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Speech Transcript

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L. Scott Ferguson: [00:00:00] Time To Shine Today. Podcast Varsity squad. This is Scott Ferguson. And I had the opportunity to speak to a legend, especially when it comes to being a magician, a communicator, and somebody that actually is way more interested in your story than telling you his, and I had to kind of get it out of them and he shared some stuff with some A list stars from kind of back in the day that.

He learned lessons from and he pays it forward through his communication and his teaching at the Larry Wilson method. And you’re going to want to break out your notebooks and basically kind of relax on this one because he dropped some serious knowledge nuggets. If there’s anybody out there that is lacking in communication, please share this with them.

Or if you’d like smash that, , like, and subscribe button, that would be fantastic. So without further ado here is a really good friend, Larry Wilson. Let’s level up.

Time to shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad. This is Scott Ferguson. And I have, I’m just going to call it kind of a bucket list because I was that little [00:01:00] kid, 11, 12 years old. I wanted to be a magician. And I actually caught this gentleman’s bit back in 1983. So I’m showing my age. That’s for sure. And I was 11 years old at the time.

And gentleman’s name is Larry Wilson. He is an Emmy nominated award winning performer, trainer, keynote speaker. And in 2017, he was the magician Comedy Magician of the Year. He created the Wilson Method communications training for people who wanted to live lives of prosperity, joy, and abundance. The Wilson Method is the accumulation of the techniques he’s learned working with the most famous celebrities in the world, people who Larry considers the master communicators, people who get everything they want out of life.

And also he’s dropped a new podcast. It’s called How to Talk to Humans. Don’t go there now. Cause I want you to pick up the knowledge nuggets that Larry’s going to leave behind here right now, but don’t go there now, but I’ll have a link to his podcast in the show notes. So Larry, thank you so much for coming out.

Please introduce yourself to the time to shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad, but first what’s your favorite color and why?

Larry Wilson: My [00:02:00] favorite color, you know, I feel like my favorite color got hijacked a little bit. My favorite color was always purple. Wow. Okay. That was long before Prince ever came on the scene.

And then when Prince appeared, I sort of thought, well, everyone’s going to think I’m just copying him. So I didn’t really talk about my favorite color, but I do like that color purple.

L. Scott Ferguson: And it’s, it’s royal and regal, so it fits you, right? So, like, again, we were kind of talking off the mic. You started in the, the show biz, , with magician stuff, magic younger, but can we get to the roots of how you kind of worked your way up to, , performing on stage and working with the celebrities that you were, maybe kind of the roots of

Larry Wilson: it, please?

Sure. It’s I don’t know whether my personal story is inspirational, Or a cautionary tale of what not to do. I can’t tell you what it really is, but I can, I can sketch it in quickly for you. I did magic when I [00:03:00] was a little boy, like I think a lot of kids do. Sure. Of course, just for fun. Didn’t think anything of it, but my real love was filmmaking and film.

And I went to university of California, Santa Cruz and got a degree in filmmaking, television production there. And when I graduated, I came home to Los Angeles where I, you know, had lived all my life and everyone had just graduated from filmmaking school and people I knew who are very talented. We’re working for free just so they could say, Oh, I have a credit on this.

And I thought, well, this isn’t going to work. I need to make a living somehow. So I finally got a job on a film, a low budget film as a sound recordist. I was making 175 a week and I [00:04:00] thought I was a big deal. All my friends working for free. I was getting 175 a week. We were working six days a week, 16 hours a day.

I frequently would wear the same clothes for many days on end because I would come home, lay down, pass out, wait for the phone to ring, tell me the location the next day, get up and go. It was. It was brutal, but I thought, well, you know, this is what I want to do. And during the course of this, on my one day off a week, I ran into an old friend who said, Oh, say, do you still do magic?

