Episode 156: Bringing Integrity Back with Larry Winget

So we're all eating. Look at. Look at it. Kelsey's eating food. Christina's got. She's got burned by broccoli. I got a whole. Literally a whole fish in front of me. What happened? You went to Roy and said, what happened?

I went to Roy and I said, please take so long that we can't even eat before our recording.

Was he like, you know, I love Roy, but he's a talker.

He didn't talk that much to us really. There was customers in there, which was great.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah.

Roy's our favorite restaurant. If you listener are ever in Boonton, New Jersey, come to Karateka, where Roy serves probably the best food in the planet. And when you ask for takeout, I guess he's not prepared for it because there's no paper plate there. He just gave me a clump of fish.

But it's the best way to eat it.

Yeah, it really is.

It doesn't deter from the taste at all.

How are you going to transition that one? Talking about fish? Figure it out.

You are listening to the Profit first podcast, episode 156. Oh, there it is. Oh, wow. Yeah, punch in the eardrums.

I'm probably down a little bit.

Welcome, everyone, to the Profit first podcast. I'm your co host, Christina Bolduck.

And I am Mike Michalowicz. I'm the author of Profit First. Tell me you have that book by now. I will jam an entire fish down your throat if you don't have it. Get your copy of Profit First. I'm joined in the studio by my co hostest of co hosts. Like, she's the host, Junior. The co host, Kelsey.

Hey, everybody.

And you're a big fan. I'll tell you about it later. And you, my friends, you are listening to the Profit first podcast show where we explore every element of profitability. We are having a little technical issues with our audio, so it's just really loud on certain things, but that's okay.

It's a party.

Yeah.

So you can find us on itunes. Stitcher, Tunein Radio, Google Play, of course, profit first podcast.com and any podcaster anywhere. You really hear a podcast. We're there, we're there.

And.

Well, and we're eating.

And we're eating.

And we're eating. Hey, so what have you been up to, Christine?

Um, I don't know.

Well, you don't know.

I don't know.

My life hasn't been too busy lately. We're just kind of enjoying dinners at home and just building on our relationship. Which is cheesy, but it's nice to a routine.

That's what relationships need. What have you been up to, Kelsey?

Well, construction. I gotta eat my food. My nephew. Oh, my God. This is my nephew's first birthday and he's our first, you know, grandbaby kind of child in our family. So, um, he's just been the greatest gift and I'm super excited. And we're having a big party this weekend and all of our kind of extended family is coming. So.

Do you do anything special as the aunt like you?

I make pulled pork.

Oh, do you really? Do you really make pulled pork?

Yeah.

Can you bring in someone?

Yeah, sure.

I love pulled pork.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What have you been up to, Mike?

So driving. I had an event in Pennsylvania yesterday. Spoke to eo.

This is like the fourth time we've heard him complain about driving.

I know. The first time I went air. I don't drive anym everywhere.

So you don't relish in that kind of time to just relax on the road at all?

Actually, I kind of enjoyed it. I did kind of enjoy it.

I really like long.

I just don't like sitting that long and I don't like it in the rain and I don't like trucks racing by. I get a little bit nervous about.

You got to stop and stretch your legs. That's key.

I did. Oh, this is the funny part. I stopped and I'm like, I'm starving. And there's a Roy Rogers. Yeah, we mean, yeah. Like, are you a big Roy Rogers fan?

No, but I feel like it's a road trip indicators when you see those travel marts with a Roy Roger.

So I stopped at one of the service centers. Go to Roy's. I haven't talked to my wife all day. I just get one text, enjoying Roy's. It says, I'm like, what the hell you see around me. We have the friend finder thing.

Oh, creepy.

It's very creepy. She tracks where I am and she'll do. Every so often she's like, oh, enjoying Roy's. I'm like, oh, my God.

That's funny though.

Yeah. For once in my life, I'm eating something besides fish and I get busted.

Oh, man. So we have some community shout outs today. We have a new hotline, by the way. I don't know if I think we've told you guys about it, but the shout out hotline, 844-876-7211. Call that number. We want to hear how you're succeeding in your business. How are you implementing profit first? Tell us.

Well, can I play one of the shout outs?

Yeah, yeah, please. This one comes from Scott Mulvaney.

It does not comes from our other gentleman. Who's that?

No, this one comes from Brian Mariner.

Yeah, I got whoever I got queued up here. Let's hear.

I couldn't.

Okay, speaking to the microphone.

We are off the rail.

Understand what his name was. I'm sorry.

Hang tight. Here it is.

Maybe you guys will know.

Hi, my name is Moses Apollinario. I'm originally from Brazil, living in New Jersey. My company is weekendtecal.com and my two passions are traveling the world and teaching English. And my company helps people do that. I read profit first the day after I opened my LLC and set up my account even before making a single dollar. Now I am profitable permanently.

Boom.

Congratulations.

Boom. To whoever. We don't know.

He wasn't on my list, but congratulations.

