To employ yourself means to take individual self-responsibility. It means motivating yourself to do an action you know you should be doing. John Solleder’s guest in this episode is his very own mentor, Larry Thompson, the author of The Millionaire Training. Larry shares with John his journey from a construction worker to a millionaire network marketer. The moral of his story? If he can do it, you can do it! You have all the skills you need right at your fingertips. All you need to do is to give yourself the authority to get the job done. Tune in and employ yourself today. You’d love to listen to this episode!
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Be The Boss And The Bossy: How To Employ Yourself Part 2 With Larry Thompson
Sometimes in life you get an opportunity to introduce people who are special in your life. There’s a lot of people you’re all special to me in different ways but when I first started in the industry years ago, I was a college kid. I attended a Seton Hall University in New Jersey. In my last semester, a good buddy of mine came in one day and introduced me to the concept of network marketing into a product that I bought that night. That night, I went through and I figured out by about 4:00 AM how to become a millionaire in network marketing. I didn’t know it wasn’t going to be as easy as drawing the circles on the paper, but I fell in love with the idea of the industry at that point.
I graduated from college on May 18, 1983. When I graduated college, then-President Ronald Reagan was our commencement speaker. He talked about the fact that in life, find something that you’re passionate about and find a mentor to teach you. It’s a great message from the president. I took it all in and realized that I was already starting to get a little bit of mentor ship with that network marketing business.
My sponsor said to me, “There’s a guy that’s going to come to Hartford, Connecticut next month that we need to go see.” That was the very first time I heard this gentleman’s name that I’ll share with you momentarily. We drove up to Hartford and I’ll never forget this as long as I live because it was myself, three other guys and one little girl. The five of us, we shared a hotel room. That’s how broke real was in those days.
We took a station wagon with a hole in the floor that we could drop pennies down as we were driving. It was a fun experience. I had never stayed in a hotel before at that point in my life. It’s interesting as you go back in these things but that weekend, that Saturday afternoon when they brought out this keynote speaker, it was like seeing Elvis Presley for me. The lights went down, the artificial smoke came up. They used dry ice. This gentleman came out and he was unbelievable.
During the course of this gentleman’s speech, he said, “For things to change, you have to change it. For things to get better, you have to get better.” I had never heard that type of language before. How I grew up it was the president’s fault or it was the government’s fault or it was your next-door neighbor’s fault what you weren’t achieving. It was the first time anybody ever said to me if I was really going to have a successful life, I had a role in it.
I heard that I resonated and I bonded with this guy, even though I was in the audience and he was already a legend to what he was doing at that time. I bonded with him in another way that he came from the construction world. We came from the construction world. I knew he knew what real hard work was prior to doing network marketing. I said that day, “This is somebody I want to learn from.”
Over the course of time, we went from being students and teachers to friends, which I value above all else but let me tell you a little bit more about Larry as I introduce Larry Thompson to you all. Larry started in 1968 in network marketing. Think about that in your case. How old were you then? Were you alive then? You weren’t even alive yet in 1968.
He’s seen some of the people who started the network marketing industry knew some of them were mentored by some of the people like Jim Rohn, Bobby Depew and others. In addition to that, he helped design two companies that achieved over $600 million in new annual sales and were recognized by the direct selling association for doing so.
He had something to do with both of those companies in a very significant sales way in designing them, their compensation plan, training modules, etc. He’s the author of The Millionaire Training book as well as The Millionaire Training tapes. That’s what me and my colleagues grew up on, learning this business from him. He’s considered to be the mentor to millionaires. The Wall Street Journal, the most authoritative business newspaper in the world, said that he was the original architect of wealth building.
You have to change. For things to get better, you need to get better. Click To TweetThink about that for a minute. You’re going to be learning from the original architect of wealth building. This man has changed people’s lives and I want to not only introduce him to you but also, take notes. Most importantly, that day in Hartford, for things to change, you have to change became my mantra and it went into my notebook. Once Larry shared it, it became mine. Let me introduce my good friend, my mentor, Mr. Larry Thompson. Larry, welcome.
