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Words from the Wise
Join Words from the Wise with Gary Wise, a retired Navy Command Master Chief, for authentic leadership insights forged in real-world experience. Through engaging discussions and actionable strategies, Gary empowers you to master emotional intelligence, build resilient teams, and unlock your full potential. Tune in for practical advice on delegation, conflict management, and inspiring others, drawn from his over 28 years of service and ongoing leader mentorship headquartered now in Ocala, Florida.
Words from the Wise
The Power of Collecting and Using Data in Business and Life
Ready to transform your leadership approach with data-driven strategies? Gary Wise sits down with Mr. Elgin Carelock, a multifaceted entrepreneur and business strategist, to explore how collecting and applying the right information can revolutionize your decision-making process.
Mr. Carelock reveals a fascinating paradox: while we naturally use data for everyday decisions (like which theater has the freshest popcorn), we often fail to apply this same intelligence to business. "The best products and services are driven by the people who use them," he explains, highlighting how understanding your audience's needs creates that critical 2.3x value multiplier customers expect on their investment.
The conversation dives deep into the profound difference between leadership and management. As Elgin powerfully states, "As a leader, your sole responsibility is your team." This people-first approach demands self-awareness – knowing your own personality, tendencies, and blind spots before attempting to lead others. His recommendation? Take personality assessments and then have someone close to you review your results for an unfiltered reality check.
With approximately 250 people moving to Ocala weekly, the discussion shifts to the tremendous opportunities this growth creates for forward-thinking entrepreneurs. Mr. Carelock maps out how data analysis can reveal specific community needs – from entertainment venues to service providers – creating the perfect environment for businesses that enhance quality of life while generating profit.
Perhaps most compelling is Elgin's guiding philosophy: "We have just two purposes for being on earth: to please God and serve people." This service-oriented mindset drives continuous learning and personal development, as expanding your capabilities creates more opportunities to make meaningful impact.
Don't miss Mr. Elgin's full presentation at Ocala Inspired on July 25th, where he'll provide practical tools for collecting and leveraging data in your leadership journey. Secure your ticket today at wiseleadershipsolutions.com and join a community of leaders committed to growing themselves while building a stronger Ocala.
I know I was born for this, I know.
Elgin Carelock :I was born for this. Don't care for the critics. My words and life is except for us that they can't stop. They just don't get it. I think they forget. I'm not done till I'm on top. I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. I believe.
Gary Wise :I believe we can write a story. All right, good afternoon everybody, especially on LinkedIn. We're currently live streaming on our Words from the Wise LinkedIn profile. We're going to be talking today. One of our first speakers from Ocala Inspired is actually going to be with us. One of our first speakers from Ocala Inspired is actually going to be with us. It's super exciting because Ocala Inspired is something that we've been planning now for. It feels like months, but we're almost there. It's July 25th.
Gary Wise :We're going to have a live leadership development event in Ocala, full of leaders from Ocala. If you have not yet gotten your ticket and you want to come join us, there's going to be links in the description. Of course, there's links in the Ocala Inspired event page on LinkedIn, but we're going to be sending the tickets out. We're going to be sending the links out. There's only so many seats, so please let us know you want to come, because we're looking to provide lunch there for people that are coming to hear the live speakers present, to provide lunch there for people that are coming to hear the live speakers present, and over the next few days, I'm going to have every one of the presenters meet with me and we're going to be talking about what they're going to be discussing at Ocala Inspired and why there's value in you coming in person to meet with other people in our community that are not just interested in leadership but are leading. They're leading right now, leading people, and they're going to be helping you not only improve your leadership skills, but hopefully also building a team of people that want to do it together.
Gary Wise :Hopefully everybody knows by now I'm Gary, gary Wise, wise Leadership Solutions, also Vanguard High School, navy Junior, rotc instructor, retired Navy Master Chief, a person who's super involved in leadership, and today's guest is going to be none other than Mr Elgin Kerlock. Mr Kerlock is coming to us from Review Business Strategies here in Ocala. He has his hand in a bunch of different business jars here in Ocala and, of course, he's involved in the community. He's involved with the churches, he's involved in real estate and leadership development, and he's going to be talking to us today about how to take data and how to best use it to make decisions and strategies going forward. So, without further ado, let me welcome Mr Kerlock to the stage Three. Two, one Magic. Hey, what's up, mr Carelock?
Elgin Carelock :How you doing today. Good to see you. Thanks for having me on.
Gary Wise :It's good to see you too, man. It is great. It is an honor to have you on today. And you see, you know we're live streaming. Don't know if anybody's going to watch. They might, they might not. They might watch to watch it later, but we're also going to use this to help spread the word for Ocala Inspired right, Absolutely Okay. So the first question I'm going to ask you, Mr Kerlock, is how can people, businesses, leaders best use data to project going forward?