Let me play that beginning again. Hold on. Hi, my name is Moses Polinario Muslimaria. Yeah, muzzle up.

No, I don't.

One more time. Now I can't understand.

I know.

We are excited for you. You know how they have soldiers. You know the unknown soldier tomb.

Yeah.

I think now we have to have the unknown profitable person celebration for the people that are profitable. We didn't know. Okay, let's do to cover. Cover our sponsors real quick. Yeah, I want to thank Fund Dara. They're gonna be a profit con.

Yeah, they are.

And if they don't, I will kick their ass. Meredith is being a pain. They'll be there. I just haven't been able to get hold of her. Fund a box will be there next diva. They're our key sponsor this year. They are Receipt bank will be there and a couple other guests too. So we'll thank them at the end of the show, give you more details and absolutely, these businesses can help drive your business forward. Now let's get to. Oh, one last thing. I. I got. We got to move that American Express up on the script because I keep missing you might make it know that. So I want to thank American Express. I'm doing a new show with them called Turning Points. Go on to any of your podcasters that's, you know, Google Play or itunes or tune in radio. Just type in Turning Points, the new show I'm hosting with American Express. You'll love it. It's already getting accolades and someone says, up for an Oscar. Can that. Can it be up for an Oscar? An Emmy. It's up for an Emmy.

Yeah.

He's up for podcast can't be up for anything. No, up for. Okay. It's not for anything. Someone told me it is the golden microphone. I know you know his name, Larry Winget.

Yeah.

You know, Larry is. Well, he. He's a guy who calls it the way it is. He's. I am friends with. We have a mutual friend in Mike Aguilera. He spoke down at his event and he. Mike wanted to hire Larry to be a speaker because Larry is just in your face. And the Mike Aguilera event is no nonsense. Let's grow the business. That's why Larry is attributed to be the pit bull of personal development. Oh, he's also got multiple books out there. His newest book, grow a pair, which Kelsey says to me all the time, like, I don't want to do this call right now. Grow a pair. How to stop being a victim and take your life back, your business and your sanity. It's a New York Times bestseller. He started. He's been on multiple TV shows, a E, pbs, cnbc. He's got a brand, brand spanking new book coming out right when this podcast goes live called what's wrong with damn near everything? Larry, welcome to the show.

Welcome, Larry.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Oh, it's a pleasure.

I appreciate it.

Yeah.

Absolute pleasure having you. Let's get right into the essence of it. What's this new book about? What's wrong with damn near everything.

You know, the subtitle is how the collapse of core values is destroying us and how to fix it.

But what do you mean? How are core values going away? How can it go away?

How can they go away? Have you. Well, you just said a minute ago you don't drive very much, but if you've just driven on the highway, you can take it back to a core value that people cut you off in traffic because they don't respect you. That's a core value of respect. When you get down to core values like honesty, if every single person your audience is entrepreneurs, if they always did exactly what they said they would do when they said they would do it the way they said they would do it, that would be honesty. That would be the way to run your business. Does that happen all the time? No. People don't do what they said they would do. In other words, they're liars. And that's a lack of honesty. You know, we would if we valued honesty and we said it was important. And if you walk up to the average person on the street and say, how do you value honesty? They Say it was probably the most important thing in their life. Really? Then why did we have Hillary and Trump as our politicians this year, as our choices? We don't value honesty. We just give all of those things. Lip service we do in our businesses. We do it in our life. We do it in our politics. We do with our money.

But why? Why is honesty going away? I mean, it sounds like that's the foundation for trust. Why would it go away? What's the advantage to people being dishonest?

It's easier and there are no consequences. You know, people will do whatever they can get by with. That is human nature. We will all do what we can get by with. And if we let people get by with being dishonest, then they will learn that that's okay. And what we allow people to get by with, we, in essence, have condoned, we have endorsed that. You know, if you put up with bad customer service and don't call people out on it, then you have condoned their bad customer service. And they will learn that it's okay to deliver bad customer service. And bad customer service is a lack of respect and a lack honesty based on the fiduciary responsibility. Everybody in business has to do what they said they would do.

But people tend to take sides. You were talking about the politics. One thing we typically never talk about on the show is politics, but it's definitely put people in different camps. I mean, Trump can say something, half the world or whatever saying, oh, my God, it's so blatant. This guy's a liar. And the other half the world saying, oh, my God, everyone else is idiots. Thank God someone's telling the truth. And that was true for Hillary, too.

Yeah.

So how do you know who is telling the truth and what's a lie?

Well, you have to take it back to your personal core values. My issue is not to get political here at all. It's just that we know that both of those people were less than honest. Yet we say we value honesty. We only value what we really put into practice in our lives and in our businesses. We can't say that we value honesty and then condone candidates who aren't. We can't say that we value respect and then put up with a lack of respect. We can't say that we value adding value to people's lives, and then we don't do that.

Okay, so what I'm hearing, tell me if I'm interpreting this correctly, Larry, is if I want to, if I expect honesty from you, I got to be the one who's bringing honesty to the table? Is that what I'm hearing?

