May 3, 2022 • 44 mins
Today, Louis Carr speaks with Dr. Willie Jolley, author, radio host, speaker, singer and media personality. He is best known for his motivational bestselling book, “It Only Takes A Minute To Change Your Life”. Tune in for an inspirational conversation.
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for birth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship.
(00:28):
And on today's episode, we have motivational speaker extraordinaire, doctor
Willie Jolly, author of many many books and he has
his own podcasts and radio show. Welcome Doctor Willie Jolly,
(00:49):
What's up? Dr Jolly? My dear friend, Louis Carr. It
is a privilege and a pleasure to be on with you.
It's a treat and a treasure to be able to
share with your audience, and it's an honor to be
able to be a part of this way Maker program.
And I'm so proud and excited about all that you're
doing for those whom for giving full disclosure. Lewis and
(01:12):
I have been friends for almost forty years, okay almost
forty years, and I have always been so impressed with
his commitment to excellence, So I'm honored to be here
with this program. Well, Dr Jolly, you are one of
the ultimate way makers, so we are excited to hear
(01:34):
from you. Uh. You've been a author, You've wrote many books,
you have a daily syndicated radio show, you have your
own podcast, so the audience is going to get a
treat from you today. So we're so excited to have you.
(01:54):
Thank you, Dr Jolly. You are probably busier than we are.
Still in this pandemic. Uh, and I'll say Dr Jolly,
two pandemics. Uh. One of course it's called COVID nineteen
and it's many variants. But then we're still in this
(02:17):
social injustice pandemic. We've got a war going on in Ukraine,
We've got inflation the highest and most of our lifetime,
and you know, people are dealing with a lot. What
is the message that you're giving people to day to
(02:37):
stay motivated and keep pushing through. And you know, that's
a great question, and and it's profound that we are
in this place in our time, in our lives. We're
dealt dealing with a a number of setbacks. We had
a pandemic nothing we've ever seen in our lifetime like
that the last one was a hundred years ago, and
(02:59):
so we gotta pan in it. We got economic downturn,
massive job loss, high inflation, gas prices out of control,
so we got a pandemic economic downturn, massive job loss, inflation.
Then we've had a political season where we had this
disruptive political season, plus the social season of seeing the
(03:21):
pandemic of social injustice. And then on top of that, Lewis,
we've had ecological disruption where on one coach we had
hurricanes coming so quickly and so violently that they ran
out of names. And then on the other coacht we
had fires that can completely destroyed whole cities and community.
(03:41):
And in the Middle Country we had these tornadoes that
just that one setback after another, setback after another setback
after another. But what I've been telling people is now
is the time to understand that a setback is a
set up for a greater comeback. You know, I wrote
a book called A Setbacks come Back became a global
best seller, and I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful
(04:03):
all the people who have made that part of their vernacular,
part of the Alexicon. To say that this thing when
when people get in a bad spot. They say, oh,
you know when I set back set up phone come back.
I mean it was in me in the in a movie. Uh,
one of these movies, more ramatic movies. They said, you
know nothing about a setback of the set up phone comback.
People curse out of calling me. I said, well, you
know what, I put it out into the universe for
(04:25):
that reason, to give people hope. Let me tell you
what people need right now, lewis they need hope and help,
hope to give them a a a force to keep
them going in the midst of so many challenging times.
We've got this war, we got all of these other
things that and and the pandemic just won't stop. We
(04:46):
all were hoping it'd be two months. It's been two years.
And and even now we might be tired of it.
We're through with it, but it ain't through with us.
So you know, we still got people getting sick. And
so what I want to say to people is this
that a setback happens to everybody. Now, we just had
a series of setback, but this is a precursor for lights.
(05:07):
Now here's the thing I want you to learn. Yeah,
I've been busy I'm busy, man. I've got serious ex
sound that are very grateful. The shows the number one
self help show in the country now and so people
are listening to that because we give them hope and
help every week with interviews from the best of the brities.
But then I've got my daily syndicated radio program on
Radio one with Cathy Hughes, and then the Radio one stations.
(05:31):
Then we've got daily one minute motivational messages that are
on digital platforms that are video based that we put
out every day around the world, and they've been sponsored
by companies like Walmart. And so we got all of
this media because how do we reach people in these
challenging times to give them hope is to use media. Now,
let me tell you what the word hope is. Hope
(05:52):
is a belief, a confidence, a feeling that I can
make it. And I tell people that hope in the
future gives you power. In the present, you gotta have
power to get through this, So you gotta have hope,
But then you've gotta have help. Help is giving you
specific how to step by step, specific principles and strategies
(06:12):
to get you from this point to the next point.
And one thing I've been telling everybody to do is
use this time right now as a learning moment, Use
this crisis as a classroom. Yeah. I think that a
crisis is a terrible thing to waste, And so you
don't want to waste any crisis in your life. You
want to learn from those crisis moments. And so what
(06:34):
I've learned you've learned, uh, louis because you and I
about the same age, is that life teaches us from
some very interesting lessons. History teaches us that life has cycles. Now,
what we've learned from the nineteen seventies when I was
a little boy going up and coming out and uh
in school, was that there was a recession and people
(06:57):
will lined up for gas at gas station and you
had to you had to use the that last part
of your license tag and decide where you're gonna get
guests and even there are they? And so that was
a crisis and I learned a little something from that.
And then there came some good times in the ninety
nineties and Go go nineties. But this that was ninety
left another crisis. I saw how meetings and travel shut down,
(07:23):
the speaking industry was disrupted. I was making my living
and speaking and people weren't having meetings. But I learned
something from that. And then there was a bubble birth
of two thousand and eight, and then there was another
economic downturn, but I learned something from that. Because I
learned something, louis that in every decade, just about every decade,
there's gonna be a crisis, and if you live long
(07:44):
enough and you keep living, you're gonna see it again.
So I'm learning even now some of the things that
I'm using some of the things I learned from those
years prior to position myself for this time and not
even learning things now to position myself for the next
is because down the road there's another one waiting for us.
So if we get there, we live long enough. So
(08:04):
what I want to encourage people is that they set
back and set up for come back. One that you've
got to have hope. Hope in the future gives you
power in the presence that you gotta have help, You
gotta have specific strategies to get you through this time.
And then you've got to be mindful to use this
as a classroom. This time is a classroom, a teaching experience,
and if you do, you'll see that out of adversity
(08:27):
can come abundance. And that's what I want everybody to understand.
So so Dr Jolly, you know, can we be prescriptive
today and we sort of go through you know, different groups.
There are a lot of gen zers who have never
had sort of these head winds that you've had. You
(08:49):
and I have had many in our lifetime. This is
probably their first head wind where they are very unsure
of the To talk to those who are in high
school and college right now who are really fearful, yeah,
(09:09):
because they don't know what tomorrow looks like. Oh man,
you're so right on. Lewis right on. Look folks that
if you've not been through a crisis, you've never been
through this, you wonder is it possible that you will
get through it? And what first we want to do
is encourage you. I want to encourage everybody who's listening,
who will be reading, will be uh in in embracing
(09:33):
this information that one that you gotta have a positive attitude.
You must work on your attitude. You can't control no
one in this world can control the weather, no, and
they control the time. No. What's the one thing in
life we all have complete control over. That's ourselves and
our attitude. Can't control what happens to you, can't control
(09:55):
what happens around you, but you've got complete control over
what happens in you. You choose to be grateful, you
choose to be happy. So you gotta make a decision,
even if things are going south and you have one
setback of another, make a decision to find something to
be grateful for. Because gratitude is a power source. It
(10:15):
gives you some hope, gratitude. Find something to be gratitude,
grateful for, and have gratitude in. And So what I
want to encourage everybody to be encouraged. Fill yourself up
with the pure of the powerful, the positive. Make a point.
One of the things we try and do is that's
where we're putting so much content out is because we've
told people that those first twenty minutes of your day
are powerful time for your life. See most people turn
(10:39):
on the TV in the first twenty minutes, and here
how many people get killed, how many fires there were,
how many little children that snatched, how many economic downturn
but how many new COVID variant? What a way to
start you day? You know, I recommend you start with
something powerful, so uplifting. So that's why we started putting
out these one minute motivational messages that people can access
when they wake up, and people all over the globe
(11:00):
now are listening a positive one minute message from me
every day saying you're gonna make it. It's gonna be okay.
Keep going, don't stop, because it gives you that encouragement
that it's gonna be okay. You need somebody tell you. Yeah.
