Struggling to stay fit due to commitments at home and in the workplace? Ready to make a bigger impact? This episode is for you.
Larry Hickernell shares how after growing up as an athlete, he then started his career, and a family, and let his health slide. Then, he had a wake up call – he lost 85 pounds and is now living with vitality. Today, he’s helping faith-based investors create prosperity, make an impact & leave a legacy – last year alone, raising over $350 million of capital into impact investment funds that provide consistent double-digit annual returns.
In this episode we cover:
- How to ensure health remains a priority with a full schedule
- The key to staying focus and hitting targets over time
- Using investing returns to make a bigger impact
- SO many lessons, tips & book recommendations!
Great By Choice by Jim Collins
Grit by Anglea Duckworth
Be Obsessed or Be Average by Grant Cardone
The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins
Episode timestamps:
[2:14] Introducing Larry Hickernell
[5:12] Larry’s journey losing 85 pounds
[10:43] The secret to staying fit with a full schedule
[13:10] 20 mile march & the power of moving forward each day
[15:32] Accountability is the highest form of respect
[16:56] Impact of accountability in the Fit Life Challenge
[20:01] Systems to complete items and The Checklist Manifesto
[21:57] Books that ignited the fire within Larry
[25:19] Making an impact and leaving a legacy
[29:39] Inspiring people to build a legacy
[32:17] How the DLP impact investing funds deliver consistent double digit returns
[37:19] Investors using distributions to fund medical bills
[39:30] The 5 to Thrive questions
[42:20] How others positive energy can pull you up when needed
[46:31] Who would win in a CrossFit Competition?
Transcript
* This transcript was mostly generated by AI, so please excuse any mistakes, and enjoy!
[00:00:03] Patrick: Hello, and welcome to Live Fit, Ignite Change, where together as a community, we inspire each other to live a fit life, ignite the change we wish to see, and thrive in all areas of life. In this episode, I have an amazing conversation with Larry Hickernell. He shares how after growing up as an athlete, he then started his career and a family.
[00:00:27] Patrick: He was a busy dad and he let us fitness slide to the point where he was sick all the time and depressed. Then, he had a wake-up call. He ignited the change that he wanted to see and started his fitness journey, lost 85 pounds, and has kept it off. Now, living with vitality. Today, professionally he’s helping faith-based investors create prosperity, make an impact and leave a legacy.
[00:00:53] Patrick: Last year alone, raising over 350 million in capital into income-producing real estate-backed impact investing funds, they’re designed to provide consistent double-digit annual returns, which have never missed a return target since inception, and last year, the housing fund provided an amazing 45% net annual return to investors.
[00:01:14] Patrick: And they’re expecting another great year this year. Plus, we dive into impact and leaving a legacy like grandparents whose grandson had diabetes. So they’ve set up the distributions from the funds to pay for those treatments. The episode is packed with book recommendations, tips, and tools to use, to create accountability, take action, and create change to reach your desired results in your life, your career, and in investing by marching forward every day despite the conditions around you.
[00:01:45] Patrick: Changing our world does not happen at once. It does not happen alone. It takes a committed group to be the change we wish to see. So together we rise above negative influences to lead by example, making a positive impact at home and around the world. You can learn more. Join us and get show notes at livefitignitechange.com or for short, livefic.com.
[00:02:14] Patrick: All right, welcome, Larry. I’m so excited to have you here having this conversation. As we’ve said, we’ve had so many conversations over the years, whether walking or talking or wherever, but now we’ve talked about the podcast and now we finally get to do one.
[00:02:26] Larry: There’s no turning back. It’s official now.
[00:02:28] Patrick: It is, it’s official. And I guess for an intro, I mean, you could say Larry’s just one of the greatest humans you’ll ever meet. Civil way to put it.
[00:02:35] Larry: No pressure. Bar’s pretty low.
[00:02:37] Patrick: Great. But I guess for the official background, to give you a little bit more about Larry, I think highly of him, but just so the listeners will know too. Larry is a dedicated professional, husband, father, a man of faith, and a pretty amazing vocalist, too, a CrossFit coach and the Senior Director of Investor Success at DLP who raised over 300 million in new capital last year alone, and is committed to helping people create prosperity, make an impact and leave a legacy. That’s pretty awesome. Quite a lot going on there. You wanna fill in any of the gaps in what you’re doing these days?
[00:03:12] Larry: Yeah, no for sure. And, thank you for that. And it’s kind of interesting. So first of all, it was 350 million. So, we exceeded our goal. The cool thing about that was we had budgeted essentially to raise 175 million dollars last year. So we doubled it essentially. But really, again, this all kind of goes back to the relationship. Everything we do is based off of developing deep relationships, being in tune with folks that are looking to us for any number of these sorts of solutions, whether that just be, Hey, I wanna invest with you guys. I need a safe, affordable, you know, place to be able to invest all the way to, as you had said, you know, creating a legacy, not necessarily knowing what that means to them yet, and then helping them walk through all this, all of, you know, every step of the way. Right.
[00:04:02] Larry: So, for me, it’s pretty amazing because we get to touch on all those sorts of things. But it’s all within that relationship base. So, yeah, a lot’s going on. We’re all ready, you know, as of today, you know, early may here as we’re recording, a little over 120 million raised for the year, have added over a hundred new investors, to our investor family this year, but, you know, growing organically through just you know, working to develop those deep relationships. So we’re very grateful for that opportunity. Really taking our core value of stewardship very seriously. And being forward-looking, making sure that we can continue that for years to come.
[00:04:43] Patrick: Absolutely. That sounds awesome. I love it. Definitely taking the relationship to the next level, obviously, stewardship is important and I know the other core value we talk about a lot is delivering that wow experience and being able to give back and, you know, you do that so well. And it sounds like all of this in the center is amazing. Everything’s going well. I could imagine there’s, you know, we’ve shared some stories in the past things weren’t always like that, you know, take us back to in the past when things maybe weren’t as perfect to tell us that story and how you kind of made that transformation.
[00:05:12] Larry: Yeah, for sure. And I mean, you know, my personal journey has been pretty much in time with my journey with DLP. So right around the same time and actually, again, we’re coming up on sort of the six-year anniversary of not only me starting with Don and with DLP, but starting my, you know, fitness journey, so to speak.
