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Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

L. Scott Ferguson: [00:00:00] Time to Shine Today, podcast varsity squad. This is Scott Ferguson, and I am God, my legend, the legend, Cody Lowry here someone that takes on a life of unique perspective executing bold ideas, making others laugh and being ever mindful. of the little guy, past divisional president of the Intermark Group, a full service advertising digital and branding agency located in Birmingham, Alabama.

Cody is a refreshing change of pace and a welcome addition to any corporate boardroom looking for innovative, realistic, out of the box ideas and solutions. I mean, this dude is a legend. I already said that. You have to pick up his book. There will be a book giveaway, so listen to the end. You know, the schmooze, what they should teach at Harvard business school.

And the stories in there about getting to meet the president of the United States, being chosen to carry the torch in a relay race, getting a Superbowl ring in a fricking autographed baseball from the Pope, which is just, it just blows me away. This man is the most interesting man in the world. He should have been on those Dos [00:01:00] Equis commercials and Mr.

Lowry, thank you so much for coming out. Please introduce yourself to time to shine today, podcast varsity squad. But first what’s your favorite color? And why blue, blue,

Cody Lowry: blue. I look good in all colors, but blue, especially

L. Scott Ferguson: you are one handsome double man, everything’s in your color. Will, if you’re watching a Vimeo or YouTube, he’s got, he’s rocking the yellow blazer and the blue, the blue button down this rocket, man.

So I got to get to the roots of you. I know that we’re both from the mitten, Michigan on our younger days and whatnot. I thought that was really cool that we aligned that way, but I’d love to get to your younger days, man, and where you were and. And how you’re leveling up now, making people laugh, but putting the lessons within the laughter.

Cody Lowry: Absolutely. Well, it started early. And as you, as you just mentioned I was from Michigan a blue blood family. But we weren’t blue bloods very long. Our family moved down to Fort Lauderdale when I was about five and within seven year period, a seven mile radius, we moved 32 times. My dad was good at a lot of things.

Paying the [00:02:00] rent wasn’t one of them, but I started I started schmoozing at a very early age at age 11, Scott. And, my dad left and my mom, she was a debutant from Detroit. She never worked a day in her life and now all of a sudden she’s got two jobs. And I started selling papers for the Miami News.

Now there’s three papers in South Florida. There’s the Miami Herald, there’s the Fort Lauderdale News, and And then there’s the Miami news, which really is, you know, it’s a stretch to say it’s a newspaper. It’s more, it was more like a, a fish wrapper. Okay. But you know, people ask me, how did I start schmoozing?

I started schmoozing at age 11 and I would have fun. My beat was the sunrise shopping center. It’s called the. The Galleria now, and I used to walk the mall, paper, sir, paper, ma’am, the blue street edition. It’s the latest that most people didn’t give a damn what I had. They weren’t going to buy a paper. So I had to engage them, Scott.

And if Scott came by and I said, I said, Miami news, sir. And you walked [00:03:00] past me, I’d say, sir, would you buy a paper? If I told you where you got your shoes, what state you were born in, how many birthdays you’ve had, most people would turn around, you know, for five cents, they would buy. I’d say you got your shoes on your feet, you were born in the state of infancy, and you’ve only had one birthday the day you were born.

So, I tell people that’s where I started schmoozing, and I learned a lot of things, selling papers, I learned how to build relationships, I learned how to have a sense of humor, I learned, I learned hardship, and that’s another story that we may be able to get into later on, but I, I learned, I learned overcoming adversity, you know, coming from The family that I did where, you know, my favorite, my favorite saint was Saint DePaul and he was my favorite saint because he was always there for Christmas or, or Thanksgiving with a big box of food, you know, and when you move around like we did, we actually lived in two places twice.

The lights were always being turned off, you [00:04:00] know, in high school, I used to hitchhike to school. So, you know, it was it was a time for me where I appreciate more than I can tell you. What I learned selling newspapers. Oh,

L. Scott Ferguson: well in the schmooze, where did that come from though? Mr.

Cody Lowry: Schmoozer. So, you know what?

