The Future of Selling

Future Of Selling (00:00.302)
There it is. Hey, welcome to the Future of Selling podcast where we dive into challenges. We dive into trends, innovations, know, anything impacting the future of sales or the sales landscape. I'm your host, Rick Smith. I'm so appreciative you guys have decided to join us today. You know, and our guest today is Larry Long. So Larry is the chief. He's the CEO. But a little twist on that chief energy officer.

at LLJR Enterprises and we'll learn more about what that company is all about in a few minutes. He's also a former SaaS sales leader with some really pretty impressive companies, right? Teamworks, Pindo, Intuit. So these are not just small little startups, right? These are pretty impressive companies. He was a bestselling author of the book Jolt, love that name. And he also hosts the weekly midweek, midday.

motivational minute. That's a lot of M's in there, but it's fun. I've listened to it and it's actually really, really good. Larry's also a keynote speaker and is known really for kind of high energy keynotes and that turn mindset into measurable sales emotion. So we'll talk some more about that. So this is going to be a really great conversation day. Larry, welcome to the podcast, man. Thanks for the time. I really appreciate it.

Larry Long Jr (01:20.169)
Rick, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am honored and privileged and humbled to be joining you on the Future of Selling podcast. Thank you.

Future Of Selling (01:28.686)
Yeah, yeah. I'm so glad you're here, man. It's good. We're going to have a really good conversation. I could tell just from, you know, talked to you a few minutes ago, but also just the stuff I found out about you. So one of the things I always like to do is we get started. I people can go out and look, you know, see you on LinkedIn, things like that, and, get the professional sense of it. But I always like to start with a few fun facts as well, things I've picked up along the way. So hopefully that's okay with you if we throw out a few fun facts. All right.

Larry Long Jr (01:54.687)
I love it, love it. Surprise me, hit me with your best shot.

Future Of Selling (01:58.031)
Well, the last one is, we'll get there, we'll get there. All right. So first one is, and you've got the shirt on to prove it, right? You were a very good collegiate athlete and you played baseball. Was it for four years, as I understood, at University of Maryland?

Larry Long Jr (02:13.537)
If we were your starter, who would have thunk it? Lil Larry Long Jr.

Future Of Selling (02:18.017)
I like it. like it. What position did you play?

Larry Long Jr (02:20.993)
Left out, coach, can I get in? Nah, you're left out, go to the end of the bench. No, four year starter, freshman year left field, and then I roamed center field, had a little bit of speed, and another fun fact, my father ran track at Maryland, my sister ran track at Maryland, I was the black sheep of the family, literally and figuratively playing baseball.

Future Of Selling (02:25.582)
Ha!

Future Of Selling (02:36.803)
Wow.

Future Of Selling (02:40.558)
Yeah, that's awesome though, man. Four years? I mean, that's a big deal. So anyway, fun fact number one. Also based on what I've seen in the book, right? You spend a ton of time kind of thinking about, talking about, and really helping people with their mindset. So we're going to dive in deep into that. And I'm really kind of a fan of intentional mindset versus default mindset. I bet we get into some of those conversations. I'm looking forward to it.

And then the last fun fact, it's going to sound kind of creepy. Sorry about this, but I want to be you, right? So, you know, successful sales, successful SaaS leader, turned author, turned keynote speaker. And I just want to find out more about that journey as we go. I mean, that's incredible to me, right? And just how you made that transition. I'm looking forward to that story. So anyway, we'll get rolling, man. You know, so.

Let's kind of pick up on that last fun fact. You were a successful SaaS sales leader at some pretty impressive companies. So it's not like you, you you probably had to make it a good living, things like that, get a paycheck every two weeks and so on and so forth. Then you leave kind of that all behind, right? And you start your own thing. Author, don't know, tell us if you wrote the book while you were still employed in those positions, you know, did you left, your own thing, author, keynote speaker.

Why? mean, kind of what led you down that path?

Larry Long Jr (04:12.993)
Yeah, so Rick, I realized I wasn't living in my gifting. So as you can imagine, as a director of sales, I was the Monday hype man. We come in Monday morning, getting set for the week, Larry, get us rah rah rah, which was good. We had 21 sales reps, it was good. But I knew at least for me, God's plan was for me to have more of an impact on more than just 21 sales reps. So.

Future Of Selling (04:17.505)
OK.

Larry Long Jr (04:38.714)
I, it was actually my wife who encouraged me strongly. She said, baby, you tell everyone else to follow their dream, pursue their passion. Look in the mirror.

Future Of Selling (04:47.884)
Yeah. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (04:49.161)
You come home and I see, you might put on that smile for a mile when you're in the office, but I see the real you when you come in the doors and you're not living a fulfilled life, you're not happy, you're not living in your gifting. Why don't you take your own medicine? And the answer was, they call it FUD, not Elmer FUD, but fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Future Of Selling (05:12.78)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (05:12.801)
I knew that I should be a speaker really for the masses, but I was scared. I used to own an indoor baseball and softball academy and unfortunately it failed miserably. I guess you could say spectacularly, which is chapter three of my book, strikeouts, they're a part of life. I've struck out a lot, but I realized that, I gotta overcome that fear and really step into.

God's plan for me and what I enjoy. I get fulfilled. I find meaning when I can serve and help others. And you won't believe this, Rick. In elementary, middle, and high school, I used to get sent to detention for talking. I know that there's no way. You're like, no way, Larry. My teachers were saying, quiet, please. Now I pinch myself because I get paid to serve, paid to speak, so I made that jump.

Future Of Selling (05:57.696)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (06:03.81)
Yeah, yeah. How did you, you you're talking about fear and fear, uncertainty, and what was the last one? yeah, yeah. How did you step out of that? What did you do? Right? Because to me, when I think about it, and I do some work in this area with some guys, right? And it's always that question of, my gosh, what if it didn't work out?

Larry Long Jr (06:11.453)
in doubt, fud, you're uncertain in doubt.