[00:05:14] Larry: You know, so for years, you know, growing up, I was an athlete, excelled at pretty much anything I did without having to work too hard which was kind of a blessing and also a curse, you know, kind of had to get a pretty good life lesson thereafter things weren’t so easy. But you know, getting through college and going through that process and then having a family, I really, you know, kind of let a lot of those things slide. So, my nutrition, my exercise, or, you know, lack thereof right at the time, you know, just really bad habits lead me to you know, becoming morbidly obese, you know, really being just frankly sick all the time, not having any real drive. Right.
[00:06:14] Larry: You know, I was working in jobs where originally I was actually going to be a music teacher. I went to school to be a music teacher because that’s what my mom did and for you know, 30 years or so, and my dad was in education and they were all musicians. And so man, like, this is pretty easy. I have this all planned out for me. Right. So ended up going through school, did my student teaching went through, and finished up and then I was, I don’t know what it was. I just had this revelation, like, man, I don’t wanna do this, you know? So that was kind of my first, you know, you call it an aha moment or you call it, you know, divine intervention or whatever you wanna call it.
[00:06:49] Larry: But it was like, something told me I’m like I need to do something else. Right. I need to be able to move in another direction. So luckily, a friend of mine who was working at the bank at the time said, Hey, you should come and work at the bank until you figure something else out to do. Which I did. I started as a teller and a customer service person at PNC bank. Moved up through, you know, the branch side and then into the wealth management side, which is kind of what started me on this path to where, you know, where I am today with Don. But that was kind of the first sort of, breaking point right from my old life into the new life. And so that was.
[00:07:26] Larry: Today, when I look back at it, it’s like, I don’t really know what sparked it, but it was pretty, pretty amazing how that lead me to where I am today. Fast forward to, you know, and I’m, you know, morbidly over be overweight, morbidly obese, you know, incredibly depressed, not wanting to do anything, hating the jobs I was in, even though I was, you know, in all ways very comfortable, right.
[00:07:51] Larry: I ended up going to the doctor. I ended up saying, Hey, I need to, you know, figure out what’s going on here. They took a bunch of labs and all that stuff. And, you know, I like to say all the good stuff was super low. All the bad stuff was super high, you know? And I do know very clearly the voice that was telling me to make a change because it was the doctor.
[00:08:11] Larry: So unlike the job thing it was kind of, or the career thing, it was very clear. The doctor said, Hey, you know, and I say this to everyone that asks it’s, you know, the doctor said to me, if you want to live to see your kids grow up, you have to make a change like now. That was March or excuse me, May 16th of 2016. So I know exactly the day. I know exactly what I could remember this guy and he’s retired now, but you know, I still thank him to this day, because then he said, Hey, this is what you’re gonna eat every day. This is when you’re going to eat. You’re not going to eat after 8:00 PM. You’re not gonna do all the stuff that you were doing.
[00:08:43] Larry: No alcohol, no, you know, pretzels with chocolate milk. Right. Which I really loved for some reason. And it was just May 17th, it was the first day of you know, kind of the rest of my life, so to speak, right? So fast forward, you know, started with Don a couple of weeks later, joined Driven for Greatness, which is our awesome of course, you know, call it a book club, but you know, a group where we get together, we read a couple of books per month and then put those lessons into action, not only with our team but also in our personal lives.
[00:09:13] Larry: Through that, you know, started walking then started running. Nutrition was dialed in. I ended up losing about 85 pounds. Through that process a few months later, I also started CrossFit, which I’ve now been doing for, you know, about six years, and today looking back on all of that, it was almost to me like, you know, yeah, things are really going great. Do we still struggle sometimes or, you know, is it still sometimes not so consistent? Sure. But I am in a 300% if that’s even possible, better place than I was you know, before that turning point. So I’m very grateful, not only for, you know, Don and DLP, but for that doctor that, you know, that said, Hey, you, you need to change something or else it’s not gonna be good.
[00:09:59] Patrick: That is awesome. What an incredible story. And I mean, I go back to like the title of what this podcast is all about, live fit, and ignite change. You did that. You ignited the change you wanted to see. And I think it’s interesting looking at both sides of the career side, just knowing you didn’t want to be doing what you were doing, you knew you wanted to change. Didn’t know what that was. On the fitness, side is like you were told you had to change or else, but what I’ve been so impressed with you, I mean, you hear about so many people that either struggle with weight and, you know, go in some crash diet and then it just comes right back. But you’ve kept it off.
[00:10:32] Patrick: I mean, 85 pounds. And like, you’re, you’re still a model of health. You do our FitLife challenge. You do the CrossFit and all this stuff that we do here. And how, what’s your secret? How did you do it and not just let it go right back?
[00:10:43] Larry: Yeah. And I won’t tell you that I’m perfect, right? Because I certainly am not. And my wife, Jen, will tell you I slip too. Right? So, that’s an important lesson is that it’s all about that relationship with what you’re doing and with food and with exercise and not beating yourself up too much, when, you know, you fall off the wagon occasionally, because you will. For me, and actually, when I go back and I look at it, the diet that I was given, I don’t know if I would call it a crash diet, but it probably wasn’t the most sustainable thing. It was what ignited the change, but it wasn’t really the thing that I could have stuck with for many years. Right.
[00:11:18] Larry: So if you look at Stasis and you look at what can sustain you, this was not it, this was, Hey, I’m, you know, for a guy that was, you know, at the time 265 pounds, you know, I’m 5’10” on a good day when I’m feeling tall. Right. So for that weight and that size, you know, I was maxing out at like 1200 calories a day. And even when I started at CrossFit, you know, those are obviously intense workouts and even running, you know, for long periods of time, you need that energy. For me, it was, Hey, you, you know, you eat 1200 calories a day and you’re done.
[00:11:51] Larry: So in that respect, it wasn’t really the best. I was eating whole foods. I was, you know, drinking lots of water and those are all things that I still, you know, take with me today, but it then molded into, okay, well now I’m gonna attract macros. Now I’m gonna continue to log my food every day. Now I’m gonna continue to make those decisions and if I make a bad one, it’s like, okay, well, yeah, I did that. I’m I feel like crap the next morning or whatever. But it doesn’t take me back to, oh, well now I’m a sloth. I’m gonna just sit there and go back to being a couch potato. Right. It’s all again about that relationship.