Mr. Schmooze are the name of the book schmooze, what they should teach at Harvard. Nito Kwee Bang, president of High Point University, wrote the forward of the book, and he said, Today we live in the most connected society in the history of the world, and yet we’re more disconnected than ever before.

Yes. And schmooze, I’ve always been a schmoozer. I’ve been called a schmoozer. And I’m an Irish Catholic, and it’s a Yiddish word, but you know, for me, somehow it fits. And so when I was writing the book and, and you mentioned the, the sizzle setting up a meeting with the president of the United States, wait, getting a baseball signed by the [00:05:00] Pope, carrying the torch Olympic torch torch relay getting a super bowl ring from a gifted NFL hall of fame coach auditioning for Saturday night live within a 24 hour period, the sizzle that gets them in the book that, yeah.

Thanks Alan Dershowitz, right? A nice forward to your book. What the book’s really about is, it’s about hearkening back to the day we looked people in the eye, we greeted them with a smile, our word was our bond, and our relevancy wasn’t based on likes and looks on social. And so it’s a real, it’s a real powerful business book that’s been embraced by a, a, a, Large large companies around the country and you know, and, and making it part of their, their leadership program.

But it’s, it’s about overcoming adversity. It’s about a winning smile. It’s about building relationships, relationships that last and a good portion of the book. And thank you for reading it. You know, I talked about. [00:06:00]

L. Scott Ferguson: And it was like, I was sitting here talking to you when I read it. Okay. You know, that’s what it felt like that you were just sharing stories with me.

And that’s the kind of book, like I’m a really kind of a parable guy or a fable guy, like I, that’s what I’m writing right now is a business fable. And I like that because there’s a lot of conversations that happen between human beings. And it, but it was like, you’re just like, we’re having a little Johnny Walker and you’re, you’re kind of going through and I’m spitting some of it out because I’m laughing so hard.

And then I’ve also gripping the glass because you went through some kind of adversity, you know, in your life as to what. Part of that adversity, what really stands out to you? What was the biggest lesson from your most adversarial moment that you think that you’ve experienced?

Cody Lowry: Well, first of all, I’ve got to give my mother credit.

And I just casually mentioned she was a debutante. She there’s a high school in Detroit named after her father, Frank Cody high school, which you may remember. Wow. Okay. He was the first [00:07:00] president of Wayne state university. She was the that’s

L. Scott Ferguson: royalty out there, bro.

Cody Lowry: Yeah. I mean, when she was growing up, I mean, she, she literally hung out with the Ford kids and the Fisher kids and what have you.

And then you met dear old Emery at a, at a camp. And you know, they got married in a fever and bingo, four kids later, they were in Florida. My dad was blowing any inheritance he had any inheritance my mom had. And so when I, when I look at my situation back then what’s, what’s the biggest lesson I learned?

I think it’s that you can, you can overcome. Almost anything. And there’s people that have stories that are horrific, you know, and a lot more, you know, dramatic than mine, but there’s the Japanese proverb, Scott, that I love, and it says, fall down seven times, get up eight, and I learned that, and you got to learn that in life.

And I try to teach people in the book to do just that. There’s [00:08:00] nobody. You know, out there in, in the podcast land or that’s, that’s viewing on YouTube or reading the book that hasn’t had to overcome adversity. And it’s how you handle adversity when, when it comes knocking, that’s important.

L. Scott Ferguson: Very a hundred percent true across the board there, Cody, do you ever work with people

Cody Lowry: one on one?

Yes, but it’s, it’s more, it’s, it’s a very private, private, but. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. So maybe if you’re in the discovery period of maybe those discussions, is there any secret sauce that you might use with your experience? If you don’t mind sharing to maybe help them identify that initial blind spot they’re up against?

Cody Lowry: Yeah. So it’s funny you mentioned the secret sauce. And if I could just pivot a moment A big part of the book is you know, building relationships. You build the relationship, you get the client to trust you and you never let them down. And what’s so very, very important. And most [00:09:00] people aren’t aware of this.