Thanks, John. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the introduction. I got to tell you, it sounds like I can walk on water. I want you to know I can but I have to know where the rocks are first and that’s what I was taught many years ago. It was where the rocks are. I’ve tried to pass that on as much as I possibly can here to as many people over the years.
Everybody likes to hear nice things said about themselves. Obviously, when John’s making these comments here, I feel very good about that but I want to share with you a couple of things. Number one, I’m not any different than you guys are. John was talking about going to that first meeting and hearing for things to change, you got to change. For things to get better, you got to get better.
We had some pretty unique connections there about that first experience because the first training class I ever attended in my life was with Jim Rohn. I got that directly from Jim Rohn at that meeting. It had the same impact on me. This guy John was talking about, he stayed at a hotel room for the first time in his life. The first time I’d ever been in a hotel was when I came to my first opportunity meeting.
I got to tell you something. I’m not the person that you would be sitting here to think about these nice accolades that have been shared here of any substance in their life. I was the long-haired hippie construction worker. I grew up in construction work. John’s family comes from that background too. We have a lot of similarities there. I’d never been in a hotel at all. That’s the only reason I went to that meeting at night.
I never finished high school. The reason I didn’t finish high school was that I was too shy to give that oral book report that was required back then. I don’t think you even have to know how to read nowadays but back then, you had the read and write about the book and then walk across in front of your classmates and share a little bit about the book. You got to understand, I came from a very small farming community in the San Joaquin Valley where Keith is from. It was only about 12,000 people.
There was only first through the sixth grade then there was seventh and eighth grade. and then there was high school. All of these kids I grew up with and yet I was couldn’t bear to walk across. I was too shy to walk across in front of my classmates and give that oral book report, which I had done. I could tell you the color of your shoes but I couldn’t tell you the color of your eyes.
I still have those characteristics. I haven’t outgrown those. In this environment right now, I’m comfortable and I’m confident but you get me in a regular environment and I’m still that shy person. I shared this with you because most people in our space sell themselves short. They don’t think they’re young enough. They don’t think they’re old enough. They don’t think they’re tall enough. They don’t think they’re short enough.
We always have a tendency to hang on to those crutches, as I call them, that we’ve taken possession of because someone has shared something about us sometime in our life that we accepted that, “I’m too shy and I don’t have the confidence. I’m too young or I’m too old. I’m too short. I’m too tall.” Using those as illustrations, whatever those are, let’s say that they’re all true because it’s true that I’m that shy person. Not in this environment but I am in almost every other. No matter what, I want you to understand something. You can do this. You can do it. You are good enough as you are.
There has been a major push on our space of personal growth and personal development and I’m a firm believer in that. I’m going to tell you what I’m not a firm believer of. That’s the cause. That’s the result. You do not grow and become and grow personally because you read books or you take seminars. I have classes that I sell and I have an academy and all of that. You may say, “This is the opposite. Why would you be saying this?” It’s because it’s the truth.
At the direct sales news here in April 2021, some of you might’ve seen it but they did a virtual broadcast of the top 100 companies. John was talking about that. Two of them that I helped put together not only get over $1 billion in 2020 but each one of them had a $600 million increase and got them tied for the Bravo work.
It’s something I’m very proud of because I have a major part to do with both of those. The reality is that those platforms were built for everyday people. The long-haired hippie, the schoolteacher, the grocery checker, the mattress salesman, the lady truck driver or the waitress. If that can happen, if people like us, me, can make this happen then I share that you can too.
Back to personal growth and personal development. There’s been a big push. That’s how you grow. You got to learn more, to do more. You don’t have to learn more to do more. You got to do what your job description is, which is to employ yourself to go out and onboard members and customers on a daily basis. Not train them because if you can do this, they can do that.
