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April 18, 2025 38 mins
In this episode of Wisdom on the Front Porch, LS Kirkpatrick welcomes Barry Labov to discuss their journeys into the world of business and the entrepreneurial spirit. They explore the importance of sales, authenticity, and humility, emphasizing the value of mentorship and continuous learning. Despite technical difficulties, the conversation delves into company values, ideal clients, and the significance of persistence and teamwork. They touch on work-life balance, self-care, and strategies to avoid burnout. Barry shares insights on his "Difference Talks" podcast and offers resources for further learning. The episode closes with ways to connect with Barry and a preview of the upcoming Impact Through Leadership Summit.
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Episode Transcript

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(00:05):
Well, welcome to another episode of Wisdom onthe Front Porch and on my Zoom front porch.
Today is Barry.
Barry, how are you doing?
I am doing great.
I'm looking forward to this, so, let's havesome fun.
Alright.
That sounds good.
And audience, please forgive me.
I do still have a little bit of the cough leftfrom my cold, but each day it's getting better.

(00:28):
So, Barry, tell us a little bit about yourbackground.
I run a company out of Indiana with a locationout of Dallas, Texas, and the company is called
Labove Marketing Communications and Training.
We focus on one thing, differentiation.

(00:49):
So we focus on differentiating our clients'products or services or brands so that we not
only help them increase market share, but thatwe help them inspire the people that work there
so they understand they have significance andmeaning.
So I've been doing that for four decades, feelslike four centuries, but I've been doing it for

(01:12):
decades.
And it's something that's I've seen really helpa lot of people and change their lives for the
better.
Oh, good.
Good.
I think that's, you know, a big part of beingan entrepreneur is is you're out there for
other people.
You're there for yourself.
Yes.
But but you're really there to help make otherpeople's lives better.

(01:37):
So how did you get started in this?
And why choose this out of everything that youcould have done?
Well, I did not want to do it.
It was an accident.
I didn't mean for it to happen.
I started out loving music.
And I was a musician as a young guy.
From the time I was 12 years old, I was playingdrums and then learned how to play keyboard.

(02:01):
And I was in a rock band with my brother, a twoman rock man.
And it was probably not very good to listen tobecause it was just two young teenagers.
But I really fell in love with being creativeand writing songs and learning how to use a
reel to reel recorder, which probably nobody inthe audience even knows exists or existed.

(02:24):
And as I did that, I became part of otherbands, And it really gave me an education
accidentally on how to run a business, becausea band is a tiny little four man or five man
business.
And it altered the way I deal with people.

(02:46):
You know, when you're in a band, you work withthe talent that you have there.
You don't try to make the guitarist play drums.
You don't make the drummer sing lead and thingslike I mean, you don't do that.
You let them do what they do best.
That has guided me.
So I was in a band and at the same time wasdoing music jingles for businesses.

(03:10):
And one day, father passed away, and I wasaround 30 years old.
And I had to make a decision in my life.
What do I wanna do?
And I decided to pursue the business andfocused on running a business and trying to do
a good job, not trying to become rich, nottrying to be famous, not trying to have my name

(03:34):
on the door, but actually very humbly justtrying to do a good job for clients.
And it meant I had to learn things.
I did not know how to sell.
I hated selling.
I had to learn how to sell.
I had to learn business.
I I didn't wanna be in business, but I learnedhow to be in business.
And I actually feel that going through thatmade me a better business person because Oh,

(04:01):
nice.
I didn't have my ego involved in getting, youknow, lots of money or having my name or being
the boss.
It's like, I don't want any of those things.
So
it really guided me throughout the forty plusyears I've been doing this.
That's really incredible.
You know, I was in a training this weekend, Andthe most common thing the entrepreneurs all

(04:26):
said is they don't like to sell.
They don't wanna be a salesman.
But how are we gonna get our product out there,whether we're coaching or whatever it is, if we
aren't selling and selling is just tellingabout it.
Mhmm.
So it's incredible that you took that and youstill learned so that you could be better.
And you learned about running a business whenthe reason I'm even here right now is because,

(04:53):
you know, I was doing genealogy and I tried toturn it into a business and everybody
disappeared.
When I didn't do that, everybody was backagain.
And so I wanted to learn how to have abusiness, to do my books, and do what I do.
And it is it's all learning to do that.
And by doing that, you actually make it betterfor yourself and for those that you are wanting

(05:22):
to do business with, you know, making otherpeople's lives better, whether you're a
musician or a writer or whatever it is that youdo.
So we need to look at those things as not as,oh, ugh, I have to sell, but look at them as a
way to communicate to the person who's gonnabuy your product.