[00:11:32] Larry: So that’s what I think of as you know, in a lesson that I’ve learned and that I want people to know is, you know, you will mess up, you will continue to, you know, kind of fall off and you will have to bring yourself back. But I like to say today that now I have guardrails. You know, it’s not either I’m 100% like, Hey, I’m fanatical about this for a few weeks and then I fall off and then I, you know, I drink too much and I lay on the couch all day for months at a time. No, I have a good balance of, okay, well sometimes if I’m like tired or if I, you know, beat myself up too much or something, then yeah, I take a rest day and I recover, right, or I do active recovery. But those foundational pieces are still there.
[00:13:03] Patrick: It’s the guardrails that keep you in that place and make it work and what you keep doing really day after day. I mean, obviously, you’re living your life. You’re enjoying yourself, you got your calories back to a normal level to sustain your activity. But it reminds me too if we talk about here the 20-mile March, and the whole idea for those that might not be familiar. The idea popularized from Jim Collins’s book Great by Choice, two teams won the race to the south pole. One that marched 20 miles every single day, regardless of the prevailing conditions got there first. They all made it back safely. Unfortunately, the other team that went really far on the good days and then rested on the bad days didn’t all make it back.
[00:13:38] Patrick: But the whole idea, the concept there is to keep going day after day and not just, you know, if you fall off the wagon like you were saying, you get right back on and keep going. So I think that’s a great example of how you’ve done that and have been able to kind of keep living life, but do it in a good way. And I think there are other tools that we talk about using. I’d be interested in hearing some of that kind of accountability, the habits, and what you’ve put in place that could even be advice for others who might be in a similar state that either keep falling off the wagon or haven’t taken that leap on what they might be able to do.
[00:14:10] Larry: Yeah, for sure. I mean, and so, you know, part of our gym, one of the things that we have is called MyZone. It’s a thing that you either wear, you know, around your chest or on, on your arm. And it, it’s kind of, you know, you can pick any number of these, right? The whoop or stuff like that that you can measure. It’s a heart rate monitor. It tells you what zone you’re in, so to speak as far as you know, your exertion. But the cool thing is when you’re at the gym, you see it on the screen. I think, the orange theory does this too, where you see everybody else on the screen is like, oh, well, you know, everybody else is going at, you know, 85, 90%.
[00:14:42] Larry: They’re really pushing they’re in the red. You see Larry over here is standing and he’s in like the blue, like hanging out, you know, not even, it’s gonna cause you to push. Right. And actually, if you take a step back, just being in that group setting, for me, is much more beneficial than if I work out by myself.
[00:14:58] Larry: I know that again with that, you know, continual trying to figure out self-awareness and where you are, some people are really good about, Hey, I can, and I know that you can do this too, right? Like you could work out by yourself and drive and push yourself as hard as you would if you were with a group. For me, if I’m by myself, yeah, I’ll get a good workout in, but I know that it won’t be as intense if somebody else is there either, you know, watching me, judging my movements, and telling me to get back up when I wanna take a nap in the middle of a burpee. Right. It’s kind of like, there’s that accountability that you said.
[00:15:32] Larry: And actually, I just shared this with our team earlier. I heard a really great quote from somebody earlier today that said, accountability is the highest form of respect. And I love that because it’s like, again, we talk about this too with, you know, the Oz principle and, you know, extreme ownership and all the things that we read about this, but it’s like, accountability, of course, has a negative connotation in many cases because it’s, oh, well you did something wrong you need to be held accountable. That’s absolutely not the case.
[00:15:57] Larry: It’s the idea of, I respect you. I have a love for you. I want you to do well. So I’m going to see like when, when you’re not doing what you say you’re gonna do or when you’re not doing it to the extent that I know that you can, I’m gonna tell you about it. And I want you to get back on the horse, right? If I, if there are people that haven’t been to the gym in a couple of days or weeks or whatever, and you haven’t heard from them, or, you know, you feel that things are kind of off, you reach out to them. And likewise, people reach out to me. So if it’s like, Hey, you’re slacking, man.
[00:16:23] Larry: You know, I hate them for it because I’m like, yeah, you’re right. You know, but then you get back on. So, that’s what I love about it. So the technology is great. You know, I still, you know, my fitness pal and, and tracking, I do have a Fitbit, which I use. And that’s really great when you can get into, or, you know, Apple Watch.
[00:16:37] Larry: If you can get into groups where, you know, I have folks that, you know, they’ll challenge me to a weekend warrior thing where it’s like, I was gonna sit around all weekend. And it’s like, oh no, well now I’ve gotta actually get some steps in and get outside and exercise because these guys are gonna be watching me and I don’t wanna be in last place. Right. Or better yet, I wanna win.
[00:16:54] Patrick: You wanna win.
[00:16:55] Larry: Yeah, exactly.
[00:16:56] Patrick: Absolutely. That’s awesome. I love it. Accountability is the highest form of respect. Love that. I don’t think I had heard that before, but I will say, you know, recently we started our FitLife challenge here. That is a challenge where it’s actually pretty cool. It started in the CrossFit gym. It used to be a 40-day challenge and it grew into what really is a corporate wellbeing challenge at this point with a lot of the team members here at the company at DLP participating. And the number one thing that we heard that people wanted was more accountability.
[00:17:22] Patrick: And so being able to add in a special section, now we eat meat every other week for our accountability sessions. We divided it by people who had similar goals, and it’s a pretty cool process where it’s modeled after the four disciplines of execution and where in that they have the wildly important goal of wig session. Now we get together. And obviously, Larry’s in my group looking to build lean muscle. And so we get to talk about the things that we want to do that week, basically what we’re committing to keeping the metrics so we can reach our wildly important goal and be able to get there. So related to that and keeping metrics on the daily habits recommend keeping metrics, daily habits, and things you do to stay again on the wagon.