Elgin Carelock :Sure, sure you know what's interesting is when you think about it. You already do that in regular practice, right? I mean, if you want to go see a particular movie, you know what theater to go to, that the people talk too much. You go to ones you know which ones to go to, that the popcorn's always stale. So you use that previous data to make your decision.
Elgin Carelock :But for some odd reason, we don't do the same thing when it comes to business. We come up with an idea for a product or service and then we go out and try to convince people to use it, Whereas if we did it from the data driven, it would be. A question that we would pose would be hey, what is it that my target audience is looking for and how am I able to now produce that? And what you'll find is that the best products and the best services are driven by the people who use them. And so you go and get as much data as you possibly can to be able to make sure that you're going to exceed their expectation.
Elgin Carelock :Because for most people excuse me, for most people there's a 2.3 multiplier. Excuse me, For most people there's a two point three multiplier. So if I, if I spend one hundred dollars, I expect to get two hundred and thirty dollars worth of value. But if I don't know anything about you, if I don't know any data on your demographics, on your, your, your preferences, your consumer behavior, your purchasing behavior, how in the world can I offer you what it is you need?
Gary Wise :Yeah, that's a fact, and I think what people don't really think about, they don't think to record what's happening so they can look back at where they've been, so they can project where they're going and what you're saying. I mean to us, to you and I. It just makes perfect sense, right, but again, that's our experience. But I think we're going to find, when we have people that come to Ocala Inspired, they're hopefully open to finding better ideas, to find improvement, and what's fun is it's kind of awesome. You've already been there. Just look back at your life, look what's worked for you in the past and then use that information to help discover where you're going to go forward. Right, and I'm looking forward because I know that El Calen inspired you're going to be giving them tools to best collect data, which I think is one of the areas a lot of people struggle is they don't understand.
Gary Wise :First, they don't understand typically what data is like. You talked about the popcorn, that's. That's an indicator, right as to whether or not it's a good movie. Right? Is the popcorn running out or are they not selling the popcorn? Right, and then I think it's also going to be are they meeting their expectations for sales or whatnot in life? And why do you think us having an event like Ocala inspired is a good idea?
Elgin Carelock :Well, a couple of reasons. One, if nothing else, I hope they leave with a clear understanding of the difference between a leader and a manager. There are a lot of managers that think they're leaders and hopefully, if nothing else, it will be a very, very clear delineation. And if I gave a simple definition, it simply would be your leader. As a leader, your sole responsibility is your team. It's not your company, it's not your stockholders, it's not your revenue. It's your team, because they're the ones who facilitate all of the above. And if you're not using data, even data from them, when's the last time you asked your team if they had all of the tools necessary to accomplish what it is you expect of them? Or do you just yell when they?
Gary Wise :don't or ask them that question and actually wanted the answer. Right, it wasn't like you were just saying it because it sounds good or saying it because it's cliche, but if you're the leader, or if you're the owner, the CEO, or if you have an investment in the success, you need to know where to invest your energy and your time. And, in my opinion, the best place for a leader to invest their time is in their followers, is in their people, because we had this conversation the other day, but I'll clue in the rest of the world, it's the people that you're leading are probably the ones that are going to be making a lot of the magic happen. Right, you can't do it all yourself. There's just no way any of us can do everything we need to do to find success ourselves, so taking the time to feed into them is critical.
Gary Wise :I think, on the reverse, the leaders are very important, right, they have got to appreciate their value as well. Right, not everybody is going to be that leader. If you're the one that has that opportunity that day, congratulations, you're in the game, man. Like you got the rock, you got the opportunity. So why is it important that a leader invest in themselves and in their own, I would say, development.
Elgin Carelock :Sure, well, I mean back to the word data, right, and so the most important data is going to be on you, because how do you know, when you are visioning, when you're trying to decide where your company is going to be in the next 12 to 18 months, how do you know how to build that team? Well, that team has to be compatible with what your experience is, what your temperament is, what your expectations are. And if you don't know that, so you need to start collecting data on you. Go ahead and do a personality profile there's plenty of free ones out there and you get that and here's a fun game for you.
Elgin Carelock :Get it. Do it right up on yourself whether you agree or disagree with certain aspects. Then give it to the closest person to you, with no filter, and ask them do you agree or disagree? I promise you you will be surprised how other people perceive you.