What’s, what’s, what’s paramount. Is that first meeting that first 60 seconds that are already making a value judgment whether they like Scott or they don’t like Scott Okay, I want to do business with Scott or I don’t care if I ever do business with Scott and so, And I give a pretty good example And i’ll share that that with you But 25 years and then I was as you mentioned president of intermark group But I had a call from a from a Toyota dealer in North Carolina and all the Toyota dealers were getting together.

that we’re going to having a little meeting. I think that’s how he described it. They’re having it at the Grove Park Inn. If you ever been to Asheville, Grove Park Inn is kind of a nice property. It’s a spa now. But anyway, I get there and I go into this hall and I’m meeting the dealers and, and talking to them.

And, and when, when you. You and I first met. I mean, I’m asking you all kinds of questions about yourself. I want to dive deep so I get to [00:10:00] know you. So I want to build that relationship. And I do what I did. You know, I did what I do, you know, naturally. And I started building relationships with these guys.

Then, you know, they invite me to dinner. And one of the dealers looks over at me at, and he said when Oh, no, he said, he said, who are you going to bring with you? And I thought that was an odd question or who, who, who did I bring with me? And I said, I didn’t bring anybody with me. Well, Scott, this was a presentation for the whole account.

It was a 5 million account, 1993 that, I mean, it’s a lot of money today for a local ad guy, right? Absolutely. It was, it was. Saatchi and Saatchi, billion dollar agency. They had the account and they may invite it. They invited four other agencies to pitch. And I said, you know, I must’ve made a mistake because I didn’t realize this was a presentation.

And

yeah, my stomach is burning. Go up to my room and honestly, Scott, I’m, I’m just thinking about calling [00:11:00] gentleman, Jerry, who is a president of the association and say, Hey, listen, I got to back off. I’m not prepared for this. And, you know, maybe next time. And then I started thinking about it. I was ready for this.

I’ve been doing this for, you know, 10 years. I had the best creative reel of anybody. I didn’t have any spec creative, but I knew my creative strategy. I didn’t have, I didn’t know anything about the Charlotte market, but I knew our media strategy. I said, what the hell? I’m going to, I’m going to go for this thing.

So we get down, I’m And in the morning I’m meeting the other agencies and they’re just dismissing me, you know, they got storyboards and beautiful girls and three piece suits and parting gifts, you know, all that kind of stuff. And you know, like, who is this guy? And but in any event, one thing I’ll tell your listeners, and when you’re making an advertising presentation, you either want to be first or you want to be last, but it’s put on last.

[00:12:00] And these dealers, they make a decision very, very quickly. And so I was last and they called me in and when I walked in, it was Cody. Hey man, that was fun last night. Hey, how you doing? Make sure to see me when you get back down to see my brother down in Fort Lawrence and now it’s like old home week. I’m with these guys, right?

I built the relationship the night before I only had enough, but they knew me. I was on film with most of them. Right. So I wasn’t a stranger and they got a sense of who I was and how can I trust this guy? So I got up there, I did my pitch. It was about 45 minutes. I had a very, like I said, I had just done a What we call the sizzle reel with your really hottest creative.

So I had that with me. And when I left the room, you know, they, they applauded and I walked out and about 30 minutes later, [00:13:00] Italian guy burn alarm, he comes up, Cody. Guys want to see you. I thought they were going to throw me in the trunk with the fish time, right? Go in, they close the door and they all get up and they applaud.

I won the business and you know why I won the business. There was creative. That was as good as mine. There was media strategy. Those relationships, there were people, they didn’t have a chance because mr. Schmooze. was schmoozing.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. I love that. And I can see unfortunately I haven’t met you in person yet.

Well, we’re going to make that a change to that, but like, I’m a big believer that you’re, you’re, you are a believer that God or your creator gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. Like you really lean in and you’re getting curious. Like I would say if you, if I had to give you a superpower, it’d be curiosity, you know, because when you’re working that room, you’re curious.

