180: Larry Long Jr. On Team Development And Motivation

What's poppin' y'all, it's your man James Say What Sales Buckley, and you're about to join us for another episode of Make It Happen Mondays with your host, John Barrows. Big shout out to our partners, Sales Loft, Gong, Vidyard, Proposify, Zoom Info, and Rise. Thank you so much for your continued support. Today, John's going to speak with the electric Larry Long Jr., Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamworks. Larry is a big ball of energy and just can't be stopped. His attitude and mannerisms are magnetic, and you can't miss that smile. He speaks to John today about beefing up his LinkedIn presence, the difference between leadership and management, finding a rep's motivation, and much, much more.

Strap in, y'all, because Larry is on fire. Remember to follow JBSales on Instagram by searching JBSalesTraining, all one word. We're putting consistent content there for frontlines and leaders that aim to grow. You can also visit ondemand.jbarrows.com to subscribe to all our training courses and additional content, like podcast episodes, webinars, and live events that were recorded and are now available for your replay. Subscribe today at ondemand.jbarrows.com. Let's make it happen with John and Larry in the studio. It's all yours, John. Good afternoon, everybody. This is John Barrows. Make it happen Monday. Hopefully you had a fantastic weekend in January. He's treating you right and you're getting off to a strong start.

I am super excited to have this guest on with us. First of all, he's just full with energy. Second of all, he's a fellow Terrapin and went to school at around the same time I did, so we hit all the same spots. Larry Long Jr., what's going on, my friend? How you doing? What's going on, John Barrows? It's an absolute honor and a privilege to be here. I'm blushing, man. I know you didn't try to make a brother blush, but I'm blushing. Nah, man, the pleasure's all mine. I've been following your shit for a while. I love the voice you put out there, especially on LinkedIn, the stuff that you were doing. You really ramped up your LinkedIn presence this year, didn't you, as far as putting those videos out and everything?

Yeah. I mean, it really comes down to MJI, Morgan J. Ingram. He threw out the challenge. He said, Larry, you're doing the short-form content. You got to get on video. I said, Morgan, I got the face for radio, dog. He said, Larry, don't be scared. And he threw out that challenge. He said, hey, my mentor told me, if I don't do it, I'm being selfish. I said, oh, shucks. Ain't no one going to call me selfish and walk away. So that next Wednesday, I went out in my backyard, put the selfie video on, unironed shirt. I was wrinkled as can be. My wife said, you need some light. I said, I'm incognito. You can't see me even in the light. But that was my first midweek, midday motivational minute. And I think I'm on episode number 38.

I'm trying to keep up with you, dog. That's bananas, man. Yeah, it starts to snowball, right? I had the same thing with my podcast and those type of things. I was like, oh, damn. All right, fuck it. I remember on Snapchat. I remember when Snapchat first hit and Gary Vee was talking about Snapchat and whatever. I was like, Snapchat for business? What? And so, but then I read into it. I was like, all right, I kind of understand this. But I lit up Snapchat and I was like, look, I'm starting Snapchatting. I don't even know really what this is or what it's all about. So this is going to be ghetto as hell. But follow along and see what happens. And every single, all of a sudden, people started following.

So it just blew up. But I love it. Well, look, give people some context here. Give us your little background outside after going after University of Maryland. Where did you come to after that? It's crazy. I've been so blessed and fortunate. I'm the director of collegiate sales at Teamworks. We sell software to elite athletic teams. Love it. But I'm also the brand ambassador at RepView, which is pretty much a data-driven ratings for sales professionals to get insight into sales orgs, which is so important because I'm sure you see it so many times there's just a mismatch between sales professionals and the sales orgs that they join. And that's why we see all of these free agents and all these trades and all the attrition and there's no need for it.

It's like, hey, let's put everything out there up front so that we can make better decisions. So, I mean, I'm doing a lot of different things. I'm building my own motivation, inspiration, sales keynote speaking and training business. I've got a little online on-demand sales training class coming out. Hopefully, you'll list me on your Netflix for sales. I'm working on it. Yep. Bring it in, man. We need more content like this. So, I think you're the perfect person to have this conversation with because it's actually something I've been struggling with a little bit myself, the difference between leadership and management, right? And let's start with that because I want to see because I think it's going to bleed into motivation and where we need to be this year, both from a leadership standpoint and a rep standpoint.

And I came to the conclusion this year that I'm a pretty good leader, but I'm not a very good manager, right? And the reason is, is because I like telling people, like, I don't like telling people what to do, but I kind of give the structure and say, okay, here's my expectations of what you should do, okay? But then I just expect you do it, right? So, I'm not holding you accountable every week. I'm not looking at your numbers. The problem with that, though, is that I wake up a month later and I remember, hey, remember, I told Larry to do something, but let me go check, and if it's not there, if that activity is not in Salesforce, if that thing hasn't done, then all of a sudden I start going down the rabbit hole and being like, dude, what the fuck?