And I said, Oh, no, no, I’m, , it’s all about filmmaking. And he said, Oh, oh, and I said, why, why do you ask? He said, my parents were going to have a party and they’re going to hire a magician. And I just thought, , I said, well, now, hold on a second. That’s it. What were they going to pay? He goes, I don’t know, six, 700 for the night.

I [00:05:00] said, I could do that. Oh, all right. Well, I’ll have them hire you then. So they hire me for this party. Now, not only did I make more for the evening than I was making in a month,

L. Scott Ferguson: working a month and a half, but

Larry Wilson: more importantly, everyone at this party acted like I was very valuable to them, like they were so happy to see me on the film production.

I was being worked like a rented mule. And they were right. There are a million people lined up who could have done my job. If I gave him any trouble, I’d be out the door, right? So people at this party said, Oh, could we have your business card? I said, , I just ran out of them, but I’m going to write it on this napkin for him.

So suddenly I’m doing all these private parties and I thought, well, this is [00:06:00] crazy. Okay. Well, it’s in Los Angeles. So one of the parties, somebody says to me, Oh, you’re a fantastic. Would you like to be on television? And of course, my response was, do I get paid? Of course, you get paid. And this person was a talent coordinator for some talk show.

I don’t remember which one it was some daytime talk show. And so they booked me I went on the show, I did the show. And then the next day, now this may be hard for some of your listeners who are younger, who may not understand this, but in the days before computers and streaming and all that sort of thing, you might record a television show.

It might not be on the air for months. It might be a long time. Yeah. So I was very surprised the next day I get a phone call from a woman who says, Oh, hi, I’m the sister in law of the man who booked [00:07:00] you on that show that you did yesterday. And I said, Oh, Oh, and she said, he said, you did such a great job.

He said, and you showed up sober and you were on time. And I’m thinking, I didn’t realize that was an option. I just thought that was what you had. Right. She says, I’m the talent coordinator for a different talk show. Would you like to do our show? And I said, do I get paid? She said, of course you get paid.

So suddenly I’m doing all these talk shows and then variety shows. And I realized very quickly, they didn’t really. They, they wanted me to do a good job, but that was not their prime directive. I was a problem solver for them. I would, there was a show, I don’t know if you remember this guy [00:08:00] who was a very big, big star at the time, John Davidson.

Do you remember that name? Was he a Hardy boy? No, no. He was. In the, he was a singer, he was an entertainer who worked Vegas and Tahoe, Reno, all that sort of thing. And, and theaters all over the country. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Show. That was sort of like one of the earliest reality shows. It was called that’s incredible.

Oh

L. Scott Ferguson: my gosh. Yeah. It was skip. Byron Nelson. No, he was real people. But yeah,

Larry Wilson: I think it was, was Fran Tarkenton on there to

L. Scott Ferguson: Crosby. Maybe I think Fran Tarkenton was on. That’s incredible. Yes. I remember. That’s incredible,

Larry Wilson: man. Yeah. So that was a huge, this is a gigantic, huge hit even because of that. In those days they decided, Oh, we’re going to give him a daytime talk show five days a week.

And so, yeah. [00:09:00] I tried like crazy to get on that show and I, they wouldn’t give me this time of day. And then I just kept sending them videotapes and letters and calls and this is of course all pre email and that sort of thing. And one day I came back from some job, must’ve been on the East Coast cause I was jet lagged.

I didn’t know where I was. The phone rings and. In those days, we didn’t know who was on The Other Law, and you had to answer it, and then they would tell you. And and someone says, oh, hi, I’m the town coordinator for John Davidson’s show. We had a fallout, last minute fallout. We’re wondering, could you come in today to do the show?

And I thought, okay. And they said, can you be here in 40 minutes? And I said, okay, so I kind of pulled myself together. I went in, as I was driving in, I realized, [00:10:00] oh, they must have a list of everyone who’s been trying to get on the show, right? Must be alphabetized. So Wilson must be at the very bottom, must have called everyone in Hollywood, right?

