# Swell AI Transcript: Larry Long Jr - Your Finest Hour (First Edit).mp3

SPEAKER_00:
Welcome to the Beyond High Performance podcast featuring content and conversations from me, Jason Jaggard, along with our elite coaches at Novus Global, their high performing clients, and the faculty of the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. On this podcast, you'll hear some of the world's best executive coaches and high performing leaders, artists and athletes discuss how they continue to go beyond high performance in their lives and businesses.

SPEAKER_04:
Welcome to Your Finest Hour, a series of interviews going behind the scenes with world-class leaders, teams, and their coaches on how to make the most out of coaching and life. I'm Joseph King-Barkley. I get to serve as president of the Metta Performance Institute and director of development at Novus Global. Today, I'm joined by keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and author of Jolt, Get Zapped Back Into Intentionality, Larry Long Jr., and two of the Novus Global coaches he's worked with, Kristen Freid and Becca Egger. In this episode, we cover the initial fears and hard conversations that Larry bravely worked through at the onset of his Novus Global coaching, his failures, and why they were paramount in pursuit of his successes. How working with not just one, but three Novus Global coaches has gifted him with uniquely valuable experiences to reach his next level, and much more. It's also ironic his book is titled Jolt because Larry is a constant current of energy, as I'm sure you're going to experience, and we laud people like Larry, who are willing to put skin in the game by exploring what they're capable of with our coaches here at Novus Global. He is a clear example of how to create, relentlessly pursue, and accomplish your goals. We hope you enjoy the show.

SPEAKER_05:
The wait is finally over. Our new book, Beyond High Performance, what great coaches know about how the best get better, is available for purchase wherever books are sold. This USA Today bestseller is more than 250 pages of expertise, anecdotes, and insights from Novus Global coaches, as well as faculty from the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. We are so excited to put our proprietary framework that has helped thousands of leaders achieve more into your hands. And we can't wait to see how you'll use the book to enhance your life and leadership. To learn more and obtain this essential resource for yourself, visit novus.global.com.

SPEAKER_04:
Hey, welcome to Your Finest Hour. My name is Joseph King-Barkley. I get to serve as an executive coach in Novus Global. I'm also an associate partner, and I also get to serve as the president of the Metta Performance Institute. I'm joined today by two of my colleagues, Becca Egger and Kristen Freid, and one of the clients that they've gotten to partner with in recent years, Larry Long Jr. I'm so excited about today's episode, not only because of some of the great conversation that we get to have, but because of the energy that I guarantee is going to be coming through your earbuds from our guests today. Larry, I'm so excited to beat you. Thanks for being on the podcast with us.

SPEAKER_01:
Thank you for for hosting me. I'm happy to be here. J.K.B., my great friends, my great coaches, Coach K, the original Coach K, Kristen Frade and Becca Egger.

SPEAKER_04:
Well, before we get into why you're so excited to be here with them, our listeners need a little bit of context. I mean, some of them may know you, they may have connected with you. Some of them might be listening because they got to see you giving a keynote speech or maybe they've read your book, Jolt. But can you give us just really quickly sort of a flyover of your professional life? How did you get to this point and what you're really pursuing right now?

SPEAKER_01:
Whoa, where do I start? Well, I know where to start. I played baseball at University of Maryland, go Terps, worked doing IT consulting at Accenture, wasn't passionate about it, opened an indoor baseball and softball academy, struck out at the indoor baseball and softball academy. And I had a career 16 plus years in software sales, software sales leadership. And then I made a decision that that wasn't my vision, that wasn't my passion. And I transitioned from software sales leadership. And you won't believe this, JKB, but I used to get sent to detention for talking. Now I get paid to speak as a full time motivational speaker, emcee, author, content creator, influencer, and the list goes on and on. I am living my best life.

SPEAKER_04:
Well, I identify with that a lot because I am a recovering overtalker. Actually, I'm not even recovering. I love it. I love the fact that I can talk and I was somebody who was disciplined in grade school because I talked out of turn all the time. I could not keep my mouth shut. There was just too much fun stuff to say. So I get it. I resonate. We are kindred in that. But you've made some big changes, some pivots in your career. I'm curious, as you go from like software sales, sales leadership, 16 years, you're like, this is not what I want to do with the rest of my life. What were some of the things that you remember experiencing or some data at that time? You're like, this is it. I got to create a change. Like what was going on in your mind and in your life that led you to make a big change?

SPEAKER_01:
Well, my wife, she said, hey, baby, I love you. And whenever she says that, I know a doozy is on the way. She said, you tell everyone else to follow their passion, pursue their dream. Look in the mirror. You're faking the funk. What do I say to that? I said, you're right. She said, what's holding you back? I said, I'm the one who's supposed to be asking the tough questions. What it came down to was FUD, and it's not Elmer FUD, but it's that fear, uncertainty, and doubt. See, with my baseball academy, it failed. I knew I needed to be a speaker, but I was scared out of my mind. And there's a common theme around fear, around failure, around rejection when it comes to my life that I had to overcome, and that was really what got me over the hump. My wife said, hey, you got a real one. You got the right one, baby. Let's go to work. Let's plan, and let's do the daggone thing.