Compliment I can get at a networking event where I’m pressing flashes when I walk away from them [00:14:00] They’re like what the hell is that guy do right like they don’t know anything about me And i’m that guy that will go out to the cut my car and I have a stack of thank you notes in there I’ll hand write one i’ll dump in the mail at my townhouse before I even come in and that’s my version of schmoozing, right?

and That’s fantastic. Somebody asked you something then cody is Have you seen the movie

Cody Lowry: back to the future? Not like yesterday, but yeah, I

L. Scott Ferguson: feel you Okay, let’s go back to the double deuce the 22 year old company What kind of knowledge nuggets would you drop on him not to change anything because your journey is pretty freaking awesome, right?

But to maybe shorten the learning curve blast through or level up maybe just a little bit

Cody Lowry: quicker. So 22. Wow, I was I was engaged. I was working at a car dealership, which is a funny story. And you know, I just, I, I guess to your point you know, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve always been curious and, you know, one of the first things I did when I got started in the [00:15:00] automobile business was, you know, reach out to the other superstars, if you will.

But I must tell you, it wasn’t a an easy First week for sure. I had, I graduated from college. I worked my way through college. I was driving a Corvair that used more oil than gasoline. And my brother who lived down in south Florida, not too far from you. There was a big automobile franchise called King Osmo.

And I couldn’t find a job in my major, which was advertising. He said, why don’t you try selling cars? And I said, There’s no way I’m gonna sell cars. So, you know, that, that, that’s just, that there’s nothing about that that sounded good until he said, well, you know, you can make a few bucks and then, you know, you get a demo.

And I said, a demo, what’s a demo? He said, you get a brand new car to drive. I said, you’re kidding. Well, that’s all I need to hear. I went down to pennies and with the last, you know, a few bucks paisley tie.[00:16:00]

You know, I driving around, I noticed that these guys are pretty flashy dressers and I, and I drove around looking at all the dealerships. So I, you know, Cody. And I wasn’t suffering from low self esteem would be able to pick out the dealership that I was going to work at. I, I just felt like I would be doing them a favor, right?

So I go in there and I asked for the, the, the guy in charge and they said Mr band about down at the end office and talk to him. So I go in there and Bucky looks like a caricature of a yeah. Car salesman out of the late seventies. Right. And I mean the big lapels and the, and the sprayed up hair and whatever.

You ever walk into a room, Scott, and the chemistry just isn’t there. You probably have kind of an outgoing guy, but I can tell you at 22, I was, I was a little nervous and Bucky he didn’t think much of me. He was very distracted. And I told him, I said, listen, I just graduated from college. I said, [00:17:00] and I was smoking them a little bit here, Scott.

I said, I want to get in the car business and maybe one day I’ll own a dealership and blah, blah, blah. And he said, why don’t you do me a favor? He said, why don’t you come on back in about six weeks? Let’s say we already hired a couple of people, Cody. Like, okay. I got up from where I was sitting. I looked down at him and I said, you just made.

the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in your life. And I said it like that, in that tone. I said, because you don’t have a salesperson, I can’t outsell. Thank you very much. And I walked out, there was another guy sitting in the corner. Manny Fernandez, a Cuban guy. He had one, a glass eye and a limp, but he was, he was another character, right?

But he comes running up, Cody, Cody! Man, I ain’t never heard nobody talk to Bucky that way. I saw Bucky just made a big mistake. He said, Oh, call me today at three. Let me see what I can do. So I called him at three and he said, you start in the morning. I said, great. I [00:18:00] couldn’t even believe it. I’m there the next morning.

I think I’m going to see him. He doesn’t come on to 12, but they’ve instructed me to go see Bucky. Just the guy I want to see. Right. So I get. I get down to his office. Morning, Mr. Vanderbilt. I sit down, he doesn’t acknowledge me. He’s doing the papers and I’m really getting a little nervous now and looking around and I thought I’d break the ice.

So Mr. Vanderbilt, I said, do you have a training program? And now he grins from ear to ear, probably remembering the threat the day before he said, let me ask you a question. He said, can you figure out 4 percent sales tax? I said, yeah, I think I can figure that out. And he said, well, then get out on the point.