Like, why aren't you doing all this stuff? So, I've actually realized that I'm good, but I need people to help manage and hold the details. So, what is your, what's the difference between leadership and management from your standpoint? Yeah, you're spot on. So, when I think about leadership, it's really providing that framework, like you said. It's being that guide, it's being that coach to help guide folks, service at Sherpa to guide folks to success. The manager is the one who's kind of like that trainer, that personal trainer that's giving you step by step. And for me, I liken it, my son is 11. If I tell him to make me a sandwich, I don't want to have to tell him step one, go to the cupboard, step two, go, no, make me a sandwich.

And you better think it through because you know I like Doritos Cool Ranch. Get that. You better get my Snapple. It better be my favorite flavor is red. That's what I consider leadership. And so many people have a title. A title isn't a leader. Just because you have the title doesn't mean that you're leading anything. It's really having that influence and having that impact where people actually want to take ownership and do it. A manager is pretty much do this. 150 call. I'll never forget one of my first sales jobs outside of Lawns by Larry when I was younger. It was making $150 to CPAs and accountants. And essentially, I had North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee just bombing the rubble.

Week two, I made 148 calls. And my manager, I'm not going to shout his name out, but I'll never forget him. He called me in the office. I said, oh, shucks. I'm getting a raise. I'm getting a promotion. He said, uh-uh, Larry, you made 148 calls yesterday. If you do that again, don't let the door hit you where the good Lord splits you. You can just get it moving. I said, uh-oh, he ain't playing around. And it wasn't just what he said, but it was how he said it. I essentially had a strong dislike. I don't hate anybody, but I tell you, if I had my pink bat in my hand, it would have gone down. It's funny you say that. I used to have a boss that, and this goes to lead by example and some other things that we'll get into, but I used to have a boss.

When I started a bash show, I won't call him out either, but he's the one. I don't hate on anybody, or he's the one that if I saw him in the streets, I'd probably have to say something to him again. But I remember one day, we had a call blitz, and I had just sold my company to Staples. So big man on campus, look at me, right? But now I'm just a trainer, and I had to do what all the other reps and trainers were doing, right? So call blitz day, Fridays from 3 to 5 o'clock, that's what our call blitz was, because they believed that Friday afternoons, executives were in a better state of mind and all that. So I'm like, dude, I would rather be outside playing golf right now than doing this shit, but whatever.

And at the time, I'm a 35-year-old man. You know what I mean? I'm sitting there like, all right, I don't want to make these stupid cold calls. And he comes in, so I'm kind of in my cube, and I'm chatting with the dude next to me, one of the other reps. And he rolls in, and he goes, hey, John, he goes, hey, Barrows, how many, so he calls me out in front of everybody. He's like, hey, Barrows, how many cold calls you make today? And now me being me, being the jackass that I am, I flipped it right back on him. I was like, I don't know, how many cold calls have you made today? And now he was chicken shit. He went back into his office and kind of curled up and was like, er, and then internalized and got really mad at me.

Now, that was a fireball offense. He should have called me out in front of everybody and be like, yo, stand up right here and apologize to me in front of everybody else before you walk out the fucking door, right? He should have said that. But my point to him was I had never seen him make a cold call. I had never seen him. He was leading behind the desk. And his answer was, well, I made a million dollars in revenue. I brought in a million dollars in revenue last year. I go, that wasn't my question. My question was, when was last time you made a phone call? Now, I will tell you, leadership management, the next week, that next call blitz, I had my cubicle here. His office was right there. His door was open.

His headset was on. And he was making calls. And when I tell you he was one of the best cold callers I'd ever heard in my life, and it immediately made me be like, oh, shit. Okay. Now I'm getting on the phone here. Now I'm doing it. So the management, I mean, we kind of paint management in a negative light in a lot of ways because it's like, you've got to do this. But how do you balance that with the empathy, with the leadership components to it? Because like you said, leadership isn't C-level title. You can be a rep and be a leader. So let's talk about that frontline manager, though, because I think that's one of the hardest jobs in sales is to lead, to get people to follow you, but also keep them accountable for what they're doing.

How do you balance that? Yeah, and you said it. It's a balance. And I don't know the magic 50-50, 75-25. I'm not a math major. But I'll just share with you my three goals. My number one goal is hit numbers. That's why we're in sales. We keep score for a reason. And you either win, two thumbs up, or you lose. I mean, there are losers. I hate to say it, but it is what it is. Number two is the develop reps. Now, what does that mean? It means develop reps professionally, but also personally. And that comes into the care. Do you actually care about your people? No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care. That's a quote. I'm not sure by who, but it's so true. And then number three is have fun.

And I always tell my reps that we're doing number one, and number two, we're going to have a lot of damn fun. So, I mean, it is a balance. You've got to hit numbers number one, or else we're not going to be around for number two or number three. But it's so important to lead by example. You don't have to do exactly what your reps are doing, but you've got to show them that you're willing to roll up your sleeves, get in the trenches with them, and show and prove that you can do it, but you can also help them to do it at the highest level. And hopefully you have reps. I try to surround myself with reps that are better than me. I want to learn from my reps just like they learned from me. It's a two-way street.