As distributors, what I’ve learned is that distributors will use any reason in the world to keep from doing their job description, which is onboard new members now. Onboard new members now. Not last week, not last month but now. Onboard new customers now, that’s our job description.
What we’ll do is when we’re having a tough time doing that, we’re not feeling good about it because we’re getting some rejection. That’s too strong of a word. It’s some encouragement and not getting a favorable answer all the time. That doesn’t feel good. What do we do? We pick up the phone and call on one of our team members. We call our team members because we’ll encourage them. They’ll tell us, “Thank you, Larry.”
It’s like petting your dog. Your pets. “Thank you, Larry. You helped me and you care for me and I’m going to do everything I can to make you so proud of me.” I’m doing that as a crutch. I’m using that as a crutch because I am not there onboarding members and customers myself. That’s our only job.
John asked me to share a subject matter. That’s called employee yourself. It’s one of my favorite subject matters of all because it’s really at the heart of the matter, what we do is how to employ ourselves. That’s something that was easy for me as far as taking that responsibility because I did some network. I worked on my hands and knees and working on my hands and knees especially with cement, there are certain things you got to do at certain times all the time to have a favorable outcome.
Too often in our lifetime, unless you’re put in that pressure situation, it’s like a pilot. There are certain things they got to do to prepare for that plane to take off. There are certain things I got to do to keep that plane in the air and or certain things they got to do to land that plane at a prescribed time to have a favorable outcome.
You need to learn how to be the boss and the bossy. Click To TweetThere are very few things that we do in our life that put us under those pressure. Pressure’s the wrong word. Those precise moments where we have to take that individual self-responsibility to do an action that we know we should be doing but there’s no room for us to give ourselves an excuse to not do it. That’s important. The book here, The Millionaire Training book that we finally came up with, there’s a chapter and it’s in audiobook too.
You’ve got an audio portion. It’s only about nine minutes long. It’s not that hard because it’s not that difficult to learn. All of us have seen people in business that were great as an employee in that business. All of a sudden, they get into their own business and that same business and they don’t succeed. Why is that? Why does that take place? For example, you could take into consideration, like for myself, I’ll call it construction work.
I’ll use landscaping. That’s a better illustration, perhaps. You see a person that’s a lead foreman. The superintendent, whoever it may be, for this landscaping company and they do so well. They do a great job. They keep customer service going. They keep all the employees happy and they keep everything on schedule. They make everything happen. You say, “I wonder when Larry’s got it. He’s doing a great job as a foreman or superintendent. I wonder when he’s going to start his own landscaping business.”
Finally, Larry does it. He gets his own landscaping and he only lasts about six months. Why is that? Why does that take place? It’s because he didn’t know how to employ himself. He knew how to be employed but he didn’t know how to employ himself. I had to learn and I’ve taught over the years, how to be the boss and the bossy. We got the landscaping on the streets. Let’s take the hairstylist illustration. Someone does a hairstylist and the lead hairstylist in a salon. She can be absolutely great.
She keeps it moving. All the customers are happy. When is Sally going to go on to get her own salon? Finally, she does and she doesn’t last very long at all. Why does that happen again? Why does that take place? It’s because when we get into our business space here, as an independent business contractor, as a distributor, we have the responsibility of being the boss and the bossy. We’re both the boss and the bossy.
Most of us are very good in almost every successful business that’s out there. An entrepreneur that’s out there was a great employee before they ever became a great entrepreneur. They always did the best job to take good. They always took self-responsibility. They were always self-determined. They had the motivate themselves. They had to be disciplined themselves. Almost every successful entrepreneur has those characteristics as bossy.
When they become the boss, what happens now? That’s the difficult part. I will tell you something, John was talking about Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn and I joined the same company the same night back in 1968. We were both distributors. For those of you that don’t know Jim Rohn, I’m going to tell you that. If you do know Jim Rohn, you know him as a business philosopher and business strategist. I know Jim like that but I got to tell you something. I know him as a distributor. We used to do meetings together. We set up meetings together. We helped each other with each other’s guests. There’s nobody on the planet that spent more personal time or stage time with Jim Rohn than me.