(05:43):
Yeah.
And I'll give a tip to the audience.
I learned how to sell, and I'm not bragging,but I was called a lethal weapon as a
salesperson because of how I learned to do it.
And I even wrote a book about it long, longtime ago.
It's not available today, but it was calledSell and Be Yourself.

(06:05):
But here's what I did, and if this can help,I'd be thrilled.
I learned that if I tried to act like asalesperson, it just was too uncomfortable.
So what I would do, and this would reallydisarm the clients or customers I'd walk in

(06:26):
with.
So as an example, when I was selling jinglesand today, I sell marketing.
I don't do jingles, but I was selling jinglesback then.
And I'd walk in, sit down, and I and literally,I said this.
I said, hey.
I wanna talk a little bit to you today.
But first of all, I want to share with you, Iam not a salesperson.

(06:47):
I will miss sales cues.
I guarantee it.
I'm a creative person, and I can show you whatyou do and what we do and all of that if it's
of interest.
Now when I said that I was not a salesperson, Iwas a creative person, I saw their shoulders
relaxed, and they would lean toward me likethey wanted to talk.

(07:11):
And we would end up talking and going throughthings, and more often than not, I'd walk out
with the sale because they were happy to workwith somebody that was not trying to take
advantage of them.
My point is to the audience, if you lead withwho you are and who you're not, you say, look.

(07:32):
I'm not a good salesperson.
I'm gonna miss some things that you say thatcould be good sales points or cues.
What I do know about is this, and what I reallylove is this.
And I can share that with you, maybe we canhave a good discussion.
And I gotta tell you, it's refreshing forpeople.

(07:54):
I ended up in that business, the jinglebusiness.
I outsold all the competition because they'dcome in and they'd try to trick the client into
buying something, and they would say thingsthat weren't true and all of that.
And I was just viewed as this honest person whoreally loved to do creative things, and I
thought, you know, hey.

(08:15):
Work with this guy.
So that's how it worked for me.
That's nice.
I like that creative out of the box thinking.
Mhmm.
And it's honest, and you can live up to itbecause that's who you really are.
Yeah.
And and I think when I mean, you have to lookat when somebody approaches you, how do you

(08:35):
look at someone if they're gonna approach yousomething?
Do you automatically say, oh, sales.
I don't wanna listen to it, but yet you stillwant their product.
You know, it's kind of of I don't know.
It's it's a catch 22 or something, I guess, toto not wanna be sold, but yet you wanna

(08:56):
understand and look at the product.
I mean, that's why we have descriptions onthings on Amazon.
We need to understand what the product is.
If you don't have a description or you have avery poor description, then it's most likely
we're not gonna want to do it.
But I really like that you are authentic.
People respond so much to that.

(09:18):
I know I do.
Someone's just being honest with me.
And I think that does.
I think that opens up a lot of doors, Iappreciate that.
I am gonna look for your book.
It might be on eBay or somewhere.
It'll probably be in eBay somewhere for adollar.
But yeah.
Somewhere.
But wow.

(09:39):
That's really great.
So we're talking about what you've done in thepast, and and I know you've mentioned what you
do now, but how did you go from I guess you'vekind of talked about how you went from not
being a salesman, not being a businessman tobeing a salesman and a businessman.

(10:01):
That transition that you went through, was it,like, in a short amount of time?
Was it over a longer period of time?
Was it a lot of training and working?
Or kinda describe that for us.
It was over years.
It was also involving being humble.
So there was a lot of humility to it.

(10:22):
So I Okay.
I knew I was a bad salesperson, and so I wentaround asking people, hey.
Who's the best salesperson in the area?
And they said, hey.
It's this guy named Mike Huddleston.
I said, okay.
I don't know him.
And somebody said, well, he works at the TVstation.
So I said, okay.
So I called him up, and I said, hey, Mike.

(10:43):
You don't know me, but I've heard you're thebest salesperson in the area.
I'd love to learn from you.
Is there any time coming up where I could sit,listen to you, maybe we could have lunch or
something?
Hi.
He said, well, what are you doing today at11:30?
We can go meet for lunch.
I said, today?
He goes, yeah.
I said, wow.
How come so soon?

