Show Notes
Welcome to another episode. Today, we have a special guest and a good friend of ours Larry D. West the third with his new endeavor West Learning Innovations. Larry is a business tax consultant by day and Entrepreneur/Millennial Expert, Father of two, Husband, Author and absolutely wrong on the “LeBron vs. Jordan - GOAT” debate.
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Transcript
Christian [00:00:00] Welcome to another episode. Today, we have a special guest and a good friend of ours Larry D. West the third with his new endeavor West Learning Innovations. Larry is a business tax consultant by day and Entrepreneur/Millennial Expert, Father of two, Husband, Author and absolutely wrong on the “LeBron vs. Jordan - GOAT” debate.
Christian / Aaron [00:00:35] Go and tell me to that. Yes. Oh you can see his face just tell it.
Aaron [00:00:41] So we know that you're wrong but just so everybody's clarifying. Just go ahead and tell them your answer. That is the wrong answer.
Larry [00:00:47] Whenever we talk. Go debate. Greatest of all time NBA L B. J is rolling MJ period. Well done. I'll check I'm drawn to just see my Rage Kage video rage case.
Aaron [00:01:03] Yes I did yes. That's LeBron. When people say that Jordan's better.
Aaron [00:01:08] He's like I can't believe this I can believe him.
Christian [00:01:11] Wait till the people who are listening what's the Rage Kage so rage gate.
Larry [00:01:15] It's 30 seconds of going inside of this cage for lack of a better term with a steel baseball bat and you've got to file cabinets and printers just a whole bunch of old material and you just tear it to shreds. You let all that all that anger out right. Thirty seconds of mayhem.
Aaron [00:01:30] That's nice. Yeah. All right. So to make this a little easy transition for you. I know you said you were nervous before the show and you know it. But we wanted to add a new segment for the far podcast guest list for you know the ones we're recording today and we're going to call this a little blast from the past. So we want to pull up some pictures or we just have one. And it's not too far in the past. We had some other ones to choose from we like this will get them every year. Yeah. So we decided to release some of those off the table but we are curious on doing some research about you.
Aaron [00:02:04] So Christian is gonna show you this picture and we just want it. We didn't want to hear the story behind this.
Larry [00:02:09] What is this. Oh man. OK.
Larry [00:02:16] So this is so tax consultant by day right. I work at a firm called S&P consulting in a county and we're just a little different our personality. It's not your typical CPA firm. And so are our owner Sean Duncan is very very in tune with all things comics movies. He's a nerd for lack of a better term. Right. And so we we get to choose our avatars when we start working there. And I chose Wolverine is about personality right. And I tell you and I said this in an interview and I don't even know how much I believe it but I'm gonna stick with it because I said it and it got me the job. Which character would you be if you could choose any character which character would you be. Top of my head. I say Wolverine. Why. Because he could regenerate like oh I can bounce back from anything and regenerate. So I'm going to stick with that. It sounds good it got me the job but obviously the hair didn't match.
Christian / Aaron [00:03:07] Yeah. That's awesome.
Christian / Aaron [00:03:10] Yeah I mean Wolverine follow me up there for me too. Thanks.
Christian [00:03:14] That's cool because we actually asked that question ourselves when we interview it. It's more of what superpower would you rather have or what superhero. Yeah. So I just went with the first thing off the top of my head. Doesn't really get any easier. I mean the ones that we've heard before.
Christian / Aaron [00:03:30] We've heard quite a few. Yes. So that was definitely top to top three for sure. Yeah.
Christian [00:03:35] All right. So tell us about your new company was learning animations.
Larry [00:03:39] Yeah. So what's learning innovations. It is a learning center and I use learning center intentionally using more people like to compare with the tutor center and there there's some some differences there. When I say learning we work on things from an academic perspective helping kids catch up and move ahead in areas of reading writing and math. But it's not homework help. So we don't have students that come to us and they say hey I'm struggling and pre calculus can you help me with this particular assignment. It's more of understanding what the skill deficits are where where those gaps are and then pinpointing what do we have to do to fill in those gaps so that they don't ever have to come to us or anyone else for homework help. And then recently we've expanded from just looking at the academic side of things to just holistic child development. So we're also looking at language development social skills behavioral skills all these things that are really necessary for a child to learn and be successful in for something like this.
Aaron [00:04:36] How does somebody get started in this like why did you want to do this. Could you run this with your wife as well. So what made you guys get into this venture so crazy story.