If I come in and I think that I'm almighty and I know it all, I've already lost. It's like, hey, I have some stuff that can help you, but you have stuff that can help me. Let's work together and let's get it. Yeah, and I think that showing and also showing your vulnerability as a leader too, right? I mean, look, I haven't made a cold call. You know, I make calls, but I haven't made like a call blitz. I haven't done a 50-dial call blitz in a while, but I'll get on the phone with anybody, even in class, like when we were doing face-to-face. I'll get on the calls just to let them know, look, like I ain't perfect at this shit. Watch, I'm going to get my teeth kicked in just like you're going to get yours kicked in.

It's okay. And I think showing that vulnerability and that humility, if you will, it goes a long way with reps as opposed to just telling them what to do. It's the human element, John. And we're in the human business. We're in the people business. I mean, it ain't a game, but it is a game. I mean, when you're dealing with people, you've got different emotions. And for me, during the pandemic, it really taught me that I already knew that they were individuals, but they have individual needs. I have a rep that I was just on with earlier today. He's got a newborn at home. He's living with his in-laws. He's working remote. He's got some different challenges than another rep I have who lives in a small apartment, feels the walls closing in.

And essentially, he bought a dog. He worked out a plan where he goes hiking with his sister every weekend just to manage through me. I got two kids out there in the long academy, and I got fired as the principal. My wife said, oh, no, no, no. You are not good because my first grader, when she's in class, we got to be in class. And I can tell you, I don't do well with tears. I said, there's no tears in first grade trying to figure out how to unmute. I said, come on, baby girl. You got to be tough. Yeah, it's a challenge. And I think that critical part of that individual coach, there's a standard that you got to set across the board, right? Where expectations, this is what the base job looks like.

But then each one of you, I think where a lot of managers fail is they put blanket reward systems, bonus structures, whatever it is. And a lot of people aren't motivated by that same thing. Like, I'm actually sitting here going down with Morgan. We're going to have this conversation with him. You know, he's got a big number in front of him this year, right? And he'll make all the commissions associated with it if he hits it. But he's got bigger plans. You know what I mean? Like, he wants to go do other things eventually. And so I'm going to be sitting down with him and saying, all right, say the end of the year hits and we do hit those numbers, like you said, number one, and you are developed.

What is going to motivate you beyond those things to drive for something different? What is that? And he's got this girl that he's with and he's real serious. He's just coming back from Toronto last night, or sorry, Vancouver last night, right? And so is it a trip that they want to go on? Because I'm like, look, I'm going to ball it out for you here. If you hit those numbers, then I want you to go on whatever that trip is, buy whatever that car is. But I want you to tell me what that is, not me telling you what that is. Because the extra money on top of it, you know, it's not going to motivate him that much more. But if I tell him he gets to, you know, rent a Bugatti for the month or something like that, you know, or he says, I want to rent a Bugatti for the month.

And now he's got that picture on his screen. He's going for it and it's a driver for him. So how do you get to that individual motivation component to it of each individual rep on the team? Yeah. So, John, when I think about sales, I think we're playing matchmaker. We're matching our product, our service, our thoughts, our ideas with someone else's needs, wants, desires, challenges, hopes, dreams, aspirations. It's the same thing. I'm selling with each and every one of my reps. I've got to ask the question in order to understand. I can assume and say, oh, money drives everybody. No. It might be diapers for my boy Special K. It might be diapers. And I will never know that if I don't ask the question and I don't shut the heck up and listen.

And that's the problem. And so many times we might ask the question, but we're asking the question so that we can respond, so that we can verify what we already think we know. No, when you shut up and you listen and you start taking notes, I mean, I don't go anywhere without my notepad. You start taking notes. It just, it's wonderful. And like you said, when, not if, when Morgan hits it, you're going to, you're going to ball him out with something that's important to him. So many times we don't even know. I mean, I look back at Maryland, my baseball coach, he was a heck of a pitcher. He was the opening day starter for the Giants. Yet our pitching staff was the worst in the ACC every single year.

He couldn't, he probably couldn't tell you where my hometown was. He probably couldn't tell you my parents' names. And that's a tough leader, quote unquote, to follow. He's not a leader. It's, I'm not going to run through a brick wall for you. I really don't care about you. I'm doing it for me, which I've got to do it for me. But it's always great when you have someone who cares about you and they show you that they care. They don't, lip service, talk is cheap. Yeah, it is, especially in today's world, man. You can, you can make all the promises in the world. If you don't got action behind it, then I don't, I can't listen to you. And I'll give you a couple of chances. I'll give you, I'm, I'm typically a student.

Let's go back to the baseball. I'm a three strikes and you're out guy, right? You screw up once, whatever. Everybody screws up once. You screw up twice. You're on notice. You screw up three times, man. We're going to have to change the scenario here, right? So what are some resources? Because I think the most, one of the, you said, you know, when we were jumping on, I got Leslie coming on board. One of the things I'm excited about her coming on board is, is that she's got a really, really strong management background and she's actually got content around being a front line managers, which I think is actually one of the harder jobs in sales because it's one of the least trained parts of the process, right?

Usually it's the best rep gets promoted to be the manager and then that man, then they have to show everybody else how to do what they did. But a lot of times that best rep is unconsciously competent. They just know how to do what they do because they're that good. And it's really hard to translate that. So what are some resources if you're, first of all, let's talk, let's step back. If you're a rep going through the motions of SDR, BDR, AE, whatever it is, and you think you want management, how do you know that you're cut out for management? And then B, what are some resources that you can share with us of how to learn how to be a manager? And then we'll talk about leadership after that because then I think that's the next level from there.

