Bedros Keuilian Podcast Show - Larry Broughton: Stop Seeking Success - 106

Episode Date: July 8, 2019

  In this episode of Inside Look, Larry Broughton - found of Broughton Hotels, drops his knowledge of being of entrepreneurs. Bedors and Larry touch on fatherhood, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, and  leadership. Watch or listen now to discover what it means to stop seeking success, and what it means to actually be successful.    “Entrepreneurs suffer in silence”  “I’m a forever optimist”  - Bedros Keuilian   Here’s what you’ll discover: 2:40 - What piece of advice Larry would give his younger self 10:40 - Why Larry decided to join the military - and how it can mirror into his entrepreneurial life 18:50 - Leadership is not factory installed, you have to earn it 28:45 - How feedback from your closest friends may be the most valuable - but should you always listen to it? 46:00 - How culture can determine the success or failure of your company    “Pursue excellence in everything” “Tough time creates strong men” “Entrepreneurs are civilian warriors”  “Tenacity eats talent for lunch “  “Words have meaning”  -Larry Broughton   Follow us on Instagram: @bedroskeuilian / @larrybroughton   Buy Man Up and get Bedros’s High Performance Leadership Course for FREE: https://manup.com/   Make sure to review us on iTunes: http://bit.ly/theempireshow

It's capitalism and entrepreneurship that has risen more people out of poverty, changed billions of lives than any other social program out there. It's entrepreneurship and capitalism. It's not socialism, all right? And that's the scary thing right now. 33% of people between 18 and 29 have positive views of socialism. And I say, travel the world. Hey, friends, welcome to another episode of The Empire Show.

My name is Bedros Kulian, and this is an inside-dives. look and today you're in for a treat because we've got an amazing guest who I not only look up to because of his business acumen but also because of the way he manages himself and shows up in this world. His name is Larry Broughton, author of Victory, Seven Revolutionary Strategies for Entrepreneurs, founder of the Broughton Hotels, and former Green Beret. Larry, welcome to the show. Hey, brother. How are you? Good to see you. Thank you. So you and I met at our friend Mike Schneider's Killhouse. Very fitting considering the special operation service that you've done for our country. And thank you for your service.

Yeah, it's a pleasure, thanks. And when we met in Boise, Idaho at Forward Movement Training at Matt Schneider's Place, our mutual friend, Troy McLean, connected us. And that was a special time for me, and I want to kind of start there. For those of you listening to the show right now, if you've got a son or daughter, you're going to really want to pay attention to this episode. And Larry's got a lot of value to add here. But at the end of the running and gunning and the killhouse stuff that we went through with Troy and Matt, we all formed a circle and you were part of it. And I believe your business partner was Dave. Dave, yeah. Was part of this circle.

And there's a 10-minute and 4-second audio recording, which, by the way, I need to. send that to you. And I just had Andrew re-listened to that. So we all got in a circle, if you remember, and I turned on my phone's audio memo, and we gave my son Andrew, there was about maybe, what, 10 of us? Yeah, probably. We gave my son Andrew a piece of advice as he turned, went from a boy to a man, or a young man, 13, a piece of advice that we would have wanted at age of 13. Do you remember what that piece of advice was that you gave? That I gave? And if you don't, what piece of advice would you give a young man right now? I don't remember the piece of advice, but I do remember as we are going around the room,

I was inspired by everyone. I think I was one of the last couple to go. Listen, there are tons of pieces of advice, and this is why I'm glad I have a 15-year-old son. He hears it over and over again. But there's probably a couple. One is tenacity, you know. So many young kids compare themselves today to everyone else who they think have all this talent. And I tell my son all the time, tenacity eats talent for a line.

You know, I know a lot of talented people who are just living mediocre lives because they're not tenacious. They're going gets tough and they quit. We were talking a little bit earlier about how I think we've coddled our young men in this country for a while. And I would say, you know, be tenacious, lean into it. Surround yourself with brothers who speak reality in your life. Reality is your friend. And so I think there was probably a couple of tidbits. Dude, this is almost verbatim.

what you said on that audio. Oh, is that right? Is that right? Talk about your consistent? They're themes, right? You are consistent, yeah. And so that to me was a special moment. I was shocked and I was equally inspired because so many of the men, and I, you know,

I brought together the men that I look up to and that I believe are modern day nights. And I was so impressed with the message that every single guy delivered to Andrew. And imagine if we had that when we were 13. Well, listen, I think a lot of men are afraid to get authentic. be real, and be transparent. And when you build those types of safe, I hate the safe space or safe environments, where you know the other fellow men aren't gonna be judging you

because we've all been there. When we get real and we really say, hey, here's where my demons are. We've all got this kind of ugliness inside. Some people, I think we've been told to quell that, you know, feminize that, but I just believe there are warriors in all of us. And I have been around warriors most of my life.

I don't know anybody who loves deeper than a warrior. And so when you can speak that into a young man's life, Andrew is a young man now, then I think that that's transformational. And we all need that. And that's why I love masterminds. That's why I love entrepreneurship, because to me, entrepreneurs, leaders, and high achievers, they are our civilian warrior class. That's the way I look at it.

There's nothing like being an entrepreneur, being a leader, being a high achiever, willing to step out in front of everybody else to take those slings and arrows to protect the people, the business that you love. And I think that's why I love entrepreneurship so much, because like being a warrior. So I'm glad that Andrew was exposed to that. It was inspiring for me to watch it because I said, I have to do this with my son. Right. Because I've not done it with him.

Yeah. Well, listen, I mean, it's no surprise that you went from special operations as a green beret, and you spent eight years in special operations. Yep. And as you said, you said, the civilian class of warriors are the entrepreneurs, the leaders. And, of course, you're an entrepreneur. You've decided to create a hotel chain. Before we go down that path, I do want to ask you, why do you think young men, most men these days are coddled so much? Why do you think everyone's so bubble-wrapped?

Great question. Listen, in the special ops community, we have a lot of mantras. And one of the things I remember hearing shortly after I arrived in my team room was this. Tough times create tough men. Tough men create easy times. Easy times create weak men. Weak men create tough times. It's a vicious cycle.

Right? So I think we've gone through a cycle where it's been really easy, right? We haven't needed warriors. I mean, I think still the greatest generation were like my father's age who were in World War II, right? They picked up the pack, they picked up the sword, they picked up the shield and went to battle and came back and built the country. Yeah. Right? My hope is that the warriors that are coming back today, or the battles that we've had, are going to be the next greatest generation.

Sure. So I think that we've had some easy times in this country. We've not been invaded, right? Unlike a lot of countries in the world. Sure. We've had generally great economic times over the last several decades, with the exception of a couple of recessions or depressions that I've been through since I launched my company. Yeah.