SPEAKER_04:
So faking the funk, is that something we have to copyright your wife for? Is that your material? Because I'm going to use that about 100 times this week.

SPEAKER_01:
That was just her keeping it real. She said, you can't tell others to do something that you're not doing yourself. And that was a huge reality check. Back to reality that you're right. I need to overcome this fear that I have of failure. I need to go ahead and treat it like a strikeout in baseball onto the next at bat and pursue my dream, my passion. Now it's a lot easier said than done.

SPEAKER_04:
That's right. Yeah. And I imagine some of our listeners right now feel like they might be on the precipice of a change, but their brains are telling them all kinds of like it's sending all these signals like danger, danger, like, hey, make sure you stay with a sure thing, like keep your job, stay put, stay right where you are. Before we even get into how coaching was a helpful partner for you in creating that change. What might you tell a listener who right now is feeling kind of stuck? Give him a jolt.

SPEAKER_01:
I've been there before. I was noodling. You can call me the master noodler where I was. I was contemplating making that jump. And essentially, my thought process was I can't give up a steady paycheck like Larry. You might not be the brightest brother in the world, but you get a steady paycheck every two weeks. You get a commission check every month. You get a bonus every quarter. What you talking about, Willis? No, don't do it. And it was my mind. It was the story that I was telling myself, which was actually chapter one of my book, that I did not believe that I could successfully do it. And it was those tinges of doubt, the tinges of fear, the tinges of what's the worst that can happen. And I'll tell you, there was a lot of scar tissue from my failed baseball academy. I was single at the time, engaged, but my wife was in Argentina. So I said, I don't want to put my two beautiful kids, my beautiful wife, through what I went through, a failed business, having to call mom and dad to bail you out. I need help paying my rent. I need help paying my car payment. That's not a good feeling. Yes, and My wife said, let's do this together. So it was really at that precipice, as you said. But essentially, I made the decision that, hey, I've got to get out of my comfort zone and really follow my passion, follow my dream. Give it a try. My good friend, Melissa Murray Bailey, calls it GI. I said, is that the long lost cousin of the Fiat? She said, no, Larry, give it a try. And I had to go and give it a try.

SPEAKER_04:
Well, what I hear in there is sometimes we have fears, insecurity, maybe we've had some scar tissue from past experiences, but we might bake it in the story of feeling responsible. Like, hey, I've got mouths to feed. I don't wanna upset the apple cart. I really have to keep things in place or else it's all gonna fail and I'm gonna fail people and here we go again. And so sometimes we hold back from creating a change that could be really powerful and impact a lot of lives as I know you now do. But we sort of nested in a story of like, well, I'm a grown up. I can't do stuff like that. I can't dream again. I have to stay where I'm at. So I think that's going to be some helpful encouragement.

SPEAKER_01:
You nailed it right there. And especially for me, I was very creative with my stories and I was believe in the stories and we're going to get to it. But it took a coach and outside perspective saying, I hear you and. Let's explore a different story that could be reality. Mind blown.

SPEAKER_04:
Okay. Well, that's actually a really great segue, Larry, because my experience of you now, and I didn't know you back then, but my experience of you now is like, okay, here's a smart guy. He is, he's going to be able to enroll people. He's got charisma. He's disarming. People will want to work with him. At least that's my experience of you. And yet you decided at some point, Hey, I want to bring in somebody. I want to put somebody in my corner. Who's going to coach me to find out what I'm really capable of. I make up you're already capable of quite a bit without that, but something compelled you to say, Hey, I want to explore having a meta performance executive coach. So what led you to that decision?

SPEAKER_01:
A lot to unpack. So I met coach Kristen. I think she had observed one of my coaching sessions where I think there was a total of two people on it. She sent me a LinkedIn message that said your energy Wow, with just two people, you acted like you were speaking to 30,000 people. I mean, there's three of us now, and I'm feeling it. But we connected, I think I sent her a funny gif, it made her, she gave me a courtesy chuckle. But we met and we talked and we just shared. And she shared what she was doing around Meta Performance with Novus Global. And I was intrigued, but I wasn't completely sold. And I grew up playing team sports. I had coaches, so I knew the benefits of coaching, of guidance. But knowing isn't always doing. So we talked. She challenged me. She said, Larry, you're a speaker. I had gotten let go from my company. She said, I look at your LinkedIn and it still has that company. I was still getting a severance. But she said, no one knows that you're a speaker. And I said, well, I want to make sure my website, want to make sure my speaker reel, want to make sure everything is in order. And she said something to the effect of, If we're going to wait for all that, we'll talk in 2030 like that. You're trying to get all your ducks in a row. And I shared with. Yeah, that sounds like Kristen. And she told it like it is. And she said, I'm going to challenge you to commit to updating your LinkedIn profile. Will you do that? And I went kicking and streaming. I said, no, I'm not going to commit to something I'm not committed to. And she said, well, let's explore. Let's play with what are the positives? What are the negatives? And of course, the positives outweigh the negatives. I said, wow, I guess I Have to, but really I had the opportunity to update my LinkedIn profile. The results were amazing. Over 700 engagements and reactions, six inquiries into my business. Only one person asked about my website, which was that thing that I was so fearful and scared of. And I remember I was going on a golf trip. I was going to Myrtle Beach and she reached out and she said, so how did that post go? I'm like, you know how that post went, Coach Preston. And she said, Are you ready to work with me? And that was the proof was in the pudding, that for me to overcome that fear, again, of letting people know, and not feeling ready. It was one of those where I said, I need to invest in myself, I need to invest in my success. And this is the right person to do it with. Haven't been disappointed.