You know. That's why Lewis the home team on a
football team or basketball team wins more because they got
(11:22):
the cheerleading squad that's saying go go go hey, g
g r e s s ir, d ere aggressive be
and then pushing them on, go team, go chee. I'm
saying what I do every week every day on online,
on radio, on television, on video. It's saying, go King,
go ching, go king. You can do it today because
(11:43):
you need somebody to first give you some encouragement. Second thing,
you need that prescriptive. After you feel yourself with the
pure of the powerful, the positive, you've got to make
a decision stop working on your goals and dreams every day,
even in the midst of challenging times. How critically and
important it is to work on your goals and dreams
because a dream is the big picture. Our goal is
(12:08):
that dream, and little slivers that you've taken you put
into a little uh. The decision compartments and you compartmentalize,
so you get some goals and some dreams that you
can start to focus on, and you say, Okay, I
know it's tough, but I'm gonna come out of this
better than when I went in. You realize that history
(12:29):
again teaches us some great lessons. History teaches us that
those who focus on their goals and dreams in the
midst of setbacks are those who went over time. Disney
was started after Walt Disney had too nervous breakdowns and
went bankrupt, and he started in the recession in the
depression area. There that many of the great companies we
(12:51):
know today they started during the bubble burst of two
thousand and eight and said we're gonna start a uber,
We're gonna start an AIRB and B because there's a need,
their needs that came out of this that we never
knew of. People who are selling masks, people who are
selling any uh. The you know, the things you put
our hand to keep the germs away. All of these
(13:13):
are new things that can impact people's lives. So what
is the next level? What is the next thing that's
going to be coming? And those who are willing to
think in goals and dream are those who are gonna
win at the next position. As we go down this path,
we'll be right back with more of my interview after
(13:35):
this quick break now, Dr Jolly. I've been speaking a
lot of universities, and I've also been telling them that
all bad news may not be for you. Sometimes you
just special, you know, Pete that you know you read
(14:02):
stuff on Facebook, you read things online, you you listen
to the news, and you make the assumption that that's
bad news is for me. Don't do that, That's right.
Don't always assume just because it's bad, it's gonna be
bad for you. That's right, that's right, That's exactly right,
(14:23):
you know. And that's a choice. That's a choice. I
choose every day my attitude. I choose what I'm going
to embrace. I choose where I'm going to put my energies. So, yes,
there is inflation. So does that mean I'm gonna stop
doing what I do? Know? That means I'm going to
(14:45):
rethink my way around this problem. Look, life has challenges
for everybody. Everybody has challenged But you've got to make
a decision to not panic now. I one of my books,
turn Setbacks into Greenbacks. I say that number one and
turning setbacks into greenbacks is do not panic. Panic is
taken from the Greek word to choke. When you panic,
(15:07):
you choke off the brain air to your brain, so
you cannot think clearly. You cannot think clearly, you cannot
make wise decisions, cannot make a wise decision. At the
time of making a decision, you're gonna end up making
a poor decision. There was a stock market crash. People panic,
Some jumped off a bridge, Some blew up their brains,
not realizing the market would come back bigger and better
(15:29):
than ever. This too shall pass, and every bad news
ain't for you and everything that comes your way and
for your bad If you're realizing how to turn that
negative into a positive, and how to turn those setbacks
and to come back, it is truly come back time
for those who have a mindset. Dr Jollo. The labor
(15:51):
market right now, is the glass half full or half empty?
Is it a good labor market? Or bad labor market. Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's a challenging labor market. And there's a
war on talent. There's a war on talent. And so
I worked with a lot of the human resource organizations
around the country. They bring me in to speak for
(16:12):
these companies and they talk about the war on talent.
What it will make us do? The lewis it will
make us become more friendly and more sensitive to our employees.
Far too many employees over the years have been abused,
they have not been taken care of, they have not
been treated like they're an asset and something important. So
(16:36):
this is going to make them more valuable in the
mind of the employeer. And so I think that there
is a war on talent, but I don't think it's
necessarily bad. And many people say, well, you know there's
this great resignation. Well, what is happening is they're resigning
from job where they weren't treated well, they weren't paid well,
they weren't respected, they weren't appreciated, they weren't valued. And
(16:59):
they're saying, I'm about some where where I can create it,
or I'm gonna create my home. And you're seeing a
lot more entrepreneurs getting to the marketplace, and I think
that's good. Look back when my parents parents were coming
out of the out of the Deep South, most of
them either one didn't want or to think. They went
to a city like Detroit or Chicago where there were
(17:21):
opportunities for people to get from poverty to the middle class,
or they started up a business. My grandmother was a beautitious.
She went from from the South to the north to
Philadelphia and she started a beauty salon. She saved her money.
She and her sister created a beauty salon together. They
did well with that because they became entrepreneurs. And so
(17:44):
I don't know which one of those will fit fit you,
but I believe that this war on talent also has
opportunity in it. I looved did I see a glass
half in a glass? For I always see life with
a glass half full that is on its way to better.
Because I believe that the best way to predict the
(18:05):
future is to create the future. You choose what you're
gonna do. As I have resigned around my office, his
one says gold getter. I'm not just a gold setter.
I'm a gold getter. And I remind myself and I
had my goals written, be relentless, dream so big. What
really did you accomplish today? I have scripture? Have I
(18:27):
commanded you? Be strong? And I'm a good courage Don't
be afraid, don't be this maid, for I, the Lord,
your God is with you wherever you go, go boldly
into the future with a confidence that I got you.
You just gotta work hard, do your part, God do
his part, and together y'all win. Come on, somebody, bam,
(18:48):
come on, Lewis conference, find me up. Lewis, when you
said there's a war on talent, Yeah, if you are
the talent that the war is over, then you should
be feeling pretty good about yourself. Right. It's a good
time to be the talent. This is a good time
to be a talent. And this is a good time
(19:08):
to be a person who has a positive outlook, up
look and in look. If you have a positive expectation,
this is a good time to be alive. Oh yeah,
that's setbacks, but there are opportunities all around, So you
got to choose, you know. Mina Angelo said, if there's
something in your life you don't like, change it. But
(19:31):
if you cannot change, you change your attitude. And so
when you shift your attitude with a positive perspective and
you start saying, you know what, I got gifts, I
got skills, I got some abilities, and I'm gonna put
him into the marketplace and I'm gonna see what I
can get for them. Just like a great athlete when
he becomes a free agent, he didn't understand with the
same team and play when he's starting saying I'm on
(19:53):
the I'm on the market. Who got the money? Show man?
So that's what we want to do, get people to
get up. You just mentioned that world change. You know,
here in the business world we call it reinvention. Come on,
but as we know, that's hard. Hard. Yeah, to change anything,
(20:14):
to reinvent anything is hard. Talk to people who are
trying to change, trying to reinvent themselves. Change comes to
you sometimes because you choose it, and sometimes change comes
to you it's thrust upon you. Just for the people
to know who who might not know my story, And
I think that's important. When I met Louis forty years ago,
(20:37):
I was not a speaker. I was a singer. We
actually were in a wedding together where I sang in
the wedding. I would make my living back then singing.
I had record deals with CBS Records and Columbia Records
and Mercury Records. But I when I got married, I
settled into a nightclub performer lifestyle in Washington, d C.
(20:58):
And I opened a number one night spot in DC
and it became a very popular night spot, and I
won the award for five years in a real Best
Jazz Singer, Best Entertainer, Best Performer. Thanks were going great.
People will line up at seven o'clock for the eight
o'clock show, nine o'clock for the ten o'clock show. Thanks
were going great. But one night though, I went in
the nightclub club own and said, I want to talk
to you after night show. I told the guys in
(21:20):
the band, they want to talk. We've been selling out
for six months. We got standing room on the audiences.
We're about to get our raised. I walked in this
office that night. He said, you were great. People loved you.
I said yes, yes, yes, he said, that's why it's
hard for me to tell you what I gotta tell you.
What what do you mean? Well, we love you the band,
We love you guys, but y'all expensive, and we found
(21:41):
something else that's filling up nightclubs, people standing in line
for But it's a lot cheaper. We bought a karaoke machine.
We're gonna get out of shot. I said, but what
about my bills? And I learned that night nobody care
about your bills, but you were the people you own.
And I went home at night and I told my wife,
I'm done. I'm done this. I hadn't worked hard. I
built his business. I still got changed. I got downsized,
(22:05):
re engineered, reformulated. I got five and so I didn't
know what to do. But a friend of mine gave
me a cassette tape. You remember cassette tape, and Louis,
some of these folks who might be young, don't know
what that is. I gave me a cassette tape. On
it was a motivational speaker. He said something that changed
my life. He said, in five years, you want to
be the same person you are today except for two things.
(22:26):
The people you meet who inspire you, and the books
you read. That in policy, and I started reading books.
I read Thinking, Grow Rich. I read The Power Positive Thinking.