[00:18:01] Larry: Yeah, for sure. And that’s, I mean, you know, obviously, our lead journal is huge for me. I mean, that’s all of these different ways to measure all in one so, you know, that’s a great way to do it. And then again, to celebrate wins, right? To celebrate the things that are going well, it’s not all about, oh man, I gotta keep driving. I can try if you’re on a 20-mile March and you never have any sunny days, it’s gonna be a lot harder than if you can say, man, like I’ve made a lot of progress today. I’m doing really well. So that’s what I love about this and even lessons learned like I’m not gonna go down that path again. Or at least when I do, I’m gonna bring a machete cuz it’s like, it’s gonna be rough terrain. Right?
[00:18:34] Larry: Like you at least, you know, and you could refer back. So, the Elite Journal is phenomenal. Also even, you know, again, just within our groups, like the social aspect of all of this, having you know, and Rich Delgado and who I think you’ll be talking to did a recent thing at church which was an Exodus 90 group. Right. And part of that is the fraternity of men that are looking to be better and be better fathers and men for others, serving others. Right. But there’s that accountability there too. And there’s the checklist of, Hey, did you do your disciplines? If you didn’t, then everybody sees it.
[00:19:08] Larry: And they’re not gonna come together on a Friday morning when we get together and judge each other, cuz one week I might have screwed up. The next week you know, somebody else might have, everybody’s got that thing and whatever it is going on with their life, that’s gonna cause you to fall off, but just being together in that group. So I think that the underlying theme of all of this is A, you don’t have to do it alone and you shouldn’t do it alone, in my opinion. And then B, there are so many tools that you can use that will help make things easier. The more that you can make this again, the more habits are there, and the more that you can make it just smooth.
[00:19:40] Larry: And it’s like, Hey, I don’t even think about it in many cases. Right. I just do it. It’s gonna help you tremendously and take a lot of those barriers out that are the things that make people end up saying, oh, no, I’m not gonna go to the gym yet cuz I don’t have any clothes you put ’em out the night before you’re gonna go. Or any number of those, that’s just, you know, one example, but definitely, those are a few things that I follow.
[00:20:01] Patrick: Tools, the accountability of the people, that’s what all makes it work. You mentioned Driven for Greatness and checklist. I guess I should mention too the book we’re going through right now is The Checklist Manifesto. And what a way to be able to basically take things that you need to do put ’em in a checklist, have a system to follow. It just brings so much value to all the things that we do. You mentioned Driven for Greatness earlier and for, Larry mentioned, you know, somewhat, you could call it a book club, but much more than that to be able to get people together, to really raise up their standards in business in life. And I think when people do contribute, some of your contributions are the fastest of you share, you know. In general, what Driven for Greatness has kind of meant for you and along the lines of being part of a group where it does make sense to be accountable to others.
[00:20:42] Larry: Yeah. And I mean, if you’re not with DLP and you’re not a DLP team member and you’re with another company, do this, right? Do this kind of book club scenario, because number one, you meet every two weeks. So again, there’s that cadence just like in the four disciplines of execution, right? You’re talking about a cadence of accountability, but more so it’s, you know, you’re hearing different perspectives. And the coolest thing I think from a Driven for Greatness perspective is, you know, I lead one, I don’t know, five years ago. Right.
[00:21:09] Larry: And that’s the last time I lead one, not because I shouldn’t or don’t want to, but because there are so many other people stepping up, people that just joined the companies, people that have been around that you know if you see them in their office or whatnot, and you never hear them speak a word, right? They’re some of the best leaders of these meetings and you get a different perspective and then it creates commonality.
[00:21:28] Larry: So, you know, for me, there’s that whole piece of it. But you know, when I was, again, first starting on this journey, you know, obviously, you know, I started and if anybody here is not from DLP again, you know, when you start with DLP, you technically start two weeks before your start date. So just, that, you know, you jump in right away. And that’s what I love about it. But you know, one of the things was, I think it was like my first day or the second day that I was here was a Driven for Greatness meeting. So I’m like, man, like, why are we, why am I starting my first day at work at eight o’clock in the morning?
[00:21:57] Larry: Like, this is crazy right? Now, that’s usual. Right. You know? And it’s just a habit. But it was one of the first things that I did. And you know, we were reading a couple of different books we read Grit, which was one of the first books I read with DLP. We read a bunch of other books that are just you know, foundational. The Oz Principle, as I mentioned, was one of the first ones that we read when I was with DLP, and the other one, you know, for better or worse take ’em or leave them, Grant Cardone’s Be Obsessed or Be Average. Right. So if you’ve read, Be Obsessed or Be Average, no matter what you think of Grant Cardone, when you read that book and especially when you listen to that book, which again, most of what we do and a number of us do is listen to the books. With him, narrating it, I just got so hyped up and I could have put myself in that victim mentality as I always had. Right.
[00:22:47] Larry: I was, you know, kind of that person that was okay, well, I can do well, but you know, again, going back to I always kind of did. Okay, without trying too hard, I was like, man, if I really put my mind to this and I try, I’m gonna do really well. So, I read the book like eight times in a row, even when we were done reading it. Right. I got so hyped up with the energy, but he was talking to me, he was talking to me as the person that was like, you know, you are the one that is okay with just getting by, right? Are you the one that’s like, oh yeah, you know, you’re not really pushing, you’re not really making too much of an impact, but you’re skating along nice? Right? What kind of a life is that? You know, I mean, if you really wanna make an impact, you have to push yourself out of your comfort zone.
[00:23:29] Larry: And that, again, going along with, I had just started this crazy new diet. I had just started physically moving around again, instead of just being on the couch all the time. It was that kind of kick that I needed. Where again, you’re not quite sure why it happens, but it was, I think it was because I was open to it. And so that’s what Driven for Greatness does, it opens yourself to all of these other ideas and saying, man, like some things might, you know, stick with you more than others. Some might be more exciting than others. Again, we’ve read books where the, you know, the author has no business reading their own book inaudible. Right.
[00:24:06] Larry: Cause it’s like, you know, Bueller. Right. But the other side of it is it’s some of it is so engaging depending on where you are in your life. You’re gonna run into those situations where something really sticks. So I know a lot of people that are with the team that has been like, oh, well, such and such book. I live my life by that now. And it’s like, for me, it was like, yeah, it was a great book, but you know, it’s okay. It was great. But that’s what it does for people. It opens it up for anyone. And again, you know, you look at the people that are the top performers, the most engaged folks, the most successful whatever way you wanna take that word, within our team, they’re all Driven for Greatness members.
