Episode 63: Larry Levine

Jack Hubbard: I've had the privilege of being in and around banking for more than 50 years. Lots of changes during that time. We've gone from ledgers to laptops, typewriters to technology. One thing, however, remains the same. Banking is a people business. And I'll be talking with those people that make banking great here on, on Jackrantz with modern bankers.

Welcome to Jackrantz with modern bankers, brought to you by RelPro and vertical IQ. Every week I, feature top voices in financial services, from bankers and consultants to bestselling authors and many more. The goal of this program? Well, it's really simple. It's to provide insights, success practices, and to bring new ideas to the table that you can use today to maximize your results. Look up authenticity in your online dictionary and Larry Levine's picture is probably integrated into the definition. Larry's a California native and a Cal state Northridge grad. He spent many of his postgrad years in the digital technology space for such firms as Conica and Manoltil. Larry's passionate about selling with trust and being more than an empty suit. We'll talk about that. I never miss his Saturday podcast with his good friend Daryl Amy. And his book, selling from the heart is content that movements are made of. You're going to love this wide ranging interview with my great friend Larry Levine on Jack Rants with modern bankers.

Here we go. So, as I mentioned, Larry Levine and I have never met, but I consider him to be a very good friend and I'm absolutely thrilled to have you on the show. Larry, thanks so much for joining us.

Larry Levine: Oh, it's my pleasure, Jack. Always good seeing you. One of these days we're going to figure this out.

Jack Hubbard: We will, right?

Larry Levine: Somewhere, somehow, we're going to figure this out. Ah, as I ping in and out of the Chicagoland area.

Jack Hubbard: Well, I'd love to see you. Love to m meet you, shake your hands, share a beer. and it's so fun because, and I'm sure this is true on Larry's podcast and we're going to talk about it before you start recording is when a lot of the fun really happens. We spent a ton of time talking about major league baseball. Larry's a, ah, Dodger fan and good for him. What a great team they have. And I'm a Cub fan. So, we'll see. Maybe we'll have a bet on the Cubs and Dodgers this year. We'll see.

Larry Levine: Larry, you know what? You're right. But we won one World Series in the last however many years. Cubs have won one, so it's all good. But I will tell you this. I'm a diehard. You know this. I'm a diehard baseball fan. I could talk baseball all day long. Go Dodgers. I know you're. Go Cubs.

Jack Hubbard: Well, that's great. Well, Larry, thanks again.

Let's talk about your firm. Let's start there. selling from the heart. Great title. Great firm. Tell us about what you do and how you help your clients.

Larry Levine: Oh, man, I think to really net this out is we exist for our sales. I call myself a sales geek at heart. So is Daryl. So is everyone that's on our. You know, when the whole premise of selling from the heart started, it really stemmed out of a podcast. Believe it or not, our podcast, selling from the heart, is now going on seven years, podcasting every week with consistency. We haven't missed a beat on it. And then from the podcast, it turned to the book, which I have some near and dear friends as coaches and mentors, and they said, you really have to take the premise of selling from the heart and turn this into a business. And I'm a big believer in this, Jack, that soft skills yield hard to figure. What we had to figure out in the very beginning of selling from the heart is how we can have conversations with executive decision makers and senior leaders on how they can take something like heart that's not kind of synonymous with sales and mesh it together so that we can help senior leaders and their team members drive revenue and profit with it and build better relationships with their clients based on trust. And we just took our knowledge and our passion in what's really ingrained in our hearts, and we brought it to the forefront. And now we deliver coaching and training across multiple channels in how you take the foundation of selling from the heart, which is bringing your authentic self to the forefront, and then how you wrap this with building trust so you can drive more revenue and profits in your company.

Jack Hubbard: Well, and like me, Larry, you just didn't fall off the turnip truck and say, I think I'll have, do a company one day. You spent a lot of years selling copiers, and I don't mean that in a derogatory way, in any way, it's an important service. But in 2017, and probably before then, but I think it was March of 2017 when you started selling from the heart, and you left the corporate world. Talk about the impetus for doing that. What was the.