SPEAKER_04:
Well, we often tell clients, potential clients, listen, you don't hire a coach when everything is broken, everything's sick. That's what a doctor is for. And that's why we partner oftentimes with therapists or we partner literally with like physical trainers or like physical therapists as well. But you bring in a coach when you're already performing at a certain level and you really want to find out what you're capable of. And Kristen, I imagine there was something in Larry and how he was showing up. Like he already said, there was something compelling in just him showing up on a call with two people. But there was something about his level of performance already or his personality that you saw in him. that compelled you to reach out, to engage and see, I wonder if we could really make some magic together. So what were you noticing early on? And if I can tack on another question, I'm curious from your perspective, how important is it for you as a coach to explore fit, client fit with a coach, and how that might increase the viability of the coaching relationship?

SPEAKER_02:
That's great. As far as what I was looking for initially, to be honest, I wasn't looking for anything. I just wanted to share with him what I saw in him because I speak as well, not quite at the level that Larry does, but For me to be watching this multiple series recording of him with two or three, maybe three max, but you're right, I think it was like two people. And for him to keep the energy up the whole time, I know that's difficult to do. And so I think too many times we fly through life thinking great things about people and not actually saying it. So I just chose to say it. So I just reached out to him on LinkedIn, like he said, and shared the acknowledgement. And yeah, when he said the gif back, I'm like, like this guy, because LinkedIn is sometimes too serious. I love it very much, but it needs more GIFs in the chat. So we were instant friends.

SPEAKER_04:
LinkedIn, if you're listening, more GIFs, please.

SPEAKER_02:
And there just is something about that where it's like, he's my people, you know? And yeah, we I think had at least three different conversations where we were just getting to know each other and learning, hey, what are you up to? And what am I up to? And, you know, I'm I'm a coach by nature. So questions just kind of come out. Yep. And and I think that third conversation, he's like, so hypothetically, if someone were to want to work with you, what might that look like? And it was just fun to go from there because that's when that challenging conversation happened and the website thing gets me every time. If you are an entrepreneur and you are listening to this and you feel like we are looking right at you right now, we are. The website is not your starting point. Do not wait on the website. But I knew the following he had on LinkedIn. I had seen how people had been supporting him through posts, and he does have this natural charisma and woo about him. And it's like, you're going to win. You just got to put yourself out there. So when we started working together, I think as far as what I saw in that challenge is that he took it. because not everybody does, to be honest. And so one of the things I love in people I work with is, are you willing to put yourself out there and challenge yourself? And then we get to see the results and what you do with the results. And so that alone was kind of that step of faith that encouraged me in wanting to work with him. And then from there, as far as the fit goes, based on the conversations we'd already had, I already knew that was there. I'm like, I know I'm going to have fun working with him. I see the potential and what he could possibly create. And we really are kind of just at the starting line right now. So I was in it with him. Like his vision got under my skin and it was in me just as much. And so Sometimes I think it's personality fit. And that's one of the reasons I love being a part of our firm, where I can go to somebody and have an initial conversation with them and say, hey, I might not be the best fit for you. And that's okay, because I have 40 other friends and colleagues that could be perfect. And that's essentially eventually where Becca came into was there was a bit of a personality energy fit. And then sometimes it's even fit of background, like I've done some speaking, Larry is professional speaker. And so I, sometimes it's great to know the world a little bit. And sometimes it's actually great to be clueless about it because I have no filters or judgments and can come in completely neutral. So I've been on both spectrums with that, but there are different pieces of the fit that I have seen be really powerful between personality style or experience. both experience level as well as prior experiences. Sometimes it's even what that person might be up to as far as big things in the world as they're stepping into. So individualization, if you're a StrengthsFinder, like lover of StrengthsFinders, individualization is my number one. So the fit piece is always very fun to me. It's like playing matchmaker. But when Larry and I were first talking, I was very excited to work with him and see what we could create together.