They weren’t available. They didn’t want to do it on last minute, whatever it was. So I do that show. It goes very well. And the producer comes up to me, then the show goes, we’d love to have you back on this show. Are you going to be around next week? And I said, yes, I wound up doing 38 appearances on that show.

And I realized it wasn’t because they thought I was so great. It was because they could depend on dependable. Yes. And that was a, that was perhaps my very first instructive lesson. in entertainment that applies to everything in life. Some people think, well, if I just become the greatest at whatever this do, all these things will flow [00:11:00] to me naturally.

Yes. But I think that’s the case. I think you have to think about what these people need, what they want. Yeah. And of course, this is the essence of the Empathy is putting yourself in someone else’s position, trying to imagine what they’re thinking. And then things started to explode for me. And it was all, well, I’m getting far afield, but I’ll tell you something.

Yeah. So I wound up opening for big stars in Las Vegas, like Anne Margaret, the Pointer sisters and Smokey Robinson, people like this. One person I thought would be good. was Sammy Davis. I thought we’d be a good combination. So I reached out to his agents and his manager. I couldn’t get to square one with him.

And I just thought, well, what do you, I just, after a year I gave up. [00:12:00] So then I, I wound up the, I had been opening in the main room and I thought, well, yeah, that’s all I’m going to do. But Harrah’s. In Lake Tahoe offered me a spot in a review show that I didn’t want to do that. I consider that a step down, but I had just gotten the word that the Olympics were coming to LA and I thought, this is going to be a mad house.

I’ve got to get out of here. And I thought, Oh, perfect. I’ll go up to Tahoe for a couple months. And I’ll be out of L. A. while all the craziness is going on. So, maybe two weeks, three weeks I’ve been there. And Sammy Davis is playing in the main room. And between our, we do two shows a night. Between the shows, there’s a [00:13:00] knock at the door.

I look up, there’s Sammy. He says, Babe, I just saw your set. Hilarious. Right. Do you have time to hang out and rap? Right. And I was like yeah, oh, so I sit there and next thing I know, Sammy and I are talking for like 30, 40 minutes. Right. Now, this was just the inkling that I began to realize. How important face to face is, of course, I had no idea there would ever be anything like what you and I are doing here, Scott, on the internet.

Absolutely right. But at least we are face to face. I can see you. Right. I can see your facial affect. I can read what you like, what you don’t like. Sure. Which direction we’re… All these things. In Wilson method, I refer a lot to semiotics [00:14:00] and semiotics are any information that’s transmitted without words.

Some people think, Oh, you mean body language? Well, body language is part of it. But all these little tiny clues that we’re getting all the time, your eye contact, your breathing, your posture. So good. Even, even down sometimes. Well, there’s so much for an example, if you saw a stop sign, but it didn’t say stop on it, but it was that shape and it was red, you know, instantly what the message is, right?

That’s semiotic. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Suddenly the next thing you know, Sammy wants me to open for him in the main room and I’m hanging out. So funny when I think of this stuff, I, that night when I met him in my [00:15:00] dressing room, he said, you know, babe, we’re having a party upstairs in the suite. I wonder if you’d like to come.

I said, Oh, thank you. I’d love to. He said, yeah, we’ll come by after, , so. It was just sort of the beginning of me understanding that there’s more information than appears to the casual observer. That’s why things that I’ve been writing, things that I’ve been mailing, weren’t having the impact.

And, of course, more importantly, I saw that people like Sammy, like Anne Margaret, like The Pointers, all these people I was working with, I saw they got everything they wanted out of life. Sure. And it wasn’t just because they were famous, because I saw other people who were famous. [00:16:00] Who still were struggling, still had trouble, right?

The ones I was working with, I saw it had to do with their communication skills. And it takes me a while, Scott. But after a few years of observing this, I realized there were certain elements that they all shared. And the great news was it wasn’t talent. Because, , talent, I don’t know where that come, I don’t know what that is, really.

