Episode 13: Larry Levine – Have People Been Blowing You Off? Learn How to Have Conversational Competence

Larry Levine 0:00 (Preview)

It was social as a part of it to me is just relating and having conversations with people. It’s using the tools that are available to advance the sale and build relationships. But it’s just, you know, as times changing, as tools change, and as terms change, this wonderful word called social selling came to be, when in essence, sales has always been social, and social’s always been a part of selling.

Intro (Bob Woods) 0:36

Welcome to the making sales social podcast, featuring the top voices in sales and marketing. Join hosts, Brynne Tillman and Bill McCormick. As they discuss the best tips and strategies they are teaching their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. Here are your hosts, Brynne Tillman, and Bill McCormick.

Bill McCormick 1:02

Hey, so welcome to making sales social. I’m Bill McCormick.

Brynne Tillman 1:05

I’m Brynne Tillman. 

Bill McCormick 1:07

So Brynne, who’s our guest today?

Brynne Tillman 1:08

Oh, my gosh, I am so excited about this guest. Why? Because we have been friends for years on social, yet we have never even met in person. But I feel so connected, to my good friend, Larry Levine. Hi, Larry!

Larry Levine 1:28

Brynne, full-confession,  I have a social love affair with Brynne Tillman.

Brynne Tillman 1:33

Whoo! Yeah I know, we connect on so many levels, both philosophically, the way that we go to market, the way that we think about relationships, and authenticity. And so you know, I don’t even know how long we’ve gone back. But it has to be seven to eight years.

Larry Levine 1:54

At least. 

Brynne Tillman 1:56

So, and I just kept following you. And like, when the first time we had a call, I was like totally fan-girling. It was like, I was so excited. But here’s what I love about everything you do, is not only is it entertaining and engaging, but I always walk away with at least one thing that impacts my sales. And just when I think, I couldn’t learn anything new, there’s something new. And so we had your co-host, Darrell Amy on our show. And I’m going to repeat what I said, if someone said to me if you could only have one podcast to listen to for the rest of your life, what would it be? It would be selling from the heart.

Larry Levine 2:44

Oh, stop! But thank you so much.

Brynne Tillman 2:47

You guys rock it! And the value in the guests that you have are unbelievable. So we are so fortunate to have you on Making Sales Social.

Larry Levine 2:57

I’m just so happy to be here. But I have to circle back to what you said. By the way, what you just said means a lot to myself. And I know it means a lot to Darrell about the podcast. It’s just, we try to bring unique things to the forefront, with new voices and new thoughts. And the ‘aha’ moments that people grab from this, is because we make it different. We want somebody to walk away from a ghost, you know what, I learned something from it as opposed, I was entertained by it. And I think there’s a big difference when it comes to that. 

Brynne Tillman 3:31

Well, you bring both. And I think that’s why it’s so fabulous. I listened to you, I try to walk, although I’ve been a little bad lately, but I try to walk around the block and do two miles a day, which happens to be the same amount of time as a 30-minute podcast.

Larry Levine 3:53

Isn’t that interesting? 

Brynne Tillman 3:54

Yeah! Like Okay! We’re coming to the end, right? So yeah, and so, I mean, I can’t wait to get from you, and I know Bill’s ready with some questions from you, so that we can also educate our audience with your insights. But if nothing else, if you guys drop off this right now and don’t watch anything else, go subscribe to Selling From The Heart–

Larry Levine 4:14

oh, you’re awesome.

Brynne Tillman 4:15

Our favorite podcast channel.

Bill McCormick 4:16

So Larry, tell you know, there’s some people that are listening or watching, that may have been under a rock and have not heard of Selling From The Heart. So talk a little bit about that, how you got involved in sales– 

Brynne Tillman 4:27

We didn’t ask him our first question.

Bill McCormick 4:29

No, because he’s going to talk about himself first, and then we’re going to talk more about the questions. 

Brynne Tillman 4:33

Okay. Good.