Future Of Selling (06:31.126)
Right? And you're only going to answer that one of two ways, either, no, what am I going to do? Which is the scary one, or I'll figure it out. I've always figured it out. So how did you get past it? Yeah. Because that's real stuff, man. To step out of the comfort zone, into the stretch zone. That's a scary place.

Larry Long Jr (06:50.057)
Yeah, and I live it every day. The word of the day is commit. And I always say when you're committed, you move and you shake in a whole different way. So I had to move differently than living in fear and what if what what if it fails? What if I'm not good enough? What if what if what if what if and say, I'm going to make it happen.

Future Of Selling (06:57.249)
Okay.

Future Of Selling (07:04.248)
Okay.

Larry Long Jr (07:17.729)
I always share this with other people, healthy, strong people are greater than tough times. Tough people are always greater than tough times. We've proven that. I actually had to believe my own message, which is very tough. It's a lot easier said and it's very easy to tell someone else that, but to believe it in yourself, it really requires a commitment and a belief in your heart.

in your mind and in your words that you say, commit.

Future Of Selling (07:48.378)
Yeah, yeah. Did you have a clear vision of what you wanted to do when you took that step and committed, or is it like, it's a little fuzzier, you know, a little bit of, yeah, okay.

Larry Long Jr (07:59.857)
No, I couldn't I couldn't say a daggone thing, but I just shared this recently the power of coaching I hired a coach early on Kristen frayed Who said who helped me set a clear vision of what I wanted as well as what I didn't want and then she challenged me to be intentional with the path that I found

Future Of Selling (08:09.679)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (08:16.26)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (08:21.355)
to get there and the path has certainly changed. I've zigged and I've zagged. I've had lessons learned and lessons earned along the way, but I was afraid to say my vision. It was scary to put it out there because when you put it out there, uh-oh.

Houston, we might have a problem, you can fail. And no one likes to be a failure. So she really challenged me. There was blood, there was sweat, there was tears during our coaching sessions, but that really set the foundation of the life I'm living now. I pinch myself every day, Rick, because...

Future Of Selling (08:41.38)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (08:57.299)
I never would have imagined it. I mean, I don't pinch myself too hard because I don't want to wake up. I'm living a dream, but I never would have imagined that I'd be living my life serving people each and every day across the globe. I just got back from Telford, England. Who would have thought it?

Future Of Selling (09:12.877)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no doubt. Yeah, I think what I hear you say is a couple of things to make that transition from fear, uncertainty and doubt into commitment. took it took really it took identifying with it. Now you you worked with a coach to do it, but you got to identify what the vision is, because if the vision's not compelling enough, it's just not going to you. It needs to pull you.

Right. I mean, it's got to pull you into that life to go, OK, I'm ready to let go here so that I can go here instead. Is that right?

Larry Long Jr (09:48.917)
thousand percent and surrounding yourself with the right people. So thankfully my wife, I love you Maria. She's right down the hall. She encouraged me and said, Hey, I got you. I got your back. I got your side to side. I got your front. Let's do this because this is what you should be doing. My coach giving me the tough love.

Future Of Selling (09:57.154)
Thank

Future Of Selling (10:09.572)
Love that.

Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (10:13.237)
Be careful of the story that you're telling yourself and be careful of the story you're believing, Larry. I painted a picture that was fake news often and she called me out on it.

Future Of Selling (10:22.703)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Love it. Love it. So tell me a little bit. I don't want to come back and visit that thought for just in a minute, but tell us a little bit more about about your company. What do you do? I know you've got you do keynotes and stuff like that. But what do you you know, what's your actual service that you're providing?

Larry Long Jr (10:39.881)
Yeah, LLJR Enterprises, we bring energy and inspiration and motivation, but most importantly, transformation. Now our programs, keynote speaking, sales kickoffs, company kickoffs, events, MC, and then I coach, I train, and I never would have thunk that I would say this. I'm an author and I'm a LinkedIn influencer, whatever that means. I have partners and organizations that partner with me to support them on LinkedIn and

Future Of Selling (10:47.449)
Okay.

Future Of Selling (10:54.809)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (11:03.117)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (11:10.273)
I'm living a dream. So we just bring a lot of fun, a lot of energy to everything we're doing and yeah, looking back with my coach, we shared that I enjoyed the one to many. love being able to touch many. So I do some one to one, but really the business is touching the masses.

Future Of Selling (11:14.479)
Okay.

Future Of Selling (11:31.309)
Right, gotcha. How long ago was it when you made this transition into your own company?

Larry Long Jr (11:36.513)
Yeah, I had my first paid speaking engagement on March 17th, 2020. Think about the time. I know you're looking at me saying, hold up, Larry, you don't look Irish or even black Irish. That was St. Patrick's Day. It was also the start of the pandemic. then fast forward, March 26th of 2021, my company, they separated from me. They chucked up the deuces and said, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you. And that was when I went full time. So I'm four and a half.

Future Of Selling (11:42.243)
Ha

Future Of Selling (11:51.791)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (12:06.467)
full-time as a motivational speaker and emcee.

Future Of Selling (12:11.619)
Incredible, Incredible. Well, let's talk about Jolt for a minute, right? The book. And I love the name. If you had to summarize the book in a paragraph, what would that what would that paragraph say?

Larry Long Jr (12:23.829)
Yeah, it would say, AKA unstuck. I almost called it unstuck. And it was a book for me. At the time, I was stuck in corporate America in a dead end job that didn't fulfill me, that I knew wasn't my purpose. Well, Larry, how do you get unstuck?

Future Of Selling (12:30.37)
Okay.

Future Of Selling (12:38.873)
Okay.