SPEAKER_01:
Hey, I'd like to add one thing. It got me remembering and this stands out coach Kristen said to me, Hey, Larry, you're gonna be good whether you work with me or not. If you work with me, You're going to be great. And that stood out for me because I want to be great. I'm a competitor. Growing up playing competitive baseball, a little bit of basketball. My father ran track. I ran a little bit of track. I said, I want to be great, just like I tried on the baseball diamond. I want to be great in business, in my life. And when she shared that, it really empowered me. And I remember having the conversation with my wife. She said, you're going to spend what for coaching? I'll be your coach for half. I said, baby, I love you. But you know that I don't really be listening to you. I love you, baby. It goes in one ear and out the other. And my wife said, okay, if you believe this is right for you, for us, for the business, then I support you. And having that support and having that internal belief of knowing that coaching, you get out of it what you put into it. And I knew that if I put into it, the coaching was going to take me to a whole nother level.

SPEAKER_04:
Yeah, we often talk about skin in the game and how resourceful that is for the client. That's a different levels. Of course, clients engage different levels of investment. But, you know, even the rate that you invest in coaching is a way of creating focus for yourself. We'll often say something like, hey, it's got to be an attention keeping level of investment because you're going to want that energy. You got to show up in these sessions with hey, this has got to work out, something's got to happen. And you're not betting on the coach as much as Larry, you said this earlier, you're betting on yourself. You're investing in yourself and what you're capable of. And I'm curious now, as you started the coaching relationship officially, what were some of the things that y'all were focusing on early on?

SPEAKER_02:
Do you remember?

SPEAKER_01:
It seems like it was so long ago, but I remember it was really around setting my vision. And I remember I had a grand vision and it was around commitments. And I remember I had a lot of broken commitments. I would commit to things that I thought sounded good, that I thought I was supposed to commit to, that I really wasn't committed to. And I've got a hard head, so it took me a while. to finally understand, Larry, don't commit to something that you're not committed to. Broken commitments, you don't need to do that while also challenging myself to be great. I'll never forget, I had set some goals around revenue, around impact. We had set some numbers around revenue, impact, the number of people I wanted to impact, and then the number of states I wanted to play golf in. And Coach Kristen said, do those goals thrill you? And I said, kind of, sort of. She said, I challenge you to go back and set thrilling goals. And I asked her, well, what goal should I set? And she pretty much said, you figure it out. What would be thrilling? What would make the little hair that you have on your head stand up? and gets you excited. We've got the same barber. But I went back and I challenged myself. I doubled my revenue target. I increased the impact goal. And I doubled the golf number of states played. And this was in June, 20 states. And on December 31st of 2021, I actually hit it. Jacksonville, Florida, my family, we took a road trip for New Year's and my son and I, and really that proved to me that anything is possible. Now, I'm no Kevin Garnett. I know Boston Celtics, anything is possible. But that was really proof to myself that the word impossible really means what it spells. I am possible, just mind blown. And it was that momentum, the wins, the losses, learning from losses that, hey, When you set thrilling goals, sometimes you might miss it. However, if you're committed and you do everything in your power, it's a learning lesson. Learning is earning, and making that progress is amazing. It just gives me the warm fuzzies inside just thinking about this journey It's been amazing. Very rarely am I speechless. I know you're like, wow. Very rarely am I speechless, but when I think back to coaching, past and present, wow.

SPEAKER_02:
Larry, I don't know if you realize that you're conveniently leaving out all of your book commitments and goals, which was lots of fun conversations around that, which we can talk about too. But from the parts I remember, aside from the book, the book piece are as you could potentially- Aside from the book.

SPEAKER_04:
We're not going to leave that out. We're going to have to swing back.

SPEAKER_02:
Which, as you could potentially imagine, Larry has a lot of energy and had a lot of energy for things, but one of the things that I look for a lot in the coaching space is like, where's the real energy? And we follow the energy. And even though Larry is very outgoing, as you're all seeing, like he does have some really tender moments to himself where he's really reflective. And so as we were talking about, especially in the speaker world, like you can hear, you should do books, you should do podcasts, you should do courses, you should do, I mean, it's like all the, you should do all these things, but he was getting swept up in a little bit of that, which I feel like most of us have at some point. And so as we really talked through and I was watching for where is his energy, which pieces of this is he actually excited about? And so as we sorted through some of those things, that's where some of the golf stuff even came up of like, let's have something fun. And now he's actually done golf business retreats. He's turned it into a revenue stream and sorting through like, hey, maybe we don't have to do the course piece right now. Maybe that's a down the road because every time you talk about it, your whole demeanor changes and it looks like it's this heavy weight that you're trying to lift. And so really sorting through some of the strategy pieces was a big part of the beginning, but that's when it's like once he got clear on what are the pieces that did thrill him, that he was willing to step out in faith and go after, then his natural energy really followed, which as you all see, that's where things took off.

