Have you been stuck in a cycle—and not even noticed?
It’s easy to go with the flow and get caught in a pattern…
But if you never take stock of the bigger picture…
You’ll never go beyond where you are now.
You need to embrace intentionality.
Luckily for you, my guest wrote a book on it.
Larry Long Jr. is the Founder and CEO of LLJR Enterprises and the author of JOLT!: Get Zapped Into Intentionality.
In this episode, Larry will show you how to transform your life by setting intentions—and following through on them.
Listen to learn:
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How to gain control over the story you tell yourself
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The power of proximity
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Why you need a personal theme song
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What it takes to be an optimist
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And more
Mentioned in this episode:
Transcript
Larry Long: Strikeouts, they’re a part of life. It’s all what you do with them that matters.
Voiceover: You’re listening to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast with professional speaker, coach and consultant Nicole Greer.
Nicole Greer: Hey everybody. Welcome to the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. My name is Nicole Greer, and they call me the vibrant coach and I am here with none other than Larry Long Jr. Let me tell you about him and then I’m gonna introduce you to everybody relax, it’s gonna be fun. He is the Founder and Chief Energy Officer of LLJR Enterprises. He focuses on sales motivation. So I know you’re thinking we need some sales. Call Larry. All right. He is inspirational. And most importantly, he helps people transform through speaking, coaching and training programs.
He is the host of the weekly Midweek Midday Motivational Minute, and the author of and we’re going to talk about it a whole big old bunch of Jolt. Alright, so let me get it in here. Can y’all see it? Say yes, there it is. All right. And as a former college athlete, he played baseball for the University of Maryland. Go Terps. And Larry’s extremely passionate about coaching and helps sales professionals and leaders take their game to the next level. Welcome, Larry.
Larry: Oh, my goodness. Thank you so much for the kind introduction. Nicole. You’re such a vibrant thing. You brought a big ol smile on my face. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I’m happy to be here.
Nicole: All right, well, good. Well, awesome. So this book of yours is brand spanking new. Is it spanking new?
Larry: It is. It just came out, just came out in May, it’s, new new.
Nicole: That’s fantastic. That’s fantastic. And if you cannot tell, you know, Larry and I are long lost cousins because we both have that energy, that vibrancy that jolt, that thing that’s going on. So his his subtitle here. Let me read it to you. It says Get Zapped Into Intentionality. So first of all, I want you to define intentionality, what what is intentionality.
Larry: It’s all about being thoughtful. It’s really thinking through and I don’t think you can use the word in a definition, but it’s being intentional, being deliberate about everything that you do as it relates to being your best self. Sometimes as we go through life, we just kind of go with the flow, we kind of just fly wherever the wind blows us, which is okay. But when it comes to being our best self and living our best life and our blessed life, I believe that we need to be intentional.
Nicole: I could not agree more. I think you have to give your life intention. And then you have to do this follow up thing called attention. So we’re going to talk about intention and attention. And he’s got in here in in this book, in Jolt, he’s got, let’s see here, seven chapters. Right? I’ve got to chapter six. I’m gonna I’m gonna read lessons from dad later, but that’s as far as I can get. Before this, however, we’re gonna go through those six chapters, but I would love to hear about because you know, your daddy was Larry. Right? He was Larry Senior. Okay, but we’re gonna go through and talk about how to give attention to your intention.
That’s how I’m reading this book right now. Okay. And so I’m learning so much from from my long lost cousin Larry. Alright. So the first thing that you say in your book in chapter one. The title of the chapter s The Story That You’re Telling Yourself, and I think people have like a little angel, a little devil, you know, that old thing. And they’re telling themselves all sorts of things. So will you share a little bit about what you notice about what people are telling themselves? Stories they tell?
Larry: Yes. Well, Nicole, I do some coaching with clients, a lot of high performers, as well as myself, this chapter was therapy for me. Because my coach observed with me, Larry, you’re so uplifting, you’re so positive with everyone else. But when you start to look at yourself in the mirror and talk about yourself, she said, whah whah, Houston, we have a problem. She said, you don’t give yourself grace. You’re so difficult on yourself, you talk more trash, and more junk to yourself, than you would ever talk to anyone else than you would ever let someone talk to you. And it’s holding you back. And when I acknowledged that she’s right, and that I need to change, I need to take action to change.