He talks about being the little farm boy back in Idaho. I’ve been to his place up there with his dad. I work with Jim Rohn throughout the ‘60s and the ‘70s but I also brought him into Herbalife in 1985 because I needed some extra help at that point. What a difference that he made for everything that takes place. I’m bringing that up because Jim Rohn was a salesman at Sears. Sears doesn’t exist anymore. He was making $57 a week. Jim was a good boss. He wasn’t a good boss. He had to learn it. It’s the same thing with the long-haired hippie construction worker.
I want to give you the story. I love telling stories because it helps me. I was taught that by Bobby and Jim, that people would relate to stories more than they do to facts and figures. I want you to think about this long-haired hippie, making what I was making $650 an hour at that particular point. That was a lot of money back then. I never thought about doing anything except construction work because I loved it. My family did it. I enjoyed it. I live construction work and that’s all I wanted to do.

Employ Yourself: People relate to stories more than they do to facts and figures.
It never occurred to me to do something different until I got that message like John was referring to. Maybe this could turn up for someone like myself. I will never forget one of them because of statements that Bobby made at the meeting that night attended. He said, “It’s obvious that we’re making a lot of money here.” You can tell when people are making a lot of money in a group, in an environment.
He said, “I’d like to be able to promise you that you can make the money that we’re making but I can promise you this. What if this turns out 10% for you what’s turned up for us? I want you to think about that. What if that happens?” It was like a slap across the face for me. Guess what the long-haired hippie construction worker did with no education, no self-confidence, no self-esteem? I defaulted and gave away 90% of the success. I couldn’t accept that but I said, “Maybe 10%.” That was enough to get me to start thinking, “Maybe.”
I want you to think about what we do out there in our space, $10,000 a month in the next 90 days. Lamborghini, bikinis. We’re having all that talk and diamond rings all the bling. I’m going to tell you, the majority of your audience was wearing, is wearing, will continue to wear the shoes that the long-haired hippie wore. Ten percent is the most that they can think about at that point for the majority of the people you ever talked to.
I gave it away and he said, “I gave the 90% away.” He said, “What if it turns out 10%? If that’s true then why not now? What if 10% of the things that you hear about today and tomorrow, 10% turn out for you the way it has for the others? Why not you and why not now?” Once you get gone and because you aren’t an independent business contractor, you do have to be the boss and the bossy. I remember being in Marriott at the O’Hare Airport in Chicago.
I’d been invited in and the meeting was over. I went down to the coffee shop and I was shy. I couldn’t even hang around most of these people. There was a group of people sitting over there around a circle around a big booth and Bobby was talking. There were about 7 or 8 people listening to him. I came up and sat at the booth right behind where Bobby was but I didn’t want to participate. I was too shy. He said those words. You got to employ yourself like being the boss and the bossy. He didn’t say any more at all but for me, I had to put some meat on those bones. How does that mean, the boss and the bossy?
It’s like I had developed Larry One and Larry Two. Larry One was the boss and Larry Two was the bossy. Larry One and Larry Two had to get together and talk about their job description and their terms and conditions for receiving the pay. They had to have some agreement. Larry One ran an ad in the newspaper and Larry Two answered.
Larry Two never thought much about it but he liked Larry One and Larry One liked Larry Two. Finally, Larry One said, “Larry Two, I like to work with you. I think you’ve got the desire. I think you’ve got the willingness to work and you seem fairly teachable. I think that maybe you can make this work. Maybe not the way I want but how about 10%?” That was what was going on in my brain.
Larry Two says, What do I have to do? What do I get paid?” Larry One says, “I’m willing to pay you a $100,000 a year.” Larry Two, “$100,000? What are you talking about? That’s more money than I can ever think about. I’m willing to do it.” Larry Two says, “What do I have to do?” “You got to onboard members and onboard customers on a daily basis.”