I read Rich Dad Poor That. I read The Greatest
Secret in the World. I read one book after another,
and I started going to seminars. I started working on myself,
building myself, and I realized that this change was an
opportunity for me to turn it in from a setback
(22:48):
into a comeback. Well. I started that that program. I
took a job with the DC Public school system while
I was trying to figure out what I was gonna
do next, as a drug prevention coordinator. I worked in
job for a year. Part of my job was to
give speeches to little kids around the concept of bed
away from drugs. And then companies and are in school
(23:10):
systems around the countryside and heard about this guy who
was entertaining but had a powerful message for young people,
and I started getting more invitation. I quit my job
started speaking full time. That was thirty years ago, and
night that was nineteen ninety one. In nine Lewis I
was named one of the top five speakers in the world,
and two thousand and five I was inducted in the
(23:32):
Speaker Hall of Fame, and twenty thirteen I was named
the Legend of the speaking industry. All because I had
a setback. I got fired and replaced by a karaoke machine.
Change happens to all of us. At some point in time,
we're gonna have some setback, some change, some challenge, some
of this distraction, some disruption in our lives. But it's
(23:52):
the mindset of changing your thinking so you can change
your future. Your input determines your output. Fiilious off up
with the pure, the powerful, the positive. Make a commitment
to get better. You, Lewis, You've been somebody I've always
impressed with over the years. You've made a commitment to
be better, better, better, And so you made a commitment
(24:13):
to keep getting better, not letting stuff, not letting comfortable,
comfortable become your place, continue to push. I remember when
you were starting in sales at B E T. I
remember when you had to come to River Road in Washington,
d C. When everybody meant one little room. The old
staff was in one little room when the River Road
and I did the first jingle for B E T.
(24:34):
B E T. Like entertain that. I sang on that,
and I remember. But you kept pushing, You kept driving,
you kept learning, you kept blowing, you kept encouraging yourself
to become a better salesperson, to develop the relationships. Nobody,
and I mean nobody got a roller deck like Louis
Carl because he developed his roller deck. He understood that
(24:56):
you can't less rest on your laurels. And that is
why we are on this way Maker program today because
and we've got this magazine because of Lewis car not
getting satisfied with good enough and understanding the change. Is
this an opportunity to grow? So, Willen, where do you start?
(25:17):
One of the first steps somebody's got to do, because
there are people listening to this and they're gonna be
going like, Okay, I got it, but I don't even
know how to start. Hey man, what a great question.
Because I get so many young people who and I
speak to so many young people. Where do you start?
Why are you to give them three ds? Louis three ds?
(25:40):
And these three ds will get you up and going.
The three ds to determine your destiny are to dream,
decide didn't do first? You gotta dream. You gotta start dreaming,
and that everybody can dream. Now people have been set
down from dreaming because they stop dreaming and they're gonna work.
But get back to dream. What is it that you
(26:02):
dream about? What is it that you you aspire to?
If you had a magic wand and you could have
a life of your dreams. What would it look like?
Write it down? Okay, that's first this dream number two.
Decide decision is taken from the Greek word to cut.
You make an incision, you cut in, You make a decision.
(26:24):
You got to cut off. If you're gonna be all
you were born to be and you want to live
your dreams and you want to get spotted, you got
to make a tough decision about who your hang out with.
Because who you hang out with it who you will become.
If you hang it out with ten losers, you're gonna
be number eleven, alright, So you gotta be careful about
who you hang out with. I make a point to
(26:44):
only hang out with quality people, only quality people o QP.
Only quality. But I hang out with a Lewis car
I hang out with Chris Gardener, I hang out with
a less Brown. I hang out with the people who
are achievers, because you will be cha change about who
you hang out with. So first you dream. Then you
decide who you're going to hang out with. And if
(27:05):
they're not going anywhere, they're doing nothing and all they
do is talk about people. Up three types of people.
Those who talk about things, those talk about people, and
those talk about ideas. Lewis Carr talks about the ideas.
Let's ground talks about the idea. When you hang around
people talk about people when you're not around there talking
about you. When you're talking about things, all they want
to talk about the thing. Look that that that's limited thinking.
(27:27):
But when you talk about ideas, that something happened. So
first dream decide. Then do you must take some action.
Do three things. Once you set your goals, you said,
I got this dream, here's what I want to do.
You have gotten away from the negative people. Now you
gotta do three things. Three things every day towards you go,
write a letter, make a phone call, ask someone for help.
(27:49):
Three things done consistently is better than a hundred things
done every now and then do three things every day
towards your goal. Three things every day towards your goal
and your life. To start the broom and blossom. One
other thing I want you to do wherever you are,
bloom and blossom and be excellent wherever it is. Make
a reputation of excellence every level, every every level you're at,
(28:14):
even if you at the bottom level, get a reputation
for excellence. My son is an attorney, and he got
out of law school. He was past the bar. He
got his first job as a a contract lawyer at
a government agency and he was supposed to be on
(28:34):
this contract for four weeks for one month to do
this contract with one month contract. And they had a
specific amount of project that needed done, amount of work
the need but done. So he went to work first.
They came home at next at the evening and he said, Dad,
I got a problem. So what's the problem, he said.
I went to work and everybody said the same thing,
said this job told you before a month. But if
(28:56):
you slow your road, you drag your feet, you you
you know, you hold back a little bit, you might
can stretch this out to six months. You make it.
So if it's supposed to take you a day to
do it, see if you can working to make it
a week. Do a little bit, coming a little later,
leave a little early, and take a little longer lunch break.
Just slow your road, he said, But you always tell
(29:18):
me that to be excellent. If they pay you two dollars,
give a dollar. If they pay you two dollars, give
them four dollars worth of work. And if you both
be there at nine o'clock, get to forty five star,
state to five state to five fifty. You always tell
me you do your best, be excellent, but they're telling
me something different. What you're not doing. I said, I understand,
So I understand. It is a quadrant. Here's what you do.
(29:39):
Do exactly what I told you to do. Be excellent,
be there early, stay late, work through your lunch out.
See if you can do that one month job in
three and a half weeks. Because you're gonna set a standard.
You're gonna set a new standard. He did what I
said to and he was done and just under four weeks.
He did it. Two days shine, he had the whole
project finish, handing in and his co workers laughed at him,
(30:02):
called him stupid, call them crazy, what a fool. But
that following Monday, he got a call from the director's
director who said, we had an hour on you. We
noticed you. You stood out like a sore firm. We
notice how you work for your lunch out. We notice
how you got there earlier, we notice how you stayed late.
You said a new standard. Here's what we want to do.
We want to hire you to come back and teach
(30:25):
and train these other slugs how to do what you
did and we'll double your salary. Folks, there's no there's
no substitute for excellence. There's no substitute. That's why Lewis
causes success, because he understands the power of excellence. Go
to the extra mile, people. There's an old saying the
(30:46):
only place where there's no traffic jam is the extra mile.
Very few people are willing to get on it. Will
be back with more of my interview after this quick break, Well, Willie,
(31:11):
come on. More questions for before I let you go work.
I get asked this question hard all the time. What
is the definition of hard work? You know that's a great,
great question because many times people say marriage is hard work, okay,
(31:35):
and you know it is. It is. Many people know
my my wife and we have a marriage television show
on Facebook Live and Instagram Live and Lincoln Live comes
on Monday nights nine o'clock on A Jolly Marriage on Facebook,
A Jolly Marriage and Instagram and Billy Jolly Lincoln Live.
And we want to book Make Love, Make Money, Make
(31:56):
It Last, bro Uh with a book Make Love, Mike
May Club, Make Money Making Last, Ten Secrets of Shape,
A Greade Marriage the show. It's called Make Love and
Make Money Making last the broadcast, And I say to
people on the show, marriage is hard work, but it's
not hard label. It's not like breaking bricks. It's a difference. Yeah,
it's hard work because you gotta compromise, You gotta do
(32:19):
the things that you might not want to do with
your hard Okay, but it's not hard labor. It's not
you got you gotta break bricks or break rocks. No,
you have to work hard on you. I love the
quote in the book uh Lewis. It's one of my
favorite quotes. It's a quote by our friend zig Zigger.
You and I both know zig Ziggler. Zig Ziggler said,
(32:42):
many people have a strange idea of about marriage. They
say it's going to be just terrible. Well, you gotta
work so hard. But yeah, you gotta work hard to
make sure that you're the right kind of person who
will be the right kind of made. He said, because
often many people will real think I married the wrong person.
But if you treat the wrong person like the right person,
(33:04):
they're very well might have ended up being the right person.
But if you married the right person and you treated
the right person wrong, then you would have messed up anyway.
But if you want to be happily married, you make
sure you are the right kind of person, because that's
where the hard work comes in. You working on you.
You can't change nobody else, So you gotta work on you,
(33:25):
and they do their part. You do your part. You
can have a great marriage. My wife has not been
married thirty seven years, haven't had an argument and over
thirty five years because we made a commitment that we're
willing to do the work. It's not hard labor. It's hard,
but it's not hard labor. So same with working in life.
You want to do three things. You want to work hard.