Gary Wise :Yeah, that's a self-inflicted 360 assessment, right? You? Yeah, that's a self-inflicted 360 assessment, right. And so, for those of you that don't know, a 360 assessment is where you essentially are asking people around you at a peer side, maybe somebody that you're serving directly underneath, maybe somebody that you're actually directly responsible for leading. You're getting feedback from all these different areas. But, to Elgin's point, you want someone who's going to give you that candid feedback, that honest feedback, that authentic feedback right. And people sometimes don't want to give that feedback because they're afraid to hurt someone's feelings or they're afraid to jeopardize a relationship. And so what he's telling you, what his advice is, is take this assessment and then ask someone else that you really trust to give you their feedback on that assessment. You know, what's funny about that is I never took a test like until like the Myers-Briggs type indicator. Until I was, I was a master chief in the Navy, so I was already responsible for leading so many people Navy, so I was already responsible for leading so many people. And I remember thinking why did I not ever get exposed to this, God, 15 years previously? It would have been such a game changer. And then, when I went to my first ship as a master chief, I made sure my whole mess got those. And now my students at Vanguard. I'm having them take online MBTI type indicators and then we have the conversation.
Gary Wise :Do you see yourself as an extrovert or introvert, or as a sensory person or an intuitive person or thinker? And it's just like you said self-awareness, right, and leaders. You cannot control your leadership style. I know you want to, you just can't. You can't control how people perceive you, Right? Um, how did you get to be who you are today? Like, where, what? What was it about your journey that got you to be, you know, not just this great businessman, but also a leader of humans? Uh, in, in in our world.
Elgin Carelock :So, you know, I grew up in a household where my mom said you know, if you are willing to do the work, you can be anything that you wanted to be. And I was foolish enough to believe her right. So the downside to it all is that I don't have a specialty right. The upside to it all is that I don't have a specialty Right. The upside to it all is that I'm really good at a lot of stuff, because she said, hey, if that interests you, go find out about it. And so I would go and spend hours, you know, in the library reading about how to fix the intake manifold on a 302 Chevy engine and then go do it how to fix an intake manifold on a 302 Chevy engine, and then go do it Right.
Elgin Carelock :And so my whole life has been built around learning things. But as you get older, what you understand is that it's the relationship with people. And then I started to really take heart as the interactions between people and what makes it go the way that you hoped that it would go and what makes it not, and what are the personality types that I find that I mix well with. And so, as I began to carry that into business, you begin to realize that there's probably only five or six personalities. No matter what packaging they come in, whether it's male, female, you know, whatever ethnicity, it's still going to be one of four or five or six personalities. And once I understand which I'm dealing with, then I can easily move into the posture that's going to make it go more positive. And so that's still data-driven, if you think about it right, because it's the assembling of the samples of interactions with people over whatever period of time that caused the technique now that I use, once I identify who I'm talking to.
Gary Wise :Right, well, and I think that understanding that you're the kind of person that helps get the best out of people, that, to me, is the gift of the best leaders, right? I remember coming up through my journey, I would teach people how to manage and how to lead, and they're different. They're different flavors for different types, different things, and usually they would almost always work for me, and so I would need them to be certain things at certain times. I need you to manage this problem. I need you to lead these people right. I need you to know these things, and part of that journey is learning how to understand the person so you can best realize how to leverage them so they can find success.
Gary Wise :Because once they find the success that they're looking for inherently is in tune with what you're looking for, then they're going to want to follow you more and they're going to want to continue to work with you because they're like man, I like. This is exactly where I want to be, this is exactly the things I want to do, and it just so happens I'm validated because they keep telling me good job, they keep giving me more opportunity, they start giving me even more money, more benefits, more time, more whatever and I think that that's one of the things that people should look to learn as they grow in their leadership space is how to best read your people, listen to your people, understand your people and find what they're looking for Right. I know you're busy all the time. You know what does a typical day look like for you in your space?
Elgin Carelock :Sure, you know, usually the the mornings is when I do most of my writing because the brain hasn't kicked in yet, so, pre-coffee, if I get up at 530, then I'll probably write till about 730 or so, because my head hasn't started today and people aren't pinging my phone yet, and so that gives me the clear space. And it's when I do my podcast Right, and so that gives me the clear space to have unfiltered thought. And then probably for the next four hours it's really aligning, finding out what my mentees are, my clients are, you know, colleagues like yourself. What are we working on and what do we? What do I need to get accomplished just today? And that's what I think.
Elgin Carelock :The biggest thing if we well, maybe the second biggest thing that comes out of the Ocala Inspire is to understand that you have to own your clock to be a good leader, because this life is full of distractions.
