that's what we did. But when I went to North Carolina, that was an opportunity to go from sales into management and build an organization because the company, I was one of the first ones. A friend of mine, Bill arena, moved to Dallas. He was more advanced at the company at that time than me anyway, but he would. So he went to Dallas. I didn't want to go to Dallas. Because I, I, you know, I, I knew I wouldn't feel at home in Texas. For some reason I'd always been in the Southeast. So I wanted to be someplace where I'd feel at home and wouldn't feel like I needed to be moving, you know, get this over with so I can move back to where I want to be. I wanted to be someplace where I'd want to be there. But we learned things. I learned how to compound, learned how to put people together. And the second year we recruited 1800 and the third year we recruited 7500. And then after that we recruited 15,000. And so what happened was like 25,000 in three years. But it was that compounding, all that stuff, you know, I had the platform for success. I'd had experience with working with subcontractors, building houses. So it's another skill set I developed, you know, with being able to move people up, you know, train them, give them responsibility, turn them loose, but then hold them accountable, you know, come back in and have, develop systems where you can turn them loose but you know what they're doing and you never let them out of your sight for long. And so all of that stuff, that preparation came out during those years and I've been compounding that and teaching that stuff ever since. And that's how I've evolved into the, you know, the podcast. And you know, I still, my method is still the same. I pick the brains of people are at the top and I apply what principles they use. And then we created a community where we can do that together. We can share and challenge each other together just as if we were in the same company. What happened? We had done it, we had done that successfully inside a financial services company, but is one company and you look out there, there's a big world and at some point you say, I'd like to really make an impact outside of this one company because these principles are applicable across the board. So that's why we created the big hitter community. And since we had such a successful track record teaching a system that allowed people to get, organize for success and then go out and compound and be build million dollar income businesses, we made that the focus of the, the big hitter community. And you are, you know, that's where you are. You're in the, you know, you're, you're in the oyster shell there, becoming a diamond. Okay? The duck. You don't become a diamond without an oyster, you know, isn't that what it is? El Pearl. Pearl. Pearl in the oyster shell. So, but Even a diamond, a diamonds under all this rock inside the mountain, all that pressure go to. And so you got to be in an environment, folks, if you want to become a pearl, a diamond or whatever, you got to have some world where you can develop it. So that's why we did the, that's why we have the community. And we want to build an army, a monster army of people that are focused on winning because we learn from each other. You know, none of us knows everything. So that gives you some of, you know, lots of leaders at different times. And when you move up, there's a whole lot of different things you need to know. And then you find out that, hey, there's a, there's a, there's a million people already at this level. I didn't know that. You know, I asked my guitar teacher once when I learned how to play a real tricky thing with my finger picking thing on the guitar and I, I was real proud of myself. I said, you know, how many people in the world even know how to play that? He said, oh, millions. Talk about putting a pit in my balloon. I thought, I thought I was special because I could, you know, figured out how to do that. But. And so there's, there's a lot of people out there that you can learn from if you, you're open minded.

Well, another question too. I know you have a lot of different interests and how do you measure a productive day for yourself? Like, like what, what is it that you, you know, you do in a day? And then you go, that was a winning day.