What they relied on was technique. I started to model these techniques. And sometimes, I would ask them. I just, I, I was working on a film with Timothy Hutton, the academy. Sure. Yeah, Loveridge,

L. Scott Ferguson: yeah, he’s playing good stuff even later after his days,

Larry Wilson: absolutely. And fantastic, fantastic guy. And we were in Malibu at [00:17:00] his house.

And we’re working on something. And he said, Oh, you want to go get some dinner? I said, Yeah, sure. So we went down to a very popular place a few minutes away. It’s right on the water. But it was a Friday night. I mean, it was jammed. There’s no way we’re getting it. And, and I should point out jammed with everyone famous, like Tim, everyone Academy award, , I thought, Oh, they don’t care that he’s Timothy Hutton, they really don’t care.

Right. And you know, but I saw him go up to the woman who is the matri D I guess. And a few minutes later they were seating us and I said, okay. You have to tell me what you did and he said, Oh, I I made direct eye contact with her. Right. And I said, I don’t get it. I don’t understand. He said, well, everybody in that [00:18:00] joint is like looking past her.

Everybody like they aren’t even making contact with him. He said, I looked directly at her. Yes. And said, Oh, I see you really slammed tonight. , my friend and I are working on a project, but I guess maybe this is not a good night unless there’s some way and I thought, Oh, my God. Yeah, this is a very valuable lesson.

L. Scott Ferguson: Respect everybody. Well, period. And make that eye contact. Make eye contact. And Larry, we could go on and on, but I got, I got some questions I’ve been wanting to ask you here, brother. Sorry. No, you’re good, brother. And I can’t wait. , you’re fine, you’re fine. Larry, did you develop like an older alter ego when you would perform?

I mean, it has some athletes that I work with one, one of them, , he’s a pretty well known major league baseball player and he’s like Scott. His name has never had an at bat, it’s [00:19:00] always somebody else that’s going up there and doing it because I’ve helped him remove that gook that’s in the middle to help perform and we developed, , we worked on that alter ego.

Did you

Larry Wilson: have one when you would perform? Isn’t that interesting? That’s a really interesting question. The short form answer is yes and no. Okay. I clearly am not really playing myself, when I’m on stage performing.

It still feels like me, but it may be because I’m not an athlete. I may be looking at it differently and I’m looking, , there’s a very famous quote from some magician. I want to say at the turn of last century, a guy named Hennings Nelms, who said a magician is just an actor playing the [00:20:00] role of a wizard.

And of course he’s right. And of course, it’s also the reason why I do comedy magic, because I can’t take it seriously, right? It, to me, it’s so funny, the idea that you’re saying, I have supernatural powers. And so I’m going to change this red scarf into a green scarf. Well, if you had real supernatural powers, I don’t think that’s what you’d be doing.

Right, right. Right. You’d, you’d be using

L. Scott Ferguson: a lot more things. Right. Landing that hot chick over there or something. Right.

Larry Wilson: Right. Of course. So that’s why that’s so hilarious to me. Yeah. That you’re saying I have supernatural powers and I use them for these very trivial purposes. That’s really funny to me. So you saw me even start to slip into that character in my voice, in my face.

Think of that character who really [00:21:00] thinks he’s something special when he’s really sort of a buffoon. And it’s also why the vocabulary I use as that sometimes you get the feeling that that character doesn’t really know what those words mean, but. But he knows they sound impressive. And so he’s gonna throw everything at you he can to try and overwhelm you and impress you.

I love it.

L. Scott Ferguson: You know. Yeah. So have you seen the movie Back to the Future? Yes, a few times. That’s how to rate me too. I can’t believe it’s gonna be 40 years old here. And I think next year, the year after, but let’s get that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the double deuce, the 22 year old Larry Wilson.

Okay, let’s not change anything that’s happened because your life is legendary. And not just in my eyes, but other people as well. Okay. And just, yeah. Accept that. But is there any knowledge nuggets you might drop on him to maybe help him shorten the learning curve and maybe level [00:22:00] up just a little bit quicker at

Larry Wilson: 22?