Larry Levine: I mean, thanks for asking. Because if you'll allow me, I'm going to take you on a little journey, but I'm a big believer. One of my earliest mentors told me, you really never know somebody, Jack, until you know their backstory. And I think the quick backstory really will give you my why. Behind selling from the heart is you alluded. I've grown up in the southern California area almost my whole life. I grew up in the office technology space. That's the only sales channel that I knew. I sold office technologies, copiers, fax machines when they were still around. And then as it started to move into more of the technology age and digitization, then they became connected to networks, things like that, things that I really didn't even understand. However, what I did understand was I understood the people, business and the relational aspect of selling copiers. And if I was going to keep people coming back for more, I had to do things differently. And I'm not opposed to doing things differently. And that spurred a very successful career where I had three copier dealerships. And then it was about time for me to move on. And I agreed to agree. I sold my portion of my copier dealership back to my business partners and I stayed on for a little bit. And then I made a nice little exit later on. But then I went to go work in corporate America. And what I soon found out is my message really didn't resonate that well in corporate America. And I soon found myself career adjusted. And I have no problem come to grips with this. I have no problem sharing. At 50 years old, I was relieved of my duties as a major account corporate enterprise wide sales executive. It was probably the most humbling time I've ever had in my whole life. I cried a lot. I didn't know what I was going to do at 50 years old. Literally, Jack and I had two choices. My two choices were go back to the channel that I knew and ride off into a very complacent sunset, not really being challenged. Or I can go do something else. And I really didn't know what something else was until I made one phone call. And that phone call was to my near and dear friend Daryl. Amy who Jack, you know, and I was really just searching for, does Daryl know somebody? Who knows somebody, to know somebody. And what I want are your listeners to really key in is, I believe your life can change in one conversation. You just have to be willing to have that conversation and ask. And that's all I did. Hey, Daryl, do you know somebody who might be looking for. And he knew the channel I came out of. And after a two and a half hour phone conversation. He goes, I think your sales career is over, Larry. I go, what do you mean? Well, it's over because I don't have a job. And Daryl said, you need to go coach and train salespeople and sales leaders on, what made you so successful in a highly commoditized sales channel like office technology. I'd never publicly spoken in front of anyone, never podcasted, never written a book, never coached and trained anybody. But I doubled down on myself, and I go, what do I have to lose? I took what made me me, which was I understood the people aspect and the relational aspect, and I go, I understood how I carried myself out into the sales world. Now, if I can package that all up into coaching and training, I might be onto something. And that was really the impetus of, selling from the heart. It's. I got relieved of my job duties, and I made one phone call. And Daryl did a great sales job on me, Jack, and goes, you need to go out and coach and train salespeople on what you did. But I'm just a big believer in this is sometimes the best things happen to you when you've least expected it. I mean, it took something like this for me to bring this to the forefront.

Jack Hubbard: Wow, what a great story. And I know Daryl, has his own agency, but is your partner and does all the podcasts with you, and, that's a great friendship. That's a tremendous. And that's. That's really what the book is all about. There are tons of amazing stories in there. Some are yours, some are your clients, about what selling from the heart really means. But I want to go back to the book. so you had some friends who said to you, Daryl being one, say, larry, you got to write a book. You got a lot of stuff in your head you got to put down on paper.

But what I want to know, because I mentioned to you before we started, I interviewed, kay Miller.

Larry Levine: Sure.

Jack Hubbard: You've had on your podcast, last week, and, I asked her, I'll ask you, how do you get started? I mean, if I'm listening to the podcast, I say, you know what? I think I got a book in me. From time you started to the time you marketed the book, what's the time frame, Larry? How long did that take you?