Larry [00:04:46] Years ago as a years ago. We're not that old but years ago when we were in college we both were in the education field and that's actually where I started when I first came out. We used to have conversations and all the conversation centered around like hey one day we're open in a school. Don't know how we're gonna do it but one day we're opening a school. I left the education field. She stuck with it as a school psychologist and we started doing different things but we were having conversations. OK what do we want to do. So we have these kind of around our anniversary time we have these come together get your life together Get out get our relationship together conversations. We talk about what we want to do in life and we had a really serious conversation. OK can we really start a school and what can we do. Because she was these things as a school psych that just didn't sit well with her in terms of the population that she worked with. Kids that are autistic ADHD. Behavior all those things. And then I was seeing some things from the school district side just from talking to people and having friends that I didn't like. And so we started talking about how we can make this thing work. And that's where w learning innovations was really born. And we just went full force with it. How do we do this do it our way and put forth a method that we know works and really start to get results and change the lives of kids everywhere.
Christian [00:05:59] How does funding innovations maybe differ from these other center centers that you have around here. I don't.
Christian [00:06:07] I don't wanna shout out any names but I mean there is some competition. Yes. How do you differentiate yourself from them.
Larry [00:06:13] Yeah. So on a few levels the primary way is that we do all one to one instruction. We don't do a 2 to 1 3 to 1 4 to 1 model. And that's very intentional because we really like to drill down and hone in on what's going on with that particular learner. On the second set of things we use a very specific process and very specific set of procedures. We integrate things like precision teaching direct instruction and behavioral management wrapping all those things together to really get results. And it's all scientifically driven. Not a lot of other centers do that it's more about the feel good right. What do we think would work or change and all these all these different things. But we actually we measure every single thing we do. So if a child is in learning given those specific set of instructions that we've just delivered then we pivot and we do it in a way that does really fit that particular child. That's cool and then the last thing is some money back guarantee. So if we don't get the results we refund tuition which hasn't happened yet.
Christian / Aaron [00:07:07] Yes that's a good thing. Very good thing.
Aaron [00:07:09] So what's the most rewarding part of that job then.
Larry [00:07:12] I mean it's like you said it's very systematized was what you do and obviously there's there's some really cool things from that but what's what's the most rewarding the most rewarding part is really when you get a kid in that is truly struggling and parents just don't know what to do. We've tried this. We tried that I can't give resources to the school because they don't quite qualify for special services. And we tried everything at home. And I'm just This is my last thing. That's when we get those students in and we can actually change those lives change those perspectives and then show parents just tracking the data week by week and month by month the results that we're having. It is amazing. Kids are doing well. The parents are. And that's that's one of the most important things right. So we work with kids but then it's also about making the parents and caregivers feel good and more confident in the solutions that you're providing because that's their investing but they invest it for their kid. And that is amazing.
Aaron [00:08:03] So from that the way that you were explaining it made it seem like that people looked at this is like a last resort when they should not necessarily should be like hey we've tried everything else we've tried this and it's just more of like I don't care how much it cause I don't care what I have to do I don't care what the commitment is I just want my kid to be able to read or I want them to do that. And is that the case or where do you guys usually meet people or bear kids at or parents out rather that for.
Larry [00:08:30] And this isn't a real statistic but I would throw it out there probably 90 percent of the kids that we have we have been the last resort because parents have tried to get resources through the school. Most of the kids they aren't they don't quite qualify for special services right so they don't get interventions through the school. Besides the after school tutoring and the reality is if you have a teacher that doesn't deliver instruction in a way that that particular student learns to have them sit after school with the same teacher to deliver the same instruction is like doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. They'll go to other more dare I say mainstream tutoring centers and try those services but then they end up spending just hundreds and hundreds of dollars month to month out in the services don't change because a lot. Not all but a lot don't necessarily use real hard core scientific data driven methods to deliver instruction. So that's where they find us. It's kind of that last minute or that last resort of Hey I've tried everything else. I'll be there heard of you through a friend who tried the services or you know we've run into them just be a network or different things like that. And so they give it one last shot. We're like that last hurrah. And the results that we've had they've been phenomenal. They've been phenomenal. And then our intention is for kids to stay with us long term so we don't plan on seeing kids for 12 months 18 was you know two years at a time because if that's the case we're probably not doing what we're supposed to do. So there's a set amount of time that we expect our kids to stay with us before they're able to move on and be at or above grade level.
Christian [00:10:02] So you've done I think multiple entrepreneurship type endeavors. What do you think has been it could be with what's on our innovations put something else in the past you'd like your biggest struggle when it comes to running your own business.
Larry [00:10:18] Staying focused. That that 100 percent without a doubt it is staying focused. It isn't. I'm speaking for me personally. I get very very excited about things and my mind clicks and I'm like I have to sit down to plan it let me just go do it. I have a high level of confidence. A high level of ambition and so that compared with the with a focus that's necessary for entrepreneurship and the commitment that's necessary. That could become a problem because every shiny little thing looks amazing. And I I've run down some rabbit holes that I probably shouldn't run down. I've got it. You know you got to reverse out it and try to pivot but really truly stay focused and that really comes from understanding exactly what the endgame is in the endgame for everybody is different. That could be lifestyle that could be money that could be status. I mean could be a multitude of things and I don't judge people for whatever their endgame is. But when you figure out what that endgame is you backtrack. How can I facilitate this particular venture or ventures to get there. And that's where the focus I think really drilling.