But we've had easy times. And easy times create weak men. Oh, that's such a powerful statement. Yeah. Such a powerful statement. I guess it is cyclical. So, I mean, dude, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, I'm a, forever optimist. Am I hearing you say that it just seems like there's a hopeless cause? It's just

going to be cynical like this. I don't think it's hopeless. That's the great thing about a cycle, right, is that it comes back around. I think we can learn from our lessons, though. I mean, that's what scares me is that we have a short memory in this country. Maybe this is human nature. Maybe that's how we survive. I mean, they say that women have this way. They have a very painful child birth, right? But they're willing to do it all over again. We have a way of numbing the pain or forgetting the pain that we go through. But we don't know history. I think that our education system has failed us

and in a lot of ways, and boy, I could talk for hours on that. But I don't think that we know our history well enough. So I am definitely an optimist, but I think it comes to personal responsibility. The personal responsibility you hold for creating a young man in Andrews, the same feeling I have. with creating a warrior leader, alpha male son, and Ben, his nickname is Bullet. I intentionally picked that name and not cupcake or twinkle toes.

Right, right, right. Words have meaning in my life. And so, Bullitt is my 15-year-old son, and I speak positively, courageously into his life. I speak the truth into it. And so I think if we do that, instead of letting someone else raise our children, Then there is, I have a higher level of optimism, I guess. Sure. Yeah.

We live in Southern California. I mean, I'm in Chino Hills. Yeah. You're about 20 miles away in Irvine. We're living of less life. Yeah. We have a good life. But where we live is not so gun-friendly, and you've nicknamed your son, Bullet.

Yes. Do you ever get any pushback? No. No. No? But I'll tell you, he didn't want to be called Bullitt around his friends for a while. Now, I mean, I am not ashamed. I have a CCW.

I carry. And there have been people in my life when they have found that out. They haven't liked it. If you're going to judge me based on that one thing, have a great life. Huh. You know? But I'll tell you, once, so he asked me years ago, whatever, he's 15. He was probably in first grade.

I called him bullet. And he pulled me. He said, don't call me bullet in front of my friends. But somebody. That early on in first grade? That he asked me to say that? Yeah. Yeah.

Holy smokes. And so I asked why, all that kind of stuff. So he just didn't want me to do it. But then I started hearing some of his friends who heard me call him it, and he kind of piped up. You know, he kind of liked it a little bit. So, yes, he understands now 15 what it is. It's like call him Tiger or Champ or, you know?

He gets it. He gets it now. He gets it. Yeah. So I'm curious to know about you when you. your life. Obviously your dad and mom clearly raised a modern-day night for you to decide that, hey, it's an all volunteer army that we have. Like, I come from a communist, I come from a communist country where you're forced to go into the military. The only reason we escaped

is my brother was about to go into the Soviet army. And this was when they were in 1979, they were fighting Afghanistan, like we are now. Talk about cyclical, right? And so my dad's like, look, Armenia was invaded by the communists. I don't want my son to go there fight a battle, and we escape because my dad is pro-United States. So here we are. You chose to go into the military. What led to that?

Well, listen, I think that like I speak into my son, my father did that to me. However, in a different approach, he spoke through his actions. He was a man of few words. Now they call it post-traumatic stress. Back then, they called it combat fatigue. And he was always patriotic, but he never, I never, I don't even know to this day, he's since passed away. I don't know what political affiliation he was.

But we always had the American flag flying. He always busted his ass to do, am I allowed to say ass? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He busted his ass. Tim Grover's been on the show. You can say whatever you want. He busted his ass to bring in, you know, income into our family, put food on the table. But we were what was considered then, the working poor, after.

my parents passed away, I was going through their tax records and found the most my father ever earned was just over $18,000 a year. No kidding. Five of us kids, they raised, right? He did what he needed to do, right? So it's not like I went in with a sense of patriotism, it's not that I knew of, although that certainly flourished once I got in, but I was teaching martial arts back, you know, after I got out of high school, my twin brother and I got an apartment.

while we're still seniors in high school. And we got into martial arts, and one of our students, a guy named Tim Connolly, went down and enlisted in the Army. What year was this? So this must have been late 1982. So I ended up going into 1983. And so Tim said, hey, you ought to go in and enlisting the Army.

I was looking for an escape to get out of where I was for a lot of reasons that we can go into later, if you want to, I needed to get out of this little po-dunk town where I was raised. And where was that? A little town called Olean, New York. The town I actually went to school was called Portville, New York, due south of Buffalo. The big city of about 20,000 people, was Olean, New York. So I moved to Olean, New York.

And so I was teaching martial arts, and I thought, well, this is my way to get out of Dodge. And so my twin brother and I went to a national martial arts. tournament in San Jose up the road from here in 1982. And I'd heard a rumor that the Army was going to be sponsoring the first America or US Taekwondo team in the 84 Olympics. And so I thought, that's my ticket. Now, keep in mind, I didn't even study Taekwondo. I studied a style called Buoy and Yanjing.

It was very similar to Taekwondo. However, I went down to the Army Recruiter's Office and said, when it was full-on pitch, on why I needed to be on the Army Taekwondo team to this E6 staff sergeant recruiter. And after a couple of minutes, his eyes were huge and he just finally put his hand up and said, son, you know, if you want to be on the Army Taekwondo team, you need to be in the Army. I thought they just sponsored the thing. Oh, those dots never connected for you.

Those dots didn't connect. I barely graduated high school, by the way. We have a lot of common. Like literally, like right near the bottom of my classes. It turns out I'm dyslexic, and I didn't know that at the time. And so he did convince me to take the ASVAB, which is the Armed Services Vocational Abtitude Battery. It's basically an IQ and aptitude test. So he convinced me to take it.

A couple days later, he calls and says, hey, come on down and talk to you about this. And I walk in and he says, listen, dude, you scored in the top one-tenth of one percentile in the country. You can basically do whatever you want in the Army. I got to stop you here, Larry. How does that even happen, considering how poorly you did throughout school? Yeah, so when I was in high school, when I would take SATs, I would literally just spill in bubbles to make designs. I didn't even read the questions. Because I couldn't read.

I could barely read. Now I'm an author. Yeah, the other. Best selling. There's something, yeah, best selling author, number one best selling, but who's counting? But anyway, so the great thing about this was the way the Army, the military is really good at identifying what your strengths are. And this is one of the things I took away from this. So it's not just an IQ test, but it's an aptitude test, right?

Our education system is not designed to pull out aptitude. Our current education system was created for the industrial age. Create automatones. Create people who don't think. Create people who just follow the rules. That's not how I'm built, right? So the military understood this. And so I took this thing and he said,

he scored in the top 1 tenth of 1%, and I said, are you sure? And he said, I know. I saw your high school transcripts too. I can't believe it, but you did. And so he said, you could basically pick what you want to do. And he said, you could even try out for special forces. And just the way he said it, I thought, wow, I could even try out for special forces. What special forces?

I didn't know. Right. And so he told me what the green berets were, and I said, yeah, sign me up for that. Yeah. Now for those of us who are civilians, how does one become a green beret? Like what is the, you go into boot camp and to the Army, and then where do you go from there? So back then, you used to have to be promotable to sergeant. So you'd have to be a corporal or a specialist in E4, promotable too.

Now you can actually enlist for it, but I guess I got some deviations of the policy between my scores, between my martial arts background. And so, yes, I went to basic training and my advanced individual training. And then I had to do well there. Then I had to go through Jump School, which is parachuting school, Airborne Ranger, I mean airborne school. And then I went to what's called the selection and assessment phase now, which the Navy SEAL version is called Hell Week.