SPEAKER_01:
That clarity of vision, spot on coach, and you rejiggered my mind. I tend to lean towards all the sunshine rainbows and unicorns. We had some tough conversations, tough for me. where tears were shed, and I just, I don't like to cry, especially in a professional setting, but there were moments that were tough moments, and me trying to figure it all out, feeling somewhat lost, not having a clear vision, I had a vision, but it was definitely a jumbled vision, I can't see clearly, but it was really the process of working through it, and Coach Christens, Questions her inquisitiveness her thought process her perspective her holding me accountable. Oh, it really lifted me up. And it's amazing because I hate to say it. I forgot about I've come so far. I forgot about how far I've come. I was really struggling. You think about a corporate America, you know exactly what you're what you're supposed to do. It's laid out entrepreneurship. It can be messy. It's like, what do I do? Well, what do you want to do? I don't know. And that's not a good answer. I don't know what I want to do. but really working through the process. And then coach referenced a book. Oh my goodness. That was a challenge because I love to speak. Imagine that. And writing, up until now, writing is not my strongest point. And we really, oh goodness, we worked through a lot for me to be able to complete this book. the editing process, me reading through what I had written with the help of a ghostwriter and a book consultant. It was tough. It was like eating an elephant, and I know you're supposed to go one bite at a time. I'm normally hungry, but at that time I was not hungry. My perspective was skewed, and it came back to why and are you committed? You don't have to do the book, Larry, coming from Coach Kristen, and she was absolutely right. Just being able to work through that, that was probably a five-month process. The golfing sales, that was something that I had envisioned, but I was scared of it, and it came to fruition. It was really a year later, and Coach had said, Have you explored joining a partnership and not doing it all on your own, but having a team? And that's how we were able to host Golf and Sales right outside of Austin. It was amazing. I love golf. I love sales. I love helping people learn, grow, develop. It was an absolutely amazing experience that could have been lost by the wayside If I hadn't been given that encouragement, if I hadn't explored, I don't have to do this all by myself. The progress that we've made is truly off the charts. It's one of those where you can measure most things, but in terms of where I've come from to where I am today, in the words of the great philosopher J.J. Walker, Dino my.

SPEAKER_04:
What's happening at different strokes, both quoted in the same podcast episode. I see you. That's amazing. You're getting incredible results with Kristen and something that is for our listeners is maybe not considered or you don't hear about very often or maybe, you know, the coach that they're working with is not in a context with other colleagues. But you actually, Larry, have partnered with a battery of coaches. You've had more than one to help create results. So you've worked with Kristen. You've worked with another colleague of ours, Trey McKnight, exceptional coach. And now you are coaching with Becca Egger. And Becca, I want to bring you into the conversation here. So before Larry talks about what you all are focused on right now, Becca, I'm curious in those early moments with Larry, what sort of drew you in to consider partnering with him? You're an exceptional coach. You'd be coaching all kinds of people, but Larry seemed to be a good fit for you. What were you noticing early on?

SPEAKER_06:
Yeah, I was really intrigued by Larry. Larry presents, as it occurs to me, Larry presents, like we keep talking about his energy. And for anyone who isn't sure about that, just pull up YouTube or something. But Larry presents even in one-on-one conversations with a lot of energy and with a lot of pomp. And he, and I was like, I am so intrigued is who's the man behind this. And so that, that was honestly, that was a lot of my just like human intrigue at first. It's like, who is this guy? What's he up to?

SPEAKER_04:
And I- Almost like the man underneath the spectacle.

SPEAKER_06:
Absolutely. And then the neat thing is, is that he's Larry. And Larry is all of these things, and that's part of the magic. And hearing the stories and everything, I'm like, that's what Kristen saw. And that's what his audiences see, and that's who the people that he gets to love and serve, that's what we all get to see. And so then seeing that from a coach perspective of, Okay, great. How is this? How is this your greatest tool? And like all humans, how do you turn this as a weapon against yourself and getting to show up in advocacy for someone who does yield a lot of power and yield so much charisma and will impact the world, period. So getting to show up as the advocate for a person in that space, it's like, I'm not going to miss that.

SPEAKER_04:
Yeah. And I hear, Becca, what you're saying. So correct me if I'm wrong, but it was there's something appealing about I want to really get underneath the surface of this guy who has an incredible influence and potential for even greater influence. So I want to connect with him as a human. But I also hear for you, Becca, it was important for you as a coach to explore the the potential impact that someone like Larry could make in the world. So if you could be a part of you know, enhancing more lives. Larry focuses on helping people get unstuck, really tapping into what is their inner greatness. They're so much more resourceful. So Becca, the sense I have is it matters to you that the person you're coaching is paying attention to the kind of influence they could have in the world around them. Is that true?

SPEAKER_06:
Absolutely. My belief is that we all have impact. And then there's gauges and we can increase the depth of our impact, the breadth of our impact, the quality, the type of our impact. There's a lot of leaders in the world who have had a catastrophic impact. And then there's probably plenty of folks who could have and chose to use their power for good instead, or there's plenty of folks who have had some impact on their community and their world. And we probably don't even know what we are missing. And so it's what else would we want to do, but empower the greatest, noblest good in each other, especially people who are, Larry's going to do something. So how Can I partner with him as he changes lives? And honestly, probably those people go out and have their impact is increased. And so yeah, opportunity on opportunity here.

