So tell me about your business, Larry Easton.
Well, it's it's kind of a legacy stage right now.
I'm trying to pull together some of the lessons I've learned along the way.
I'm not in growth mode.
I'm in kind of contracting pre-retirement, whatever that means.
And so what I've done is is started over the past year, a couple of years.
I've started pulling together a couple of projects.
One is a book and one is a video course.
And what I want to do is share some of the lessons I've learned
from running different kinds of businesses.
They've all been professional service businesses.
I started, so I work as a lawyer and then I got tired of being a lawyer.
And then I did some consulting and then I became a writer.
And then I did some coaching and some training.
My true passion is love is writing.
I just absolutely love writing and secondary passion is helping others learn.
So writing the book was a was a labor of love.
And the book is it's called How to Succeed in Your Professional Service Business.
And what I've done there is is combine mindsets and marketing.
So it just kind of fits into my sweet spot.
It allows me to talk about goals and purposes and passion and all those kinds of things
at the same time as addressing some strategies for succeeding in a small business.
So it's kind of a kind of like my life, I guess.
It's not a clear, straight direction, but it's a nice combination of things that works well.
Yes, yes. Oh, that sounds good.
So the book, is it already out?
Oh, yeah, it's out.
It's in my distributor tells me it's available in 40,000 bookstores around the world.
I haven't checked, but that's what she tells me.
But it is online.
It's online sources and it's hard copy on print on demand, which is an amazing process.
So if somebody wants one book, they will print one book for you.
And for me, I don't have to pay to print 10,000 copies of books to sit in warehouses.
So that's that's great.
So yeah, it's it's available online in three formats, hard copy, hard cover and electronic
and Amazon, Apple Books, all those folks that got it.
And thank you.
Thank you so much, because that definitely does help for myself to find it as well as
those that will be watching or that are watching this.
So when it came to the book and now that you're going into, as you stated, your legacy mode,
what's your vision thereafter?
Well, the vision for me would be to to when I finish to say, yeah, yeah, my life was was worthwhile.
I learned a lot of really cool stuff from experience and even better, I had the chance
to share it with other people.
I love getting you know, who doesn't like feedback, but I like people telling me that
something I said made a difference in their life, not not to stroke my ego, but but to
feel as if I have a purpose, I'm living purposeful.
So my vision would be to sit back with maybe a glass of wine and say, yeah, I've had a
really meaningful and purposeful life.
I've really helped a lot of people.
So that's going to feel good.
That's that's that's so sweet to hear because it's a it's a it's a sweet spot of knowing
that you've done a service right and that you'll be able to look back and see the service
that you provided and the knowledge and that pretty much the gifts and blessings that you
provided for all those you've helped in the in the past and currently because the book
will live on definitely.
Exactly, exactly.
And I think probably over the past, I don't know, maybe over the past 10 years, I realized
that that's probably my purpose here on Earth is to learn things and interpret them for
others so they can they can learn from them.
So that's that to me is really exciting and gratifying.
And you know, it doesn't stop.
It's not a once and done thing.
It's just just ongoing.
Just hopefully ongoing.
And that's that's exciting, too.
Absolutely.
You speak about the experiences that you had.
Please share with me one of the most memorable experiences that you've had in starting all
of your businesses and leading up to where you are now.
Probably.
Yeah, early, early in my early in my consulting phase, I had, you know, as I say, different
phases early in the consulting phase, I was contacted by a lawyer and he had a at the
time had a small practice in a small town, really, really, really busy.
And he wanted to grow, but he didn't didn't have those didn't have the planning skills
and didn't know what he wanted to do.
So I worked with him.
And what I what we did was help him grow, first of all, from one lawyer and one secretary
to three lawyers and four staff.
And then about five years later, he made it to six lawyers and and I think eight support
staff.
So it wasn't a case of my doing that.
It was a case of asking him questions that he hadn't thought of.
So I asked the questions that he hadn't thought of because it was outside his area of expertise
or knowledge or whatever.
So I was more more of a facilitator than a than a builder than a director.
I wasn't director of operations.
I was more of the guys asking questions saying, hey, have you tried this or what about that?
Have you thought about the other thing?
And that was that was really gratifying.
And it was amazing.
I saw him.
Gosh, I guess I saw him five or six years ago.