That was when things started to change in my life. When I started to give myself grace and realize that, Larry, as long as you try your best, you can forget the rest. And I get that from from Tony Horton in p90x. Try your best and forget the rest. But oftentimes we tell ourselves a story of I’m not good enough. I’m not worthy. I think they call it impostor syndrome. And I’m here to tell you, survey says, no, that’s fake news. And you’ve got to be intentional with with rewriting your story that uplifts you, that support you, that encourages you. So that we can get to be our greatest self.
Nicole: Okay, so you you just touched on something. I was just talking about this with my assistant the other day. I had a client that told me that they have impostor syndrome. And while I remained calm and under control in the moment, I later on, I was talking to her about it. I was so upset by it, because here’s what I think. I think out there in the world that come up with these things. I don’t know who invented this impostor syndrome thing. Do you know who invented this thing, Larry? Whoever came up with this I really upset with because it gives people like a disease they don’t need to have. Do you see what I’m saying?
And, you know, this lady that was I was talking to she has like 26 years of experience in her field. Now, how in the world could she be an impostor when she’s been, you know, seated in the chair for 26 years? But she’s like, I’m not sure I should go to the next level. Now that’s okay. Like you’re saying it’s okay. If you’re not sure you should go to the next level. But don’t tell me you’re an impostor when you’ve got 26 years of experience. So how do people control because one of your mantras from the book is I control the story I’m telling myself. So how do I get control that and stop believing stuff like I have impostor syndrome?
Larry: Yeah. So I would say it’s easy, but it’s not. It’s easy in concept. And when I talk about control, it’s really controlling your own narrative. It’s controlling the controllables. It’s taking action to write down, encouragement to yourself. It’s taking the time, I’ll give you a quick story. I moved around as a youngster. Yeah, moved around as a youngster and kids can be cruel. So every night we would say our prayer and my mom, she made me stand in the middle of the room, both hands in the air, and I had to say 10 times, I am somebody. When you say that 10 times 365 nights in a year. I’m not a math major. But I can tell you that I started to believe that I am somebody. I’m walking around with my chest out.
Everyone’s like, who is this little six year old, seven year old nappy headed little kid that thinks that he’s somebody doing his George Jefferson strut? Well, my mommy told me, and I told myself, I am somebody. So I encourage people to speak life. And to encourage themselves. When you say it enough times, you now start to believe it in your heart. When you believe in in your heart, you believe it in your mind. You believe it in your mind, now you start to step into. You start to act like you are somebody so it’s easy in concept. It’s difficult to actually implement.
Nicole: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. And I love a reference to a 1970s sitcom that we all know and love. Absolutely. All right. So that’s my favorite thing right there. Okay, so that’s, you know, telling yourself the right story. So don’t miss what he said, everybody. He said, you’ve got to write down your narrative. And then you actually have to practice what that is. So even if it is a simple phrase, like I am somebody, you need to get your narrative down, pat, you need to figure out who you are. And I think it’s, that’s how you build confidence. Right?
So somebody told me one time, Larry, that confidence, if you break it down the first part means con means with, and then fidence comes from fidelity. So it’s like, which, which is loyalty, right? Fidelity and loyalty are synonymous. So it’s kind of like, I’m loyal to myself. I mean, like, this is what I have to work with for this life. So how does that land for you? That whole thing about confidence and loyalty? How do you when you’re working with sales guys, and gals, how do you help them get their confidence up? Get your get your story, right, nd what else?
Larry: Yeah, well, it ties into chapter number two, Motivation, Where Does Yours Come From? Mine, and this is just me. It comes from my family, my beautiful wife. Hey, Maria, my two beautiful kids. What’s up Trey? What’s up, Lucia? My mother who still living, my father who passed away. His legacy. That’s where my motivation comes from. That’s what my why, that’s what inspires me to really be committed to being the best that I can be. I encourage people to find what works best for them. And I look at eight buckets and these are generalizations.
But I look at faith. Some people call it spirituality. I look at family, friends, fun, fitness. Your health, your wealth. Your finances, your philanthropy, which I know that doesn’t start with an F, but I smell phonetically. And frenetically sue me. And then number eight is career. And I asked people, Ms Nicole Greer, when to really prioritize those eight buckets. What’s most important to you, and why? And when you start to understand what your motivation is, you can now make sure that you’re spending the requisite time, energy, resource and focus on those top key areas. I worked with a coaching client who told me his number three was fitness.
