Sales coach Larry Levine credits his father's work ethic for teaching him consistency, and argues that bringing heart to your work prevents it from becoming lifeless. He calls Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People a timeless sales guide, and says finding a mentor in your 40s can be transformative.
Chapters
Alright everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Larry Levine with us. He's the best-selling author of the book Selling from the Heart and co-host of the Selling from the Heart podcast. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, how's it going? Pleasure to be here. Looking forward to this.
Yes, looking forward to it as well. So Larry, the first question we ask on this show is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
I think the— I'm gonna beat up on my dad just a little bit, but only because I love him. But, you know, I think the best story from my life that really has underlying value or message to it is I really learned the art behind a strong work ethic from my dad. And I think, you know, we all have stories to be told, Tyler, it's how well we tell them. And the best message, the best coaching, the best that I ever got was from my dad who instilled the work ethic in me. And he said, hey, you know, you'll be valuable out there in the marketplace if you do your job, you stick to a process, you have a plan, and you just go about doing the same thing that you're supposed to be doing every single day. Mm-hmm.
Dude, yeah, I can relate to that. My dad worked his ass off, still does. And when you see it every day, you know, it's a lot— I don't want to say it's easier, but then you're like, okay, well, I've seen my dad do it. So it's like, now I know that I can as well.
Well, and you know what? You don't realize that a lot of times, Tyler, until it's later on in life where something, right? Something just happens, you go, oh, that's what it was all about, right? That's what all those talks were all about, right? That's what it was about. And that's what I learned. It just took me a long time to figure that one out.
Got it. Yeah, no, when I was like a kid, I wasn't really fully understanding, but as I got older, I was like, I remember being younger and thinking like, I don't know how he does it. And now that I'm older, it's weird. It's like, okay, well, now I know how he did it 'cause I'm also doing it.
Yeah.
So, yeah, it's interesting how it just kind of works that way. But so, my next one for you is what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
I think the biggest thing, and I really talk about this a lot, Tyler, is value. Is, you know, especially I grew up in the sales world and quite often salespeople out there have a hard time Understanding value, you know, what is their value? So what I, you know, my most valuable piece of information to lay upon people, or my expertise, is we must be valuable, right? We have to understand what value is. We have to bring our heart into what we do, because if we don't, we become lifeless. And there's a lot of lifeless people out there that are going about doing their job because they don't understand their value, or quite frankly, they may not have their heart in it.
Mm-hmm. And then it could, I mean, it should, it definitely ties in. The next one I got for you is what is your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.
Yeah, I think the biggest thing, and it goes back, I'm gonna throw the heart back into this, is, you know, my bet, and it's straight across the board, I don't care, you know, what business y'all are in, is we gotta put our heart back into what we do and we have to care. We gotta care about our careers, we gotta care about our employers, You have clients and prospects, you got to care about them, you got to care about the community. And I say, you know, that would be the best piece of business advice I could give, is give a rip. I always use the slang word, but hey, just give a rip about your career, give a rip about who you are.
Mhm. And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
And I didn't find this one out till later on, is go get a coach or a mentor. I didn't realize what a coach and a mentor meant until I was in, you know, in my mid-40s. But I think if I could go back in time, is the biggest piece of advice, go find, go find a good coach, go find a good mentor, find a close friend that you can kind of share life moments with. But more important, I'd say coach and mentor.
And then in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Giving back. It is for me, 'cause you're asking, it's in your opinion, but to me, it's the art of giving back. It's the art of getting involved in the community. And I always say, you know, in order to get, one must be able to give. And if you can give without expecting anything in return, watch what starts to happen. Watch what starts to— it may not happen right away, but to me, the key to happiness is giving.
And then what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Here's an— okay, Tyler, here's an oldie. You ready for this one?
Yeah.
How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
Classic.
That— I mean, that book is what, 80-something years old? It's got to be.
Still applies today.