(33:46):
That means do what you love to do, do what
you enjoy, what's your passion. You work hard. I work hard.
I I tell people I work hard, but it's not
hard labor because I love what I do. But I
work hard. I don't cut coins, and so work hard.
They work smart. Our friend, we have a friend, Zack Jones,
and two of us have a friend. His dad told us,
so told me somebody' never for getting Louis as long
(34:07):
as I live, He said, will it. You can work
with your hair or you can work with your back.
You choose, he said, You choose who's which one you're
gonna work with? He said, the smart, he said, the
bank president and the brick layer both work hard. One
just worked with his head, won't work with it back.
You choose which one to go be. So you work hard,
(34:27):
you work smart. Then you trust God, because they're gonna
be time when you've got no answer how you gonna
get through this except your faith that God would never
leave you enough forsaken. And so I trust God. I
work smart, and I work hard, and God has blessed
me with some good success. Well, Willie, as as as
(34:48):
we go, there is probably not a person listening to
this podcast that is not going through something. Some of
them maybe small things, some of them may be big things.
Give them a word of encouragement as we sort of
in this particular part we make a podcast today. You
(35:09):
know what a great, great, great question, because everybody, everybody
has something they're going through, something that that they're concerned about.
Even when things are good, there's something you you're concerned about.
You might be dealing with what I call the devastating
deeds of life. The devastating ads are what you already
talked about change, downsizing, disruption. Then you might have disease,
(35:33):
you might have a diagnosis, you might have had a divorce,
you might have had a definite satory. You might have
had a disaster, hurricane or tornado. I don't know if
you have the devastating or you might have a teenager
in your house who think they know more than you.
Huh yeah. I don't know which thing you're dealing with,
but everybody dealing with something, and that's where it's so
(35:56):
critical to have faith, focus and follow through. Come on, somebody, faith.
I got faith in God, and I believe God would
never leave me, not forsake me. So I encouraged myself
through my daily prayer meditation to say, we're gonna make
me and God together we created. We might look like
(36:18):
a majority, but we are, or a minority, but we're
a majority. We are we're gonna win. So faith, I
got faith, Then I got focused. I focused on my
faith and my my goals and my family, and then
I got followed through. I gotta take action, and folks,
you're going through something, let me tell you something. Two
thousand and three, I lost my mother, my brother, my
(36:43):
only sibling, and my father Lawn thirty days. It was
overwhelming grief. But here's what I learned to do. And
I want to give this everybody who might be struggling,
who might be grieving, who might be hurting. You must decide.
He must have signed. Are you gonna curse because a
(37:05):
rose bush has thorns? Or are you gonna celebrate because
the phone bush has roses? Are you gonna curse because
things aren't perfect? Or are you gonna celebrate because you're
still here? And as long as you still here, as
long as you've got breath in your body, you've got
(37:26):
a shock, a chance, a possibility to turn it to land.
I encourage you to celebrate, to celebrate life. Be grateful,
Thank God. I'm here another day. Thank you God. Every
morning I wake up, I look up, I look up.
When I'm in bed, I look up and I see
the ceiling and I say thank you. I got to
see the ceiling one more time. Come on, I got
(37:47):
another chance. I turned out of bed. I follow my
knees and thank God for life. I pray for my family,
put her hands around the people from her harmon danger.
I go brush my teeth and then I get active,
some sort of physical activity, walk on I ride my
bike or go to the gym to get the endorphins,
those natural uppers that are in your blood stream. All
(38:07):
they need to do is have some activity to release
them into your blood stream and they get going and
you feel better. Sorry at first, thank God, Then I pray.
Then I get busy, and then I go to work.
Not a job that I hate, but a job that
I love, and I work hard. I might work four
fifty sixteen hours a day, but I am grateful that
(38:30):
I live in a place, in a time where I
can choose my destiny. And everybody who's listening, everybody who's reading,
can you can choose your destiny. You can choose. Your
goal is your dreams. So have a vision for your
future vs. For vision. Make the tough decision for your future,
and we talked about that. Take massive action for your
(38:50):
future and then have great desire that is worth it
and what gives you desire? What is your what is
your overacting goal? Let me tell you what my overacting
goal is, Fleuis. Someone asked me on the TV show
one day, what's your biggest goal? Dr Jolly immediately responded,
because I know what it was. My biggest goal. That
(39:11):
is a hundred years from now, some child will walk
in the room and see a picture of me and
my wife and walk over to it and kiss and say,
thank you, great great great great Granddaddy, Thank you, great
great great great Grandmama for what you created that allows
us to have a business, the home of education. Thank
you for setting a standard of excellence for our family.
(39:35):
I will never get to see that child, Lewis. I'll
never meet that child, but that's my goal. The great
ones plant trees that take a hundred years to come
to fruition when they're in the eighties. They will never
sit under those trees, but they understand the power of legacy.
The Bible says a good man leads an inheritance for
(39:57):
his children's children's great grandchildre folks our close with this.
Lewis is my favor, and I'll leave this with you.
This is for Laura and you and everybody who's looking
at this, and all the great Producer lower for those
who don't know who lords the great Producer. For Lewis,
I was blessed to be able to get motivated tour
we play zig Ziggler when he died for many years
(40:19):
and with zig Ziggler and Colon Pound and less Bound.
And when zig got they called me and said, we
want a man of faith. It was a well known
motivator to replace it. And they asked me during the tour,
and I did that. We did it for a number
of years up until the pandemic, and we would do
two cities a week, and we were traveling a lot.
But I would close every speech with the same story. Lewis,
(40:40):
I was a new speaker back thirty years ago. I
was struggling to keep the lights on, struggling to keep
the phones or no one knew who I was. I'd
make sales calls, they say I don't know who you are,
to hang up in my face and I get discouraged.
I wouldn't make any more calls that day because they
had taken away my courage. Discourage. By the name of
the word is to take away your courage discourage. They
take away Kirk and so it takes me a day
(41:01):
or two to get my courage back, and I start
made call. One day, I made my first call and
guy said, oh, I like it where you're talking. I
like your energy. I'm having a meeting. It's gonna be
in Orlando, Florida. It's gonna be at such and such
a day. Are you available? I think you'd be good.
I said yes, sir. He said, here's the budget. What okay,
I can do that, and he said, we'll fly you down.
You speak, and we know, we know you're gonna do great.
Thank you. I flew down to Florida that day. I
(41:22):
gave the speech, they gave me a standing ocation, and
they gave me my check. I was ecstatic. Oh, I've
never been paid that much money, and put the check
in my pocket. And I finished meeting and greeting people,
and then went on to the airport to fly home. Well,
I got on a flight Lewis, and I was sitting
there feeling good in my seat. I pulled that check
out a second time. But when I pulled the check
out the second time, Lewis, I got depressed because that
(41:45):
money was already allocated. You know, he ever got your
check before you get gone, was gone. I started having
a penny party with myself right there be twenty two
and or the general across the album. Much of sense
that I was struggling. He struck up a conversation with me.
He told me he was a Minister Tea lectured every
day at a different city about health and wealth. I said,
you speak every day, yes, you fly every day. Yes. Wow.
(42:08):
We talked for a few momnutes, and then he asked
me a question to change the trajectory of my future.
He said, young man, how would you think I am.
I looked him up and down and said, sir, I
think you made me about sixty. He took off his glasses.
He looked me dead near. He said, young man, I'm
eighty eight years old and my best is yet to call.
(42:34):
In that moment, everything shifted in my head. If any
eight year old Megan had the optimism to believe that
the best phase were in front of him and not
behind him, what did I have to whine and cry
and complain about. And I went home with a new attitude.
I got on that phone and started making sales calls.
And if they said no, I gave him the best
form with other words you can ever use, but somebody
telling you know next. If they said you know, I
(42:54):
said next. And when they hung up in my face,
I said, you're not the right one. Well, thirty years
of gone by, I've been inducted to Speaker Hall of
fame name one of the outstanding five speakers in the world.
I've got the best selling books, television, radio, But it's
just a tip of the Iceberger what it's yet to come.
And I want to say to everybody who is listening
to this podcast, everybody who's reading way Maker magazine, everybody
(43:15):
who knows Louis car everybody who knows all these people
who are part of this great conglomerate, conglomerate of great thinkers.
I want to say to everybody, for sure, your best
is yet to come. Keep the faith, your best is
yet to come. Don't give up. Your best is yet
to come. Keep going because you will determine your destiny
(43:35):
and your best it's yet to come. Well that was
motivational speaker extraordinaire Dr Willie Jolly, and you can see
why I call him way Making. Thank you, Dr Jolly,
Appreciate it and looking forward to seeing you at many
(43:57):
more way Maker events. Appreciate Thank you so much. Up together,
my brother, We've got some big stuff coming down a
road less. Thank you, Thank you,
I'm Louis Carr, host to the Blueprint Connect podcast. The
Blueprint Connect podcast is an extension of the Blueprint Men Summer,
where we have consistently given men a prescription for birth,
not just for themselves, but also for their families and
their communities. During these podcasts, we will educate and motivate
our listeners about entrepreneurship, careers, finances, health and wellness, and relationship.