Larry Long Jr (12:41.087)
Well, you need a jolt. Sometimes we need energy to get a zap. I started my midweek midday motivational minute on April 22nd of 2020, right during the pandemic. And I just put out a word of encouragement every Wednesday at 12 noon. I just hit episode number 284 and

Jolt is a compilation of my seven most meaningful topics at that time. So what story are you telling yourself and believing? Strikeouts, they're a part of life. Motivation, where do you find yours? Lessons from my dad. Sales, how do you define it and how can you use it for success in life? The ABCs, I I can keep going. You are what you eat, which would make me a fried chicken, but who's the company that you're keeping around yourself?

Future Of Selling (13:28.995)
Yeah, well, let's jump into some of those then, right? So the story you tell yourself, right? Talk about the power of that story and why it's so important to me, to you, to anyone listening. Why is that so meaningful?

Larry Long Jr (13:44.737)
Yeah, the great Henry Ford said it best, and I'll paraphrase, whether you believe you can or believe you can't, you're right. And this is so timely, Rick. I just met with a former colleague of mine who wants to launch her coaching business. And I said, when are you going to do it? And she said, well, I'll wait until the new year. I said, why wait? What's today? It's October the 24th. Why not now?

Future Of Selling (13:57.742)
Okay.

Future Of Selling (14:06.798)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (14:06.857)
She said, I can't do it now. Well, why not? She's now committed to doing it within the next week. She had told herself a story that she wasn't ready and she needed to get this prepared. And it's the whole perfectionist syndrome. So I encourage people, you've got the pen to be the author of the story that you tell yourself and that you believe. Choose wisely. And from experience, I was telling myself a story of I'm not good enough.

Future Of Selling (14:12.943)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (14:29.134)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (14:35.497)
No one wants to hear my story. I've got the face for radio. I can't, can't, I can't. And my coach said, let's name that voice. So that voice is called Cletus.

And I don't know if there's any movie buffs out there, but I often say every day, come on Cletus, you're gonna walk over, but you're gonna limp back. I'm not Cletus off of my shoulder every day. Now my dad, I lost my dad coming up on 10 years. He was the original Larry Long. That's that voice that empowers me. Boy, you can't have my last name. You can't be Larry Long Jr. with a spirit that's not empowered. You're more than a...

Future Of Selling (14:46.436)
with that.

Future Of Selling (14:52.271)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (15:01.2)
Okay. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (15:12.597)
Conqueror if you know what I mean Let's act like it Larry so it's really the battle for me every day of those voices and those stories That I'm telling myself and believing and I see it with sales professionals entrepreneurs it can be dangerous in a bad way or It can be dangerous

in a good way and one of my coaches, Becca Eggers, sent me this pennant, dangerous. She said, Larry, you don't know how dangerous you can be if you get your mind right.

Future Of Selling (15:45.649)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How do you so dig into that a little bit, right? It's here's what I found. And most of these principles are easy to say, much more difficult to live out, right? Much that, know, on a daily basis. So think about the, I mean, the story you take because because I think anyway, we've all got a default story, right? And we have an intentional story, hopefully. Right. So

To me, that's like the first step, To figure out what the default story is and figure out, maybe even more importantly, figure out what the intentional story is. then how do you, you know, so talk to me, you're the expert on it. So tell me how to do that.

Larry Long Jr (16:26.175)
I'm not an expert, from lived experience, it's a lot easier said than done and talk is cheap. So really it comes down to what is your daily habits? What's that daily discipline in terms of your words, your actions, your beliefs and how you're doing it. So understanding your default story as you shared what it is and why is it that way? I'll give you an example from my coaching, my relationship with failure.

Future Of Selling (16:32.528)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (16:56.009)
was molded from my father. My father grew up in Baltimore City, not a very good part of town, and track and field was his ticket out. He was very tough on himself. come on Shorty, come on. That served him well during that time. It served me well at different points, but right now, being tough on myself doesn't serve me well. The story that I need to tell myself is, Larry, it's okay. What are you learning throughout the process? What are you learning throughout the journey? So it's really

the daily discipline to be intentional with the story that you want to tell yourself and then figuring out a way of what you want to actually what you do. I'm not from Missouri, but I think it's the show me state. Show me what you're working with. And it's that day in and day out discipline and commitment.

Because when you're committed, you find a way to do it. When you're dilly-dallying, when you're kind of plugging along, you'll find every reason why not to. Let's talk about the gym. Going to the gym. I've been committed to losing weight because I want to see my daughter who's 12 years old. I want to be alive when she walks down that aisle. And that's choice. Every day, we have a choice and I can say,

Future Of Selling (18:11.674)
Absolutely.

Larry Long Jr (18:17.665)
I prefer to eat fried chicken over seeing my daughter, where I can say I'm committed to hitting the weights and watching what I eat and eating less of it, which I hate to say. I got some leftover Chipotle and we went to the State Fair. I got some leftover kettle corn, but instead of eating the whole thing, portion control.

Future Of Selling (18:38.683)
Yeah, gotcha. So if anybody's listening to this, if you're not watching the video portion, so Larry just keeps pulling up like little, I don't know what they call them, little things right out of his office. So far, he just pulled up a piece of chicken that had a key ring attached to it and it's cracking me up. So he's got a bunch of prompts or props in his office, which I love that.

Yeah, well, I agree with you, It's about the daily disciplines, right? I mean, do you have like I'm reading a book right now, Rules of Resilience by Valerie Burton, really good book. She's a great author and a coach and all those kind of things. Right. She talks about the her vision manifesto. Right. And, you know, because she was big into vision boards and things like that. And then she said, you know, her clients were having a tough time with it.

So she inserted this idea of the vision manifesto, which is kind of a document of the vision. And then they would build the board after that. that, which is great idea. But for you, how do you keep it in front of you? You said, Hey, it's about the daily discipline. You got to keep this thing in front of you. What's your tip or trick to keep that in front of you every day?

Larry Long Jr (19:54.227)
Yes, I have it on my board, but because I travel, I also have my vision in my phone, in my notes. So I know very specifically what I want and most importantly, why I want it. It's great to know what you want, but I've got some big goals and the research has showed that big goals are possible when they're back with purpose and meaning right here in the heart.