Aaron [00:11:21] Very cool. And it's funny because I was actually listening to a podcast on that yesterday and very successful entrepreneurs and they like the thought the topic was what's the biggest mistake you ever made in your business or the biggest thing that you wish you could affect and the like. Well I chased every shiny object. I literally did this. I did this and it's like I think it's like a prop it's a very popular Ezio company and they're like we can't fill all of our SVOD stuff but we want to go and hire other people to do like paperclip stuff. And yet you can't fill all the orders for us. Yeah we could just hire more people for you and grow that and instead we're just like No no this is shiny. This is cool. But I think that's just an entrepreneurial mind because I mean I know that I like to do that stuff too.
Christian [00:12:03] Luckily I have a Christian over here who is like well we should probably get going to say it like a good partnership. Definitely keep that. Checks and balances in place because yeah I mean if I would have let Aaron do follow him shiny object we'd be in a different place. I don't know. We get ahead of it.
Larry [00:12:21] That is. And you know and I'll say I think that this is why w learning so we're not uber successful right we're not the big brand that we are that we're going to grow into. But this has been far more successful far more quickly than any other venture simply because I have a partner now that helps me stay focused and that's my wife. Right she pulls me she's the one who keeps me kind of keeps me that hey let's do this first. And I think that's why this is gonna be far more successful than anything we've ever done.
Aaron [00:12:48] So with your other venture she was just more of a supportive wife more than she is as a business partner. Yep. Gotcha.
Larry [00:12:53] So she was like I say she did try to tell me a few times but I didn't listen and now it's she's more invested in this. We're we're actually going in on this together she's like nope we're not doing it that way.
Aaron [00:13:03] Bring it back Larry thank you. So we're halfway through we're recording this in June 20 19 what is the rest of 20 19 or even part into 20. What's the vision for West learning innovations.
Larry [00:13:15] Yes our goal our vision is to really grow and have at least 30 students recurring every single month. By the time we reach a year in we want to make sure that we don't renege on that money back guarantee right. We want to make sure that that record stays clean and then this is the year of constant learning and improvement. So we're doing tons of training. We've got. I was telling Christian before the show we've got two or three conferences coming up and then hiring a staff member. So growing hiring a staff and cast and learning and improving.
Aaron [00:13:44] That's exciting. Very exciting. And you. For those who don't know Larry or I have never heard of West learning innovations we actually they are one of their offices is actually down below here. So it's kind of cool to see the setup and how everything is all laid out for the kids in the curriculum and stuff.
Christian / Larry [00:14:01] So there is a second location or I know if I heard something this is a part of that focus right now we are playing in a second location and my wife is probably gonna kill me for revealing this but it's going to this is going to be a center that focuses exclusively on the toddlers. So we're talking ages 2 to 5 before they even start school. And most of them will have severe behavior severe autism and emotional behaviors different things like that. So we're providing that buffer of getting them prepared for school. Most of them have gotten kicked out of date daycares or kicked out of preschool programs so we're going to provide a solution to make sure that they are successful as well.
Aaron / Larry [00:14:40] Very cool. And you guys are like what school district is you is your wife teaching and did you say that. Yes. She's an urbanised. OK got it. OK. So the west part of the Metroplex for those not in the Dallas area just a little bit west of Dallas. All right. So it's kind of shifting gears here.
Aaron [00:15:00] Oh this is scary. Yeah. We told Larry see you.
Aaron [00:15:02] Like I said guys he's a little bit nervous. This is first time on camera. I'm just kidding. He's done a ton of stuff with us and on his own too. But we told him to be ready for anything. So we wanted to get some business stuff out of the way want to talk about some entrepreneurial stuff. I'm telling you and everybody else ahead of time that you know we may shift gears here to some fun stuff. OK. Just get as far as as far as success not only with with W learning because I think that I guess to how do you define success is different. You know like you said this has been the most successful. Quickly but there's other things that you can use to define success. But what do you attribute your success to get you to this point with West learning innovations or where you're at right now. I mean there's a lot of things. Like you said there's a lot of different things that you guys have done before.
Larry [00:15:47] Yeah. Yeah. So if I could attribute our success to anything it's really our kids. This is kind of shifting into our why and things like that. So we have a true go to build a legacy for our kiddos building West learning does amazing things for the kids amazing things for the community and the results that we've had are phenomenal. But there's also the back into that of also demonstrating for our kiddos which we think is really important that hey you can do things on your own. You can build things on your own. This is the fruit of our labor right. This is this is what hard work looks like. And then if we do it right we have a legacy to pass down and give to them and so everything we do when as we become more and more successful it's all driven by our two kiddos.
