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[Music]
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[Music]
welcome to scaling up the podcast where
we scale up on knowledge so we don’t
scale up our systems i’m trace blackmore
the host of the scaling up h2o podcast
and scaling up nation thank you for
listening it delights me each and every
week that we have so many members of the
scaling up nation
and so humbled that just a little more
than four years ago when we started this
podcast it was just me and a microphone
and i was hoping one or two people would
listen to it well we’ve got thousands of
people listening to this podcast now
in over 80 countries that just blows my
mind thank you for everybody
in this scaling up nation
something i want to ask the people in
the scaling up nation is are you a
member of the association of water
technologies the awt now if you practice
the same type of water treatment that i
do
you need to be a member of awt now
there’s so many water treatment
professionals out there that listen to
this podcast i know not everybody
practices water the exact same way in
the exact same area so if it’s not the
awt for you
find out which organization is going to
do all the things that i’m getting ready
to talk about and join but with that i
want to ask you if you are the same type
of water treater that i am in the same
type of water treatment industry
you need to be a member of awt now note
i didn’t say you should be
i said you
need to be throughout my career i have
given a lot of time to the awt now i
mean a lot of time now that gift of time
was rewarded with a vast expansion of
the knowledge that i entered that
organization with i expanded my
knowledge not only on water treatment
but also
business
i am so
much further along because i decided not
only to join but i decided to volunteer
to become involved and because of that
i created lifelong friendships if you
are not a member of awt
go to awt.org and sign up today if you
are a member of awt make sure you are
taking advantage of the tons of member
benefits that they have available so you
can get the most out of your membership
now listen if all you do is join an
organization and pay your dues
folks you should not join to begin with
if you get involved that’s where you’re
going to make that an investment so
change simply paying an invoice to
making an investment you do that and i
promise whatever organization you join
it will pay you back tenfold now for
those members of the awt i hope one of
the member benefits that you are taking
advantage of is going to the annual
convention it’s going to be in
providence rhode island september 22nd
through 25th and i’m mentioning this
because i’m going to be there and i want
you
to come find me if you were there that
is my favorite thing to hear
directly from members of the scaling up
nation and i love it when you give me
your ideas and your feedback on this
show because that’s how we make this
show
better
so speaking of the convention i want to
give a shout out to our newest sponsor
reinert consulting they’re going to be
walking around the awt convention hall
in black t-shirts and these t-shirts say
i know your password now i’ve worked
with mike and his crew for some time now
and i have to tell you that this t-shirt
is not a falsehood
they can find out information about you
and your company and i guarantee they do
know your password it’s because of that
that i’m glad that i’m working with him
and he’s making my data more secure he’s
training my company all of my team
members that they are able to utilize
email properly he’s putting systems in
place so things are
just happening in the background that we
don’t even have to worry about he knows
how to do all this stuff so check him
out with his black t-shirt trust me give
him enough time he will find out what
your password is and after you said
hello to mike you can find me hanging
out in the scranton associates booth
that’s booth number 467
another one of the show sponsors i might
add
and you can come and speak with me and
let me know everything you want to tell
me about this show now nation i
mentioned two of our sponsors we have
had dozens of sponsors on this podcast
and i’m so grateful for that so many
wonderful companies have offered
to
let you the scaling up nation know about
their products but also to support the
scaling up h2o podcast when they do that
that allows me
to keep our wonderful staff paid because
they like to get paid and that helps me
do that so we can all produce this
podcast for you and i wanted to tell you
a little bit about the process that i
have
when a sponsor approaches me and by the
way i just won’t let anybody
sponsor this podcast
one it has to be a product that i have
used or a product that i would use
because i see the value that it will
bring to the scaling up nation
that’s the criteria that i have that’s
what makes it a win-win
win if we look at all the parties that
are involved and i hope knowing that
makes you feel good about the things
that you are hearing on this podcast and
speaking of that feeling good
you know when you decide to do something
and you don’t really know why but
everything just feels good about it well
that leads me to our next guest and
we’re going to be talking about that
very thing we’re going to be talking
about neuroscience
and what that means to all of us
my lab partner today is larry olson
founder and ceo of apernio larry how are
you today
i am doing peachy how are you doing
today trace i’m doing peachy as well and
i’m coming from the peach state so is
that why you said that oh no it’s just
very much of a well i don’t believe in
coincidences but uh i’m glad that i was
in a in a tune in alignment with you
there you go it’s it’s it’s working
great already well the members of the
scaling up nation are tuned in they are
listening they want to find out who
larry olsen is
and what are all the things that we’re
going to learn today during our
conversation so why don’t we start with
that who is larry olsen
well larry olsen is a individual who’s
been fortunate enough to
get involved in neuroscience and uh i
got involved in that just because of
a sister of mine who
was born mentally delayed and
three years older than i was and what
happened is i learned about the power
labels
and what that can do to a person’s
growth and then through the years i
