Barry Shore: 

I can’t think of anybody that inspires noble deeds that I want to share with you than my dear friend and amazing being wonderful Larry Bradley. Larry, please say hello to 359,827 people around the world.

Larry Bradley: 

Oh, my God. Hello, everybody. That’s a gigantic global hello.

Barry Shore: 

He’s a gigantic being. Larry, as you can see by his face if you’re watching this if you’re just listening you’ll get a real taste of Larry because he brings to us things that you can’t get in the regular course of life. What do I mean? He is a five-time CEO running and helping companies that only do 10, 20, or $50 Million all the way up to multibillion-dollar organizations. That’s who he is. He’s also an award-winning author who specializes in, the reason I asked him to be here today, health and wellness. And we’re talking about health and wellness, mental, physical, and spiritual. He’s an expert in stress mitigation and in leadership. So, those are the items we’re going to be talking about today because everybody in the world has stress, anxiety, and disconnection issues. And that’s why I asked Larry and he’s graciously made the time to be with us today. So, we’re just going to jump right in and start with the idea of health and wellness from a perspective of physical, mental, and spiritual. And I’m just going to ask you a very direct question, Larry. Now, I know the answer but I’m still going to ask you the question. Were you always this easygoing, upbeat, and given to ideas of joy, happiness, peace, and love? Or was there a time in your life when there was a little bit of anger and bitterness?

Larry Bradley: 

Well, you know what they say, Barry. You teach what you need to know. And certainly, the case with this guy, because I was a backward kid through high school at least, maybe even some college. If I had to say my own name I’d turn 8 shades of red. I was so embarrassed and insecure about who I was. And yes, I harbored a lot of anger. I was in love with the idea of being depressed, which I thought I was and maybe I was, I’m not sure. But by the stroke of some miracles, I believe brought to me and nothing’s accidental. I tripped over some people and some work that changed my life profoundly changed my life. And as I look back on the former self, my former self, I see that today I’m very much moved by what’s really lacking in this world. In my opinion, the true pandemic is a serious lack of self-esteem and self-worth like myself. I didn’t value myself. I never would have dreamed that I would be doing what I’m doing today in my wildest dream. Yet here I am. And it’s not an accident. And I would say to you that anyone can take that similar path and change the trajectory of their lives. I’ll tell you a quick story about trajectory and thought and words. I just had a friend of mine called me recently and said, hey, I met a young man, he’s very aggressive and very hungry. He’s 19 years old but he’s not making a lot of money. He’s very interested in the electrical trade and I have some influence in that trade. So would you try to help him out? I said, sure, have him call me. So, the young man calls me, I’ll call him Justin. I’m talking to him and I said, look, based on what you’re telling me, I don’t know you but I want to get you to talk to another guy who’s the CEO of one of the largest and the oldest electrical contracting firms in America. And I think you guys will get along and just see what happens. Now, remember, he’s 19. I remember when I was 19 I would say something just like he did. He said, oh no, Mr. Bradley, I appreciate this but I’m in no way prepared to talk to a CEO, especially the one you’re describing, who by the way he didn’t know. In his own mind, he has this idea that, oh my God, this powerful human being. I said, let me tell you something about my friend Bill that I want you to talk to. He’s a clown. He loves to laugh. Yes, he’s a successful businessman but he puts his pants on just like you and I do every day. He’s a good guy. Talk to him. Oh, I can’t do that. I thank you for your time and hangs up the phone. I said, listen to me, young man. Before you go, I want to tell you something. And that is this. I said those words that just came out of your mouth will never come out of your mouth again. Don’t you tell me you’re not prepared to talk to another human being about sincerely advancing yourself in this world, not asking for a gift or a favor but an opportunity to do something with yourself? Don’t you ever say you’re afraid to step into that conversation? I don’t care how scared or intimidated you are. Just do it. He says well, I got to go. And I thought that was sad. Two or three days later I still have the voicemail on my phone. He called me up because I was busy and I didn’t pick it up. He left me a message saying, Mr. Bradley, I thought about what you said, and if the offer is still on the table I’ll take it. So, I called him back and I got him connected. That was weeks ago. I just got a text the other day from the young man who told me, I met with Bill, your friend, and I’m now gainfully employed by his company. And then my friend Bill called me the next day. This is just this past week. And he said to me, hey, I met with Justin. We sat and talked for about an hour. See that so important guy gave this 19-year-old young man an hour of his time to understand where he was at and what he might need. And kind of playfully he said to him, what kind of money do you think you’re worth per hour? And the kid thought long and hard afraid to say anything and finally said, well, I think I might be worth $15 an hour. They hired him at well more than double that just to start with. So, my point of the story, Barry, is this. There are a lot of 19, 18, 17, 10-year-olds, 8-year-olds, 5-year-olds, and 50-year-olds that need someone to use words to influence their trajectory. I’d like to believe when I chastised that young man, sort of, about don’t you ever talk like that again about yourself. I’d like to believe and I do believe a few words from me, and this is not me, it’s anyone, but a few words changed the trajectory of his life. And who knows how many other lives will be impacted because of that moment that someone took to, as you said in your intro be kind to a stranger and help them out.

