Noob School - Episode 18: Larry Clevenstine

Episode Date: October 8, 2021

Another Datastream alum, Larry didn't take a direct route in sales. In fact, he was ready to follow the rest of his family into the accounting world when he decided to branch out into something he actually enjoyed. Now that's priceless advice for Noobs! Follow John on social media: Instagram: instagram.com/johnsterling_ Facebook: facebook.com/johnsterlingsales Twitter: twitter.com/johnsterling_ TikTok: tiktok.com/@johnsterling_

All right, so welcome back to Noob School. This is where you come to hear funny stories and learn something from great salespeople, people that have done remarkably well in sales over a long period of time. And I take them back to when they started. What did they do right? What did they do wrong? What things can they pass along to you as you start your journey in sales and in business? And today, I know how we did it, but we got one of the all.

All-time greats, Larry Clevenstein, who I've known and been working with going back 25 years. This is our century year, Larry. Yes, getting old, John. I don't know. I don't know. I feel young. Absolutely. I'll tell you this.

Larry, this is something you can learn. When Larry started with me, when we started working together, he was not in great shape. Oh, no. Right. I was heavy-clevy. We called you heavy-clevy, fat Clevy. There was stuff we told you that you didn't even hear. I'm sure.

But you were heavy and you were kind of stressed out, stress to eat, whatever. Oh, yeah. And not too long after I started working there, I decided I needed to get better sheep. So I dropped. I was 250 pounds. Holy, I don't even remember that. I was the skinniest fat guy you can meet. I was shocking here.

But yeah, I went down to about 165 after about six months. Is that where you are now? About 170. Yeah, that's mostly muscle, the extra. Right? Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I work out six days a week.

Yeah. But, yeah. So seriously, you know, in my book, chapter one, if you hadn't read the book, read, what's it called? Noob school? Nube school. Noob, whatever it's called. Something about noobs. The very first thing you need to do is get yourself under control.

Yes. Right? Absolutely. And, of course, I didn't tell Larry that. I think I've told other people that. But he figured it out. He was out of control physically, and he couldn't function near his top. Right.

And he fixed it. Absolutely. Yeah, it was a game changer for me. I was too focused on one area of my life and I need more balance. Was it work? Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Because we worked like crazy. Oh, yeah. We kind of like the stress. Type A, you know. Type A. So I put that type A energy into stuff outside of work. You know, family getting healthier, getting in shape, and actually ended up making a business out of it, side business,

where I taught fitness boot camps for 15 years. Right, right. That's great. So just real quick, you went to Temple. Temple U, yep. That makes you an owl. I'm an owl. I like that.

Best damn owl we've ever had. Probably only owl. Yeah, only an owl. Yeah, well. What is Temple? but never mind. So if you find yourself in that situation, if you're out of college,

maybe you've been like drinking lots of lining cougals or like hitting the bong really hard or eating pizza. Lots of pizza, lots of cheese. Cheese steaks. Cheese steaks. You've been doing that a lot.

How do you go from that, the 250, to the Fit 160, teaching the fitness classes? Well, a lot of it is discipline, and it is, really setting goals for yourself. I knew, like, walking up the data stream stairwell, wheezing and out of shape, I needed to change this.

Were you on three or two? I was on the fourth floor. Four. She had to walk all the way up? That's a beautiful. Yeah. So, did the elevator quite a bit. Yeah, I did the elevator quite a bit.

And so I really just, I knew I had to make a change. I wanted to do, you know, I have a family. At the time, I had two young girls. I have three daughters. And I was like, I want to be around as long as possible for them. But really, it was taking all the energy that I had towards working and also balancing that out to fitness and other things in my life. So, and when I started in, well, I didn't even know I wanted to do sales.

Like, I was, when I first got out of college, I was up in Philly. And I was an HR major. Actually, I was first an accounting major. Okay. Boring. My mom was an accountant. My brother was an accountant, so I was like, I'll be an accountant. Okay.