built a company around it
and
called it impernio which was basically
the aperture of the camera is how the
image gets in to the camera or our brain
and neo and latin is new
so
to really initiate change people need to
have it happen quite rapidly or they get
discouraged because they’re not getting
the results they want
and when you don’t get the results you
want after a while you label yourself
well i guess i’m not good at that or i
guess i can only sell this much or i
guess i’m only comfortable around and
whatever that attitude may be those are
learned behaviors and genetics plays
about 18 of who we are and the rest are
learned behaviors which means that when
you understand how your brain works
not to the point where eyes glaze over
but where you go
wow
why have i been thinking the way i’ve
been thinking and it’s not about
shifting to positive thinking trace it’s
about
recognizing that as the bumper sticker
basically says you know we’re the only
ones holding ourselves back well that
may be a great statement but how the
heck do i release myself how do i even
know where i’m holding myself back
and so the company of pernio standing
for new perspective
teaches people not how to change
but simply how to change their mind
and that’s where our company is all
about achievement acceleration we help
organizations get what they want in a
much more efficient and productive
fashion where they’re bringing all their
associates along as well and as we’ve
learned from the gallup studies
engagement is what it’s all about
and if your people aren’t engaged
they’re going to end up going someplace
else where they will feel more engaged
and that’s that’s all about attitude and
so we help companies not only articulate
and define themselves based on the new
realities that they want and we only
work with high performance organizations
i gave up working with broken ones years
ago because they think they know why
they’re broken and they think they know
everything anyway and so it’s difficult
to get new ideas into someone whose
mind’s already made up so that’s where
the real growth mindset comes from is
there more that i can learn that when i
apply to my business or my family i
start getting the results that are
joyful that make me feel good about who
i am and also more importantly bring out
the best in those around me
and so that kind of in a in a little
nutshell is is the business that a
pernio is in is helping people
accomplish what they want by simply
learning how to change their minds
rather than changing their people
or trying to change themselves
larry today you have the scaling up
nation listening to you and for your
information the scaling up nation is
made up of people that are technicians
they’re out in the field they’re
servicing clients sales people that are
out trying to get new business for their
company and then also company owners
that are thinking how do i make sure all
of these gears are turning correctly and
everything’s working efficiently
how do you help each one of those
different groups
well the first question i have whenever
i’m dealing with a new opportunity or a
new client or anyone that has asked
whether or not what i do would be a fit
in their organization because i don’t
believe in the sales side of it i
believe that people will buy what they
want and what they see value in so my
first question is is why are we having
this conversation to begin with what’s
not going on in your company that if you
could find a way to to fulfill that or
make it happen whether it be increased
sales or
you know i want people that are more
loyal or
i don’t want people to place limitations
on themselves or you know what lair i’ve
developed some attitudes about the
people that work for me and i’ve
recognized now that i see more in this
person than i see in that person and
when people recognize what that does to
the people that are being perceived and
when someone says when a when a father
introduces his son when someone says is
that your son and he says yes he’s my
academic one what’s the other son
thinking and so those are little
attitudes that we pick up by watching
people’s performance
and we honestly think that the
performance that we see the results that
we see
are what we can begin to expect of that
person and then without knowing it we
develop a belief and then we only see
that this is what’s so interesting about
the brain we only see the results that
match the belief that we have
so when i ask people what would you like
to have happen
i generally get a pretty good idea of
what their expectations are
and then when i say would there be any
value if your sales people could sell
more than they’re currently selling or
that you could accomplish the things
that are important to you as an owner
that right now you’re finding obstacles
that are holding you back
what value would you receive from that
and that’s when i start to find out
what obstacles they have in their mind
you know because one of the questions i
ask are there any habits attitudes
beliefs or expectations that you think
could be holding anyone back at this
particular point in time and if they go
yes i go what are they
and that’s when you find out from people
how they have started to develop beliefs
about what’s not possible rather than
finding beliefs out about what is
possible and what is possible by the way
trace is not what you’ve been able to
find out through the evidence of the
work that you’ve done up to this point
what is possible is what is called
vision
what would the ultimate end result look
like and this is where i like to build
skepticism
i like to ask would there be any value
if you could do twice what you’re doing
now and half the time with twice the fun
does anybody say no to that and nobody
ever says no but nobody ever agrees in
their mind they say yes on the outside
and inside they go well how the hell are
you going to do that
if that was possible i’d already be
doing it we’re working as hard as we can
now
and you’re thinking that see here’s one
of the beliefs people have they think
that if they’re working harder or
smarter their results are going to
change
okay you can work really hard at that
you can get as intelligent as the more
intelligent anybody in a room but that’s
not necessarily going to change results
because what you learn how to have to
learn how to do is to think differently
give you an example about the power of