(00:28):
And on today's episode, we have motivational speaker extraordinaire, doctor
Willie Jolly, author of many many books and he has
his own podcasts and radio show. Welcome Doctor Willie Jolly,
(00:49):
What's up? Dr Jolly? My dear friend, Louis Carr. It
is a privilege and a pleasure to be on with you.
It's a treat and a treasure to be able to
share with your audience, and it's an honor to be
able to be a part of this way Maker program.
And I'm so proud and excited about all that you're
doing for those whom for giving full disclosure. Lewis and
(01:12):
I have been friends for almost forty years, okay almost
forty years, and I have always been so impressed with
his commitment to excellence, So I'm honored to be here
with this program. Well, Dr Jolly, you are one of
the ultimate way makers, so we are excited to hear
(01:34):
from you. Uh. You've been a author, You've wrote many books,
you have a daily syndicated radio show, you have your
own podcast, so the audience is going to get a
treat from you today. So we're so excited to have you.
(01:54):
Thank you, Dr Jolly. You are probably busier than we are.
Still in this pandemic. Uh, and I'll say Dr Jolly,
two pandemics. Uh. One of course it's called COVID nineteen
and it's many variants. But then we're still in this
(02:17):
social injustice pandemic. We've got a war going on in Ukraine,
We've got inflation the highest and most of our lifetime,
and you know, people are dealing with a lot. What
is the message that you're giving people to day to
(02:37):
stay motivated and keep pushing through. And you know, that's
a great question, and and it's profound that we are
in this place in our time, in our lives. We're
dealt dealing with a a number of setbacks. We had
a pandemic nothing we've ever seen in our lifetime like
that the last one was a hundred years ago, and
(02:59):
so we gotta pan in it. We got economic downturn,
massive job loss, high inflation, gas prices out of control,
so we got a pandemic economic downturn, massive job loss, inflation.
Then we've had a political season where we had this
disruptive political season, plus the social season of seeing the
(03:21):
pandemic of social injustice. And then on top of that, Lewis,
we've had ecological disruption where on one coach we had
hurricanes coming so quickly and so violently that they ran
out of names. And then on the other coacht we
had fires that can completely destroyed whole cities and community.
(03:41):
And in the Middle Country we had these tornadoes that
just that one setback after another, setback after another setback
after another. But what I've been telling people is now
is the time to understand that a setback is a
set up for a greater comeback. You know, I wrote
a book called A Setbacks come Back became a global
best seller, and I'm grateful for that, and I'm grateful
(04:03):
all the people who have made that part of their vernacular,
part of the Alexicon. To say that this thing when
when people get in a bad spot. They say, oh,
you know when I set back set up phone come back.
I mean it was in me in the in a movie. Uh,
one of these movies, more ramatic movies. They said, you
know nothing about a setback of the set up phone comback.
People curse out of calling me. I said, well, you
know what, I put it out into the universe for
(04:25):
that reason, to give people hope. Let me tell you
what people need right now, lewis they need hope and help,
hope to give them a a a force to keep
them going in the midst of so many challenging times.
We've got this war, we got all of these other
things that and and the pandemic just won't stop. We
(04:46):
all were hoping it'd be two months. It's been two years.
And and even now we might be tired of it.
We're through with it, but it ain't through with us.
So you know, we still got people getting sick. And
so what I want to say to people is this
that a setback happens to everybody. Now, we just had
a series of setback, but this is a precursor for lights.
(05:07):
Now here's the thing I want you to learn. Yeah,
I've been busy I'm busy, man. I've got serious ex
sound that are very grateful. The shows the number one
self help show in the country now and so people
are listening to that because we give them hope and
help every week with interviews from the best of the brities.
But then I've got my daily syndicated radio program on
Radio one with Cathy Hughes, and then the Radio one stations.
(05:31):
Then we've got daily one minute motivational messages that are
on digital platforms that are video based that we put
out every day around the world, and they've been sponsored
by companies like Walmart. And so we got all of
this media because how do we reach people in these
challenging times to give them hope is to use media. Now,
let me tell you what the word hope is. Hope
(05:52):
is a belief, a confidence, a feeling that I can
make it. And I tell people that hope in the
future gives you power. In the present, you gotta have
power to get through this, So you gotta have hope,
But then you've gotta have help. Help is giving you
specific how to step by step, specific principles and strategies
(06:12):
to get you from this point to the next point.
And one thing I've been telling everybody to do is
use this time right now as a learning moment, Use
this crisis as a classroom. Yeah. I think that a
crisis is a terrible thing to waste, And so you
don't want to waste any crisis in your life. You
want to learn from those crisis moments. And so what
(06:34):
I've learned you've learned, uh, louis because you and I
about the same age, is that life teaches us from
some very interesting lessons. History teaches us that life has cycles. Now,
what we've learned from the nineteen seventies when I was
a little boy going up and coming out and uh
in school, was that there was a recession and people
(06:57):
will lined up for gas at gas station and you
had to you had to use the that last part
of your license tag and decide where you're gonna get
guests and even there are they? And so that was
a crisis and I learned a little something from that.
And then there came some good times in the ninety
nineties and Go go nineties. But this that was ninety
left another crisis. I saw how meetings and travel shut down,
(07:23):
the speaking industry was disrupted. I was making my living
and speaking and people weren't having meetings. But I learned
something from that. And then there was a bubble birth
of two thousand and eight, and then there was another
economic downturn, but I learned something from that. Because I
learned something, louis that in every decade, just about every decade,
there's gonna be a crisis, and if you live long
(07:44):
enough and you keep living, you're gonna see it again.
So I'm learning even now some of the things that
I'm using some of the things I learned from those
years prior to position myself for this time and not
even learning things now to position myself for the next
is because down the road there's another one waiting for us.
So if we get there, we live long enough. So
(08:04):
what I want to encourage people is that they set
back and set up for come back. One that you've
got to have hope. Hope in the future gives you
power in the presence that you gotta have help, You
gotta have specific strategies to get you through this time.
And then you've got to be mindful to use this
as a classroom. This time is a classroom, a teaching experience,
and if you do, you'll see that out of adversity
(08:27):
can come abundance. And that's what I want everybody to understand.
So so Dr Jolly, you know, can we be prescriptive
today and we sort of go through you know, different groups.
There are a lot of gen zers who have never
had sort of these head winds that you've had. You
(08:49):
and I have had many in our lifetime. This is
probably their first head wind where they are very unsure
of the To talk to those who are in high
school and college right now who are really fearful, yeah,
(09:09):
because they don't know what tomorrow looks like. Oh man,
you're so right on. Lewis right on. Look folks that
if you've not been through a crisis, you've never been
through this, you wonder is it possible that you will
get through it? And what first we want to do
is encourage you. I want to encourage everybody who's listening,
who will be reading, will be uh in in embracing
(09:33):
this information that one that you gotta have a positive attitude.
You must work on your attitude. You can't control no
one in this world can control the weather, no, and
they control the time. No. What's the one thing in
life we all have complete control over. That's ourselves and
our attitude. Can't control what happens to you, can't control
(09:55):
what happens around you, but you've got complete control over
what happens in you. You choose to be grateful, you
choose to be happy. So you gotta make a decision,
even if things are going south and you have one
setback of another, make a decision to find something to
be grateful for. Because gratitude is a power source. It
(10:15):
gives you some hope, gratitude. Find something to be gratitude,
grateful for, and have gratitude in. And So what I
want to encourage everybody to be encouraged. Fill yourself up
with the pure of the powerful, the positive. Make a point.
One of the things we try and do is that's
where we're putting so much content out is because we've
told people that those first twenty minutes of your day
are powerful time for your life. See most people turn
(10:39):
on the TV in the first twenty minutes, and here
how many people get killed, how many fires there were,
how many little children that snatched, how many economic downturn
but how many new COVID variant? What a way to
start you day? You know, I recommend you start with
something powerful, so uplifting. So that's why we started putting
out these one minute motivational messages that people can access
when they wake up, and people all over the globe
(11:00):
now are listening a positive one minute message from me
every day saying you're gonna make it. It's gonna be okay.
Keep going, don't stop, because it gives you that encouragement
that it's gonna be okay. You need somebody tell you. Yeah.