Elgin Carelock :Life is full of distractions, and so, if you're not using a system that allows you to adapt to the interruptions but still get what your day is supposed to accomplish today and don't worry about tomorrow, because there is no such thing. You know that we're in Wednesday right now. When we get to Thursday, it ain't going to be tomorrow, it's going to be today. It's only today that's going to be today, it's only today. That's all that you live in, and so your responsibility is to make sure that, from the time you open your eyes until you close them back again, that you got the most productivity out of the day, based on the data that you have, and that what you have learned during the course of that day OK, because the Gary that got out of bed this morning is not the Gary that will get back in that bed this evening. And so what did Gary learn? And that's and we're going to talk about journaling to doing a locale inspired and doing my time, because it's very important to write it down and make it plain.
Gary Wise :Yeah, and I think that you know that's what I like about video, that's what at some of his thoughts and kind of read through them and actually got the chance to talk with him a little bit about it.
Gary Wise :You know, and I had never had that awareness, but I will tell you I regretted not having journaled all of the years that I had been alive, right, and even to this day I'm not making that a priority, but by doing the video stuff and by getting online and sharing my thoughts, at a minimum it may be available to my children someday in the future for them to possibly hear it. I do want to circle back real fast on your podcast, because Elgin has his podcast and if y'all hear his voice, he sounds like a smooth man. That voice is smooth, right, elgin? He unpacks the Bible for us. What he does is he. Is that correct? Is that a correct assessment of your podcast? You share with us the word and then you give us an understanding of that. So if you could, for a few minutes, could you tell us a little bit about your podcast?
Elgin Carelock :Sure, it's called the Bible Speaks, and the idea was simply to take things that we've heard before or have had the pleasure of hearing, maybe in a sermon, but didn't really have an opportunity to ask questions, because most pastors do a phenomenal job of getting you motivated on Sunday, but unfortunately, sunday ain't enough. You need something to carry you through the week, and so we do it six days a week, and they're very short. They usually range from five minutes to maybe 15 minutes, but it usually be dealing with something that you've already heard, and so the idea is to give you, to let you understand that it's a living and breathing document. Right, it is just every single thing that you deal with in 2025, even though it was written more than 2000 years ago. And so, by positioning it so that they can see how, that it will give you more understanding the more you read it. Right, so the more you understand, the more you'll see, and so my goal is to just give you another perspective so that when you go back and read that same chapter again, you're going to be like, wow, well, based on what I heard today, is this true?
Elgin Carelock :And so you know, our God is a God of knowledge. He wants you to ask questions, just like what we're doing right here. And sharing knowledge is to. You know, I firmly believe we have just two purposes for being on earth, and that's to please God and serve people. And so, as we are serving people, we're writing things down, we're making it plain, we're writing lessons, we're doing workbooks, and then that allows more people to be able to share. Because now maybe I said something on the podcast that pricked your curiosity and you went and studied the, the book of uh, first Thessalonians, and then someone comes right behind you and asks you a question or something you just studied, right. So so we get to push that, that knowledge forward, and I think, as leaders, that's that's equally as important, right, that that we push knowledge forward.
Gary Wise :Yeah, you know, it almost always feels like a always feels like I got a check in the block. When I learn something at church on Sunday or I get something out of a conversation with someone and then I'm able to use it somewhere else to provide value to somebody else, I almost always feel like there you go, Gary, Like that was, there you go, and so that resonates with me so much. And just so I catch that again, you said serve other people. And what was that first one? Again Please God, Please God. There you go, Please God and serve other people.
Elgin Carelock :Whether you're a believer or not. If you just did those two things, the quality of your life would go up immeasurably things, the quality of your life would go up immeasurably.
Gary Wise :I agree and I think that people in any space need to have especially leaders of people, need to have faith in something They've got to have faith in something.
Gary Wise :Otherwise, there's an area between Gary today and Gary tomorrow. Right, elgin today and Elgin tomorrow. There's this gap that you're like but can we get the job done, can we get the thing done? I'm projecting into the future all these things that we believe in, but the thing is, like you said, it's kind of a facade because there's no way you're going to ever know it's going to work out and you've got to have that faith in something to carry you to keep the momentum going and the work going, or you're going to possibly, you know, quit and not make it there because you're not going to find the reasons and then, oh, by the way, it's going to get hard right, because the enemy gets a vote.
Gary Wise :One of the most strategic things I would ever do for my, for my bosses and you know, in my career as a master chief, part of my boss, part of my role to my boss to serve them, was to play devil's advocate right. My job was to say everybody in this room is talking like we're all just going to have no problems, but that's not how things go right. Where's the food coming from, where's the bathroom is going to be located and where are the injured and the dead going to go? Because if we don't plan for those things, right there we. Well, it's not always that crazy in the world today, but you still have got to play.