SPEAKER_04:
Larry, I don't know to what degree you're aware of this, but we brag about clients behind their back. And all of us in the firm, we use Slack. That's one of the ways we stay connected with each other regularly. And so we have a whole channel in Slack called Celebrations. And you have coaches who have routinely celebrated you, your courage to take risks and try new things, but more importantly, the impact that you are making in people's lives. Because the more people that are aware of what you do, the more people have a chance to break out of ordinary. and to break out of their own fear and insecurity, to recover from what they currently think is a failure. And Larry, you've been there. I know that as you've shared a little bit in this conversation, you've had some setbacks. You might've even called them failures, business failures at the time. But as you sit here today, you've partnered with a few coaches. How would you now look back at some of those setbacks that you've had in your professional life? How do you relate to them now? Powerfully.

SPEAKER_01:
And, oh, goodness, with Coach Kristen and Coach Becca, looking at my previous relationship with failure as being bad, as being, oh, no, we don't do that. And that was part of my upbringing, as well as just internally. Like, failure is not good. Now I realize that not having success is an opportunity that's knocking for us to learn and to grow from. And I'm still a work in progress, but stepping out of my comfort zone, taking chances that I normally wouldn't take, it feels good. It feels empowering to be able to have that perspective that it's okay. It's okay for me to set a thrilling goal that I have no idea how I'm going to get to now I know my why I know why I want to get to that thrilling goal and I am committed to it but I don't have a path to it that's exciting. And if I happen to miss it, that's okay. Being a baseball player, I've always viewed strikeouts as that's not no bueno. That is not good. In business, I viewed it the same way. Now I view strikeouts as a way to learn. How can I learn? What can I take away from that? What can I share with someone else? How can I flex and change? And there's the term that I didn't understand, meta performance. What is meta performance? And I remember Coach Kristen, she, I'm going to paraphrase, but she shared there's low performers, There's average performers, there's high performers. We look to go beyond high performance, yeah, the book, and go to meta performance. And I view that as kind of the Mamba mentality, that Kobe Bryant, you might be good. How can you be great? You might be great. How can you be spectacular? How can you be the best you that you can be? And It's really stretching. I think it's called the intuitive fence. It's stretching that horizon of what is possible and actually making possible what has previously been viewed, at least for me, as impossible. I never would have imagined that I would speak for a living. I pinch myself every morning, and I thank God I speak for a living. I get to serve. I get to run my mouth. I get to share insights. Come on now. That can't be possible, but it is. And that's just scratching the surface. That's just, I mean, I truly believe that my best is yet to come. And that's not just for me, but that's for others out there. I'm hopeful to continue serving as a beacon to let people know and to show people that you really can accomplish anything that you set your mind to, you put your heart to, you set your vision to, and you surround yourself with the right team, which this is my squad. When I look at this, when I look at my squad, for those that are listening, I'm looking at Coach Kristen, Coach Becca, it's amazing. I've been blessed beyond belief.

SPEAKER_03:
Hi, my name is Mike Park, and I'm a proud graduate of the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. The faculty of the Metta Performance Institute not only provided the training, tools, and experience to learn how to coach people toward powerful growth and thrilling results, but also advocated for that kind of growth and results in my own life. I had the unique opportunity to have world-class executive coaches invest in my development, both professionally and personally. It's a privilege to be part of a tribe of coaches fiercely committed to exploring what we are capable of together. If you're looking to become a coach or to set up your coaching practice to reach the next level, I highly recommend the certification from the Metta Performance Institute for Coaching. To fill out a free assessment of your abilities as a coach and to connect with someone to find out if the Metta Performance Institute is for you, check out www.mp.institute.

SPEAKER_06:
If I could jump in for a second, two things. Number one, whenever Larry talks about his team, he was joking. I can tell you for sure he was joking earlier when he said that whatever his wife says goes one in an ear and out the other. To hear him talk about team, it's his wife, it's his children, it's the leaders in his personal office. He truly builds a team and then invests trust in the team. and builds upon the trust that then is strengthened and grows. And so he is a leader in building a team for what may look like a one-man show. Larry is a we, not a me guy. So that's one thing. Another thing is, to go back on something Larry was talking about a minute ago, a really fun thing getting to coach Larry, and not just Larry, a lot of us do this, but is getting to challenge the assumption of what is good Larry will only do what is good. Larry is benevolence. Larry is love. Larry is not going to hurt anyone if he can help it. If he hurts someone, it's going to be an accident. So then the fun thing is, is getting to test So he says, well, this is the good thing. The good thing is to pull the paycheck and to keep my family safe financially. The good thing is to have the website ready so that I'm above reproach. The good thing is this. The good thing is that. And the fun thing is getting to push on that and say, is that the good thing? Is that the only good thing? What is good? We can go really philosophical here. But what's been fun is inviting, getting to be a part of him as he flips the script. And a word that we've been playing with is dangerous. And you'll see him every time we say, all right, like, what is dangerous Larry gonna do here? He always says, in a good way. He always says, dangerous, in a good way. I know, Larry. But that's a fun thing of we can harness in on, he has such a high value for good and goodness. And so it's like, awesome. How do we use that iron sharpens iron? How do we use that to sharpen your spirit and not to dull it? And that's been a really fun part of the game.