I like to move. I like to get things done. And so when I, you know, the Bible has this thing, sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. So I'm not really, I just want to move, you know, I get whatever comes up in my mind. And sometimes, you know, your subconscious will wake you up at 2 in the morning and like all of a sudden, you know, deal with this, you know. And I have found, even if you don't want to deal with it, turn the light on, turn on your phone or get a notepad out and start writing whatever comes in here, you know, some of the greatest songs in history have been come in the middle of the night to songwriters just fully formed, you know, it's just like, boom, there it was. I got up, wrote it down, went back to sleep, forgot that I'd written it down. I woke up and I had one of the all time greatest hits sitting there on my nightstand. So your subconscious never stops working and organizing. And so usually it's One of the great things about being your own boss and controlling your world is the higher you go, the more freedom you have to be flexible and put your energy into what needs to be done at that day. But I look at things as like, you know, we're on the road to put things together, like building the community, like doing the podcast, getting the best, you know, the guest lineup, it's just like it's all business, you know, you have things you got to get. Your supplies, you know, in the podcasting business, your supplies, your inventory is your lineup of guests that are on the schedule to be interviewed. Podcasts that you are scheduled to be interviewed on, interviews that you've already done. Podcast interviews where you've got them in the can and you've got them on the schedule to be rolled out on your one or two or three a week schedule where you're, you know, you've got them, your production line lined up. It's all, you know, a process, you know, all businesses are all the same thing, you know, and so there'll be some area where, oops, we, you know, we got behind on that. There's always something needs to be done. And so I like when, I like that. I like staying. I despise being behind. I guess one thing, if I like being ahead, I like getting things done, but I despise being behind. And we used to have a thing. You were in financial services. Homework is a pain in the butt if you're late. If it's anything that's due tomorrow and you haven't put any energy into it, it's annoying. Oh, it's such a hassle, you know, when it's fun, when you did it in advance. Everything's easier when you do it ahead of schedule and you take the pressure off yourself. People go through life and they're losers because they never give create a margin for error in their life. They think everything's going to go perfect. They'll line up a perfect schedule, they'll be perfect. Life will be perfect. The car will be perfect, the kids will be perfect, the spouse will be perfect, the job will be perfect, the highway will be perfect, traffic will be perfect, everything will be perfect, the flight will be perfect. And I have a schedule. And this, no margin for error. And then guess what happens? Something goes wrong and then you're a nightmare. You're running around, I'm going to be late for this and the other. Well, like, why in the world didn't you give yourself a little margin of error day? You ever learn from is this the first time something's gone wrong in your life. And so I like giving myself margins for error because I know things are going to go wrong. And you can't think of everything that's going to go wrong, but the things that you can think of that'll go wrong. Give yourself a little float, get in front of the game. So I'm always looking like, if I can't get. Here's my attitude, here's what I went to North Carolina, I developed. I refined this when I went in North Carolina because when I was in construction, you know, on an average day, I would have 11 crews. I would always have about five different subdivisions I was building houses in. And I would have 11 crews out working on something somewhere in a given day. And so, you know, I pretty much, you know, I didn't have to think. I had to work with them. I'd get them supplies. I had to go and make sure they showed up. I got to keep them on track, make sure they're doing the right things. And. But, you know, when I went into this business, I was only managing myself. And so it's a matter of how can I set myself up. And this is where the principle of overdue came from that I have as a second chapter in my book on how you get things done. Because after you decide you want to do something, you launch out. Most people set out for failure because right from the beginning, they underestimate how much effort and time and money it's going to take to pull it off. And so my thing is, since we know governments do that, countries do that, you know, if they're going to build a bridge, they'll underestimate how long and it's going to take and what it's going to cost. You know, if the military is