No, that's not true. You've made your honesty conditional upon me being honest and my honesty conditional upon you being honest. That's not the way it's done. Core values. You live core values all the time. It's not a matter of you doing what's right for me to do what's right. You see, that's one of the problems we have in society right now is people say, well, he lied to me, so it's okay for me to lie to him. No, it's not okay. You've got to be honest. Because it's simply the right thing to do. A core value doesn't have conditions. Core values aren't based on convenience. They're not based on anything other than, by God, it's the right thing to do, so you do it.

Yeah, I agree.

Okay, but then why are so. So it's easy for the politicians, but now let's talk about the entrepreneurs. You know, if I want to grow a profitable business, I presume you gotta be integral. But what I'm hearing from you is no one's being integral anymore. Do you see this happening in the entrepreneurial community? The degradation of integrity?

Yeah, I do.

I see it happening in every area.

Of society, certainly in business. You know, I have, as I've already said, I have a simple rule to live by for life and for business. And it's all anybody wants. It's do what you said you would do when you said you would do it exactly the way you said you would do it.

Okay, so is that. Well, let's get to the essence of the show. Profitability. If I do what I said I was going to do, if I do it when I said I was going to do it, if I do it to the standard or the expectation I set, is that really more profitable?

Okay, say that again.

He doesn't remember.

I don't know what the hell I just said, Larry. What I said was, if I do exactly what you told me I heard you say, do what I said I'm going to do. You know, be integral in my word. I'm asking you, if I, as an entrepreneur, am very integral in my word, is that more profitable for my business? Is that the right way to go?

Well, sure it is. You know, it's always people will respect honesty, even if it's bad news. All anybody wants from you is to do exactly what you said you would do. In other words, deliver. We have a fiduciary responsibility as entrepreneurs, to deliver, to do what we said we would do because we're being paid for it. The problem is right now is we have made, as I mentioned a minute ago, we've made it all conditional. Listen, they're not treating me right, so I won't pay them on time. Or I don't like that guy, so I'll give him crappy service. That's not really a core value at that point. You see, if you're paying me, I'll do whatever it takes to make it right simply because it's the way you ought to do it, you know? And see, that's what customers want from us if we're an entrepreneur. That's what we want as customers, from the people we're doing business with. That's what our kids want from us as parents. That's what husbands want from their wives and wives from their husbands. That's what everybody wants, is for the other person to do exactly what they said they would do when they said they would do it the way they said they would do it. That is based in honesty and integrity and respect. And those are the values that we have lost in life and in business, in society with our money, the way we treat others, especially the people who are paying us. That's why business looks the way it does today. That's why there's such a lack of respect right now. That's why nobody likes to do business. That's why with anybody anymore. We don't trust cab companies, so we go to Uber and we don't trust Uber, so we drive ourselves. Listen, we don't trust ourselves driving because there's going to be some asshat in traffic going to treat us bad, cut us off, make us light, do whatever. So it's. We've got a lack of trust everywhere. And if everybody went back to honesty, respect and integrity, we could fix damn near everything.

You know, Kelsey, that one landed with me because I've been bitching and moaning about all my travel, right? Uber. I'm pissed. I drove myself just as Larry saying I'm pissed. What's going on?

I think you have to work on yourself.

You think it's me.

You got to work on those core.

Your life's your own damn fault, you know?

So true. So how do we take that first step? I mean, if everybody is just kind of out for themselves right now, how do we take that first step of doing it? If I'm honest with the customer and the customer is coming back at us harshly, do you just cut them loose? Because we have a rule here. No dicks allowed. But how do you do it? What's your first step?

Well, first of all, decide what's really important to you based on your core values. Identify what your core values are. If I went up to the average person on the street and said, listen, tell me five things you believe in that you'll never compromise, they would look at me like a dog looking at a ceiling fan. They would have no clue what I was talking about. So identify what you believe in, what you stand for, what you will never compromise on. One of mine is honesty. Nobody gets to lie to me. Nobody gets to disrespect me. I won't allow that in my life. I won't allow that in my business. As you said, no dicks allowed. I don't do business with people who disrespect me. I won't do business with anybody who has lied to me or been dishonest with me. I won't have them in my life. I won't have them as my family friend. Nobody gets to lie to me. When we're that clear, then that's how it's easy to set your priorities. It's how it's easy to manage your time. We don't have a time management problem. We don't have a priority problem. We have a lack of clarity right now about what's really important to us as individuals and what we want to have happening in our lives and in our businesses. When we get that kind of clarity around what we believe and what we will and will not put up with, then things start to go better for us. So start with getting clarity about what's important to you.

So when I start thinking about the integrity of our word, that's how I'm kind of summing up what you're saying to me. If it's integrity in our word, doesn't the. Doesn't the economic system actually enforce that? Meaning if. If you just told me if I'm more integral in my word, I will be more profitable. That means if I'm not, I'm a liar, I'm a cheat, I won't be profitable. And doesn't business kind of self correct because of the economics, does it? I'm asking you, for God's sake, you're the guest.