He’s in Australia, his name is Manaan. I said, open up your calendar, I want to see your workout. I want to see when you work out, he looked like a deer in headlights. He didn’t work out. I said, hey, how was it your number three priority. But you don’t ever do it. Houston, we have a problem. So I said open up your calendar. Let’s get a workout on the books for Monday at 12 o’clock. When you get done. Send me a sweaty selfie. Well, Monday at 12:30 in Australia is Sunday night at 10:30. He sends me a selfie my wife said, what kind of coaching are you doing, Larry?
Nicole: And so what? So he got his workout in and now now what he’s done is he’s he’s kind of edified and was loyal to himself. You can’t say number three, if you’re not going to be loyal to yourself and actually get the sweaty workout in, right? I mean, put your money where your mouth is. Put your body in the gym where it’s supposed to be.
Larry: That’s right. And if it wasn’t his number three priority, it’s all good to not spend time. But if your top three, I believe you should be dedicating time, energy, resource and focus. But it’s your call. Motivation, where does yours come from? Where are you driving your energy? Where are you driving your commitment? What’s your why? And what are you doing to back that up?
Nicole: Right. I love in your motivation chapter you talked about three things that I wrote down. One of the things that I wrote down was is that you use positive affirmations. So we’re going to set an intention, we’re gonna give it attention, and now we’re going to affirm it. So I really kind of like how those three things go together. So tell me about positive affirmations. You know, people are like, what do you mean? Like, put a note on my mirror? It’s like, yeah, so how do you use positive affirmations?
Larry: Well, with writing this book, Nicole, I had to change my verbiage, because I am not the strongest writer. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not qualified to write a book. So for me, it’s really changing the verbiage. Up until now, I haven’t been the strongest writer. But I’ve employed a team to assist me with delivering my message to the masses. And when I say that, when I write that, when I believe that, it now changes the lens, the perspective of I’m not worthy. Who am I to write a book? I’m not.
And I’ll be honest with you, my English teachers, if you told them Larry Long Jr. wrote a book, they’ll say, oh, no, where’s Ashton Kutcher? Am I getting punked? Because I wasn’t, up until now. I wasn’t the strongest writer. But what I found is that teamwork, it really does make the dream work. And if you set your mind to doing something, and you surround yourself with those folks that can uplift you, those folks that can assist you where you’re not the strongest. Magic happens. It’s in the words of the great philosopher, JJ Walker. Dynomite!
Nicole: Oh my gosh, I think those shows were on the same night of all as also with All in the Family. I think Mary Tyler Moore, okay, we’re having a moment. Even the kids know it’s on Nick At Night. Okay. All right. So I’m gonna stay with the motivation chapter for a minute because I also love this. The second point you had in there was you gotta be careful about the company you keep. So will you connect the company you keep with motivation? We put those two together for us? Because I think it’s essential.
Larry: Big time. So I wrote a chapter in addition to motivation, it’s you are what you consume. Which, Nicole, you know what time it is. It’s Bo time, I would be a fried chicken because I love Bojangles. But more along the lines of what are you consuming? Not just food, but what books, what podcasts are you listening to? Who are you spending the most time with? I think Jim Rohn says you’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So if you’re spending time with Negative Nancies, Negative Nellies, Negative Ned’s, chances are you’re going to be negative.
But if you’re around folks that are doing great things. It’s kind of like osmosis. It rubs off on you. And I met a gentleman that used to work for Tony Robbins. And I asked him I said, what were, what were some of the key lessons? e said, well, lesson number one, the power of proximity. And by proximity, it’s surrounding yourself with folks that are high achievers, because it’s kind of like if you play sports. If you play, let’s say you’re six years old, and you’re playing with eight year olds, you’re going to elevate your game, you have to, to keep up. It’s just the human nature, the human spirit.
So as a professional, I want to surround myself with those that are the best of the best. The folks that are getting things done. Things done, both personally and professionally. That’s who I want to spend time with. I don’t want to be around folks that are always complaining, woe is me. No. So I’m going to go back to that word, I’m going to be intentional with who lives thin time with to make sure that it’s uplifting. And it’s moving me forward and not holding me back. And I encourage all your listeners to do the same. It’s so powerful.
Nicole: All right, fantastic. All right. And so I love this last tip in your motivation chapter in chapter two, he talks about that you should have a personal theme song. All right. And so I think this is so good, because I am energized by music in a big way. So tell us about your personal theme song and where you came up with that concept. I’d love to hear about it.