These are, these are fantastic questions that you’re posing, Scott. I mean, they really are fantastic. Yes. What this, this could be a whole separate podcast. What I would tell that 22 year old Larry Wilson in a nutshell that first of all, I would tell him speak less and listen more. Oh, love it. And I would tell him, this is graduate school all around you all the time.

Now, because I was ambitious, and I was in show business. I naturally was gravitating to try to be around people who are much more famous than I was. That’s a good thing, [00:23:00] but I would have told that 22 year old Larry Wilson to pay attention more because These people uh, maybe I’m being too strict with that.

Larry Wilson. I don’t know. Oh, I get it, man. Sometimes I, I feel a sense of rueful regret that it took me so long to figure out that these people were using technique. And this is, I think, fundamental, really it’s foundational to Wilson method because technique. is duplicatable. Yes. Now you Scott work a lot with athletes and I think they understand this much better.

They’re much clearer about this than regular people. They understand. Oh, if I have a coach like you, you’re coaching [00:24:00] them in mindset. If they have a batting coach, that coach is teaching them technique. I think a lot of people don’t understand how important this is. They see someone who’s enormously successful and they think, Oh, well, that person’s very talented.

But I’m here to tell you, I work, I spent a lot of time, a lot of time with people who had multiple academy awards on their mantelpiece and, and many of them were hugely talented. But they did not rely on talent. Thank you. Because you just never know. There’s, now stop me if I get too crazy here, Scott. No, yeah.

There’s a very famous story about Peter O’Toole. Okay. In the first film he worked on, uh, Lawrence of Arabia, that made him a huge international star. And this is, [00:25:00] of course, way back in the 60s. And it’s pre CGI or anything like that. Part of David Lean, the director’s vision, was he was going to shoot this on location in the desert, in the Middle East.

I mean, this is crazy. And in those days, just phenomenally expensive. So there, there’s a big battle scene called the Battle of Aqaba in the desert. With literally thousands of soldiers on horseback and there’s

L. Scott Ferguson: no CGI or anything back then.

Larry Wilson: It all has to be real and cannons firing. I mean, so complicated, so expensive.

So they’re on location and the stars are in trailers there because they’re out in the middle of the desert. And the, the first assistant director comes to. Peter O’Toole’s trailer, first thing in the morning, the first assistant director’s job is to [00:26:00] get the stars when they’re ready to shoot. So, they’ve been lighting everything, and rehearsing, and stunts, and all this.

Comes and knocks on the door, Mr. O’Toole, we’re ready for you. And… The door opens, and there’s O’Toole in full costume, and O’Toole looks out over this expanse, the desert, like a thousand extras, stunt people, horses, camels, artillery. O’Toole looks, surveys the whole scene and says, No, not today. I don’t think so.

And turns and goes back in his trailer and closes the door. Right. And won’t come out. And the, the first assistant director goes to David Lean says, Mr. Lean, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? And he goes, well, there’s nothing we can do. He’s not feeling it. So let’s try and shoot some other second unit stuff.

We’ll try and make the [00:27:00] most we can of it. We’ll try again tomorrow. Right. The next day they go, Oh, tools. Fine. They shoot the stuff. It’s all great. They went all these awards, but that’s the problem. If you’re relying on talent.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. And when I find with, I’m blessed to, to coach somebody that’s been on the cover of people magazine 12 times, and we, like she’ll, when she’s in a park, her attention to detail is so locked in.

Right. But in real life. It’s almost like she’s got to live that part there that the attention to detail is lackadaisical for lack of a better term And that’s where I help her, , which is this funny because it’s almost like kind of the opposite of things But let me ask you this How do you want?