Gary Wise :Okay, worst case scenario to best case scenario. How can we plan for those? So, elgin, in your life, do you have any times that you can remember where it was like you took a loss, right when that really resonated with you and you're like okay, that data that showed me that loss was coming. I failed to collect it and I'm never going to make that mistake again. And that was one of the turning points in your life where you're not going to let that happen in the future. And if you do have one of those times, would you be willing to share it with us?
Elgin Carelock :Oh sure, sure, I mean, I have lots, you know lots of lots of those. Ok, but but it's because, as a as an entrepreneur by nature, I'm a risk taker. Ok, I'm a risk taker, and so so there are times where you know at 80 percent you go, as opposed to waiting to 100 percent and being able to make better decisions on better information. Right, because?
Elgin Carelock :you're so passionate about what you're going to do. But? But I had a scenario a few years back where a gentleman came to our firm and we were trying to raise capital for a project and he promises you know, hey, we can raise a million dollars for you and it's only going to cost you, you know, five figures. And so we're like, okay. So I had my friend who worked for NSA, do a full background search on this guy, right, I can, I can tell you where his mama lived, where his, his daughters live, right, and. And so came back clean as a whistle, and so we invested the money and he ripped us off. You know pretty good, right, like, I said, five figures. And so nothing he did was illegal, but it certainly was unethical, right.
Elgin Carelock :And so what I, what I learned in that scenario is that, generally, as your mom used to tell you, that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and even if you research it and it passed the smell test, what did your gut say? Yeah, what did your gut say, right, you know the the. The fact that I'm going to give you five figures and you're going to give me seven, does that really sit well? And, as I said. So you know, the interesting part about human nature is that when you decide that you want something, you can justify anything Right, right, right, right, right.
Elgin Carelock :And so part of that now is, if I were doing it from the data analysis point of view, not only would he have had to pass the background check, but I should have talked to at least three people that he's gotten this done for and did a couple of deals. And you know I mean. But but once again, since I wanted it to happen, I kind of took 80 percent of it and figured that you know, 80% checked out, let's do that. And then that 20%, I lost 20 grand.
Gary Wise :Man. But you know what, though? Number one, that's a great story. I appreciate the share that shows. I mean, I appreciate that it shows people that we can all take a loss.
Gary Wise :Number two it hasn't stopped you from making moves and doing taking a risk, right, right, it has not, and you know it's funny is, when you said that 80% number, I tell people that all the time, right, I really just need 80% of my thought thinking that we're going to be able to get it there, and I've just got so much faith and belief in in my God, in my systems and my people and myself that I'm going to get across that damn 30, 40% and more I need Now, if you notice my math ain't math right, I said 80 and I added 30, 40 more because, brother I'm coming with, I'm bringing extra because I always expect there to be some kicks, some nicks or whatnot in the plans at the end. But I just appreciate getting help to get 80% of the way there, because I'm used to starting off at negative five, right, and being a person who either is an entrepreneur or just somebody who has had to come throughout a life of struggle which everybody struggles, right, I don't believe there's anyone in this world. Even Jesus had to go out in the desert and be tempted, right? I mean, you are born through. I mean you are the prophecy, you are, you are the savior of the world and you're going to go.
Gary Wise :You had to go through struggles, right? So there's no such thing as a person who's not having to struggle, or but we don't all know each other's struggle right. But when you take that loss, don't let that be the reason why you fail to try again tomorrow, because that's nothing. Oh, what's his name? Les Brown. He talks about having the ghosts stand around you at the end of your life, and they're the dreams and they're the opportunities that you failed to capitalize on because you were afraid to try again. And I would rather have people on my team that have failed and got back on the horse and rode again than people who are afraid to get off the couch and go try.
Elgin Carelock :So let me give it to you this way. Think about it this way there's no such thing as failure. Think about it this way there's no such thing as failure, right? Because when you endeavor to anything in your life, only one of two things happen. It either goes the way that you expect it or you learn something. That's all that happens. I mean, you're just going to learn something. Now that learning something could cost you an eye, could cost you a leg, sometimes cost you your life, okay, but but understand that that that's the only two things that happen. It either comes out the way you want or you learn something.
Gary Wise :Well, and you know, I remember I was so. Once upon a time I was on board the USS George Washington and my job was to be essentially the firefighter head firefighter for the carrier Right and we had this big inspection on the whole ship. My sailors have been working their butts off. We've been trying so hard for so long to be ready, and we were doing this one part of the inspection and some stuff came out that I had no awareness to and we didn't. We didn't do bad, but we didn't do as good as we could have done.