He screamed at me. I, I can’t remember being screamed at like that, but anyway, I got out in the point, didn’t know where it was. That, that month I was salesman of the month. Wow. And so I think, I, I think what, what to, to your question at 22, I was full of, you know, what, and, and [00:19:00] vinegar, I figured that I could, you know, conquer the world and, and that’s where it all started and I learned an awful lot and eventually I learned an awful lot from Bucky.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love that for someone that you might even not even have thought you would That’s amazing. So how do you want your dash remembered then that little lining between your incarnation date and your expiration date your life Date and death date. How do you want your dash remembered? How do you want people to look back and say cody lowry?

Cody Lowry: First of all, I don’t need to be identified by schmooze. And I don’t care how many zeros somebody has under their name. Their real treasure is their family and their friends. I have 11 grandkids. I have four of my own. I’ve got friends that You know, I’d, I’d take a bullet for, and so I, I would say one thing that I I’d like people to remember that I was kind, I looked out for the little guy and there’s several stories [00:20:00] in the the book that that, that speak to that and you know, that I, that I was, you know, pretty good egg, pretty good schmoozer.

L. Scott Ferguson: It’s a good all around human being most definitely. So schmooze, what do you think people? Misunderstand the most about you.

Cody Lowry: The depth, maybe that there’s somebody else besides a flashy yellow coat and then unpack that for me. Go deeper. Well, well, no, I think sometimes people look at you and, and when, when you come into a room and, and I’m not a wallflower, right, so I can pretty much take over, I mean, not too long ago, I was in this 70th birthday.

I mean, this MC guy wasn’t going anywhere. And somebody said, Hey Cody, can you help out? So I got the microphone and no problem. And we, we we gave him a good 70th birthday party. But I think when I [00:21:00] walk, I think sometimes I intimidate because of my personality, but once people get to know me. I think they’re kind of glad they do.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, I, I, absolutely. I’m, I feel like we’re kind of brothers with different mothers in a sense where I get the kind of the same thing, but more with my size, like I’m six, one, you know, go to 40 and pretty well put together. But I’m that guy that walks in and gets hugs like, Hey, what’s up? And I’m always over the left shoulder.

Cause then you’re hard to heart, right? And that’s how I break the ice with people. Like I give a hug and I give it over the left shoulder. I’m like, Nope, we got to go to the other side, heart to heart. That’s the way that I have learned. You really kind of break the ice unless you’re from the east coast and stuff.

They’re like don’t touch me Hey, so what is cody’s definition of a

Cody Lowry: life well lived I think my definition of a a life well lived is to You know There’s nothing we can do about yesterday But, but be very positive about [00:22:00] today and tomorrow and you know, make sure that maybe you can make a difference in somebody’s life.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love that. I love that. And that’s what life is really about because I mean, like, even with my coaching clients, I have locally in South Florida. I’ll take them into their car. One, I kind of want to see how they keep their car. Cause you can tell a lot about a person, how they keep their car. But I sit there and I put them in the driver’s seat and I say, see this little thing here, this little rear view mirror, it’s small for a reason.

You know, it’s, it’s, it’s happened. What’s happening. What’s happened is not what’s happening. And that. You know, a lot of people get stuck there and they have, you know, it’s a great place to learn from and visit. Right. And then you have this windshield, huge windshield. Oh, shit. Scary. What? Where am I going?

But you can’t get anywhere unless you frickin put your seatbelt on, hit the ignition, put it in gear and go. And on these dashboards now is a thing called the GPS. And that’s what I am to them. Right. So I really have them. So every time they get in their car, they’re like Ferg, man, it’s like, I think of you every time I get in the car and it really helps kind of [00:23:00] with a coaching tool, right?

 Time to shine today, podcast, varsity squad. We are back and Cody.