“I understand, Larry Two, that it doesn’t always happen every day but what I need you to do is take the responsibility for me to pay you this $100,000 to go through the effort to be able to possibly onboard members and customers every day on a consistent basis.” Larry Two said, “I don’t understand.” “It’s like going to the gym. Do you want to lose 30 pounds? You’re not going to lose 30 pounds overnight but I need you to go to the gym and I need you to get in shape. I need you to decide how many days a week you’re going to go to the gym, how long you’re going to be there and what you’re going to try and lose.”
You already have the characteristics you need to succeed at your fingertips. Click To TweetThey put it together. They talked that plan through. What is it that Larry One is telling Larry Two, “I want you to onboard new members and new customers every day and by the way? We got to decide what those days are. I would like to get at least five days a week out of you.” That was easy for me because I worked construction five days a week. That was something I could identify with. Five days a week, you want me to onboard members and customers.
Larry Two said, “What if I don’t get a new customer or member today? “All I care about as you go through the process of talking to people about buying your products, about joining your company, the process. I don’t want you to think about it. I don’t want you to send out a post and pictures of your food that get someone to know, like and trust you. I need you to talk to somebody today. The results I’m not interested in because that’s a result of Sinaloa, which is another subject matter, safety in numbers and the Law of Average. I need you to talk to people.”
Larry Two says, “How many people do you want me to talk to for a $100,000 a year? I’ll talk to 50 a day.” Larry One said, “No, I don’t want you to do that. I want you to be consistent. I would feel very comfortable instead of 100 people a day, 10%, if you talk to ten people a day, five days a week. Ten people a day about would you like to buy my products today after you explained it to them. Would you like to join my business today after you explained it to them? Not getting them to set up an appointment but talk to them about buying my products.
Would you like to buy them today, yes or no? The reaction of Larry One is, “I don’t care what the answer is. I do know we’ll have a law of average and it will work out in my favor. Same thing for the opportunity. Same thing for the products. I want you to do that.” Larry Two said, “$100,000 a year and you want me to talk to ten people a day. I’m going to do this deal.” Larry One says, “What? Five days a week. Do you want to work? Boss, Bossy. I’m going to do Monday through Friday because that’s what I’m used to in construction work.”
Boss says, “When do you want to put in your eight hours, bossy Larry Two?” “I’m used to starting at 8:00 and working to 4:00. I’ll do that.” “No problem. I don’t care what it is. You tell me what it is. You’re going to talk five days a week. You’re going to talk to ten people a day. That’s your job description. You’re going to choose between 8:00 and 4:00. No problem whatsoever.”
Larry Two says, “Do you mean to tell me if I do that, you’re going to pay me the equivalent of $8,000 a month for doing that? I’m your guy.” Larry One says, “When do we want to start?” Larry Two says, “Let’s start on Monday.” Monday, Larry Two is excited about his first day on the job, he can’t even stand himself and he’s getting ready. He’s all excited about doing everything. He’s getting ready to go out and talk to people. The only way he knows how to talk to people is to bump into people on the streets and talk. He didn’t know anything about social media, doesn’t know anything about and anything. That’s his responsibility to figure out those ten people.
Larry Two is going to be going out at 8:00 in the morning. He looks at his watch and you know what? It’s 8:03. He says, “I’m three minutes late. No problem. I’ll make up for it at the end of the day here.” As he starts to leave, he gets in his car and backs his car out the driveway. It looks in the rearview mirror. Guess who’s in the backseat? Larry One. Larry One said, “Larry Two, I’m a little mixed up here. I thought we had an agreement that you were going to start at 8:00?”
He said, “It’s 8:04 now. I’m going to make up for it later on.” Larry One says to Larry Two, “When you did construction work, if you started at 8:00, you knew what that meant. You actually started at 7:59 in the morning. You knew that. You started ahead of time, going out here and making $6.50 an hour. I’m paying you $8,000 a month and you’re going to start off for me three minutes late. We’re going to have to have a discussion about this, Larry Two. If you want this, we’ll cut back the pay. We’ll cut back to responsibility.”
