336 – The Power of One More

John Over the last two decades, I’ve been on an insatiable quest to learn everything I can about leadership. What makes the best leaders so good? After running companies small and large over the last 20 years, today I speak on stages all across the world to audiences who are interested in that same question. My name is John Laurito. I’m your host, and I invite you to join me on this journey as we explore this very topic and what makes the best leader so good. Welcome to tomorrow’s leader. 

John All right, tomorrow’s leaders. Welcome to the show. It’s going to be a quick one, but it’s going to be a good one. So here I was reminded of something recently, and I’m going to share with you a couple of stories about an incredibly powerful concept that has worked for me for a long time. It’s something I subscribe to and try to do on a regular basis, and it’s a philosophy that I learned from my left. He talks about this a lot. I know, and it’s the power of one more. It’s this concept that when you are working on something, doing something, just that mentality that you have about when you’re ready to stop, just before you stop, you do one more just and it doesn’t matter what it is. So, for example, working out, just do one more set, just do one more rep, whatever it is. And that’s an easy one to do, right? Working out is super easy. You can add just when you’re ready to. You’re done. You know you’re done with your run. Just maybe run one more block, whatever. When you’re done with your abs and you’ve done 50 crunches, just throw in an extra one. 

John Whatever it is, just add one more. And it goes for everything, though. I mean, really everything. So, you know, reading. Just read one more page. You’re writing your book, you’re working on that. Just when you’re done, put down the pen, pick it up and just write one more paragraph. You’re meditating, just, you know, one more minute of meditation, add something and just have the mentality that one more and just see what happens. And it’s amazing most of the time, nothing. You can’t feel a difference or notice a difference. Every so often you stumble into these unbelievable things and  trace back pivotal moments in my career, and in my life. And there are many that I attribute to this. And I’ll share a couple of stories. I mean, everyone was kind of a turning point in my career early in my business of being a financial advisor. And I remember making these calls. It was cold calling really off of a list. This was, you know, back in the days when you did that. And I remember I was just I’ve been dialing for hours, no success. I packed up my stuff, put my stuff away, and I’m like, you know what? Let me just let me make a couple of more deals. Let me just before I wrap up the night, let me just make a couple more days. And this was back in the days you dial to like 9:00 at night. It was ridiculous. I mean, it was just crazy. And I remember just being exhausted. I’m like, you know what? I’m just going to do one more. I made one more call and that next person picked up the phone. It was a great conversation. They set an appointment with me and they ultimately became the biggest client that I had had to that point. 

John And that began the turnaround or one of the parts of the turnaround of my business. Like literally it was that one more concert than I thought back so many times that I’m like, Had I not made that one more call and that client had not become a client, I don’t know what would have happened. I really don’t. But that one extra ended up starting the momentum, turning in an entirely different direction. The biggest story and I don’t think I’ve shared this, have shared this I was sharing it to an audience not long ago and it was kind of a cool story that’s that happened to me. And I look back at life and how things happen this way. I remember again early in my career, I got a lead that across my desk in this person, you know, just like anybody else was just a name on a sheet of paper. And I remember calling and calling and calling and calling could never get a hold of this person. And I ended up finally getting a hold of him after many, many, many, many, many attempts. And he had requested some information from our company. So I was following up on that. So I finally get a hold of him and we have a good conversation. He ultimately ends up setting an appointment and that was the first meeting to talk about doing some work together and doing financial planning. And the appointment time came and he no-showed just no cancelations. It didn’t show. And sometimes, you know, stuff happens. Well, I have a choice at that point I can say, well, forget I am I’m onto the next person, which many people would have done, and justifiably so. I decided you know what, let me just reach out and see if I can reschedule. 