Larry Levine 4:34

Is this my opportunity to brag?

Brynne Tillman 4:36

Yeah. Brag.

Larry Levine 4:38

But I know, I don’t brag. But I spent 28 years in sales, and I sold in a really commoditized sales channel. But what made me, me, is when I brought me, to the forefront, and I say this with all sincerity is the way I stood out in a competitive landscape is I did things completely polar opposite than many in sales, I brought the soft skills to the forefront where many bring the hard skills to the forefront. That’s how I connected and related to people. And there’s a lot of other things beneath the, you know, beneath the covers on, you know, my 28 years in sales. But if we fast forward to the big ‘aha’ moment that I had, my big ‘aha’ moment is being fired at 50 years old from a high-paying corporate sales job. And I had to figure out what do, I do with myself. And it was through my near and dear friend, Darrell, and my lovely wife, Robin, they said; “Hey, you know, you got to share with the world, what made you, you, and what made you stand out in sales”. And you know, it was a rocky first couple years, I have to admit, right, I almost wanted to go back to “chasing the paycheck”. But what kept my foot on the gas pedal is both Darrell and my wife, Robin, they go; “You know, you got a message, you need to deliver it”. But our defining moment was starting the Selling From The Heart podcast. When, you know, I had to convince Darrell to do a podcast with me, and he goes; “Well, what are you going to call this podcast?”, and I said, Selling From The Heart, and he spits coffee out at me. He goes; “Where the heck did you pull this one from?” I said, Darrell, you’ve known me for a long time. I brought sincerity and substance in my heart to everything that I did. I wore my emotions on my sleeves, that’s how I connect to people, that’s how I relate to people, that’s how I make people feel comfortable with me, to share things about them. We’re gonna bring this out into the forefront in sales, and in three and a half years, the podcast has done amazingly well. I wrote Selling From The Heart, not knowing that I’d sell five copies or 500 copies. And it’s, we’ve created a worldwide movement, in three and a half years, around Selling From The Heart, and we’ve leveraged the power of social, to help us get our message out there.

Bill McCormick 6:48

Fantastic. And, like Brynne, I listened, when I was walking, I had some issues of blood pressure over the summer, started walking and found you guys, she didn’t even tell me about it. I just found it, and just fell in love with you guys and what you’re doing, and so appreciate you and Darrell, and what you bring to the table, and what you do for sales professionals all around the world. So, we start with one question, this may sound familiar to you. We asked all of our guests what, and I almost said what Selling From The Heart means to you, do you know what–

Larry Levine 7:21

Okay McCormick, now that would have been funny, if you laid that on me–

Bill McCormick 7:26

that would have been, not good. I could be fired. What does making sales social mean to you?

Larry Levine 

Interesting, it’s, to me, it’s always, sales has always been social. It’s always been ingrained in sales. So you know, I’ve said numerous times, I was using social and sales back in now. I’m gonna date myself. So back in the late 80s. It was, that’s just what it was, I didn’t know what social selling, it was just, we were selling. It was social as a part of it is, to me, is just relating and having conversations with people. It’s using the tools that are available to advance the sale, and build relationships. But, it’s just you know, as times changing, as tools change, and as terms changed, this wonderful word called social selling came to be, when in essence, sales has always been social, and social has always been a part of selling. It’s to me, it’s leveraging all the tools you have available to build, grow and nurture relationships. That’s what it means to me. But I think it’s become convoluted over the years, it’s become convoluted even over the more recent times. Because if you asked five different people the term, you know, if you asked that question, and he really squeezed it down and said; “what is social selling?”. You really have five different completely polar opposite answers.

Brynne Tillman 9:01

And we do it on a weekly basis.

Larry Levine 9:04

Yeah. Yeah, no doubt.