How does Larry want his dash remembered? That little line written between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life date and death date, hopefully it’s way down the line, but how does Larry [00:28:00] Wilson want his

Larry Wilson: dash remembered? Well, it may not be such a good answer that you’re imagining. I’d like to be remembered as…

Stellar father.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Now that’s that’s even better than hearing. Oh, 2017 comedy magician. That’s, that’s amazing. We get, we can stop at that one because I have to get to this question. If, if people really knew Larry, people really knew me, they would know what?

Larry Wilson: Well, I think if people really knew me, they would know that I’m just a regular guy.

I’m, I’m really, and this is not being modest. I really am just like you, right? I want all the same things you do. I want [00:29:00] to be. loved and that doesn’t mean admired. It doesn’t mean adored by a fans. I mean, I have that. I have a fantastic wife who’s just incredible. And I, I, , sometimes When I hear people say stuff like, oh, yeah, that was back in my early 20s or 30s or whatever it was.

And they go, , that was the best time of my life. I’m always astonished by that because every day that I wake up,

L. Scott Ferguson: I

Larry Wilson: feel like this is the best time of my life. , It’s also funny when I hear you say between your start date and your end date. I realized that logically I will have some end date, but I have to tell you the way I feel right now.

Right? Doesn’t feel like it will ever end. [00:30:00] Right? Every day. feels better. And I attribute this to my communication skills. I love that. I feel that so much suffering we have in this life is because of not being understood.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. A hundred, a hundred percent. And I, I would say you kind of lived a life. In a sense of living a life of options and not obligations, because to me, that’s a life well lived.

If I can, obviously, you have to have some money to do that, right? And you have to have good health, right? To be able to carry that on. But if you can live a life of options and not obligations, that’s, to me, and I see it in you as well, because you did stuff that, , you love, my coach would say to me, do what you love in the service of people that love what you do.

Thank you. Right. So you are a fricking magician, a great magician, and people love that you’re a great musician. [00:31:00] So then you really, , so I pass that on to people that I’m coaching that they might want to change a job because they don’t love what they do and they know they got to make money and they know they’ve got to provide for their family and stuff like that.

But. , they say work your, , to pay your bills, work your nine to five, to pay your life, work your five to nine and get that side hustle going. Kind of like what you did with, , you were working in the movie industry or, , the background of the movie industry, and then someone came up and, and offered you something.

It’s just amazing. So got one last question before we move into our lightning round. Okay. What is your definition of a life well lived, Larry? Of a life well

Larry Wilson: lived? Yes, sir.

I, I, I feel like we’re being redundant. I feel like you just described

L. Scott Ferguson: it perfectly. That is the biggest compliment. That I’ve gotten outta podcasts because I was hoping, because I, I, I’m pretty good at [00:32:00] reading people in a sense through years of practice and communication. And God gave me two ears and a mile, one mile for a reason.

I like to I’m super curious. , you know, so I love that. Time to shine today. Podcast Varsity Squad, we are back and Larry, I’m going to make it another bucket list thing to actually get out West and meet you sometime.

And we can talk about some of these questions probably for hours. Okay. Maybe a couple of brain grenades or adult beverages or whatever and relax and talk. But today, and I’m going to hold you to this. You got five seconds with no explanations on any of that. Okay. And they can all be answered that way, my friend.

You’re ready to level up Larry.

Larry Wilson: All right. I’m just going to warn you that

L. Scott Ferguson: you’re already breaking the rules.

Larry Wilson: I, that, that is the story of my life. If I hesitate, it’s only because the audio is a little faint. Don’t worry about it, brother. I’m listening very closely to you. I’m going to hold them to five seconds.

Fire.

L. Scott Ferguson: Here we go. Larry, what is the [00:33:00] best leveling up advice you’ve ever received? Listen, share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Larry Wilson: Five seconds. I can hear the clock ticking down.

