Power of Play
Power of Play
Discovering Company Culture Is Everything with special guest Paul Largay
Kelly is joined today by Paul Largay, co-owner and CEO of Largay Travel. Paul has over 40 years of industry experience and has created an amazing company culture at Largay. His title may say CEO, but he sees himself more as a culture creator and brand manager. Paul explains that great companies are the result of attracting and retaining great people; everyone that works at Largay has to be professional, honorable, and most of all, joyful.
Kelly and Paul discuss the company culture at Largay Travel and how Paul is able to foster such a positive environment. He believes in trying to suppress hierarchy, that success is the fabric of everyone’s contributions. He sees Largay not really as a company, but a community of like-minded professionals who love to help people feel the joy that comes with travel.
Many people focus so much on working hard that they forget the importance of playing hard. Paul explains his different rituals for keeping his life joyful, such as picking out what socks to wear and how such a simple action can set a positive tone for the rest of his day. People forget what makes them feel joy and Paul believes it is important to step back and remember your “oh my god” moments; those moments that defined our childhood and can redefine who we are as adults.
Having fun takes a serious plan. Kelly and Paul talk about what goes into prioritizing fun and making a serious, long-term plan for what fun experiences you want to have in life.
Check out Largay Travel at https://www.pleasegoaway.com/
Connect with Kelly
Email - kelly@theentreprenewer.com
Website - https://www.theentreprenewer.com
Complimentary Free Trip Planning Guide - https://www.theentreprenewer.com/free-resources/
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Connect with Amanda
Email - amanda@largaytravel.com
Website - www.pleasegoaway.com
Schedule a complimentary 15-minute Travel Specialist Consultation - www.pleasegoaway.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pleasegoawaytravelcompany/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/virtuosotraveladvisor/?hl=en
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-klimak/
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Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 3:hello misfits. Welcome back to the power of play. Today I have the distinct honor of being here with the owner of lard, a travel Paul arguer who has been in the industry for 40 years. He has done everything from tracking gorillas to being in zero gravity. He's had his own travel show on the travel channel and he is by far one of the most find it enjoyable characters in the entire travel industry. Welcome Paul. Well thank you Kelly for being here and what a privilege to talk professionally about something I've done personally all my life and that's have fun and to play and it's exactly why I wanted to get you here. As a successful owner business owner, you have created a culture that I think a lot of entrepreneurs listening would be really interested in hearing about the culture that you've created here at lardo, otherwise known as the Island of misfit toys. And I'd like your personal take on how you disconnect and how you really infuse that sense of play into your personal life and the effect that that has on the company. Well by title on my business card, which is meaningless, says I'm CEO, chief executive officer. What I actually am is the culture creator and curator and the brand manager and I believe what really distinguishes one company from the next is not their technology. It's not their salespeople, it's not their business acumen. It's what the soul of the organization is. Great companies are the result of attracting and retaining great people. When we talk about onboarding somebody new potentially at Largo travel, they have to be professional, they have to be honorable and they have to be joyful. If they don't have fun helping other people have fun, there's no room for them in the end. Let's talk about your culture. You guys do some really fun things in the office, whether it's around your holiday parties or your celebrations. Talk to me a little bit about some of them. Highlights of working here and what it means to be an Island of misfit toys. What we always try to do, Kelly's, we try to suppress hierarchy. We're trying to make everybody feel like they are truly what they are. Part of the process. So it doesn't matter if people are answering the phone as a receptionist or they're in the back office with accounting or technology or maybe a frontline agent is that success is the fabric of everybody's contribution to it and everybody has to be recognized. Everybody has to be supported, and everybody has to operate in a joyful, safe community. That's one of the things we're most proud about. Did we tell people we don't run a company, we actually create a community of likeminded people who are professionals with remarkably large personality. Yeah, and you know, I feel that even as a guest when I come in to record these and to be with your company, whether it's working or just doing the podcast, I feel like when I'm here I can just let it all hang out goes. But you know why Kelly? Part of that is there is a safety net that we have a culture here that we're respectful, we are honorable, but it doesn't mean that as part of that joyful process that we can't have a good[inaudible]. So many people I've heard about, they spend so much time focusing on working hard that they sometimes either overlook or they forget the most important aspect, the icing on the cake playing hard. They get so caught up in spreadsheets and meetings and accounting that they've lost themselves in the process.