Larry: Yeah, I love it. So music moves us. It’s you talk about emotion. It’s about motion. Like getting in motion. When you brought this up, oh my goodness. It brought a big old smile to my face. Because before I went, I normally hop on a Zoom. Or I come up in the room. I love Pharrell’s, Happy. If you if you can listen to the song Happy by Pharrell and not crack a smile, not move. Oh my goodness, you better check your pulse. But one of my favorite songs is by McFadden and Whitehead. And it’s called Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.
And I love the words. That song is so encouraging. It’s such a feel good song. Yes, you’re jamming, you’re grooving. And it’s one of those things where it just it takes over for me. I can’t speak for everyone. But having that theme song having that your your song, your entry song, your walk up song, it just makes a world of difference to get you. Boom, get you in that right frame of mind. Get you in the right state of mind to go about and be excellent. To be the best that you can be. So I’m gonna ask you, Nicole, what’s your theme song?
Nicole: Hmm. Well, I have a lot of very favorite songs. But I like the Staple Singers. A whole bunch. I like a lot of things by them. I love a lot of things by I just like all the R&B, I can listen to any of it and be motivated. You know, Michael Jackson, you know, I’m not sure that the words matter. But it’s more like the energy of the song are really important to me. But the song, I’ll Take You There by the Staple, The Staple Singers is probably my one of my favorite songs ever. Because here’s the thing. It’s that whole song is just about believing. And like, you know, just come on with me. I’ll take you there. Like when I sit down to train somebody or coach with somebody, just like we do, right? If you just have faith. I mean, that’s what that song’s about. If you’ll just have faith, I’ll take you there. Yeah, we’ll get to heaven together. So I really love that song. That’s my favorite. Do you know that one? I know you do.
Larry: You don’t want to get me singing. I’m tone deaf. I’ll have people crying when I want to have them laughing and smiling.
Nicole: That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. Okay. All right. I love that. So, you know again, let’s recap. Chapter one is all about the story you tell yourself. Chapter two is all about motivation. Chapter three though, is about strikeouts. All right. So tell me a little bit about strikeouts. Sounds like you know, learning from your failures. Talk a little bit about that.
Larry: That’s, that’s it. So Nicole, I am not an expert in many things. But I am an expert in strikeouts. I played baseball at University of Maryland. Go Terps. And I’ve had strikeouts in baseball, in life, personal and professional, in business, in sales. We’ve all along our journey, we’ve had ups and downs, highs and lows, twists and turns. And if you look at your journey line for me, what I found is that oftentimes, those deepest valleys, those strikeout, so it’s unsuccessful attempts have led to some of my biggest peaks.
Now what I’ve observed is that as we grow up, failure is sometimes viewed as final. Failure, and just not being perfect is a bad thing. What I’m encouraging folks is to be open to being unsuccessful. To realize that, hey, not being successful, your first time is okay. It’s okay. That’s where you learn. That’s where you give yourself space. That’s where you can innovate. And you can try and be unsuccessful. What did you learn? Did you share that learning with someone else? And what you’re going to do in 2022 to learn?
So I encourage people to look at, hey, just over this past year, what are your top two peaks? The top two best things that happened to you personal and/or professional? What were your lowest two valleys? What did you learn from those experiences? And most importantly, how are you applying those learnings? Or how do you plan to apply those learnings as we look forward? That’s what it’s all about. Strikeouts, they’re a part of life. It’s all what you do with them that matters.
Nicole: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And you know, the thing I find about people who experience a strikeout, which I love, or a failure, or the peak or the high that you’re talking about, is usually the reason why you had a high or you reached a peak is because you executed some kind of superior character. In the moment, like you were somebody amazing, and whether it was intentional or unintentional, but like you were courageous, you were kind, you’re compassionate. You were scholarly, you learned something you studied for the test, whatever it was. Or you were inspirational or creative and created something you never created before. Usually when you have the high, you’re executing like a man or a woman of integrity, high character.