Barry Shore: 

That is magic in the most positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant way. And I think we’re going to talk about magic a little bit in a few minutes because I know there’s a book that really, really moves your heart, gets you going pitter-patter. I want to just unpack a little bit of what you said about, we’ll call him Justin, and about Bill. And you’re right, it’s the ability to speak to another human being and not see this, well, he’s a CEO and he’s this or that or she is, etc., etc… And who am I? I’m a grasshopper. And they’re big and important. And the ability to understand one’s self-worth without inflation. And I mean inflation of the eagle. In other words, really beginning to evaluate oneself is really a critical skill, let’s be blunt, most people never get the opportunity to have it in their lives because families aren’t structured that way. Schools are not built that way. And you and I because we’re friends and literally in simpatico together know that we’re here to help the world become better. You and I are on the mission to make sure that these things happen, and that people do have a sense of self, the higher self, not the lower self. And thank you for that. By the way, I love that about Bill. I can actually picture Bill one day putting on his pants backward and laughing just for fun. I just made that up, by the way.

Larry Bradley: 

He probably would.

Barry Shore: 

Yeah. The next time you speak to Bill say, let me tell you what my friend Barry said, you’re such a joker and I love you and I told him that you put on your pants just like everybody else. And he said I bet you Bill will put on his pants backward one day and just start laughing. And it’ll be just fun for the fun of it.

Larry Bradley: 

I’m going to do that because he would.

Barry Shore: 

So, let’s use this as our Segway into health on the physical level and on the emotional level, and wellness. Because there is a crisis in America, there’s no question. We’ve emerged from the panic and the issues with COVID and the pandemic, and it’s still going on because that is a panic that was manufactured on some level to cause a contagion of depression in people. And there’s no need for these kinds of things. Yes, certainly people died from it, there’s no question. But it wasn’t the bubonic plague. And there’s no need for people to be in the funk that people are in. And you and I are part of that mission to make sure that people understand that choice, not chance determines your destiny. Give us two, maybe three maximum processes that people can use to really get a hold of and embrace their own mental and physical wellbeing.

Larry Bradley: 

Well, let me start with mental because it’s a profound problem right now as you just described, and getting worse. Covid’s getting blamed for a lot of things and it’s guilty of some of those things. Covid has caused some things in people to bubble up to the surface mentally and emotionally. A lot of us have gone through reassessing our world, our life, and this existence we’re in right now because it’s so radically changed by the pandemic. So, I would say this COVID exposes to us, I’ll give you an example, that’s a great opportunity for us to address it. Because here are the fundamentals of mental health. A) An unexpressed emotion cannot die. So, what I’m saying is that emotion, especially negative fear, anger, guilt, and disgust that we harbor inside perhaps even for decades or our entire lives. If it’s not expressed it cannot die. It’s going to live within us and destroy us from the inside out by creating literal biological chemical cocktails that kill us from the inside out. Anger is huge among them. So, what angers us? Two things anger us people, actually, the truth is we anger ourselves first. But what we believe is that someone else may be angry or something else. Traffic jam, delayed flight, cancel trip or my brother-in-law, my mother-in-law, whoever. The point is that if Coburn has raised some of these things to the surface why not then take that as an opportunity to want to acknowledge it? I’ll give you a quick example, and I say this in jest and in love. But I used to tell my wife all the time that I hate my brother-in-law. But don’t use that word. And we’ll probably find an acronym that’s powerful for that. But I’d say I hate my brother-in-law. And she’d say, don’t use that term. It’s too powerful. It’s too ugly. I said, okay, as long as you understand I hate him, I’ll stop saying it. But the point being, she would say to me, why are you telling me? Why don’t you tell him? I said, well, if I tell him it would be over. That would end it. I’m Irish. I do this stuff for sport. But here’s the point. I thought to myself, I acknowledge it, I have this feeling that I don’t like my brother-in-law put it that way. So, I acknowledge it. Two, I validate it. So, in the validation process, I ask questions of myself. Do you really? But anyone that’s dealing with mental or emotional feelings, emotions, and things inside of them can use this process and acknowledge it. All right, I have this. This is happening. It’s in my head. It’s in my heart. It’s in my soul. It’s in my being. This hatred, this anger, this fear, this guilt, just whatever. Two, validate it. Is it valid? And when I started asking questions about the validity of my feelings for my brother in law and I’m not being crass here but I’m saying this is the truth that occurs to me in answering the questions to myself. How valid is this? It occurred to me that it wouldn’t matter if I ever saw him again in my life. And I’m not being mean. It’s just being honest. And I believe the reverse is true. It wouldn’t matter to him if he ever saw me. So I said, here I am creating all this chemical cocktail, killing myself from the inside out, harboring all this anger for decades when the truth is I didn’t hate him. I was apathetic, I didn’t care. And when I acknowledged it and addressed it I let it go. I released it. So, that emotion now is expressed and gone for good. It’s like a 30, 50-pound backpack falling off your back. Now, I’m lighter so let’s go on to the next issue of fear or guilt or whatever. I can tell you stories about every one of them but all of us have these issues suddenly, not suddenly necessarily but certainly COVID has expedited the rise of these up inside of us. This is why so many people are suffering from mental illness today. This is a perfect opportunity to seize them and acknowledge them, validate them through questioning the reality and the validity. And then third, act on that validity. If it’s real, address it. So, if it was real with my brother-in-law that would mean that I had equity in that relationship. Even if it’s anger, it’s equity in that other human. I would lovingly and sincerely go talk to him about our differences and try to reconcile that so we can enjoy a good relationship. But in my case, I realized I’m truly apathetic. So let it go. What are you doing? You’re hurting yourself. Let it go. So I did. So, I think that’s one of the opportunities, mental health wise that COVID has given us. It’s always been there but COVID has put a spotlight on it, if you will, for us to do these things. And then in our program, this is what we teach about how to deal with emotion unexpressed.