SPEAKER_04:
That's incredible, I love that. That might even be a gift just for our listeners, Becca, is they're thinking about, I wanna do a good thing in the world and open up a curiosity of what are all the available good choices? Because you may not be stuck with just one good thing you could do. What if there's a good that is healthier, a good that provides you more joy, a good that supports your family even greater, a good that lights you up? So it's less of a sort of a fundamental, like this is the only good I can do in the world and I'm kinda, this is my lane. is to say there's probably all kinds of good that we're not exploring because you're not slowed down to be curious about those dreams that maybe you muted back when you had your first failure and your first setback. What if you just tap back into them to say what's the good that's possible if you would take a risk and explore those? Go ahead, Larry.

SPEAKER_01:
JKB. I've got to share this. So January 11th, I had the opportunity to step on stage for my largest keynote. 700 sales professionals, companies called Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, their educational platform. Publisher platform technology platform and there was a lot of fear once again there were tears because the imposter syndrome the stories i'm telling myself. Do not believe in that i belong on this stage took over and working through that with becca to really recenter. The opportunity to serve others, the opportunity to really deliver my why to others was amazing. And this journey, which started with Coach Kristen, passed the baton to Coach Trey, passed the baton to Becca, and they're all running right beside me. I could feel them with me on stage before going on stage. And it was just an amazing experience to go through speaking to 700 folks where they're looking to me for a message. It was just amazing. And to think that I almost didn't do it because I didn't believe in myself. So the power of coaching is really, that's just an example, that's one of many examples, the book being another, the golf being another, me speaking being another, the power of having a guide, a Sherpa, a teammate, an accountability partner, a supporter. I can go on and on, but it's so powerful Then i can't imagine my life without having a performance a high performance coach that helps me process what i'm going through that helps me and you talked about curiosity i think they said curiosity killed the cat but it certainly drove. high performers to high performance and even beyond high performance. I can't imagine where my life would be without it. And that's why I continue to invest going forward. And it's an investment. But like they say, you get out of it what you put into it, which is so true.

SPEAKER_04:
Well, a couple of things I'm noticing, Larry, that might be also helpful for our listeners is I imagine if anybody's seen you do a keynote speech or they read your book or they will encounter you in the future, they're going to look at somebody like you and think like that guy is just baked with confidence, like he's just. like he never second guesses himself, he's never insecure, he's never nervous, he's never crying backstage sick to his stomach because the platforms, you know, seems intimidating to him. So that's helpful as a way of zooming out to, like Becca was saying before, there's Larry the professional, there's Larry the communicator, Larry the, you know, the catalyst, and then there's Larry the human, who is a guy who still at times has some fears and has old stories that are still in there, you know, and now you have more equipment to, huh, I can see that story and I don't have to let that rule the day. One of the things we often say is that the confidence you thought you needed to do that scary thing, you get after you choose courage to do the scary thing. So confidence is really a lag indicator of courage. And Larry, I just wanna acknowledge you and you know, that's a practice of ours I want to acknowledge you for the courage that you've routinely decided to act with, to do the scary thing, even when you're sick to your stomach and you might be crying backstage. Nope. I'm going to choose courage. And then you're on the other side of that with even greater, deeper confidence in, hey, I'm wired for this. Hey, there's people out there who need this. And I'm going to keep going. You receive it. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01:
I receive it. I receive it. which was something that I had a challenge with up until now with receiving that just a kind of a default. And what I realized is that the default from before doesn't have to be the default going forward. It really is a choice. And it's intentional, a conscious choice that can be made. And it feels so good. I mean, it really does. But as you said, it hasn't been all hunky-dory, all sunshine. It certainly, that would be nice, but that's not this four-letter word we call life. I think they say, life be lifin'. And as we hit those twists and turns, the ups and downs, the highs and lows, it's amazing to have, as you said, tools resources, as well as a team to support throughout it all. It really makes me feel like I can do anything. I can even cause so much electricity. I can cause the power to go out, which my power is back on.

SPEAKER_04:
Yes. Yes. Speaking of failures and setbacks, we jump on the podcast here and Larry's power goes out. So you've been on, I think you've just been on the cell coverage, just making this thing work, man.

SPEAKER_01:
We flex and we adapt and we knock out anything that comes in our way.

SPEAKER_04:
I so wish this was a video podcast. I mean, you'll probably see some stuff on social media, but throughout this entire conversation, what our listeners don't know is we've gotten to enjoy props the entire time. Flamingo sunglasses, boxing gloves. We got a heart on a popsicle stick. We got a pink bat now. He's got a whole arsenal.