beliefs and how quickly they’re formed
trace have you ever met anybody who’s
not punctual i have
okay how many times did they need to be
late before you started to kind of
develop an attitude about this person
whether they were disrespectful because
everybody else got there on time or
time wasn’t important to them or you
know whatever how long did it take for
you to come up with that in your own
mind
with me not long at all that is one of
my buttons
okay so there’s a story behind why
punctuality is important to you isn’t
there there’s also a story behind why
the person’s late
but most leaders don’t wait to hear the
story
they just realize this is not an
alignment with my belief systems and so
they start to see the person differently
now here’s what’s interesting
now that we’ve got a belief about this
person’s not punctual
what happens when the person shows up on
time
somebody gets sarcastic
i guess that’s true was your watch break
you know what
so now think about the guy or the gal
who did everything they could to finally
get on time did it make any difference
for them
no
all they got was laughter or sarcasm or
disbelief
now here’s the power of our brain the
science behind our brain
our brain is accessing all the
information that it’s receiving
and it’s receiving over 30 trillion bits
of information a second now imagine if
you were consciously aware
of 30 trillion bits of information you’d
short out
right you wouldn’t be able to discern
anything so what we have that connects
our spinal cord to the brain is called
the reticular activating system and what
it does is it screens out anything that
we haven’t predetermined is important to
us
so we’d predetermined that this person
is not punctual
now when we see punctuality
even though we saw the evidence it
doesn’t change how we believe
so in order to maintain our sanity in
order to be right we get sarcastic
or we just believe that well i won’t
count on this any longer and if the guy
or gal is going to have to show up on
time quite a few times before we go
oh i see now that they’ve realized the
importance of being on time well larry
i’m a fixer i i love to fix things so in
your scenario do we need to fix my
perception of that person being late or
does the person need to fix their
perception or is it both and how do we
do that
okay
first off i think everybody would agree
that the only person you’re in any
danger of changing is yourself and all
you’re going to do is change your mind
first before the weight goes off or
before you make more money before
anything you’ve got to get them the
belief don’t you and we call that a lot
of people call it goal i call it vision
vision is something that is greater than
self that
really is the ultimate destiny that you
want to arrive to whether it’s in
business or family or whatever
goals or steps you take to get there
now if it’s just goals then drive and
energy is gone as soon as you accomplish
the goal
so when a sales person makes all their
money in the first week
mentally they take the next three weeks
off because they reached their goal but
if their vision
is a cabin in
and i want that lake place and i need
that boat
then they recognize
wow what a great first week imagine what
i can do for the next three
because their vision is stronger than
just getting to the goal and so that’s
another thing that is important people
but back to your question
i can’t get you to change your mind i
can just find out where your mind’s
already made up
then ask you in a perfect world trace
what would you like to have happen
and you may even say this isn’t possible
and it’s only not possible because of
your current beliefs but if i can get
you to start going beyond that now we
can recognize what are your obstacles
so i can help you identify them
i’m not going to point them out because
that’ll create pushback and
defensiveness
right even if you ask me to help you get
better that doesn’t give me permission
now to tell you what you need to do
you have to discover it for yourself if
it’s going to be sustainable then my job
as a leader is help you recognize when i
see behavior that’s standing in your way
and i can go you know trace you said you
wanted to make x amount of money and you
go yeah i did well i noticed you’ve been
spending a lot of time on the phone is
that with clients or and you go well no
it’s it’s with and i said would you
think that’s going to assist you getting
what you want no okay
and then i’ll just let you decide what
you need to do
but if you told me
yeah i’m making a lot of cold calls you
know and i’ve got this vision about how
i’m going to increase my own ability to
sell more to our clients
i’m glad i didn’t tell you how come you
got the phone in your head
leaders are so quick to want to correct
and fix
that sometimes they don’t recognize the
carnage that’s left behind because they
didn’t find the full story out
that is a hundred percent true and i
have tested that many a time
so your answer is let’s help people
discover for themselves where they’re
holding themselves back and i can teach
people how to do that
and it’s and it’s very easy it’s not
difficult
and people say well if it was that easy
everybody’d be doing it well that’s why
i have a business and that’s why i’m
able to do what i do
because most people just aren’t aware of
the fact that they’re the ones that are
causing the reality that they’re
experiencing
yeah i love that you said we’re really
the only people that can change our mind
so what we do about it yeah and so
that’s where you get into gandhi’s
statement be the change you wish to see
in the world start modeling the
behaviors you’d like to see in others
instead of trying to direct others to
those behaviors
my favorite book of all time is the
seven habits of highly effective people
by stephen r covey and i’m just thinking
about habit one circle of influence
circle of concern
so many of us are within the circle of
concern we’re worried about other people
other things things that we don’t have
direct influence over but it sounds like
what you’re saying is we have to stay
within that circle of influence
otherwise we’re just spitting our wheels
absolutely absolutely you know and we’ve
really got to like people
now that might be an issue for some yes
well then they need to find people who
do
and bring them on to their organization
as leaders they can provide the