So talk to me about that because I don't want reps to assume that management is what they should be going for, right? How do you know you're cut out to be a manager as an individual from your growth path? It's not for everybody. And sometimes, like you said, the best performers are not the best managers. Usually they're the worst. We see it in sports. Michael Jordan, best player, the greatest of all time in my books, but one of the worst coaches, general managers. And that's okay. You look at Phil Jackson. He was an average player and turned out to be one of the best coaches because he cares about his people because he enjoys and is passionate about serving others in that capacity. And it takes a special person.

It takes a person who's selfless, who puts others first. And a lot of times, some of the top sales professionals are me monsters. And that's okay. But a me monster is not going to be a good leader. It just doesn't equate that way. So I ask you to ask yourself, look in the mirror and say, self, do I really care about other people? Have I been able to impact other people in my role? I don't need to have the title, SDR manager, director, VP, in order to be a leader. Are people naturally, when they come on board, are they looking at you and asking you, are you sharing insights? Hey, you zigged there. You should have zagged. If that's the case, then you're on that path and have the opportunity to be an excellent manager from my perspective.

Do you want it? Do you have the skills behind it? Then make it happen. But it's not for everybody. The best traits that I've seen for leaders is really, it's that empathy. It's that caring. It's that selflessness. It's all these buzzwords, but it's just really that if factor of, hey, I can inspire. I can motivate. I care about people and I show it. And I can rally the troops to number one, hit goals. Number two, step up our knowledge game. And number three, you got to have fun. If you're not having fun, life is too short. What's the point, man? And I think that's the grind about sales, right? Is it's such a grind. If you don't love what you're doing or who you're with or the company that you just go, go, go away.

Go get a nine to five job and check out after five and go be with your family. Because happiness is different for everybody, right? I mean, again, I follow a lot of the Gary V stuff where, look, you could be making 40 G's a year, if you're making 40 G's a year, you have a house and you have a couple of kids and you go home every day and you put your kids to bed and that's happiness to you, then you are more successful than the multi-billionaire out there who's a miserable prick and can't have a conversation with anybody all day long. So true. We had this conversation on Clubhouse. I know Clubhouse is the big buzz right now, but someone was talking about some of the celebrities and the celebrities are getting bored because they're not out there doing what celebrities normally do.

They're looking for that connection and it really comes down to relationships, John. I had a sales coach, Steve Noodleburg down in Florida. He told me, hey, Larry, my 30 years of selling, what I learned is the difference between contacts, people you know, and contracts, people you do any kind of business with is the letter R. And that letter R is relationships, true, genuine relationships built on trust. And he said, hey, it's not what you know and it's not even who you know. It's who knows you and who trusts you and who believes in you that really makes shit happen. Pardon my French. Paulez-vous français. Okay, man, this is the podcast to do it. So I love it. Yeah, the empathy factor, I think, is a critical key there of that management.

Say you have that now, though, and you've determined, you know what, I want to give this a shot. What are resources that you would point to for me to go learn? Are there books? Are there places? Is it just experience? Is it internal to your organization? Talk to me a little bit about that. It's all of the above. A lot of organizations don't support. They don't provide training for managers. No, they don't. As a manager and really even as an individual contributor, it's your responsibility to go out, be proactive and seek those resources. For me, I'm a big believer of mentors and mini-mentors. Morgan, I don't know if he knows it, he's a mini-mentor of mine. You, I don't know if you know it, I follow your stuff and I'm learning and I'm taking notes.

I mean, I've got different books. I've got different notebooks for different things and I'm always learning. If you're not learning the game, because the game changes, but you can learn from the past. That's normally just one of the most richest sources is to learn from people who've done it before and have done it in different industries and done it different ways. And then you can kind of figure out what's going to work for you. It's kind of like baseball. Essentially, I can watch Albert Pujols all day long, but I'm not Albert Pujols. I'm not Cal Ripken. I'm Larry Long Jr. I got to figure out my style, but I can watch and see what are the core fundamentals that all the greats do. They all have good balance.

They all have good hand-eye coordination. As far as managers, they all care about their people and they show they care by doing these things. Oh, wow. I didn't even think about the hashtag three-minute challenge to surprise and delight my reps. Take three minutes, find out that, hey, they want a Bugatti. Maybe I go out and buy a little miniature Bugatti and have it shipped to them with a little note that says, hey, I'm thinking about you, 2021, boom, boom. I mean, the little things that make people feel that you care about them, that's what true leadership is from my perspective. But you asked about resources, Google, YouTube, LinkedIn. I mean, the echo chamber of LinkedIn, it's loud. Books, imagine that, an actual physical book.

I mean, there's so much that's out there. There's no excuse in terms of, oh, I don't have any resources. There's too many resources. You really got to filter in what's going to work for me and what's that stuff that might have worked for someone else. It's not going to work for me. All right, everybody. Are you already addicted to Larry's passion for impacting others? I certainly have been for a while now. Larry's got some great insights, and there's so much more to come from him this year. I can't wait to see where it all goes. Don't neglect to send me your sales wins at james at jbarrows.com to be highlighted on an episode of Make It Happen Mondays. Today, we're shouting out Jim Tillinghast and the team at CMIT.

