Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Danielle Cobo: Do you feel stuck in a rut running through the motions of your daily routine without real purpose or direction? Are you longing for something more in life? If so, this episode is for you. In this episode, we discuss identifying and using your passions and talent to create a meaningful life that brings you joy and purpose.
Danielle Cobo: We'll also discuss obstacles that may arise when pursuing your dream and how to overcome them with courage and determination. Whether you're looking to advance your career, pursue a creative passion, or live a more fulfilling life, this episode will inspire and motivate you to take action and make your dreams a reality.
Danielle Cobo: Today's guest is Larry Long, Jr. Founder and c e O of LL Jr. Enterprises, which focuses on business and sales, motivation, inspiration, and most important. Transformation. He is the host of the weekly midweek, midday, motivational Minute, and the author of Jolt.
Danielle Cobo: Hey Larry, I am excited to have you on the podcast today. We both come from a sales background and you've had a lot of success in your sales career. Will you please share with our listeners where you started and what's kinda led to your success?
Larry Long Jr: Oh wow. Danielle, I happy to be here, but I started selling at the age of 10.
Larry Long Jr: When my sister was born, I was the only child and essentially all the attention was going to her. So I had to learn how to tap dance and get a, that, that, that's not real. But essentially selling my first career was making 150 ice cold. To accounting firms, c p a, accounting firms, a lot of hangups, a lot of rejection.
Larry Long Jr: And the key to one of the keys to my success was really having an optimistic, positive attitude, even in the face of striking out. So it's been quite the journey, quite the adventure, sometimes misadventure, but I love sales. I believe we're all.
Danielle Cobo: There is no doubt if anyone wants to be successful in sales, you have got to have an optimistic approach to life because there is gonna be constant setbacks, there's gonna be constant, knows that you're going to hear, and it really takes a lot of resilience and grit and courage to have a sustainable career in sales.
Danielle Cobo: And I like what you said, which. We are all in sales because even if you're in customer service, your approach in sales is retaining the customersWe all have to sell something and it may even be ourselves.
Larry Long Jr: Ooh. Ooh. I love that. And I look at how do you define sales?
Larry Long Jr: there's two definitions that I look at for sales. Number one, it's a transfer of energy because your energy doesn't have to be in the words of the great JJ Walker, Dino mine, like mine. But you better have some sort of gumption, some sort of juice, and you better let it loose because our clients, our prospects, They can smell BS from a mile away.
Larry Long Jr: They can tell whether you're in it to serve them or whether you're in it to serve yourself. I think they call that me monsters and commission breath. You can have all the tic-tacs in the world. It can't cure commission. Breath number two, and I'm not any Patty stacker, the million dollar matchmaker. But I think we're playing matchmaker Danielle.
Larry Long Jr: We're matching whatever we have. Our products, our services, our thoughts, our ideas. You talked about having to sell ourselves. We're matching it with other people's needs, wants, desires, their challenges, hopes, dreams, aspirations, and their problems. And if we're able to make that match, guess. We are selling.
Larry Long Jr: What happens is so many times try to solve problems that people don't have. It's like me going to the doctor and the doctor saying, Hey, I'm the best ankle surgeon in the world. Doc, you didn't listen. It's my shoulder, not my ankle. What you talking about Willis?
Danielle Cobo: I remember distinctly, I was looking at solar panels for my house and the sales rep.
Danielle Cobo: Led with, well, these solar panels are graded at this level and they're sold in X, Y, Z countries. And I remember thinking, I don't care where they're sold. I care how it fits my house. And now it's really hard. I find when you have been successful in career, in a sales career and you know that when you start to understand what your clients.
Danielle Cobo: Goals, their problems. If you don't ask the questions on what their problems are, then you're not gonna know how your product may or may not solve their problems. And that can be the same approach, whether you're in sales or even if you're leading teams, because you've gotta understand if you're a leadership, it's understanding what are your.
Danielle Cobo: Team members challenges so that you can support them, so you can mentor them, so you can help remove barriers and obstacles so that they can be successful. It's leading with value and problem solving. So
Larry Long Jr: true, you're spot on. And really leadership, especially in sales. It is selling. You're selling to those that you lead.