Selection of assessment is three weeks to get into, to even, you have to try out to even try out for special forces. Gotcha. Right? And then you go through three major phases. One is called the survival phase. which is about a month long, we learn basic land navigation, fire building, survival stuff. Really, it's a phase to weed people out.

And it's really much more mental than physical. But you do lose a lot of weight. It is very physical. And then the next is a much more expert space based on what your MOS, your military occupational specialty is going to be. And the final is called the Robin Sage phase, where you learn a lot about unconventional warfare and what's going on in the world. And so it's a long process,

but I scored right near the top of my class here going through, and I was assigned to 10th Special Forces Group, which was the first Special Forces Group ever. They're called the Originals, and got there on day one I was assigned to it Special Forces A-Team. And from there, I just traveled and did some great stuff, had fun and learned about camaraderie and building teams with strengths and sense of vision and mission and stuff that makes it into books nowadays.

Now, obviously, having met you and having studied you, I studied me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've been trolling you, man. Yeah, yeah. I saw you like some of my Instagram stuff. Right. I very quickly picked up that you're a very effective leader. Yeah.

Is leadership factory installed for you? or was this a skill set to learn? No, I think that's a common misconception. I do think that some leaders are born. I think that, I believe in some crazy stuff. So I do believe that we're imbued with a spirit when we're born, and some of those who knows where they came from before. But I think that leadership, most leadership skills

are learned. And they come from experience, bad mistakes, mentorship, all kinds of things, right? I think to be an effective, transformational leader, you need to be a master storyteller, and you've got to really understand human behavior. You've got to be able to look for subtle clues, like why are people not performing?

But even more than that, I think that we need to be awesome cheerleaders and have the ability to see potential in people that they don't see in themselves. When you can identify potential in someone, and you say it out loud, and you say, I believe in you, you're better than this, you can do this, most people have never had a father, a leader, speak that into them, as I think what we were trying to do with your son that day,

you feel yourself get bigger. Boy, if that person believes in me, I think I've got the goods. And so I think that effective leaders do that more and more. You have to be doing it. But yeah, I think that leaders are made as much as they're being born. Now, did you leave the Army and special forces and go right into, hey, I think I'm going to open up a hotel? No. Well, here's what happened. How do you even get into hotels from there?

That's the funny question, right? That's the million-dollar question. So I remember being overseas a couple of times and thinking, dang, if these knuckleheads can run a country, I can run a country. How hard can it be? Sure. And that's kind of like the same mentality in entrepreneurship, isn't it? How hard can it be? Right. That's easy. And so I decided that after the second time this is popping into my brain, well, maybe I need to get out and,

get into the political arena. Maybe I need to go to college because clearly I'm smarter than I thought I was. I'm doing really well here. I have since learned how to read. I've learned a new language, you know, like for a while there I spoke Russian. I went to the Defense Language Institute. No kidding. Americans learning Russian is not an easy task, right? And so I had more competence about my intellect at this point. I'd realize I have a really high IQ. So it was just the learning process. So I thought, well, maybe I'll go to college, study political science, go into the State Department, run for political office. Who knows, but be in the arena, as Teddy Roosevelt talks about.

You know, be willing to be bloodied from time to time. And so I moved to San Francisco, had some friends who were living there, started going to school. My first job out of the military was as a night auditor at a little no-tel motel in San Francisco. For your little naive viewers, a no-tel motel is a pay-by-the-hour. Uh-huh. Got it. Point-quaint. What does a night auditor do? How many one-hour sessions we sold? Yes, yes. My job was to keep the books. My job was to keep the books, collect the cash.

But really, primary job number two was to keep the peace among the drug dealers and the pimps and the prostitutes. And those weren't just the people in the neighborhood. Those were my coworkers. Gotcha. Literally. Special operations experience comes in handy. I was much bigger and more. intimidating back then. And so that did come in handy. I wouldn't say fearless, but I had a lot more courage than most people, right? And the younger we are, the more courage we have. Yeah, exactly. Part of his age, too. Right, well, yes. But I made a whopping five bucks an hour and was going to school during that time, you know, during that time with the intention of studying political science. Well, what I realized, I was working on different political campaigns on both sides of the aisle, because I didn't really know where I fit. And as it turns out, I don't fit in either. What do you know?

Major party, as it turns out. But after being there for a few months, an investment group came in and bought this hotel with the intention of turning it around and turning into this rock and roll hotel. Instead of this dive motel, turn it into upscale place that catered towards red hot chili peppers and rolling stones and Linda Ronstadt and all those types back then, right? And what I realized after that was, wow, there's really something to this. something to this. There's marketing, there's branding, there's team building, there's real estate, there's finance, there's all these things that keep me interested, right? Well then Desert Storm broke out and so I went back on active duty for about a year, for about a year, came back and went to speak to the guy who, the managing member who owned this hotel. And at this

point, he had his third hotel I was putting in. My buddy and I, we went out and bought a Winnebago, and we were just going to move to Mexico and live on the beaches. Why not? For a couple of years. about two four-wheelers, and we're just going to rent those out on the beach. And so I went to him and said, listen, I'm seeing a couple of years going to Mexico. And he said, don't go. If you come back and work with me, then I'll make you a partner in the company and we'll grow this darn thing. And I said, all right, give me 24 hours to think about it. And this was in the mid-90s now, right?

Yeah, yeah. And this is early 90, yeah, 90, after desert storm, so what, 92? 93. And so I thought about it overnight and said, I still don't have a college degree. This is the best experience I could ever get. This is baptism by fire in the entrepreneurial space. And so I did in over about a 14-year period, we picked up 14 hotels. And that's how kind of how I got into the hotel industry. But I realized after being there for a while that I just wasn't content. And that sucked. That sucked my lifeblood. Really? Okay, I'm guessing the pivot comes from there.

Yeah. And what you shared there is something interesting. Who was a gentleman that said, don't go, and instead come work with me, and I'll turn you into a partner? What's his name? Chip. Chip Conley. So Chip Conley, interestingly, echoed what my friend Cameron Harold says all the time. Cameron Harold is the former C.O. of 1-800 Got Junk. Yeah.

And now he coaches and consults the everybody's, well, seconds in command. So Bryce, who you met, who's the VP of my company. Cameron coach and consults him. And Cameron says when you find the A-level players, find a way to handcuff them to your business. It's right. And do you feel that Chip was doing this handcuffing user's business? Yeah, absolutely. And he meant good by it.

And I think it tapped into my feelings of inadequacy. my inferiority complex. Really? Yeah, because I felt like, oh my gosh, here's something, like on my good days back then, I would think I can take on the world. On my worst days, which I still have from time to time, I think, who am I to think that I can do this, right? The struggle is real every single day.

And a mentor once tell me that you're an egomaniac with an inferiority complex. Think about that. You have somebody to tell you that, out of love, by the way. Sure. Because, I mean, to be in the entrepreneurial space, you've got to believe that you can do it when everyone else around you is telling you you can't. That takes a sense of egomaniaism, right? And then the infuriate complex is like, I know you a little bit. Like, we're always looking over our shoulder.