And usually when you fail, there’s like a lack of character or a place where you’re, you’re weak, and you got to build that thing up. And so that’s that’s the lesson I think, in the in the whole strikeouts is find out what’s going on, right? All right, so chapter four is all about what you consume. And you touched on that just a minute ago. But I’m wondering, I love to ask people, what are they reading right now? Everybody, what am I reading? I’m reading this. I’m reading Jolt. Okay, that’s what I’m reading right now. But what are you reading? What are some things that you’ve read in the past? Maybe a favorite movie, and then you could expound some more on you know, putting the good stuff in. There’s a lot of bad news, a lot of bad stuff out there.
Larry: There is and I try my best to fill my brain, fill my soul with goodness. So even though I need to read more of it, the good book, my Bible is one of the best books out there. There’s another book and this is a sales related book. It’s Lessons From a Serial Salesman by Steve Nudelberg. He’s a sales guru that I know, he walks through, I think it’s 27 of his tips on how to be the best salesperson that you are. And we’re all in sales, whether your title says sales or not. We’re all selling at one point or another. If we have kids, if we’re in any relationships, if we ever go on a job interview, we’re selling.
Now the product might be different. But I believe how we view sales, but to get back to what we’re feeding ourselves. I love podcasts. I have my favorite podcasts. I love music, and I love inspirational videos on YouTube. And the great thing about YouTube is the algorithm works. It understands that I like Eric Thomas, Tony Robbins, Les Brown, and it feeds me Jim Rohn. It feeds me Chip Eichelberger, it feeds me, Denzel Washington, other positive, Inky Johnson, I can go on due to the algorithm, which inspires me. It lifts me up. And when you fulfill and you fill yourself with just goodness, it’s kind of impossible to be grumpy.
It’s kind of impossible, to not exude that happiness, joy, that fulfillment, because you’re overflowing in it. Sometimes, and I’ve been guilty, I’m at a deficit and they say I don’t drink coffee. But they say you can’t pour from an empty cup. So you got to make sure your coffee cup is overflowing so that you have enough to give on to others. It’s kind of like when you fly. Put your oxygen mask on first, before you try to give oxygen to anyone else.
Nicole: Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah. And I think one of the things that people need to understand about what you consume is, you know, well, first of all, like if you eat a bunch of vegetables and some lean meat, you know you’re gonna have a body that matches it right? And the second thing I think that is really important is that you know, your brain science right? So whatever you wire together, is going to stick right. So when you keep wiring, putting messages in your brain, you’re wiring, you’re wiring, you’re wiring, you’re you’re creating neural passageways that are going to determine how the day’s gonna go, right.
But if you put in all that positive stuff, you’re going to also decide how the day is gonna go it’s gonna go much better. All right, everybody, so please do not miss this. Larry has mentioned this guy, Jim Rohn, at least two, three times. And Jim Rohn is not on the planet with us anymore. But he was a very successful entrepreneur, very successful business person. And like he said, you can go out to YouTube and listen to these acts, some of the most significant teachings I’ve ever gotten are from our dear brother, Jim, that’s passed on. And here’s how you spell the last name.
So you can go download, go look at it on YouTube, R O H N. Jim Rohn, R O H N. Alright, so he’s downloading some goodies for us. All right. Fantastic. All right. So what you consume, right, so important, that’s in chapter four. Now, in chapter five, you start talking about sales. And this is really your sweet spot in life. Correct? Is being a sales guy. And you mentioned a little bit earlier about how everybody’s in sales, whether you’re selling your kids to go to bed, selling your wife on going for Mexican, whatever the deal is.
But you have four things that you say are essential, four pillars of sales, and the first one is a positive attitude. Now, obviously, Larry has a positive attitude. Now, I’m guessing he gets that because he’s gotten his story straight. What he’s telling himself. Number two, he’s motivating himself. Number three h’s listening to good music. Number four, he’s consuming the right things. But you know, what does it really take to be an optimist to have a positive attitude? What do you think? How can we get people there?
Larry: Yeah, so it’s a lot easier said than done. But it can be done. I’m a big believer, Nicole, that tough people are greater than tough times. And I encourage folks to control the controllables. And there’s an acronym I used to call it EAT. But I’m trying to cut down on what I eat. So we’ll call it TEA. And since we’re here in North Carolina, we’ll call it sweet tea. You can control how you treat other people. You can control your emotions, and you can control your actions and your attitude. Outside of that, there’s not much else you can control. So in sales, as in life, there’s ups and downs, there’s highs and lows, there’s wins, and there’s a lot of losses. There’s a lot of strikeouts. I encourage folks to focus on those good things. To be optimistic to realize that, hey, everything’s not gonna go my way.