[00:24:44] Larry: And the people who aren’t, we’re trying to get them in because we want them to be successful. Right. And they’re maybe just not there yet, but that’s the beauty and the power of what Driven for Greatness is.
[00:24:55] Patrick: Love it. What an answer. So many nuggets here, and I think it’s so true. You gotta be open to that change to ignite the change you wanna see, and then you open yourself up to allowing all those things to come in and just be able to make your life great. So you’ve been talking about DLP and I guess, as we dive in here to the part about how you create that prosperity, make an impact, and really help others leave a legacy. I’d love you to share a little bit more about that side of how you do.
[00:25:19] Larry: Yeah, for sure. I’d love to. So when we look at DLP and the way that we invest, obviously it’s a totally different thing than say the stock market and you know, the places where you’re gonna get a lot of those, pieces of volatility.
[00:25:33] Larry: You have to look at stuff every day. Day traders and stuff, I don’t know how they do it. I would, I don’t have that much hair left, but it would probably all be gone, right? The idea is that for us, we’re trying to provide a safe, consistent place for you to invest your money in a way that’s gonna help drive our business for sure.
[00:25:52] Larry: And what we say within, you know, the capital team is our investment funds drive everything else that we do. So the capital that we raise into our funds from. Individuals. I mean, we have teachers, engineers, I have a, we have, you know, a great group of folks. One of them was a janitor at a school for many years.
[00:26:09] Larry: His name was Paul and unfortunately he passed away a year or two ago, but, so now his kids and grandkids are the ones that we work with, but he was a janitor at the same school for gosh, 50 years, right. He had built up this, you know, this retirement, was a modest, you know, sort of job of course right?
[00:26:33] Larry: But every two years he committed and said, I’m gonna figure out a way I’m gonna save budget. I’m gonna buy a rental house in my area, and then that’s gonna create revenue. And then more so than that, it’s gonna create wealth over the long term. So over time you fast forward, he had amassed. 30 different homes that he had owned, and was, you know, obviously providing cash flow for him was a legacy, asset group because he was always, you know, building and, you know, that was what he used then to help fund his investments with us.
[00:27:06] Larry: He sold them all, he’s like, I don’t wanna manage this. I don’t wanna take the three o’clock in the morning phone calls anymore, right. So he sold them all invested with us. He invested probably, you know, a million and a half dollars with us. And so the idea for him was. I don’t wanna invest it in the stock market because I don’t wanna lose it if the wind changes tomorrow.
[00:27:23] Larry: And I also want it to go towards making an impact through the same way that I grew my portfolio and my wealth being in the real estate world, providing safe, affordable housing to people. So that’s exactly what we do. Just like what Paul had done. He kind, you know, you invest with us. We put that money into the acquisitions.
[00:27:39] Larry: We do all the communities that we’re buying and providing safe, affordable homes to all of our residents. And then likewise, all these other great operators that are out there buying and renovating and managing their own properties. We’re helping them scale their businesses through the loans that we make to them.
[00:27:54] Larry: And then also of course, with the elite membership where they’re, you know, learning how to be better borrowers, which then. For our investors, they’re like man, I love this because now you say the risk is going down because oh, they’re running their business the same way that DLP is running your business.
[00:28:09] Larry: That’s awesome, right? So it’s just, it’s such a collaborative effort. And it just feeds on each other. It’s just such an awesome structure that we have. And obviously, you know, I give all that credit, of course, to Don who had this foresight to say, Hey, like, we don’t have to be in competition with all these other groups and people, right?
[00:28:28] Larry: We can collaborate, we can work together. So that we can all be successful and therefore create legacy. Not only for our investors who are getting consistent, consistent state returns, right? We’ve never lost a penny of principle for an investor ever since we’ve taken in capital for many many years now.
[00:28:45] Larry: And we’ve also helped numerous folks, figure out again, what does legacy mean to you? What kinds of things do you wanna support? We’ll talk about the, you know, shirt sleeves, the shirt sleeves, where, you know, generation one own, earns all the money generation two spends it. Generation three has to start all over again.
[00:29:00] Larry: We’re trying to help people avoid that. So even if it’s Paul, the janitor, or if it’s a, you know, a very successful entrepreneur, that’s, you know, a billionaire, right. We have everyone in between and we can make that impact for all of those in the same vein.
[00:29:15] Patrick: Awesome. It is such a collaborative ecosystem of people really working together.
[00:29:18] Larry: Yeah.
[00:29:19] Patrick: And you mentioned how it’s totally different. I’m even thinking of the events.
[00:29:23] Larry: Mm-hmm.
[00:29:24] Patrick: Like you don’t bring people together for a typical investment conference. You get people to these events that are working on, how do you build a legacy? And then you work on your personal compass, your family compass. Can you share some of the information about that, what the things you really get into that really do make it different.
[00:29:39] Larry: Yeah, and it’s actually kind of funny because when our investors come, I think most of them are expecting us to sit there and like pitch to them all day on, on our investments. We probably, you know, we don’t ever really talk about our investments at these events.
[00:29:51] Larry: I mean, it’s just amazing. Now we have investor dinner events, which is what the point of it is. But you know, when we hold these events, It’s really just focused truly. And again, this is what surprises people truly on them. And, you know, again, talking about, you know, changing their life and, you know, bringing in people like Hal Elrod and talking about the miracle morning and talking about atomic habits and talking about making an impact and then, you know, actually making an impact.
[00:30:15] Larry: One of the stories, of course, that’s one of my favorites that we just did from the March event was, Britnie FaithTurner, who was on Don’s podcast, right. It’s so amazing, like with all this stuff going on in the world, especially with the, you know, the Ukraine and Russia war, right? We were able to raise several hundred thousand of dollars from the people in that room to directly impact, those those poor orphans over there.
[00:30:40] Larry: And it was like the idea for us was not to do it for our own, like, Hey, like pat yourself on the back. That was awesome, right? It kind of was impromptu. The only reason that happened was because we were all in the room, and you know, Britnie was supposed to be there in person. She wasn’t because she was in Ukraine and that’s what sparked it.