Barry Shore: 

This is so enlivening and beneficial. Really what was happening is your brother-in-law may have known or didn’t know but it doesn’t matter. You are the one who is hurting yourself. And when that gets released not only are you happier and lighter but guess what, your relationship with, say, with your wife and other people, and as a person who’s running a large organization you become that much more capable of benefiting all the people that you are surrounded with. So, you do love and love you. But let’s bring that into the business world because that’s a big part of who you are and what you do. Is this a business issue? Does this affect the bottom line in business?

Larry Bradley: 

Very much so, Barry. As you know, one of the organizations I run is a very, very large private health care plan. And as such, I’m an avid researcher of what’s going on and I could tell you a horror story about health care in America, mental and physical. But the simple reality is that because of the… I’ll just stay with emotional mental health because that ultimately creates physical disease as well. So, the physical body affects the mind. The mind affects the body. They’re inseparable and they work in unison. But I will tell you this. Corporate America today because of the lack of adequate health care or health care at all, is dealing with a nightmare under the hood that many of them don’t even see. And that is this… because of people’s either inability or unwillingness or a combination of the two to deal with what ails them mentally and physically Corporate America by way of absenteeism, presenteeism leaves and presenteeism is a big one. That means Larry showed up for work, the body showed up at his mind somewhere else, working on some issue or problem that’s yet unresolved, some unexpressed emotion. How about that? That is costing corporate America over one-half of $1,000,000,000,000 a year. The last estimate I saw was $580 billion a year, which goes out the door of corporate America’s pocketbook in just this issue of the employees’ lack of mental, emotional health, and stability. Because let’s face it, if I deal with my mental and physical health I’m a happier, healthier, more productive human being not only for my employer or my business that I may run but most importantly for myself, and then I can pour into my family, my loved ones and my friends. You can’t help another person unless you’re full and running over. If you’re at a deficit mentally, emotionally, or spiritually, you can’t help another. You can attempt to but you need to be taking care of yourself first then pour into these other folks. And that’s my mantra as a CEO. I’ve got to make sure I’m at the tip top of my game so I can help everyone that’s in my organization and mentor them to come with me on the journey. I’m not perfect, far from it but I work every day toward it because it’s a worthy goal. We’ll never get there but we’re working toward it. And I want to see myself and everyone around me live the most robust, full-out life that they were intended to. But back to my real pandemic of lack of self-worth and self-esteem, there are a whole lot of people out there that don’t even think for a second that they deserve anything better than what they may have. They probably think they deserve a lot less than what they have, and it’s so sad and I want to awaken people. You can’t change another human being, I can’t change another human being but what I can do is raise awareness through information. I can make you more aware of what may be happening here, here, and in our physiology. And then two, hopefully in an inspiring way cause you to self-motivate, to take action, to make a change in your life. I like the gentleman. All I had to do is not so harshly chastise him about how he spoke to himself or about himself. This was very personal to him. He obviously took it away for 48 hours and thought on it pretty hard because I was pretty straightforward and in his face. And it occurred to him, I’m sure in some form or another why don’t I give myself a chance? Just a chance. Now, he’s on a trajectory to have a phenomenal career. There’s no telling where that career will go. And I’m excited to follow him, which I will do.