But I didn't like, I like people. So then I switched to be an HR major. I wanted to do training. But I couldn't, you know, when I got out of college, just like you can't really, I couldn't find the HR job right away. So I did an intern at a software company. Yeah. And processing contracts and taking.

orders. Yeah. And then found out like, hey, I can upsell these guys. And then it just turned into they said, hey, do you want to start an inside sales group? I don't know anything about it, but I like it. I like interacting with the customers. And I got hired and sales was my thing. I enjoyed it from there. And that was in Philly? That was in Philly. And then about three or four years later, I went to outside sales for the same company down in Carolina's here in Greenville. Did that for a while. Then I wanted to come back inside. I decided I liked the inside sales at that point was better for my life. And I interviewed with you and two other companies.

And I had a great interview with you. And I was like, I got to work for that guy. What I really enjoyed about you was there's a seriousness, of course, but it was also very fun. And I thought I could learn a lot from you. So, and that's kind of how I got down. here and into the data stream world and where I met you and that's where I learned a lot about selling yeah well just be back you up for a second on the on the interview we had I'll never forget

I had this corner office and I had blocked taped all the windows you know with with papers I didn't want any light to come in yeah I don't know why I remember the light um and that morning he came in it was like 830 or 9 and I had all these pills on my desk And I was like in this phase of taking vitamins and all this stuff. And I said, Clevy, or I said, Larry, listen, here's the deal. I said, this is going to be a quick interview. He goes, oh, that's fine. Why is that?

And I'm like, I took some sleeping pills by accident. Remember? And so we had to rush through it. Yes. And I had to go home. I remember. I remember you had like a timer or something went off and he took the pills. And I was like, what was that?

But we had a great interview. We talked about, you know, not just sales, but. But outside of selling what my interests were, Temple Basketball, it was just something that I take. Because I've hired many salespeople. I've managed sales teams. And it took a lot from not falling asleep and running out to take pills, but just really that more relaxed conversational, not just either one way or the other. Yeah. Well, we had a always, I think we're all looking for wherever we're working, we're trying to build the culture. And that was a big part of it, was the people that we could easily joke with, you know, and laugh with and get along with was just as important as the other stuff.

Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's why I chose where I wanted to work, because I had two other offers. and this seems like a better culture, better fit. Yeah, it worked out great. Well, backing up again a little bit for the noobs. So Larry, he was in college, good college. I mean, Temple's a great college. And obviously, you know, he's a talented person. And he was thinking about accounting because he just didn't know what else to think about.

He's like, mom does it, my brother does it, my uncle does it, I'll do accounting. You know, so sometimes we fall into that because that's just kind of, what we see in front of us. It may or may not be what our good match is. So then you said, well, I'm more of a people person and you made an incorrect assumption, right, because you didn't really have good guidance, which is HR, that's people. I think I'll do that. Well, there's fine HR people out there, but it's not near the opportunity of a salesperson. Absolutely. In school, they, you know, when I was in college, they didn't have a sales degree per se. of marketing, yeah. And a lot of what you learn is actually on the job in sales. Like,

you just have to have the personality and the, you know, discipline in sales. But what I, you know, in accounting, you can do a great job and doing all your accounting and balancing. But if I work, and you can work as hard as you can, and you're still going to just do that. What I liked about it was the better I became, the more it helped me make more money, which helped me afford different things where I could do things with my family, even start a little side business. I mean, it was just a way that I could do so many more things. And you can learn. And in technology, I knew nothing about technology when I first came into this.

But I loved working with people. I love to learn. and this was perfect for me. I was like, all right, this is what I want to do. And it was great. And then managing was even like a more. That was kind of where that HR element came in. We're training and helping other people.

That's what I enjoy. Well, again, you have so many good points. I want to just stress to the people, the noobs that are listening. As Larry was working his butt off when he weighed $2.50, okay? He was probably working harder. And he kind of backed it down and started to exercise. Exercising more time with the family less weekend work and his career went up Right he became a better salesperson better he became a manager he became a VP he was very important part of

Building our business and because he kind of he's talented to begin with but he took care of himself Holistically yeah absolutely so that that's one point and the other is on the career thing that again that's kind of what noob school is for is to get people use our site and our resources to figure out where is their best fit, where should they be selling? Because you ended up selling at Datastream, you didn't have a maintenance background, and we sold to maintenance people. I didn't either. You know, in a perfect world, you know, if you had some interest, I don't know what it was, but if you had, like for me, it was sports, like basketball.