Larry Long Jr: And when I was a, leader, a sales manager, there were three things that I focused on. Number one, we gotta hit targets. We gotta hit our goals. That keeps the lights on. Number learning and growing As the leader, you've got to lead by example, and then you need to encourage a growth atmosphere, a growth mindset, and environment for your team.
Larry Long Jr: Number three, let's not forget. We gotta have fun if we're doing number one and number two at a high level, we're gonna have a lot of fun.
Danielle Cobo: I'm glad you brought up fun, because being in sales or any other role that you're in for, those of you that are listening. You've gotta have fun with what you're doing.
Danielle Cobo: If we're going, if we're having the Monday Blues or even the Sunday night Blues and we're thinking about, Ugh, I gotta go to work tomorrow because I dread it, and you have either that mindset of saying, I'm gonna go into work, and Even if everything falls throughout the day to the wayside, I'm gonna find a way to have fun doing it, because we spend more time at work than we do with our family.
Danielle Cobo: So it's a matter of having fun, being optimistic, and joy. And you also talked about. A growth mindset. Let's talk about what a growth mindset is, because there's Carol Dewi, is a psychologist and she's the one that developed or kind of coined this phrase, growth mindset. And what that means is you're either approaching your life with a fixed mindset, which says, you are born this way and this is how you're gonna be for the rest of your life.
Danielle Cobo: Or a growth mindset is a belief that. You can learn, you can grow, you can develop, you can learn new skills. You can take some of those weaknesses or opportunities that some people say that someone might have, and you can learn to develop skills to overcome them.
Larry Long Jr: I love it. and right now folks are going through some stuff.
Larry Long Jr: it's tough. Life is a four letter word. What I found Danielle, through my interactions is those that have a fixed mindset and just believe, whoa is me. I'm at the mercy of whatever life throws at me. Life throws me a curve ball, uhoh, I'm just destined the strike out. They're really challenged. They're, really stuck in a rut right now.
Larry Long Jr: What I see on the flip side is those that are open and and are flexible and kind of have made a decision inside that, you know what, maybe things aren't going as great as I would like them to be, and there's an opportunity for me to learn, for me to grow, for me to look at and really take the perspective of, hey, things might be in a rut, but I'm gonna look for the good, the.
Larry Long Jr: And the wonderful, and I'm gonna use those lessons to help propel me a And oftentimes when we hit a setback or challenge, it's really in the words of Willie Jolly. It's a setup for a comeback for us to blow it up. But sometimes folks are so focused on that door that closed, they miss out on the window of opportunity that's right in front of them.
Larry Long Jr: So I encourage folks, Hey, take it for what it. is It's a growth opportunity. You're either going to going to win or you're going to learn. And sometimes when we learn, it's painful, but it propels us to success, great success in the future.
Danielle Cobo: There are so many times in my life where I have wanted something specific and it didn't happen in the timeframe that I wanted it to happen.
Danielle Cobo: And. I look back and I say, wow, what a blessing that it didn't happen at that time because maybe life wasn't where it needed to be at that point. Maybe I wasn't specifically ready. Maybe I hadn't been in a position where I had developed the skills for that next level, and that's exactly where I'm at now in the sense of I am so grateful that I had that seven years of leader.
Danielle Cobo: Working for a Fortune 500 company because what I learned and be leading a team through restructuring, downsizing acquisitions, I mean, you really learn what resilience is and you learn about leading through change. And then you also, the exposure to the leadership development programs on a continuous basis when you work for that large of a company is extremely valuable.
Danielle Cobo: And so I think. Sometimes you look back and you go, wow, I didn't realize the exposure to, I had to particular roles to particular experiences were really preparing for that next step in life. It may not have happened when I wanted it to, but it ended up happening exactly when it needed to be.
Larry Long Jr: You're spot on.
Larry Long Jr: You must have read my mind because I've been working with my coach, really reflecting on my journey line. We've all been through journeys of ups and downs, twists and turns, highs and lows, and essentially when you break it down and you say, this was the experience. Here goes what I learned from that experience and here goes what I'll do differently in the future.
Larry Long Jr: Here goes what I'll share with someone else because we know sharing is caring, but how often do we take those quote unquote failures, I'll call them learnings and share those learnings with the next generation, which Daniel? We've been a part of a mastermind and what I appreciate from the Mastermind is the ability for us to communicate, to share wins, losses, what we're learning, and to really support each other, challenge each other, and, really help elevate each other to that next level.
