Summary:
In this week’s episode of the CEO Warrior Podcast, Mike Agugliaro interviews Larry Winget. Larry is a best selling author, television personality, social commentator, and internationally acclaimed speaker. He’s written over five New York Times bestsellers that have been translated in over 20 languages. Mike and Larry talk about succeeding in business and in life by understanding you are the one who decides what your life is like.
Main Questions Asked:
- What the hell is the problem with people and why aren’t they getting the level of success they want?
- Where do you see this happening in business?
- Has social media improved the situation or made it worse?
- How should somebody get started if they want to take charge of their life?
- If you had a magic wand that could change any one thing in society what would it be?
- What do business owners need to understand about sales?
- What’s the best way to built trust?
- How important is it to have credibility and authority in a niche?
- What is something you want entrepreneurs to think about over the next few years?
Key Lessons Learned:
People Problems
- Most people are not prepared to become entrepreneurs.
- Everything in your life is a choice, you have the power to decide and change your circumstances.
- Your time, your energy, and your money go to what’s important to you.
- We need to have more conversations with each other and our kids. Good parenting is the most potent way to create change in this world.
- Everything is a habit. Habits lead to expectations and that becomes how you do things.
- You have the same amount of time as everyone else, it’s about how you use it. Understand your priorities and then let your priorities determine where you spend your time.
Grow a Pair Book
- Larry writes books when he gets angry about what’s going on in the world around him.
- Figure out what you believe in and go out and live it.
- Growing a pair is about what is between your ears, becoming mentally strong.
- When parents prevent their children from experiencing the consequences of their actions, children grow up weak and easily offended.
- Non fatal mistakes should be allowed to happen, that’s how we learn. Use common sense when it comes to lessons learned.
Business Fundamentals
- Entrepreneurs care about their business to the point that they can’t trust their employees to take care of it for them.
- Larry says:
- “Your hiring stupid people.”
- “You aren’t educating them.”
- “Your ego can’t let go and it’s all about you.”
- “You can’t trust your employees enough.”
- “When they do make a mistake, you don’t let them learn from it.”
- A business is always about value. The business exists to generate a profit by creating value for its customers. Employees should think about their position in terms of how much value they provide to the business, not the other way around.
- Your solution should have more value than the problem your customers have.
- Find out what the customers want, and give them more of it.
- Customers are more educated than ever before.
- Technology has replaced most of what traditional business used to be, it’s now about the relationship and trust built between the business and the customer.
- Do whatever it takes to make it so that your customer sees you as a resource instead of a commodity.
- You have to establish your authority in a niche. Be very careful with hyperbole but don’t undervalue yourself either.
- The best advertisement you can have is a happy customer with a big mouth. The worst advertisement you can have is an unhappy customer with a big mouth.
- If you’re a business owner, you’re a leader. You need to understand that 20% of your employees will be great, 20% will be terrible, and 60% will be in the middle. We tend to waste our time on the bottom 20%, don’t. Cut them loose, they don’t want to learn. Focus on the middle section and nurture them either to the top or bottom 20%. Let your best employees grow and eventually move on. Don’t try to save employees that aren’t helping you move forward.
Social Media and Technology
- Social media has made us less social.
- The internet has fewer consequences than real life which has made people more rude.
- We are losing our ability to talk to each other face to face effectively.
- Communication technology is replacing actual communication.
- Social media is a tool but it can also be a huge time sink. Don’t get distracted.
Your Core Values
- Analyze what you really believe, the things that you believe that you will never compromise on.
- When you are clear on your core values decision making is very easy.
- Core values are things like honestly and integrity.
- Do what you said you would do, when you said you would do it, how you said you would do it. That’s how you build trust.
- Honesty and integrity is how you build trust.
Becoming Successful
- It involves three sheets of paper. On the first sheet write what you life, health, and business looks like right now.
- On the second, write what you would like each area to look like.
- On the third, write what you would be willing to give up in order to achieve your goals. You can’t have it all, sacrifice what is keeping you from being successful in life.
Meetings
- Don’t sit down, standing meetings tend to be shorter.
- Don’t go into a meeting without an agenda.
- Most meetings don’t need to happen and can be replaced with a conversation, not an email.
- Only include the people who are absolutely critical to the meeting. The more people you have the longer it takes.
Final Tips
- Make sure your priorities are in place.
- Decide what you believe in and stand up for it.
- Let your kids experience the consequences of their actions.
- Sales is about delivering value.
- Have your business as a resource for the people in your niche.
- Don’t be a saviour for the bottom 20% of your employees, let them go suck elsewhere.
Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and leave a 5-star rating and review in iTunes!
Links to Resources Mentioned
Shut Up, Stop Whining, And Get A Life
You’re Broke Because You Want To Be
P.S. – Are you SERIOUS about no longer treading water and MOVE your business forward WARRIOR STYLE? Find out more about Mike’s Warrior FAST TRACK Academy!