Aaron [00:16:29] Now did you when you first started your first couple of ventures Did you have your son.
Larry [00:16:34] Yeah yeah I did. That's kind of a wild story. So I graduated school two months later we got married. We went on our honeymoon while on our honeymoon we decided to move to Texas. We came back found out we were pregnant moved to Texas a couple of months later had a baby boy and then like a crazy night for five months after he was born I say OK I'm going out on my own.
Aaron / Larry [00:16:57] Oh my God. Wow. And you're still married right. Happily married. Yeah I know about. I still happily married.
Aaron [00:17:04] Dang. OK. That is a very good support system because say hey look well had to have somebody who's putting food on the table you can't be just chasing your dreams over here. Does your dreams bring chicken home or anything.
Larry [00:17:16] No way she was still in school full time as well. No way. Yeah. So it was one of those extreme host of moments where you got to make this work. Yeah otherwise a struggle.
Aaron [00:17:26] So you like picked up the kids in daycare like went to go to business meetings. Yeah. Cook dinner helped terrorists. Yes. Yes. Wow. Yes. You should have been blogging that man. Now have been.
Aaron [00:17:38] That would have been crazy.
Christian / Larry [00:17:39] I didn't know you guys at the time so I don't even think David dynamite I was like Hustle diaries.
Aaron [00:17:44] Yes. Yeah. I'm going to be definitely asking you some questions after this because I'm about to have a daughter and that's gonna be like a game changer for me too.
Christian [00:17:54] Yeah yeah. Next question.
Christian [00:17:58] I think I don't know. I think we may have asked you this before on our previous episodes. Larry Larry is a return special guest for us.
Christian / Aaron [00:18:05] I believe he was maybe like the second guest we ever had. Yeah and it was episode like maybe 10.
Christian / Larry [00:18:11] Yeah it was like early on his way back in the day. Yeah yeah.
Aaron [00:18:17] This will be the one. Tens or 120 songs.
Christian [00:18:20] Nice. Yeah. So we tried to ask this to you know a lot of our guests. So what perches of a hundred dollars or less has most positive positively impacted your life. It could be in the last six months or in recent memory. Wow that's a good question or not.
Larry [00:18:38] No. OK.
Aaron [00:18:39] I think it's a new question that we started asking it rarely at a loss for words but that is one that's usually when people say don't worry we'll leave this in the eye.
Aaron / Larry [00:18:47] I don't really I like to keep it raw but like if you pause for a while because while you're thinking I'll obviously edit that out but what purchase one hundred dollars or less has had the greatest impact.
Aaron / Larry [00:18:57] Mm hmm. And again it doesn't have to be business related or anything. It could be literally you know you bought a car seat for ten bucks I don't know. A hundred bucks what right that which I bought a car seat for ten.
Larry [00:19:07] Would be awesome.
Larry [00:19:09] You know that is really really good. OK. Hundred dollars or less.
Larry [00:19:16] I'm sitting here thinking like I have tons of things over a hundred hours I don't have that stuff because I know where I got the greatest impact.
Larry [00:19:28] No because there was more. You know what.
Larry [00:19:32] This is this is this is gonna sound really cliche at a party drink because I got kids so potty training kiddos they have those seats. We decided not to do a pot like most people do because who's going to clean it out. Not me. And she certainly went out. Do you see where it had just the regular toilet seat to fit the little kids. By far the most impactful thing. Sam was potty trained before too. My daughter's not 2 yet and She's potty trained by using that seat. It's like oh it's time to go to the party. Step up stool sit on the seat again. Nobody's cleaning that out and they're potty training. It wasn't hectic. It wasn't hard. It was a breeze. Nice again. It's probably most impactful thing.
Christian [00:20:10] Let's talk. Yeah. Yeah. I would have never. So normally if you do the PI training again I don't have any kids so I wouldn't know anything about this. You're saying like there's a I guess a smaller sized toilet type thing that you put on a bathroom then. Yeah. So and then. But that thing you have to clean out where you gonna clean it out and clean it out.
Larry [00:20:29] That's what. Now this might be a global colloquialism but we call it a pot growing up and nobody was cleaning out the pot. Just wouldn't happen enough anyway right. We don't set them on a toilet. They don't do that thing when they've done they come off.
Aaron / Larry [00:20:43] Yes I can. I can see the subject line for our for this episode. Larry West with Les innovations we're going to talk about education in the pot. Oh yeah. That's good. Yeah that's that's a very good question. You hire a maid just don't let me know you like Clean. Clean the bathroom I'm going about their mission and everything in it. And everything. Make sure that everything's spotless.
Larry [00:21:02] That was a real conversation because we looked at each other.
Larry [00:21:05] You clean it I'm not. Oh.