financial wherewithal for their company
they can provide the ideas of what
they’d like to accomplish as an
organization but when i go into a
company i have seen companies years ago
pepsi was a client one of my bigger
clients and
they spent 10 million dollars on
temperament studies now a temperament
study basically trace was to find out
what quadrant you were in you know were
you real social or are you kind of an
outcast and
did you like to hear the story you just
wanted just tell me what time it is
don’t tell me how to build a watch and
the philosophy was that i’d find out
where you’re coming from you’d find out
where i’m coming from and then i’d make
sure that i respected where you were
coming from
by asking you about it hey how was your
day
even though that didn’t seem important
to me because i just wanted to know what
are you doing with your day
and i came in kind of like you know
colombo and and i got one more question
and that was what about the person what
about the attitude that an amiable may
have to an anal and you know even though
i’m sharing the how was your day if my
belief is i could care about how your
day is
then all of that money would go to waste
so rather than throwing the baby out
with the bathwater you made this
investment now let’s make this
investment work
so it’s important that you’re compatible
with the programs that are already in a
company so they don’t feel like they
have to decide i need to give up this
one to take this one on it’s more like
let’s make what you’re doing even more
efficient because if you don’t have
people listening to your great training
programs what’s it worth
we’ve had temperament expert kathleen
edelman come on twice to the podcast and
she’s got a great way of making the
temperament studies very simple but the
way she trains those is she turns it
around and it’s not
it’s not uh that i’m i’m going to change
my language so uh i can manipulate you
or i can get what i want better she uses
the statement that the words i use to
you larry are gifts that i choose
to give you so if i look at my language
as a gift and for you to truly be able
to receive that gift i’ve got to give it
in your temperament i tell you that’s a
study that has really helped me but i
will say that i’ve been to some other i
guess they weren’t temperaments they
were more personality studies that it
was all about manipulation oh you’re not
never going to accomplish anything with
manipulation but i love how you know a
lot of consultants will come in and they
will say
uh no everything you’re doing is wrong
you got to do it this way and you’re
saying well what do you have to work
with you know you’ve done all of this
stuff how do we make this work within
the the guard rails that you’re giving
me absolutely yeah because i know what
my lane is and and i don’t want to get
into somebody else’s lane i want to find
out what their
vision is for why they think that lane’s
effective
and what i’m looking for in that is i’m
looking for where can an attitude come
into play to derail that
if i’m taught if somebody says i need to
like michelle
or i can go to another company where
michelle doesn’t work any longer and
unfortunately this is what happens to a
lot of people they drive to work
thinking about what it’s going to be
like when i see michelle this morning
and they want michelle to change
or they’ve got to change their company
no why don’t we ask the person how would
you like michelle to be
when people first and this is what’s
difficult about
giving answers without providing the
education first
i’ve got an education that everybody in
the company goes through it’s a day and
a half
and this is the full boat
and teaches them how they think and how
thinking affects performance so before
you start to develop visions in the
organization and how we want to treat
each other people have to have a common
language and they have to understand
first off
where they’re holding things back and
where they’ve built attitudes about
other people and so when they recognize
i’m in no danger of changing michelle
but i’m allowing michelle to determine
how i feel whenever i’m around her
what happens is well how would you like
to be with michelle how would you like
to be experiencing her and what happens
when i
when i start to see the best in michelle
instead of waiting for michelle to
change and become someone i can see the
best in i am changing my beliefs first
so when i teach leaders first see
everyone is punctual
then when someone shows up late i’m not
sarcastic i’m gonna go trace hey what
happened
oh man the traffic was so bad today and
i’m and in my mind i begin thinking yeah
everybody had to go through the traffic
that somehow they seem to get here on
time as soon as i even start thinking
like that the average individual check
this out uses about 100 words and beats
those up to death every day that you
know unless they got a vocabulary class
and they learned ostentatious and
they’re going to add that to the party
generally we keep repeating the same
words well this those words have as much
power as our body language and tone of
voice we used to believe body language
and tone of voice
shared about ninety percent of the
message and ten percent were words well
the studies that have been done just
blow that out of the water
every message we send with our body
language and tone of voice okay if i if
you ask me to do something and i go i
just raise my eyebrows i’ve sent a
message haven’t i
absolutely you will only interpret that
message based on your experiences not
mine and if that reminds you of
rejection or
whatever
then you’ve already determined what was
meant by that and there’s no way you’re
going to find out because why do you
need to find that information you
already know
so when you find out that you and i send
over 250
000 messages to the other individual
just with our body language and tone of
voice
before we even open up our mouth
you know you and i are picking up
messages not only auditorially but we
have the opportunity to kind of view
each other don’t we correct the podcast
people do not have that benefit so when
you ask me a question and you grab your
cup and start drinking out of it i could
go well he wasn’t very interested in
that answer
or i could go he’s thirsty and he’s
interesting enough and intelligent
enough that he can hear me as well i
have a choice don’t i in which direction