You got to learn how to be the boss and the bossy. What we have done is become very casual and casual breeds casualties. If you can make this 10% factor that’s out there then why would you dare be late when you’d never be late as the bossy but you’re the boss and you’re late? It doesn’t make any sense. Everything goes one on one until about Thursday.

Employ Yourself: Go through the process of talking to people about buying your products and joining your company today.
On Thursday, Larry Two is heading back home, he has a good day. He’s supposed to be talking to ten people a day and he’s had a good day but he’s only talked to seven. He’s feeling good because he’s 7 or better than any 10 he’s ever talked to. “This is going to be great. I know how you guys sell yourself. I know how you do that.” Larry Two’s driving home and as he pulls into the driveway, who’s leaning against the garage door? Larry One. Larry One has said, “How are you doing, Larry Two?” Larry Two said, “I had some good people today.”
Larry One said, “I know I’ve been out there. I’ve watched you but I’m a little bit confused here. I don’t know if it was 7 or 8 but I only counted seven on my list that you talked to and I thought you were supposed to talk to ten a day?” “Yeah but the seven I talked to was good, you’re not even to believe it.”
He said, “Larry Two, I pay you for talking to ten. I don’t pay you for talking to seven. If you’re going to talk to seven, we’re going to have to adjust your pay here, Larry Two. What do you want to do? Do you want to honor up to who you committed yourself to be or do you want to honor up to be this independent business contractor making this money? Do you want to honor up to that or do you need me to cut that back? What’s the deal here, Larry Two?” Larry Two says, “You’re right. That will never happen again.”
That goes along now for about a month and everything’s cool. Larry Two is about ready to leave for work. He’s going to be there at 7:59 in the morning like you used to do at construction work. He gets a phone call at about 7:30 in the morning. It’s a good friend of his that he hasn’t seen in five years that has come into town is hanging around and wants to spend some time with him. This guy is good. If Larry Two can get this guy, this is it, he’s off the races.
“Let’s go meet you and your wife and let’s go have breakfast.” They have breakfast. It turns into lunch and it turns into everything. It’s going well that day. At the end of the day, Larry Two says, “I think I do what you’ve told me about this business. I want to join. This is absolutely fantastic.” Larry Two hasn’t talked to anybody except his friend. He’s feeling so good because this guy is something.
At 10:00 at night, Larry Two is gotten out of the shower, getting ready to brush his teeth. Everything is fine. He wipes down the mirror because it’s all foggy because he’s got to shave and stuff. Guess who he sees in the shower? Larry One. Larry One says, “I could be mistaken because I’ve been busy but I haven’t seen you out there all day long.” Larry Two, the bossy, said, “I know you haven’t but let me tell you about Bob here, what happened with Bob and what’s going to go on. He’s going to be so great for us.”
Larry One interrupts and says, “Stop right there. I don’t pay you for judging them. I don’t pay you for signing them up. I don’t pay you for any of that. What I pay you for is talking to them and telling them to say, “Yes or no, I want to buy. Yes or no, I want to join. Do not care about the outcome. I care about the activity level. “Larry Two, if I’m going to continue to pay you this money, I got to know that you’re going to catch that up to your end of the deal. If you don’t stand up to your end of the deal then we’re going to make some adjustments to this pay plan. We’re going to have to talk about if we’re going to continue this working relationship or not.”
That’s a little mundane story but I got to tell you something. That story served me now for over 50 years of being the boss and the bossy. I still have to do that to myself now. I still have to do it. There’s nobody in our space that arrives in here perfectly, that can walk across hot coals. They can do half an hour a day of this. They can do meditation there, reach their goals. Nobody arrives. You’re always growing. You’re always going through it.