Okay? We all can go right down a list of major businesses who continually deliver crappy service, and yet they still do well who don't keep their word. There's a lot of lack of core values and honesty and respect going on in business. Yet they're rewarded based on the fact that they're the cheapest. You know, you can decide to be the cheapest and people will still do business with you. Also, we've gotten so corrupt in our thinking that we're willing to put up with crap simply because we don't have the balls to say, I'm not going to put up with this anymore, because it's too much trouble to speak up. And so we don't want to put ourselves through this. And besides that, if we speak up. Listen, if you're in a restaurant, you say, this is. This steak is crap. I'm not going to eat this. You didn't cook it the way it was supposed to be cooked. Take this back. If we put up with it instead, things are never going to get better. And because we have an unwillingness. This goes back to my last book, Grow a Pair. We have an unwillingness to speak up for ourselves. That people, businesses get to the point that they can deliver lousy service with no consequence. So what I'm saying is, if we're going to fix business, if we're going to fix society, if we're even going to fix our families and the way we raise our kids, if we're going to fix college campuses, so there's not a safe zone everywhere for everybody who gets their feelings hurt over nothing. If we're going to fix it all, we have to start to enforce some consequences for lousy behavior.

All right, we got to discuss this in our little safe zone later. We have a safe zone in the office. No, we don't. No, we don't. Larry, I was praying you were going to come here because I was expecting that safe zone common. I was going to set up a section in the office that said the Larry wing it safe zone section. And we get a picture of you.

Inside is the butt hurt Steaks of America.

Hey, let me ask you about that restaurant scenario. Say you do get crap service at the restaurant, the steaks undercooked. My wife gets so fearful, she's like, but if I return this, they're going to spit on my steak. What about the repercussions back from the business itself?

Well, you know, if you're worried about that, you shouldn't have gone there in the first place. Because you're willing to do business with somebody that you're afraid they might spit on your steak. Why would you go to a restaurant that you have that kind of fear? A good restaurant that you trust and delivers bad service to you or a bad steak to you? Would be honorable in the way they approach that and say, we're really sorry. In fact, we're so sorry. I just had this happen. We're so sorry. We'll just give you the going to comp your meal. Thank you for pointing this out to us. I just did business with a guy who was getting some cabinets installed, and he promised me my condition for buying these cabinets. I bought them at the end of February. I said, they have got to be installed by May 1. Not May 2, not May 3. I've got a big event going on at my house on May 7th. I've got to have them in on May 1st. Not a problem. Never been late, Been doing this for 45 years. The week before May 1st, I said, okay, we're ready to install this week. He goes, listen, Larry, there's going to be a little bit of a problem. We're not going to be able to get to him much later in the month. I go, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're telling me that your promise, the one thing I ask from you, the condition you're not going to be able to do that. He goes, that's right. I'm not. No big deal, though. We'll get them to you in a couple of weeks. I said, it is a big deal. That was my one condition. Why are you a liar? And he said, whoa, nobody calls me a liar. I said, but you're a liar. And he said, no, I just had some stuff come up. I said, did you promise me? Yes, I did. Are you going to do it? No, I'm not. Then you're a liar. I oppose the consequence that he was very uncomfortable hearing. He did not want me to say that. And if we started to impose that kind of consequence on people, make them uncomfortable with our response to their lousy service or their lying or their lack of integrity or respect or honesty, we could turn things around.

Okay, so now I got you. From the customer perspective, if we take a stance, business will start to change. Now let's talk about from the other perspective. What can entrepreneurs start doing to change? Maybe, maybe they're just doing this even subconsciously. Maybe you say, you know, my. My competition lies, cheats and steals. I gotta step down my standards. What. What can entrepreneurs do to start just making a proper stance in their own integrity?

Well, first of all, remember that nothing is rewarded like value. The more value you add to people's lives and to their businesses, and the more problems you solve for them, the more profitable you will be. So it always goes back. And I coach A lot of entrepreneurs over the years and work with a lot of different small businesses and so forth, and it always comes back to how much value you're adding. You are rewarded in direct proportion to the value that you provide. And so if you're not doing very well, go back to your value proposition. Identify the problems that you solve. And when you start solving people's problems and showing them that the cost of your solution is much less than the cost of their problem, you will start to be more profitable. That's a very simple process for business to remember. But we get sidetracked chasing the competition, trying to, you just said, dumbing it down, driving down our value system to the point that we want to be like them, typically over price. And then you start to compete on price alone, and you're nothing more than a commodity because anybody can be a nickel cheaper than you. Anybody can. So instead of trying to figure out how to compete based on commodity levels, improve the value that you offer, and then you will learn to charge more for it and be worth.

