Special Guest - Mitch Larson - The Power of Purpose

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning It Selling Podcast. I'm Bill Hellkamp of Reach Development Systems, and with me is Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute. And together we have founded Franchise Sales Pro, with a commitment to work with franchise owners and franchisees to drive sales and boost revenue. Be living with purpose or just going through the motions. In today's episode, we explore how purpose shapes our work, relationships, and identity.

0:31 Discover how alignment brings clarity and fulfillment, and learn practical steps to overcome fear, find direction, and start living the life you've always meant to lead. If you're open to new ideas and define yourself as coachable, listen up as Bill and I welcome author, speaker, and lifelong salesperson Mitch Larson to discuss his new book, The Power of Purpose, a guide to discover yours on episode 678 of the Winning It Selling Podcast.

0:59 Well, I'm really excited to have one of my best friends to interview today. Mitch and I met, well, about 40 years ago when I first moved to Minnesota. So, I'll be exciting to talk to them today. But before we get into that, I just want to take a moment to talk about the work we're doing with the franchise owners and franchisees. Scott and I put together a new organization, Franchise Sales Pro. So, if you fall into that category, if you're dealing with franchises, franchisees, and you want to increase your revenue or increase the way that you are able to find new franchises, we believe we can do that better, contact myself or Scott.

1:39 What's the point of those conversations? So, our book club, the whole show is a book club, Scott. It is. We're welcoming the author of the book that we're going to do next. And that book is The Power of Purpose, a guide to discover yours. So, go out and buy it on Amazon right now. Wait, yeah, you can do it right now and then pause and then do it. So, you're up, Scott. So, we're lucky to have Mitch Larson, a Wisconsin native with us today.

2:03 He's grew up primarily in Eau Claire, Wisconsin and enjoyed all of the Midwestern experiences that Ari offers. His first career path took him to northern Minnesota and then to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area where he has resided for most of his adult working life in a variety of B2B sales roles. All his personal and professional life experiences helped him identify the need for a purpose in everyone's life. And that is the reason for writing the book.

2:30 Over the past 30 years, he's focused on helping individuals enhance their most valuable asset themselves. As a lifelong learner, he's an avid reader of personal and professional development books and has authored several articles for a variety of publications. He also speaks regularly in front of a wide variety of audience. So, Mitch, welcome to the Winnie at Selling Podcast. Great to be here. Yeah, welcome Mitch. Good morning. Thank you, Bill. Thank you, Scott. It's a pleasure to be here.

2:57 And I'm excited to share the book and the content today because I'm very confident it can add value to your listeners. So, thank you once again for having me on. All right. And I want to talk about being a lifelong learner or a lifelong changer. Scott and I meet a lot of people who learn stuff and never apply it. So that's right. That's why I put coachable in the introduction. Are you coachable? Because if you're not coachable, I don't think tomorrow's going to be any different than yesterday.

3:25 But I know more. I know more. Yeah. So that's why I like your book, Mitch, because it's a workbook that forces you to sit down and think. Yeah. Let's start by just talking about, you know, why did you decide to write the book? What brought this yearning to bring this book to the surface and divine it into words. Thank you, Scott. Excellent question. I would say decades ago, the idea of writing something, writing a book, like I think so many other professionals germinated in my mind.

3:58 However, candidly at that point in time, I didn't have the life experiences to certainly address this particular, this particular topic. But through observation, Scott, and through working with adults in a wide variety of different roles. As you mentioned with my introduction, I've been working with professional salespeople for the majority of my career. And I've noticed a couple of things. Number one, people are not always open to the things that they need to do in order to move forward.

4:43 And I say that with all due respect because it it that's kind of an unconscious thing for many. And the reason I say that is they're not aware of one of the most powerful tools they have at their disposal and that is their habit structure. And I've noticed a number of people that are poised to do great things, but because of the way that they spend their time on a daily basis, they tend to get in their own way. And then secondly, I noticed that the people that were living or are living with a purpose, both the quality and the content of their lives.

5:29 To me, what added a mark difference to the value that they were bringing to other people, their purpose spilled over and made it such a difference with others that I thought there might be something to this. I should try to capture these ideas and put my observations into words and then also give people an opportunity to evaluate. And it's the reason that my publisher and I decided to do the book as more of a workbook rather than just a book.