SPEAKER_06:
It's like this in coaching too.

SPEAKER_04:
You light it up, man. That's incredible. Kristen, Becca, thank you for joining us in the conversation. As we wrap up, is there anything that you would add for our listeners who are thinking, gosh, I'm even kind of jealous of what Larry gets to experience? Are there things from your perspective as coaches that you might say to encourage somebody who right now is feeling stuck and feeling maybe kind of alone or maybe feeling too scared to dream? Anything you would give to them?

SPEAKER_02:
That's good. I think Larry's been kind of the perfect example of someone who's willing to constantly reinvent themselves, which essentially is the idea of meta performance. So what am I capable of? Well, what am I capable of now? Well, what am I capable of now? And so, but back to even our story and sharing how we met earlier is for those people that are maybe listening that are at the beginning parts of their story. It's just like Larry did, like, you just got to take that first step of faith and do something different. So if you just keep sitting in the unknown or sitting in the fear, fear of the unknown or the uncertainty, you're just going to stay where you are. And Larry was willing to step out and do something different in the face of fear. So back to like that, have some courage, take that one step. You don't have to go five years down the road, just like what is the very next step that can move you in a direction that can lead you to a thrilling life.

SPEAKER_06:
I think just like we have stories about reality and what our future's gonna look like and that kind of thing, I think we have stories about what reinvention might look like. So it's a fun thing to test. Like, I wonder if my stories are even true. If I was gonna reinvent myself, it would have to be this certain way. Not even the consequences, but it's like, oh, people like me who leave this kind of a job, they go into this kind of work next. I wonder if that's true. What if you wanted to reinvent yourself in a way that is different than what prior notions may say? And the other thing I would invite folks to test, I wonder if there's folks who hear stories like Larry and they wonder if it's even true, or if Larry's the outlier. That's super cool that it happened for Larry Long Jr., but my name doesn't even sound like Larry Long Jr. How could that be true for me? And I'd say again, how can we test? How can we run, like I always, I invite my clients to think of things like a fifth grade science experiment and to take it almost that lightly. Like what if you had a trifold board And you had a question, and then you did a little research, you had a hypothesis, then you had a test, and then you had results. And then what if you got a new trifold board? You just did it again. And that would be my invitation, is whatever's coming up, test it.

SPEAKER_04:
Larry might've missed that in fifth grade, because he was in detention for talking too much, but that's helpful for everybody else.

SPEAKER_06:
You too, evidently. I wasn't. I was not. I just want to be very clear.

SPEAKER_04:
Larry, I have no doubt by by that there's going to be some listeners who have to create a platform. Maybe they're, you know, leaders organizing an event for their company or for their nonprofit. Maybe there's something that, you know, they're feeling unstuck and they don't feel particularly great and you are a resource. Your voice is a resource for them. So tell us a little bit about the book because we've not really discussed that much. And I want to give that a little bit of real estate here. Tell us about the book and then also please tell us where some of our listeners could find you if they wanted to find out more about partnering with you.

SPEAKER_01:
I'm so appreciative. Thank you so much. The book Jolt gets zapped into intentionality, rediscover and believe in your inner greatness. It's seven chapters from my midweek midday motivational minute, which is now over 190 episodes. I go live. on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, every Wednesday at 12 noon Eastern, and just share a word of encouragement on various topics. The book takes the seven most meaningful topics. What story are you telling yourself and believing? Strikeouts, they're a part of life. Lessons from my dad. I mean, it's chapters and issues that really mean the world to me. They're really meaningful. I encourage anyone who might be stuck and might need a little jolt. It's electric. I feel like I'm back at my family reunion doing the electric slide. But in reality, the book was for me. Even though I wrote it for my family, for my children, for my grandchildren to be, it was really for me. I'm hopeful that it will touch someone in the positive way, to help them be dangerous in a positive way. Where can you find me? You'll probably hear me before you see me, but my preferred channel is LinkedIn, Larry Long Jr. You can find me on my website, larrylongjr, that's jr.com. I'm also on YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, even though I don't know how to dance, Twitter, aka X. But I would love the opportunity to serve, to speak, to support any of your listeners, your viewers in any way possible. Please reach out to me if I can ever help. Thank you so much for having me.

SPEAKER_04:
Yeah, Larry, I gotta tell you, man, my, and I mean this sincerely, like, you have filled my cup today. Like, I woke up this morning, we worked out all the technical things and lined up and got the microphones working for the podcast, and then you were off to the races telling your story. And not only did you tell your story, Larry, but you, every step of the way, you had an eye towards how this might impact us. And so thank you for inviting us into what's possible. Thank you. Thank you for being our guest. I know it's going to be an incredible gift to those who are listening to us. Becca, Kristen, I love working alongside of you. Thank you for taking the time to share a little bit of what it was like to partner with Larry. And I know this is going to encourage a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02:
Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:
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