Bill McCormick 9:05

And often it’s around, you know, what you’re doing to attract rather than the end result, which is, you know, what we say is, is having more conversations like that’s what it’s all about. And I know, you know, what you’re saying is, is moving the conversation along developing a relationship being authentic, being genuine, but to so many, when you talk social selling, it’s, well, I put something out on LinkedIn and nothing happened or I send an email I sent 5000 emails and only three people open them up, and I didn’t get it. Oh, that doesn’t work. So that you know, that’s what we get a lot from people, when they’re talking about the meanings. But I like what you said, and so tell me, so you do sales training for companies, right? I mean, that’s, what you’re doing now. When you’re talking with a company, you’re talking to reps specifically and you’re talking about, like the top of their pipeline, what are some of the things you’re telling them to do, to bring people into the top of their pipeline?

Larry Levine 10:07

I’m going to share something that you said, I’m going to bring it right in and answer that question, is you talked about the conversation. And I believe that, where many salespeople struggle, is with conversational competence. How do I open up conversations? Because I will ask salespeople, now I don’t care if these salespeople are early on in their career, or late in their career. Though, I’ll ask him this question: What’s the hardest part of your job, what’s the hardest thing that you do, what’s the thing that you get the most uncomfortable in doing? And without a doubt, hands down, well past 80% of the time, most people say prospecting.

Brynne Tillman 10:54

Getting on the first call.

Larry Levine 10:55

Getting on the first call doing, you know, the core essentials around sales. Well, I look back on this and I said, Okay, well, if that’s the thing that you struggle with the most, and I think you’re going to struggle in sales period because in order to effectively prospect, you must effectively open up conversations with people.

Brynne Tillman 11:17

Correct.

Larry Levine 11:18

And that’s the thing that people struggle within sales. Because when we’re, and I can’t say all, but a vast majority of salespeople are in those sales conversation mode, all the time with people. But guess what, if I’m out prospecting, for new business, or new opportunities, I don’t know where it’s gonna go, all I look for, is I must open up when I’m prospecting a conversation with Bill or Brynne. It’s just, how am I going to go about doing it? And I think this is the thing that people struggle with the most, and if you look at the pipeline. Since you’d mention it, I’m really concerned because what most people are feeding in the top of their pipelines, is not much.

Brynne Tillman 12:01

“I got a connection on LinkedIn! It’s a lead!”.

Larry Levine 12:04

Right, exactly. So I remember, so can I take everyone back like, this is like 2009, 2010. But there’s a story behind pipeline and funnel around this. I knew back then it was hard, and I did something, and maybe I’m an anomaly. But there’s certain things that are not negotiable, In my mind, it’s still to this day as our growing, our business, is every single day non-negotiable, you must open up new conversations and prospects. And if you don’t do that, then I say get out of sales, and I’m being harsh about it. But part of being in sales is opening up new conversations every single day, and filling your funnel. And so back in 2009, 2010, when this is, when I really didn’t know what social was all about, in its simplistic format. Is my largest client at the time, told me: “Hey, you got to figure out what this LinkedIn is all about”. I go; “What are you talking about? I never heard of this thing before. What? What do you call it?”, right? This is–yeah, and but this was the tail end of like, 2009. And I was late to the party a little bit. So January 2010, is when I joined, and my client became my first connection. And right then and there, I started to see the power behind this. I reverse engineered this whole thing when it came to prospecting, is I just looked at, as this, as a one big conversation starter. And I knew that if people are hiding behind voicemail, and people are hiding behind email, and so forth. That I have just been given the keys to the kingdom, to people that I have, that have been blowing me off. So I, this was the mentality that I took in starting conversations, is I knew that if Brynne and Bill were blowing me off, in other words, they weren’t responding to my 25 emails and the 1000 voicemails that I’d left them. I knew that if I asked them to connect with meaning, and I gave them a reason to invite them into my network. And if Brynne or Bill said yes, I was 50% there mentally, that I was gonna have a conversation with them. And it wasn’t up to Bill or Brynne. Because at that point, Bill or Brynne doesn’t really know me, doesn’t even like me, doesn’t even trust me. I just said something that caused them to accept a connection request on LinkedIn. The other half of this was the proactive way, that I went about earning the right to having coffee with Brynne and Bill, and it’s that, it was that simple. But then–

Brynne Tillman 14:43

Or you think it’s like magic, that to us is so important. Just because they connect, does not allow you to pitch, you have to suck them in with value and build a relationship, before you can ever ask for something.