We’re definitely going to meet a hundred percent. I’m going to make it a point in my lifetime while we’re breathing air to actually meet you and break some bread and have a nice, nice afternoon sometime. But we’ll talk about some of these questions, maybe 15, 20 minutes each, but within this leveling up, letting you’re on, you got five seconds with no explanations.

They can all be answered that way. You’re ready to level up. I’m ready. Let’s do this. Cody, what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received? Be frugal. Yes, sure. One of your personal habits that contributes to your success. Get

Cody Lowry: up early, leave late.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. So Cody, you see me walking down the street or maybe at an event or whatnot.

And other than you say, man, Fergie looks like he’s in his doldrums a little bit other than, you know, your book schmooze, 1776.[00:24:00]

Really? You know this one?

Cody Lowry: Okay. Excellent. I think everybody ought to read it. You come away with a great regard for our first president. Love it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Awesome. What’s your most commonly, if any, emoji that you use when you text? Thumbs up. Awesome. Nicknames growing up. Code commode mode. I love it. So any hidden talent and or superpower that you have that nobody really knows about?

Cody Lowry: Well, I do about 100 impressions, but a lot of people know about that. I’m not, I’m not sure. I’m not sure I’ve got one of those. I

L. Scott Ferguson: think curiosity, but I’ll just say we’ll go with the, with that. So chess checkers or monopoly chess. Headline for your life.

Cody Lowry: Meet a great guy.

L. Scott Ferguson: Any superstitions that you kind of carry around [00:25:00] with you? I don’t beautiful go to ice cream flavor vanilla beautiful kind of boring. No, I’m right there with you Right there with you. So there’s a sandwich called the code commode schmooze build that sandwich for me. What’s on it?

Cody Lowry: Oh, man, we got we’ve got pastrami.

We got corned beef. We got baloney we got oh we got jalapeno peppers. We got Big gob of mayonnaise and mustard little salad dressing.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s so funny. You said that. Cause I’m actually meeting somebody at a Jewish deli today today for lunch. And he’s like, dude, we’re going to have a like a corn beef pastrami sandwich best crazy.

You just said that favorite charity and or organization like to give your time or money to,

Cody Lowry: St. Jude. In fact my MC a lot of That’s awesome.

L. Scott Ferguson: A lot of functions. Yeah, that’s awesome for the kids. Beautiful. Last question. You can elaborate a little bit on this one, but what’s the best decade of music?

60s, [00:26:00] 70s, 80s, or 90s. Oh, since my baby

Cody Lowry: left me, I found a new place. Man, it’s gotta be the sixties,

L. Scott Ferguson: huh? Yeah, was that Heartbreak Hotel, was that the fifties actually, though? Well, I mean… I’ll say the fifties, I love… It’s funny,

Cody Lowry: growing up… I like… I’ll do this. Late fifties, early

L. Scott Ferguson: sixties. Okay, very cool, very cool.

Alright Mr. Schmooze, how can we find you,

Cody Lowry: my friend? You can find me, go to mrschmooze. com M R S. C. H. M. O. O. Z. E. dot com. That’s my website and it’s got everything you need to know about Cody Lowry, including a lot of his relationships.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Love it. And squad, he’s, he’s authored a book that I believe came out in mid Mid 2020.

Right in of this, that thing called coronavirus, and it was a great read, and it got recommended to me by my good friend, and also Cody’s good friend, Brian Ahern and I read it, and [00:27:00] fantastic book. But can you dig a little bit into you writing, the mindset you had behind writing this book, and then what you, I, you, you’ve Actually talk about the lessons you wanted to pay forward with this But just maybe what was going through your mind while you were authoring this freaking awesome book

Cody Lowry: So when I was president, thank you when I was a president of the agency in birmingham You know, I still had a home in florida.

And so I was by myself many nights and, you know, and it’s, it’s good to be able to sit there and just kind of think about your life and what you did and what you’re still doing and endeavoring to do. And I thought, my God, with all of the, the things that have happened to me and the, and I, you know, we just really scratched the surface.