6:08 So I've gotten great feedback on that, Bill. You mentioned mentioned that as well. People love the idea that they can go through, ask themselves some important questions and apply a number of the things that we share in the books so that they can grow and move to the next level. I've often said to many people, and I guess it's the culmination of all the mentorship and the different reading and growth and development that I have done over my life, that a reading program, what you watch, who you surround yourself with, all of those basic things that help us grow.

6:51 That's the difference between connecting the person that you are to the person that you can become. And there's no doubt that this book is really the manifestation of that mindset. All right. Well, one of the challenges I always have is writing in a book. I told Scott this last week when we started tee this up. It's like I hate to write in books, but I have to break through my grade school training that said don't write in this book because we're going to use it for the next 15 years.

7:20 But let's get to the number of minutes. What is purpose? Why is it important? A lot of people go through their lives. As you said, never really knowing where they want to go, what they want to do. So how do we define this purpose thing and how do we start to find out it's important to us? A couple of things. One of the things in my book, and I'm going to refer to it a number of times because I'm confident the reader will find a lot of value in it.

7:45 Candidly, there's a number of different types of purposes and I flesh out a few of them. In the book, I talk about, well, the immediate purpose. I've got people coming over for dinner, so I have to get food. Short term, in my case, I need to lose 30 pounds on this 60 day diet long term. Now that I've lost the weight, I need to modify my eating and exercise to avoid gaining it all back, which by the way I haven't done yet.

8:11 Speaking of habits. So, on my second trip through that particular program. So, my book addresses more of the lifelong or overarching purpose. To answer that question, what is purpose? Well, I key it up in a number of different ways, but I think it's important for us to recognize that there are two great days in everyone's life. Number one, the day they're born, and equally, if not more important, the day they discover why.

8:47 Now purpose, in terms of overarching and life purpose, can really be described in the following manner. What is it that you with your specific set of gifts, talents, your voice, your ability to connect with people? What is it that you can do and only you can do? And if you don't do it, it's not going to get done. I believe that's a very impactful question to ask yourself. And the fact of the matter is, of course, and I'm confident most of your listeners will quickly understand that I don't have the answer to the question, what is your purpose?

9:35 Only you do. Only you have that answer. What I do have, however, is a process that you can walk yourself through to begin to identify what is my true purpose. So Mitch, what do people look for? What do they ask themselves to find and develop their purpose? What are some of the questions or what are some of the situations that they counter where this becomes a priority? And I think that's the first thing that you want to do is assess your values. Second, you want to have some values first, probably.

10:13 Having values is good. I think there's some people going through life with no values at all except me. Once you understand your values, you begin to identify, and these things are all interrelated, of course, you identify your interests. What are the things that you like to do? You also want to ask yourself, what are the things that you don't like to do? One of the things I love to tell people, gentlemen, is that you're never going to find me jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

10:45 It's not going to happen. All right. Hites have never been one of my strengths, and I know that. So I have workarounds. I simply live my life avoiding a number of those things. Then you begin to identify your strengths. What gifts do you have? What are you good at? Once you've identified your strengths, begin to evaluate where can I apply those things? If you do all of that through the lens of assessing your values, then you will begin to, through examining your experiences as well, and these are all laid out specifically in the third chapter of the book, you will begin to formulate a purpose statement, and that will help you put an anchor to this subject.

11:42 And give you the basis from which to build up. So, Mitch, do you have you used any kind of assessments or is it just questions you ask yourself? I know Scott uses the disk system. I've taken a number of assessments. I think some of those can be kind of valuable. There's strength finders, which is one of you taking any of those, or do you kind of just recommend going through a series of questions on your own bill? I did take.

12:08 So, I believe the Myers-Brig way back when, but to answer your question thoroughly, no, I do not use an assessment within the book. I asked the individual to rely on self-reflection and examining their own experiences. Okay, so when we're doing this, and we're starting to develop our purpose, what are some of the obstacles that we start to encounter? Because obviously, if this was easy, everyone would do it, right? And so it's difficult to really find our purpose and then move forward in a confident manner toward it.

12:42 We're going to hit obstacles. How we overcome these obstacles so we don't just go, okay, I'll go back and watch another episode of whatever I, you know, and binge watching this week, right? Because that's the easy step. Yeah, in that interesting bill and talking conversations with so many people, that seems to be one of the number one things that occupies people spare time these days is binge watching the latest series, the latest this, the latest that.