i go but if i don’t understand that
then i could go
well he certainly doesn’t be interested
and i could spoil the rest of the
podcast without even trying
you know i i’m reminded when you were
talking about michelle of a story and i
was just upset somebody did something to
me and of course i know now that i chose
how i reacted to that but at the time no
it was that person made me mad and i
couldn’t get over this and a good friend
of mine kind of looked at me kind of in
the way you just did earlier and he said
trace how much do you charge for rent in
your head and that just got me thinking
you know what he’s not this other guy
isn’t thinking about me he did whatever
he did he’s he’s down the road
i’m the one
that’s keeping this mind space occupied
and not allowing myself to be productive
on other things
that was a comment that somebody made to
me that i just instantly got and when i
start getting that way that’s a phrase i
say to myself now for somebody that’s
just hearing this for the first time
what would you say
they should do to realize that you know
maybe i should think differently about
this
yeah well if they if they’re interested
in improving results
okay because there have to be some
parameters if they’re interested in
improving relationships
then
one of the things they have to think
about is if i finish up with this how
many the messages we send with body
language and tone of voice 250 000
against 100 words if you put 250 000
warriors on this side of the line and
100 warriors on this side which group’s
going to win out every single time
okay so
since i now i go well what sends those
messages of body language and tone of
voice my beliefs
where did i get those through my
experiences whether my parents brought
me up believing something or whether i
heard it or read it or you know we start
to get some truths about life don’t we
so
what i would suggest is when someone
says something to you and you have the
opportunity to find out about it
rather than internalize it you’re not
charging any rent for it but you just
allowed it to live with you right is
this whole comment about circumstance to
begin with is the stance you take within
the circle you find yourself in if you
literally break that term down
this is where when you wake up in the
morning
think about for instance w clement stone
are you familiar with him trace i am not
he was an industrialist back in the
early 1900s he financed a guy named dale
carnegie him i’m familiar with we’re
familiar with him okay he was an inverse
paranoid his belief was the universe was
conspiring to do him good since we get
to choose beliefs because we’ve already
got them by
experiencing something and then talking
to ourselves about it which creates a
neural connection
which we call a habit or an attitude
so we don’t have to think about it
anymore
we just react
99 of people think about what’s ever on
their mind and less than one percent
know how they think
theoretically you’ve heard statements
that ninety-five percent of our day is
unconscious we already have by the time
a child’s ten they have over a hundred
thousand attitudes so all we have to do
is just react to every situation that
comes up until we learn something new
and that is oh how much rent am i
charging for that
so all of a sudden you have a little
tool now don’t you so you don’t have to
ruminate on it anymore and spoil your
day well this guy’s having the time of
his life is you had a correction there
so the correction
from where i come from is the vision has
got to be stronger than current reality
my book is called get a vision and live
it
and what that means is is like going
back to demian clement stone his vision
was something wonderful is going to
happen today because he was an adverse
paranoid first thing in the morning
something wonderful is going to happen
today what’s he looking to for all day
long something good
something good now let’s be realistic
when something went wrong you know what
his attitude was here’s what here’s what
beginners do
oh i’m going to try that wow what a
great idea
you know something wonderful is gonna
happen today
and then they you know they go and they
crack an egg and it goes into the burner
and doesn’t go into the pan well so much
for wonderful i tried okay most people
will try three times before they give up
so
worst only person you should never give
up on is yourself or you’ll learn how to
give up on others
so what he would say is what am i to
learn from this okay logically that
makes all the sense in the world doesn’t
it i believed that this person just made
me feel like this because they were late
what’s their story
and this is something that i offer
everyone is find out what their story is
because 99 times out of a hundred you’ll
be glad you didn’t automatically react
with some disciplinary action i don’t
know if you’re aware of this but 95 of
corporations in america today
motivate by fear
i think that’s because it’s the only way
people know how to motivate exactly
because that’s how they were probably
instructed as they were coming up the
ranks you bet and here’s here’s the
issue do you know how much a person’s
performance based on what they’re
capable of you get to realize when
they’re motivated by fear less than 10
percent
and so what i teach people how to do is
be motivated by value not only
themselves but for their organization
you know why would we want to
you get into cynics you know he
popularized the term y
simon sinek did okay
and start with why
and basically all that means is is
what’s driving me
what’s driving me leads to how do i
motivate myself and when i said fear i’m
sure there was a lot of listeners that
said bs
i don’t motivate myself like that
because they think it’s a life and death
scenario
no
fear is simply trying to avoid loss
so how come you’re on time
i don’t want to be disrespected by the
group
that’s not motivated by value
if it’s motivated by value what do you
want to be on time i love setting a
great example i like getting my best
seat possible i like to be ready and and
be focused before things start so i’m
still not dealing with something when
the meeting begins
that’s value isn’t it that’s definitely
value that is more carrot less stick
exactly all the reading that you can
possibly do
they’re now talking about mindfulness
i was into mindfulness in the 70s not
saying that i had any edge on anybody