They've been leveraging JBSales on Demand and have already started to see great success with unique and different techniques gained from JBSales on Demand subscriptions. Most recently, one of their sales reps sourced and closed a six-figure opportunity by leveraging video throughout the sales process. Way to go, CMIT crew. Keep up the good work. Subscribe today at ondemand.jbarrows.com and stop throwing darts in the dark. Devise a plan, a routine, a process, a structure for your sales cycle. Top performers invest in themselves. They don't wait for someone else to do it for them. You are in control of your own success. Find your true potential with us. Sign up today at ondemand.jbarrows.com. Yeah, and I think that's like, I'm not a big reader, but I remember when I was getting into management, you know, I read that first break all the rules.

And it was kind of that one that got me to say, okay, you know, there's a model that managers follow that kind of go through the motions, if you will. And then there's a way to look at it my way, which is I don't like that. You know what I mean? Because I was stuck in that structure in the corporate world for a while, and I just, I never liked it. There was, and I've never, there's only one manager I've ever had, one boss I've ever had that I've actually respected. And it was because he gave a shit, it was because he took me aside, because, you know, I'm kind of like you, I'm in your face, I'm pretty passionate, I get real, like, you know, whether it's an argument or whatever, skillful discussion.

But that's how I, that's how I develop relationships, that's how I learn. And he actually pulled me aside and said, John, look, man, I've been following you for a while here. Like, it was a new manager in the company I was at at Basho, and he was just like, I fucking love everything about your drive, your passion, everything else. Let me show you, though, how sometimes that comes across. And I don't want you to understand this from your perspective. And he actually was the first one that helped me understand me a little bit more about how I was being perceived when I did some things. And he's like, look, what are you trying to accomplish here and try to talk to me about my personal and professional goals?

He's like, what you're doing right now is going to get in the way of those. So let's work on that. And he was the first one that I was like, I wasn't at odds with the entire time because he sat down and gave a shit. Right? That's right. You got to love it. And you'll, excuse me, you'll never forget that experience because he actually cared. The give a damn factor. And that's really what it comes down to, to be a good leader. Do you actually give a damn? I agree. And I think that leads to that motivation for the team to do something better. But how do you keep them motivated right now? Because it is a, look, it's going to get worse before it gets better here. Right? We all know that. Q1 of 2021 is going to be worse in a lot of ways than all of 2020 was because of what's happening out there.

So it's easy these days to fall into this negative mindset, this, oh, this excuse mindset in a lot of ways. But, you know, a lot of people had great years last year, despite all that shit. So from a management standpoint, how do you keep your team and that individuals motivated through this mess? It starts with hiring. Are you hiring the right people? And you talked about there's two buckets. I learned this from Bill Bench, chief revenue officer. I know Bill well, yeah. He said, hey, there's two buckets. There's the people that will always find an excuse. I didn't accomplish because of. He said, you can't be on my team. We can grab a drink, but you can't be on my team. I want people that are going to find success in spite of.

I don't care that we went through a pandemic. I don't care about all the protests. I don't care about all the political stuff. I'm going to find a way. And for me, when I hire, I look for people. I call it epic entrepreneurial spirit, preparation and planning, internal driving desire and communication. Internal driving desire is we're all going to get hit with obstacles. I want someone who's going to find a way over, around, under. And if you have to write through, that's hiring. Now, once you have a man, now it's up to you to nurture and provide a supportive environment. And right now, you're right. We're going through a challenging time. How can you flex your muscle to really adapt, to pivot and create that environment where everyone is at their best?

Everyone is feeling inspired that, hey, we're all rolling. We're all rolling in the same direction for that goal. And how does that align with their initiative? So I have all my reps put together a personal business plan. Hey, Larry, what should that look like? I don't know. It's your business. Damn, Gina, you figure out your personal business plan. I'll just provide you Monday morning quarterback. I'll give you some thoughts, some feedback, some areas of opportunity to improve. But you put it together. Where do you want to go professionally this year, in two years, in three years? Where do you want to go personally? What's your why? When you wake up in the morning, why do you come to work at Teamworks?

Are you inspired about empowering and engaging elite athletes? If not, let's figure out where we can get you somewhere else that's going to align with what you're trying to accomplish. Yeah, it's so important, right? Those alignment of values, right? Really tapping into those. Do you go through a value exercise with your team? Like as far as what your values are and then, you know, how to align and those type of things? We do it during initial onboarding. It's not something that we do every year for me and my team. As a company, we do OKRs. And we realized that there was a huge area of opportunity. We kind of lost our way around the March. In the March, April, just kind of, I guess you would say, just trying to figure out how do we not drown?

So we got away, but one of our initiatives this year is to make sure that, hey, crystal clear from the very top organization, here go our goals, and here goes how that water falls down to everybody. So me, if I'm on the front line as a rep, I know exactly why I'm doing exactly what I'm doing and how that aligns to the greater goal of where the company is going and where the company is growing. And when you're growing, I mean, you say it, a big, fat pipe solves every problem. When you're growing as a company, it certainly makes the food taste a lot better. Hell of a lot better. And I love that you said that because it's, I always say, you can't get, you can't get anybody to do more than their job unless they believe in a vision.