Future Of Selling (20:02.096)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (20:19.729)
Okay. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (20:21.629)
So I've got my plan on a page that I keep in my notebook and I got to give a shout out to one of my colleagues, Dr. Sarah Glova, who preaches the one page. This is my one page, the impact. Pretty much got my intention and my goals as well as my why on this one page. So I know where I'm going, why I'm doing it, which drives me each and every day. I can tell you it's more than me. It's not self-serving.

Future Of Selling (20:34.533)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (20:50.753)
big family, big faith, big community. I wanna leave a positive impact. I believe for me, faith is important. God put me on this earth to have a positive impact. And I can either step into that or I can just say, now I'm gonna do whatever I'm gonna do without purpose, without meaning and not leave a legacy. I wanna intentionally leave a positive legacy to leave this world a better place when I leave. And we're all living our dash. We know this.

But what are you doing with your dash? I'm making sure that I'm intentional and I'm stepping into my gifting to make the most out of my dash.

Future Of Selling (21:30.917)
Yeah, got it, got it. So let's use that as a transition to the next kind of my next question I was thinking about, right? You talk about motivational buckets and you've got a bunch of them listed. And the first one was faith and spirituality, but also family, friends, fund, fitness, finances, philanthropy, career. So that's like seven buckets, right? I mean, how do you manage that many buckets to keep you motivated every day?

Larry Long Jr (21:59.061)
Yeah, it's tough and it's kind of like the buffet. You go to the buffet, they don't do number five, six and seven very well. I'm not going to the buffet for some fried chicken. I might go for the little chocolate fountain, but if I want fried chicken, I'm going to Roscoe's Chicken and Waffles. It's the same thing, at least for me. I can't speak for everyone else, but.

Future Of Selling (22:03.888)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (22:12.517)
Right.

Future Of Selling (22:19.397)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (22:23.743)
That's my order right there, faith, family, friends, and then fun. You gotta have fun. I gotta slip that in there. But that's where my time should be devoted.

Future Of Selling (22:30.225)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (22:35.177)
Now I go through this exercise every quarter to re-prioritize and make sure that there is alignment because it sounds good to have faith number one, but how much time are you spending on your faith? Are you being intentional with your time? When I look at your calendar, is it crystal clear that that's your number one priority or is it just link service? Family first. That sounds good. That's a good hashtag. But when was the last time you spent good quality time with your family without this thing? And this is my

daughter right there. That's my reminder every time I open up my phone. Lil' Lucia is giving me the evil eye saying, saying, daddy be present because I used to take her to gymnastics. And she said, daddy, I look up and you're looking down at your phone.

Future Of Selling (23:23.864)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (23:24.395)
I said, knife in the heart. She notices these things and I'm not present, I'm there, but I might as well not even be there if I'm not paying attention. So I realized the power of presence, the power of intentionality, the power of documenting what's important to you, and then making sure there's alignment with what you do along with what's important to you.

Future Of Selling (23:45.437)
Yeah. Yeah. Love that. What I hear there is kind of think stringing together a couple of things we've talked about now is make sure that whatever that vision is, you've got it written down, documented and in front of you. And you've got triggers just like your daughter on your phone, right? To keep you focused on it, you know, to make sure you don't get off track. And even, and then even beyond that, you've scheduled time on a quarterly basis to stop, breathe, reflect.

Am I still pointing the same direction? Has anything changed? anything now more, you know, because visions change over time, right? So I think that's, I love that. I think that's fantastic.

Larry Long Jr (24:25.107)
It's tough, it is hard work Rick. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. But I can tell you that having the people around you to support you, to encourage you, to give you a kick in the behind, which this guy needs often, and my wife is willing to give it to me, it helps a ton. I don't encourage anyone to do it alone.

Future Of Selling (24:46.663)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (24:50.913)
Teamwork really does make the dream work. Together everyone achieves more. We know this, but sometimes knowing isn't doing. Make sure you do it. I'm not sponsored by Nike yet. I got my under armor on, but just do it.

Future Of Selling (25:02.194)
Yes, working on it. Yeah, let's do it. I'm with you. I'm with you. Hey, the power of the inner circle, man. That's what it's about. Well, one more concept out of the book, and then I want to kind of shift to sales, but it's another one that kind of caught my attention was this idea of you are what you consume. And, know, when I was a kid, we had this poster in school, I think it was a poster. I just remember the saying, but it said, hey, you are what you eat. And you had a picture of like, you know,

vegetables and meat and all that kind of stuff. And I was like, all right, well, that makes sense. But you kind of take this a little bit further and you talk about, you know, yeah, you know, what's your health and your diet and stuff like that. But you also say it's people, which I think most people would lean into that. But then even like movies and television and media, things like that. So when you get into talking about those kind of things, do you get pushback from people? You know, I mean, I think most would say, yeah, the food and the, you know, your inner circle. But

When you start talking about, be careful what you watch, be careful what you're consuming your input, that's a little bit different. So do you get pushback on that or not?

Larry Long Jr (26:05.377)
A little bit, but most people ask me, hey, Larry, I've got family members that are toxic. How do I handle that? I've got longtime friends that are are not serving me, not supporting me. And my thoughts around that is, OK, what's your plan? Family is family. That's blood. Friends are friends. And sometimes you've got to trim. Now, I'm not saying you got to unfriend them, but I'm not going to surround myself and put myself in the environment with those

I'm not for me. I'm intentional with being very careful what news I watch and I try to limit my news and my wife says you put your head in the sand and I do sometimes I do to protect my sanity because I know the feelings the emotions that the news rouse up inside of me. It's not serving where I want to go and who I want to be. So I make an intentional choice social media. You see everyone's best. I know for me. I look at social media.