You know. That's why Lewis the home team on a
football team or basketball team wins more because they got
(11:22):
the cheerleading squad that's saying go go go hey, g
g r e s s ir, d ere aggressive be
and then pushing them on, go team, go chee. I'm
saying what I do every week every day on online,
on radio, on television, on video. It's saying, go King,
go ching, go king. You can do it today because
(11:43):
you need somebody to first give you some encouragement. Second thing,
you need that prescriptive. After you feel yourself with the
pure of the powerful, the positive, you've got to make
a decision stop working on your goals and dreams every day,
even in the midst of challenging times. How critically and
important it is to work on your goals and dreams
because a dream is the big picture. Our goal is
(12:08):
that dream, and little slivers that you've taken you put
into a little uh. The decision compartments and you compartmentalize,
so you get some goals and some dreams that you
can start to focus on, and you say, Okay, I
know it's tough, but I'm gonna come out of this
better than when I went in. You realize that history
(12:29):
again teaches us some great lessons. History teaches us that
those who focus on their goals and dreams in the
midst of setbacks are those who went over time. Disney
was started after Walt Disney had too nervous breakdowns and
went bankrupt, and he started in the recession in the
depression area. There that many of the great companies we
(12:51):
know today they started during the bubble burst of two
thousand and eight and said we're gonna start a uber,
We're gonna start an AIRB and B because there's a need,
their needs that came out of this that we never
knew of. People who are selling masks, people who are
selling any uh. The you know, the things you put
our hand to keep the germs away. All of these
(13:13):
are new things that can impact people's lives. So what
is the next level? What is the next thing that's
going to be coming? And those who are willing to
think in goals and dream are those who are gonna
win at the next position. As we go down this path,
we'll be right back with more of my interview after
(13:35):
this quick break now, Dr Jolly. I've been speaking a
lot of universities, and I've also been telling them that
all bad news may not be for you. Sometimes you
just special, you know, Pete that you know you read
(14:02):
stuff on Facebook, you read things online, you you listen
to the news, and you make the assumption that that's
bad news is for me. Don't do that, That's right.
Don't always assume just because it's bad, it's gonna be
bad for you. That's right, that's right, That's exactly right,
(14:23):
you know. And that's a choice. That's a choice. I
choose every day my attitude. I choose what I'm going
to embrace. I choose where I'm going to put my energies. So, yes,
there is inflation. So does that mean I'm gonna stop
doing what I do? Know? That means I'm going to
(14:45):
rethink my way around this problem. Look, life has challenges
for everybody. Everybody has challenged But you've got to make
a decision to not panic now. I one of my books,
turn Setbacks into Greenbacks. I say that number one and
turning setbacks into greenbacks is do not panic. Panic is
taken from the Greek word to choke. When you panic,
(15:07):
you choke off the brain air to your brain, so
you cannot think clearly. You cannot think clearly, you cannot
make wise decisions, cannot make a wise decision. At the
time of making a decision, you're gonna end up making
a poor decision. There was a stock market crash. People panic,
Some jumped off a bridge, Some blew up their brains,
not realizing the market would come back bigger and better
(15:29):
than ever. This too shall pass, and every bad news
ain't for you and everything that comes your way and
for your bad If you're realizing how to turn that
negative into a positive, and how to turn those setbacks
and to come back, it is truly come back time
for those who have a mindset. Dr Jollo. The labor
(15:51):
market right now, is the glass half full or half empty?
Is it a good labor market? Or bad labor market. Yeah, yeah,
you know, it's a challenging labor market. And there's a
war on talent. There's a war on talent. And so
I worked with a lot of the human resource organizations
around the country. They bring me in to speak for
(16:12):
these companies and they talk about the war on talent.
What it will make us do? The lewis it will
make us become more friendly and more sensitive to our employees.
Far too many employees over the years have been abused,
they have not been taken care of, they have not
been treated like they're an asset and something important. So
(16:36):
this is going to make them more valuable in the
mind of the employeer. And so I think that there
is a war on talent, but I don't think it's
necessarily bad. And many people say, well, you know there's
this great resignation. Well, what is happening is they're resigning
from job where they weren't treated well, they weren't paid well,
they weren't respected, they weren't appreciated, they weren't valued. And
(16:59):
they're saying, I'm about some where where I can create it,
or I'm gonna create my home. And you're seeing a
lot more entrepreneurs getting to the marketplace, and I think
that's good. Look back when my parents parents were coming
out of the out of the Deep South, most of
them either one didn't want or to think. They went
to a city like Detroit or Chicago where there were
(17:21):
opportunities for people to get from poverty to the middle class,
or they started up a business. My grandmother was a beautitious.
She went from from the South to the north to
Philadelphia and she started a beauty salon. She saved her money.
She and her sister created a beauty salon together. They
did well with that because they became entrepreneurs. And so
(17:44):
I don't know which one of those will fit fit you,
but I believe that this war on talent also has
opportunity in it. I looved did I see a glass
half in a glass? For I always see life with
a glass half full that is on its way to better.
Because I believe that the best way to predict the
(18:05):
future is to create the future. You choose what you're
gonna do. As I have resigned around my office, his
one says gold getter. I'm not just a gold setter.
I'm a gold getter. And I remind myself and I
had my goals written, be relentless, dream so big. What
really did you accomplish today? I have scripture? Have I
(18:27):
commanded you? Be strong? And I'm a good courage Don't
be afraid, don't be this maid, for I, the Lord,
your God is with you wherever you go, go boldly
into the future with a confidence that I got you.
You just gotta work hard, do your part, God do
his part, and together y'all win. Come on, somebody, bam,
(18:48):
come on, Lewis conference, find me up. Lewis, when you
said there's a war on talent, Yeah, if you are
the talent that the war is over, then you should
be feeling pretty good about yourself. Right. It's a good
time to be the talent. This is a good time
to be a talent. And this is a good time
(19:08):
to be a person who has a positive outlook, up
look and in look. If you have a positive expectation,
this is a good time to be alive. Oh yeah,
that's setbacks, but there are opportunities all around, So you
got to choose, you know. Mina Angelo said, if there's
something in your life you don't like, change it. But
(19:31):
if you cannot change, you change your attitude. And so
when you shift your attitude with a positive perspective and
you start saying, you know what, I got gifts, I
got skills, I got some abilities, and I'm gonna put
him into the marketplace and I'm gonna see what I
can get for them. Just like a great athlete when
he becomes a free agent, he didn't understand with the
same team and play when he's starting saying I'm on
(19:53):
the I'm on the market. Who got the money? Show man?
So that's what we want to do, get people to
get up. You just mentioned that world change. You know,
here in the business world we call it reinvention. Come on,
but as we know, that's hard. Hard. Yeah, to change anything,
(20:14):
to reinvent anything is hard. Talk to people who are
trying to change, trying to reinvent themselves. Change comes to
you sometimes because you choose it, and sometimes change comes
to you it's thrust upon you. Just for the people
to know who who might not know my story, And
I think that's important. When I met Louis forty years ago,
(20:37):
I was not a speaker. I was a singer. We
actually were in a wedding together where I sang in
the wedding. I would make my living back then singing.
I had record deals with CBS Records and Columbia Records
and Mercury Records. But I when I got married, I
settled into a nightclub performer lifestyle in Washington, d C.
(20:58):
And I opened a number one night spot in DC
and it became a very popular night spot, and I
won the award for five years in a real Best
Jazz Singer, Best Entertainer, Best Performer. Thanks were going great.
People will line up at seven o'clock for the eight
o'clock show, nine o'clock for the ten o'clock show. Thanks
were going great. But one night though, I went in
the nightclub club own and said, I want to talk
to you after night show. I told the guys in
(21:20):
the band, they want to talk. We've been selling out
for six months. We got standing room on the audiences.
We're about to get our raised. I walked in this
office that night. He said, you were great. People loved you.
I said yes, yes, yes, he said, that's why it's
hard for me to tell you what I gotta tell you.
What what do you mean? Well, we love you the band,
We love you guys, but y'all expensive, and we found
(21:41):
something else that's filling up nightclubs, people standing in line
for But it's a lot cheaper. We bought a karaoke machine.
We're gonna get out of shot. I said, but what
about my bills? And I learned that night nobody care
about your bills, but you were the people you own.
And I went home at night and I told my wife,
I'm done. I'm done this. I hadn't worked hard. I
built his business. I still got changed. I got downsized,
(22:05):
re engineered, reformulated. I got five and so I didn't
know what to do. But a friend of mine gave
me a cassette tape. You remember cassette tape, and Louis,
some of these folks who might be young, don't know
what that is. I gave me a cassette tape. On
it was a motivational speaker. He said something that changed
my life. He said, in five years, you want to
be the same person you are today except for two things.
(22:26):
The people you meet who inspire you, and the books
you read. That in policy, and I started reading books.
I read Thinking, Grow Rich. I read The Power Positive Thinking.