going to build a jet, a new jet, no, you now we have the F45 is under. That's going to go over budget. Let me tell there's never been a weapon system the military's ever had, a tank or whatever that has not gone over budget and been, you know, taken longer to develop. So whatever it is, you've got to allow for these things or get punished because you didn't. And so I don't like get punished. I don't like to be back, you know, myself, because a deadline backs me into a corner. I don't like anybody. So I wanted to have control over my life where nobody I could live, where I wanted to live. And I wanted to be able to make above average income. I didn't really care what I did, but I wanted control of my life, and I wanted to be paid for putting in the effort. And that's kind of motivated me all the way through. It is. And that's kind of me, part of behind me like to stay ahead of the game. So I like to knock things out. And I developed this when I was in charge of myself. You know, I went up to North Carolina. There was not even, you know, when I was in Atlanta, I was in Bob Turley's office, and he kind of ran the show. You know, we got this meeting here, we got this meeting there. We got this, that, and the other. We got this contest going or whatever. But when I was in North Carolina, I ran the show. There was no show that I didn't run. So what I. I was in charge of what we got done today. So here was my philosophy. And it's. I've. I do it still today. I go off. I don't worry, Jolene. I don't know how you operate, but I don't worry about what I don't want to do. I focus on what. What do I want to do today? Okay, If I don't want to do something, that means we ain't doing it today, probably. You know, now, if it's marginal, sometimes you just got to get yourself to bite the bullet and get it over with, get behind you Again, margin for errors. If, you know, if something's cleeping up on you, there's like a deadline coming, you say, okay, I'm not really gung ho about doing that, but I am going to do it. And then you feel great because you got that margin for error back in there. But usually I operate off. What do I. What can I get my. It's basically what can I get myself to do today? Because in every business, back even when I went up there, it was like I had certain amount of paper book work to do. I had a certain amount of. I had to learn about this. I had a certain. Back then, I had to order certain supplies. There's nobody to order anything but me. I did, you know, and boxes came for. I had to unbutton boxes and put them up there, the counter. And then I had to call Atlanta to solve a couple of problems, you know, with the home office or to call and check on that. And then there was always tapes to listen to. You know, back then, we had cassette tapes, was the trade. There was always a tape to listen to. There was always a memo to read. There was or. And then that. That's just mumbo jumbo administrative stuff. And then the things that you make money off of so many people to set, you know, making appointments and seeing people and things like that. So I had my schedule in every day. You know, I. I put things that I knew that I like to see. I like to see somebody first of the day, so I had to trick. But I don't like to get up early. So I'd set up a breakfast appointment every morning because I knew when I wake up, I said, oh, they're going to be over there waiting on me. Okay, I got to get over there. So it's. It was like how I managed myself. But then after it was over, I had my first appointment of the day, you know, and so, you know, I'd broken the ice. And so you have little things you put in there to get yourself, and then you feel better about things. And then it's a matter, as you move through the day, what can you get yourself? I'm always getting something done. It's like, if I'm not doing this, I'm doing that, I'm doing this, I'm doing that. And then if I'm goofing off, I'm goofing. I don't mind goofing off because you gotta have some recovery time. I unapologetically will just sit there and zone out. You know, it's like, you know, there's a. There's a value to that too. You know, going to the gym or, or having some recreational things you do. And so over the years, you know, I. I've blended in a whole lot of that kind of stuff. You know, I've rode competitively, rode show jumping horses for 16 years, even got up to where I could compete with Olympic riders. Like, even though here in Wellington, which is over my shoulder here in South Florida, and which is horse universe. And so, you know, I did a lot of things. I've been all over the world doing wing shooting and bow hunting and skiing, you know, all over the world, skiing. Got. And I have buddies in those things. So you make friends, you make contacts, you make it part of your business. And so always doing something either to get it done, to create a margin for error or to. For inspiration, you know, to kind of create your energy. And so that's kind of the madness that I go through.