That's right. Right? If they believe in a vision and they understand from the top how their piece fits into that puzzle, then they will go above and beyond for you. But if you just bark orders down to them and they don't understand that and that's not being articulated on a regular basis and lived by leadership, and I think that's, go back to leadership and management, I think that's leadership, is painting that vision and showing us how we're going to get there and then managers are going to dissect the details and the execution part of that. But the leader, if you're not painting that vision right now, if there's a leader out there listening to this and you haven't gone through that new vision exercise, because shit, if you're thinking that, you know, things haven't changed, you know, shit, all your reps know shit's changing, there might have been a different track you're going to take as a business, get that out there and help them understand that or else they ain't going to die.

And you made a great point. And you made a great point. Every company has core values. Very few companies actually live by their core values. I mean, it's great to have it on the wall, have it on the steps, but essentially your actions speak so loud, I can't hear what you're saying. So people are watching. I think Mark Cuban said at the beginning of the pandemic, keep your eyes open because individuals and organizations are going to show their true colors. And I can tell you, it's when things do get better, we're going to see a lot of free agents because there's a lot of organizations that unfortunately they're fumbling and dropping the ball. They're not really showing their people what the real deal is or they are showing their people what the real deal is and it ain't looking good.

Right. Yeah. And it's better to be up front with that than not. Right. Because right now there's, there is going to be options. And again, people are going to remember in downtimes, people remember how you treat them. Right. We started this off. I mean, you saw the interview that I had with that dude VK over at Prolific. Right. I mean, I did that train. I didn't do the training and he still paid me because he knew I was in trouble. That's ride or die. Like that dude for the rest of my life, I'm going to appreciate that. Where I had other customers, you know, they actually extended payment terms instead of next 60 instead of net 30. It was net 60. Oh, and because finance put this in play and sorry, you can't, we can't pay you on time.

And those are the ones that I'm done with. I don't do business. Even if they call me back and want business, I'm like, nope, sorry. Like you, you, you, you did that. I know that wasn't you personally, but somebody in your company agreed to that. And therefore you would don't allow a line with my values. And I will die for the people that do, but I will cut off the people that don't in a heartbeat. And, and once again, that's those relationships. You'll never forget VK and you'll never forget the others. You'll never forget it. And that's what that, that's the, the great impact that a leader has on their team. It's a, it's a great responsibility. The way I look at it, my team, they're my kids.

Now I'm not, I'm not, let's keep it real. I'm not going to do for them what I'm going to do for little Trey, Trey, little Lulu, but I care about them. Like they're my kids. It's my responsibility. When they're with me, if I, if, if they leave and they haven't taken their game to the next level, shame on me, Larry, WTF. What, what the freak are you doing? I make it a point that when you leave me, you're going to leave better on your way out. And then you came in or else I'm not doing my job. Love it, man. So what are you excited about coming into 2021? Like what, what, what's getting you fired up about either the opportunity in front of you, the people that you're with or the market? What, what, what are you most excited about?

All, all the above. I mean, John, I've got, I've got a bunch of different projects. I'm about to release my website. That's going to go live. I'm about to release my course, my, my company, my main job, team works. Athletics are starting to come back. Hopefully we have March madness. So things are just going great. And really my why, when I wake up, Martin Luther King Jr. Said it life's most urgent and persistent question is what are you doing to help others? I've had, I've just been fortunate as are you, you're doing on a grand scale to be able to impact others for the positive in their life. I mean, we're, we're talking about people's livelihoods here. We're talking about their health, their, their mental health, their wellbeing, mind, body, and soul.

You can't mess with that. Like this is real life right there. So just being able to have the impact, I've been so fortunate and the people that I'm doing it with, the people that I'm working with, it's just been a blessing. So when I think about 2021, I just think about today, any day that ends in Y, I'm going to make the most of it. I'm going to make the most of it because people in 2020 were like, I can't wait till 2021. Why? You shouldn't be able to wait until today. Today is the day to, as you would say, make it happen. I mean, when I was at university in Maryland, we had team Maryland and our motto was only you can make it happen. So you're well ahead of your times, dog. I think I might've stole that, man, because I was actually, I don't think you knew, we didn't talk about this, but I was assistant sports marketing director for you, you Maryland.

So I was the dude, like when, when we were in bird stadium and everybody was down on the court, getting everything set up, I was the dude like throwing the boat, like a suit and everything, getting everything set up. And then I was the one sitting up in the booth, doing all the shit on the, on the scoreboard. So I was the guy putting like Keith booth, right? Remember that? Like booth, like that was me. So you probably saw some of the shit that I was, but that that's probably where I got make it happen from. But I think that's the key here is that this is, that's why I don't like new year's resolutions, right? It's like, wait a minute, you got to wait till January 1st to set something in play.