Larry Long Jr: I mean, it's absolutely amazing to have that network and that community of.
Danielle Cobo: what I know now being an entrepreneur and whether people are in entrepreneurship or not, I've invested a lot into coaches And in all areas of my business, and I wish I had done that earlier in my career because the growth that I've experienced professionally, personally within this past two and a half years since I started my business is exponential because of the guide between masterminds, between the relationships, between the coaches that I've invested in, between the leadership programs.
Danielle Cobo: I've earned accreditations to. I just wish I would've done that earlier in my career. Who knows where it could have been, where I could have been. Maybe it's supposed to happened exactly the way that it did, but it's so valuable. and there was something you said about failure, and I wanna talk about this a little bit, and you could probably relate, having a sales background, I learned more from my failures.
Danielle Cobo: When I didn't get the deal, when I didn't get the business, when the door was shut on me, and actually the customers that there was the most conflict with strengthened me as a better sales representative and ended up being, if I was able to repair that relationship, ended up being my most loyal customers ever.
Danielle Cobo: and I think back to most of the stories that I talk about in my leadership development program. It's all about the failures that I had as a manager and saying, here's what I did, here's what I learned, and here's what I would do differently. So I'm grateful for some of those failures, even though that they were hard to go through at the time, but they shaped me into understanding, where leaders can do things right and differently.
Larry Long Jr: And the thing about quote unquote failure, it means that you're trying. So often folks are paralyzed due to fear of failure, and I've been there before. They don't wanna pursue it. In regards to coaching, entrepreneurship, yes, but even working in corporate, Wherever you are. There's benefits of mentorship, of coaching, of investing and upleveling your skills, your experiences.
Larry Long Jr: I mean, I love experiential retreats. it just provides just so much learning, so much interaction, so much networking. That you would really have to be intentional to not learn and not take something away. So certainly wanna make sure those listeners that are working in corporate today also realize the benefits of coaching, of mentorship, because you can learn two ways.
Larry Long Jr: You can learn from your own mistakes. I've got a lot of knots in my head because I'm hardheaded of just making mistakes on my own. Or you can learn from mentors who have already made the mistakes on your behalf. And. Willing to share if you ask.
Danielle Cobo: Yeah. And be willing to be vulnerable to say, here's a challenge that I'm going through right now.
Danielle Cobo: I'm thinking about approaching it this way or that way, and. I like to offer, I like to take that approach, right? This is how I'm thinking about approaching it. But can I talk this through with you? What are maybe some blind spots that I'm not seeing? What are some potential outcomes or what I haven't seen?
Danielle Cobo: Or, Hey, have you experienced this situation before? And what have you learned when you've dealt with it? And I like how you say, Always look at ways that you can up-level your skills, whether you are going for a promotion, whether you're thinking about entrepreneurship, whether you're even thinking about, Hey, I wanna stay in this role as long as I can.
Danielle Cobo: I have a lot of clients right now who are saying, I don't wanna be in middle management. As we've talked about, middle management is sometimes babysitting adults is what it feels like sometimes. And so that it's not as attractive as a role as it used to be. In fact, a lot of people that have had middle management positions are going back into individual contributor roles cause they like to be kind of in control of what they do, not responsible for other people and the pressures that go along with it.
Danielle Cobo: And the, honestly, the emotional drain cuz you're trying to navigate through so many different personalities. No matter what you plan on doing your career, always invest in developing new skills. Invest in becoming an expert at what you do, whether that be through a mentor, through a sponsor, through taking leadership programs, masterminds.
Danielle Cobo: I mean, you name it. it is absolutely worth investing in.
Larry Long Jr: I love what you said right there. Excellent point. And it's really around being the best you can be, being excellent, and stepping into your best version. Now, I wrote a book called Jot, get zapped into intentionality, rediscover and believe in your inner greatness.
Larry Long Jr: Sometimes folks as life. Beats 'em down as we go through this four letter word called life. They sometimes lose their excellence. They sometimes lose just how great they are. And I wanna encourage folks that, Hey, dream and dream big. No, no, no. Bigger. Sometimes folks stop dreaming. And I'm a big dreamer. I believe that everyone can really go beyond.