Bill McCormick 12:56

But even before that, what he said, and it was three words that I wrote down. I was like; “Yes, that’s it connect with meaning”. Not just, I’m going to connect with this person, and this person and this person, but having an idea and connecting with meaning. In other words, and I don’t want to put words in your mouth, Larry, but finding the right reason to connect with them and giving them a reason to accept that connection request–

Brynne Tillman 15:24

in a way that matters to them, not just to us.

Larry Levine 15:27

Right. And the way I always know, maybe I looked at this completely different, but it was what I placed on myself. And I would say, hey, Larry, if I’m asking somebody to connect at whatever level they are, in whatever marketplace, wherever they may be, am I worthy of having a conversation with? And that’s the way I chose to look at this. So I carried myself all the time as; “Hey, you know, what, if I asked Brynne or Bill, and if I’m inviting them into my network”, there’s a reason why obviously, at some point in time, I’d like to advance I’d like to get to know them to a point where something happens. And me being a sales geek, we know what the end result of that would be, hopefully, you know, I earn the right to do business with them. But before that happens, I have to position myself as a professional, I got to act like a professional, I got to carry myself like a professional. And then when, and then just because I’m a big believer perceptions reality. And so now I have to go; “Okay, so Brynn and Bill just got this invite”, right? Who is this guy who just asked me to connect, right? He used some really nice words and so forth. Now what? What’s behind the curtain? And that’s why I always still to this day, I always carry myself, am I worthy of having a conversation with somebody?

Brynne Tillman 16:50

Yeah. So do you, we often talk about sending value, maybe you curated a piece of content that could be valuable for someone. There’s so many different ways to start conversations. What do you recommend that reps do? So now I connect with someone and I want to start a conversation. How do you get that ball rolling?

Larry Levine 17:13

It’s interesting. I’m a big believer. I said, there’s a gentleman, I read his book, this goes back a long time ago. It just justified my thinking, it was just the right book. I read it at the right time, at the right place in my career. It’s by Kevin Davis, and Brynne, you might know Kevin Davis.

Brynne Tillman 17:30

I know who he is. Yeah.

Larry Levine 17:31

Yeah, and Kevin Davis wrote a book called Slow Down Sell Faster. Now I read that book, right about the time I signed up for LinkedIn. So just to give you an idea, that book’s probably 10 years, 9-10 years old. But it had some massive impact, and it justified my thinking. And obviously, by the title of the book, you’re getting the gist of the book, right? There’s a lot more to it, but for time sake. And I carried the philosophy around Slow Down Sell Faster, into social. And I said, if I can slow it down, can I connect faster, if I can slow it down, can I advance the conversation in a different way? So in other words, and I will give, I will literally give your listeners the verbiage I use. Because all I’m looking for is the next conversation. So in the way that I was trained a long time ago, in the sales channel that I grew up in, is first in wins. Now, it doesn’t mean that you win, and you get the sale, but sometimes first in May, which means that you set the tone for this, the whole journey, right? You created this that everybody else has to look up to. So I took that philosophy to how I connected with people, and I said; “the first to start a conversation sets the stage”. So when I asked somebody to connect, or if they asked me to connect, it depends, right? So if I asked Bill to connect, and I’m going to give your listeners the exact verbiage I use 90% of the time is this. If Bill asked me to connect, and I accepted, this is what goes back to Bill: “Thank you, Bill for asking me to connect on LinkedIn. I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me. I just want to let you know that I’m here to be a resource to you somewhere along your journey. All the best, Larry”. That’s it. As simple as that is. That’s what goes out to everybody, who asked me to connect. Now one or two things are gonna happen next. They’re either gonna say something back or they’re not, right? That’s simple. Right? I got a 50/50 shot at this.