A real funny story is teeing it up at Augusta National and how that all And that story. But, but you know, so I just started, you know, making notes, making notes. And the next thing you know, it’s it’s turning [00:28:00] into a book. And next thing I do, I get a publisher and get some pretty Pretty a high level people to read it and like it, including Alan Dershowitz, including house Brenner of the Yankees, including Tim Gannon, founder of Outback restaurants, including so and then my good friend, Nito Quibain, have you ever met Nito?

If you’re people out there ever get an opportunity president of high point university, we met back in 1979. I could hardly understand him. He had just come over from, you know, the old country. But he is an incredible person. He’s he’s won the Horatio Alger award along with Oprah Winfrey and Schultz of Starbucks fame.

And he, he is a guy that got ahold of the book and I went to see him at the university and he goes, Cody, this is amazing because he’s written six books himself. And I was going to have him, you know, endorse it. He said, no, I think I’d like to write the [00:29:00] forward. And I said, so yeah, he was a special forward.

I, I hope people get a chance not to read the forward, but really got to go to YouTube and Google neato Cui Bain. Yes, sir.

L. Scott Ferguson: You’re a great American, too. Love it. It, it just, it was, it’s such a fun read and just kind of the lessons that I just picked up. One day, I’m trying to think, I think I read it in 21 like mid 21 it’s, it’s actually not that long.

It’s only, I, I believe it’s less than 150 pages total yeah, yeah, it was fantastic. It was fantastic. And Cody you know what, squad, I’m going to do, actually, I was going to do a two book giveaway. I’m going to do a five book giveaway to the first. The first say five people that put in either schmooze or code commode.

I know it’s funny, but I don’t care if it’s in my Pinterest feed. I don’t care if it’s Instagram. I don’t care if you text it to 561 440 3830. I’ll get the the, the copy out to you and it’ll be on time to shine today’s dime. [00:30:00] And Cody, if you could please leave me with one last, our squad with one last knowledge nugget we can take with us.

Internalize and take action.

Cody Lowry: Smile. It’s free. It’s cheap and you’ll live longer. Love it.

L. Scott Ferguson: It’s true. So squad, we, like I have pages, I’m having pages of notes just from this little conversation, it’s hard to kind of just to put it in a synopsis, but it, , Cody is someone that I immensely respect start smooching at age 11, , he come from a kind of a blue blood family and then kind of married into kind of a royalty family.

And then the family just kind of. Decided to spend the money in it, which put a work ethic within to the schmooze that he knew we had to level up on a daily basis. So he started learning relationships. He found out the hardship, the humor through schmoozing, , how we could put that together into the artwork that he has today that, , you can overcome, he reminds us.

Everything he brought up the Chinese proverb fall down seven times get up eight or like we like to say [00:31:00] Fail forward or we either win or learn we never really lose as long as we’re always progressing, Really big to cody is building the relationships the client trust and never let them down.

That’s kind of the golden rule with all business. , Cody loves to dive deep with questions. And he, and I really realized that he’s a guy that really, even when I was asking him questions, he listens with his neck, not just his ears, but he really leans in to the question and he really contemplates his answer.

And I absolutely love and immensely respect that, , his real treasure to Cody is, , his family and friends. will be remembered. It was someone that was kind and looked out for the little guy. And this dude does it for the intention, not the attention. And I really love it. He’s going to get the attention because of the way he carries himself.

, he’s planting trees daily that he’s never going to sit in the shade of. And that’s somebody, again, I respect a ton. And then there’s nothing we can do about yesterday. Be positive about today and also project out positive side of life. positivity [00:32:00] about tomorrow and surround yourself with that tribe that’s going to help you get there.

And lastly, super important smile. Cody said it’s free, it’s cheap, and you’ll live longer. And Cody, thanks so much for coming on the Time to Shine Today podcast. And you level up your health, you level up your wealth, you’re humble, yet you’re hungry. You’ve earned your varsity squad letter here at Time to Shine Today.

Thanks so much for coming on, my friend. Thank you,

Cody Lowry: John. Thank you very much. You bet.

L. Scott Ferguson: Have a great day.

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