You are an independent business contractor, which means you’re in business for yourself, which means you got to be the boss and the bossy. Do you know how many people you talked to yesterday. You know how many talked to last week. You know how many last month. You’re on this show right now because you want to get motivated to do more than what you didn’t do last week. I know distributors. I’ve been doing this for over 50 years.
Give yourself the authority to get the job done. Click To TweetI am telling you that being the boss and the bossy, the employer and the employee, you’re capable of meeting this because you do this and other areas of your life. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, for example, you are the boss and the bossy. I guarantee you, if you’ve got 2 or 3 kids running around, you’re going to take care of both of those responsibilities. You already know how to do it.
Everything that’s necessary to learn in this business, being able to do the self-leadership that’s required, you already have the skills. You already have in your briefcase of skills the self-responsibility as a homemaker, as a breadwinner, as a hairdresser, as a waitress, as a grandmother. You already have it in that area. In some areas, you brought up multiple. You already have self-discipline and you already have self-determination.
You already have self-motivation. It’s yourself functioning in that role. You already have it. The question is, are you going to turn it back and use it as a crutch and say, “I’m not tall enough. I’m not short enough. If only knew more people, if I was only a better talker.” Don’t use it as a crutch. You already have it. You have it at your fingertips. You got to give yourself the authority to move it from this area of being the stay-at-home mom, the single mom, the school teacher, the truck driver, the bus driver and move it over here in this network, marketing arena and employ yourself.
You’ve got to learn how to be the boss and the bossy. I’m giving you a brief overview here of some of the things that have worked for me and John. I hope this is some of the stuff that you wanted me to cover with your team here. I haven’t been looking at the clock. I don’t know if we talked too much or not enough. I got no ideas. If you want to take some questions.
We can open up the questions to many people but a couple of things, Larry. Employ Yourself has been taught now by you for all these years. You helped to produce some of the legendary, iconic distributorships in the industry. Many companies have been influenced by you so many corporations, some rightfully so that have listened. Some didn’t. That’s human nature.
In closing, over 53 years in network marketing, you and I have known each other for many years. I was a kid. You weren’t that much older. Now we’re getting down the road a piece but what keeps you so passionate at this stage of life about network marketing? What gets you up in the morning and gets you moving? I got to tell everybody this because we’re going to use this for a show. Larry runs circles around guys half his age. His passion for the business is as strong now as when I met him many years ago. It hasn’t wavered. What is it that keeps you doing what you do?
For me, John, it’s simple. I know for a fact that the long-haired hippie construction worker like myself can make an impact on their own life and help impact other people. I know if I can do it, anybody can do it. I got that influence from Jim Rohn. Jim Rohn was a salesman selling suits at Sears for $57 a week. Jim Rohn knew for a fact that if he could do this as a farm boy from Idaho then other people could. Bobby Depew, the schoolteacher coming from Lindsay, California to San Joaquin Valley. There were only 5,000 people at that point. As a schoolteacher, he knew that if he could do it, anybody could do it if they give themselves the authority to get that job done. John, you’ve done the best job of an example of leadership.
You’re certainly in the top ten of the top five that I’ve ever worked with as far as being disciplined and caring about your team and leading the way as the boss and the bossy on a consistent basis. The key to any success like this, as far as I’m concerned, is absolutely understandable. It’s all the difference between me and anybody that joins up.
I don’t care how fast my car is. I don’t care how big my house is and I don’t care what vacation I’d gone on. I don’t care what diamonds I’m wearing on my fingers. The reality is if I can do this, anybody can do this if they apply those few basic fundamental steps, employing yourself, being one of them. Ten percent results got to turn up for anybody and you’re going to be fine.

Employ Yourself: The variables are your attitude, your desire, your willingness, and your teachability to learn.