Barry Shore: 

Let’s go back to your point about the over $500 billion cost to the bottom line in corporate America. Hardly even aware of it and it is truly deadly. Because it’s not going to go away by itself. And what you’re advocating, I believe, is that by addressing it and making sure that it becomes that mental wellbeing, mental wellness becomes part and parcel of the corporate culture. And not only are you saving money, and making money, but you’re also building better beings that by definition will make the business flourish even more. Is that correct? Is that accurate?

Larry Bradley: Absolutely. Because a happy, healthy, well-adjusted, confident human being is going to produce like crazy, not just at work but in every aspect of their lives, their health, and fitness, their relationships with their family, and their friends, that tied raises all ships in one’s life. All ships will rise. That’s why we have to attack the mental-emotional first. If you have a physical illness and you’re sick, obviously you go get treated, and hopefully, you can get well. But the bigger issue is that true wellness is not getting sick. True wellness starts with the mental-emotional side and lifting that tide. So, we have a sense of worthiness and we know what our value is or we begin to value ourselves. Because I have a theory. Think about all the drug abuse in this country now, too, with COVID and all the drug overdoses and so forth. I have a fundamental belief that people will not harm that which they value, including themselves. A lot of these folks are overdosing or playing with drugs and alcohol to extremes and other things they’re doing because they don’t place much value on who they are as human beings. That needs to awaken inside of them. And that’s what we want to do, is wake them up to the true potential and the reality. And Barry, the thing is, it’s not rocket scientist. That simple conversation with Justin changed his life. He doesn’t even know it yet. It changed his life. And how many lives is he going to change? I even said to him on a phone call that we did have. I said, not only did Bill help you but one day you’re going to be paying that same favor forward for some other folks that look and sound just like you do today.

Barry Shore: 

Which is one of the reasons that I begged Larry to make time for us today because what he’s sharing and offering you can’t buy this. This is straight from the top of the mountain. It’s not a sermon but it’s really there because he lives it. He understands it. He deals with hundreds of thousands of people through his health organization and the Electrical Workers Union of America. You’re not talking about a person who runs a business with 20 people, even, by the way, which is also very nice because you have 20 people still, you’re touching 20 lives which touch more than 20, etc., etc. We’re going to go to a quick break because we have sponsors that love us and we’re going to do it in a different way than I usually do. Usually, I layer in the sponsor right now but I’m going to do it this way. We’re going to break for just a minute or two, and we’ll be right back after this short, brief message, which is going to benefit you. We’ll be right back.

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Barry Shore: 

Good day beautiful, bountiful, beloved immortal beings and good-looking people. Remember you’re good-looking because you’re always looking for and finding the good. We have good in abundance. Our cup runneth over with good. And it’s a being named Larry Bradley, who is a five-time CEO. He’s a specialist in mental wellness, stress mitigation, and leadership. I want to jump right into two pieces right now in our remaining half hour. So, Larry, you mentioned the first half we’re talking about the enormous cost to industry in excess of $500 billion. And with things going the way they are, it will probably be a $1,000,000,000,000 problem in not too long within a decade or so. Let’s talk about stress and the mitigation, the reduction of stress in the workplace. Because everybody acknowledges that it exists, there’s not a person who doesn’t say, oh no there’s no stress in my organization. It’s not possible. Stress comes from the same three places, it always has and always will, by the way. It’s part of the human condition. It comes from money, too much or too little. It comes from relationships and it comes from health. Physical, mental, or spiritual. So, there’s always going to be stress in one’s life. How does one deal with these issues in the most efficient and beneficial and gentle, loving way?