Remember that we’re all in this together.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Is there any book that you read that really just changed your outlook? Like if you saw me and said, man, Fergie looks like he’s in his doldrums, man, what book might you hand me that maybe changed your

Larry Wilson: life a little bit? Sun Tzu, The Art of

L. Scott Ferguson: War. There you go.

Love it. Nicknames growing up? Rat. So other than magic, but is there, well, that’s not hidden. Is there, what, is there any hidden talent or superpower that you have that nobody knows about until now? No. Okay,

Larry Wilson: great. [00:34:00] Chess, chess, checkers, a monopoly,

a chess, but I’m not very good at it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Headline for your life.

Larry Wilson: It’s time to enjoy.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Any superstitions?

Larry Wilson: No, except for that one joke that I think is from

L. Scott Ferguson: the show, The Office. That’s here. I’ll, I’ll, I’ll break the rule really quickly though.

Larry Wilson: What’s the joke? Well, he, , the main character Steve Carell plays in some quick interview says. I’m not superstitious. I’m just a little

L. Scott Ferguson: stitious. Go to ice cream flavor.

I’m sorry. Again, go to ice

Larry Wilson: cream flavor.

Ben and Jerry used to have a flavor. I don’t think they have anymore. That was called coconut. Almond fudge chip.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. Good stuff. There’s a [00:35:00] sandwich called the rat Wilson. Build that sandwich for me. What’s on that sandwich? Very,

Larry Wilson: very lean brisket. Ooh, there you go. Russian dressing uh, coleslaw and served on like a.

Like a Russian rye bread. Oh, that sounds good.

L. Scott Ferguson: Favorite charity and or organization you’d like to give your time or money to?

Larry Wilson: Well, this one’s a little loaded because I created a nonprofit of my own to bring arts and education opportunities to kids in Northern Nevada. So that nonprofit is Education Renaissance of Nevada Initiative.

L. Scott Ferguson: Donnie, put that in the show notes, please. Excellent. And last question there, Mr. Wilson, but what is the best decade of music? 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s?

Larry Wilson: Well, I think this is very [00:36:00] obvious, isn’t it? If I can give you a specific year, if you want. Yeah, let’s hear it. 1967.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay, and I’m going to let, what, why?

Larry Wilson: Well, this is the year that Hendrix’s Are you experienced as coming out and rolling Stones, beagles.

Yeah. Donovan, Bob, Dylan. Credence, Clearwater. I mean, we could go on

L. Scott Ferguson: storytellers. Storytellers, that’s but with a harmony that made you just want to sit and listen all day. Because if you, if you really listen to some of the words, like Dylan would sing, right? Bob Dylan, and you’d hear it. If he was just, I went to like a seminar one time where a guy went up and read Bob Dylan’s lyrics.

Very thoughtful, very full of stuff. And like, oh, that’s good, but it didn’t capture it. Like he would, , [00:37:00] like Dylan would perform it with the melody. So that’s what I’m saying is there were stories that rolled into with harmony. And that’s, yeah, that’s amazing. Cause when I’m editing podcasts. I’ll actually have on either the sixties or seventies in the background because it’s all about, it’s all stories.

Now, I grew up as, I was born in 72. Right? Yeah. And eighties was my jam. Like I was like, I, , eighties was, , a lot of things happened in eighties. Sure. And, , with the invasion of rap and, , U two from Ireland or Duran Duran, or men at work coming in from everywhere, which was really cool.

But like the storytelling that you had in the sixties and seventies is what I love that you get no argument

Larry Wilson: for me there. I mean, and you know, it’s funny, you talk about Dylan. As soon as you said it, I thought of his song love minus zero, no limit. Right. Yeah. There’s there’s just that line talking about this woman.

He said, but [00:38:00] she’s true, like ice, like fire. Right. And that’s incredible communication.

L. Scott Ferguson: It is. It is. It’s just, you can read Dylan. I actually have a book that is all of Dylan’s lyrics that a client gave to me. And Then I’ll just kind of read it and it’s great. My mind’s weird. It different. It just kind of works with harmonies and adds its own harmonies to stuff.