13:07 And by the way, well done, I am not condemning any of that kind of behavior. I suspect, however, the people that are listening to this, they probably might want a little bit more out of their lives and it's the reason that they're listening. Yeah, you know, I've never gotten up the next morning and said, wow, 10 episodes, that was great. Yeah, really proud of myself. What an impact that had on my life. That's right. That's right. And my deck still isn't finished.

13:34 It's interesting that you mentioned that because the challenge that I found, and I mentioned this early in my opening comments, is that we as individuals, we seem to get in our own way. And that really is the essence of what this book is all about. I suspect that many listeners have had things they wanted to do and accomplish on perhaps a little grander scale than what they might be doing in their lives right now. But we all know because we've experienced and continue to experience a number of these issues.

14:10 One of the first things that we have to do is identify the fact that all of us deal with fears, a variety of different fears. And I want to go specifically to the book and I want to read from it because I think it's, it's important to understand fear has been one of the greatest barriers to accomplishments in all of human history. It is Rob people of achievements and mentions books, songs, movies, TV shows, homes, churches and other buildings, a ton of relationships and contributions of both social and intrinsic value of every kind.

14:48 Fear has kept those ideas in people's heads. And they've been held prisoner we've been held prisoner by our own minds and are most likely still affected by this very real human emotion at various times in our lives. And then I begin to unpack some of the fears that I think we all deal with fear of failure. If I try I may not succeed therefore I won't try. Fear of what other people think. Which find most people don't think so why you're worried about it.

15:25 Here's an interesting. If you find some of that actually thinks you've discovered something. Well, isn't that a wise assertion. I always tell people I ask them well, so let's put this in proper perspective. What do you think about most of the time yourself, your family, your situation, how am I going to move on to this next thing or do that or check this off my list. Most people don't think about you as much as you think they do.

15:53 So if you put that in proper context that want that alone can help you lay that fear perhaps aside. And then the other thing that I know a number of the books that are recommended in my book talk about is to be a fruit inspector. And what I mean by that is if you're taking advice or worried or concerned about what someone else thinks of you. One of the things that we always recommend people do or I certainly do is be a fruit inspector. Are those people in life where you want to be.

16:36 The answers know that who with all due respect gives a flying rip about what they think. Well, they don't have to live your life. They might they might want to challenge you, but they're not going to have to feed your family. They're not going to have to look at themselves at the end of the day and say I did something good. So I think what are these what was it? Samson slew a thousand people with the jaw bones of an ass and many great ideas have been killed the same way.

17:08 Yes, I think that that that job on is still flying around. That's right. That's right. And sometimes it's your mother-in-law who's got it. So I'll jump with all due respect to to anybody. You give a lot too much respect to some of these people mentioned. Well, Bill, I found that that's a really good way to not get egged. So anyway, it isn't that we don't value the individual. We just have to be aware. Are we surrounding ourselves with people that can add value to our lives.

17:48 And many times people don't they don't take the time to even assess that. Another thing I discussed in the book is the vigilance that parents often apply to the power of association with their children. Yet completely ignore that same principle in their own lives as adults. Yeah. Let me jump in here, Mitch. I keep thinking about purpose and passion. Is one stronger than the other or what ends up surviving if the two of them stepped into the ring together?

18:25 I think they're inexplicably intertwined, Scott. Yeah. One breeds the other. And it's been my experience that when someone does step into their purpose or is on the road to developing their purpose, there is a well of energy, a well of creativity and a well of passion that begins to open up to them that in many cases, they never even knew they had. Mm. Mm. Is purpose out survive motivation? If the two of them were to get in the room, the ring together, how would that evolve?

19:05 Well, one of the things that I've done in the book was I created what I call a purpose pyramid. And purpose is the base of the pyramid. On top of purpose is vision. On top of vision is goals. Well, purpose is the foundation of the why of what you're doing. The vision is casting that and beginning to speak or turn that purpose into reality. And then the goals are the bite size chunks that you break things down into on a daily basis in order to accomplish that.

19:45 One of the things I've learned is that success is the progressive realization of a worthwhile dream goal vision or in this case purpose. So, Scott, I believe that motivation is a tool that's used on a daily basis when you begin to bite the, you begin to create those bite size chunks of what you want to accomplish. Motivation is part of that passion that comes along with identifying your purpose. Interestingly enough, I'm reading Michael in Dell's book right now, My Pillow.

20:26 And it's called What are the odds from attic to CEO. If you've never read it, I recommend you do. It is Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. I kid you not. Mike has been through so much. It is unbelievable. He's amazingly intelligent, brilliant mathematician. And I'm not going to take anything away from the book. You got to read it to find out why I would say that. But he, I also think that his picture should be next to the word entrepreneur in the dictionary because this guy is just refused to give up refused to quit.