I love it. Well, maybe a couple final questions, Larry. So if you were to describe yourself in three words, what three words would describe Larry Wydell, born again Christian.

That's the first three words that came in Okay.

I love it. I love it. I would say one final question too would be, you know, what, what is one thing or a couple thing? I mean, you do so many things, but what's something that you are really, really proud of? Like, I know you're proud of lots of things, but something that really stands out as a pivotal moment. When you were there, you just looked in the mirror and you're like, I'm proud of me. What was that moment?

Well, you know, we live in a fluid universe. We have so many things happening over time. But I would say for perspective, looking back, I would have to be, you know, I'm proud of my career and I'm proud of, you know, all of those achievements and everything. It's just like more great, you know, the way I look. A lot of that stuff is I'm more grateful for it than proud. It's like, you know, humbled by it, that type thing and things that stand out that you really, you know, I really grateful for are my two boys and you know, how they, you know, their character and being able to trust, trust them and know that they're making the right decisions. And not that you agree on everything, but basically they're solid as Iraq, solid citizens. And because, you know, the thing is that the kids go haywire on you. They just, they can create so much hell. It's unbelievable. You know, like when they're young, you know, you take one uncontrolled two year old could just make hell out of your life. You know, it's like having a bad dog, really. I think Caesar the dog prisoner is worth his weighted gold if you have misbehaving dogs, you know, but the thing is that the fact that, you know, again, when kids are young, they're going to be where they're going to be. You can't, you don't know how they're going to turn out. You just have to live with it, live through it. So, you know, they'll come up with stuff you just can't believe. But then to have to come out the other side of the tunnel and be such solid citizens where they only add, they don't, they only add to your life in enjoyment rather than take away that. I mean, to me that's better than money, isn't it? It's better than the house you live in, the car you drive or whatever. Just, you know, peace. You know, the thing is like, it's one thing to have income, but it's another thing to have contentment and have a, you know, and be able to live your life in peace. I get so much stunned because I don't have a lot of static in my life, you know what I'm saying? And I designed it that way. That's why I stay ahead of the game. You know, if there's a problem person out, you know, if it's a problem, you know, it's the same with a career. You know, problem career out. I'll find a good one. There's too many good ones. You know, problem place to live. You know, we lived in North Carolina. We outgrew North Carolina. I moved. You know, the boys were raised. Great place to raise a family. It was time for me to go on another phase of my life. I came down to North Palm beach because that's where, you know, Art Williams, my billionaire buddy, was. And I said, well, there's nothing that says you have to be a billionaire to get through the city limit. So I can live down there too, you know, and so join the same clubs as Art Williams. I'm, you know, I'm in the same club with Donald Trump. So now I go out. I got a place in Aspen. I don't just ski in the. In Aspen. I spend the summer out there. And the weather is great. So the thing is where, you know, you could design your life to get rid of the static and to, you know, when you do that, you create open doors for you to be, you know, to be productive because the friction goes down. You know, you take the static out and, you know, you know, when it comes, it's like static is always going to rear its ugly head. But. But when it does, you say, okay, solve that problem number one. Number two, make changes, put in systems, make adjustments. So very unlikely that that problem ever comes up again in the rest of my life. Okay, Like, I didn't know that was a possibility. But I'm going to take that out of. Out of the range of possibilities. And so over time, you get less and less stress in your life, which allows you to be more and more productive. And it's amazing to live your life where you have positive things happen, happening at a rapid rate, because it's like any kind of win, it energizes you, you know, and so that's how, you know, that's why a lot of successful people seem to have so much energy, is they're just going from wind to wind to win. And there's no shortage of inspiration and adrenaline rush from the things that happen because you're like, I can't believe that happened. I can't Believe I met that person. I can't believe this opportunity showed up, you know, I can't believe we broke that record. And so. But that ha. You can't do that if you're fighting off a bunch of fires or static in your life that you've just let accumulate, refuse to deal with, you know, face the problem, deal with it, and it just kind of grows because they'll never go away. These problems in your life will never go away unless you deal with them. So what do you think?

Yeah. Okay, my final question. I know it is Thanksgiving, so what's your favorite food for Thanksgiving?

I like turkey. I like the standard turkey with all the dressings and all of that stuff. I'm going to eat an early Thanksgiving and then go up to my family reunion on Thursday. Go to my family reunion we have up in Georgia. And so I think I'm driving this year. I'm going to avoid all the airlines. But yeah, I like the traditional stuff.

Awesome, awesome. Well, thank you, Larry.

My pleasure. So let me ask, I'll go back to interviewer myself. So what, what stuck out, what stood out to you the most, would you say? What do you think people got from this?

Yeah, you know what I mean? One thing I'm really present to is I love that you just said just from when to win. I really got that. And sometimes even, you know, setbacks can be wins if you learn from them. And I really got in your life. There's, there's a lot of that. You're. I love when you always talk about natural curiosity because when we're drawn to things, it's like our inner intuition and we need to follow that. You know, our subconscious, like you said, wakes us up, tells us what to do, like if we just are intuitive with it. And I really like that. I mean, obviously being, you know, being a born again Christian, I'm a new Christian as of 2016, got baptized and I, I do believe that has been just a transformational shift in my life just knowing whose I am because, you know, I don't, I don't, I have peace. It really gave me peace. So I really got that from you. You just lead with purpose and, and you're really grateful. I always, always find that people who walk with God, you're just grateful for all of it because there is something good in everything. So I think I took that away for sure.