And it’s just, it’s a book of poems, if you will, like you just kind of that really moves you. But when you add his artistic ability with instruments and it’s amazing. So I love that you said that. So how can we find you, my friend?

Larry Wilson: Well, you can always go to Wilson method.

L. Scott Ferguson: com. The Wilson method. com. Correct?

Either one. Okay. Oh, really? Okay. Gotcha. I just want to make sure they hear the right

Larry Wilson: thing. Okay. Wilson method. com if you please. You can also always listen to [00:39:00] my podcast, which is how to talk to humans featuring Larry Wilson, which is available every place that you get your podcast. But you know what?

I want to do something for your people, please. If they go to. of the Wilson method dot com slash.

I have something for them there. It’s, , it doesn’t cost anything. It’s free, but it might be very useful for them in terms of Oh, wow. Your people are on top of it. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Control the shirt thing.

Larry Wilson: I love this. Okay. Well, that has some stuff. Yeah. That has some stuff about the podcast.

Excellent. Love it. Beautiful. But if your people go there, I’m going to I’m going to send them something useful for what we’re doing here when you’re on camera. Some information about how to [00:40:00] appear better on camera. I love that.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. Thank you, Larry. That’s beautiful. If you do it one last solid, please and leave the squad with one last knowledge nugget.

We can kind of take with us internalize and take

Larry Wilson: action on. Okay. So many things are competing in my brain for what this should be. But if it’s something that you can take action on today, it is to practice active listening. And this means to be listening in a way, your response to someone who’s speaking to you is absolutely certain that you heard them, that there’s no question.

You’re not just sitting there going, [00:41:00] Yeah, you really hear them. Because I believe The most horrible thing in the world is to feel invisible.

So, the corollary to this, if you can behave in a way that makes other people feel like you really see them, really hear them, those people will find you irresistible.

L. Scott Ferguson: In squad, we just had an awesome discussion, really fun basically free masterclass and history lesson in a sense with my good friend, Larry Wilson, who’s, you can call it either a cautionary tale or an inspirational tale.

He had a love for filmmaking, but he also found it crowded kind of, , he was working in it, making a buck 75 a week, no one in there. But old friends said, Hey man, do you do some magic still? And he got him a gig. And then the best thing that [00:42:00] ever happens to me as a speaker happened to Larry, he got stage side leads and he took action on that.

And he is really kind of known because he moved forward through life as a problem solver. He showed the F up when people asked, he didn’t question it. He just showed up and that’s. The first thing in life that you need to do is really show up. That’s what my good friend Larry did. He made 38 appearances on the show.

That’s incredible. And I think I saw him all the time on there because my old man had that on all the time. He, again, he’s very dependable, utilizes empathy. He reminds us that being face to face is paramount. Okay, the semiotics that are transmitted without words is there and he ended with be very proactive with your listening.

I tell people that I coach, especially if they’re in a CEO position or something where people, his peers are coming to him, listen with your neck, lean in, read the facial expressions, see what is going on out there because then you can [00:43:00] actually really respond, not react. to what they’re saying, and people love to be heard.

That’s what Larry reminded us. I mean, just imagine sitting in that room squad with Sammy Davis Jr. I can’t do the impression, coming in and inviting Larry up to his suite and Timothy Hutton, and these are just legendary names because Larry made himself a bit. Made himself available and he listened. God gave us two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Larry will be remembered as a stellar father and awesome husband. And this, that relatable guy that you can sit down, have an adult beverage and just talk, , for hours with, and I could have kept this going and going and going to Larry, thank you so much for coming on. You level up your health, you level up your wealth.

You’re still a handsome devil. And I can’t wait to hopefully one day meet you and maybe even collaborate with you on something, my friend. Absolutely love your guts. I would

Larry Wilson: love to thank you. It was fantastic. The time flew by.

L. Scott Ferguson: Have a great day, Larry. Bye now. Thanks.

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