Larry Levine: it took me eight, nine months. But there's a story behind this. And I knew I wanted to write a book, Jack. I just didn't know. So I made a promise to my wife that I'd write a book. By that time I was 50 years old. Well, it didn't happen because the book came out when I was 53 ish, 54. So give or take. However, again, I'm going to go back. I want to take everyone back to the conversation that I had with Darryl, because I believe conversations will change the course of your career. And I go back to this would have been about December of 2015. So this was actually before the selling from the heart podcast. This is going to answer your question, by the way. I'm just setting it up with a story that I think will throw a stake in the ground on. This is it was december of 2015. I had a conversation with Keenan, and you might know him, Jim Keenan. He wrote the book not taught and gap selling, and we'd been connected for a while, and I had finished reading not taught, maybe 30 days prior, and I just dropped Keenan a message on LinkedIn. I said, hey, totally up to you. I just read, not taught. Gap selling wasn't even out. I said, the book was awesome. Here's why the book was awesome. Hey, by the way, would you have a conversation with me not knowing what to expect, but I asked, and a few weeks later, it's the middle of December, right before the holidays, 2015, I'm on a 45 minutes conversation with Keenan, and we shared backstories and we shared some laughter and all that, and then it got serious, and he goes, what do you want to do with yourself? And I told him I was in the infancy stage of just coaching and training copier leaders, sales leaders and so forth on people skills, relational skills. I wound in some social on it. And he goes, if you really want to get noticed, you got to learn how to write. This was December of 2015. I maybe have written two small, little rinky Dink articles, but he goes, if you want to get noticed, you're going to have to write to the people who are in your target market. Write about their issues, their challenges, push the button a little bit, but whatever you do, be consistent with it. And, ah, that's the reader's digest version of how I really started to write. But what I did is I'm a highly disciplined guy. I'm a consistent guy. I hold myself radically self accountable. And this was on a phone call. So as I'm looking at you, I wasn't looking at Keenan. And I said, keenan, I'll make a promise to you that I will write an article every single week. And Keenan said, right in the language Keenan only knows how to use, which I will not use on podcast, is he said, make the commitment to yourself. And I said, I will, but you've lit the spark. The reason why I'm sharing this with you is I have now written an article every single week since the middle of December 2015. Not stopped. Even when I didn't feel like writing, even when I was on holiday, even when I was sick, even when I would say, you know what? I don't even want to do this. I didn't want to let myself down, and I didn't want to let Keenan down. And I haven't backed away from that promise. So when it goes to writing, I had to teach myself how to write. And it goes back to. Right. I'm a salesperson at heart. I firmly believe the struggles that salespeople have with prospecting is they're out of practice. They haven't practiced enough prospecting to get really good at it. Well, I had to practice writing. If you went back and saw my first couple of articles, they're horrible, but I just learned how to write. And along the same notion of that is I got really good at reading. Reading made me a better writer. And I just made the commitment to put pen to paper or fingers to a keyboard, however you want to refer to it. But when I agreed that I wanted to at least write the book, I started writing. Selling from the heart, November 2017. And by May of 2018, it was done. And then it took me working with the team that helped me put the book together a couple of months over that summer to put the polish on it and so forth. But the book came out self published August of 2018, not knowing what to expect. But I just poured my heart into the book. I didn't want to just write something. I wanted to write something that would pack a punch. And I wrote it in language that was authentic to me. I wasn't trying to mirror anyone. I wasn't trying to copy anyone. I wasn't trying to use words that everybody else was using. But I wanted to write a book that would get somebody to think. And I believe that's what I accomplished with selling from the heart. That's the backstory, Mr. Hubbard.

Jack Hubbard: It has. It really does make you think. And those articles are, you know, from time to time, Larry will send me a message on a Sunday morning, and I'll, post his latest article. And they're absolutely fantastic. You're a sales guy, but you're a storyteller, and that's one of the things I love about you.

but one of the things you have, even in your headline in LinkedIn, has to do with empty suits. I've just always been fascinated, and I never had a chance to, talk about this. Talk about empty suit. Where the heck did that concept come from?