Like, somebody's behind me. And if I don't keep up, you know, or there's a sense of paranoia about it, right? That's it. We're messed up. We are. I always say that I wake up every morning and I go, there's someone sitting in a basement somewhere with a giant marker board that says, how can I take over Fit Body Boot Camp? Yes, yes.

And I walk into the day with thinking that someone's trying to crush me and dominate our brand. That's absolutely right. Every day, and I feel the same way. But it was an opportunity in disguise because I learned a bunch about leadership while I was there, but it got to be the late 90s and it was just eating my soul. It was just eating me up because what I'd realized then, I finally had an epiphany. I got a mentor. I did what's called the Life Chart.

And what we measured was we talked about, what's every success that you had in your life? And then we applied out, what's every failure you had in your life? And guess what? Every time I had a failure, I had a success that was bigger. So I just kept leapfrogging. Failure, bigger success.

Failure, bigger success. And so I had this epiphany that I was what I call a primary leader stuck in a secondary leadership role. I was never going to be CEO of that company. I was never going to be the primary leader. And it ate me up. And so I had to take a leap of faith. And back then I was married.

And I went to my father-in-law, who I still have a good relationship with. I'm since divorced. Went to a lot of other people I trusted and said, hey, I'm thinking about leaving this. And everyone, everyone, without exception, said, are you crazy? You're the number two guy in the number two hotel company

and the number one market in the world. And you're going to leave that? You're making all this money? It's safe. Why would you do that? And I said, well, you don't see my insides. I'm dying. I'm dying here.

And so I talked to my wife at the time and left and started my own gig. So what happens, what happens when the people around us mean well? Like obviously you said you went to people that you trusted. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And you're like, hey, and you went there obviously seeking some kind of counsel or advice. It wasn't just matter of fact.

Hey, guess what I'm going to do? No, I was seeking counsel. You're seeking counsel. And every single person, without exception, said, Larry, you're nuts. Yeah. Why? Even in the face of that, first of all, why do you think the people closest to us do that?

Because they love us and they don't want us hurt. I hear it always, basically it's like, don't go in the deep waters, stay out of the forest. Oh, there's dragons out there past the horizon. When you're a warrior, that's what turns me on. Bring it on. That's what I want. Yeah. Well, one of your fellow warriors who stood right there, my dear friend Jason Redmond, a Purple Heart recipient,

Navy SEAL said, as warriors, you guys want to go and slap the dragon to see what you're made of. I love that. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's, so even in the face of all that counseling advice, you're like, eff it. I'm doing this.

I've got to trust my gut. So you pull the rip cord, you give you your two-week notice, I imagine, or whatever. No, it was more like a six-month notice. Sure. I guess you had such a critical role, yeah, to give a two-week notice. We suck. Yeah, so we hired a couple people and replaced me. I kept my position as partner in the company for several years after that and kept my equity position in a couple of the hotels that I had had and launched out to start this.

Now, moved to Santa Barbara first, bought a couple of coffee shops, bought a restaurant, and then had some of my former investors come to me and say, hey, we're really disappointed. You left your former company. If you ever want to do a hotel again, we'd be glad to invest with you. There's a story there, right? When you pursue excellence and everything you do, people are watching. You know, if you do things so well, you don't need, I call it setting out the honey pot. When you are the honey pot, when you are so, do pursue excellence and everything, people will come to you. But mediocrity is so safe, right?

And people can't figure out, like, why do I have to go out and ask for money all the time? So anyway, so yeah, so I put my first hotel on to escrow in November of 2000, closed to ask January of 2001. I don't know if you remember 2001 for your viewers who don't. Holy smokes. Just a few months later. Well, dot-com bomb, national and global recession. Most people aren't going to remember this, but SARS, which is the avian flu.

Why is that important? Well, because a third of the travelers to San Francisco at the time where all of my investments were coming from, all my distributions, were from Asia, and so that business is dried up. They were being quarantined. That's right. That's right. And so we lost about 45% value in all of our hotels up in San Francisco at the time. And so I went from getting distribution checks

to actually having to write capital call checks to fund mortgages and payroll. Got to the point where I had about $84 in the bank. Sold our place, moved into a townhouse. My wife was pregnant at the time, ultimately, near the end of that year, I had a several month old baby. And 9-11 had. happens and that was just kind of the kiss of death.

We had just opened up two hotels the week before and things were not going. Well, it was really, really bad and I was acting out in really bad ways. And finally in early December when I couldn't make payroll, I was putting things on credit cards, not telling my wife how bad the financial condition was. She left.

She took my daughter and left for a few days. December of 2001. Yeah, and she said, when you get your shit together, call me, you're better than this. And so it was one of those moments where I'd pulled out life insurance policies and realized I was worth more dead than alive. And you can read into that. I was on the edge. It was on the edge. And something pulled me back, and I know what it is, but something pulled me back and I finally,

Finally, I said, holy shit, Larry, you're starting to believe your own press. You know, you're not that good. You know, you need wise counsel around you. It was the first time of my life in several years. I didn't have a mentor. I wasn't in a mastermind. I felt like, oh, I can do this. I don't need all these other people.

How old were you then? Well, it was 2001. I'm 57 now, so whatever the math is. I'm horrible. Yeah. Yeah. I'll get my calculator while you should. Yeah.

So it was 17 years ago. I was 40. Dude, 40. It's 40. Check this out. I figured out. So I wrote my book, Man Up, at the... Which is a great book, by the way.

Thank you so much. At the age of 37, I had an anxiety attack so big. I thought I was having a heart attack. For the next year and a half, I had massive anxiety attacks. Then another friend of mine started having anxiety attacks as he turned 38. And another friend of mine, as he started to turn 36, 37, he started getting these issues. Between 37 and 40, 41, entrepreneur is grinned. go through this, almost this trial by fire.

It's almost this acid test. Are you going to make it, eat a bullet, or go back to being a civilian employee? There's nothing wrong with that. But I really want to just pause on this moment for a second because, dude, you were taken on massive debt. Dot com bubble, SARS. No one's writing new checks anymore.

Your banks aren't returning calls except to say, buck up. Yeah, you owe us wife's leaving. Like this is what happens. Entrepreneur is suffering silence. And I want to talk about this, Larry, because on social media, it's so easy to go and hit that little drop-down menu that says, Instagram, I'm an entrepreneur, and start flashing as though you're an entrepreneur. But this is what an entrepreneur goes through. And whether it's a hotel or it's franchising, it's a media company, it doesn't matter. Folks, this is what you're in for if you plan on being an entrepreneur.

The dragon will come. The bear will come. it will breathe fire, it will slash at you. You just don't know when, but I figured it's right in that stage of 37 to 42 I've noticed. For a lot of us it is. I think, in particularly men, because we do suffer in silence, I think, more than women do. But you must have a warrior mentality if you're going to survive in the entrepreneurial arena. This is my mental toughness is so critical for entrepreneurs.

I talk about it all the time. Absolutely. I've been doing running masterminds and coaching people for well over a decade. And we spend more time on this part of it, on the mental toughness part, on proper communication, on self-care, as we do on reading balance sheets and putting together exit strategies. So yeah, so it was a tough time. But I realized my best efforts got me there on my knees, on my bedroom floor, into the peers, if this is the best I got, I got to do something different.