Aaron [00:21:09] All right. That's it. That's a very good answer and probably the most unique answer we've ever had for that for sure and whatever that brand is. Let us now put in the show notes and they'll also help me remember definitely Paul patrol at Wal-Mart patrol.
Aaron [00:21:23] OK. Hey let's go. I'm releasing them. All right. In the last five years what's a new belief behavior or habit that has most improved your life over the last five years.
Larry [00:21:34] It's really me coming into the understanding of behaviorism right or the study of human behavior and behavior science and what that truly means. And how do you use it to make an impact. A lot of what we do at West learning is driven by behavior science. And for all intensive purposes we think about learning. Learning is an actual behavior. Students learners engage in something and they get an end result. So really understanding that has probably been the most profound impact and its impact not just what we do it what's learning but in parenting. Right. And what we do from that perspective and understanding Positive reinforcement negative reinforcement punishment and how those things kind of work together that's been phenomenal.
Aaron [00:22:17] What is there any books or like conferences or anything like that where do you where did you get that knowledge.
Larry [00:22:22] Yes. So I started getting it from listening to a podcast it's called behavioral observations podcast with Mazza Korea and then he had a few guests on there that you know you listen to something you just really like what that person has to say. And it sounded good. Which of the show notes I started looking at everything that was in there. And so there are a few books in fact. He's got a book in his pocket. Nowhere to go. He's pointed out. Yeah I don't know where I put my phone. I must've lost it somewhere out 70s. You can drop them in the show notes. Yes please. Yeah. Yeah. So behaviorism and precision teaching have been phenomenal for us.
Aaron [00:22:58] Very cool. All right. I wanted to fit this in and we'll get back to our regular schedule do some stuff in here. But I wanted to throw this is kind of a loop. There's not a really good spot for it but so you are.
Aaron / Larry [00:23:09] Yeah see you are Larry D W the third. So that means there's two other ones right. Yes. Not as good as me but there are two things. Okay. And your son is Larry D W the fourth.
Larry [00:23:20] That's right. He's also not as good as me but we won't worry about that.
Aaron [00:23:23] Nice. OK. So Larry the fourth when you're listening to this a lot later remember that.
Aaron [00:23:28] OK. When you're big and strong your dad he wants you to take care of him.
Aaron [00:23:32] Remember this episode please. Is there going to like it. Do you guys have it in your family where it's like written down just need to know like you know if you have a son it must be hard to follow this.
Larry [00:23:43] You know. Dare I say I started it so I'm going to take credit for it but you the third. No I know but let me tell you. So when you have the first for the first the first Larry of course the first sign that he wants him to be a junior who decides to continue and after that right now I'm saying now I've got to give credit to my grandma because she's the one who actually told my mom to name me Larry. But when I when I was officially named it wasn't Larry D W the third it was just Larry Webster right. Named after my dad. And it wasn't until I got a little older that it actually became Larry to us that they're excited that own I own it. I was like No I'm a build a legacy with this thing because I really looked up to my grandfather like he's a phenomenal man. We talk about being someone of integrity someone of just He's everything that I want to be. And this is Larry the first is Larry first his legacy. So I really that's when I really took on a strong meaning to the name. And then after that it just became a Larry us that they're like that brand just became something to me. And so I carried it on and again just being a little egotistical I see you know when I didn't matter who was bad for person I ever met.
Larry [00:24:50] Right. So it didn't matter who it's by when I have a son. It's going to be Larry he was the fourth. If she can't accept that we are meant to be together. So all right that's a deal breaker didn't we. We don't have to be in love as long as our sons Larry do as The Four Battle seal the to do you agree. You know it took a while.
Aaron [00:25:08] I would move in off. I'm not saying I was leave her but. Everything was on a table. No.
Larry [00:25:14] But so that was the thing for me like at the name coming from him. And then the branding that I felt like came with it. There was no way I was not going to name my first Norman Lear to ask for it. Now whether he continues that.
Larry [00:25:29] That's where you put a little muscle in there. It's like Sunday you want to be in the will. Yeah. You want anything because otherwise you're out west learning to come to you because I could just sell it to someone else right. Exactly.
Aaron [00:25:40] But L.D. three See that's what I would do. You know you like RG three philosophy and I feel like he stole that from me. Yeah he did get evaluated but I do see LV three like. I mean that's gonna be an amazing receiver or like somebody like baseball player football playing basketball it's like man you see only three last weekend six catches hundred and eighty yards.
Larry [00:26:00] Yeah. We can hear it now.
Aaron [00:26:02] So maybe that's what they'll do for you know the fourth. Who knows.
Larry [00:26:05] I hope so. I hope so. And even for his son that will be the fifth I'm projected right and he's going to have a son. Yeah. You don't even see or hear that anymore. You don't really hear anything after the third now.
Aaron / Larry [00:26:14] You guys trying to be on the Today show are you trying to play in something to be on the Today show. He's Masi staying focused and just playing these right now. Very nice. Your wife must have thought of this.