[00:30:56] Larry: But again, igniting change and igniting the, you know, what we’re trying to do here, the idea is putting people in a room that are in of a, like mind who want to grow, who want to make an impact themselves. You pretty much almost kind of just have to set that up and it does its thing by itself, you know, again, we have great workshops, of course, like you mentioned with life assessment and goal designing everything that we do really for our D L P T members, we also do for our prosperity members.
[00:31:22] Larry: And so, the cool thing about, you know the, that membership is that, you know, we don’t charge anything for that membership. You know, in terms of, if you invest with us that it’s just a given, if you wanna grow, if you wanna do these things. Yeah, sure we’re gonna go through those tools with you. And again, that’s just one of those things where it’s like, do we, you know, earn money from it?
[00:31:41] Larry: No, it’s just the idea of we are helping other people impact their own lives, their family’s lives, their company’s lives. And I feel very fortunate that we can kind of be that spark for them.
[00:31:54] Patrick: Awesome. Again, I think you get people of like-minded folks into the room to make an impact and the impact happens. Yeah, it’s pretty amazing seeing what happens there. And, although you don’t pitch the funds at the event, you still hear about how there’s double digit returns or some of the funds making 40% return. You wanna quickly explain just some of how the funds work and what that is.
[00:32:17] Larry: Yeah, sure. So, I mean, we basically have two tracks. One is to fund our acquisitions, and that’s our housing side, one is to fund our lending. We have five open funds today and really what we do is on the housing side, for instance, you invest into either our housing fund or our building communities fund, which is, those are the two funds where we’re either acquiring value, add communities, for the purpose of renovation, and then, you know, bringing the value add up.
[00:32:42] Larry: You know, there are lots of even to this day when the market is what it is, lots of communities out there that have not been renovated in a long time, have substantial, delinquency and vacancy. Just any number of sorts of distress that we go in. And again, these folks wanna live in a safe, affordable place. It’s probably, might be safe. It might be affordable, but it’s really not that nice. You know? So we go in and we beautify it and we provide this place where people can really thrive. One of the other cool things that I have to say from the foundation perspective on our not for profit perspective is.
[00:33:15] Larry: You know, we’re of course a faith-based group. And, we work with a lot of faith-based wealth creators, we like to say. One of the things that we also do is we put a Bible in every one of our units, which again, you know, if someone has a different faith background, for instance, we’ll provide that their book and what’s important to them and what they follow.
[00:33:36] Larry: So it’s not just from a Christian perspective, right? It’s like, That’s faith is one part of the eight Fs, of course. And that’s, we want you to be able to fulfill, those needs that you have within your faith, and that development and that relationship with God through that. And so that’s one thing that we do to make an impact through the foundation, but that’s really, you know, that drives great returns for our investors and for us.
[00:34:01] Larry: But again, that’s just another way that we’re making an impact. So, you know, the funds pay a preferred return, which means that, you know, we don’t get paid as DLP until you get paid your preferred return. And those returns range, of course. The way that the funds work though, is that you’re always getting a profit split as well of the profits from the fund op, excuse me, from the fund, you know, performance, right?
[00:34:27] Larry: So the idea is that when you’re investing with us, you really truly are partnering with us. And so today, of course we have over 2100 investors that invest with us. You know, we are just really, I mean, the growth that we’ve seen over the last several years has just been amazing because again, financially, it’s all great.
[00:34:47] Larry: And you know, the company’s growing, we’re going to be a private fortune 500 company someday, right? But that aspect of impacting lives is what drives us always. So, you know, again, there’s great returns. There’s an aspect of liquidity, you can get out if you need to. Again, likewise on the lending side, there’s, you know, again, great returns. Those are short term loans in nature. So you could really get into the weeds as far as, you know, as much as you want to.
[00:35:14] Patrick: All right, to chime in here for a minute. Larry and I recorded this conversation a few months ago, and now at the time of this recording, the capital raise is ahead of goal pace. And as he said, there are five different fund options based on each situation.
[00:35:26] Patrick: Last year’s 45.5% net annual return to investors in the housing fund, which is a private rate that provides significant tax advantages was an exceptional year. And while this fund has a 12% target annual return, it’s looking like another great year. This year, these investment funds with no losses to investors ever and hitting or exceeding every return target in every fund since inception may seem too good to be true, but it’s been amazing seeing the results.
[00:35:53] Patrick: And I became an investor a few years ago, myself. Plus with the billion dollar acquisition coming soon, I’ve never seen investment incentives quite like this with reduced investment minimums, reduced management fees and ways to attend the upcoming D O P health wellbeing and longevity summit for free.
[00:36:10] Patrick: By the way, at that summit coming up in November in Puerto Rico, I’ll be speaking there along with some of the top health, fitness and longevity minds in the world, including Dr. Harari, who wrote life force with Tony Robbins, Nick Butner from blue zones, Mark Sisson from MMark’s Daily Apple who is on the next episode of this podcast and Amanda Holmes, CEO of Chet Homes International, is on episode four of this podcast, and many more. So the details on this and all of the things that we’re going to be covering in this episode and how to get more information on those investment opportunities as well.
[00:36:40] Patrick: Everything will be added to the show notes atlivefitignitechange.com/larry. Okay. Now let’s go back to the conversation.
[00:36:48] Larry: You know, my team and I, that’s what we do all day long is we talk to investors about the attributes of each fund, you know, asking folks what’s important to them there, if there’s tax benefits or not in each fund cash flow and whatnot. So there are definitely intricacies to the funds themselves. But all comes back to, Hey, you know, what is it you need in order to help continue to build your legacy?
[00:37:07] Patrick: Right, what do you wanna do? What impact do you wanna make?
[00:37:09] Larry: Yes.
[00:37:10] Patrick: And really, how do you wanna use the funds? Like one of my favorite stories that you shared was about providing the medical payment for the grandchild.
[00:37:17] Larry: Yeah.
[00:37:18] Patrick: I thought that was amazing one.
[00:37:19] Larry: Yeah, that one. I mean, so one is really close to me. So, Jim and Mona are the names, unfortunately, Jim passed away recently because of his long battle with Parkinson’s disease. That was, again, something that we worked with them, as far as titling and making sure the accounts were set up the right way so that there wasn’t a major tax issue for Mona.