You know, I would have said, well, I want to be in software, and I want to be in the Southeast, and I want to sell the basketball programs because I already know a lot of them and I like that, I want to be around the sport. And that would have been like right in the middle for me. And it wasn't, right? I'm over here somewhere because it's maintenance but it's still close enough.

It can work, but you'll be happier, the closer you get to the center of what you love. Yes, I agree. I think similar interests we have, you know, health, sports, fitness is kind of my. thing so not perfect but I found the perfect the people that I worked with it was the best environment I've ever had in my life that environment at data stream and the and the people that you hired all like-minded we were all driven great to each other

it was it was just such a sweet spot and I didn't know what went but I knew the different people, the mentors that I had within the organization, including yourself, they would help me find the spot. And I got to do lots of different things. I managed inside sales team. I went to the outside sales team, and I sold services now for the same software company that bought Native Stream. So are you there now? I am there. Yeah. I'm at with hexagon. Well, no, I am still with Infor. Hexagon bought a portion. of it. And I won't be going because I am not EAM exclusive. So I sell consulting services. So you sell consulting services for the company that bought our company?

Yes. Okay, I got you. In for. Yeah. So you, yeah. Well, that's interesting. And again, you have found, you've done a really good job, I'll say, knowing you of managing your life. you know, where you want to work and how, you know, what you want to do health-wise and who you want to hang around. Yeah, and I think if you're good at, if you're valuable to your organization, you get to do different things. Like, I didn't want to manage any more at some point, so I stepped out, and then I got opportunities to manage again. Just whatever fit with my life, you know, and I got to do services, software. And if you are valuable to organization, work hard, and good to other people, and you're able to kind of do what you want, experience different things.

So it's been a good ride. Well, you're doing good. You're doing good. Can you name anything other than the bong and the beer, anything else that you would pass on to say, I wouldn't have zagged there. I wouldn't have done that move or watch out for this or something like that. I would say

don't be afraid to try different things. I think I was offered a couple things outside of the organization that may have wanted to try that I, who knows, how would have gone.

I would be open to listen into different ideas and different opportunities. I think that was maybe one thing. And also I think one thing I did do early on was I was only on about

six months in and then I know I didn't have enough experience yet to manage, but I interviewed with J.B. For a manager job. And I said, I know I'm not, you know, you wanted somebody here that's longer, but I wanted at least to tell you, give you my thoughts.

And that helped me get the next position later. So don't be afraid to go for. Raise your hand. Yeah, raise your hand. Make them know that you're interested. It doesn't matter if you're just out of college or whatever your experience is. If you're good enough, if you're doing the right things. Yeah.

Yeah. If it's an open interview, why not? Yeah. So I think that was one important thing that I did that helped me tremendously. Very good. All right. And what would you say your favorite word? is. I think I've said it like 10 times here, and it was one of your words that you pounded into our

heads. Absolutely. Absolutely. Because when you are, like if a customer or anybody asks you a question, and you know the answer is yes, absolutely yes. Saying absolutely is just so much more powerful. It just feels better. And I just really like that word. And I remember you even had the tattoos. But even to this, I say it all the time. Yeah. Like me, me and a couple other friends of ours. I'll know a data streamer.

When they say. Absolutely. Harrison will say, oh, absolutely. Yeah. Well, it's just, I mean, it doesn't it make you feel better than if someone says, well, I think we can do that. Yeah, exactly. We'll get to that Tuesday or something, you know.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Gotcha. Yes, we can. Yeah. That's one of my favorite words. Well, fitness-wise, tell us just real quick what you got into. You did 15 years with the city as a side deal.

Yes. So for the last seven years, it was with the city. And a fitness boot camp instructor. So it's your typical body weight, calisthenics, in a group environment. It's kind of military. I actually learned from a Marine that I met. when I was doing his class. And then he taught me, trained with him for over a year, did some other training, and started

a business where I would teach class in the mornings and help other people. So again, it's that people thing, helping others. And I think giving back helps you as well. But, you know, to do it without really any expectation to get anything in return. I think that's kind of the mantra of what we did at Datastrum, too, is kind of helping others, and it'll help the whole organization, help the other salespeople. And it just, you make great friendships. The best friends I've had are either from working or fitness.

And I've known these people for 20 years. I consider myself one of those great friends. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Larry, appreciate it, man. Thank you. Thank you very much.

All right, thank you. Thank you.