Aaron [00:26:24] All right. It's hard to get that out of there. Really. Yeah I was just really curious wanted to let other people now plus. Yeah I think you're the only person I know who has the fourth.
Christian / Aaron [00:26:33] Yeah I've heard personally third and fourth like back in like old time days and they had a king hungry yet.
Aaron / Larry [00:26:41] King Henry the ninth low they've had 18 it's like whoa that's intense. Yeah.
[00:26:47] Those people were all related like weirdly so.
Aaron [00:26:51] I think I think you're OK.
Christian [00:26:53] Yeah. All right. So let's really back in. I don't know why we had that question up there. We should have had the very beginning with the lady.
Aaron [00:27:03] Oh no I moved a lot. I should have been up there. Yeah but I just feel like that picture was just gonna throw him off for a lot longer. We have not changed and never been able to talk about business at all. Yes.
Christian [00:27:14] All right.
Christian / Larry [00:27:14] So what do you think you wish you had known when you started out and this could be your very first venture company or what with learning animation is something that probably a lot of people say but I feel like it's so true that failure is ok and you gotta say it like slowly failure is ok because we live like our generation is more of right. We put up this facade. They all these filters over who you truly are and nobody ever showcases a failure. It just now we start is just starting to become a thing where it's content driven where you can market it now and you can show the road that you took to get there and people appreciate it. But at first you go back 20 12 13 14 when I was just coming into these ideas. Failure was not an option for me just based on where I came from. Like I went through school I finished the bachelors in two and a half years finished first Masters a year and a half after I finish another Masters within a year so I got all these degrees by the time I reached 21. And I'm like Yo I'm hitting it I'm hitting the ground running. And when I went out there to look for a job there was nothing for me. Now this is Abilene Texas so that's a whole separate story but the point is like that that was the first as a as an adult as someone who just graduated school and just coming into his own that was the first failure to hit me like smack like a ton of bricks right there and I'm like What do I do. But it's OK because you kind of learn from those things and I learned at that point. Like most people do schooling isn't everything. You've got to go get the experience. Natalie's experience what you need but you also got to have an opportunity or a way to talk and communicate with people. But all that to say failure is absolutely OK. It's about how you rebound and you come back. You try to gain tons of different ventures. I mean still she keeps you on my side until I make it right.
Aaron [00:29:03] I was going to say I mean and I don't even think you're you're not even 30 yet. Right. Exactly. So I mean you could screw up for literally weeks we could all screw up for the next 30 years and still 20 years or whatever and be like Oh yeah. He finally did something he's you know 50 he's not even 50 yet and he figured that out.
Larry [00:29:19] Absolutely. And that's all people will remember. They will remember all the Oh you changed these many different times you. I saw you do these many different things it's like when one thing kids or whatever it is. That's what you'll be known for.
Aaron [00:29:31] Yeah absolutely. And that's very true for like artists or anything like that but especially business owners people are like oh who is this guy. There's a guy in Dallas whose names I think it's Matt Crosby and nobody knows who he is or what he does and I know of him just because of what he does and what he did now. But he had a little tech company. He failed at a bunch of ventures and then he created something called like software which is just a cloud based system. And I ran into him just had a conversation with him and he sold. He's like Well I just credit this company. It's like my third time and he's like fail at all these other things anyway. He sold his company for two point one or two point three billion dollars to IBM and he's just some random dude who failed like crazy in Dallas but to this day he's still the largest tech acquisition or the tech sell in this in this area. Yes. Awesome. That is awesome.
Aaron / Larry [00:30:23] So you feel like crazy without those folks you probably wouldn't who created that company to have an opportunity to even sell a. Exactly. We've got to embrace the failure. I think nobody wants to do that.
Christian [00:30:34] So do you think for you that first. I don't know if that's a failure or not. Not to necessarily like find a job but like do you think that was a catalyst to your entrepreneurial like push or did you already have like entrepreneurial ideas growing up or how did you.
Larry [00:30:52] Oh no. Well OK. So I had entrepreneurial ideas growing up high school. So Candy I'm not gonna use the word illegal it was against it.
Aaron / Larry [00:31:00] So that was kind of my first venture. Did you have a jacket like my wife and I met selling it. Me selling candy that you give it the sugar daddy I was really quick to tell this story it so it's fun to me.
Larry [00:31:13] So she transferred from another school I was selling candy in school at the time and so she came into our keyboarding class our piano class and she had Skittles and saw walk over there and I'm thinking she's cute already and I'm like Yo what was going to be my life. How I go shoot my shot right. I'm like I'm going through all these different scenarios I'll walk over there and I say Where'd you get those. Because I'm the only one who sells candy here and I haven't met you yet. Right. Claudia's thing I've. But from there it was historic. Why not also say this. She never came in with Candy. I wouldn't vote for me anymore after that.