21:05 No matter what was going on. But he identified something really interesting. I'm just going through this part of the book in the fact that he was an attic to both cocaine and crack for many, many, many, many years. And when he stumbled on the idea, and there's a really interesting way that that all happened, my pillow, he found a new drug. And he literally titled that drug. Empowering other people. Sewing a vision, sewing motivation into other people's lives.

21:40 And I believe that's what purpose can do. It ignites in us something that we didn't know was in there. Or we suspect it, it might be there, but we couldn't figure out a way to unlock it. Maybe this is what you're talking about. But, but obviously you want purpose to do more for us and just, you know, accomplish something. So how does it lead us to a great life, a life that we can look back on and say, I'm pleased with this good job.

22:11 Faithful servant. That's a really intelligent question bill. Thank you. The answer to that is a life well lived is in fact one that will outlive your life. I've heard it said that the purpose of our life is to live our life in a way that the purpose of our life outlives our life. So what does that mean in English? It means that what we did will create a legacy. What we're doing is it's in the process of sewing a legacy.

22:52 And I'm confident that one of the greatest things that will come out of a purpose journey is the opportunity for one to examine their habit structure and then evaluate and make adjustments in that habit structure so that every day of their life can be a part of building that purpose that I talked about earlier and sewing into other people's lives and having that that purpose leave a legacy that will impact others for years to come.

23:32 Think about I'll just grab a name Billy Graham. Think about the legacy that his life has left. And others in the business world Steve Jobs no longer with us but what would the world look like without his entrepreneurial vision and insight. You guys share a name. Those are the people that identified, pursued and sustained a purpose that ended up with a life well lived. To go back to the early part of what you're talking about they also started.

24:08 They didn't just have an idea. They started to do something with I did just like you taking the time to start writing the book. We always have all these great ideas and then they just kind of fade away to nothing as as potential that was unlived and I just love the way that you're pulling this all together to say go out and do something go do something different. If you're not happy just live in your life and it's your example of your first manager that you dealt with a Kmart was just sadly living through life and beating up everybody around them because they were unhappy.

24:43 Absolutely. Herding people hurt people. They don't meet but they do. All right Scott were we closing on. You've got a copy of the book you've listed some great reading references at the back. Is there any book that's made an impact on your life that's not in that book or any person that you've met along the way that has kind of shaped who you are today. Oh gosh, a number of them. A number of his titles are on my list but you cannot go wrong.

25:19 I've taken the time to read just about anything that John Maxwell's written because he, his leadership and his entire his business and his overarching purpose was forged in the fire of a wide variety of things that he's done in order to to get where he is today. One of my favorite stories of his he started out in ministry and as an early pastor he he managed to step in it pretty good and he used the analogy of of a minefield he goes not.

25:59 He goes not only did I step on the mind he goes I kept jumping up and down on it till it blew off all the parts of my body. Oh you still got an arm left. Okay let's jump on it again. In other words he's he's walked his talk. He isn't just he isn't just written about it he's written about it because he's done everything wrong you could possibly do wrong first and then figure it out a way to do it right. Well mitzvah's has just been a joy.

26:28 Love listening to you talk about your book so proud of you for taking the time and the effort to write that and we just encourage all of our listeners go out and get the power of purpose, a guide to what the guide to it. It's got it. Discovered yours. The guide to discover yours. All right good. And you can get that at Amazon. You can write Mitch directly you know whatever so lots of opportunities for that. Let's wrap it up here Scott with our resources.

26:57 We'll have Mitch's contact information is email and also link to the Amazon right. Yep. Our golden nugget I stole from the end of chapter one of Mitch's book purpose in life is far more important than property or possessions. Having more to live with is no substitute for having more to live for. And this is by Nikki Gumbel an Anglican priest and author what a great quote. Very nice. Very comprehensive. So everything we talked about is going to be at winning at selling.com so our show notes and notes of how to connect with Mitch will be there.

27:38 Next week the book club the power purpose a guide to discover yours chapters one and two and I would encourage you to do the workbook. Don't just read the book. Our topic is going to be features benefits and motivation. So I'm looking forward to that. Please subscribe share the podcast with your colleagues on your social media. And if you're so inclined give us a five star review. This is episode six seven eight. Go out and get better one skill at a time.

28:05 Joyful selling.