[00:37:42] Larry: But, go back a few years before that, right? They came into the office and we sat down and we were talking and they said, look, we have an eight year old grandson. He has type one diabetes, which again is very close to my heart because my wife has type one diabetes. She’s had it since she was eight years old and still deals with it to this day.
[00:38:01] Larry: And anyone who’s ever either interacted with, that, or has it, or has even read the news or heard about. You know, that, you know, it’s expensive, to live with diabetes. And so what they wanted to do was they wanted to provide, the medicine or the money to be able to provide for that, testing, equipment and for the insulin and whatnot.
[00:38:24] Larry: So they invested in one of our funds. And then they sent and still to this day, send the monthly distributions that they get to their daughter who then pays for all of the needs that their grandson has. And that’s going on three years now that they’ve been doing that. So that family, again, you know, not, independently wealthy by any means it’s, you know, they both work full-time jobs and, you know, still are saying, Hey, how do I do this? That’s one less thing that they have to worry about now because they’ve been set up and those are the kinds of things that we really are looking for to make sure that we can help. And we have many, many stories along those, but that again, that’s one that kind of touches me closest to home.
[00:39:02] Patrick: Wow. What an amazing story, I love it every time I hear it. So thank you for sharing and for sure, I know you’ve talked about so many things in herwill link all this at livefitgliveitignitechange.com/Larry, you can find out more information, connect with them, get all that kind of stuff, but we can talk forever, but it, so we get near wrapping up here.
[00:39:18] Patrick: If you are up for it, we can go to the five that thrive.
[00:39:22] Larry: Yep.
[00:39:23] Patrick: It’s basically the five to thrive questions. It’s rapid fire questions that we ask everybody that comes on. So if you’re up for it, we’ll dive in.
[00:39:29] Larry: For sure.
[00:39:30] Patrick: All right. Number one. What’s your morning routine?
[00:39:33] Larry: Yeah. So, I commit five to seven days of getting up around five to five fifteen in the morning, depending on the night before and staying up too late with the night shift, right? There’s meditation. There’s a bit of now I don’t go quite into the same level of priming that you do, Patrick, but, there’s a level of getting the blood going a little bit, right?
[00:39:56] Larry: Recently I’ve actually changed my morning routine to not do, really heavy exercise early in the morning. I’ve kind of moved that around because I found that my biggest, I guess, benefit from working outcomes when I work out at about four thirty or five in the afternoon. So I’ve changed that up a bit, which again is very important, you know, be willing to be malleable a little bit, but, you know, obviously prayer, being in scripture and then, you know, helping get the girls ready for school.
[00:40:27] Larry: Getting the dogs out. I have a brand new puppy that’s, kind of causing some it’s like another baby, right? So, that’s another fun thing added to the mix, but, you know, then you get going, you get your coffee and you get over the office so.
[00:40:42] Patrick: Awesome, love it. Yeah, I found very similar for myself. That quick, start in the morning, get up and going and then do the heavier workout in the afternoon.
[00:40:48] Larry: Yep.
[00:40:49] Patrick: So awesome. For number two, obviously from this conversation, with all the books and everything we mentioned, we believe in continuous learning and inspiration. So what’s one book, podcast, or movie that you would recommend to the listeners.
[00:41:00] Larry: Oh my goodness. So the books that I read. I think most recently have been all about mental state. So again, look, I won’t tell you that every day get up and I’m Mr. Sunshine all the time, right? So, it happens. We’ve been talking a lot about a number of books in this, regard, but one of the books that I read a long time ago, which I’m actually reading again right now is The Happiness Advantage.
[00:41:26] Larry: So that is an amazing book where again, you’re setting up your mind. So even like Carol Dweck mindset, even again, be obsessed or be average, right. That’s one that I would say,
[00:41:36] Patrick: Mm-hmm.
[00:41:36] Larry: No matter what you think of Grant Cardone, some people again can take ’em. Some people would leave him, Read the book it’s gonna get you hyped up, right? If you need to get that bit of a spark, I would say that, you know, there’s so many different podcasts and movies. I like to go back, to actually my favorite movie, which I don’t think I’ve ever said this out loud is Mr. Holland’s Opus. And again, you know, it’s kind of, to me, it’s, you know, you work to make a life’s work and a legacy and you wanna talk about legacy. It’s pretty amazing, movie about it so.
[00:42:10] Patrick: You did it very cool. Awesome. Number three, if you feel stuck down or just need to ignite change when you might not be having a great day. What do you do right in that moment to make it happen?
[00:42:20] Larry: I come and see you, Patrick.
[00:42:22] Patrick: Right.
[00:42:23] Larry: This is the thing like, so if I’m by myself and if I don’t reach out to someone, whether that’s you, or if I talk to Jen, my wife, or I, you know, go to Don or Rich or any of our close, you know, friends and colleagues, it tends to fester.
[00:42:37] Larry: So that’s my thing, right? So if I’m in a funk or if I’m not feeling it, I tend to go to others to get that energy and to bring me up. So, hopefully that doesn’t bring them down. I haven’t really ever thought of that, but I think it doesn’t, but, just being in line with what you’re looking, you know, looking at and saying, Hey, I know that these people are gonna be there for me, that network and that, you know, that collaborative nature of things helps me tremendously.
[00:43:03] Patrick: Awesome and yeah, I think you always bring people up. So, it’s definitely good to reach out to those of you, you know, and trust to bring you up as well so.
[00:43:10] Larry: For sure.
[00:43:11] Patrick: All right. Number four. We’re gonna go back in time here. Your 20 year old self has just received funding to create a project that would massively serve the world could be anything, whatever, be as long as it serves the world. So what advice do you give to your 20 year old self in coming up with that project and making it happen?
[00:43:28] Larry: So, first of all, I can’t believe that I’m thinking I’m like how long ago was it when I was 20? And that seems to get farther and farther away. It’s wild, but I would say, first of all, I would say implement EES, right? Cause, you know, Don’s book, is really amazing. And not look, I’m not getting paid for any of this, right? Like Don all the proceeds from Don’s book go to the foundation, right?