I read Rich Dad Poor That. I read The Greatest
Secret in the World. I read one book after another,
and I started going to seminars. I started working on myself,
building myself, and I realized that this change was an
opportunity for me to turn it in from a setback
(22:48):
into a comeback. Well. I started that that program. I
took a job with the DC Public school system while
I was trying to figure out what I was gonna
do next, as a drug prevention coordinator. I worked in
job for a year. Part of my job was to
give speeches to little kids around the concept of bed
away from drugs. And then companies and are in school
(23:10):
systems around the countryside and heard about this guy who
was entertaining but had a powerful message for young people,
and I started getting more invitation. I quit my job
started speaking full time. That was thirty years ago, and
night that was nineteen ninety one. In nine Lewis I
was named one of the top five speakers in the world,
and two thousand and five I was inducted in the
(23:32):
Speaker Hall of Fame, and twenty thirteen I was named
the Legend of the speaking industry. All because I had
a setback. I got fired and replaced by a karaoke machine.
Change happens to all of us. At some point in time,
we're gonna have some setback, some change, some challenge, some
of this distraction, some disruption in our lives. But it's
(23:52):
the mindset of changing your thinking so you can change
your future. Your input determines your output. Fiilious off up
with the pure, the powerful, the positive. Make a commitment
to get better. You, Lewis, You've been somebody I've always
impressed with over the years. You've made a commitment to
be better, better, better, And so you made a commitment
(24:13):
to keep getting better, not letting stuff, not letting comfortable,
comfortable become your place, continue to push. I remember when
you were starting in sales at B E T. I
remember when you had to come to River Road in Washington,
d C. When everybody meant one little room. The old
staff was in one little room when the River Road
and I did the first jingle for B E T.
(24:34):
B E T. Like entertain that. I sang on that,
and I remember. But you kept pushing, You kept driving,
you kept learning, you kept blowing, you kept encouraging yourself
to become a better salesperson, to develop the relationships. Nobody,
and I mean nobody got a roller deck like Louis
Carl because he developed his roller deck. He understood that
(24:56):
you can't less rest on your laurels. And that is
why we are on this way Maker program today because
and we've got this magazine because of Lewis car not
getting satisfied with good enough and understanding the change. Is
this an opportunity to grow? So, Willen, where do you start?
(25:17):
One of the first steps somebody's got to do, because
there are people listening to this and they're gonna be
going like, Okay, I got it, but I don't even
know how to start. Hey man, what a great question.
Because I get so many young people who and I
speak to so many young people. Where do you start?
Why are you to give them three ds? Louis three ds?
(25:40):
And these three ds will get you up and going.
The three ds to determine your destiny are to dream,
decide didn't do first? You gotta dream. You gotta start dreaming,
and that everybody can dream. Now people have been set
down from dreaming because they stop dreaming and they're gonna work.
But get back to dream. What is it that you
(26:02):
dream about? What is it that you you aspire to?
If you had a magic wand and you could have
a life of your dreams. What would it look like?
Write it down? Okay, that's first this dream number two.
Decide decision is taken from the Greek word to cut.
You make an incision, you cut in, You make a decision.
(26:24):
You got to cut off. If you're gonna be all
you were born to be and you want to live
your dreams and you want to get spotted, you got
to make a tough decision about who your hang out with.
Because who you hang out with it who you will become.
If you hang it out with ten losers, you're gonna
be number eleven, alright, So you gotta be careful about
who you hang out with. I make a point to
(26:44):
only hang out with quality people, only quality people o QP.
Only quality. But I hang out with a Lewis car
I hang out with Chris Gardener, I hang out with
a less Brown. I hang out with the people who
are achievers, because you will be cha change about who
you hang out with. So first you dream. Then you
decide who you're going to hang out with. And if
(27:05):
they're not going anywhere, they're doing nothing and all they
do is talk about people. Up three types of people.
Those who talk about things, those talk about people, and
those talk about ideas. Lewis Carr talks about the ideas.
Let's ground talks about the idea. When you hang around
people talk about people when you're not around there talking
about you. When you're talking about things, all they want
to talk about the thing. Look that that that's limited thinking.
(27:27):
But when you talk about ideas, that something happened. So
first dream decide. Then do you must take some action.
Do three things. Once you set your goals, you said,
I got this dream, here's what I want to do.
You have gotten away from the negative people. Now you
gotta do three things. Three things every day towards you go,
write a letter, make a phone call, ask someone for help.
(27:49):
Three things done consistently is better than a hundred things
done every now and then do three things every day
towards your goal. Three things every day towards your goal
and your life. To start the broom and blossom. One
other thing I want you to do wherever you are,
bloom and blossom and be excellent wherever it is. Make
a reputation of excellence every level, every every level you're at,
(28:14):
even if you at the bottom level, get a reputation
for excellence. My son is an attorney, and he got
out of law school. He was past the bar. He
got his first job as a a contract lawyer at
a government agency and he was supposed to be on
(28:34):
this contract for four weeks for one month to do
this contract with one month contract. And they had a
specific amount of project that needed done, amount of work
the need but done. So he went to work first.
They came home at next at the evening and he said, Dad,
I got a problem. So what's the problem, he said.
I went to work and everybody said the same thing,
said this job told you before a month. But if
(28:56):
you slow your road, you drag your feet, you you
you know, you hold back a little bit, you might
can stretch this out to six months. You make it.
So if it's supposed to take you a day to
do it, see if you can working to make it
a week. Do a little bit, coming a little later,
leave a little early, and take a little longer lunch break.
Just slow your road, he said, But you always tell
(29:18):
me that to be excellent. If they pay you two dollars,
give a dollar. If they pay you two dollars, give
them four dollars worth of work. And if you both
be there at nine o'clock, get to forty five star,
state to five state to five fifty. You always tell
me you do your best, be excellent, but they're telling
me something different. What you're not doing. I said, I understand,
So I understand. It is a quadrant. Here's what you do.
(29:39):
Do exactly what I told you to do. Be excellent,
be there early, stay late, work through your lunch out.
See if you can do that one month job in
three and a half weeks. Because you're gonna set a standard.
You're gonna set a new standard. He did what I
said to and he was done and just under four weeks.
He did it. Two days shine, he had the whole
project finish, handing in and his co workers laughed at him,
(30:02):
called him stupid, call them crazy, what a fool. But
that following Monday, he got a call from the director's
director who said, we had an hour on you. We
noticed you. You stood out like a sore firm. We
notice how you work for your lunch out. We notice
how you got there earlier, we notice how you stayed late.
You said a new standard. Here's what we want to do.
We want to hire you to come back and teach
(30:25):
and train these other slugs how to do what you
did and we'll double your salary. Folks, there's no there's
no substitute for excellence. There's no substitute. That's why Lewis
causes success, because he understands the power of excellence. Go
to the extra mile, people. There's an old saying the
(30:46):
only place where there's no traffic jam is the extra mile.
Very few people are willing to get on it. Will
be back with more of my interview after this quick break, Well, Willie,
(31:11):
come on. More questions for before I let you go work.
I get asked this question hard all the time. What
is the definition of hard work? You know that's a great,
great question because many times people say marriage is hard work, okay,
(31:35):
and you know it is. It is. Many people know
my my wife and we have a marriage television show
on Facebook Live and Instagram Live and Lincoln Live comes
on Monday nights nine o'clock on A Jolly Marriage on Facebook,
A Jolly Marriage and Instagram and Billy Jolly Lincoln Live.
And we want to book Make Love, Make Money, Make
(31:56):
It Last, bro Uh with a book Make Love, Mike
May Club, Make Money Making Last, Ten Secrets of Shape,
A Greade Marriage the show. It's called Make Love and
Make Money Making last the broadcast, And I say to
people on the show, marriage is hard work, but it's
not hard label. It's not like breaking bricks. It's a difference. Yeah,
it's hard work because you gotta compromise, You gotta do
(32:19):
the things that you might not want to do with
your hard Okay, but it's not hard labor. It's not
you got you gotta break bricks or break rocks. No,
you have to work hard on you. I love the
quote in the book uh Lewis. It's one of my
favorite quotes. It's a quote by our friend zig Zigger.
You and I both know zig Ziggler. Zig Ziggler said,
(32:42):
many people have a strange idea of about marriage. They
say it's going to be just terrible. Well, you gotta
work so hard. But yeah, you gotta work hard to
make sure that you're the right kind of person who
will be the right kind of made. He said, because
often many people will real think I married the wrong person.
But if you treat the wrong person like the right person,
(33:04):
they're very well might have ended up being the right person.
But if you married the right person and you treated
the right person wrong, then you would have messed up anyway.
But if you want to be happily married, you make
sure you are the right kind of person, because that's
where the hard work comes in. You working on you.
You can't change nobody else, So you gotta work on you,
(33:25):
and they do their part. You do your part. You
can have a great marriage. My wife has not been
married thirty seven years, haven't had an argument and over
thirty five years because we made a commitment that we're
willing to do the work. It's not hard labor. It's hard,
but it's not hard labor. So same with working in life.
You want to do three things. You want to work hard.
