Latest / Ready To Drink Podcast / Wesley Noyd on Building BEV edu and Selling Beverages With Insights, Not Ego

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Wesley Noyd on Building BEV edu and Selling Beverages With Insights, Not Ego · Ready To Drink Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: What's up?
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Wesley, and I am a field sales representative for Monster Energy.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_01: On the side, I am trying to educate people on how to be elite vendors.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: I've created my own platform that will help onboard people that are brand new to the industry.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Also, created a sales system that people can follow for those that have maybe been in the beverage industry for a little bit longer, but are struggling to hit their numbers or actually make sense of how to sell to that difficult decision maker.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: And then I've recently gotten into the space of actually growing out of being in a sales role and moving into some type of leadership role or a role that aligns more with your archetype with the brand builder's program.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: So a lot of things going on there currently, still in field sales.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think that I would ever want to get too far from actually selling in the field because it is it became an obsession and a really big passion of mine.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm I'm kind of here just to show people how easy and fun selling drinks is.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that we need to get back to probably making selling drinks fun because it's I think as the industry has grown, it's gotten very serious.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: And whenever I started 20 years ago, it was a whole lot of fun.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: There was a there was a little bit of a reverence in it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: It was a true sales position where you could get out there and be yourself, have a lot of fun, not worry too much about what people thought about you.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: But now I think it's starting to get a little too serious.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to get to those days where we had a whole lot of fun selling brandings, not take ourselves too seriously.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm I'm excited to have this conversation because I'm I'm also a big advocate of this.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, a lot of times I talk on here, you know, about the podcast and the brands, but people forget that the day the day job, so to speak, of of FreeMind is actually market development and strategy.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I I still go out.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm 22 years in and I pulled cold doors intentionally.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I enjoy the interaction.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoy just like this uh via Google Meet.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: I also do it in my day-to-day pulling doors into new accounts to introduce new brands.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a full advocate of everything that you're saying because one thing is, you know, a lot of people are like, oh, salesmen are salesmen are going to be dead in the future of AI.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: I actually don't even think this of response as an egotistical thing.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think people that make those statements don't realize how hand selling and how how much the beverage industry is.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know that from other industries where you can do tell sell, you can sell remotely, and at a certain scale in the alcohol industry, in the beverage industry as a whole, you can sell tell sell.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But for startup brands, medium-sized brands, brands that are still getting their story out there, Wes, exactly what you just said is it is face-to-face.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I even tell the story that a couple months ago I was selling to a retailer who, when the toilet, people don't realize, you know, these retailers are owner operators sometimes.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I work in the independent channel as well.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, there was a time where a couple uh months ago where he's plunging the toilet while I'm doing the pitch and I'm handing him towel, I'm handing him paper towels and wipes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that people undervalue that in the world of this tech boom that we have here is what that interaction is, that personal touch.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And talk a little bit about you know some of your strategies, and you don't have to give away the secret sauce, but also showing people like how it's done differently.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think a lot of people think that salesmen just sit around now and in front of a screen and talk to people on Google Meet and talk about what it's like to actually put your feet on the street and get out there.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's interesting that you mentioned that uh you know, people think that the sale the job of a vendor or a sales rep is gonna go away with the uh boom of AI.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, there are elements where we are gonna be selling over the phone.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I've had over 40 jobs in my lifetime.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: I've been around everywhere.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: It just happened that once I landed on working and sales, that I discovered, hey, I have a knack for this, and uh I'm a good speaker.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: I've always loved speaking in media, which is why my channel is the way that it is now, is just kind of parlay my love of speaking and selling into now also doing media.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't I don't think that it's gonna go away because you have those genuine interactions, like you were talking about, where you will you will see that person in a in a weird moment, but you're off you're willing to offer a helping hand.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: AI can't do that, you can't really do that over the phone.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've closed plenty of uh deals where I was like, I can't believe I closed that over the phone.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: But I worked as a bill collector for uh for about three years too.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm pretty savvy whenever it comes to conveying a message over the phone without seeing that person face to face.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: But not everybody has that skill, and it's not always going to be that easy.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's like kind of an advanced technique or a one-off.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: You really definitely want to be in the store speaking to that retailer, understanding who they are.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you you said don't give away the secret sauce, and that's something that I've kind of been preaching since I've moved over into Monster, is there really is no secret sauce.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: Monster didn't invent a sales strategy.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is something that I've seen throughout the course of working with many different brands, is there is a very structured system.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And if you just turn it into a system, you kind of remove the emotions of it.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think where technology has really helped us is having these insights that we can show people.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that kind of removes the emotion or the relationship part of the selling.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you still have to be a personable person.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: One thing that I do say is your relationship is gonna get you a seat at the table.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Is they have to like you to even want to begin a conversation with you.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: But those insights is really what's gonna elevate your next steps.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that big display or that cooler in front or uh gaining a an extra shelf in the in the cold vault door.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: The insights that you present them from a person that they trust and they like and from a consultant aspect is really what's gonna help you win.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: But I would say that is just get better at speaking to the insights and and lean less on does this person like me or not?