Larry Bradley: 

Barry, CEOs ask me all the time what’s the number one thing you think that I should do as a human being, as a father, as a husband, as a wife, as a mother, as an employer? What should I do? What’s the number one thing you would recommend? And I would say to them without hesitation. Learn and then teach or have taught to your people, to everyone you love, and care about strategies to manage and minimize stress. Why? CDC Centers for Disease Control has been saying for a while now that stress is the number one delivery system for disease in America, if not the world. So, how does that manifest? Well, acute stress is good. You go for a run, you lift some weights, it’s exercise, your body gets fired up, does a lot of different things but then it settles back down when you’re done. It’s good for the body, it’s good for the human mind and body. But today, we live in a world of chronic stress. It’s not like we’re cave people and we’re being chased by a lion that wants to make lunch out of us. And if we escape, we’re fine. If we don’t, well, we were lunch. But today it’s not a lion chasing us or a bear standing there ready to eat us. It’s a bad boss. It’s a bad relationship. It’s debt, it’s a sickness. It’s problems with friends, family, children, parents, you name it. And it doesn’t go away. It’s chronic. You can’t take a bad boss… I guess you could leave but that’s probably creating even more stress. It’s financial stress. So, these stressors are chronic. And what that does is it releases all the stress hormones in our body on a regular basis. Remember that chemical cocktail that’s created by stress, cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. And what that does is it inflames the body, which inflames the mind. And an inflamed human being is basically laying out the red carpet for disease to say, come on in to this body, please. And that’s what disease does. Every sick person is inflamed in their body and in their mind. So, people need to learn to manage and mitigate stress. And again, people want to think that it’s rocket science and it’s really not. I’m a guy that learned it out of necessity. You teach what you need to know, as I started out saying. I was the guy that go from 0 to 60 in a heartbeat because I was that crazy. I call myself the crazy Irishman that I thought anger was a sport and actually it was lethal. When I learned it was lethal, I said, I got to deal with this and I got to deal with me. So, I began to learn strategies and techniques, simple stuff such as meditation. People say I can’t meditate. Yes, you can. It’s a lot simpler than you think it is. Deep diaphragmatic breathing, taking breaths like we did when we were born naturally deep into our belly, lifting our diaphragm. When we get older and stressed we do what’s called shallow chest breathing, it’s very unhealthy. Physically it’s very unhealthy. So, we need to relearn how to deep diaphragmatic breathing. So, I always do a sit and pause at any time I think of it, or sometimes I’ll look at an index card I have around the house. Breathe, it says breathe. I’ll just take a pause and do five deep diaphragmatic breaths. And while I’m doing it I’ll think of the beach, which is my favorite place, or I’ll think of a favorite person in my life. And after five breaths and thinking like that in silence I just not only deep diaphragmatic breathe I also meditated, that quickly, it’s that simple. And the benefits of these are cumulative. And I didn’t believe that at first. And I said I’m a big believer in you try it and see for yourself. No better proof than that which you experience. And I realized that the more I meditate, the more I breathe, the better I feel, and the calmer I am. So I exercise. That’s another way. And exercise doesn’t have to be sitting in the gym for an hour a day. It could be simply taking a walk to the mailbox and back. And then tomorrow you go to your neighbors and back and then the next neighbor. Or it could be a 10K or a marathon if you’re an elite athlete.

Barry Shore: 

Swimming.

Larry Bradley: 

So the movement of the body, getting the lymphatic system, enhancing the immune function of the body. Huge. And the way you do that is deep diaphragmatic breathing, any kind of movement, walking, exercising, whatever, does tons of good for the body mentally. The idea of meditating, getting still, getting [inaudible 00:41:12] self and thinking of pleasurable things and breathe or just being still and thinking of a mantra like winning or whatever you want to say. Whatever mantra comes to your mind. There are a lot of ways to do it. I suggest people tiptoe into it. Don’t overwhelm yourself by thinking oh man, I got to meditate for a half hour a day. No, you don’t. You can meditate for half a minute a day and then go two, or three times a day. And the next you know, I promise you, it will become contagious within you because the relaxation benefits are so huge. And all the while you’re pulling down the cortisol, you’re pulling down the stress, you’re pulling down the inflammation, opening up this body and spirit and mind to possibilities, getting clearer thinking, less brain fog because of taking care of yourself mentally and emotionally. Next thing you know, you’re becoming this productive person. Your life starts to change but ever so small to start with. People mistakenly think I got to run… if I said to a group of people I was coaching, all right everybody, look, we’re going to run a marathon next Sunday. 100% of them would check out, and maybe one would stay that knows how to run a marathon. But if I said we’re going to meet you where you are and begin practices, deep diaphragmatic breathing, meditation, other stress reduction things, and movement but it may be just a walk to your mailbox. A lot more people will stick around. Keeping it simple is the point. Keep it very, very simple. But managing and learning how to manage and mitigate stress to me is the most paramount thing in this world today for humanity. And getting us back on track. Getting us back on the right train track to better health, better life, more confidence, and more value.