And so, back then we had Rolodexes. And so I went to my Rolodex and just started calling people and saying, listen, I am embarrassed to even say this, but I am so in the weeds. I don't even know what to do. Can you help? You know? And what kind of help were you seeking financial, counsel? Anything.

Just hear me out. Anything. Anything. Anything. And so my fear was this. if people really knew me, they wouldn't love me. If they knew that I was failing, they'd kick me to the curb. That's what I was feeling.

But then I had a mentor when I was telling this story several years ago. He said, well, listen, if someone came to you and did that, would you kick him to the curb? Of course not. I'd help him however I could. He said, why do you think you're so much better than anybody else then? Like, oh, yeah. Great point, right? So people started saying, let me see what I can do.

And some people said, listen, I wish I could help. I'm in the same position year in, but ultimately a guy named Jay Scott, who I should thank, at the time was one of the top hotel consultants in the country, what I'd worked with in San Francisco, said, as a matter of fact, I have a hotel client in Mexico who has two hotels down there, and if you're interested, I could put you in touch with them. He was looking for somebody to come down and operate these hotels. And I said, Jay, listen, I don't know a thing about operating hotels in Mexico. I'd have to hire a team that I don't have.

And he says, just give us your numbers. And let's see what we can do. And so I put together some rough numbers, got on a flight. I had to borrow money to catch a flight from John Wayne Airport in Orange County to fly to San Francisco. And went and met with a client.

And I was smart. I brought an agreement that day. And after meeting with him, I slid the agreement across the table. We didn't negotiate one thing. He signed it. And all of a sudden, it wasn't big money. But all of a sudden, I was able to start bringing home about 6,000 bucks a month.

It was hope. It was hope. This is what keeps us all from eating a bullet, folks. Hope. That's right. That's absolutely right. And so that gave me a little bit of breathing room. And so I started bringing in experts into the company, sort of surrounding myself with people who were bolder and brighter than I was.

Sure. And so then we got a reputation. Oh, by the way, so we had a couple of good successes, those two hotels. that we opened up right before 9-11, they end up taking off and hit 100% market penetration within the first year, which typically, you know, to get a business to stabilize, at least three years, right? We did it under a year, plus these other hotels in Mexico,

and all of a sudden, people were talking about us as turnaround artist. But the key to all of this was I reached out, I asked for help, I got into a mastermind group, I was meeting every month. Being held accountable. and held accountable, these guys kicked my butt month after month, right? And there were months where I'd say, I don't want to even face these guys again. And as soon as I got there, I knew this is exactly where I need to be today. I mean, how often do we have that?

We're going to go with our mastermind. I've got other things to do. I could be making sales calls or I could, whatever the excuse is, right? So anyway, so that was about 16 or 17 years ago, and it's been up and down since. So we just got through another great depression, and that was a tough time as well. But anyway, it's been challenges. Sure. What pulled you back?

You know, the wife was gone, took your daughter. You're in massive debt. You realize, after you look at your life insurance, that I'm worth more dead than alive. You said something brought me back, pulled me back from... Yeah. I don't know how Eric Barry would want to get on this. but memories of my daughter, like I could see the movie playing of missed graduations. I'm not getting emotional here. You know, getting married, her having children, that kind of thing,

knowing that I'd really be letting down my wife. And so I was going through that. And then I started hearing this loud surrender. Somebody was yelling, surrender. Okay. Now I thought it was a neighbor. or something else at first, and then it caught my attention, and it was in my head. I was hearing surrender in my head. Now keep this in mind, this is the former Black Belt, former Green Beret hearing surrender. That doesn't compute with a kid, you know?

And so I fought it, you know. I'm not surrendering. Fuck you. Get out of my head. And it started getting softer and softer and softer. But as, you know, the first few times I heard it, the more I heard it, the more relaxed I became. The first couple of times I fought against it, you know,

but the more I heard it, I started to relax a little bit. And the softer it got, then I started to panic. I want that safety back. And then it hit me. Bejores, if you're across the room and I have to get your attention, I have to yell. But if I'm close to you, embracing you, I can whisper. To me, that was the universe, that was God whispering in my ear.

I got you. I got you. Your best efforts got you here? So what? surrender. And when I realized since then, the whole surrender of asking for help, pretending that you don't have, you know, I don't have to pretend I've got it all together, there's power in that, but it takes courage. Yeah. Courage changes everything. When you have the courage to ask for help, you have the courage to step into the leadership gap, everything changes. How often have we fallen short of our own expectations in life because we lack courage? Huge. So I'm going to bring this full circle for a moment, Larry, because you have two books out.

You're a mentor to entrepreneurs, high achievers and leaders, special forces. Now, of course, you're a chain of hotels, boutique hotels. And I dare say you're just getting started. I see you on the news. You're just getting started. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't take someone much time to realize that you're just getting started.

What drives you? It depends on the day, but usually it's just making a difference in the world. There's really two things. I always ask myself and I ask other people, if you were to get hit by a bus today and you didn't have your ID with you, how are people going to know who you are? To me, it's like, what's in your pocket? What's in your pocket? Like I walk out my hands in my pocket all the time, and I can tell you, sure enough I do. In this pocket every day, here's what I've got in my pocket.

Three things. Listerine breast strips. My special force is coin. Sure. To remind me of my heritage. Where did I come from? Right? And then I have a little pewter globe that reminds me of the legacy that I want to leave.

And my legacy that I want to leave is making a global impact on the world through entrepreneurship and leadership. Wow. And because I believe, as you'll see here in chapter 9 of this book, it's capitalism and entrepreneurship that has risen more people out of poverty changed billions of lives than any other social program out there. Amen. It's entrepreneurship and capitalism. It's not socialism, all right? And that's the scary thing right now. 33% of people between 18 and 29 have positive views of socialism.

And I say, travel the world. I've been to about 40 some different countries now. Capitalism is not perfect. Entrepreneurship is not perfect. It is hard, but it's the best system out there. Nothing has risen more people out of poverty than that. You know, I think these numbers are right. Since 1970, the amount of people living below the poverty line,

which is the equivalent of a dollar or less a day, has been lowered by 80% due to capitalism, free market and entrepreneurship. That's huge. So that's my mission in life to touch people through entrepreneurship and leadership. The government's not going to save our bacon. The university system is not going to save our bacon.

It's entrepreneurship. Speaking of university system, yesterday I put up a post. Someone sent me a private message and said, hey, Badros, that I shoot you a message and say, what do you think about going to college? And I said it's archaic. It's a waste of time. Don't bother unless you're going to get a specialty education like a doctor, lawyer, architect, whatever.

Totally agree. Are you on the same page of that? Totally agree. I don't care if my kids go to college. Now my daughter, she is going to be going to college next year, but up until about six months ago, we didn't think she was going to go to college. Listen, I know that my kids just by being around me, have an entrepreneurial spirit. They see what that warrior mentality is. I know that they're going to be leaders and no matter what they do, they've both been in their leadership teams at school.

like my daughter, who's a senior, for the last eight years, has been on the leadership team at the school. My son, who's in eighth grade, been on it for four years, is already going to be on the leadership team at its high school. So that, people are begging for leaders. We have this leadership gap, and I can help them in that area. I need the entrepreneurship is the way to go. We're in this relationship economy.