but i had that head start with my sister
on what happens when we label people and
when we make fun and when we tease
because man i got in fights for my
sister when they teased her and we’ll
fight for our family won’t we okay so
we’ll fight for our beliefs too and let
others die for theirs
larry you brought up simon sinek and
that got me thinking that’s one of my
favorite books start with why
i read another book and i’m trying to
remember the name it was i believe it
was called double double it was written
by the founder of the 1 800 got junk
company i can’t remember the author’s
name but in that book he was saying that
the key to unlocking the potential in
all of your team was the entrepreneur
the owner
sharing the story of why he started the
company and when he started asking the
question
how many entrepreneurs out there how
many business owners actually share that
story it was almost none
but then he went on to find that the
people that did
it just ignited this fire
amongst all of his people and it allowed
them to know basically what they were
doing what they were fighting for why
they were coming to work every day why
don’t more business owners do that i
think there’s too many
vendors and sales people out there that
have the answer and the answer is to do
it their way
because that’s how they make a living
there’s nothing wrong with that i mean
that’s what makes america
you know the wheels move is we need we
need buyers and we need sellers you know
we need to keep the capitalistic system
going and i think their hearts in the
right spot and they’re intense in the
right spot
but
we lose sight we take leaders take for
granted the fact that
why isn’t everybody as excited as i am
about this
and so what they try to do is they try
to get their people motivated and they
try to get them excited and and like you
just mentioned they don’t share their
story because you know everybody’s got a
story and yep yo you know that i happen
to gather some money and i happen to get
some people that wanted to be a part of
it
but they probably wanted to be a part of
it because they were enamored by the
leader not by what the leader was
attempting to accomplish
because you can be selling toilet paper
and being having the time of your life
or you can be dreading going to work
what’s the difference
and here’s what i suggest
it’s not only finding out what the story
is but what if you let your people be a
part of the story
i will never allow a company when i’m
working with it to develop their vision
in isolation
they’ll spend a hundred grand on getting
a sense of purpose and it goes in a
drawer yeah no way and no buy-in right
none
or they’ll have a big banquet and
they’ll sell the you know everybody’s
supposed to get excited about it but
they didn’t get to participate in it
it’s no difference in getting great
discounted tickets at disneyland and
forcing your kids to go there because
you got all this this great buy you want
to have a great vacation find out what
your kids want to do and then try to
figure out a place where we can all do
that the difference now is you can enjoy
the ride there
because they’re not fighting one another
we can all go back to the didn’t we all
want to do oh yeah how much longer is it
going to be
what could we do in the meantime well
let’s do
that and that’s how you operate a
company is what are we doing in the
meantime are we saying that millennials
will have two to three five jobs within
the next two to three years if we
believe that then we don’t even expect
them to hang out very long they got
onboarding now and now they’re coming up
with this off-boarding they’re coming up
with we have to show people that will
help them with their escape strategy
because they’re only going to be here
two to three years later that’s becoming
now a way of selling people into a
company is will help you leave
wow
yes it’s the latest and greatest
but why
why do they want to go anywhere else
anyway because they don’t have a sense
of purpose there’s no why that’s causing
them to go i can’t wait to get there
why because i get to be a part of
so let me ask you this as a business
owner and the other business owners that
are listening how do we help somebody
figure that out
well you can give me a phone call okay
and just find out if if this is
something that would fit within your
organization because if i find out that
you aren’t serious about growing and
developing your organization
i won’t work with a leader that says fix
my people
it would be easier if you would just do
that larry just to be honest with you
exactly but then i’d go okay how’s your
life going
i’ve had companies that have brought me
in
just so the leader could improve his
relationship with his wife or her
husband
and then oh and by the way it’d be great
if if my people had wonderful lives as
well now that’s kind of selfish but that
didn’t have anything to do with
improving the bottom line the byproduct
is when you take care of your people the
bottom line will exceed your wildest
expectations
absolutely larry you mentioned your book
earlier can you tell us a little bit
about that
yeah all of the background and and
information necessary to kind of buy
into what i’ve been sharing is in the
book get a vision and live it and i
wrote it because so many people were
seeing their lives change
one guy was ready to get a divorce and
then he realized is because his wife had
done something years ago and he kept
seeing that in her so it didn’t matter
what she did he always recognized that
she’s the one who said i’d never amount
to anybody and she was upset you know
the kids were challenged a lot was going
on but he’d locked on to that right
didn’t charge in any rent but let it
ruminate over and over and over and then
when he recognized through the education
that wow
that’s not what i want a relationship
that’s not what i want in a marriage
that’s not what i want my children to
grow up to see and witness
and he made a change in his own
perception
rather than waiting for his wife to
change and you know i am a testament to
this i’ll sometimes have a bet with
people in a company when i’m doing my
program i’ll say who thinks they’ve had
the most jobs in their life
and people will go two three maybe
somebody will say five or six
i’ll say by 1983 a buddy and i had a bet
to see who had the most jobs and i beat
him by one i had 23 he had 22.