(11:04):
He goes, nobody asked me for my input.
Nobody asked me for my expertise.
If you wanna learn from me, I'm happy to tellyou.
That's what I did.
Again, you know, we we have entrepreneurs inthe audience.
It's find somebody that does something great,and you know what?
Treat them nice or nicely.
Show them respect.

(11:26):
Ask them, can you help me?
You know?
And every once in a while, you know, being anold person now, I get people go, hey.
Would you give me some advice on this?
And I go, sure.
I have yet to say, no.
I'm sorry.
I'm too important.
I'm too busy.
No.
Oh, wow.
I'll help anybody.
I'll help anybody.
And but but very few people ask because theyhave too

(11:49):
Well, it looks like we cut out for a littlebit, and it could be my issue.
We've just been having these horrificrainstorms and thunderstorms here in the
Austin, Texas area today.
Today is is January 30 when we're recordingthis.
So I'm just gonna sit there and wait a littlebit for him to come back.

(12:10):
One of the things I can say is I have heardfrom those who So sorry about that.
Yep.
I don't know what happened there.
Yeah.
It's it's gotta be mine.
We've been going through a lot of storms heretoday.
Just wicked wicked rain and thunder, lightningstorms.

(12:35):
Right.
But I'll just patch these together.
Right.
One thing that I'm saying is someone had hadhad mentioned to me is when you ask somebody
who is doing what you want to do and you say,can you can you help me out?
Maybe, you know, they're a billionaire.
You wanna learn from them what to do.
You take them out to lunch.

(12:56):
You don't expect them to buy you lunch.
You pay for the lunch.
You're getting knowledge from them.
You That's right.
Put an effort out there.
Not be a taker.
It's easier to give to someone who's ready toreceive than someone who just wants to yank it
from you.
Right.
I think it's easy to be insecure andterritorial and say and prideful and say, you

(13:19):
know, I'm not gonna go look like that.
I'm not gonna and you know what?
I'm I'm normally today I used to be theyoungest person in the meeting.
I'm now the oldest person in the meeting, andI'm still hungry to learn and to grow.
I wanna learn.
I wanna get smarter.
I wanna, you know, be able to figure things outa little better.

(13:39):
I wanna help people.
I wanna listen to people, not just know thatthey had words coming out of their mouth and
their lips were moving.
I wanna listen to what they're saying and howthey're saying it to understand.
Yes.
And I think you're never done.
I think that keeps you about as youthful asyou're ever gonna be.

(14:00):
I agree with that so much.
You know, I had a I had a client, and he saidthis to me.
He he had an employee who had worked there fortwenty five years, and the employee quit.
And I was young.
I didn't you know, I thought that sounds like atragedy.
I said, oh my gosh, you lost twenty five yearsof his experience.

(14:20):
And he said, no, Barry, I lost five years ofhis experience that he repeated five times.
So he was somebody who, after a few years,stopped growing.
And I want to be someone who keeps growing.
I want to be a little better today, a littlesmarter, little more gracious today than I was

(14:46):
yesterday.
Definitely.
Yeah.
I totally agree with that.
And, you know, when I was very young, I wastold by people who are now my age, who were my
age at the time, and they said, you never stoplearning because when you stop learning, that's
when you start dying.
And I thought, you know, I was in grade school,and I thought that was just the weirdest thing

(15:09):
I'd ever heard, but it stuck with me because Iwanted to keep learning.
And here I am still learning.
Mhmm.
Right.
Yeah.
So so if tell me about your ideal client.
You know, we always talk about our avatar, ourideal client, the person we really want to

(15:30):
come.
So if I was your ideal client coming to you,asking for your help, who would I be?
You would be you would be a client that hadprobably read my most recent book called The
Power of Differentiation, which is on Amazon,and it's the subtitle is win hearts, minds, and

(15:56):
market share.
Because you have to win the hearts and minds ofyour people before you increase your sales.
Okay?
So you would have been familiar with my book,and you would have come to talk to me.
And the ideal client I have, they have amindset or or you could call it a psychographic
as opposed to a demographic.