Barry Shore: 

That’s the train I want to be on. Well, that’s the train we are on. That’s why we’re here with Bradley. Yeah, Larry. So, that’s a fabulous segway into this organization that you are heading up called JAWS. And JAWS, I believe, stands for Joy at Work System. And it’s designed to do just that. To mitigate, reduce, and limit even, the stress component in people’s lives so people become more productive for themselves and for their business and everybody wins. So, let’s talk more about JAWS, what it is, what you do, and what it is you want to do for the world.

 

Larry Bradley: 

Well, think about this, Barry. I’m many times over a CEO and still am a CEO today. And if you look around the landscape of any business, any successful business, what are you going to see? You’re going to see that that business has systems to handle every aspect of its operation to become successful or to stay successful or even to become more successful. Every bit of it is done to assist them. But we look at a human being and say, what system do you utilize for you? I get up, I brush my teeth, I get dressed, I go to work or I sit at my desk. Most people don’t have a system, especially as it relates to what we’re talking about. They may have a morning routine or an evening routine or whatever but we’re talking about with JAWS as a system focused on the things I’ve been talking about which is getting that human being from wherever they are today, meeting you where you are mentally, emotionally, spiritually, physically and sharing with you a system, i.e. let’s take the mental issue of stress because it’s so paramount. A system, a literal system to go through, to take yourself through and it’s not very difficult. But for example, I talked about the management and mitigation of stress. It gets bigger than that. I talked about deep breathing. I talked about meditation. But I also said that unexpressed emotion cannot [unintelligible 00:45:23]. Unfortunately, most human beings, I’m no exception, have a default setting to the negative. Most of us focus on what we lack and do not have in our lives rather than money, health, wealth, whatever. Rather than being grateful for what we do have. And you got to understand the difference in, I call it point value of gratitude versus fear, anger, and guilt. It’s like hitting a mosquito with a sledgehammer. But we have a system called the mess cleanse but sometimes you feel like your life’s a mess. Or at least part of it it’s a mess. So, the mess cleanse stands for mental, emotional, spiritual, and self-cleanse. I talk about cleanse. I believe at the root of all wellness, whether it’s mental, emotional, or physical is the idea, and this is centuries old, every culture, maybe the smartest people that ever lived, the Egyptians dedicated three days a month to detoxifying the body. So a mental, emotional, spiritual cleanse or detox to deal with the mental, emotional, and physical things that are going on inside of us to express them, to bring them to a conclusion so they’re not allowed to continue to live inside of us. All these negative emotions are brought to the surface and dealt with through a process. So, we cleanse them from ourselves and we feel way lighter. Not only that but now we have a tool when new issues enter and they do because we’re human beings that stress us out, we can take the same tool and apply it to the new stressor and help to manage and mitigate it. Because the idea is you’re never going to be stress-free. I don’t care who you are, you’re never going to be stress-free. Things will annoy us. Things will make us fearful. Things will make us feel guilty. But we have to actively, proactively, and again, this is a system, the mess cleanse, to walk us through a system or process of dealing with these things to help take us to another level, to reset and bring us the energy and the opportunity and the space, the bandwidth, if you will to move ourselves even further along in this life. [Crosstalk 00:47:37-47:39].

Barry Shore: 

This is what JAWS does…joy at work system. JAWS enables you to clean the mess, first of all, to recognize who you are, and what strengths you have, go through a program, learn strategies, learn tools to be able to deal with and clean up the mess and get better at living life so that life becomes…when you wake up in the morning say, I can barely wait to get out of bed and do and grow and be with people. Yay team. Even if you’re an introvert.

Larry Bradley: 

Barry, how cool would it be to understand the system that every human being goes through to create behavior? Because most people think behavior is fixed and hardwired. A lot of people also think it’s random and there’s nothing they can do about it. And the truth is, it’s neither. Well, we teach a system called the self-management sequence, and it’s a literal sequence that we go through mentally, and emotionally. And most of us, unfortunately, at an unconscious level that creates every behavior, everything we do or fail to do, which does what? Creates our reality, and gives us our results. So, if you don’t like the results, one, learn where your behavior is coming from. Because once you understand the system that you’re employing and we all do to create behavior, now we can manipulate that system in our favor. We can use the knowledge of the system and put better stuff in so we get better behavior, so we get better outcomes, and better results. Most people don’t even know there’s a system that’s being used by every one of us that generates every single bit of behavior, everything we do, everything we fail to do is built into this system that we all use. Unfortunately, most of us are at an unconscious level. And now I am back with this awareness. Once you learn these systems you’re now aware. It’s like stretching your mind. You can’t take it back to where it was. You can’t unknow something. I tell people…the self-management sequence comes with a warning. And the warning is, be careful. Once you know this you can no longer unknow it because once you know where your behavior is coming from there are no more excuses about behavior that doesn’t serve us. Because we now know how to change that.