wow it sounds like you’re a millennial
yeah it does doesn’t it and i’d go but
guess why i left the job because i
either wasn’t getting respected or
wasn’t getting paid enough
guess who i brought to the next job
guess what happened again
and again
until i realized there was a common
denominator in here
it wasn’t that i wasn’t getting respect
even if i was i wouldn’t believe it i’d
feel they manipulated it because you
you’ve got to change your people’s minds
and allow them to do it themselves or
they’re going to interpret everything
you do anyway
and they do now
that’s why we don’t get all the buy-in
no matter how excited we are and what
big motivational person we brought in
people have to recognize for themselves
i had to recognize for myself
because i did it in marriages in
relationships too
i’m in my third marriage
i mean i’m good at pointing the finger
and now diane and i will celebrate 24
years in september outstanding i figured
it out trace it’s not me
and until i choose what it is i want to
see in the world and in others i’ll only
see that which matches my beliefs and
i’ll do it with people i’ll do it in
relationships and you know what i’ll do
i’ll try to develop techniques so that i
don’t have to do it as much
larry if somebody wants to contact you
what’s the best way to do that uh best
way is to go to a success at aprenio.com
or go to our website aprenio.com
and then you know just reach out and
what happens is is
when i hear about reaching out i always
hear that there’s a financial
remuneration involved in that
there is nothing like that because it’s
about relationships
and if you and i decided to work
together trace we’d have to first decide
whether we wanted to work together
let alone what we wanted to accomplish
could we strengthen one another could i
maybe take care of your weaknesses and
you take care of mine
without us having to learn that as well
because when i get sick i don’t go to
med school you know i don’t know about
you
i’ll let somebody else who’s already
done that and and what it does is it
allows us to accomplish what we want
sooner
so that we can enjoy life to a much
larger degree than struggling and trying
to get there
and i want that to sound fanciful i want
people to be skeptical i want them to
challenge me
because i have not been unsuccessful in
that up to this point in my life
because i’ve got nothing to win but
allowing you to get what you want
well we will make sure to have all those
ways you mentioned on our show notes
page to make it very easy for people to
see if they can hold that statement true
or not so uh i’m sure you’re up for that
challenge not quite done with my
questions yet i did want to ask you a
couple of lightning round questions if
you have time to stick around i’m up for
it all right so you now have the ability
to go back in time and talk to your
former self on your very first day of
doing what you are doing now what advice
would you give yourself
i would have listened more
i thought it was a good listener but i
realized all i was listening to was to
make sure that i was getting what i
wanted and i thought it was altruistic
enough that i forgot what i wanted and
everybody else would be would be really
happy but i i didn’t i would spend more
time finding out the why behind the
answers that i get and you do that by
what do you mean by that
if you said you wanted to be happy i’d
ask you what’s happiness mean to you
and i would help you find out because
i’d question your question one of those
guys yeah but you’d be comfortable with
it because you’re discovering something
you weren’t even aware of no i totally
get it because i’m going to define
happiness totally different than how
you’re going to define happiness and if
we’re each going off of our own
definitions how are we going to help
each other with that absolutely perfect
perfect
what are some of your favorite books
well i mentioned
simon sinek start with why it’s a great
one yeah and it just resonated me
because that’s kind of been
unconsciously going on in my life is is
why and we grew up asking that a lot
didn’t we sure children can drive their
parents crazy why why why clean up your
room why and we never we never really
asked them you know why do you think i’m
asking this of you it’s just kind of get
a feel for where are they coming from so
that was a great one another one that
i discovered in 1960
in a laundromat in college
was
maxwell malt’s psycho-cybernetics
somebody just left it there by the
detergent how did you
left it there and i picked it up
and it told this beautiful story about
this woman he was a plastic surgeon who
he had botched the nose job okay and he
didn’t want to remove the bandages
because he knew
what the outcome was going to be
finally he couldn’t stall any longer and
he removed the bandages and she said
well do you have a mirror
i’m still holding back
showed her the mirror and she said oh my
god i’m beautiful
and he realized take yourself out of the
equation and let people tell you what
they need and what they want and how
they see things
and it changed my whole perspective you
know especially with what was going on