Bill McCormick 19:50

Mm hmm.

Larry Levine 19:51

So Bill being Bill, Bill being a human, right, he is Bill’s, gonna go: “That was awfully nice. Thank you. I appreciate you sending me that”. Now, I’m putting words in Bill’s mouth. But again, you’re getting the idea. The person started a conversation back with me. It doesn’t mean that he likes me, loves me, wants to do business with me, or even trusts me. He just responded back to a ‘pleasantry’. Now, from there, I can still advance the conversation or I can put a break on it. Now, I’m more than likely to put a break on it. But it’s not a very long break. And then a couple days later. I might drop something in Bill’s Message Center: “Hey, Bill, you know what I just ran across this article, I thought you’d enjoy it. You know what, let me know what you think about it”. 

Brynne Tillman 20:47

That’s exactly what we say. 

Larry Levine 20:48

And nine times out of 10. He’s gonna say ‘fine’, and then from there. This is the line that I use. And I tell you what, the success on this is mind-blowing. Once you reply back, hey, thanks, Larry. Appreciate it. I’ll share it. And I’ll get back to you. I’d say fine. Hey, but I just be curious. I’m curious to know, how open-minded would you be to a conversation? After you share this with your team? Would it be worth 20 minutes of your time to peel this back even more?

Brynne Tillman 21:23

So are you a Phil M. Jones fan?

Larry Levine 

I got a, so full disclosure. So Phil M. Jones, if you’re listening into this, I have a madman crush on you.

Brynne Tillman 21:35

Need to.

Larry Levine 21:36

So yes, because I tell you what, I am full, full kud–full kudos to Phil, because I’m active in the National Speakers Association in LA, and I heard him speak. And I got his book, Exactly What To Say. He phrases it a little bit different. But, you know, I think the highest form of flattery is to take what somebody is using and make it.

Brynne Tillman 21:59

Use and tell all the time.

Larry Levine 22:00

Yeah. Right? And so you’re, I mean, thanks for pointing that out. You’re spot on with that Brynne. And I’m a big believer that, I don’t know at all, I’d love to learn it all.

Brynne Tillman

By the way Larry, we use your stuff.

Larry Levine 21:17

Go ahead, right? It’s, I don’t–

Brynne Tillman 22:19

We give credit, right? We’re like you know, and what you did to, like, here’s an author, me, one of the things that we do really well is we absorb the brilliance and genius out there, and then translate it into social selling, right? And so Phil M. Jones, I actually have it on audio, I’m an audio person, and I almost never listened to a book more than once in a, and there’s chapters because they’re like four minutes. That I would just listen to over, and over, and over again to master what he was saying.

Larry Levine 22:52

Yeah, he’s so, I mean, he is–I’m dying for him to come on the Selling From The Heart podcast. But that’s another story. But here’s the point behind where I’m really going with this, is whether it’s social, whether it’s email, whether it’s phone, whether it’s face-to-face, if you struggle with just genuine, regular conversation. You’re going to struggle doesn’t matter what the tool is, it really doesn’t matter. And I think what happens a lot of times is we get caught up. And when I say we, the general public and sales gets caught up with the, the first word that comes to my head, so you all are going to get what you get. Is this is the sexiness behind social? And to me, and I’ll say it right, you guys say it in a different way. But I say those people that spray out content and don’t engage in conversation, or delivering nothing but social graffiti.

Brynne Tillman 23:54

Oh, I like social graffiti.