Larry Levine: Oh, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy. so, as I'm writing the book, I had to start. And for those who choose to read selling from the heart, which I hope you will, I always make, comparisons between sales reps and sales professionals. And I believe sales professionals do the things that sales reps find excuses for on a consistent basis. So, as I'm kind of putting a bow on the book, I go, how could I really just put a nice, tidy bow on this? That gets somebody to think, and I'm saying this out of absolute 100% respect for the sales profession. I'm not here to disrespect it, throw any dark shadows over it, but I kind of came up with the whole concept of being an empty suit is if you're not bringing any goods to the table. In other words, if you're not bringing any business substance to the table, if you're not bringing any insight to the table, if you're not leaving your clients or customers, however you want to refer them in a better place than when you first got there, if you're not educating them, if you're not engaging with them, if you're not exciting them into keep coming back for more and more and more, they're going to view you as being empty. And so I just came up with this, just thinking about it, I go, okay, empty suit. And now it's just been something that has just stuck. In fact, now, he's a good friend of mine. When he picked up the book, he did a 21 day challenge and took an excerpt every single day for 21 days out of the last chapter of my book on not being an empty suit. I think it's the best chapter in my whole book, but it gets somebody to stop and think, what do I have inside me? Which ties back into how your authentic self sells you. And it's hard to sell from the heart if you don't know what's in your heart. And this goes in conjunction with if you don't know that, and if you're not educating and engaging and exciting your customers into doing better business, they're going to view you as being empty. It's just something that says, you know what? We can become a whole lot better than we are. What are you bringing to the forefront?

Jack Hubbard: Well, you've had this book out for a number of years, thousands of copies sold. you have a movement, and it's just awesome to, if I'm you, I'm just feeling so good about what I've given, to the sales professional. You are out training also, and you have your ear to the ground as to what's happening in sales. So I asked my guest, Anthony and Areno, Colin Coggins and Garrett Brown, who wrote the unsold mindset.

Larry Levine: Oh, yeah.

Jack Hubbard: Book. and Tom Morris, the America's philosopher.

So I'll ask you. 2024, we spent a lot of money in sales training. People buy lots of books like selling from the heart. Where are we? What's going on in sales, what's working, what's not.

Larry Levine: Oh, my gosh. I could answer that in a bunch of different ways. I'm just going to stay true to my message and what I firmly believe in is. And by the way, no one has given me an answer on this. Not one executive has given me an answer on this.

Jack, this is where we're at, and this is the opportunity, in where we're at in 2024, I ask every senior level executive this question, and it ties into their sales team. Do you all believe you're in the people business and, relationship building business? And they all shake their head up and down just like you're doing right now, Jack? And I said, well, if you can buy into that, then here's my question, and I'll look them in the eye, or if I'm on the phone call, or if I'm face to face with them and said, if you're in the people business and if you're in the relationship building business and trust is at an all time low right now in the sales world, then as the executive leader of this company, what are you doing to build the people skills and relationship building skills of your salespeople in a world that doesn't trust them? So, in 2024, in an era where technology is running rampant and AI, you can't go more than 30 seconds without somebody dropping something around AI, all respect to all of this, if you're not coaching your salespeople on people skills, relational skills, and how to build trust throughout the sales process, you're missing out on monumental revenue and profit generating opportunities. So, really, to answer this, I'd say people skills, relationship building skills, and how to build massive amounts of trust.

Jack Hubbard: That's great. And I see a lot of guests that you have on your podcast, and they talk about coaching, and I just think that this is a tremendous missing element in this whole process. I like to think about 2024 as being, ah, empathetic. Behavioral accountability and coaching. We have to have empathy. we have to be behavioral in coaching, not sell more, make more calls, but we have to coach.

Now, I work in one industry, sure, in banking for 51 years. You work in a variety of industries, Larry. What are you seeing out there in terms of coaching? from the sales leaders?