We don't have to go in and, God bless his soul, my father was a machine operator for most of his life after he got out of the Marine Corps in World War II. And all day long, he just worked at a press doing this. You know, and a stamp would come down and cut the metal and it'd go and do it again. That's death to me. That is. No different than prison. No, no different than prison.

Well, they do a lot of this stuff in prisons nowadays, right? So I do think, though, that there are... Some schools that are mixing it up a little bit, they are teaching entrepreneurship at a lot of the universities, but I agree with you. Listen, high paid jobs in the future are going to be in the trades, right? And if there's a trade that needs to be done,

there's a business that needs to support that trade. Right. So whether you are, I don't call them employees in our company, we call them team members, because I believe that we call them here. I believe that words have meaning, right? And so if there is a business, there will be team members, supporting that. I should just say the reason we call them team members is that if I call them

employees, they're going to show up like employees. Is it a payday boss, right? That kind of thing. Thank God it's Friday. If I call them team members, I expect them to act like team members, which means that we're all in this together, right? We don't call the people who pay our bills, who we do transactions with. We don't call them customers. Customers are transactional. We call them clients, right? Because clients are under your protection. They're under our protection. They're under our and it's a relationship, right? The people that check our guest in at our hotels, we don't call them clerks, we don't call them agents.

I don't want to be clerked or agent. We call them host. Why? Because I want to be hosted. Sure. We don't call the people that work behind the scenes. We don't call them the back of the house. We're all at the heart of the house. Words have meaning.

And I think that when you build a culture around that, and that's good for all of our listeners to do, right? Like, go through and just think, think if you're called this day in day out how do you how would you feel is there a little spin you can put on it you know just the change words have meaning words have meaning so anyway yeah the education system I think is for the most part flawed that given where we are in today's economy should everyone pursue entrepreneurship no is it for everyone no how does someone know how does someone know

how does someone know if it's for them or not because look man Gary V You, Andy Priscilla, Ed Milet, everyone's an entrepreneur. They're living the life, man. There are a lot of want entrepreneurs out there. They want the lifestyle, but they don't want to work. If you like getting rid up... So what does the test I take to realize if I should be an entrepreneur or not? Says the young man or woman watching this.

I don't know if there's a test, I think, except to try it. I think that's a great thing about online businesses nowadays. You can start small. I'm a big believer. Start small, dream big, move fast. Right? And so you can start small. Like, I knew that I had the bug at a young age, as I reflect back.

I was the kid that would buy the pack of gum for whatever it was, break it up and sell the sticks of gum for more than the combined cost of the pack of gum. I didn't know that that was entrepreneurship back then, but that's what it was, right? So you just try it, I think. Is there a test? Listen, I'm a big believer in the Colby A Index, K-L-L-B-E-A index, and it measures you on four different, modes from a conative perspective, not cognitive, but the conative brain, how do you reflexively reply to stimuli? Are you a high fact finder?

Are you a follow-through systems person? Are you a risk taker? I'm a very high risk taker. You know, are you what they call an implementer? How do you do with things spatially? That's important, I believe, in taking the Gallup strength finders test to identify what your strengths are. Because if you don't know what your strengths are, the truth is entrepreneurs don't survive

by themselves. The lone wolf myth of entrepreneurship is just that. It's a great romance novel, it's a great movie, but it's not reality in the entrepreneurship space. And so if you know what your strengths are, and you only focus on your strengths, Bedros, but you build a team around you whose strengths augment your weaknesses, then everyone, when they're performing in their strengths, morale is up, productivity is up. That's why Special Forces A teams are arguably the most elite units out there because we all work in our strengths. On a special horse A teams, there's 12 guys. You're in business.

If you're going to put 12 type A, hard charging, alpha males, highly intelligent guys, in one room what do you usually get? Pandemonium and fist bites. Yeah, because the ego does tend to take over, and so does the alpha mindset. That's right. And so what do you have to do? You have to make sure that people are working in their strengths, then not only do I understand my strengths,

but I understand everyone else's strengths around me. We're not competing against each other, but it's collaborative success. And they are all subscribed to the same mission. And when you can get those people to subscribe to the mission, subordinate their own agenda to the success of the mission, that's where the beauty comes in. Right.

I've got a friend named Rob Schaefer, who's former Green Beret as well, who said to me the other day, he said, you know, you've heard the saying, it's like hurting cats. He said, you know, when you're dealing with Green Bray is like hurting lions. Right? A way to put it.

Yeah. You ever see a pack of lions or a pride of lions hunt? When they're successful, it's like poetry in motion. So that's the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Do you have that warrior spirit in you? Now that doesn't mean just because it's never been tested before that is not there. So I say dream big, but start small. Just start small.

You can start a business just buying products and selling them on Amazon or eBay or whatever it is. Do you have the goods, you know? And you learn that way. You learn about supply chain and accounts payable and balance sheets and all those kind of things. But if you really... The stuff that people don't Instagram about. Yeah, the stuff to people...

Which is the things that run our businesses. The non-sexy stuff. Yeah, I would just say, beware of those guys that when you see them in their car with their watch, you know, showing stacks of money in the car, those aren't your mentors. Those are not your mentors. It's got to be people, I think, like you and me, who speak the truth. who speak honestly, who say, this is going to be a grind. This is going to be the hardest thing that you're ever going to do, right?

But, man, I wouldn't trade it for the world. I've got a buddy of mine, Larry Yatch, who used to be, and you can Google him, former Navy SEAL. Larry Yatch, within this mastermind that I did with a bunch of military entrepreneurs probably eight years ago. And we do this thing called Hot Seats, where we bring everybody up and they get to share their biggest challenge, opportunity, or idea. And then we brainstorm that challenge opportunity

idea to help them get a breakthrough. And so Larry comes up to the front of the room, and everybody knew Larry's story. And so he said, listen, before I give you my biggest challenge, opportunity, or idea, I want to share with you the scariest, most difficult thing I've ever done in my life. And everybody did what you just did.

This is a Navy SEAL going to tell us a killer story. Right, that's what I was thinking. He said, the scariest most difficult thing I've ever done was just starting to run my own business. Listen, if you got Navy SEALs and Green Berets and Badoes Kuhli's and say, this is the scariest, most difficult thing I've ever done in my life.

Believe it. It is. But you have to surround yourself with people who are bolder and brighter than yours. This is one of the things I love about you. Not only are you an amazing business person who's growing your business by leaps and bounds. We have over 800, probably, franchises at this point.

You're creating warriors and entrepreneurs by running masterminds for these people, helping them becoming better versions of themselves, not just people, but better business people. The entrepreneurial muscle doesn't get stronger by just letting it after it. You've got to stretch it. You've got to work it. Well said. Well, said, you know, it's funny.

We have our Fit Body Boot Camp University once a quarter for new franchisees who come on board. And the very first thing I say during this four-day intensive training because they want to know how do I run my Fit Body Boot Camp gym, right? And I say, surprise, folks, we fooled you. You just joined a personal development organization wrapped as a fitness franchise. And they were thrown them back. I said, listen, the more I can help you build your emotional and mental toughness muscles, your entrepreneurial muscles will grow as a by product. And that's so true.