(16:16):
So they could be a big or small company.
They could be a service company.
You know, my clients range from MacallanScotch, the world's greatest Scotch brand.
Yeah.
Harley Davidson, the most iconic motorcyclebrand.
Great automotive companies like Audi,Volkswagen, Mercedes Benz, companies like that,

(16:40):
as well as a triple a baseball team fromIndianapolis.
And some smaller companies that make componentsthat are family businesses, privately owned.
It's all over the board, and you think, well,Barry, you gotta make a decision on who you
serve.
And it's like, well, no.
I have.
We serve clients who are humble.

(17:01):
They're hungry to grow, and they're willing toroll up their sleeves to figure out what can be
done.
And they all care about their employees.
They all do.
They want their employees to be retained.
They want their employees to care.
So that's who my ideal client is.
I you know, I'll I'll have people reach out tome and go, look.

(17:22):
I don't think we're we're big enough for youguys, but I'd like to talk to you.
And I go, I don't care what size you are.
I care what where your mind is at.
What are you wanting to tackle?
So we're we're tackling some very uniquechallenges out there that are amazing, and
they're historic.
They can actually make history for that client,and in some cases, it's a small business.

(17:46):
Some cases, it's a large business.
It doesn't matter.
So hungry, humble, and willing to roll up yoursleeves.
Yeah.
Put in put in the work.
Because a lot of times, we'll we'll go with a acoach, and coach tells us what to do.
So we do the steps, and we do the steps.
But you want someone who's going to just reallygo in there, and then they can repeat it after

(18:09):
they've with you and repeat it again and keepgoing.
So, yeah, that continual growth, that mindsetthat this is is great information, but I'm
gonna use it so I can get further and furtherand further again.
Yeah.
That's really great.
So and and I know we're still in the talkingpart, but how would somebody get ahold of you?

(18:35):
They would be able to get ahold of me throughLinkedIn.
I'm on LinkedIn, so it's Barry Labov.
There aren't many of me out there, and I'malways happy to talk.
I get reached out to frequently, you know,several times a week.
But also my company's website is labov.com, l ab 0 v Com, and my personal site is

(18:57):
barrylabove.com.
In any case, I am happy to reach out or reachback when somebody talks to me or ask to
connect.
I've never said no.
And most of the time, it does not lead tobusiness.
Sometimes it leads to being friends.
And if it can allow me to help somebody orguide them, you know, to maybe some other

(19:22):
opportunity for them or somebody else to reachout to, I I do that.
Okay.
Great.
Great.
So what what do you say yes to somebody who'swho's needs your services, but they're not
quite sure they wanna talk to you yet?
Are there a couple of things they can do ontheir own before they come to you?

(19:42):
Yeah.
I think if they're kinda concerned, you know, Idon't know if I wanna talk to somebody about
what he does yet.
Read my book.
Go to my website.
If you don't wanna read the book, go to mywebsite and sign up for our newsletter, which
goes out every two weeks, which is not a salespitch.
It's a bunch of interesting information aboutreally great companies out there.

(20:04):
The the newsletter is called y w h y to wow.
So go y to wow, and you'll see that you cansign up for the newsletter.
We have thousands of people that have signedup.
Each one of the newsletters will have a minimumof 800 or more people who open it up and read

(20:25):
it.
And we're trying to help people.
And I I get comments frequently, hey.
I love that latest message you have.
I love I send it to a bunch of my friends.
And I go, great.
Oh, that's really good.
And and I think you bring up the good pointsthere that you are serving other people.

(20:45):
You're not just there to to you are there togrow business, but you're not just there to
make the money.
You're there to serve them.
You're there to offer value to them.
You're there to help them through each of thesestages and the best way that you can do that
and, you know, through your book, through thenewsletter, through the website.
And I think that's really important asentrepreneurs that we look at how can I serve

(21:11):
this person?
How can I serve the person that I want to lead?
And
Right.
What are some of the ways to do that?
And
Well, one thing just to one thing one thing toshare is that I have a podcast if somebody
wants to look at.
It's called difference talks.
Difference talks.

(21:32):
And we have various leaders from all walks oflife.
Some of them are business leaders.
Some of them are Grammy award winners.
Some of them are Hollywood Agents.
Know, very interesting people who tell theirstory.
Again, it's not a sales pitch for my company atall.