All right, so let's talk about the, the promises. We set the classic over promise under deliver. You know, the, the, the restaurant that says, we'll get the food delivered in 15 minutes and it takes 30. Is there something we can do with just simply how we communicate? Because maybe that cabinet guy maybe had the best intentions, Larry, and then something came up. But maybe if he told you or communicated in a different way, he could have managed it proactively. Is there, is there stuff entrepreneurs can do in that regard? Sure.

And what you just said is the key. In fact, you can fix almost all the problems in the world with open, good communication. It's straightforward. This guy had called me 10 days out, and believe me, he knew long before, a few days before May 1, he wasn't going to be able to deliver. He knew long before that. If he had called me and said, listen, there's a problem, we have an issue. How can I make this right with you? Here's what I'm going through. Well, that would have been a proactive way of contacting me and communicating with me, and then we could work together to find a solution. To be apologetic in arrears for something you could have handled in advance is stupid and will cost you business. So, yes, open communication. You know, it's sad that we've just lost the ability to talk to people. Just talk to people.

Yeah, no, it's totally true. But now I'm trying to think of, why wouldn't he tell you? Maybe he's Fearful of a repercussion. But maybe he also feels that the competition is setting a better standard. I've seen this in sales, Larry, that someone will say, I'll get a quote to you tomorrow morning. And the only reason the salesperson says that is because he assumes all the competition is turning around that quickly. And then the salesperson struggles to meet on their commitment, and they fall short even in the quotation phase. What do you think the reasons are that business owners are over promising lying to clients like you and me.

They're lying to all of us. I think it's because they've become so desperate for money based on how they've been conditioned to market themselves. I think they look at the past economy and realize that they've got to compete based on price, and they've started competing only against their competitors based on price. And so we have driven down the expectations from the customer, and we've gotten away from quality. Most of us understand that high quality takes longer. That's why you go to a fine steakhouse and it takes 30 minutes to get your meal. And you go to McDonald's and it takes 30 seconds to get your meal. It's pretty simple. Quality takes time. And when we start competing based on quality and the value instead of price, and I can be like everybody else and we stop playing, me too, we'll all be more successful.

That reminds me, that sign you see up when you go to some stores you can have from this location, better, faster or cheaper, Pick two. Right. Like you can never do all three. But that doesn't mean you can't have integrity throughout. Right. The values are there. Do do business owners. So what I'm hearing is if you're more integral, you'll have more profit. How do you get to that integrity? Do we have to kind of look introspectively and see what our own standards are and then have the business be a platform for that?

Well, it always starts with your own personal values. Always. And your business has to reflect what your personal values are. In fact, I can tell you right now that your business already reflects what your personal values are. If you give shoddy service because you have shoddy values, I mean, it really is that simple. And people who have very high standards, it's because they have high standards in their core values. So it starts with you and identifying and getting clarity about what you really believe, what you stand for. And then you drive that through your business. Plus you also have to build that reputation. You get good, and then you get known for being that good. So how do you build a reputation around? I provide great quality. Well, there's social media that will help you do that. There are testimonials that can help you do that. But I can tell you in the long run, if you start getting known for a person who always delivers high quality on time, exactly what the customer wanted and you get that word out there in whatever way you can, there's no way you can help but be successful unless you're just an idiot.

And I assume that transfers to success turns the profit. I mean, I assume if the word gets out on integrity, that means that's word to, you know, mouth to mouth. Mouth to mouth, what they call that when it's. When people market it was a mouth.

Is this a business?

No, no. When people talk word of mouth, it facilitates word of mouth marketing, stuff like that. Do you see.

Glad you have some help there with.

These things because I'm eating a fish right now. I'm just losing it.

It's affecting his brain.

It's totally affecting my brain or something like that.

So do you see when you were more integral, do we see costs drop in our business?

Maybe not. You might actually see costs go up in your business. I mean, integrity and quality cost money to deliver as well as cost money on side. Listen, I'm all about, and I love that your program is about profitability. And let me just expand on how to be more profitable since that's. This is what it's all about. Businesses, they have one goal and it's to be profitable. The problem is right now we have entrepreneurs that go into business based on the stupid concept in the world and that's they're passionate about what they have to do. Passion is the biggest load of crap to hit business and the entrepreneur world ever. Passion is defined in the dictionary as a barely controllable emotion. I don't want a barely controllable emotion anywhere near my business. If you're going to let an emotion run your business, pick anger. One's as good as the other, right? So we have people who have become entrepreneurs based on the fact that they're passionate about what they do. It does not mean they're any good at what they do. So we have all these passionate entrepreneurs out there selling and doing and coaching and serving and creating products. The problem is they're not any good at it. And so if they really had integrity, they would step back and say, how can I be better at what I do and less passionate about what I do? You have never been paid for your passion. I've spent almost 30 years standing on stages all around the world. I've written six New York Times Wall Street Journal bestsellers. I've had television shows. I've done all of that stuff, and nobody has ever written me a check. That down in the memo section said, for your passion. It's never that way. We are paid for the value, the quality, the service, the good that we do other people. The problem is entrepreneurs forget that profits come from value, and they think profits should come from passion. And they simply are ill equipped to bring good quality. So when I go to work every day saying, this business exists only to make money, and the only way to make money long term is to be really good. And the only way to be really good in the eyes of the customer is to bring great value to that customer. And the only way to bring great value to that customer is excellence in everything I do, including keeping my word, no matter what. What? Keeping my word to my customer is the utmost. I will never compromise that based on the fact that it's not convenient or what my competition is doing or the fact that it costs me money. When I keep that little progression in my mind every single day, I will be successful. The challenge right now is we have people that are going into business who have no business going into business because they don't have the skills and they don't have the right mindset to go into business. They're letting their emotions go, put them into business. And that's wrong, and it's dumb.