The way I look at it is if I grow my muscles, my tendons get stronger. My bones get more minerally dense. If I can get mentally tough as an entrepreneur, I can take more risks, move faster, become more decisive. therefore build those muscles as well. That's absolutely right. I have a similar saying that I tell people all the time. If you want to do great things, you've got to be a great person. I know a lot of quasi-successful entrepreneurs who grind down their team members,

their jerks, they lack integrity, right? But they're not building legacy, right? When you become a great person, great things happen, right? And so I love that you're developing your team members. And another thing that I try to convince people to do that are kind of on this entrepreneurial journey, and it's kind of counterintuitive to the personal guru in development space, as I say, whatever you do, stop seeking success. Stop seeking success.

If you pursue success for the sake of success, it will leave you empty, it will leave you hollow, and it will drive your life right off a cliff. Instead, what I want people to do is to seek a life of significance. Serve your community, serve your family, serve your team members. Live a life of significance in your place of worship if that's your bag. Is that your bag? I'm curious. Place like worship? I would say that, yeah, yeah, I'm a little bit odd duck. I would say that I'm a Christian, but I don't, I'm more of a Jesus follower, I would think.

I like the rebel, the revolutionary. Sure. I don't, anyway. So I do believe that when you live a life of significance, success is the byproduct. Success is the byproduct of living a life of significance. But we get it all flipped around. We want this shortcut. What's the quickest way to the cash kind of thing?

Well, it's because most people think that once I have success, success as in money, I solve my money problems, somehow all these other empty cups of significance and self-image and confidence will fill up. You just end up being a person with money who still has low self-image, poor confidence, and still can't make eye contact. I will tell you this. When this last downturn happened, I was at a leadership conference in Monterey, and there were about 120 CEOs in there. And remember what was that, whatever, the date that the market crashed. And I personally know, within the month after that, six guys who took their own life, and they were all much wealthier than I was. I was one of the smallest businesses in that room that day.

That's a lot of money. A lot of money. I know people today who have taken their own lives or they've OD'd or they've got dependency issues because they've got the money, but they don't have the rest of this stuff dealt with. Thank goodness. In a weird, sick kind of way, like I am divorced now. It's been, whatever, 14 years, I think, since we separated or going on 15 years. And in a sick way, it was the best thing that ever happened to me.

How so? It forced me to scrape a long bottom. So, by the way, after 2001, my former spouse did come back. We reconciled and we had another child. But honestly, I never, I don't think I've ever told her this, I never forgave her for leaving. When I was at my deepest, darkest hour. How come?

She left. How come I never? Because she wasn't there to support you and see you through it. Yeah. Looking back. And so I had all this resentment build up. And so in my mind, I was like, when the next downturn happens, she's going to leave again. That was the story I was telling myself. Sure, sure, sure. She didn't stick with me. She's proven. She can't handle it. So you're constantly on edge waiting for the next downturn because then I got to deal with the downturn and she's going to leave. That's right. That's right. And so what did I do? I self-sabotized. When I could see the downturn coming,

I started withdrawing. I was just getting ready. Yeah. Just getting ready. And instead of doing this, I was doing this, putting my fist up. Yeah. Right. And so it took that for her to leave for me to, and for us to ultimately break up for me to have a wake-up call, like, dude, you need to get healthy, like really healthy. And so I went into my executive team the day after we decided that this was going to happen.

And I said to my chief operating officer, you are now our interim CEO. And I'm going to be here. I'll still be working, you know, because my 40 hours, my full-time job is a lot of hours. But my primary job is to get healthy. And so for the next six months, I spent 40 hours a week, 40 hours a week doing therapy, counseling, reading, journaling, going to men's accountability groups, anything I could do to become

a better version of me. I got a Ph.D. and Larry. The next six months, I spent 20 hours a week doing that. And out of that came this book called Blast Points, Blast Points for Achievers, and I started a morning routine, and I just really got much more intentional about being a man of integrity, of being the leader that I wanted to be, and being courageous again. And so it was a long journey, and as sick as it sounds, Listen, my kids have commented to me now at 17 and 15 that, you know, you're happy. I love that you're happy now.

Yeah. They remember that stuff. Oh, sure. And thank goodness, you know, my former spouse is happy and remarried and her life is great. And so I feel blessed. Have you forgiven her sense in your heart? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Listen, we were both broken when we got together. Sure. We both recognize that. And I wish her the best, and I wish her family, you know, the best, really, I do. And listen, forgiveness, I heard it described this way. Unforgiveness is like drinking a poison and expecting it's going to hurt somebody else. Oh.

Right? And that's pretty powerful, I think, because that's what I was doing. I always kept drinking this poison of unforgiveness, you know, and it was hurting me. And the other people that you haven't forgiven, they go on with their life. Yeah. It's not punishing them. It's not punishing them. It's not punishing them.

So you got to let it go. Why did you write victory? Because I saw a lot of snake oil people out there just selling all kinds of crap on entrepreneurship. And I felt like there were a lot of people that were writing books on entrepreneurship who, frankly, weren't even entrepreneurs. There are a lot of people writing books on entrepreneurship who built coaching programs. Yeah. But have never, beyond the coaching program,

never ran their own business. It's one of the things, again, I think I resonate with you on, is that you're mentoring and coaching people while you're doing it, right? Because if I weren't running my own companies right now, I'd be teaching lessons I learned 20 years ago. And they're not relevant today. The economy is constantly changing.

Marketing strategies are faster than ever, by the way. Oh my gosh, it's exponential, right? And so, listen, nothing against the SBA. I have some friends who are high up in the SBA, but even their score program where they're teaching entrepreneurs. These are retired executives. That's the RE in score, right? Retired executives.

These aren't retired entrepreneurs, the retired employees who work for somebody else. And so I think we've got it backwards. And so it's kind of a straight talk, no BS. Pull up your frickin' pants, you know, pick up the sword, pick up the shield, and let's go. Let's do this. And you know what I'm happy about is that there's going to be

an audiobook version of this soon. Yes, there will be an audio book. Thank you, my brother. We're making it official on this, man. We are. Yeah. Let's commit that in three months I'll have the audio. Good man.

I'm a honey badger. So once I tell someone, I'm going to follow up with you, I once told this guy who's a billionaire, he owns, I can't say what he owns. But anyway, I was like, hey, you got to lose at least 100 pounds. Like, you're, in fact, Troy McLean was there. It was in Idaho, it was a Russell Brunson thing. I had somebody tell me that once. You told me that story.

And of course, and he thought once this event ends, I'm going to forget us. Give me your number because we met at the mixer. I just honey badgered him for an entire year until he started making an effort. And that's what it takes. But having said that, you in the last two years, had a tremendous physical transformation. Yeah. It took embarrassment, to be honest with you. I was, you know, to be in any kind of special operations group, you've got to be in shape.