Barry Shore: 

Very good. And the JAWS program, the JAWS system is introducing this into organizations both large and small to be able to enable the people that are in the culture to use this to their advantage. You use the word manipulation. And it’s really interesting because oftentimes people hear the word manipulation and they bristle because it only has a negative connotation. What you’re doing is you’re bringing forth the ability to understand words in their positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant way so that you become your own manipulator in the most positive, beneficial way. You understand you have self-worth, you have self-esteem, and you can grow. You’re not just there as a weed in a garden. You’re really a big sunflower or a sequoia tree or whatever it is that you want. Even if you want to be a weed that’s okay. But just know that weeds get pulled out. So, you want to make sure that you’re there to be in the growth process. Every human being I’ve met except those who, let’s say with real chemical imbalances and such like that really want to grow. They want to be the best they can be. I’ll give you a simple example. I did a seminar recently with over 1000 people, and I asked the question I usually begin with after the first couple of minutes, please everybody here who wants to be mediocre raise your hand. And out of 1182 people, not one had went up. Nobody is there to be mediocre because you made your time and effort to be there. So, if you don’t want to be mediocre in life if you really want to be the best you can be then listen to what Larry B is sharing with us. You can literally mitigate stress. You can shift anger. It’s called shift perspective. And as you and I both know, I’ve mentioned many times, when I mention the word shift, for whatever reason, Larry, a lot of people just drop the F and the other stuff happens. But we want to shift perspectives. You’re going to be F…ing careful about your F’s. So, you get the shift happens and not the other stuff. It’s always a delight and a pleasure to be with you. Time goes by so fast. Let’s invest a few minutes in leadership both for oneself and an organization. What would you say about leadership?

Larry Bradley: 

Well, I’ve studied it most of my adult life. And it’s interesting because I only had the pleasure of meeting John Maxwell. And you may know John as one of the leaders in America, and John has written more on the subject of leadership than anyone in the history of the world. Yes, I said anyone in the history of the world. Yet if you ask John what is leadership, define it to me he will define it in one word. That word is influence. So, I decided to study influence. And there’s a guy named Robert Cialdini. UCLA professor and lifetime researcher who wrote literally the book called Influence. And he talks in his book about the use of language in words that make a profound difference. I’ll give you one quick example. This was a big Harvard study where they tested a single word. When we asked people to comply as a leader, we seek compliance. We seek to influence. That’s what we do. And everyone, by the way, all of us have an influence practice. Pretty much all of our waking time is we’re attempting to influence someone or something in our lives or around our lives, be it a spouse, family, boss, project, whoever, whatever. So, Harvard did this study where they said that people would generally comply…on average the compliance rate when you ask for something in this world is 63%. 63% of the time you’ll get what you want just by asking for it. By the way, think about that and how many people fail to ever even ask for what they want. That’s just an aside but 63%. What the Harvard study did was it injected one word into the request and the reply, the positive affirmative reply went from 63% to over 90%. The one word was because. And the study went on to say it doesn’t even matter what follows the word because it was irrelevant. It just increased the compliance to 90 plus percent. And why? Because the word itself implies that there’s a reason. And people want to know there’s a reason they’re being asked to do something. So, that word alone…think about this, I’ll give you just this tip, think about in your life the next time you’re asking your spouse, your child, your boss, your subordinate, your vendors, your contractors, whoever, for some compliance on some request why not just throw in the word because. It’s really simple but leadership is influenced. By the way, there are systems of influence. I’ll just give you two quick ones and we teach this as well. How do you show up? Maxwell, if he were here would say, how do you show up in your world to whatever it is you’re showing up to? Your spouse, your family, your work, your job, your business, whatever it is, how do you show up? Do you show up confident, not cocky, confident? Do you show up caring? Do you show up sincere? Do you show up with some passion, some excitement, and do people feel you and not overwhelmed by it? But energy, high energy, passion, sincerity, caring, and confidence. When you show up like that you set a stage for being believed, for being a leader, for people wanting your influence. And then the second thing is the words and stories that we tell and that we utilize. And we all have a compelling story. In fact, Barry, you have a compelling, not just one but your title story is so overwhelmingly compelling. But I’ll bet you Barry Shore has thousands of stories that could be utilized in his influence practice, and so does every listener. You have more than you think you do. Just take a walk through your life. Think of things that have happened to you and the results and the outcomes. And by the way, a great story doesn’t always have to have a great outcome.

Barry Shore: 

Right.