Larry Levine: not enough coaching. I'll just throw that one out there. I don't see enough coaching. I see a lot of training and spotty training at best, or training at any event. And to me, any kind of training is better than no training. But if you want to move the needle, and in my heart I know executives want to move the needle, but I want us to think about this in terms of, and I'm saying this, and I'm saying this through a salesperson's lens for a moment, is salespeople are pretty astute and they're pretty smart when it comes to a training workshop and things like that. But if you sat down and you asked a salesperson, it was just one on one, and you asked the salesperson, would you rather have some training or would you rather have some consistent coaching delivered consistently over time? You can't have both. You got to have one, but not both. Which one would you choose? Nine times out of ten they're going to say consistent coaching. So I believe if sales leaders and executives can wrap their head around finding a partner, finding somebody who can deliver consistent, bite sized chunks of coaching consistently over time, that will move the needle. It's redeveloping and developing the habits of their salespeople. It goes back another story, if you allow me to share a story. I'm an avid book reader and I've shared some books with you that I've read, but I'm on this deep Napoleon Hill journey. This plays out with where I think the importance of coaching is, is I'm a Napoleon Hill junkie. I'm trying to consume as many Napoleon Hill books as possible and whatever the Napoleon Hill foundation puts out there. And a few years ago, I read a book called Mental Dynamite. Now, mental Dynamite was a book that, it was a conversation between Napoleon Hill, Andrew Carnegie. It happened in 1909, so we're talking 115 years ago. They took a two and a half hour conversation. They found, the excerpts in the Napoleon Hill foundation in the library and they converted to a book called Mental Dynamite. So back then, 1909, Napoleon Hill is a struggling magazine writer and he has the opportunity to interview Andrew Carnegie, who's the wealthiest person in the whole world because he had sold Carnegie Steel to J. P. Morgan. And now we know JpMorgan as JpMorgan Chase. So he sold it for a ton of money. Check this out. $480,000,000 in 1901. Do the math on it today, it's a gazillion dollars. But there's a point behind this and it ties into coaching. And early on in the book, Napoleon Hill says to Andrew Carnegie, this is like 20 pages into the book and the book is almost 300 pages. Says Mr. Carnegie, I'm just curious and I'm paraphrasing. What was the key to your success? What made you so successful? And Andrew Carnegie said something that I, mean, I wholeheartedly agree with. Andrew Carnegie says, the key to my success was self discipline and constructive habits. Self discipline and constructive habits. So in the year 2024, if you're an executive, if you're a sales lead or president of a company, if you want to move the needle with your salespeople and you want to increase revenues, and if you want to increase profits, and if you want to improve trust, you want to build healthy relationships with your customers, and I know you all do, you got to find somebody if you're going to do this internally. Go ahead. More power to you. If you have to go externally, find somebody who can bring discipline and accountability to the forefront and consistently with discipline, coach your salespeople around the habits to become more successful in how they build trust in an environment that's people driven and relationship driven.

Jack Hubbard: Absolutely.

You, talked about chat, CPT, and all of AI and all that stuff. I want to ask you about tools. we've got two amazing sponsors, vertical IQ, nice, and RelPro. Both are phenomenal.

Larry Levine: Know them both, they're amazing.

Jack Hubbard: and I'm so proud that they sponsor these programs every single week. You're out in different industries as well. What are some tools you're seeing that salespeople are using effectively to make them have better performance?

Larry Levine: I'm going to be polite when I say this. In the lanes that I play in, the best tool and I see this hands down, it's having face to face conversation with people. Now here's what I say. I'm all about leveraging technology. I'm all about leveraging the tools that are out there. But what I think has happened is we've leaned on tools and we leaned on technology to the point where most people can't say all, vast majority of people have become conversationally incompetent when it comes to having business conversations, they have phones tethered to them. they take their phones to meetings. It's on desks, it's in their pocket. It's with them all the time. To me, the best tool that's out there is looking somebody dead square in the eye and having curiosity intentionally fueled conversations on how you can help their world become better. Now, we can leverage technology, we can leverage AI to help seed some of this. But I'm a big believer in this. What's forever old is forever new. What's forever old is forever new. Think about all the greats, all the great businesses that were built generations ago that didn't have any of this technology. What they double down on, they doubled down on the people skills and relationship building skills, not only internally, but externally with their customers and their clients. If businesses in 2024 want to succeed even more, leverage all the great. That's technology that's out there. Just don't hide behind it. Integrate it into what you do and humanize what you do, and sit down and have heart to heart, empathetic, human filled conversations with your customers. Watch how fast you move the sales needle.