with with my sister and the differences
that were being created by
people looking at her as less than
what a great gift somebody left you in a
laundromat well for heaven’s sakes i
know it sounds like that just created
the the path that you followed your
entire life it was a domino absolutely
yep and there were a lot of side tracks
when they make a movie about your life
who plays you
you know
i thought about that i thought about
that a lot and um
you know i think i think uh tom hanks
would be a good one and i say that
because he’s
he can get beyond
the type cast and get into the role and
i think he could do a great job my wife
always mentions and i can’t think of the
actor’s name right now because somebody
said i look like him but
i think that he could do the best
portrayal of the genuineness and
sincerity of what my purpose is and
that’s wanting to bring out the best in
others
and it’s kind of selfish because when i
do it brings out the best of myself
we all have motives for doing what it is
that we do and that’s not a bad one all
right my last question you can now speak
with anybody throughout history who
would it be with and why
it would be it would be christ and i say
that not from a from a biblical
perspective or a a second coming or any
of that i say it because of
the influence
i’d want to know
you know what what was the essence and
what was the why behind you know
standing up to
the mainstream
and and not being fearful
and we all have answers to that i’d like
to find out what what his was
you know i’m looking at you and i think
ed harris could play you what do you
think that was it that was it for you
yes
my wife would applaud you now
thank you well larry i want to thank you
for coming on scaling up h2o this is a
topic that’s a little bit different for
our show but i i’ve got to tell you i
know you’ve gotten a lot of people to
think out there i know a lot of people
are thinking wait a minute it’s my
problem it’s not somebody else’s problem
i need to deal with me because that’s
the only power that i truly have and i
think you’ve unlocked that in a lot of
people so i want to thank you for that
thank you very much that means the world
to me i appreciate that
when you have that feeling that
something is a good idea and you don’t
know why
well now thanks to larry thanks to all
the help that he gave us during this
interview we’re starting to understand
that a little bit better
nation so many of you are sharing your
experiences with james’s challenge by
hashtagging to hashtag jc21 and hashtag
scalingup
i have to say i love when i tell you
about a james’s challenge or when i
introduce james so he can tell you about
the james’s challenge and then i start
seeing all these different postings come
in thank you for that if you haven’t
kept up with james’s challenge that’s
okay you can binge challenge people are
doing that all the time matter of fact
we had people that did all the
challenges and they played bingo and
those people submitted that bingo card
to me and they got a special scaling up
h2o t-shirt if you’re one of those
people
please wear that to the awt if you’re
going to be there
at their convention well folks i know
you were all waiting for the next
james’s challenge well you don’t have to
wait anymore here’s james
[Music]
hello scaling up nation the next james’s
challenge as we grow as an industrial
water treatment professional drop by
drop is
[Music]
measure connectivity of water entering
and leaving a water softener
do you see a difference
is it just a few micro siemens or a lot
try measuring right after a softening
unit has come back online after
regeneration and then later on in its
run did this timing make a difference
if so why
be sure to share your experience on
linkedin by tagging it with hashtag jc21
and hashtag scalinguph2o
this is james mcdonald and i look
forward to seeing what you share
thanks james
nation
do you have something you want to hear
on this show
if you do
please i need that information don’t
keep that locked up inside your head
give it to me so my staff
can book that guest that you want me to
interview give it to me
so i can start writing the next episode
that answers that question that you have
how do you do that you might ask well
you can go to scaling up h2o.com
and we have either a show ideas page or
you can even leave a voicemail because
you’re too busy to type it out and if
you ask me a question on that voicemail
function i will play it on the air and
get your questions answered folks if you
don’t do that i cannot bring you a new
show each and every friday like next
friday and until next friday have a
great week folks
[Music]
one of the things i hear so often about
the rising tide mastermind is about how
well the members in the rising tide
mastermind listen to other people folks
we are programmed to give quick advice
even if we don’t have all the
information through the issue solving
track that we practice in the rising
tide mastermind you will learn how to
ask better questions so you can give
better advice
and that will shorten the road for
whatever issue you’re trying to solve
to find out more go to scaling up
h2o.com forward slash mastermind