Larry Levine 23:56

And there’s a lot of people spraying, right? There’s a lot of people spraying the social canvas with a bunch of graffiti. Well, if I want to get noticed, if I’m in sales, and I want my ideal clients to notice me, acting like a fool and an actor and actress online, is not going to get you anywhere. But if I can speak their language, and I can educate them on things that are important to them, and I can carry myself in a certain way. And I show up every day with consistency, and I put myself out there, in a way that’s completely, totally different than everybody else. I’ve just risen above all the noise. In fact, people ask me all the time, they go: “Hey, Larry, how did you get noticed when you were selling copiers in your marketplace? How did you get noticed on social?” I go: “It’s quite easy. I just acted like a professional and carried myself like one and did something completely polar opposite than everybody else on social does. I just engaged and I answered everybody’s piece of content. commented back literally. I don’t care how long it takes me to go”. “No There’s no way you don’t do that”. I said; “Yes, I do”. The fastest way to build an audience is engage and comment on everything, they do no rhyme, nor, no reason, no excuse, right? Because if you can’t comment on the stuff that you put out there, then don’t put it out there.

Brynne Tillman 25:15

Yeah. So you know, I absolutely love everything you’re saying. And that engagement piece is so critical. I am shocked at how many people will put out content, and then seven people engage and they’re not engaging back. And I like, have messaged people that have not even been my second-degree connection, saying, you know; “I’m a LinkedIn trainer, can I give you a piece of advice on this great piece of content, that you put out there that lots of people love”. Like, well, yeah, I guess so. And you engage back because the next time you share something, if you don’t engage back, they’re gonna stop engaging.

Larry Levine 25:59

Yeah, no, you’re so spot on. And here’s a tip for everyone who’s listening, if you want to build a sense of community, with your audience, engage. Now there’s a term, we’ve all heard it before, right? Those that are married probably understand this better than most, is selective hearing. Right? We all have selective hearing. Well, I’ve noticed when it comes to socials, people have selective engagement. They engage with people’s content that they feel can get amplified. I don’t really care who comments on–well, let me paraphrase that, I do care. But it’s a figure of speech, I don’t care who comments on my stuff. I comment back, I’m not selective, but I’m not selective in what concerns me. And there’s power in– yes, there’s power influencers out there, whatever you want to call these people, right? is, they’re selective on who they engage with. Here’s what be– I would love this, right? I would love to see this happen. And I know it’ll never happen. Imagine all the likes, all the emojis all of that can be completely removed off of social, and forcing people to truly engage.

Brynne Tillman 27:17

Comments only.

Larry Levine 27:19

Comments only, talk about conversational competence. I think conversations would rise to the forefront because they would have to. But I call like, likes, claps, hearts, these are all social drive-bys. Right? People just drive by– I’m going to give Tillman, I’m going to give– Hey Brynne! I just called you, Tillman. How’s that?

Brynne Tillman 27:41

I feel like we are now, like, really connected.

Larry Levine 27:46

I just caught myself doing that. Sorry.

Brynne Tillman 27:49

That’s my sports name, and so that can certainly come handy.

Larry Levine 27:53

But you guys get what I’m saying? Is the lazy way out of the conversation is to throw up one of these. Now you know, it’s okay to disagree. And there’s sometimes I’ll do it. But not in the very beginning, It’s not going to happen.

Brynne Tillman 28:10

Yeah. And so one of the things you said, so, you know, people and Bill kind of mentioned too. I post a couple things on LinkedIn, nobody engages, it’s not working. But you know, we engage in I’m not even 100% sure what the first pieces were. But I know that, I would engage on your content, you’d engage back, you’d engage on my content. So you know, and we came up through the LinkedIn ranks together, I think, you know, I mean, I had been doing it longer. But from the recognition in the world, I think, the social world, we kind of ran parallel for quite a few years. And what I recognized for the people that really get that, that authentic engagement, it’s because they keep coming back. Right? So I engage on your stuff you comment. So I knew the next time I saw Larry thing, I mean, not that it’s, but it’s just human nature that if I engage, he’s getting engaged back. Right? So it’s more, I’m more inspired to continue, to amplify your content, because I feel can– it’s about the connection. Right? If we want to connect with humans, one of the things Bill and I talk about all the time, and I think you’re sort of saying some of this is, treat people on the other side of the message, the same way you would if they were on the other side of the table. 