I say am I the only one who's going through struggles? Everyone else their life seems like unicorns and rainbows and sunshine and what's wrong with me? Well, I know that people put their best foot forward and

I limit my time. I'm not saying I cut it all out, but I'm just very intentional with what I watch, who I listen to, what podcasts I listen to, what people I surround myself, what spaces and places I put myself in. Just today, every Friday, my buddies Christian Heyman and Farad Ali, they run a community networking.

and it's always different people, but it's folks that are doing positive work in the community. It's people that are uplifting. It fills my spirit because if your cup isn't full, how are you gonna serve others to the best of your ability? And we know this, but once again, what are you doing? Every Friday that I'm in town in Durham, North Carolina, if I'm here, I'm there because...

Larry Long Jr (28:04.883)
It fills my cup and I'm able to fill others cups as well. So if you're committed, you find a way. If you're not committed, you also find a way to not do what you could be doing.

Future Of Selling (28:17.263)
I Yeah, I as I thought about that and kind of read some of the, you know, your things you've written and talked about there, kind of thought about this idea of kind of your input diet, you know, that just like you have a food diet for your health, right? You've got to have an input diet for what's right here, right? Your mindset, your mental capacity, and really even your emotional state as well as your mind, right? I mean, all that all that matters. So

Anyway, think that's to me, that stuff is fascinating. Let's kind of take some of the concepts we've talked about and move it into the sales realm if you don't mind. how do you advise or coach sales leaders and teams to translate, for example, intentionality, right? Into daily behaviors that actually build pipeline, help them close opportunities because it's one thing to be

intentional about all these, know, here, what am I thinking? What am I, what am I, you know, what's the input that I've got? Make, be careful to the story I'm telling myself. Boom, boom, boom. But how do you translate those into, you know, bigger pipeline, more closed ops, know, you know, excelling at your role.

Larry Long Jr (29:31.039)
Rick, this is just what I found. This is just my two cents. It's not worth a nickel, but they coincide with each other.

Future Of Selling (29:35.805)
Hahaha.

Okay.

Larry Long Jr (29:39.487)
Because if you're at your best personally, you can now bring yourself as a professional sales person. And when you're committed and you take care of yourself, you take care of your family, your commitments, you now are going to, by extension, take care of what you need to take care of in the office. There's a lot of sales professionals that are allergic to this 500 pound banana phone. Even though we know that the phone combined with email, with LinkedIn,

with handwritten notes, imagine that, with referrals, with recommendations, with AI, with all the resources at our disposal, we know that we can be dangerous, but once again, people shy away. And a lot of times, what I found is the FUD, the fear, the uncertainty, the doubt, it's uncomfortable.

Sometimes we got to get comfortable with being uncomfortable and stepping out of our comfort zone to grow. it's sales. It really it's the fundamentals. Selling is when I think about sales, my definition is twofold. Number one is a transfer of energy. And I wouldn't wish my energy upon anyone. In the words of the great philosopher, J.J. Walker, I think they call it dynamite.

Future Of Selling (30:55.859)
Yep.

Larry Long Jr (30:56.429)
Now sales is also playing matchmaker. You're matching your product, your service, your thoughts, your ideas with someone else's needs. Sometimes they don't know their needs, their wants, their desires, their challenges, their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, their pains and their problems. Well, how do you understand that? You ask questions to see if there is a match. We know this, but how many times do we get a sales professional that just wants to throw up, we do this, our solution does that.

Sam McKenna has it trademarked, show me that you know me. How do you get to know the prospect and understand what do they want to get to? What do they want to accomplish? What are they challenged with and see is there a real fit there for you to serve them? And if not, can you refer them? Can you give them guidance? Can you be their Sherpa and give them direction to where they want to get to? Can you plant some seeds to provide a vision that they never even imagined themselves?

Mind blown. Now you're a true sales professional versus sales amateurs. There's a lot of sales amateurs out there that are trying their best, but they're just misguided, unfortunately.

Future Of Selling (32:07.933)
Got it. So, so it just to kind of repeat that then from your point of view, as, as I, if I'm a sales professional and as I continue to work on my mindset, as I continue to work on my intentionality, the, the, habits throughout the day, right? That put me in my best place. That's, I kind of walked in almost, I walk in almost like armed for, you know, the day, right? For success, for if I'm doing those things, it just naturally kind of, kind of leaks into my professional life as well.

Is that?

Larry Long Jr (32:38.305)
That's what I found. can't, I don't have any scientific data, but I do have lived experiences that some of the best sales professionals are taking care of themselves day in and day out. Now I've seen some great sales professionals that didn't take care of themselves and that's okay. But I would say that's the anomaly. That's the crap shoot for those high performers. It's no mystery that they're not just high performers in the office and as sales professionals, but

Future Of Selling (32:47.431)
Got it.

Larry Long Jr (33:08.259)
they're also high performers in everything else that they do. And I'll take that all day every day.

Future Of Selling (33:14.823)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we talked a lot about kind of the story that you're telling yourself, right? So if I'm a seller and I just I just lost a deal, no better time for me to start telling myself the wrong story than after I've just lost an important deal. Is there is there like a go to intervention? mean, like, you know, if I notice that I'm going there, I mean, is there is there anything I can do in like 60 seconds, you know, boom and get myself out of that? Or is it just a long process if I start down that road?

Larry Long Jr (33:44.697)
I'll say yes and it is a process. What I encourage folks is to have your brag book. If you are so inclined, go check me out on LinkedIn, Larry Long Jr. You'll probably hear me before you see me. But my brag book is the 371 recommendations I have because I lose deals. It happens. I'm, taking big shots out there. And when I lose a deal, I'm going to be honest. I'm heartbroken and I'm sad and I'm like, woe, is me. And then I go look at my recommendations and I say, you know what, Larry, you're going to be okay.

Future Of Selling (34:00.051)
Okay. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (34:14.731)
You're more than a conqueror. Check the car facts and believe the hype. You're going to be okay. Who's next? Who can you serve next? Because when I start getting, when I start focusing on me, me, me, me, me, me, that's when I start getting into my feelings. for me, it's not a good path. When I focus on how can I, who can I support?