Why can't you do that right now? Today, right now. It's just an excuse. It's excuse. Well, you know, I want, well, the holidays are coming up and I'm going to be eating more than I should. So whatever you can get in shape today. You don't have to eat that, you know, third helping of Thanksgiving dinner. Right. Hey John, these last nine months, it's been separation season. And, and once again, I always like to ask people, Hey, what did you learn during the pandemic? What did you do? Not what did you think, but what did you do to take your game to that next level? And if you didn't level up, shame on you and level up. That can be anything. What books did you read? Did you learn how to play a new, a new instrument?

Did you learn a language? Did you learn something? Did you meet some people? Did you learn from them? If you didn't, you wasted it away. Shame on you. You can't be on my team. I'm sorry. Yeah, no, I'm right there with you, man. I, I, I reside myself to the, uh, the rule of 1%, right? Which is set goals at a high but attainable level. And then once you hit that, don't go up another, you know, mountaintop here. Just do 1% better every single day. And if you can legit look at yourself at the end of the day and say, I'm better today than I was yesterday. Then you had a great day. Uh, if you can't, you got to make sure tomorrow is twice as good. So I love, I love, I love, I love what you're doing for the youth with your daughter.

That's so inspiring. I got a seven-year-old daughter, 11-year-old son. And, uh, I just, I tip my virtual cap to you, man. Keep doing what you're doing. Cause you're doing it well, man. Thanks, man. Yeah. I think the importance, I think if there's one thing, uh, hopefully the silver lining of what's been going on right now is, is the recenter on what's really important. Right. And what, you know, whether it's your customers, whether it's your family, whether it's your friends or all of the above, uh, you know, I think last year, hopefully if some people are paying attention that they realized who was really, and what was really important in their lives and are going to change whatever they were doing that doesn't support that in 2021.

I love it. There's a saying, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I think, uh, what we found last year, if it ain't broke, break it. Cause we got broken and essentially now it's what you're going to do about it. It's kind of like my golf game. You talked about golf. I hit a green in regulation. Now my buddies are like, is he going to three putt or is he going to four putt? I'm like, Hey, it is what it was. I'm going to keep you on your toes. And they're like, just give me all your lunch money, Larry. Yeah. Yeah. Keep putting those bets on. Keep putting those bets on. Love it. Larry will look. I always love talking, man. You're a ball of energy and all, you know, optimistic all the way through, which I think carries a lot of weight in today's world, right?

Just putting the vibe out there for all the positivity that you do. I really appreciate it. Talk to me about what you got coming up here, what people can learn about. I know you got this. You said the course, tell me, let's give me some more details on stuff so where people can find you. Yeah. So, I mean, it's sales one-on-one. It's the very basics. It's the basic, the ABCs of sales, which so many times I see experienced sellers. Oh, I got it all figured out. No, you don't. No, you don't. Let's go back to the basics. I'm sure you see it all the time. So really putting that out there, but also with a fun, you got to have fun. And with a motivation, inspiration, positivity spin, my midweek, midday motivational minute every Wednesday, it's been therapy for me, but it's been a blessing to so many others.

I mean, they hear the stories. Hey, Larry, what are you going to be talking about tomorrow? I'm like, wow, this is really having an impact. So 2021 and really every day is just going to be another opportunity to bless others. I mean, my father grew up in the projects of Baltimore City. He pretty much said, hey, it's your responsibility to make sure that you empower others. You give to others because it's not about you. It's not about that person in the mirror. It's about what impact can you have on others? And I lost him five years ago, but he's still with me. And that's really part of my why of why I do what I do and why I do it with such ferocity because people need it. We all need it. They do.

And hopefully they're taking this stuff, right, and doing something with it. I think that the danger is always listening. And that's that difference between motivation and inspiration, right? Like I can inspire you all day long, but if you don't have that internal motivation to go get it, then ain't nothing. Like you can listen to podcasts all day long. But if you ain't get like one of my it's actually one of my favorite Gary V posts. And it's not even a post. It's just an Instagram image. And as you're scrolling through, it says, stop scroll. If you're looking for motivation to get, you know, to get going, stop scrolling right now. Here's your motivation. Right. And he's basically saying, don't consume my content.

Don't go out there and do something because execution is a thousand times better than trying to learn it in a book. And if you fail 50 times, you'll eventually figure out how to succeed. So go do it and stop thinking about it. Spot on. You nailed it, man. Shoot. Hashtag nailed it. Awesome, brother. Well, look, and it's Larry Long Jr. on LinkedIn, right? That's if people looking you up. Yes, sir. I got the face for radio and a smile for a mile. You can't miss me. Love it. And this brand ambassador thing for RepView. I love this angle. So give us a little bit more color on that one just so people know what that is. Because I love this idea of flipping the script a little bit and opening it up with the covers so that sales reps can really see the type of business that they're getting themselves into so they can be that match.

It's a ratings platform to really allow you insight into a sales organization. So essentially, I want to see compensation. What's the base? What's the variable? What percentage of people are hitting quota? How's the training and the support? How about diversity, inclusion, and equity? Product market fit, lead flow. All those things that as a sales rep, I need to know because if it doesn't align with what I'm looking for, I probably need to move on to the next organization. And we all know that through the interview process, we're dealing with salespeople. So it's like, ah, we got three minutes left. What questions do you have for me, Larry? It's like, oh, you're pulling the wool over my eyes.