You would say this MLM lifestyle that you’ve had now since the late 1960s, it’s worth it for all these people who are reading. A lot of young people are reading. We’ve got a lot of people who because of the circumstance with the pandemic that had been displaced from jobs, perhaps careers, some have a great education, some have no education. Some are very young. We’ve got some young people. My own son’s here with one of his hockey buddies from Florida and some young guys. There are some twenty-year-olds on the call and probably some 70 and 80-year-olds on the call saying, “Is this for me? Why?”
I don’t know. I have no clue if multilevel for any individual. I don’t know what they’re going to do with it. What I do know is it takes a few handfuls of things and everybody has it with them. Sometimes it’s the roll of the dice as far as circumstances alike. What prevents someone from being that 10% group that I came from, being only 10% success, is current life circumstances. Every single day when we wake up, we have a different set of life circumstances. An attitude, passion, belief, health, spousal support, kids having problems, all the stuff. Every day, we have life circumstances. Let me tell you something. As a construction worker, as a cement finisher, I have life circumstances and I made $6.50 an hour.
The difference is I have some life circumstances. When I was doing some work on myself, I was out there eight hours a day. I had to perform. It wasn’t like being a plumber. If I didn’t fix this pipe today, I can fix it tomorrow. It’s like the airplane pilot. They’d got out of doing certain things now that I know for a fact, if you’ll take on that ownership and that responsibility, this could be a great thing for you. It worked out. We’ve got no idea. The variable is not your company. The variable is not your product line. the variable is not your compensation model. The variable is your attitude, your desire, your willingness and that teachability to learn half a dozen things. It’s not a half a dozen things this week and another half a dozen things next week. It’s no different than baseball.
Baseball has fundamentals. Run, hit, catch, stroke. This profession, this job that we have, it has fundamentals. If you apply those half a dozen fundamentals, I don’t care about technology. I love technology. I love social media. I love all of that but I got to tell you something, it can be a crutch like you can’t even imagine. Here’s what I know. You do the fundamentals. We spoke earlier here about residual income. It makes sense to make the sale this month and get paid for it for the next twenty months or the next 25 years.
The variable is not network marketing is the only thing that provides is what’s is residual income. You still have to employ yourself. You still have to run, hit, get a stroke for that residual income to be an issue. I don’t know if I’ve answered your question or not.
Sure, you did. Thank you so much, Larry. I appreciate it as always.
Thank you so much. John, anytime I can help you guys, don’t sell yourself short. You’re good enough as you are. John, appreciate it.
Thank you, Larry. I appreciate it. Thanks so much.
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About Larry Thompson
Larry Thompson lives in Prosper, TX with his wife, Taylor Thompson. Together, Larry and Taylor are trailblazers and dynamic leaders in the network marketing industry. They are the founders of the LT WealthBuilding Academy. The LT WealthBuilding Academy provides a modern learning/teaching environment to inspire today’s networker to become the future leader of tomorrow’s network marketing industry, teaching the basic core fundamentals, blended with today’s technology.
Larry has over 52 years in the direct sales industry and was the mastermind marketing strategist behind the Herbalife International success story, guiding Herbalife to its first billion in sales and beyond. In 1981 at the Bonaventure Hotel in Los Angeles, California he delivered what is considered one of the greatest business training of all time – The Millionaire Training.
Known by many as the “Mentor to the Millionaires,” Larry has taught the basic business fundamentals that have inspired hundreds of thousands to earn above-average incomes and improve their life, whether they were a schoolteacher, a plumber, a rocket scientist, a salesperson or a stay-at-home mom. The Wall Street Journal called Larry, “The Architect of Wealth Building.”
Many of the top network marketing leaders of today credit The Millionaire Training for teaching them the foundational principles that led to their success, including Jeff Roberti #1 Distributor with Juice Plus+, Dan Stammen Co-owner of WorldVenture Holdings, and Rolf Sorg, Founder of PM International. The Thompson’s current project includes bringing them and several colleagues together to publish The Millionaire Training for the first time because it is the essential foundation to anyone building a business, it is more relevant today than when it was originally recorded.
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