Larry Long Jr: What they're currently doing. I think some people say the sky is the limit. Survey says, nah, I don't believe there is any limit. The only limits out there are the ones that we put on ourselves. So in the words of the great philosopher, I think his name is ludicrous. Move, get out the way. You gotta get outta your own way so that you can be the.
Larry Long Jr: You that can possibly be and believe you man. I know sometimes people get stuck in ruts. Sometimes we believe the hype of what other people are saying. Sometimes we believe the hype of what we're saying to ourselves. And my coach said, Larry, you uplift so many people. You are so positive, optimistic with everyone else.
Larry Long Jr: But when you start talking about your. Uh oh. Houston, we have a problem. She said, you bring yourself down. Why don't you give yourself grace? Why don't you lift yourself up? Encourage yourself like you do everyone else. And I can tell you that it's made a world of difference. The words that I speak, the thoughts that I think being intentional about, you know what, Larry, you weren't successful.
Larry Long Jr: Some might call it a failure, but you know what? Dust yourself off. It's okay. Let's get 'em next.
Danielle Cobo: powerful. I was doing my daily devotional this morning and the, message was about Being in, your purpose.
Danielle Cobo: Now in the devotional, it was about following God's purpose, and I think about this time there was a six month period where my life just changed, but it was a matter of taking a step back. And looking at what is my dream? What is my dream? My big, big, big dream, no limits dream. there's a song that I was listening to and it kind of ties into this devotional where it was about rising up into your purpose.
Danielle Cobo: Rise up to your purpose, not society's expectations, not how you think that you should be or shouldn't be. What is your purpose? What is your dream? And rise up to it.
Larry Long Jr: That's so powerful. And Danielle, I know that you're on your author journey, which is amazing Chapter one of my book. What story are you telling?
Larry Long Jr: And believing. The great thing is, is that we all have the opportunity to write our own story. we get to write our own story, our own vision. We get to set that, and yes, we can have outside influences, but ultimately right here in our heart. Right here in our mind with the words we speak and the words we write, we can determine where do we want to go, which allows us to put together a plan on how am I going to get there.
Larry Long Jr: So many times we, dream small because we know that that's. Safe. It's comfortable. Oh, it feels so good in my comfort zone, but hey, sometimes we gotta break out. We gotta step out. I think Mia Ham might have said The best things in life have come one step outside of her comfort zone. That's powerful right there.
Larry Long Jr: When I think about that, when I think about those BHAs big, hairy, audacious goals that make the little hair I have on my head stand. That's when I get excited and I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fear. Fu fear, uncertainty, and doubt. But the great thing is that even facing fear, uncertainty, and doubt progressing and still going through it, it's such an amazing feeling.
Larry Long Jr: It's thrilling.
Danielle Cobo: Well, before we wrap up today's episode, You have an exercise where you talk about discovering your dream. So for our listeners out there, what are some questions they can ask themselves to discover what their dream is, to discover what their purpose is and put together that plan to put in action?
Larry Long Jr: Yeah, it's thoughtful and intentional, asking yourself the tough questions. If money wasn't a thing, what would you be doing? Think about that now. Why would you be doing that? what's your purpose? What's your mission, your vision, your core values? Who do you want to impact? Who do you wanna serve?
Larry Long Jr: Tony Robbins says, The most successful people ask, he says, the, best questions I'm gonna give the remix and say, the most successful people ask the toughest questions, therefore they get the best answers. So I just encourage everyone, all, each and every one of your listeners, viewers, Danielle, to ask themselves the tough questions, which can be tough.
Larry Long Jr: it's tough to ask yourself these questions that, oh, bring a tear to your eyes. But it really leads to that growth. It leads to that, that place that we're all trying to get to.
Danielle Cobo: So for those of you listening right now, Larry is talking about these tough questions, and if you want some tough questions to ask yourself, I do have a couple workbooks that are available on my website.
Danielle Cobo: One of 'em is a goal setting workbook. Another one is a career accelerator workbook. Another one's a business building workbook. But all of these workbooks are designed to help you. With those tough questions to discover what your core values are, what your purpose is, what your dream is, so that you can dream, bake, and make it happen.
Danielle Cobo: Thank you so much for joining today, Larry, you are a boost of motivation and inspiration. I'm so grateful you are on the podcast today.
Larry Long Jr: Danielle, thank you so much. Keep shining, keep thriving, keep serving this wonderful community.