Future Of Selling (34:14.952)
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yep.

Larry Long Jr (34:37.077)
Who can I help? Who can I guide? And there's a question I ask myself every day. It's a quote from Dr. MLK Jr. Life's most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing to help others? And every day I ask myself this in the morning, and if I don't have an answer at night,

I haven't lived a fulfilled day. was just, it was a day wasted. Who did you help and assist today? So even when I lose, I'm still winning because I'm learning. Lessons learned and lessons earned and on to the next one. That's the winning. When you move on to the next one, that's winning right there because you could just give up.

Sales is not a four-letter word. That was my original keynote. My mom said, Larry, sales is not a four-letter word. I said, it'll make you say some four-letter words, but sometimes we view sales as nasty and naughty. Sales is beautiful, Rick. Sales is service. Sales is serving others, helping others. There's nothing more precious than that, and we're all in sales. I don't care what your title is. If you're in a relationship, if you have kids, if you're just living in the community, you're selling at some point.

I encourage you to embrace it and I encourage you to really blossom within so many lessons you can learn.

Future Of Selling (35:55.125)
Yeah, yeah, gotcha. So if I'm that seller, lost a big deal, right? Go back to the brag book, go back to and look at the successes. Definitely a process to get through that. But go back and look at the wins, go back and it kind of comes back to the, you've got to have something there to change the story that you're telling yourself. And that's your strategy to do that, it sounds like.

Larry Long Jr (36:23.061)
It works well. play baseball and in baseball, if you are a 70 % failure, you're going to the hall of fame. Someone's patting you on the back. That is challenging. In sales, you're going to, most sales professionals I know, they fail more times than they succeed. So understanding that, embracing it and taking it as an opportunity to learn, to follow the process,

Future Of Selling (36:24.52)
Yeah, make it. Yeah.

Future Of Selling (36:33.288)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (36:41.481)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (36:49.331)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (36:52.835)
take the Larry Long path to success. It's a part of success is quote unquote failure, but if you don't give up, it's not failure, at least not to me.

Future Of Selling (37:05.234)
Yeah, no, I'm with you, man. And I think it comes just like we talked about in the beginning. I think it comes back to this idea of it's the it's the it's it's how you answer the question. What if it doesn't work out? I'm saying in my head anyway, right. And and if I if I've lost a sale, didn't get the deal, whatever it is, I have to believe I have to tell myself I'm going to figure it out because I've always figured it out.

Right. There's that confidence that in the story that you're telling yourself and it's like me, when I think about that, I guess kind of mentally that's looking at my brag book, right? That's part that's me answering that that, I figured it out last year, figured out the year before made these moves and, with the mistakes along the way, right. But every mistake led to the next step forward. So,

Larry Long Jr (37:52.967)
Hey Rick, hold on, someone's knocking at my door. They must not know I'm on a podcast. Who is it? that was opportunity knocking at my door and it's knocking at all your listeners and viewers doors. Every experience, whether it's good or bad, high or low, twist or turn, is an opportunity for you to learn.

Future Of Selling (38:01.589)
Yep.

Larry Long Jr (38:12.457)
So even though you might've lost that deal, what did you learn and what will you do differently the next time? You're gonna make sure that if you got side swiped, you're gonna do deeper discovery next time. You're gonna check in and see who else needs to be a part of the process. That progress is priceless. I encourage you to step in, embrace it, and say, me learn some more.

Future Of Selling (38:39.157)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I'm with you. I'm with you. A few minutes ago, you talked about you mentioned LinkedIn. And from what I can tell, you've got you're you're pretty active out there. Right. And and it looks like that's a part of your toolbox that you teach and kind of coach for sales success. Do you mind kind of opening that toolbox a little bit and kind of sharing some insights on maybe a few tools that you tell others about?

Larry Long Jr (39:00.513)
They call me LinkedIn Larry for a reason. I get over 90 % of my business from the platform of LinkedIn and it really ties into relationships. There's a saying, Rick, it's not what you know. The traditional saying is, it's who you know. In my Steve Harvey Family Feud voice survey says, nah, it's not what you know and it's not even who you know. It's who knows you.

Future Of Selling (39:16.926)
Right.

Larry Long Jr (39:26.571)
who likes you, who trusts you and who believes in you that I found makes things happen. People like to work with and buy from people they know, like, trust and believe in. LinkedIn for me is an amazing platform to build my brand, to show people how I help others and to allow them the opportunity to partner with me, for me to serve them. It has been a phenomenal tool.

Future Of Selling (39:55.232)
How do you build your brand out there? mean, that's it. Brand is always a little bit of a vague mystery word, right? But I think I know, but I'd rather hear it from you. What does that mean and how are you doing that and what's the impact?

Larry Long Jr (40:09.877)
Yeah, for me, brand is who you are authentically. LinkedIn provides the opportunity for you to display that and to show that in the written format, in the video format. I will tell you that for me, the number one strategy is my B2B strategy. Now know some people are saying, what do you mean Larry? Business to business strategy? Once again, survey says, nah.

Future Of Selling (40:12.661)
Yeah.

Future Of Selling (40:22.517)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (40:34.805)
This comes from Kevin Dorsey. calls it belly to belly. And for me, belly to belly means in the DMs.

I'm not just talking a good game. I'm showing people I'm a speaker. So I send video messages to display what it's like to have me as a speaker. It's going to be high energy. I'm going to give you something to think about. I'm going to give you something to talk about. And then I'm going to be crystal clear with my ask. I'll probably put a funny GIF because I want to bring a smile to your face. I want to make sure that I show you that I did my research and we've got the Amberton Lions Leo the

I did a little bit of research. Amburton University doesn't have a formal mascot, but I think y'all have been called the Lions. Am I right or am I right, Rick? So it's great to talk a good game. Larry, you say you care about people. Well, yes, I do. And I do my research to show them that I care, to demonstrate it, and I've got the receipts.

Future Of Selling (41:21.063)
You're right, right, yeah.