I had a concert and he'd retired and he was really happy.
And he just rushed up to me and said, I'm so happy what you did for me.
And this had been like 20 years ago.
And he was so happy.
And he said he'd made my life as a lawyer so much more fulfilling.
Oh, wow.
From a lawyer that was that was great.
Absolutely.
And other people along the way, there's a guy who was a clerk in a big company.
And after my first book, he got a hold of my first book and he decided he was going to be a financial planner.
So he became a financial planner and wound up teaching financial planning at a college.
And again, he thanks me for that.
So that's those are the kinds of things I feel really good about not not stroking my ego and say, yeah, that person's happy because of something I did.
Wow, that's good.
That's good.
That's what it's all about.
Absolutely.
So because you were a lawyer, did you did you find yourself helping more lawyers?
No, no, trying to trying to trying to work with lawyers, trying to do planning with lawyers is probably kind of herd cats.
It's just just not worth the effort.
Just not worth the effort.
And lawyers, yeah, I'm going to get in trouble for this, I'm sure.
But many lawyers tend to be know it all.
And so I would offer a suggestion and immediately they would be finding problems.
I would offer a solution and they'd be finding problems. Yeah. So it got to the point when I was working with them.
I said, you know, I'm going to offer some solutions, but I don't want you to pick it apart.
I don't want you to start attacking it.
Yeah. Try it.
Think about it before you attack it.
So now I I I I love how smart many lawyers are.
I respect them.
But I couldn't work with them on a on a on a constant basis.
I love that. I love that.
What are the biggest challenges you faced in building your vision?
That's a toughie because I tend to be a bit of a maverick maverick and I tended to to try to do things myself.
And I think the biggest challenges was learning to let go, learning to to to let go of what I couldn't do, stay in my own lane.
Let someone who is better at it than I am do it.
And it took a long time to to to be comfortable letting go of things.
Yeah. So that was that was the biggest thing.
I never had, you know, I've never had a problem with writer's block.
I've never had a problem with ideas.
I mean, the problem is I have too many of them.
Yeah. And and I try to do too much.
I'm blessed with a variety of skills.
So I try to do too much.
And then finally, finally, finally learning.
So I try to do too much.
And then finally, finally, finally learning.
You don't have to do that.
Somebody else can do that.
You have somebody hire somebody, a freelancer to do that.
You don't have to do that.
So that's the biggest challenge.
It's just disciplining myself to to focus on what I do best and delegate the rest.
Yes. And it's so funny because you mentioned earlier that lawyers were sort of like know it all.
And then you had a problem with letting go.
You were once a lawyer.
It's a bingo. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
It's the curse of being multi talented or multi gifted.
I mean, you know, if I can do it, why don't I do it now rather than wait for somebody?
Yeah. Yeah.
It's a discipline thing, a discipline thing.
That's awesome.
That's that's so awesome.
And really, it made me laugh because it's funny to hear when you decided or actually
acknowledged that that was the challenge of letting go.
Did you create a team or did you mostly utilize freelancers or mostly freelancers?
I didn't want to get into administration.
I didn't want a big organization.
I mean, I could do it.
I've worked for I have had I have had positions of responsibility that I had other folks working
for me, but I just wanted to keep it simple.
And I am so I did I thought I'd use freelancers as a lawyer.
I tried partnerships a couple of times and it just didn't work out.
So it's easier to be a freelancer and everybody knows what the rules are and knows what the
outcome is and all those kinds of things.
And there's very little opportunity or need for dispute, dispute and power struggles and
those kinds of things.
Yeah. Yeah.
That makes a lot of sense.
And in everything that you've done and where you see yourself at now, I know things change.
But what is your why?
What's your why?
What is the legacy here for?
And I think the why would be to learn continue to learn new things and share them with others.
You know, I love learning and I also love helping others learn.
I did a course in adult education a few years ago and that was a game changer.
That just totally changed how I saw my own work and how I served clients and all those
kinds of things.
Every element, like all the different career phases, the common element was probably helping
others learn.
You know, as a lawyer, I didn't tell them what to do.
I helped them learn what their options were and what the consequences of their options
were.
And as a consultant, same thing.
These are, you know, this is the situation.
These are your options.
So you do this, this is likely to happen.