Well, I think you take also there is something to say for the natural curiosity of putting pictures up there in the wall. Like I heard a Sharon Stone interview yesterday where she said when she was coming up, she was an actress and all she could get with the toothpaste commercials, you know, and she. She. Every time she got a commercial lined up, she went to her acting coach, you know, to make sure he. And finally the acting coach said, sharon, what is it you really want to be? You know, and she said, well, I want to be an actress, and ultimately, one day I want to act, and I want to be acting directly me with Robert De Niro. You know, she was. You know, she was doing commercials, and then. And the. That came true. She was talking about how it came true in the movie Casino, I think, you know, and so it just. I think there's something about having a wild dream up there, because that comes from somewhere, you know, that is like, there's a reason that puts, you know, that's put in your head, but I think you embrace it. And I think also when you're doing that, I count it as a win if I have something I don't understand. And with creating this community, there's a lot of things, well, how do you do that? How do you say that? Why do you do that? Unending questions, but every time I get an answer, I count it as a win. It's like, all right, I can move forward. I'll never ask that question again. I got it. Okay. And so I like the things that allow you to move forward in your life, and. And you get as much of a bang out of those little things that, like, stumped you. Something that's just, you know, it's like I told you, you know, one of the things that stumped me was doing these podcasts. You know, it's 20 years of trying to do a podcast, and we, you know, we'd study, we'd listen, we YouTube, we read books, we'd get. I even sent my top assistant admin through a $2,000 way back, you know, 25 years ago course on how to do podcasting, because I, you know, have her set it up, get the equipment. There's a. Never could get a podcast going. Just. But finally. Finally, with COVID and Zoom got on there, people learned how to do Zoom things and everything, and it made it easier. But, I mean, we. You know, one time I bought 200 microphones, and we would send them out to people because people didn't know how to. And then we'd have to have extra, you know, how you load the. You know, the recording program on your computer and you plug it in. And it was just such a nightmare. And I just said, Forget it. But when Zoom came, all of a sudden it started to get easier. And so now I'm, you know, years later, I've got closing in on a thousand episodes of the podcast. And. And so. But, you know, when you figure things out, I count those as wins. You know what I'm saying? It's like everything when you go forward in life and you're doing. When you're making progress, you open up a whole nother world of things you don't know how to do. And so in the process, there's a lot of things you can figure out. And that education, to me, those are wins, you know? You know, I'd love to meet that person. I'd love to go there. I'd love to do that, all of these things, you know, I've never been over there. I'd love to go there. You know, I'd love to find out about that. I'd love to find somebody who knows how to do this, that the other. And then someone introduces you. So everybody's welcome to join us. You can get us a join. Join us at Join Big Hitters dot com. It's a community, and that'll take you to our landing page. And if you're, you know, if you're high motivated, only do that if you're high motivated. If you're low motivated, you're. You're not. You're just thinking about it. Get. You come get on my newsletter. You know, we have drips of gold going out every week in the newsletter, free. Listen to my podcast. You know, like this. This is going to be in the podcast, free. And so when you're, you know, low to medium, you probably don't need to be paying for anything. But when you say, okay, it's time for me to move, get in the community, quit screwing around, and, you know, put your money where your mouth is, basically, and get going, you know, because we're only here for a short period of time, and we're not. You're. Listen, folks, you ain't all going to live as long as I've lived, okay? I've outlived all my other cousins except one, and I'm going to see her in the reunion. And I always tell her, I said, you know, you're next, You're next. But, you know, we know, you know, we've lost a lot of cousins along the way, and so we don't know how long we're going to be here. But while you're here, make something happen, folks. Make an impact. All right? Thank you.

Awesome. Thanks, Larry.

This has been great.