So I looked up passion as you were talking, and the Webster dictionary does agree. It says, barely control, emotional emotion is definition one. Definition number two, the suffering and death of Jesus. So it just sounds like passion is the most miserable thing ever. But. But, Larry, yes, you got to go in business. You got to deliver value, got to make money. But if you loathe your business, that's not going to work either.

You don't have to go exactly the opposite direction on the deal. I don't do my business because I love it. I'm telling you right now, I don't. I do my business because I'm good at it and it pays me well. I'm passionate about sitting on my back patio with a cigar in my left hand, a good bourbon in my right hand, my bulldog sitting at my side watching the sunset go down over the mountain with my wife sitting next to me with Merle Haggard playing in the background. That's my passion. I've discovered nobody will pay me for that.

Instead, they value that I. Okay, so that's clear. And let's get back to the core topic here. We want to drive profitability. You're saying be absolutely integral. What if you catch yourself not being integral? Say to a customer, I just make a mistake or one of my colleagues makes a mistake, but it's not integral. Is there a way to correct that? Or stick a fork in me, I'm done.

No, go back to good communication. Customers will forgive you about anything if you're honest with them and you communicate with them. They really will. In fact, the best customer you will ever have is one you screw up with and you go in and say, I screwed up. But when we try to cover up, we ignore. When we stop communicating with the customer, that's when the customer you are done. Because they won't forgive you for that. The customers are very good. In fact, humans are very good. All of mankind, humankind is very good. When we're honest with them and say, you know, I messed up. I need your forgiveness on this. I'm really going to do my best to fix it. At this point, I'll do anything in the world it takes to keep your business and honor my commitments. Let me tell you where I am now. Forgive me for that.

So I had a strike of idiocy. I remember one day I had that exact situation. I messed up with a client. I was highly integral, notified him ahead of time. They absolutely became my best client. They were so appreciative of it. And I said, oh, I should intentionally mess up with all my clients.

Larry, that might not be your best business strategy.

Yeah, because I guess it's a bet if you fix it, it's good. Your communicate, it's good. But I guess if you intentionally harm a client and they catch you on that, that's real bad.

Yeah, yeah.

I would say that's the difference there. Really, though, people just need to understand that open communications is going to be the key to almost all of this stuff. And that keeps you in integrity. We all mess up, we all make mistakes. Hopefully you've never done it intentionally, but when it happens, have enough integrity, be honest enough, be the right kind of person. You know, every bit of this comes back when I talk about core values. These are the things that we started to compromise in our society and as people and as families and as individuals, we shouldn't even have to talk about this stuff. This is about just being a good person, treating people like you would like to be treated and better. That's all it's really coming down to what kind of a person are you, if you go to a place that you're worried about them spitting on your steak, you shouldn't have gone there to begin with. If you're doing business with someone who you're afraid they're going to lie to you or whatever, why are you doing business with them in the first place? If you're doing business with people that you do trust and something bad happens, say, listen, I don't think this is going the way either one of us had in mind. What can we do to get this back on track? Everybody understands that and that builds trust. It doesn't destroy trust.

Larry, I think you gave us the path of profitability concisely there. Thank you so much. Larry, where can people learn more about you? And of course pick up your brand new book, what's Wrong with Damn Near Everything.

Well, what's Wrong with Damn Near Everything will be in every single bookstore in America. Believe me, right now you can find that book everywhere. I tell you what, I am the easiest guy to find on the Internet. You just look at Larry Winget W I n g e T. You can go to Larry Winget fan page on Facebook. I tell you, we mix it up there every day. I call people on their stuff. I really do. We get back to the, the main issues of what it takes to be successful and profitable and everything else. But I'm an easy guy to find. I'm on every social media platform. You can go to my website, a lot of free stuff there. So. And go to the bookstore and buy that book and shoot by the rest of them while you're there.

So there you go. Larry, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thanks so much, Larry.

Good time.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

See. So we're going to learn in a minute from each other what we learned. So that's a lot of learns in one sentence. You know, Larry's gone toe to toe. He's been on Larry King. So Larry wing it versus Larry King. I would pick Larry wing it every time. He's been on the big idea. That was a guy named Donnie Deutsch. So Larry went toe to toe with Danny Deutsch. I picked Larry. Larry's gone toe to toe with Dr. Phil. I don't know, that one's a little close.