(21:52):
And it's a great opportunity.
It's called difference talks, and it's allabout people making a difference in the world.
I like that.
I am definitely gonna check that out.
Somebody asked me the other day, what's myfavorite podcast?
And it's like, well, I don't listen to a lot ofthem.
You know?
I listen to this or that one or bits andpieces, but this sounds like a really

(22:17):
interesting podcast.
Similar to what I do, I bring on differentpeople so you have different ideas and Right.
And viewpoints and how they do things so youcan, you know, see what works for you.
And I think with your different talks, you'rebringing a lot of value to people that way too,
is you have all these people doing differentthings and the journey.

(22:40):
And I think that's where we really learn isthrough the journey.
Yeah.
I think we learn through listening to peopleand hearing what happened in their lives, good
and not so good, and what they did about it.
You know?
Sit right there.
You know?
And and when I interview folks on differenttalks, what's interesting is I always I'm

(23:04):
learning, of course.
What I try to do is pull out some of the reallyoutstanding things that they're expressing and
have them get deeper into it and and find outwhere their passion is.
You know, sometimes I'll ask the the the guest,what are you most passionate about?

(23:25):
And once in a while, they go, oh, I love this.
I love talking about that.
And I go, great.
We'll talk about that.
Because you can feel their passion.
Yes.
You know?
And so I I want to serve people through those.
And again, like I've said, I'm not it's not asales pitch.
If ultimately somebody goes, you know, I kindalike the way that company thinks, I I kinda

(23:48):
feel like I'd like to reach out to them, I go,great.
Yeah.
That's great.
So that's why we do it.
I think one big thing I'll I'll share with theaudience too is nothing I have done, whether
it's been in marketing or communicating orprospecting or whatever, none of that none of

(24:10):
it came to fruition overnight.
Mhmm.
And I believe if there's anything that that Ihave been able to do that's been successful is
I am I just don't give up.
So I continue.
Now I will tweak and change things, but I amjust and I'll be discouraged, but I'm gonna

(24:35):
continue.
And many of my friends who have started in onebusiness or did another thing and whatever and
never felt they succeeded, they gave up early.
You know?
My business isn't the business I started to bein.
I love what I do, but I didn't know I was gonnaend up doing this.
But I've stayed with this, and I I just don'tgive up.

(25:02):
You know?
I had a quote on my wall few years back, and itit was by Harrison Ford, and it said stay on
the bus.
If you just stay on the bus, you would get tothe end to where you would be successful.
Since too many people would get off the busbecause they wanted to go a different direction

(25:26):
or they just got tired of it or for whateverreason.
And the ones that really made it were the oneswho stayed on the bus.
So I appreciate you saying that, yeah, just tokeep on going because it is.
Sometimes it's it's tough.
So what are some of the challenges that you'vehad to face?
Oh, I've been

(25:47):
you feel about?
I faced a lot of challenges.
You know, I started out with nothing.
The as far as money, I had no money.
Never got a loan, so I didn't have any cashbehind me.
Started out with zero.
I've been fortunate because my wife's been bymy side, all the way.

(26:09):
So without my wife, I never would have beensuccessful, so I've been fortunate there.
But I've been told, that I have no talent, thatI will fail.
I have been told that, there's no place forwhat I do.
There you know, I've been told that what I'myou know, what I you know, the talent I have or
whatever is not gonna be good enough.

(26:30):
You know, I've been told a lot of those things.
I've had projects that I was excited to get andonly to not get the the the project, but the
client take the ideas and give it to somebodyelse.
Oh, wow.
Which, you know, that's pretty demoralizingbecause you come up with a great idea, and the
client goes, you know, this is good.

(26:51):
I'm gonna give it to my buddy, and they'll doit a little cheaper.
And it's, thanks a lot, Barry, for your ideas.
And it's like, ugh.
So what do I do on those things?
I stop providing ideas to that company becausetheir their policy is we'll take your ideas if
we don't like them or don't want to hire you,I'm sorry, and we'll take your ideas if we like

(27:12):
them but don't want to hire you, and we'll givethem to someone else.
And I, you know, I openly talked to them andsaid, you know, I understand that's your
policy.
My policy is I'm not gonna work in thosesituations.
And I'd love to say they came back and said, wewanna work with you.
No.
They work with other companies.
They'll do it.
As far as when somebody's told me, and this hasbeen luckily a few decades ago, but that I have

(27:38):
no talent or whatever, I persevered through thesupport of my wife and maybe a few friends, but
mostly my wife.
I persevered and just said, okay.
Maybe I'm not that sharp, but I'm gonna keepgoing.
That's how I've done it.
So it's you know, you face things of when therecession of two thousand eight happened, I had

(28:02):
clients that literally went out of business.
So that meant all the work I was doing stopped.
Right.
When COVID hit, I had clients that stoppeddoing business, and and it was challenging
during COVID to lay people off, to cut theirsalaries, to reduce their their workload, and

(28:26):
pay them less.
And I gathered all our people together andsaid, okay.
Here's the plan.
Nobody loses their job.
Nobody gets a salary cut.
Nobody gets their hours reduced.
But we're going to have to work really hard tomake sure we can get through this.
And we got through it.