Jack Hubbard: No doubt. And it does go back to the coach. you can give everybody tools that you want. you can give the Dodgers bats and balls and gloves and all the rest of it. And they got great talent, best in the world, but, without great coaching, they're not going to continue to move forward. But I got to ask you, because in banking, we're still pretty conservative about tools like chat. GPT we have a CRM. It's a Seinfeld episode. We have the CRM. just don't use the CRM. M and one of the struggles that Bryn Tillman and I have is trying to help bankers understand that LinkedIn is part of the sales process. It's a tool. It needs to be integrated into human conversations.

But let's go back to AI and chat. GPT ah, how much are you seeing that being used in sales, with your clients today?

Larry Levine: it's interesting because this goes to show you the lanes I play in, Mr. Hubbard. If they had their choice between a smartphone and a flip phone, they would all use the flip phone. So that probably answers your question as it relates to AI. If I ask some of the. And I love my clients. I love the channels that I play in, but they're blue collar in nature. Good old boys, good old girls, the heartbeat of sales here in America. If I asked them to describe what AI meant, what is it? I get these looks like, by the way, if you're not watching, it was just like a stone cold blank stare right now. It's just like they'd go, what are you talking about? AI? What is that? but I'm saying that with all sincerity is AI Chat GPT. Whatever technology tool comes out there, it works in some channels. It plays a prevalent role in some channels. The channels that I choose to play in, where I've had a lot of success here at selling from the heart. They're just good old boys and girls that are blue collar in nature, that relationship oriented sellers that they don't lean on technology. I'm not saying right, wrong, or indifferent, but they would struggle with how do I integrate AI and Chat GPT into what I'm doing? And I know that may not be the answer you want to hear, Mr. Hubbard, but that just gives you the world through the lens of where I play in. Is there still a vast majority of that that's out there that doesn't rely on technology? And these companies are massive companies. Could they improve by leveraging this? Sure. But I hope that answers your question a little.

Jack Hubbard: Does it? Does, and it's not bad to be old. know, Brynn and I always have these conversations because she's so adept at it and I'm starting to learn it. And I would rather write an article from my head than from, putting it into Chat GPT. Now, it doesn't mean I haven't used it in the past, but what's interesting, Larry, is your clients, and I'll use this as a generality. I don't mean your clients won't use it. Bankers can't use it because of all the risk and compliance and things like that. So we have to take every bit of technology, certainly with a grain of salt.

we only have a few minutes left. I want to get into your podcast. so, Darryl and you, do this podcast. It's on Saturday Mornings, ah, at 830 Eastern, 730 central. It's recorded. Talk about the program. It is so good, Larry, and all the wonderful and amazing guests you've had.

Larry Levine: well, thank, to. I'm going to answer that, but before we wrap up. And by the way, I'm super grateful to hang out with you. I could talk to you forever. Jack is.

I want to get back to this Chat GPT for a second. Just remind me before we exit, because I have a thought, and I think it could really help play out in how people could start thinking a little bit differently about, you know, the whole premise on the podcast is we wanted to have conversations with like minded, like hearted thought leaders, authors, subject matter experts. And in the beginning of our podcast, early on, it was just more sales centric type conversations. But now, as it's morphed, because I hold our brand near and dear to my heart. So I'vet all of our guests out before they come on the podcast because I want to protect the brand, protect the message, and so forth. But now we're bringing in leadership, we're bringing in faith, we're bringing in spirituality, we're bringing in process. I'm really seeking out new and fresh voices that could take the message around selling from the heart and expand upon it and bring it into different lanes and different channels with different viewpoints than they haven't thought about before. So, yes, we talk about sales, we talk about authenticity, but we also tie this into how do you build trust? How do you serve? How do you lead? How do you line head and your heart together? How do you bring spirituality and faith into this, in how you carry yourself, in your walk and your talk. And it's really important, because with where the world's at today, where business is at, where sales is at, people are really skeptical. Trust is low. The BS meters are at all time high. They want to work with somebody that they know they can trust, who has their best interest at heart, who sees them, who hears them, who gets them. And so these are the things that we're bringing to selling for the heart and our audience. And we run a tight 30 minutes. We get a lot out in 30 minutes. But I promise you, it's a podcast, whether you choose to watch it or listen to it, that you got to have a pad of paper and a pen with it.