[00:43:50] Larry: But I truly believe in it, you know, for me back then, my biggest struggle was organization. My biggest struggle was taking massive action. And just maybe having a lot of great ideas, but never actually putting in the work to make it happen. So for me, if I was 20 and I know what I know now, and obviously I still have so much to learn. Number one, take action, put to put a plan together, stick to it with discipline, you know, that’s really it.
[00:44:19] Larry: And you know, I talk about, the five second rule too, a lot that great book by Mel Robbins, like countdown from five. And then we, you know, talk about this sometimes in the fitness arena, sometimes in other things, or if you’re just laying in bed, you don’t wanna get up 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 go. I think I’ve missed out on a number of opportunities because I haven’t just made the commitment and stuck with it. So I think that’s that’s number one.
[00:44:41] Patrick: Great, love it. And you mentioned Don’s book yell, building the lead organization. Also coming out with the next book, building lead career. Again, we’ll link all this in the show notes. So you have it, but I love it. Take action, stay disciplined, make it happen. Yep. So now with that last question, number five, we’ll go to the future.
[00:44:58] Patrick: This is now you’ve given a ton of advice today, but one piece of advice that you’re gonna be remembered for above all else, what is it?
[00:45:07] Larry: Yeah, that’s kind of tough, it’s kind of tough. But I would have to say what I want people to remember me for is I want people to remember me for being there for them. This kind of conversation in general, Patrick is tough for me because I don’t really like to talk about myself at all. So it takes a lot of effort for me to do this. I think, But I think if anybody thinks about their interactions with me or ,again, for my shortcomings and the things that I do well or don’t do as well, I would hope that people would see that I’m trying to do things for the betterment of others.
[00:45:42] Larry: And for me, that legacy would be I’m able to impact others so that they can make an impact on others for themselves, right? So for me, it’s all about putting myself aside, maybe too much sometimes, you know? But I think that’s fine because I know that those efforts are going to make a big impact. And for me, it’s not about again, getting the pat on the back or anything like that.
[00:46:04] Larry: It’s, you know, you go out there, you do things sometimes silently, sometimes nobody knows about those things, right? But going out and saying, yeah, you know, I know that I made a difference, because I was putting others before myself.
[00:46:18] Patrick: Love it ,so well said you definitely live that you are there for people. You’ve been there for me many, many times. So you did it, you finished the five to thrive. I have one final quick little question because this actually did come in from a colleague.
[00:46:30] Larry: Okay.
[00:46:31] Patrick: And it was, if you and I were going to be in a CrossFit competition who would win?
[00:46:36] Larry: Oh God. I think it depends. That’s a tough, that’s a really tough question. It depends on the day, depends on the workout. I think if, you know, if there’s anything that involves heavy weight, it would be me. But, you would, you would kick me all over the place if it had anything to do with the engine. So, any kind of, you know, body weight, workouts, any running.Any high cardio stuff, you would wipe the floor with me, for sure. But if we were ever on a team, yes, I think we could probably get past anybody. So let’s do that.
[00:47:12] Patrick: That’s awesome. But I wanted to ask that, cuz that is almost exactly how I answered the question. This person ask me and I was like, yeah, you know, Larry would crush me and all the heavyweight stuff, but yeah, I might take it on the body weight, but. What I then said was, but how amazing would it be to partner with this guy?
[00:47:25] Larry: Yeah.
[00:47:26] Patrick: Not only are you a great partner here as a colleague and all we do professionally and personally and all this stuff, but yeah, complimenting it there. So, great person to partner with in really all aspects of life. So, awesome. This is truly outstanding, I love the conversation. As I mentioned, we link stuff in the show notes livefitignitechange.com/larry. Anything else I missed where other things people should know or anything you wanna leave our listeners with?
[00:47:50] Larry: No, love to be an impact and, you know, help others. If there’s anything that I could be doing for you or anybody that’s listening, please do get in touch. And it’s been a great, pleasure to be on with you.
[00:48:00] Patrick: Awesome. Well, thanks so much and just to close out, just to acknowledge you real quickly and what a support you’ve been for me, truly someone that I can go to if I ever have an issue, if I ever need to, like you said before, be lifted up by those that you’re close to and to take it to the next level, someone that cares deeply about the world impacting others and helping them thrive in life. So thank you for all you do, and thank you for being on today. It’s been awesome.
[00:48:22] Larry: Awesome. Thanks buddy.
[00:48:26] Patrick: Wow, what an amazing guy, right? I bet you are now inspired to go live disciplined, take action and make an impact. As Larry mentioned, he and his team can certainly help explain the investment options available.
[00:48:38] Patrick: You can learn more about this, how to connect and all the many resources mentioned during this episode at livefitignitechange.com/larry. And hopefully you’ll go forth inspired by Larry’s story. As a busy professional parent who ignited the change, he wanted to see to live, fit and make an impact at home and around the world.
[00:48:56] Patrick: That’s what our challenge, the fit life challenge and our community at live, fit ignite change are all about, and we’d love to help support you in any way. On your journey. If you resonated with this and would like to live, fit and ignite change in your life, you can get started for free at live fit, ignite change.com/start, where you can join our community of high performers and get access to our kickstart resources for free.
[00:49:23] Patrick: You can choose if you’d like to start on the path to getting in the best shape of your life and or ignite the change, you’d wish to see by casting a vision and taking the steps to get there. You can get plugged in at livefitignitechange.com/start or for short livefic.com/start. Also my family and I we’re igniting the change that we wish to see in the world by helping others live fit.
[00:49:48] Patrick: We were sick of all the process, sugar loaded foods and drinks marketed to us, especially to our youth. So we’re developing a line of truly delicious brain free sugar, free products that children and adults love as part of our Inrive performance nutrition brand. Learn more and join the Inrive insiders for free to be the first to hear about samples, launch parties, and specials at Inrive.com.
[00:50:13] Patrick: That’s I N R I V E.com. Thank you so much for tuning in, and please be sure to like, share, rate, and review this show. This is what’s needed to help reach more and serve more so together. We truly can ignite the change that we wish to see. So much for your help in making it happen. And I hope you make it an outstanding day and go forth to light love and serve the world and live the life you’ve always imagined.