Speaker 4:That's exactly what I want to talk about because so many entrepreneurs are burnt out. You know, we've been conditioned to the grind and we celebrate the grind and I see this look in their eyes of this desperate for relief and you know like you need to go away, you need a vacation. And it's like, Kelly, I can't even like when I'm on vacation when I can't turn off my brain. It just runs constantly. Talk to me about your vacation ritual, like how do you disconnect from work?
Speaker 3:Well, first and foremost, I'm a child trapped in an adult's body. I'm the most responsible, irresponsible individual that I've ever known and I love it because they are wonderful counterbalances. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is I go down to my sock drawer to determine what the flavor and the theme is going to be for that particular day. And I have probably a collection of 200 socks and I call it fertilizer around my ankle because it's going to determine what my mindset is and what the lens of joy that I'm going to put on my daily routine is going to be. And I take that same joyful perspective and I try to share and transmit that not only to my staff, but to our clients. Because I think one of the things that people forget to do is to find out what truly makes them happy, what makes them giddy, what makes them joyful, and we can't have a joyful, happy life if we haven't taken the time to really identify what those specifics are. And then once you know what the target is, then you come to people like me to try to determine what the best utilization of by time and resources is the capture harness and celebrate those moments that matter to you.
Speaker 4:Yes. And you've mastered the art of translating that from your personal life into the professional life here at Largo. How do you encourage your employees to disconnect?
Speaker 3:I encourage them by trying to be an example of exactly that. When I come here, listen, every day is not the 4th of July. I'm in a business that's fiercely competitive. It's got very low margins, and I tell every one of our staff that there is nothing I can do that I can bring to this community that's going to make this job easy. But what I can do is make the job joyful. The journey is joyful. So what I tried to do is as they would say in church, live your gospel. You have to be authentic in terms of your joyful embrace of life. And so the best way I convince or motivate my people to follow is by leading by example. And every day, one of my great joys is to come into this company and just share a hug, share a handshake, share something by the water cooler that we connect as human beings before we start the day as professionals aligned toward helping people realize their dreams and joyful moments in life.
Speaker 4:You're high octane Livewire. I think a lot of our listeners can relate to your personality type. When you go on vacation, what's the best way that you can keep yourself focused and present on plane and not having your mind back at the office or what's happening at work?
Speaker 3:Well, the most important thing happens before I go there is that I've got my wishlist, I've got my checklist, Charlie. Some people call it a bucket list. I have a drill the size of Mount Vesuvius in the bottom of mine, but it's self replenishes because I realized that my desires for joy and opportunity are infinite and my opportunity to experience it is finite. So what I do is I've got this five year plan, 10 year plan of the things that really mattered to me and I try to prioritize those things. And then not to get lost in the sauce or the macro spectrum. I say, okay, if I want to climb Kilimanjaro this year, if I want to go gorilla trekking, if I want to spend two weeks in Butan tricking with Buddhist monks, if I want to go riding with the gauchos down in Patagonia, if I want to go diving with the sharks, if I want to go bungee jumping, it's all about this wonderful collage, this mosaic of joy, fun and Holy shit back man, can you believe that happened? But it doesn't happen by itself. And to have fun oftentimes takes a very serious plan. And I say to people, I've done my job. When you come back and you simply look at me, you smile and go,
Speaker 4:wow, yeah, yes, I know that look. And it's a huge productivity boost, you know? And when you get back and you've been in that state, like
Speaker 3:problems are gone, you know what it does. It's the proverbial reset button of life. We all get, as I said, caught up in our own little realities about what we think is imminently important. And then we will lose sight of really what matters. And what happens is we don't plan enough time to have fun and we just go from one crisis to the next. And I think play time on vacation is truly planning for and living in the moment. And when you live in the moment that you have created and that you ultimately realize, I mean, and you know what it does, it not only checks that box, you go back to the office, re-energized, reinvigorated and wondering when will I get the next opportunity to take my professional success and deliver my personal joy.