Jack Hubbard: Well, you've taken this movement to the next level, because, correct me if I'm wrong, it was last August or sometime around that, when Barnes and Noble picked up the book. that's amazing, Larry. That had to be a tremendous piece of gratitude, self gratitude, that a big organization like that would say, we want to sell your book.

Larry Levine: Yeah, and thank you for the acknowledging it. It was just that you never know. This just goes back to, you never know who's watching you. And you have to be consistent. And there's not a day that goes by that the selling from the heart message is not out on social. Whether that be LinkedIn, whether that be Facebook, whether that be Instagram, whether that be x. Right? It doesn't matter. I keep the message out there. My team, on a consistent basis. And it was last, actually, it was about 1617 months ago. I had a New York publisher start following me and started picking up on the story, listening to the podcast, and it took about eight or nine months to agree to agree. And that's how selling from the heart went from being self published to then getting republished under my publisher's name, Morgan James Publishing. And they helped fuel this movement and got me into a wider distribution, which happens to be Barnes and Noble, who I love.

Jack Hubbard: A great, it's a tremendous story.

So before I ask you my last couple of questions, go back to your.

Larry Levine: And so, ah, as I was listening to the last part of what you were saying, here's what I want your listeners to take away. You can form your own Chat GPT without even any technology. Everybody, check this out. Here's my secret. All you got to do is sit down with your customers. Think about all the customers that you have. Think about all the titles of the people that are in those offices. Upper level management, mid level management, lower level management, key users, right? Influential people somewhere in there, person in the back of the warehouse. Why don't you just sit down and ask them, what are your goals? What are your dreams, what are your visions? What are your aspirations? What are the things that you'd like to work on over the next 90 days? What are two things you need to remove off your business plate in the next 30 days? Simple things like this. Multiply that out by the number of businesses that you all work with. Multiply that out by the number of people in those businesses. If you're willing to double down on that, I promise you this, you will have so much food being served to you, way more than you'll find on Chat GPT, and you're going to hear it right from your customer's mouth.

Jack Hubbard: So what you're talking about is a human to human Chat GPT, goals, priorities, and threats. If you can get at that, and you do it from the heart, you're in fabulous shape. So every morning, about 06:00 when I get to my desk, I, open my emails, and the very first one, I look at is my daily dose of inspiration from larry levine. You started this about three years ago, Larry. Talk about what that is and how people can get.

Larry Levine: Yeah, I appreciate it. And I think the whole premise behind this, it goes back to my why. And my why is I believe success happens when I contribute to a greater cause. I'm a contributor, I'm a giver, and I just wanted to impart my knowledge. The things that I'm reading, the things are important, and I'm just getting it out there. And I came up with the whole concept of a daily dose of inspiration. In fact, you can find it at sellingfromtheheart netdaily if you want to sign up for it. And when you feel like you've had enough, you can just unsubscribe. It's no big deal. But what I wanted to do was, it's how I start my morning. I start my morning every morning with some inspiration. I read, I pray, I reflect, and that's transformed my life and the way I approach every day. And I just wanted to be a part of people's mornings. So I came up with the whole daily dose of inspiration. it'll inspire you. There's a couple of aha moments. I'll leave you with some mirror moments, and I'll give you something to think about. And that was really the whole premise behind this. And it's led to some wonderful conversations. It's led to some wonderful connections. And I do this every single day, Monday through Friday, and I have not repeated it once. There's not been a repeat message.