Gary Wise :And me and my chief engineer are walking down the P-Way and he's angry, he's frustrated and I'm laughing. He's like senior chief, what the heck are you laughing at? I was like because I just learned some stuff that I had no idea about. But now that I know this, oh my, it's a game changer. And he was just he couldn't do nothing with me. He was so annoyed with me at that moment because I'm laughing, because I just he's you too worried about what's already that water. We're not going backwards, sir, that's right. Go backwards, it's done. All we can do is go forward and be excited about the future, right, um, okay, so talking about the future? How do you see man? How do you see Ocala in particular growing or evolving next five to 10 years?
Elgin Carelock :So what I hope to see is that people like me and you are helping steward these younger entrepreneurs coming up on how to help Ocala position the growth right. So we're in a really big growth spurt and it'll probably go on for another five years or so and so, but what's going on is that we're not considering infrastructure. So if you're not from a big city, then you wouldn't think about it, right? And so let me give you an example. The way that you know that you're in a small town is that on weekends everything's closed, whereas when you're in a large town, on the weekends everything's open because they know everybody else is off. Right, right, in the small town, you want to close so that you can be with your family, and that's fine.
Elgin Carelock :But as Ocala begins to expand into an international city where we're bringing people from all around the world, there's certain things that we don't have. We don't have certain types of restaurants, we don't have certain types of entertainment, we don't have certain types of hotels, certain types of hotels, and so it's up to the entrepreneur to provide those things. I mean, yes, the municipalities will help, but it's always going to be private money that does that, and so I would hope, through Ocala, inspired and other things that you and I will do together, right, and with others, that we begin to open people's eyes to the opportunities that are here. So I'll give you an example. Over there, where I live, they have approved 2,000 additional housing units, right, so there are going to be 2,000 more houses, but in my area there is one dry cleaner, there is one daycare. There's no place to shoot a game of pool, there's no place to get a slurpee, okay, I mean, you see what I'm saying.
Elgin Carelock :So entrepreneurs have the opportunity to steer how our city grows by taking advantage of the opportunities that their data is showing them, right? So if we know a place like the World Equestrian Center is going to attract 300,000 people per year, you have to ask yourself okay, when they're not on the horse, what are they doing? And let's go look at the research. And what does the research say? Like, for example, statistically, a horse owner has two dogs for every horse. So does it make sense for us to build a dog park? Because if they're coming with the horses, they're probably coming with the dogs, and so you see what I mean. I see that there is a, our county is ripe for growth and that you know. But we need people who understand not only leadership but how to develop businesses, run businesses and serve people.
Gary Wise :Well, and how to synergize it all right, how to, how to, how to thread it all together? Because, you know, the pastor of my church was talking this last Sunday. He said there's 250 people moving to Ocala. You know, plus or minus a number weekly. Yeah, oh, by the way, the state of Florida is just booming because so many people are moving here. For whatever their reasons are Right, you can just. Whatever their reasons are Doesn't, doesn't really matter to me, they're just coming.
Gary Wise :And my thing is, I don't think that when people think of a city that's growing is I don't think that when people think of a city that's growing, they're going to see a stereotypical grow in Ocala because, let, technology is going to be leveraged at the highest levels. I don't believe you're going to see a bunch of buildings, skyscrapers, going vertical because, again, nine, 11 taught me, taught me I don't want to be on the 30th floor of some building if there's a fire or a problem. I want to be where I can get out of there quickly. But with technology we can leverage a bunch of different tools and we can still have that growth. And what I can tell you from the people that I speak with and the things that I hear is we are going to be a population that's going to rival some of these bigger cities, but you're not going to maybe know it until it's too late and then, like you said, the infrastructure is not keeping up. People are going to start to get frustrated and then you're going to have people that are either A moving where their infrastructure is, where they want it, or B hopefully doing something about it.
Gary Wise :And my goal is to be part of B, because, as entrepreneurs, I want to help make the situation better. I want to help feed into the community and into our, into our town. So that way is the new guests come, or our new, our new neighbors show up, we can be welcoming and appreciate them for what they're bringing to the table and not resenting that there's not enough for everyone at the table to eat, because I believe that there is enough room at the table for everyone to eat. We just got to all make sure we're cooking up the right stuff. Our children that are growing up here to not be prepared to compete with the people that are coming from all these other areas that are already up to speed with technology and leveraging it, because there's other areas possibly already doing it Right.
Gary Wise :I think that if the pandemic showed me anything, it showed me how I can multiply a lot of different things with these electronic tools and I see I see the good in having synergy with people that I can get around in the same room with quickly. Right, I think there's synergy there so we can all be together, but we also don't all need to work in a big, same building every day. I think there's a balance there as we go forward. And so and I think Ocala, ocala inspired in particular why this?