Speaker 4:And I love that you talk about planning for it. It's the most important thing cause so often to your point,
Speaker 3:we go from crisis to crisis to crisis and there's, you know, quote unquote never, any time for vacation are fine. And unless you're planning for it and protecting it, it won't happen. We put so much time and energy into planning for our KPIs and our business or that you know, the annual sales conference or the new strategic Alliance, but not for the most important asset that we have, which is our free leisure time. So I love that you have such an emphasis on planning for it, preparing for it and protecting it. It's reawakening the child and people and we all have that child a lot of times he's so subjugated too. Reports and accounting and requirement's professional, civic, social, whatever it is.[inaudible] in the dark wee hours of the night, he's crying to get out. She's crying to get out. My uncle who started this business said, one of the beauties about being in a business where we help people identify their dreams and to deliver them into create joy and joyous occasions is that because of this business and because of what we do, what we promote, what we deliver, he said, because of travel and my life in this industry, in the feedback that I've gotten from my clients, if there is such a thing as reincarnation, goddammit, I want to come back as me again. How many people, Kelly, can you say, yo, somebody says, Oh, I want to come back as Brad Pitt, or I want to be Einstein, or I want to[inaudible]. I don't think I've heard too many people say Trump, but that's a whole different thing a man. But that's such poignant life advice to create a life that you'd want to come back and live again. And I think again, it's something that some people have to rediscover. It's there. It's sometimes sheltered, it's sometimes hidden. But I think one of the neatest things is I have been this way. I have been a joyful individual who has been so fortunate to be able to leverage his own personal joy to the benefit of other people. And to me professionally. My dad once said to me, who was a very successful individually graduated number one in his class in Harvard and Georgetown. I mean, he was this quintessential definition of success. And he said to me one time, he said, you know, Paul, he said, I've been all over the world. I've met the who's who of business, the who, school of religion, who's who of politics. He said, but I have never ever in my entire life met somebody like you. And I said, what does that mean? He said, I've never met somebody who has more damn fun and makes it their life mission. He said, you have to promise me that you will never stop being you. And instead of sitting in the timeout chair and in the corner and being grounded, I've been able to morph that joyful nature in essence and soul into a business that I have actually helped other people nurture their soul of joy and happiness. Yeah. And you've been laughing all the way to the bank ever since. I didn't read that. That was against the law. You know, we're not solving cancer world hunger or anything that, but if I had a dollar for every single person who sat in front of me and said, Paul, all my life, I've wanted to do this. I mean, what an incredible privilege. What an incredible opportunity and what an equally incredible responsibility because I'm holding their dream in the Palm of my hands and if I don't deliver what it is or if I don't understand in advance what it is that really matters to them, they can come back and be grudgingly make back the money that they invested in, that failed experience, but they can never get back. The non-renewable thing called free time. Yes. As Paul closing words, what would you say to your peer entrepreneurial pair? You can tell on his or her eyes, they're burnt out, they've lost that sense of fun in their life. They've lost that sense of play. What would you tell that person? I would tell them to do yourself, to do your loved ones, to do the community in the world a major favor. Step back and think about the time when you were five years old and you heard the baseball cards and the spokes of your bike when you went down the first Slippy slide, when you bit into your first cotton candy, all of those, Oh my God moments. The seminal opportunities and moments that all define who we were as children and can redefine who we are is adults. So it's a little bit like going back to the future. Go back to those childhood formative years and remember what turns you on there. And now as my son said to me, the only difference that between you and a kid, here's your kid with cash and a driver's license. Be that kid with cash and a driver's license.[inaudible] the opportunity to rediscover your joy, your happiness, and your wild moments. I love that. Paul, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure to connect with you on this. Thank you for the privilege and may you enjoy miles of smiles and share them down the road. I love the finish line on that one for sure. Thank you so much for listening everybody, and please, please, please go away.
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