Jack Hubbard: That's amazing.

Well, I got to ask you, before I let you go, what's next for you? What's happening in 2024? Where's Larry Levine and Darryl and all of your team going?

Larry Levine: I will let a little secret out of the bag. It won't be public for a little bit, but book two is complete. And you know this because you got a sneaky peek on this one, Mr. Hubbard, because you've been so gracious to write something in it. So Mr. Hubbard's actually on you know what, Jack? And you don't even know this yet. Hey, everyone, this is a first. Jack Hubbard's wonderful testimonial is on the back cover of my book. I just want to let you all know that you're forever ingrained in my next book. So I will tell everyone. The book is titled selling in a post trust world. Discover the soft skills that yield hard dollars. I, will tell you it plays off of selling from the heart, but it's going to walk business leaders, executives, and their salespeople through how to build trust and credibility based on four pillars. And those four pillars are how to build authentic relationships, how to bring meaningful value, how to bring an inspirational experience and become massively disciplined with it. That's what's in store for 2024. We've taken the whole premise of my book. We flipped it into coaching a couple of years ago. So we were actually coaching and training companies based on my book that hadn't even been written yet. And so what's in store for this year? My book will release later on this summer. It'll be public here in a little bit. Once it becomes Public, there'll be all kinds of little links where you can order advanced copies of. That's our big focus in 2024 is to get the next book out into the marketplace.

Jack Hubbard: Well, I'll shout it from the rooftops and, tell everybody I know about it. Because if it's half as good as selling from the heart, you'll have a bestseller on your hands in no time. Larry.

Larry Levine: Hey, I will tell you this, full disclosure, I'm a pretty transparent guy. When I wrote selling from the heart, I will tell you this. That was 2017. I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know if five people would buy the book or 50 people would buy the book. And I really had to do a lot of soul searching to write my next book. Just because I didn't want it to tarnish selling from the heart in case the book bombed. By the way, I know the book is not going to bomb. The book is freaking amazing. I've already had dozens of people read it. It takes selling from the heart to the next level. And there's some selling from the heart references in it, but it's going to challenge you. The book selling in a post trust world is full of challenging thought. If you implement just half of this, I promise you'll become better.

Jack Hubbard: And we're going to have you back on later this year to talk about. I got to get my copy of it. I'm looking forward to it. Larry, I know you're up against a hard stop. Talk about how people can reach you, how they see your podcast. Just talk about Larry Levine and where it can see.

Larry Levine: Oh, well, thank you for can. If you want to find out what we're up to, just go to sellingfromtheheart. Net. If you do happen to want a free sign, copy my book. All I'll ask for you to do is pay shipping. You can go to forward slash book. Our podcast is on whatever fine podcast platforms you choose to listen. If you want to watch Daryl and I, by the way, Jack, we work really hard on our hair and makeup every single week. You can find us on YouTube every single tell you it takes a can tell. You can tell a lot. I put into my hair and my makeup. But you can find us on YouTube at selling from the heart.

Jack Hubbard: Larry, I have been looking forward to this, and you didn't in any way disappoint Larry Levine. Thanks for your time today.

Larry Levine: It's my pleasure. I look forward to the next time.

Jack Hubbard: Jack, thanks for listening to this episode of Jack Ransom with modern bankers with Larry Levine. This at every program is brought to you by our friends at Verticaliq and RElPro. Check them out verticaliq.com relpro.com great people. Join us next time for more special guests bringing you marketing, sales and leadership insights, as well as ideas that will provide your bank or credit union that competitive edge in 2024 that you need to succeed. This LinkedIn Live show is also a podcast. Subscribe to get the latest episodes of Jack Rants with modern bankers, and please leave us a review. We're on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio, and many others. Visit our website, too. It's themodernbanker.com. For more information. And don't forget it, please sign up for our free public [email protected]. Slash Publiclibrary. And as Larry Levine would say, don't be an empty suit, but make today and every day a great client day.