So that to me is learning.
It's facilitating rather than being project director.
And so my why I think is facilitating kind of, you know, I make the mistakes and I spend
the money and I get the headaches and I put away the lessons and pass them on to somebody
else.
Sounds like a good idea.
In you and what you do in helping professionals find their way through, I see that on the
website you focus on simplifying marketing for them.
In the dynamics of Larry Estow and the field that you're in, what is it that you find most
that you help them with?
Oh, marketing.
Absolutely marketing.
We're in an age when everybody is an expert on just about everything.
And there are so many experts on marketing telling all of us, but telling professionals
if you do it my way, you're going to be successful.
Well, that sounds kind of good.
But we have different skills.
We have different resources.
We have different ideas.
So what I try to do is help them.
And the buzzword is, the catch line is, you know, track new clients as easily as you make
friends because that's what it's all about.
So it's more a case of, you know, OK, yes, pay attention to online marketing and pay
attention to network and be aware of all those things.
But when it comes down to it, do do what is best for you.
Do do what best leverages your own personal strengths.
I tend to be an introvert.
So I try to avoid group scenes where I have to go and see a lot of people.
Flip side is I love writing.
So content marketing is perfect for me.
And active in person networking scares the bejeebers out of me.
So it's a case of finding what's right.
Now, the interesting thing is when I was actively networking, I was fairly good at it.
And people would say, wow, you're really good at it.
But I hate it.
Well, how can you be so good at it?
Something you hate? Well, you do what you got to do.
Right. And so that's what it was about.
So it's a case of finding finding what really works for you and your clients and just don't
chase clients, attract friends.
And it's so much easier that way.
So much easier that way.
I love that, Larry.
Don't chase clients, attract friends.
And that's that's the biggest thing.
One of the things that I hear consistently is that you have to be aware of your own
identity, your own identity, your own identity.
And I think that's a good way to do it.
And I think that's another one of the things that I've learned recently and speaking with
guests and leaders such as yourself is that communication and relationships are so much
more important to keeping the business afloat and making sure that you're authentic and
genuine.
And making sure that you you are about the people, you know, your business is making
friends.
Yeah.
And so when they're in high.
So my head is going here and I have all these thoughts, so I'm trying to organize them.
You deal with professionals and these professionals sometimes have it all down packed and
they come to you for marketing.
What's the challenge?
What's that push that you have to give them in order to actually go into action and do
what you're what you're advising?
You really can do it.
It's not that it's not you don't need an MBA from from a business school to market
services.
All you all you really need is to have a good handle on who you are, who your clients are,
who your ideal clients are and how you help them.
That's that's it.
That's how that includes branding that includes communications that concludes that drives
all of the online marketing.
So you want your brand to be consistent brand is all about what distinguishes me from everybody
else.
And why does that help clients?
So it's a case of yeah, I can really do it.
And unfortunately, many of us get so involved in the professional service part of our
business that we don't we can't see how we can apply those skills in other aspects of
the business.
You know, and so all I'm trying to do is to say again, hey, have you tried this?
Yeah.
And think of marketing as as attracting friends.
Don't you're not prospecting.
You're not looking for a goal.
You're looking for a friend.
You're not looking for a friend.
You want to you want to attract people that will be as good for you as they are for you.
You are as good for them as they are for you.
It's a mutual benefit there.
So it's I think a lot of it is just demystifying, demystifying the theory, demystifying the rigid
thinking, demystifying the checklist.
And so, yeah, just just do it like you do.
Do it like you make friends.
Absolutely.
And so what tips do you have for entrepreneurs, leaders or business owners?
I think it starts with with having a really good understanding of who you are and what
you're all about.
And this includes body, mind and spirit.
You know, we all we all have intuitive senses that sometimes we ignore.
Sometimes we don't think to be valuable resources.
And spirituality is a connection with something higher.
You know, when things are going tough, connect with it, connect with nature or just calm
down.
Do let the spiritual side of you have play a role in all things.
So often people get locked up into a specific role that lawyers have to act this way or
doctors have to have this way or whatever.
It's no no, it's interpersonal relationships.
It keeps coming back to getting along.
And the best way to get along with people is to know who you are and then, you know,
be authentic all of the time rather than rather than just when it suits you.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward.
It's going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.