And that’s okay. That’s an opportunity for me to learn and grow. If you think about it, when a plane takes off, it takes off against them wind. You need that resistance in order to lift up. It’s the same thing with us along our journeys. We need that tension. We need some of those unsuccessful attempts to give ourselves space. To give ourselves that knowledge, the learning to really step into our best self. If everything was hunky dory, if everything was all sunshine, and unicorns and rainbows, oh, I can’t imagine life like that. It’s the it’s the challenges, the ups and downs that really make life worth living. That’s just my opinion.
Nicole: Okay, so these, this positive attitude, we can get that in place. And the second thing you talk about in terms of a pillar of being a great salesperson, or I think, you know, Jolt is really a lot about just being a great person in general. So is integrity. Tell me, tell me your thoughts on integrity. I think this is essential.
Larry: Oh, it’s great. And I learned this from working at a company called Intuit one of their core values was integrity, without compromise. In life, in sales in business. Every day, we have decisions. Every day, we have actions and we have to determine are we going to do this? Are we going to zig or are we going to zag? When your true north when your compass is focused on integrity without compromise, that means it’s either right or it’s wrong, no gray, it will guide your decisions accordingly. And I believe that with integrity, doing the right thing when no one is watching, it now puts you beyond reproach and now elevates you to really serving your prospects, your clients, your stakeholders. Serving their needs ahead of your needs.
Nicole: Absolutely. All right. And number three, pillar of being an amazing person, a salesperson, but then again, anybody would be being a team player. Now you said earlier the teamwork makes the dream work. But why actually is this absolutely true? I mean, what’s the, what are the characteristics of a great team player and how do you do that in your own life?
Larry: Yeah, well, Nicole, there’s a saying and I’m not sure who to attribute it to. But I think it says if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far go with a team. And I do believe teamwork makes the dream work. And to have success in sales, in life, in business, you’ve got to be collaborative, you’ve got to be a part of some sort of community that you’re supporting. And that’s supporting you. Hercules, Hercules. We all need those encouragers. Because it’s tough. Life is a four letter word and it will make you say some four letter words, it’s tough. But when you have an A-Team, when you have a hype squad, when you have your personal board of directors that are there to encourage you, and ride along with you, the ride is so much better. It’s so much smoother, it’s so much easier.
I asked folks who’s your coach, who’s your mentor? Who are your many mentors that help you in specific situations? And then also on the flip side, who are you mentoring? Because that team player, it’s, it’s better to give than to receive. And in addition, I encourage folks, don’t be afraid to ask. I know earlier in my career, and still even now, that ego steps into play where I’m afraid to ask for help. No, people want to help, but you’ve got to, you’ve got to be authentic, and you’ve got to be vulnerable, that you don’t know it all. And that you do need help. People are there to help you. So that’s what I mean by being a team player.
Nicole: All right, that’s awesome. And then the final one in your four pillars is to exhibit what you’re trying to be in the world. So you can talk a little bit about exhibit what you’re trying to be?
Larry: Yeah, exhibit persistence and having a growth mindset. It’s one of those things where people can’t be what they can’t see. And I’m a big, I coach, stepping into your greatness. Well, Larry, how are you stepping into your greatness? I’ve got to practice what I preach, or I think they call it being hypocritical. Having a growth mindset means being a lifelong learner through every experience. It means learning. You never know who you can learn from. It can be that barista at Starbucks, and I don’t drink coffee, I might explode.
But we can all learn something from everyone. My 12 year old son, learn something from him every day, normally around Tik Tok. My eight year old daughter. Learn some from her, normally from YouTube kids. But it’s having that open minded growth mindset and being open to learning and being open to growing and being open to sharing with others. I think they say sharing is caring. But it’s really exhibiting that day in and day out consistently.
Nicole: Absolutely. All right. So I love chapter five, I agree with you. Everybody’s in sales, no matter who you are, what what job you have, you’re trying to convince people to do something. All right. So chapter six is all about the basics. And one of them was about modeling. And so I would love for you to share why modeling is a basic and maybe some more basics you want to share?
Larry: Yeah, well, really, when I think about the basics, Nicole, what comes to mind, it’s the ABCs, the 123s. It’s all the lessons, the please and the thank you. It’s all the lessons we learned in preschool, in kindergarten and first grade. And I know people are saying, Larry, that’s super basic. It is. If you’re able to master those basics, you now build a foundation, a strong solid foundation that puts you in a position to now build on that foundation to really exhibit growth beyond belief. But what happens is folks try to build on a shaky foundation, a foundation on sand. Good luck building anything of value on sand.