John I called them, left a message, call them again. Call them again. They finally get a hold of him. Super apologetic. Just totally didn’t mean to do that. We scheduled another appointment and this time the appointment comes around. It’s shortly before he cancels. So at this time, it’s now two attempts. And I’m debating, all right. I keep going on with this guy. Is this guy just wasting my time? And I think, again, justifiably so. Many people would have just said, yeah, forget I had to set the appointment the third time before he ultimately came in. And when he came in, we did the appointment. We got to the end of the model. The. I ran on was we had to offer financial planning. They were hiring us, deciding whether they were going to hire us at the end of that meeting. Literally, that first meeting, we were asking for a decision. It was a fee of $500 planning fee or something. This was way back in the mid-nineties, and I remember getting to the to the end of the appointment and, you know, I was just a 20-something-year-old kid. I mean, I was trained really exceptionally well. A lot of it was a script. It was, hey, here’s the agenda, the meeting, here’s the script. I mean, it was kind of crazy, but we were trained on exactly how to handle resistances when they got up and at the end, you know, you’d ask what the feed is. This makes sense. And one of the resistances that was very, very common was I want to think about it. So sure enough, you know, we get to the end and this individual said, you know, I want to think about it now. I knew from experience that 95% of the time that if somebody left the office and wanting to think about it, they weren’t going to do it. 

John And I knew that well enough. Now I knew I could help this person I knew and deep down inside knew I could make a dramatic difference in this person’s long-term financial success by giving them putting them through a financial planning process and giving them the right advice. And I was convinced of it. And I think he was, too. But I think he was conditioned to say, I want to think about it. I ended up going through a couple of resistances. What do you want to think about this and there and talking through it. And, you know, I just was kind of it was a night. And I just remember thinking, all right, well, I guess I’ll I’ll end the meeting. But I decided to go through one more resistance in handling one more. And I just said, why don’t you give me a shot? Just let me show you what I can do for you. I mean, what’s the worst thing that happened? Worst thing that happens is you go through the process and you have a plan that’s going to show you exactly what you need to do to get to your goals. That’s the worst thing. The best thing is I make a significant difference in your ability to achieve your financial goals by working together, giving you great advice and helping you navigate your way through financial independence. And ultimately, that’s what did it. He paused for a sec and said, All right, okay, I’ll give you a shot. I’ll hire you. And what’s interesting about that, that began his journey to a great financial situation that also began a friendship I had not had made any friends from my clients, but this was the first one that we kind of developed this rapport. 

John He and I, over time became closer and closer friends and he is one of my best friends. Dave And to this day, this is now 30 years later. He is a major part of my life. What’s really cool about it, not only did I get an amazing close person in my life that’s been influential to me and just somebody who’s just made a huge impact on my life. But he also introduced me to my wife at the time, way back when, and although we ended up getting divorced, we had two amazing kids, Nick and Skye, that are now here because of that. Ultimately, if I think about that, I’ve got two unbelievable kids that would not be in existence had I not taken that philosophy at the heart of one more. Had I stopped one resistance short of not asking one more time, I would say this 99% certainty. Dave would never become a client and I would not have Nick and Skye today. It’s unbelievable when you think about that. Right. So a crazy story. I just wanted to share that with you. So I think about that a lot. You know, I think about just the power of that one, just one more. So next time you’re thinking about that, next time you’re in a situation, you’re just ready to stop. Just push yourself one more and see what happens. Sometimes unbelievable things happen with just taking one more step, whether it’s physical, mental, intellectual, or relationship-wise, whatever the case may be. Again, anything, just do one more. It’s really a mindset. It’s a lifestyle. So go for it, and have fun with it. A cool story I wanted to share with you. 

John I hope your week is off to a great start. I hope your day is going great and I will see you next time. You know the deal likes share or subscribe, all that kind of good stuff. Go down below. Give a five star review and we’ll see you next time. Thanks. Bye. 

John Thanks for joining us on today’s episode of Tomorrow’s Leader. For suggestions or inquiries about having me at your next event or personal coaching, reach me at John@johnalurito.com. Thanks, lead on!