Larry Long Jr (41:36.083)
So for me, LinkedIn is really about forging new relationships, strengthening existing relationships, and ultimately giving. What I found is that the more that I give, and I'm no Grant Cardone, I'm not 10X, but the more I give, it comes back to me 20X and even more. It's kind of magical, but there is no magic pixie dust. It's just giving and serving out of the goodness of your heart. So that's what I encourage people, put out your thought leader.

Future Of Selling (41:48.531)
Right. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (42:05.987)
Put out what you're doing, what your thoughts are, something that can help and serve someone else, and you're going to find your community that you can now get belly to belly to get to know them and them to get to know you. It's magical.

Future Of Selling (42:20.736)
Yeah, got it. Yeah, so, yeah, I like that, right? I like this idea and I do videos out there from time to time as well, but get out there and show them who you are authentically and it'll attract the right people, right? So it's not always you chasing somebody else out there. I I get those things all the time on LinkedIn, know, and I got one the other day. Sometimes they're just the worst messages ever.

You know, like, I guess, you know, would you like to increase your pipeline by a hundred times? like, and I just want to say, no, I don't. I really don't. just, but you know, I am not rude about it, but I just think that's the worst message. I'm not going to answer that, you know? It's just incredible. So, so.

Larry Long Jr (43:07.053)
What I found is that when you uplift others, when you're truly serving people, because people can smell BS from a mile away. They can tell when you're being genuine. They can tell when you're being authentic. You can't fool. You might be able to fool a few people, but you can't fool most people out there. When you show your true self, your tribe is going to be attracted to you.

Future Of Selling (43:31.594)
Yeah. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (43:31.777)
It takes time. A lot of people, live in a microwave society where people want it right now. Sometimes you have to let it marinate and that's not in the dictionary, but you have to let it simmer. You need to show up consistently. Now I'm not showing up every day, but I can tell you most days I'm engaging on other people's content. I'm boosting them up. I'm shouting them out. And it's kind of magical. It's amazing that people return the favor.

I've got other people shouting me out to their network saying, hey, let me introduce you to my buddy Larry Long Jr. This is what he's done for me. Can he help you as well? I vouch for him.

Future Of Selling (44:10.621)
Right. Now, that's that's those are powerful tools. That's a and it's a powerful approach on LinkedIn. Right. Help as many people as you can get out there. Make you know, if they're in your if they're in your connection, then go make comments on on their on their posts. Do things that kind of spread the word for them. And they're going to give that back to you. So, well, hey, a couple of couple more questions and then I'll let you go because I know we're probably get close to time. But

You've led some pretty big sales teams, Again, Pindo Intuit, others, right? From that experience, there any cultural practices that lead to success that, you know, if you could just like copy and paste them, copy, paste them into an organization and you go, just by doing that, it's going to get better. It's going to improve the results. So what would those be?

Larry Long Jr (45:01.601)
It's similar to most team most successful teams. I've been I've been a part of it's a culture of collaboration Now Larry, what does that mean? That's a whole bunch of words right there But collaboration is where everyone is supporting each other Hey If I'm I used to bat leadoff there were there were plenty of times where I struck out Hey his curveball It's 12 to 6 and it's nasty. Hey his fastball. It has some rise. It's letting the other teammate

in on what's working, what's not working, so that we can all level up and have success. Oftentimes people want to gatekeep. I'm gonna keep all the information to myself. No, we can all win. Let's all work, not to compete for the same piece of pie. And you can tell that I love dessert, but why don't we all work to enlarge the pie so everyone can eat? So when I think of collaboration, I think it's truly looking out.

Future Of Selling (45:50.838)
We do.

Larry Long Jr (45:58.645)
for each and every individual on the team because I care. I wanna see you succeed and I wanna succeed as well. Yes, and it's not a zero sum game of if you have success, I can't have success. Let's all win. So I'm gonna share with you my experience and I'm gonna ask you questions. And if you're a leader out there, my encouragement is that you're internally selling. You should be asking the tough questions.

That's the only way that you can get the tough answers. If you're just asking the, I think they call it the rose colored glasses questions, you're going to get those real. Everything is awesome. No, it's not. What are we doing from a prospecting standpoint? How are we adding value to each and every conversation so that people pick up our phone calls and we call and we waste people's time. Do you want to increase your pipeline by 3000 million percent? No, get that out of here. I need to add valuable insights in

here goes what I found is working. Everyone should use this and test it out. That's been the biggest differentiator that I've seen with successful teams and those that are just, average bluff.

Future Of Selling (47:07.959)
So real collaboration, real openness, real sharing of what's working, what's not working, and real authentic conversations. I think that's what you're saying.

Larry Long Jr (47:17.453)
For sure and I'll throw in I'll give you an extra as well I'm not Allen Iverson, but we're talking about practice so many times people want to practice when the lights are on no When it's great time you better have practice and I shared my son. He's six foot three plays soccer He got cut last year, and he's a starter this year

Future Of Selling (47:26.589)
the

Larry Long Jr (47:37.311)
He was practicing on those video games. He was nice on those sticks. I said, that's not helping your soccer game. You better work on your fitness running around the neighborhood. Well, he actually listened to his old man and there's no mystery why he's having success. When you practice, it now gives you the flexibility to freestyle and really be natural when the game situation, when the bright lights are on, you are ready. So we know this, but my question is, when was the last time that you intentionally

practice with your colleagues and got uncomfortable because that's uncomfortable to have to practice in front of your peers who know their stuff. That's how you grow.

Future Of Selling (48:18.391)
Yeah, yeah, no, I love that. Just the practicing, the coaching that comes along with that, right? Just a massive game changer. You know, we're coming up to the kind of kickoff season. I mean, know sales teams have kickoffs throughout the year, depending on their, know, fiscal, you know, year and all that kind of stuff. But a lot of sales kickoffs for 2026 are coming up, right?