Aaron / Larry [00:31:43] Exactly right. So but that's entrepreneurial.
Larry [00:31:47] The thing that pushed me into understanding that I didn't want to work for anyone anymore was my first job out of college that I got I'm not going to say the university. I'll just say I work there as an academic advisor. And it was a horrible experience like year one was good. But when two year two rolled around there was so much micromanagement. There was no freedom no flexibility no autonomy like you had to fit into a certain box and do things a certain way for this particular manager. And I just hated it. I hated it. Like I walked away from that job I quit. And we were planning a wedding at that time and I quit that job.
Aaron [00:32:23] Wow. Crazy guy. Oh yes.
Aaron [00:32:25] So if you want do something crazy definitely talk to Larry it's like yeah I have a kid I want to be an entrepreneur. I'm playing in a wedding. I don't quit my job.
Larry [00:32:35] And again at this at the time my wife was still in school.
Aaron [00:32:38] It's crazy and I. Well we knew we need to really have this episode or another episode with you guys. Bring her on in probably about six months and just you know let's let's have a recap of West learning. But like really get her side of the story.
Aaron / Larry [00:32:53] You like Yeah I walked over to her and the rest is history it's like no this guy annoyed me for like let's stop trying to some of these tweets. I hate to live here may not have gone that way. I'm just the first time I went up there and she does love me and to me it was love at first. It may have taken a shot or two to get there. Right.
Aaron / Larry [00:33:12] That's cool. All right. So this is something that I'm always interested in and always take notes about and that is something that you're currently bingeing on Netflix. What do you guys you guys have Netflix first. Yes. OK.
Larry [00:33:26] Yes. What are we bidding on. Will Black Mirror just came out so we're we just went through the whole season which is really good it was better than I think season two the way started off. So Black Mirror on Netflix. What else have we been judged on there on my block. That's a really good one. So it's this is this show there's kind of I think a group of five kids is set in L.A. I believe it is gang controlled territory your neighborhood is just five kids that are growing up trying to find their way. And it's really good because it reminds me of when we were younger coming up it is not a it's a bad neighborhood but it's not a neighborhood where you feel like you fear for your life or right you just growing up and going about life and you just go through all kind of challenges whether that's relationship stuff they they found this heist money and so they're trying to figure out how to wash dirty money. That was it was a heist like 30 years ago somebody buried the money these kids down. Oh OK. So they're trying to figure out how to wash the money and so they can use it to help their friend or get out of a bad situation. It's crazy.
Aaron / Larry [00:34:27] It sounds like you're invested. Yeah yeah. All in my life. We gotta get Cesar out. We're gonna. We just we.
Larry [00:34:33] We're just new to this train. We just got on Hulu. So we're bingeing Handmaid's Tale now. I'll say it. I don't know anybody Utah to Utah reminds me of Julia.
Aaron [00:34:44] I just that's that's all I'm going to say. We're gonna get going to find our P.O. box. Don't ever let that guy here again I'm from Utah and Utah is beautiful.
Larry [00:34:55] But I'm going to tell you I was like Yo am I live in English. So yeah.
Larry [00:35:00] So that's what we're binge on now.
Aaron [00:35:03] Cool. All right. Any but we always try to see if we have any bonus questions. Anyway we've never done this so we can I can edit this out too if you like. Are there any questions. And I've heard this before on a couple of podcasts kind of cool. Are there any questions that you have for us.
Christian / Larry [00:35:19] Yeah. Oh I don't know if I like this. Yeah.
Aaron [00:35:22] So I'd say it was it was a very.
Christian / Aaron [00:35:28] It was, I can't remember the exact episode but he turned to table is like OK for the last question let's treat this as you ask. Ask one question and it just serves the other people for a loop. Which is why I didn't tell Christian about either otherwise he would be kind of thinking about it.
Aaron / Larry [00:35:42] Yeah so. So if there is anything otherwise we'll just cut it out and I get someone a good role to play. Now let's go. So you get one question. I had a movie that is like six years ago when Belgium in France for a while.
Larry [00:35:56] Right. Way back to college before college you're in college right. Right before call right before college. Okay so you all known each other for a while. What is the craziest thing Aaron has done Chris. Is your question crazy area is done in an area with the crazies the Christian is done no filter no holds barred go oh yeah that's gonna take a second to think about two.
Christian [00:36:19] The thing is like there's a lot of illegal stuff I don't know if you should talk about.
Aaron [00:36:26] No it wasn't illegal it's kind of like that candy thing like you know Is it frowned upon. It wasn't legal we just you know nobody was going to jail for it. Yeah OK yeah. Do we know. Yeah. Yeah. Not yet. Well yeah. This podcast got out. What's the statute of limitations. Anybody. I understand. Like is it nine years. Because it's nine years then we may be OK.