Gary Wise :Why this is such a big deal for me is people have this. When I meet people and I ask them about these topics, they give me these answers of well, I got to go to Jacksonville, or I got to go to Tampa or I got to go to Orlando, but the reality, there's a lot of people in Ocala that are doing really, really good and they're just not telling everybody what's going on. And we could start to invest on our own area to help be a part of the rise by just watching it happen around you and then wondering like, why is this going up, why is this happening? But then not knowing you know why, the why behind what's going on. You know, go to Ocala Inspired, you might meet somebody that can tell you that answer.
Elgin Carelock :So so the other thing that that I like that Ocala Inspired symbolizes is collaboration, right, so the speakers that you have are are very well schooled in their own discipline, but, but coming together to uniformly present something is always a better scenario, right? I mean I, when, when I lived in Atlanta, uh, one of the organizations that I belonged to was called the concierge society and, uh, atlanta is probably the sixth or seventh largest convention town and they do so much revenue there that all of the concierge at all of the hotels got together and realized it's more about the customer experience in our city than it is about my hotel or your hotel. So they all got together and it was amazing, because you would see times where one would call another you know one hotel would call the other says, listen, man, I need to put 35 people on the same floor where you have. And he says, oh, yeah, I've got that. He says, okay, I gave them this rate. Would you match that? Yeah, okay, buddy, I'll send them right over. Can you imagine? I mean, that was the one of the most enlightened organizations I had ever seen.
Elgin Carelock :But at the same time, our convention business was through the roof because the level of service that they were getting is because they were having workshops amongst the concierge and they started teaching each other how to give great service, how to find the hard things that they're asking you to find. And then you know what you saw. You saw the restaurant owners in town going. Well, wait, I need to make sure that all you guys have whether they went into a restaurant or it was a banner hanging on the street or you know anything like that that at the level of collectivism just increased the experience that the person had and the likelihood that that convention would come back. And so, as you look at a city like ours, as we began to grow, if we as leaders and entrepreneurs and business owners began to work together so that the user experience of our city was at a high level that word gets out more people come right, more opportunities for entrepreneurs, more opportunities for people seeking jobs, more gross, more tax base, and that way we can can grow the city properly.
Elgin Carelock :You know, when I lived in Atlanta, what was funny is that it was never a city designed to be a big city. Right, and all of a sudden, you know, when I first moved there, the metropolitan area was just under a million. As of last year, the metropolitan area is over five million and that's why you sit in traffic, for it was never intended to be a big city. So cities like ours need to learn from that, and it's up to the leadership, no matter. Look, if you work for someone else and you manage, people treat their employees better, and then the employees are going to treat your end user better and the whole experience in our city and in your business improves.
Gary Wise :Well, and you're going to be happier, right, because you're fulfilled, because you're doing things that make you happy of your achievements and the time you're spending. You talked earlier about there's only a finite amount of time in a day, right? I tell my students all the time time is my number one currency, right, my time is my number one currency. Now I'm not nearly as worried about dollars as I am about my time, right, if my time is not value added or valued, you know what? Keep your money, bro. I'm going somewhere else because I don't got time to waste, right? You know it's funny, right along the Atlanta conversation is I spent a lot of my military time overseas so Japan and Guam and there was not a lot of people that wanted to come visit us to bring us outside energy, so we had to find it inside our own communities to build up. But the other thing that I found out was when it went sideways on us, when we had an earthquake or a flood or some sort of natural disaster, we were the only ones that we had, and so we needed that community at those times to come together, and I learned as a leader of the community out there was the best way to prepare for those bad times was to find collaboration opportunities when it wasn't crisis for us, to find ways to find success with each other. And then, when a pandemic comes along and we've got to do a whole bunch of crazy things, I was able to get 12 master chiefs in the same room and say, all right, guys, here's what we got to do, and they had no problem working with me because we've been working together, I've been giving them opportunities to be successful and that trust was there and that's how that is my. I'd say, if I had to pick a top, top, top, top reason, it was to build this trust in our community that prepares us for whatever may come our way.
Gary Wise :Because, again, my worst case scenario mind, I'm a damage controlman at heart, I'm a master chief. At heart, I'm a sailor, I'm a war fighter. I'm always worried for the power goes out and never comes back again. What do we do Right? And there you go, right. You know, the last thing I got for today and I really appreciate your time, you know, feeding into whoever watches this, this broadcast is if you could give them anybody watching this, you know just a piece of advice to begin their journey, whether it's entrepreneurial, whether it's business, whether it's leadership, whether it's faith-based, or a couple of pieces of advice. What would that be?