(28:47):
We did it.
And we actually grew during COVID.
It was one of our most successful times.
So to me, it's rallying people togethersometimes.
Sometimes it's just saying, okay, I'm not gonnagive up just because somebody's attacking me or
denigrating me.
You know?
It's there are different things.

(29:07):
But to me, it's persevering with an open mindsaying, you know, hey.
Maybe they're right about this, or hey.
Maybe I go slightly over this direction insteadof over that direction.
But the whole point is you just don't give up.
Right.
Yeah.
And and that's it.
You know?
When you give up is when you quit, and then youdon't get to realize your dream.

(29:31):
Now that doesn't mean you can't stop and take apause and reevaluate and see what's going on
and and see if maybe you've just gone down toomany rabbit holes or you went on too many
detours or or you took one really big detour,and now it's time to come back to where you
were.
Pauses are great.
They're not a hard stop.
It doesn't mean you're starting again.

(29:53):
You're just assessing the situation and seeingwhat do I do now.
Where do I go from here?
Quitting is stopping permanently.
Mhmm.
And and there may be reasons for it.
But if it's because you're discouraged, don'tdon't quit.
Just take a pause.
Go go take a break.
You know?
Go do something totally different.

(30:14):
Go have fun.
Because a lot of us entrepreneurs don't haveenough fun.
We're so busy building the business and put inthe hours, and and and it does pay off.
I was talking with a gentleman this morning whowas talking about it.
He had a whole year that he just worked hard atlearning his trade and what to do and when to

(30:35):
do it and talking with people that he did missout a lot on what was happening with his kids
and with his family and his wife.
And but it was one year that put him into theplace where he is now to where he has all of
that time.
So there are some sacrifices you have to make,but make sure that it's not all consuming for

(30:57):
your whole career.
What I've tried to do on that is I, you know, Ihear people say I want a work life balance.
And see, I I don't believe in a balance somuch.
I believe that you need to be the same personat work and at home because some people feel
they need to be different at work, and then athome, there's somebody else.

(31:20):
So I look at it this way, and this is how I'velived my life, and that was I wanted to avoid
compromise in my business, but also in mypersonal life.
So I coached my son and my daughter in sportsfor about ten years, and that meant two or

(31:41):
three times a week, I'm running practices andwe're playing games, and I had to be in town.
Right.
Conversely, there were times where I had totravel.
There were times I had to work late becauseeither I had a deadline or I was very, very
passionate about what I was doing, and I didn'twanna lose that zone.

(32:03):
Right.
And I did that too.
But I felt that for me, I did not compromisewith my children.
But I also did not compromise with my company.
That meant I did not have standard hours, let'ssay.
That meant that I didn't say, I'm sorry.
Practice is at 03:00, but I work till five.

(32:23):
No.
No.
I just said, okay.
I'm gonna get off work, gonna do practice at03:00 today, but I'm gonna make sure everything
I promised will be there.
I will not let anyone down, but I'm not gonnalet my kids down either.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
I like that.
That's a great way to look at it.
And, you know, sometimes we need to schedulethose times then.

(32:47):
I've said before on Wednesdays, I schedule thatjust for me.
If I wanna work, that's up to me.
But, you know, maybe I wanna go work out on theranch.
Maybe I want to paint.
Maybe Mhmm.
To just go to the grocery store.
Know?
Yeah.
By myself, nobody else around and not be in arush because I have to get back for a meeting
or something.

(33:07):
You know?
Go to the post office, whatever.
But you've got to to make those choices.
And sometimes they might be hard choices.
Maybe you make the choice that, okay.
I work until seven, but from seven till nine,that is my family time.
That is when the kids can come to me, and I amfully present for that.