I pick Larry.

I pick Larry. Who do you pick?

Yeah, definitely Larry.

Larry. Okay.

He still rubs me the wrong way.

Dr. Phil. He's a little creepy. He's a little bit, I don't know if it's arrogant. He kind of talks down to people.

Yeah.

So I Just thought this. They. These shows called me and asked me to come on. I just lost my opportunity. Now, if I just heard this, like, I'm sorry, Dr. Phil's decided not to have you.

No. Well, you told them. You told them I didn't want to be.

Exactly. I declined the opportunity. So what's wrong with damn near everything? Definitely pick up Larry's stuff. If you love this interview, you will love his writing style. All right, so. Oh, I don't have a sound effect for you guys. I'll get one for the next episode.

Yes.

And I gotta get this fish out here because now it's disgusting. Yeah, it's so delicious.

You try humming us a song.

Okay, okay, we'll do that. I'll hummus a song in a second. Let's first talk about our corporate partners.

Yes. Nextiva.

Nextiva, voiceover IP phone system. They are sponsoring. They're the premier sponsor for Proficon. So why don't you come and check them out? You know, one person's gonna leave there with a free phone system for life.

Wow, that's awes.

I'm trying to get it myself, which is totally not integral, but I would love to have that conflict of interest. I know it is. So we're not up for it, but everyone that attends ProfitCon. By the way, you can still get tickets for ProfitCon. Yeah, but you gotta be an ABC.

ABC, what's that?

Bookkeeper or coach. Oh, oh. So it's exclusive for accountant, bookkeepers and coaches, but if you're one of those, email Christina with a K K R I S T I n a@profit first professionals.com, we'll hook you up with a ticket. I mean, you gotta buy it. It's not free, but we'll get you a little special deal. Yo. All right. First sponsor, nextiva. They'll be their voiceover IP phone system. We use them. We love them. You will, too. Someone actually emailed me. It's funny, they said it's so literally got this email says, why do you like nextiva so much? They're so expensive. And I'm like. I ran the roi. It is probably the cheapest phone system I've ever had by far. We pound the phones here.

Oh, yeah.

The net. That effect is like, it's a penny or less per phone call that we're using. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Where? I don't know. It's just very affordable. And the. And they're constantly upgrading the system. You know, they're releasing a CRM in the near future. That's included.

Oh, yeah.

You know how money that'll save us?

Yeah.

The way we can get rid of our current CRM, which is good, but expensive.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay, that's next diva. Who else do I got? Oh, my God.

Oh, they're great.

They're the best. I love them. So. So Fundera. Fundera is a one stop shop for loans. And so if your business needs a loan, go to fundera.com. they'll shop it out for you. All right, here's the sound effect for you.

Margaritaville.

Beautiful winner. It's the only one I can think of. All right. Fundbox, that is a cash flow accelerator. If your business needs money today and you have invoices outstanding, Fundbox will give you the cashola right up front. Then when you get the money in from your client, you return to fund box. Client never even knows.

Show me the money.

I wish I didn't. Show me the money. Sound effect. No, that's all I got. That's all I got. Just do it.

Oh, my God.

I love that guy. That's Larry Wing. It's son.

Do it.

Okay. Who else do we got? Recipe bank.

Oh, jinx.

Oh, you owe me a beer. I said first. I said it first.

Right.

Christina owes me a beer. Okay, we're getting schwasted later. Receipt bank is a scanning system for all your receipts. No more shoebox, no more of this stuff. But it syncs up with your accounting system. We finally got it configured right. I actually configured wrong. Receipt bank actually came out here to get it set up. It's working every. Did. Did we get a receipt for this? Oh, no, we pay cash for the fish.

Did you get a receipt?

I'm pointing at my bone. Have you seen my fish? It's like. It's just bones. I'm gonna put this on the Facebook.

Something to be proud of.

It's delicious. Did we pay by cash? I gave you cash. Okay. If we paid by credit card, I would scan that into Receipt bank and be right on the system. And it would come back and say, do you have to eat that disgusting stuff? All right, Is that everything? That's everybody.

That's all.

All right, let's talk about what we learned. Let me hit the button. Who's going first?

So I thought this was interesting because I feel like his message was very similar to my own message, but with a very different delivery.

Yeah, I couldn't see you two dating. No, I mean, it's the age difference. You know, he's 65, so that you disgusted me, that you Were even thinking about that.

He's 60.

I think he's 65. Right. This is what it says here. You're. You barely.

Are you ageist?

I am ageist. How old are you?

30.

Okay, here's the rule. You take someone's age, the older person's age, cut it by half, and you add seven. 65, cut in half, it's 32 and a half. Right. So 32 plus seven is 39. The youngest he can go legally is 39.

Yeah.

I mean, not legally, but rule. Watch.