(33:46):
That means do what you love to do, do what
you enjoy, what's your passion. You work hard. I work hard.
I I tell people I work hard, but it's not
hard labor because I love what I do. But I
work hard. I don't cut coins, and so work hard.
They work smart. Our friend, we have a friend, Zack Jones,
and two of us have a friend. His dad told us,
so told me somebody' never for getting Louis as long
(34:07):
as I live, He said, will it. You can work
with your hair or you can work with your back.
You choose, he said, You choose who's which one you're
gonna work with? He said, the smart, he said, the
bank president and the brick layer both work hard. One
just worked with his head, won't work with it back.
You choose which one to go be. So you work hard,
(34:27):
you work smart. Then you trust God, because they're gonna
be time when you've got no answer how you gonna
get through this except your faith that God would never
leave you enough forsaken. And so I trust God. I
work smart, and I work hard, and God has blessed
me with some good success. Well, Willie, as as as
(34:48):
we go, there is probably not a person listening to
this podcast that is not going through something. Some of
them maybe small things, some of them may be big things.
Give them a word of encouragement as we sort of
in this particular part we make a podcast today. You
(35:09):
know what a great, great, great question, because everybody, everybody
has something they're going through, something that that they're concerned about.
Even when things are good, there's something you you're concerned about.
You might be dealing with what I call the devastating
deeds of life. The devastating ads are what you already
talked about change, downsizing, disruption. Then you might have disease,
(35:33):
you might have a diagnosis, you might have had a divorce,
you might have had a definite satory. You might have
had a disaster, hurricane or tornado. I don't know if
you have the devastating or you might have a teenager
in your house who think they know more than you.
Huh yeah. I don't know which thing you're dealing with,
but everybody dealing with something, and that's where it's so
(35:56):
critical to have faith, focus and follow through. Come on, somebody, faith.
I got faith in God, and I believe God would
never leave me, not forsake me. So I encouraged myself
through my daily prayer meditation to say, we're gonna make
me and God together we created. We might look like
(36:18):
a majority, but we are, or a minority, but we're
a majority. We are we're gonna win. So faith, I
got faith, Then I got focused. I focused on my
faith and my my goals and my family, and then
I got followed through. I gotta take action, and folks,
you're going through something, let me tell you something. Two
thousand and three, I lost my mother, my brother, my
(36:43):
only sibling, and my father Lawn thirty days. It was
overwhelming grief. But here's what I learned to do. And
I want to give this everybody who might be struggling,
who might be grieving, who might be hurting. You must decide.
He must have signed. Are you gonna curse because a
(37:05):
rose bush has thorns? Or are you gonna celebrate because
the phone bush has roses? Are you gonna curse because
things aren't perfect? Or are you gonna celebrate because you're
still here? And as long as you still here, as
long as you've got breath in your body, you've got
(37:26):
a shock, a chance, a possibility to turn it to land.
I encourage you to celebrate, to celebrate life. Be grateful,
Thank God. I'm here another day. Thank you God. Every
morning I wake up, I look up, I look up.
When I'm in bed, I look up and I see
the ceiling and I say thank you. I got to
see the ceiling one more time. Come on, I got
(37:47):
another chance. I turned out of bed. I follow my
knees and thank God for life. I pray for my family,
put her hands around the people from her harmon danger.
I go brush my teeth and then I get active,
some sort of physical activity, walk on I ride my
bike or go to the gym to get the endorphins,
those natural uppers that are in your blood stream. All
(38:07):
they need to do is have some activity to release
them into your blood stream and they get going and
you feel better. Sorry at first, thank God, Then I pray.
Then I get busy, and then I go to work.
Not a job that I hate, but a job that
I love, and I work hard. I might work four
fifty sixteen hours a day, but I am grateful that
(38:30):
I live in a place, in a time where I
can choose my destiny. And everybody who's listening, everybody who's reading,
can you can choose your destiny. You can choose. Your
goal is your dreams. So have a vision for your
future vs. For vision. Make the tough decision for your future,
and we talked about that. Take massive action for your
(38:50):
future and then have great desire that is worth it
and what gives you desire? What is your what is
your overacting goal? Let me tell you what my overacting
goal is, Fleuis. Someone asked me on the TV show
one day, what's your biggest goal? Dr Jolly immediately responded,
because I know what it was. My biggest goal. That
(39:11):
is a hundred years from now, some child will walk
in the room and see a picture of me and
my wife and walk over to it and kiss and say,
thank you, great great great great Granddaddy, Thank you, great
great great great Grandmama for what you created that allows
us to have a business, the home of education. Thank
you for setting a standard of excellence for our family.
(39:35):
I will never get to see that child, Lewis. I'll
never meet that child, but that's my goal. The great
ones plant trees that take a hundred years to come
to fruition when they're in the eighties. They will never
sit under those trees, but they understand the power of legacy.
The Bible says a good man leads an inheritance for
(39:57):
his children's children's great grandchildre folks our close with this.
Lewis is my favor, and I'll leave this with you.
This is for Laura and you and everybody who's looking
at this, and all the great Producer lower for those
who don't know who lords the great Producer. For Lewis,
I was blessed to be able to get motivated tour
we play zig Ziggler when he died for many years
(40:19):
and with zig Ziggler and Colon Pound and less Bound.
And when zig got they called me and said, we
want a man of faith. It was a well known
motivator to replace it. And they asked me during the tour,
and I did that. We did it for a number
of years up until the pandemic, and we would do
two cities a week, and we were traveling a lot.
But I would close every speech with the same story. Lewis,
(40:40):
I was a new speaker back thirty years ago. I
was struggling to keep the lights on, struggling to keep
the phones or no one knew who I was. I'd
make sales calls, they say I don't know who you are,
to hang up in my face and I get discouraged.
I wouldn't make any more calls that day because they
had taken away my courage. Discourage. By the name of
the word is to take away your courage discourage. They
take away Kirk and so it takes me a day
(41:01):
or two to get my courage back, and I start
made call. One day, I made my first call and
guy said, oh, I like it where you're talking. I
like your energy. I'm having a meeting. It's gonna be
in Orlando, Florida. It's gonna be at such and such
a day. Are you available? I think you'd be good.
I said yes, sir. He said, here's the budget. What okay,
I can do that, and he said, we'll fly you down.
You speak, and we know, we know you're gonna do great.
Thank you. I flew down to Florida that day. I
(41:22):
gave the speech, they gave me a standing ocation, and
they gave me my check. I was ecstatic. Oh, I've
never been paid that much money, and put the check
in my pocket. And I finished meeting and greeting people,
and then went on to the airport to fly home. Well,
I got on a flight Lewis, and I was sitting
there feeling good in my seat. I pulled that check
out a second time. But when I pulled the check
out the second time, Lewis, I got depressed because that
(41:45):
money was already allocated. You know, he ever got your
check before you get gone, was gone. I started having
a penny party with myself right there be twenty two
and or the general across the album. Much of sense
that I was struggling. He struck up a conversation with me.
He told me he was a Minister Tea lectured every
day at a different city about health and wealth. I said,
you speak every day, yes, you fly every day. Yes. Wow.
(42:08):
We talked for a few momnutes, and then he asked
me a question to change the trajectory of my future.
He said, young man, how would you think I am.
I looked him up and down and said, sir, I
think you made me about sixty. He took off his glasses.
He looked me dead near. He said, young man, I'm
eighty eight years old and my best is yet to call.
(42:34):
In that moment, everything shifted in my head. If any
eight year old Megan had the optimism to believe that
the best phase were in front of him and not
behind him, what did I have to whine and cry
and complain about. And I went home with a new attitude.
I got on that phone and started making sales calls.
And if they said no, I gave him the best
form with other words you can ever use, but somebody
telling you know next. If they said you know, I
(42:54):
said next. And when they hung up in my face,
I said, you're not the right one. Well, thirty years
of gone by, I've been inducted to Speaker Hall of
fame name one of the outstanding five speakers in the world.
I've got the best selling books, television, radio, But it's
just a tip of the Iceberger what it's yet to come.
And I want to say to everybody who is listening
to this podcast, everybody who's reading way Maker magazine, everybody
(43:15):
who knows Louis car everybody who knows all these people
who are part of this great conglomerate, conglomerate of great thinkers.
I want to say to everybody, for sure, your best
is yet to come. Keep the faith, your best is
yet to come. Don't give up. Your best is yet
to come. Keep going because you will determine your destiny
(43:35):
and your best it's yet to come. Well that was
motivational speaker extraordinaire Dr Willie Jolly, and you can see
why I call him way Making. Thank you, Dr Jolly,
Appreciate it and looking forward to seeing you at many
(43:57):
more way Maker events. Appreciate Thank you so much. Up together,
my brother, We've got some big stuff coming down a
road less. Thank you, Thank you,
Host
Louis Carr
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.