If you were designed the perfect sales kickoff for 2026, what would, if there's a sales leader somewhere listening to this and they've got this thing coming up, what would you tell them? What would the perfect sales kickoff look like for the next year?

Larry Long Jr (48:57.267)
Yeah, you've got to have intention in terms of what do you want your people to walk away knowing, doing, and feeling. Knowledge, action.

and just overall feeling. And when you set what you want that to be, it now allows you to develop a program. What I found is a lot of sales kickoffs, they follow the same dag on thing. And I think it's insanity. I don't know the Webster or the Oxford definition, but I think if you do the same dag on thing and expect different results, I think that's the definition of insanity. So yes, we want to do a recap of the previous year. What worked well, what didn't work well. Yes, we want to talk about initiatives and

for the upcoming year. Yes, we want to practice. We want to get value out of this time. And yes, we also want to have fun. We want to have a good time. We want to build those relationships, but we need to do it with intentionality. So many times I look at these agendas and I've been fortunate to speak at a lot of sales kickoffs and unfortunately they missed the mark.

There's not clarity around what they want their people to know, to do, and to feel. So you had this time together and ultimately we go back and that was a waste of time. We had a good time. Everyone was enjoying themselves if you know what I mean, but the value for the organization, the value for the individual, it missed the mark.

Now I'm also a big believer that you get out of it what you put into it. So the expectation has to be set. Yes, we're going to have fun and we're going to work during this time to get ourselves ready to make this year the best year ever. We're going to, we're going to, we're going to put you in a position where you're going to achieve results that you never even imagined. And it's that challenge. That's a challenge right there. And I look at it from a coaching standpoint, my coach said, Larry, if you don't work with me, you're going to be good.

Future Of Selling (50:41.099)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (50:57.493)
But if you work with me, you will be great and you will live a life that you never even imagined. She delivered on that. Check, check, and more check.

Future Of Selling (51:06.807)
Yeah. Incredible. Yeah. So what I hear, so you're saying something that just kind of unique to me, right? You, you're clearly anybody listening, you're a high energy guy, right? You've talked about kind of what your organization does. It is to bring the energy, bring some motivation, right? Say some things that create some ahas for people to move forward, think about their mindset, but you're, but, you're also saying, Hey, let's be really specific. It's not just about doing a, having a, a sales kickoff and having a good time and

bringing lots of energy and everybody walks out and go, hey, that was fun, but I don't really know what we did or what we figured out. So I think you're unique in that I want to make it fun. want to make it energetic. I want to bring the enthusiasm at the same time. I want to make sure that we're that we're very clear on what I want you to know, what I want you to feel and what I want you to start doing so that we can be successful this year. To me, that's kind of the two sides of the coin. And, you know, I think that's exceptional. This is an exceptional approach.

Larry Long Jr (52:04.705)
Yeah, hashtag nail it. I hate to say it, but that's a mic drop moment right there. What action are your people going to take when they leave that time together? And that's your action speak so loud. I can't hear what you're saying.

Future Of Selling (52:08.641)
Ha ha ha!

Future Of Selling (52:17.612)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. Well, we need to wrap up. I know we do, but I've enjoyed it so much today. Let me ask you this. Let me give you a situation. I'm a sales leader, right? I'm trying to level up my team, increase performance, make it better. If there were two or three key takeaways, you would tell me as a sales leader from our conversation today, Rick, think about this, think about that, think about the other, what would they be?

Larry Long Jr (52:45.013)
Yeah, number one for sure, bringing Larry Long Jr. I'm just being serious. But seriously, as a sales leader, make sure you know your people. People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care. And leadership is such an important responsibility. I hate to say it, unfortunately, there's a lot of bad leaders and we need better. So as a leader,

Future Of Selling (52:49.473)
I like it.

Yep.

Future Of Selling (52:58.124)
Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (53:07.509)
take a look in the mirror and make sure you're the best that you can possibly be so that you can serve your team. Number two, I would encourage you to challenge your team and you challenge your team by challenging yourself. For anyone that has kids, you know that your kids are watching everything that you say, they're listening to everything you say, but they're really looking at everything you do. So if you tell me that I need to take care of myself, but your daily diet is this fried chicken, I'm gonna say, uh-oh, I don't know if I can trust you.

Future Of Selling (53:34.744)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Larry Long Jr (53:37.443)
So I encourage you to model the behavior that you want to see and then challenge you've earned the right because you know your people you've earned the right to be able to challenge them to be their very best and and it's teamwork makes the dream work. Let's do it together as a leader. I'm not the

dictator. I'm pretty much the quarterback. I'm the facilitator of being able to bring out the best of everyone, sharing some information, making connections to help you be the best. But I need everyone on the team to do that. I need everyone to be a leader. It's that collaboration. So how do you make sure you foster that with intentionality, especially for remote teams? How do we make sure that we're doing this on a consistent basis and on a value adding basis and not on a waste

time basis.

Future Of Selling (54:28.076)
Yep. Love it. So here's what I heard. Know your people as a leader. That's all about the relationships, right? Knowing who they are, being able to meet them where they're at. It's the first rule of leadership, right? Second, challenge your team, right? To where they need to go. Challenge them to the results. Lift them up, right? High expectations. But at the same time, you've got to be the model. You've got to be... It's like the law of the picture, right? People do what people see.

End of the day. Yeah. Yeah. Got it.

Larry Long Jr (55:00.23)
And then number three, don't forget that one. Make sure you bring in Larry Long Jr.

Future Of Selling (55:04.152)
Make sure you bring in Larry Long Jr. I like it man for sure. Larry, hey man thanks so much for the time today. Thanks for the conversation it's been great. I know we're connected on LinkedIn but hopefully we can get together again sometime soon.

Larry Long Jr (55:20.597)
Thank you, Rick. appreciate it. Keep up the amazing work you're doing, delivering value to all your listeners and your viewers.

Future Of Selling (55:27.798)
Yeah, thanks, man. Appreciate it. Talk to you soon.