And that's just not good. So it's really providing transparency. And as we say, we're giving reps, sales professional reps, a view inside of sales organizations. And it's data-driven. It's not your glass door where people are bitching and moaning and, oh, I hate this company. They're terrible. It's like, well, they might be terrible, but what's good? What's the real deal, Holyfield? And we've been ramping up a ton over the last year. And 2021 is the year that we really accelerate. Love that. And I love the objectivity as opposed to the subjectivity. Like, glass door is a very subjective, like, I had a bad time, but I might have been a shitty rep. So that's why I had a bad time. You know what I mean?

You see that in sports all the time. Like, let's go Celtics here with Kyrie, right? Like, fuck him. I can't stand him, even though he's a baller. But guess what? He didn't fit here in Boston. He didn't fit here just because of his work ethic, because of how he approached things or whatever it is. Like, there's a certain type of person that we expect here on our sports teams, right? And he just didn't fit that mold. And if we had known that, I didn't like that trade at all when he came here. And even though everybody's saying, oh, he's top three, you know, whatever. I'm like, I don't care. That dude doesn't fit what we have. And so you might have that person who's good, but just doesn't fit in this scenario.

It doesn't mean that company's bad. It just means that fit wasn't there. So I love how you're putting some objectivity around that. You're spot on. I mean, don't get me started on scam. I mean, Cam Newton with your Patriots. I mean, you know, I can see it in your eyes, dog. I saw you twitch a little bit. Sorry. So, well, you know what, though? I actually gained a lot of respect for Cam Newton this year. I did. Because at first, I, you know, look, he's not a good player anymore. Let's just call it what it is. He can't throw the ball right. He has no internal clock of when the pockets collapse in. He runs gingerly now because he's afraid to get hit. All that stuff as a player. But as a, let's circle this all the way back to the start of this conversation, man.

As a leader, that dude puts in the work. He leads by example. He cares about other people. And that's why I think you saw him get a lot more leeway this year from Belichick than almost anybody else would because Belichick knew that he cared. He knew that he wanted to be successful. Now, did he have the tools to be successful? Was it the right system for him to be successful? Hell no. But, you know, I feel bad because I wanted that to work for both parties. I wanted Cam to come here and light it up and go get a big, fat last contract for his career and obviously have the Patriots, you know, get a softer landing than not making the playoffs for the first time in 20 years. Anyways, but, you know, Cam, I actually gained a lot more respect for him this year as much as I hated watching him play football.

I gained a lot more respect for listening to what he was doing on the side. That's awesome. That's awesome. And hopefully I have better years to come for your boys. Yeah, well, look, everybody gives us shit. I'll tell you right now, I had 20 years of just insane memories. And they were the prime of my career too, man. Like I was from 2000, think about this, from 2000 to 2020, right? In 2000, I was 25 years old. So I was making money. I had the flexibility. I wasn't married. I didn't have kids. So I watched the Patriots for 20 years. I was at the snowball game. I was at the, you know, I was at the Super Bowl with Malcolm Butler and the interception. I was standing like basically on the 20-yard line right there, right?

So I got all those memories in my backpack. So you can talk all the shit you want about how bad the Patriots are going to be. I'm going to be 80 years old and be like, yeah, remember back when I was at the snowball and that type of shit? Whatever. You're talking about old stuff. It's all good. All day. All day. I'm going to be your glory days all day long. Not my life glory days, but sports glory days. I'm good for glory days. Awesome, brother. Well, thank you so much for coming on board here, man. I really appreciate it. I love talking to you, man. Hey, John, pleasure's all mine. Thank you. Yeah, no problem. And look, everybody, hopefully you enjoyed the conversation as much as I did here. And you got some nuggets out there that you can go and execute on, right?

If there's anything that you can do after this podcast is go try something. Go do something. See what happens, right? If you fail, who gives a shit? I mean, we're not brain surgeons here, so ain't nobody dying if you try something in sales and it doesn't work, all right? Hey, John, I got to tell them Fido. That's my team name, Fido. It's not the name of my dog. I'm afraid of dogs. They like dark meat. Fido stands for fuck it, drive on. Don't tell HR, but fuck it, drive on. Let's go get it. Let's go get it. All right, man. Let's go get it. With that, like I always say at the end of all these podcasts, go out there and make somebody smile today. Because even if you had a shitty day, you make somebody smile, you know you had a good day.

And the world needs a lot more of that right now. And Larry, you made me smile today. So thank you very much, my friend. Thank you. Peace. All right. Cheers, brother. Well, guys, Larry certainly is a fun guy to listen to. His leadership style is one to admire because it's full of genuine care and love for the people that he supports and works alongside. Larry encompasses what it means to be a true leader. Thanks for coming out with us for a while, Larry. Keep making it happen. Don't let 2021 go by and be yet another year where you did not take the chance to invest in your own personal and professional growth. Visit ondemand.jbarrows.com to subscribe today. The successes that we find personally are what leads the way to the success that we desire professionally.

We all choose. We choose to allow our destiny to find us and hope that it's what we want, or we choose to carve out our own path to the future that we all deserve. Find sales success at JBSales On Demand today and learn how you too can sell better. Thank you.