It still applies today. Yeah, and I always tell people, you know, because I grew up in the sales world, so I said, you know, in sales, the core foundations of that book are still alive and well today. It's how to build relationships with people and change the way they think.
Yeah, I agree.
You know, I love the book, and I, I think the book will still be around 50 years from now.
So do I. Maybe even longer, honestly.
Uh, I don't know if I'm around 50 years from now, that's going to be a real freaking miracle.
But nevertheless, No, I mean, I think that that book is one of the books that a lot of people start out with, you know. It's like one of the first kind of books that like jump you into personal development and business books.
It was actually the second book I ever read. The first one was How to Master the Art of Selling, but that's— The How to Win Friends and Influence People has got to be the all-time classic I've ever read.
Yes. And then the next one I got for you is, what is your favorite quote and why?
Can I throw two? Because I think, I always say, I'm just getting it done. Somebody just asked me, hey, what are you doing? I said, I'm just getting it done. And the other one is just doing my job. And I think, you know, doing the job is always, everyone always asks me, what's your key to success? I said, just do your job, right? Just do what you're supposed to do.
Yeah, it is. We tend to overcomplicate things.
Oh yeah, we way overcomplicate things. That's why I always just say, you know, if you want the key to success, it's within you. Just do what you signed up to do. I don't care what it is, just do your job.
Yeah, well, really too, it's— and, and it's pretty much what you're saying is it's like, um, it's interesting how, well, if you tell like a friend, let's say, that you're going to show up somewhere at a certain time, like typically we're, we're very accountable when it comes to other people because we don't want to let other people down. If you can just be that accountable as you are to others in the same way to yourself, then you would pretty much succeed with all your goals because a goal is really just you taking actionable steps to getting to the goal. Whether it's a 5-year goal, you break it down and as long as you do everything you say you're going to do, which is being accountable to yourself. Obviously, there's market crashes and there are things that can mess with this a little bit or maybe a lot of it. Ultimately, if you just be accountable to yourself, do what you say you will do, you will achieve your goals. It's really like that simple in a sense. It's just we have a really hard time doing that for ourselves for some reason.
Yeah, well, it's just really interesting. Just real quick, I had read something. I read an article just a couple days ago and it was all around trust. And it says, what's the— I mean, it kind of drew me into the article, but I think it just solidifies what you just said. The person went on to say, what's the biggest way to build trust with somebody, right? Just keep your promises. Yeah. And he went on to say something like, you know, this is why we say to tell someone, hey Tyler, you know, I'll swing by your house around 10-ish, right? Because it gives us some leeway time. And I'm guilty of it, right? We've all been guilty of it because that gives you some leeway. Why can't you say, hey Tyler, I'll swing by your house at 10 o'clock, and then just swing by your house at 10 o'clock?
Yeah, we're funny, man. That's why.
It's the truth, man.
Think about it.
Yeah, the quickest way to become not trustworthy is don't keep your promises.
Yeah, it's true.
I don't care what it is.
Yeah, no, I agree, man. And it really is. So we just, we overcomplicate things. So dude, listen, thank you so much for coming on.
You're very welcome, man. I love it. I love this. It was short and right to the point.
Thank you. I appreciate that. I do have one more for you though before we let you go. Where can our audience best find you online?
You can always find me, well, a couple different ways. I mean, I'm always out there on LinkedIn. My address on LinkedIn is Larry Levine 1992. So you can find me on LinkedIn. You can find all about Selling From the Heart and our podcast at sellingfromtheheart.net. And for those people who love Twitter and Instagram, you can find me at the same name, @Larry1Levine.
Perfect. Thanks again for coming on, man.
Dude, you're welcome, Tyler Wagner Wagner. Anytime. Look forward to it.
The podcast you just heard was made using Anchor. Ever thought about making your own podcast? Anchor makes it really easy for anyone to get started. It's a one-stop shop for recording, hosting, and distributing podcasts. Best of all, it's 100% free. Sign up now at anchor.fm/new. That's anchor.fm/new to get started.