And so I was in great shape when I got out of the military. I was much younger than, too, you know, and your metabolism changes. you know. Sure. And so back then in my, you know, 20s and 30s, you know, my walking around weight was in the 245, 250 range with a pretty low body fat in the 9 or 10% range. Not ripped, but cut. Yeah. And for a variety of reasons, things changed. I stopped working out, which I don't have time to get into. And I just stopped taking care of myself. I wasn't feeling great about myself. I mean, you can put all the stuff together that we've talked about, right? Of course. And was living a pretty crappy lifestyle, abusing my body. Yeah. Right?

And I take my, at the time I was taking my mastermind members on cruises, we'd do a couple of year. And about two years ago, you know, people take pictures when you're at these events. And I saw a picture of me sitting up in front of the audience. And I was being interviewed by somebody trying to get my story out of me. And I saw this big old gut. And I was really big things. here and I said, I don't even recognize that guy.

And at the same time, I was up for a TV host position for an entrepreneurial show. And a mentor of mine, after we, I realized I wasn't going to get the gig, it was supposed to be capitalizing on vets who are going into the entrepreneur space. And part of my backstory would have been, here's a green bray in the space. And he said, dude, you're going up for a role

that's supposed to be capitalized on you as a green bray. You got to look like a green bray. You don't look like a green bray. And that hurt, but I thanked him for it, you know. And thank goodness I had somebody who would speak reality into my life. You know, reality is your friend. And too often we have friends around us who would just tell us what they think we want to hear instead of telling us the truth.

And I will tell you this. I will take the ugly truth over, you know, beautiful lies any day of the week. Sure enough. And so between that and the picture, I said, I've got to get back in shape. And so it's been a journey. I probably dropped 45 pounds. And what did you change to do that?

I mean, you said you're 57 years old. 57? I know at 44, my metabolism is not the same. My body doesn't respond the same at 34. No. Simple things. Simple things. And I've tried a bunch of different things.

But what's really worked is I park as far away from where I'm going as possible. I get steps in. I just get movement. I've got a friend who's just said, listen, at your age, you know, to get back in shape, just get movement. Just get moving, you know. And so, like today, even though my office is on the third floor of an office building, it's a 12-story building, I walk to the top of the stairs and then come back down to my office. Simple things like that.

I cut out processed sugars and simple carbs, got them out of my diet. I have a pretty high protein diet. I wouldn't say I'm on a carnivore diet, but I do eat a lot of protein. And I'm never tired. I sleep less. I'm never hungry. Oh, by the way, but I do.

What about your mental clarity since you cut the sugars? Oh, my gosh. When I wake up in the morning, boom, I'm up. Like, I've got to stay in bed after 5 o'clock in the morning. My mental clarity is there. It's a poison. Processed sugar is a poison, I think. Yeah, it is.

As addictive as cocaine, by that. Absolutely. Absolutely. So I do that. I do a bunch of supplements in the morning. I do super greens and I do super reds. And so I'm getting the right vitamins and minerals in my body. So listen, just from my protein shake in the morning and my super green and super reds,

I could survive on that nutritionally. Sure. I'm not going to be happy about it. But I splurge once in a while. I mean, I don't go overboard. I don't binge. But, you know, if like once a week I want to have a dessert, I'll have a dessert. if, you know, but that's what works for me.

What I would just encourage people, particularly when you get up there an age like I am, don't punish yourself. Just make some modest changes. For me, the way I work, though, I've got to see rapid change. And so when I first did this, I fasted. Oh, really? I did, because I needed to see a change fast. Well, you're type A driven.

Exactly. All right. But then I neutralized it, and I've been pretty steady at this weight for a long time. What does your workout routine look like? Right now, I usually just do body weight stuff. You know, I do some curls. I do some tricep stuff. But pushups, planks, butterfly kicks, just movement.

So folks, pay attention to this because here's a man who's super busy and you're going to come out and tell me that you're busy, you don't have time to go to the gym. I'm guessing you're not going to the gym to do body weight stuff. You probably do whatever hotel you happen to be in when you're traveling or at home or in your office, right? Exactly, exactly. Yeah.

Yeah. And my thing was, I tried using that excuse with people, like I'm too busy. But I think just as important as my morning routine. So now my physical routine is part of my morning routine. And I do all of this in under 12 minutes. Seven minutes of it is, so I get up in the morning, go to the bathroom, don't check email, don't get on social media, don't even look at a computer. I do positive affirmations, greetings, some journaling, and that takes about seven minutes.

And then I do some physical stuff. I might do burpees, which I hate, but I love. Fucking hate burpees. Yeah. But it gets my heart right up really quickly. Yeah. Right? You want to hear a fun story?

Yes. So I got these weird little, well, anyone who's type A, obsessed, driven will appreciate this. You'll appreciate this. I hate burpees. And I'm a personal trainer, obviously, by trait. and I was a fat kid, which is why I became a personal trainer. I hate burpees so much. And I said, I'm going to stay in shape without burpees the rest of my life.

But so that I never have to do burpees, I'm going to do 100 burpees straight, the real way. Like push up, jump up in the air, like get airborne. And I did it in like some record-breaking time for me. This was like two years ago. And I gave myself the hall pass to, I did 100 burpees straight. There was a puddle of sweat on the floor. I said, I never have to do burpees again. And ironically, I haven't done it.

So when I go to a group workout program or something, they're doing burpees, I'll just stand around and do some jumping jacks or whatever. But the point is, whether you're doing burpees, et cetera, just move your freaking body, clean up your diet, remove their sugar, have a morning routine. Listen, even if I just do, here's what I've realized. For me, and this has to do with everything in life, it's not the intensity that brings success. It's the consistency that brings success. And that's whether it's business, health, relationships.

If I just come home and I haven't touched my wife for months, then all of a sudden I want to come and make love with her. That's not going to fix the relationship. It's going to be the small little things, right? And the same thing in business, and the same thing when it comes to your health. It's a small thing's done consistently. So even when I hate it and I don't want to do it, I might do 10 jumping jacks and five push-ups,

and at least I did something. Yeah. Did something. So consistency not, I mean, I mean, Yeah, consistently not intensity. Amen. So, Larry, as you mentor people and obviously and grow your organization and teach people in your masterminds through the trials and tribulations

and challenges that you go through in your business and the big breakthroughs that you've had, if people want to learn more from you, be able to get exposed to your knowledge, content, wisdom, where do they reach out to you at? So on all the social media platforms, is Larry Broughton. Instagram is kind of where I hang out the most. Are you like an Instagram? I hate them all. Love-hate relationship, I guess.

I like Instagram better than all the others, you know. But, yeah, I do like Instagram better than Facebook and Twitter and all that kind of stuff. People seem to be kinder and more receptive there for me and the messages that I put out there. So that's my favorite of all of them. But my personal website is larrybroughton.me. That's dot me, me, me, and I've got stuff on the links to the hotel company and to my books and to my speaking stuff and to my mastermind programs. But if somebody's looking for a coaching program,

yeah, just go there. That's the best thing. Larrybrotten.me, or just on all the social media. That's awesome. Well, listen, man, thank you for sharing your knowledge, your wisdom, your experiences, and being so open and honest, transparent about it. Folks, if you're watching this episode, you got a lot of value out of it, or you're listening to this episode on any of your favorite podcast platforms,

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