(33:28):
Yes.
Maybe it's you only take half an hour once thekids are home.
You know?
Give them a little bit of time to get throughtheir stuff, and then you have one half hour
that it's like, okay.
Let's talk about today and see what I can helpyou with.
Do you need help with your homework?
You know?
Do you have things coming up?
Whatever that is.
And and you can schedule those in there andstill do it.

(33:51):
But I agree.
Sometimes you're on a project that you arepassionate about, that you are working hard at,
and you need to continue with that to keep theflow going.
And but then, you know, make sure you celebrateit, and maybe celebrating it is spending time
with your family.
Right.
Yeah.
So I know we're getting a little bit closer ontime here.

(34:15):
Do you have some closing thoughts for everyone?
Well, first of all, I appreciate speaking withyou today and sharing a really good
conversation.
My thoughts are, as an entrepreneur, you'retaking a chance.
You're laying it out there on the line.
Therefore, you need to make sure that you dotake care of yourself, that if anything, you

(34:40):
have your own hours and standards because youcan't confuse yourself with somebody who is
working, you know, eight to five, nine to five,who's not taking on those those things so that
you can reward yourself as well as your familyas well as your clients and employees so that

(35:03):
you're the freshest version of yourself.
So I think I I believe that if we can avoidcompromising on those important things, it's
really, really inspiring for us.
And I also challenge us to do that because, youknow, after all, we're running a business.

(35:24):
We started a business.
That means we're probably smart.
We're probably somewhat creative.
So why can't we come up with those answers?
Why why get why be a slave to eight to five, orI'm gonna work all weekend, and I'm not gonna
see my kids, but in ten years, it'll all begreat?
No.
It won't.
You'll have ten years without your kids.

(35:45):
Conversely, though, why say, well, I would havebeen successful, but, you know, I have kids.
Why blame that on them?
You can do both.
So I say avoid the compromise best you can andlearn from people.
Yes.
Absolutely.
That's the best one there.
Well, Barry, tell us again how we can get aholdof you.

(36:07):
Look for me on LinkedIn, Barry Labov.
Reach out.
I will accept it.
And then look at my two different websites,labov.com and barrylabov.com.
You can sign up for our newsletter.
Look at our difference talks, and it'sdifferencetalks.com.

(36:27):
Go there.
Take a take a look at some of the reallyinteresting people.
And if you want my book, go to Amazon.
It's there.
It's on Audible.
It's on Kindle.
It's paperback as well.
And like I said, there are a lot of ways toreach out.
I'm happy to help anybody.
And if somebody says, well, there's no way Icould do any business with Barry, I'm fine with

(36:50):
that.
I'll help you.
Doesn't matter.
That's awesome.
That's awesome.
I do wanna let our listeners and viewingaudience know that January 31, this Friday,
we're doing a impact through leadership summit.
Have eight great speakers lined up, and they'regonna be videoed.
So you will see the video on YouTubeafterwards.

(37:12):
So it'll be there all the time if you're unableto make it tomorrow.
I know it's kinda short notice with me beingsick, and everything kinda got put behind, but
you just keep on going.
And I'm really looking forward to hearing whatthese speakers have because we want to make an
impact, and we do that through leading, whetherwe're leading somebody from something or

(37:32):
leading somebody to something.
We are leaders, and I'm really excited to hearwhat they have to say.
I'm actually looking forward to it.
So you can see that on YouTube.
You can go to wisdomonthefrontporch.com, ourwebsite, see what's going on with with the
other podcast and with the magazine.

(37:53):
We have the very first issue up there, you canlook through it.
It's free to you.
And just check us out and see what's happening.
Barry, thank you so much for being here.
I really appreciate it.
And thank you, our audience, and we'll see younext time on Wisdom on the Front Porch.
Thank you for joining us today on Wisdom on theFront Porch with your host, Ellis Kirkpatrick.

(38:14):
You can find us on our website,wisdomonthefrontporch.com, see previous
episodes of the podcast, and view issues of themagazine.
Did you know you can submit questions, leavereviews, or suggest topics?
You can also tell us where your favorite Frontlocation is and what it means to you.
We hope you gain value and insight from today'sor previous talks.

(38:36):
We appreciate your support for us so we cancontinue to provide value and expertise to you
and others.
Subscribe to Wisdom on the Front Porch Magazineand join in next week when we bring you another
great insight into the world of entrepreneurculture and lifestyle.
Make today a great day.
Always believe that something wonderful isgoing to happen.
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