Larry Bradley: 

Stories are tragic, too. But the point is stories, communication, language, and how you show up, these all conspire to make a great leader. Once you study your ability or learn, as we say, Barry, learn systems to employ when we’re going out to influence, when we’re going out to lead people. But I’d say first and foremost, personally, I invest myself in my people. I understand. And it took me a while to understand this, Barry, when I help an individual become the best version of themselves as a human being I don’t worry about that employee I already got by default the best employee I could ever want. And I never addressed the employee. I address the human being first. And if corporate America would understand this, I’m not saying they all don’t or corporate global would understand this or practice it, we already talked about the cost of absenteeism and presenteeism over half a trillion dollars. Imagine what the value add would be, not just what we might have lost but what we stand to gain by having the happiest, healthy, well-adjusted, confident, valued employees as human beings first in our shop, in our organization. And by the way, the great resignation, 45 million people last year quit their jobs and were on track to beat that this year. You build a culture like this that we’re talking about and nobody leaves or they’re not going to want to.

Barry Shore: 

And on that high note, that is part of the genius of what you’re building with JAS, is that corporate culture that I want to be part of, I love being here with the other people, with the growth opportunities, with the situations, and I know they only have my best interests at heart. Larry Bradley is a leader. They used to call him Omar but they don’t do that anymore right now.

Larry Bradley: 

Omar, huh?

Barry Shore: 

By the way, that’s a very inside baseball joke. So, anybody who doesn’t get it. Sorry, kids but you will someday. I like when he smiles and laughs. It’s just worth everything. We’re going to do three questions for you wonderful. Are you ready?

Larry Bradley: 

Yeah.

Barry Shore: 

Number one question, will you come back again?

Larry Bradley: 

Absolutely. You have me back any time. You just say the word, I’ll come back. Listen, I’m in love with the message and I’m in love with the outcomes. That’s first and foremost. So, I want to touch as many people on this planet as I can in this way because I see such a deficiency. So, yes, is the answer simply. Absolutely.

Barry Shore: 

You just answered the second question. And that was, by the way, beautiful, because that was part of the whole gestalt that we’re talking about here. The next question was going to be in 80 seconds what is your most fervent desire? And you already answered it. To touch as many people on this planet as we can in the most positive, purposeful, powerful, pleasant way because everybody wins. That is the genius of life.

Larry Bradley: 

Barry, if I could get people to understand who I was years ago and the delta between that guy and where I am today, without some people showing me the way I would perhaps never be where I am, never have known the difference, and went through a miserable life. As Thoreau says, most people live lives of quiet desperation. I was there. But information, systems changed me against my own belief at first. So, that’s why I’m so inspired.

Barry Shore: 

That’s why I actually wanted Larry to speak today. Against his own beliefs in the beginning. You talked to him years ago, meditation, breathing you would say, get out of here. Okay, but he’s dead now. So, we’re going to do a hug with Larry because he deserves it and he’s wonderful and I love him. And remember everybody HUG stands for heartfelt unlimited giving. So, on the count of three. One- two- three…ROAR. You’re listening to The Joy of Living with your humble host Barry Shore and our amazing guest, Larry Bradley. Remember you tuned in for one reason and one reason only and it’s the best reason in the whole world because you care the most in the whole world about you, which is great. You want to be the best you and boy do you have the stuff to become the best you possible. Remember, you work with the three fundamentals of life and you’ll become happier, healthier, and wealthier. We guarantee your money back. Three Fundamentals. Life has purpose. Number two go mad. Go make a difference. Number three, unlock the power of the secrets of everyday words in terms like www what a wonderful word. Smile seeing miracles in life every day or as my eight-year-old niece says, see miracles in everyday life. Create the kind of world you want to live in. Larry just spoke to us about that. You are in charge of creating your own world, causing, rethinking, and enabling all to excel. Internalize the six most important words that you’ll ever utilize and leverage in your life. Choice not chance determines your destiny. He chose to find a better way. Use four-letter words. Love, life, hope, free, gift, grow, play, pray, surf, sage. And tell everybody FU. FU capital N capital N. Say it to your family and friends. They’ll ask, what is that all about? Say, Barry Shore wants to teach the world to FU capital N capital N. And then remember to remind everybody to use the two most powerful words in the English language three times a day consciously and conscientiously. And those two words are thank you, thank you, thank you…to harmonize and network kindness. Thank you, dear Larry Bradley, brother Bradley, we love you. Everybody make it a great one. Stay for just a few more seconds. I’m going to give the intro and then we’ll speak. Okay.

Larry Bradley: 

Thank you, Barry. Thanks for having me.