You better have concrete, solid rock. So that’s my encouragement there is really for you, in your profession for you and your personal life, what are those very basics. In basketball, the basics are being able to dribble, to pass, to shoot. In baseball, it’s head down, eye on the ball, balance, hard line drives. I think in football, they call it the blocking and tackling. Well, in any aspect of life. There’s the very core basics that oftentimes are so easy, people don’t master them. And if you don’t master the basics, uh oh, Houston, we have a problem.
Nicole: All right, fantastic. All right. Well, we saved the best for last. And like I had said, I want to hear dad’s stories, but I want to, I want to hear them from you. So will you share with us maybe a lesson or some things that your dad told you that we could all, you know, take Larry Senior and put him in our pocket and take him home with us.
Larry: Yeah, so I lost my father five and a half years ago. He grew up in Baltimore City, and no, it’s okay. It’s okay. We’re all marching to that finish line. He was a track guy. We just don’t know when that finish line is going to come. So my father lived, lived every day to the fullest. And he wasn’t a man of many words, he didn’t speak much. I must get it from my mama, my talkativeness. But his actions spoke so loud. It didn’t even matter what he was saying. He was a man of very little words, but all about action. And what I learned from him, just observing and being around him, his example, is the importance of faith, the importance of family, he loved my mom, he loved my sister and I, and he showed that love by being present.
I remember playing baseball, I played at University of Maryland, but we used to travel around, he made it a priority to be there. And to be engaged. He wasn’t there on his phone. He was there watching the action, he was there to encourage us. His positive attitude. It wasn’t just the glass half full. He was a glass 100% full type of guy. He loved competition, and coming, he was the only one from his family to graduate high school. So it’s like, hey, the expectation for him was very low. But his expectation for himself was, I’m going to work hard.
And I’m going to make a great living for myself, and for my family so that they don’t have to experience what he had to experience. An abusive household, abusive father, surrounded by drugs, alcohol, violence. And he really made that a point. And those were just some of the lessons that I learned from him just from observing. I mean, from some, some of it was from what he said, but most of it was watching what he did. And that’s really I get choked up a little bit. That’s really what makes me who I am today, his example. And my goal is to continue to pass that example on to my kids, as well as anyone else that I touch.
Nicole: I love that. I love that. All right. Well, we have worked our way all the way through this book called Jolt. So everybody, hold it up again. Hold it up again. So go out and get this. It’s on the Amazon. Is it not on the Amazon? Is it out there on the zon?
Larry: It is on Amazon, thankfully.
Nicole: All right. Fantastic. All right. Well, Larry Long Jr, I have gotten a jolt out of speaking with you and I absolutely adore you and love you. Thank you so much for being on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. Hey, everybody, if you want to get a hold of Larry, here’s what you do. You’re gonna go and email him at Larry@larrylongjr.com and also go out to his website, which is larrylongjr.com. Larrylongjr.com. And he will definitely give you a call back. I’m sure he’s got some kind of contact form, his phone number is all over everything. You can find him on LinkedIn. And also on Facebook and Twitter at Larry Long Jr. All right. So Larry, how about a final word? You know, we always have like one special listener who’s like, I want one more. I want one more thing from Larry. Leave us with one thing.
Larry: Thank you so much, Nicole, I appreciate you allowing me to come on the Build a Vibrant Culture podcast. In parting, I want to let everyone know. I believe in you. Now you’ve got to believe in you. Wholeheartedly. You can do it. You can do it. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t believe the fake news. You can do it. You are worthy just as you are. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be, not be hard work. It’s hard work. But you are worthy. Let’s make it happen. Let’s step into our best life. Let’s step into living our blessed life. Nothing but love. Thank you, Nicole.
Nicole: Thank you, Larry. Everybody. Thanks for joining us have a vibrant day.
Voiceover: Ready to build your vibrant culture? Bring Nicole Greer to speak to your leadership team, conference or organization to help them with her strategies, systems and smarts to increase clarity, accountability, energy and results. Your organization will get lit from within. Email Nicole@nicolegreer.com. And be sure to check out Nicole’s TEDx talk at nicolegreer.com.