You should tell people on online dating that that's the rule you never heard of because, you know, men will set the age range from, like, 18 to 20.

Yeah.

So inappropriate.

Yeah.

So creepy.

First of all, it's not just guys. Women do it too. So relax with that. I've seen.

Love to see the percentages of men versus women.

Statistically you two simmer down.

But I've seen some grandmas, like, technical grandmas, meaning they have grandchildren.

Yeah.

Saying like, oh, I'd like to meet that pool boy. You know what I'm talking about?

Where have you seen this?

On every website that I visit because I. Because I list myself as available pool boy.

Oh, my God.

All right. What did you learn, Christina?

Oh, wow. We've gotten away from doing the right thing, and we've gotten into doing what's easy. And that really hit home with me, because why are we so afraid to be ourselves and to speak your mind, and not in a rude way, but it's just, why did we stop that? I don't know.

I think that's the best way to grow as humans.

Just to be honest with you. The same thing. Like, if I go to a restaurant and I order something and it's not quite right, Alex will be like, send it back. I'm like, no, it's not a big deal. But why. Why am I afraid to just say something, you know?

Yeah, you can say it nicely.

Yeah.

It is a big deal. Right.

And you're helping them in the long run.

Right.

Right.

We got to get back to just kind of staying true to who you are and accountability.

Yes. And I think that's the key, is you're actually being of service. If you say this is not acceptable. It's being of service because if you accept it, it means the next person down the line will get the same.

And ultimately they're going to go out of business because everybody's going to say, oh.

Oh, my God, sucks. Avoid it. Avoid it. So for me, it's just devolution. Is that the right word? Like when you devolve could be devolutions of evolution. Devolution.

I'm not really sure about that.

Could you look that up real quick? Yeah. I call it a devolution. And if it's not a word, I just invented one. It's a devolution to the lowest denominator. It's like, oh, other businesses suck. So therefore I suck. They're not integral. Therefore I don't need to be integral. And I hate to say it, we are seeing it in politics, but we're seeing in business too. I think the first people that step up become the new category. I think we start a new evolution. Right.

You set a bar.

Yeah. So step up and you will be heralded for it.

Yeah.

But takes courage.

Yeah.

Devolution, the transfer or delegation of power to a lower level.

I didn't make up a word. I took a big bet, though. I didn't know that was you were.

Hoping you were making up a word.

Put me on the map.

Now you're devoluting all over me. Is devoluting a word?

I don't think so. Okay, I'm gonna draw the line.

Let's see. So that's what we learned. What did you learn? We want to know about that too, right?

Yeah. Leave us a comment anywhere. You're listening to us. Itunes, stitcher, any podcaster, of course. Profit first. Podcast.com. and you know what we still have to talk about?

What's that?

Profit first.

Oh, my God. Talk about devolution. Ever use that word incorrectly? Talk about evolution. Profit First Professionals is punching the traditional cheesy accounting, bookkeeping, historical type of process in the face. Accounting and bookkeeping and coaching has evolved, and the proffers, professionals are the folks who are leading that. How many times have you gone to your account and said, hey, can you tell me what I should be doing to move my business forward? And they're like, well, last year, here's where you failed. No, you shouldn't be talking about what's not going right in the past, what's not going right right now. What can we fix? That's called profit advising, Actually. Larry even said he goes, businesses have one goal, to be profitable. Honestly, that is it. Now it sounds like, oh, they're money grubbers. No, no. If you're not profitable, you can't do the good things you're doing. You have to be profitable. That's the foundation of growth. So you need to evolve your business and you need someone that's forward thinking. Thinking that's what a profit first professional is. So all you have to do is go to profit first professionals.com, literally right now, while you're listening to this, while I'm eating my fish bone sandwich. You can do it. Go to profitfirstprofessionals.com Step one, step two, click on the find button. Step three, fill out the form. Step four, click on submit. Step five, sit back, drink your bourbon with Larry Wingett and wait for us to respond to you. Now, I'm not going to promise it'll be 24 hours because I don't want to be very integral here. We will respond guaranteed within 24 years. No matter what, we will respond years or sooner.

That's some integrity right there.

That's integrity. I will not fail you on that one. But usually we respond within a day or two because we evaluate who's the best match. We come back to you, say, here's what we found. Check them out. Connect with a private first professional. This is a person, an accountant, bookkeeper, or coach who's studied the private first methodology, has employed it in their own business. They use it, and now they can guide you. You want it, so that's all you have to do. Go to prop first professionals.com right now. Click on find. Fill out the form. We'll hook you up.

Thank you.

All right, let's get out of here, guys.

Okay.

Oh, one more thing.

Do it.

That's my favorite thing.

Do it.

Thanks. Young Wing it.

You said tomorrow, so just do it.

Make your dreams come true. Nothing is impossible. No.

What are you waiting for?

Do it.

Does it ever end?

It ends with yes, you can. That was. Yeah, we're gonna call it Young Wing it from today forward. All right, see you guys later.