Larry Levine 29:30

Yeah.

Brynne Tillman 29:31

Right? 

Larry Levine 29:32

So good.

Brynne Tillman 29:33

Right, like and so if some– if you were sitting on this side of the table and someone made a comment, you wouldn’t go, right? Like you talk to them.

Bill McCormick 29:42

Right. You wouldn’t ignore them and you wouldn’t walk away. And I’ll just say this, as we talk about supporting one another’s content, that is very important. But there’s another piece of that and that’s the content itself. And so one of the things Larry puts out tremendous content, Brynne puts out tremendous content.

Brynne Tillman 29:59

Daily dose.

Well, yes, sign up for the daily post, (Brynne) you’ll get calls at the end, (Bill) every morning. So, listen, we got to wrap this up, we’re coming to the end. And I hope you’ve got as much as I got. I’ve got a page full of notes here on things. But you know, selective engagement is not the way to go. You know, we want to engage with people. So Larry, can you just tell our listeners, how can they stay in touch with you? How can they contact you, follow you on LinkedIn?

Larry Levine 30:31

Wow, yeah, first of all, you can find me on LinkedIn. I’m all over the place on LinkedIn, you go to sellingfromtheheart.net. And you can find out everything you want to know about Selling From The Heart to Brynne’s point about the daily dose, I put out every single day, Monday through Friday, except if there’s a holiday, a daily thought, never has it been repeated. I put daily thought into all of this. It’s not recant. It’s not. Three weeks later, I’ll repeat the same message. No, it’s something that I thought about during the day, you can go to sellingfromtheheart.net/daily and sign up for it. You can find the book on Amazon and Audible, and–

Brynne Tillman 3:13

And I love it because Larry actually is talking. (Larry) Yeah, I love it. I hear him in my ear. It’s all–

Larry Levine 31:19

Okay, can I just tell it? Do we have time for a quick story? This is– I’ll squeeze it in as real fast as possible. Because if Darrell is watching this, he’s gonna laugh when he hears this. So my book came out well, before the audio came out. And Darrell kept pushing me and pushing me; “Hey, you got to do the audio, you got to do the audio”. “No, I’m not going to do the audio”, right? So I remember talking to somebody. This was while back, and I said; “Hey, I think I’m just gonna get a voiceover to do this”. And somebody said; “No, don’t do it. Because you already have a podcast. People already know your voice, right? You know, where to inflect in your book”, and so forth. I said; “Fine”, right? Hook, line, and sinker. But I never really said anything to Darrell full-disclosure. Excuse me, and then Darrell goes; “Hey, Larry, here’s your deadline. If you don’t have the audio of your book done by a certain point in time, guess what, big surprise. Because I’m going to hire somebody to do it, and you’re not going to like it”. And so he forced me into doing the audio just like he was when he hijacked me into writing Selling From The Heart, because he took me across the Midwest and convinced me to write the book. But the– I’m a big believer that Selling From The Heart came to life when I decided to read the book. (Brynne) Oh, interesting. (Larry)Yeah.

Brynne Tillman 32:32

So you internalize it even deeper.

Larry Levine 32;35

Yeah, and what was really interesting is. I wish I could take the outtakes, because the outtakes are like R-rated outtakes. But nevertheless, I would start reading it, and I would start laughing, because I knew what was coming next.

Bill McCormick 32:53

Wow, so good. Well, so listen, Larry, thank you so much for being here, for supporting us, and for what you have given to the sales professional community at large. We really appreciate you sharing your thoughts with, what it takes to make sales social. So for our audience, thanks so much for spending time with us.

Outro (Bob Woods) 33:15

Thanks for listening, and join us again for more special guest instructors bringing you marketing, sales, training, and social selling strategies that will set you apart. Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest episodes from the Making Sales Social podcasts, leave a review down below. Tell us what you think, what you learned, and what you want to hear from us next. You can also listen to us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Visit our website socialsaleslink.com for more information.