Christian [00:36:45] It's like we air Aaron I had a podcast episode recently where we interviewed each other Aaron ask that question and that the thing that popped in my head and I didn't have to say anything.
Christian [00:36:59] I think I just said like oh the craziest thing involves you too. And here they are. That's it. That's all I needed to hear that. But I think I can talk maybe a little bit about it.
Christian [00:37:10] Let's just say that well we took some golf carts on a joy ride.
Christian [00:37:17] Okay. Yeah. Yeah yeah. Craziest thing though is it was scary.
Larry [00:37:23] I gotta I gotta probe a little bit. You gotta put some context behind it.
Christian / Aaron [00:37:26] Well somebody wrecked their golf cart too. I knew there was something else to this. Yeah I remember that part.
Aaron [00:37:31] Yes. There was four of us total actually as meaning Christian and two other buddies. It was let's just say the golf course was not over the golf carts where we were riding them was not open so it was dark but I specifically remember that being in the car that didn't have an issue with like going too fast down a hill.
Christian [00:37:53] It was fun. I'll tell you this is really fun and really really fun times and I feel like I mean you have to do some crazy stuff.
Christian [00:38:01] Oh I don't think I did this actually but I heard the small town where we're from in Kansas a preacher was middle of the night. I don't think I was part of this but I heard I think Aaron did this once took some tires.
Christian [00:38:17] Oh is that literally the downtown like the main road has a little bit of a slope. And I think they might have done like some races with like literally like tires like rolled you down and roll down the road.
Christian / Aaron [00:38:29] There's videos of that. Yeah I really seen Nancy.
Christian [00:38:32] So those tires where we got those tires were very cheap and we did a lot of crazy things with them. One of them was there's a place called the Boot hotel. It's like five or six stories maybe and we would take the tires to the very top and drop it onto the main door all the way. And across the street we videotaped that thing with probably 30 feet in the air.
Christian / Larry [00:38:52] Oh y'all are worried about that. I'm glad I cried a little because we weren't getting the full story.
Aaron [00:38:58] Yeah and this is the version that we can share on the podcast. If we really had enough time there probably be. There's a lot of crazy stuff. I mean obviously we met right before college. So yeah.
Christian [00:39:09] And that's us usually the crazy year. That's the time.
Aaron [00:39:11] Yeah. Yeah. Everybody knows you're in bed by 9 you know making sure that your schoolwork done and you're up at 7:00. That's pretty much the way we live our college lives.
Aaron [00:39:21] So you might if your mind can imagine Christian was love in math. We were working on. We did. We actually did have a couple classes together at a big university which is weird but yeah we were always working on math and we were always know just doing stuff and stuff.
Larry [00:39:38] We'll leave it right there just to do this study.
Aaron [00:39:42] All right. That's a very good question. And actually that's. That turned out with those as good as I expected it to be. Which is good. I was like Larry is like without a beat. Yes I got a question for you. That's awesome. All right. Thank you guys so much for listening to another episode of The Marketing native. Thank you so much for Larry with West Learning Innovation is jumping on here if you need help with getting candy. Make sure you get a shout out to Larry we're going to put his information in the show note and we are going to actually Larry before we go too far. Yeah.
Aaron [00:40:15] How can people find out about you before I just put your phone number in there so they could call you about the candy but we need ice. All right Candy and educational results.
Larry [00:40:26] Well give us a call. Our number is. 4 6 9 9 2 9 3 3 4 4. We'll schedule a complete evaluation a complete assessment. Figure out what's going on and then put together a plan to make sure we get your learner caught up or and or moved ahead.
Aaron [00:40:41] Awesome and we'll also have links to their website and social accounts there too so you guys can connect with them there.
Larry [00:40:48] I don't say something really quick. So yeah we're w learning. Dot org org not dot com that org.
Aaron [00:40:53] Yes. Whenever you're searching for that and then make sure you check out Larry's Instagram Stories they're always pretty motivational and inspiring for the little ones. And I know I enjoy looking at that. So make sure you go check them out on social and if you are listening to this for the first time we hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure that you subscribe so you don't miss any of our episodes in the future rather this is kind of special episode we do interviews but on the other ones we're on the other most of our episodes are very topical and they are very time sensitive with with what's going on with social so you wanna make sure you subscribe so you don't miss on that and you can stay ahead of your competition and if you've been listening for a while make sure that you will leave us an honest rating and review. And like I said we're gonna check it once a week and make sure that you know if you did leave one we're gonna be shut out on the podcast so check out this week. Did I check it this week.
Aaron [00:41:48] I did not say you do.
Aaron [00:41:50] No I did not do it this week because we had Larry on here so I wasn't gonna do a shout out during his. Yeah makes sense bears. So on a regular so we'll give a shadow. All right thank you guys so much for listening and we'll talk to you next time.