Elgin Carelock :Top of the list would be never stop growing, right. There's a line from a song that says says the man that knows something knows that he knows nothing at all. Ok, right, so the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know.
Gary Wise :Yeah, yeah, yeah, that part so that part, yeah, never stop.
Elgin Carelock :Because what happens is, if you assign to the concept of pleasing God and serving people, the more that I learn, the more that I can do, the more that I can do, the more that I can serve, the more that I can serve, the more that I can have. So, in other words, if you want to have a million dollar house, solve 10 million people's problems, right, you know. Think about it that way, that it's about who you serve. And I asked my mentees, before I take them on as a mentee, one question if you died today, would anyone know that you were gone? You see, this life's about impact. So the reason why I'm always growing is so that I can now impact someone else. And I can impact and it's not because I'm smarter than they are as it is I've experienced something that I want to share with them, right, so, so, so, as I am acquiring knowledge and we're not just talking about books, I'm just saying you know every experience that you go through in life, and that's why I'm such a fan of journaling, because as you go through these experiences and you're writing them down, when you circle back, say six months from now, and you read it, you know, it is so interesting to see your growth right.
Elgin Carelock :So I've been writing articles and newsletters and stuff for years, and so I was looking back through a folder of some things I've written in 2014, 2015. And it was funny because I totally disagree with my point of view, like totally. I'm so not that guy, but it's because I've grown right. I learned more and as I experience things whether they went the way I went, went the way I wanted it to or did not I take the time to figure out why it was, why did it work or why didn't it work Right. And each time I do that, then it goes into my knowledge base and it's not for my own growth, as it is somewhere along the line. God's going to send somebody who needs that information, but you're the way that it has to be delivered. It's not that they can't go and find it in the book, it's that that that you know.
Elgin Carelock :Gary Wise had to say that to him for them to hear it Right. You've got kids like I've got kids You've ever. You've been in a room with them and you say something to them and they look at you. Then your wife comes in and says the exact same thing and you think it was matter from the sky and you're sitting there going. Did I just say that? But but it had to be her saying it for them to hear it.
Elgin Carelock :So we have to position ourselves to be used by growing, so as we continue to grow, then we can serve more people, and we can serve more people than the personal goals that we have will just begin to. The opportunities will begin to manifest. And then the last thing I'll say is that, especially when it comes to business and growth of revenue and opportunity, if you're not growing in your craft, opportunities will pass in front of you that you'll never recognize because you're aren't, you're aren't on that level, so you don't see it. But then when you, as you grow, more things come in front of you. You're like, hey, you know what? I think we can really benefit from that, and and then you use it yeah and think to me, I'm going to cap on that last one.
Gary Wise :And there's no such thing as always having a sure thing. Don't forget that 80% thought process. You know, I tell my students all the time, if you wait until you're ready, you're never going to start. Go Get moving, find momentum, let's win. Go get moving, find momentum, let's win. Let's get some wins and losses and then have a team of people around you that it's OK to fall back on it's taking strategic pause and figure things out. Elgin man, thank you so much for your time and just show everybody what I already know, which is that you are one of the lights in our community when it comes to this kinds of thought process. Everybody that listens to the sound of my voice. Please come out and listen to Mr Elgin talk and Ocala inspired.
Gary Wise :It's July 25th in the Ocala community center. Tickets are available. On wise leadership solutionscom, we're going to be serving up lunch that day. There's six other speakers. They're going to cover a lot of these strong leadership development things, but the most important thing is it's going to be in person and you might get the opportunity to hear something that might change your life. You never know. And, like Elgin was just saying. You've got to look to put yourself in these positions to hear things that maybe God wants you to hear that day, and this is just an opportunity that we're trying to provide to you to come visit with us to hopefully find value and enjoy some good food and build a community of people that are going to help guide Ocala as we grow, because we're going to grow regardless. So let's grow together instead of just growing in silos, right, let's grow together instead. Algen man, I appreciate your time.
Gary Wise :I will publish this on LinkedIn. It's already going to be there and then you'll see me put it up later on today on YouTube. I'll make sure I circle back and get your podcast in there and some other stuff, some other links for your LinkedIn or whatnot, so people can find you if they're looking for you. Yeah, man, I look forward to seeing you soon, man.
Elgin Carelock :Absolutely. Thank you so much.
Gary Wise :All right, brother, it was good talking to you, brother. Bye, everybody, we're signing off. Bye. I know I was born for this.
Elgin Carelock :Don't care for the critics. My words are life, physics, A force that they can't stop. They just don't get it. I think they forget. I'm not done till I'm on top.
Gary Wise :I know I was born for this. I know I was born for this. I believe. I believe we can write a story.