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I have, I mean, I'm sure you've heard it, and the longer you're in this industry, if you haven't been in here for haven't been doing it for a while, I have a number of store managers or decision makers that tell me, oh, I don't drink that stuff.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing that I I love to say to them is, hey, you don't have to drink it to make a whole lot of money off of it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: Your customers are telling you that they want it.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: Your your consumer wants it.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: They're they're telling us what what the next move is to make.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so whenever we purchase this data, or if you work with a company that that purchases data, you have that.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't, uh you talked about emerging brands.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't, just make sure that you're taking good inventory because that that sells through data.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: As long as you're taking good inventory, you can get a good estimate of what your run rate is.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I break, I do break down how to do that part of it as well in my program, but it's it really is just that easy.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Have a process that makes sense to you or your entire team of how you document your infant inventory, how you document your sell through.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: And then that way you have a compelling story at store level to show that person.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: How like I I haven't been able to talk to anybody else that's on the street this much, but are you in the are you in the independent and the chain, or are you in in both all channels as far as right now?
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right now I'm a field sales rep, which means I primarily focus on large format.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um I work in San Antonio, which is very, I wouldn't say they're independent heavy, but they are co-op heavy, which means that we have a lot of, they might as well be independents.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: They do work within parameters of their co-ops, but essentially they can do whatever they want.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: And you can't pay for that data.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: You have to make sure that you have good that you're that you're taking good inventory and that you're documenting every sales call in that regard efficiently.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: So um, yeah, I I I work in large format now, and even I work with a regional here, uh, HEV, and they don't let you pay for data either.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I have to make sure that I I'm I'm looking back at the sales history, making sure that my depletions are accurate before I go pitch anything too crazy.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of people think that selling in a display is going in and selling in this large, larger than life or big theatrical display all the time.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_01: That may not be the case because you may not have the skew that um warrants that on programming.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: So what I always do is sell the size of the skew or sell the size of that brand.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: So if I have, and I have it happen to me, even though Monster is a is a larger brand and we sell a whole lot, there are certain skews that don't necessarily warrant that big thematic display.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And what I will never do is sell somebody something that I have to go back and pick up later, or that I can't forecast with like a like a good feeling.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: So if I oversell somebody and then we're just sitting on that product, it makes me number one look like I don't know what I'm doing.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I haven't been a good consultant to them.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um but on the other hand, there's a lot of SKUs if you just patiently sit back, you know, take the ones that you can get that make sense for the size of the depletions that you're doing, and then for those bigger, for those bigger packages that we know are gonna sell, then I go crazy on those because I have no I have no worry that those are gonna sell.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: But you have to be confident and you can only do that by making sure that you're taking good inventory.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I I don't work with too many independents now, but I have worked with them a lot in the past.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I spent some time in Tulsa, Oklahoma too, where it was like if if you weren't a quick trip or a circle K, then you were you were an independent, and that was really cool.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: It taught me a lot about working with regional chains, how to see depletions like through our um, I guess through our system, through our inventory management system.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what really got me heavy on teaching my guys, hey, make sure you take and get inventory because I do use these numbers when I go back and try to sell in programming or help these guys see, you know, where our wins and losses are.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's interesting you brought up about the the data because it's it's uh we're currently conducting one across Pennsylvania for independence of a category wide, just because I'm interested in what the demand is for.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: We're trying to, we have a we're lobbying for uh HB 2309 in Pennsylvania for hemp beverages to be sold in alcohol establishments.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're trying to survey statewide and all the different categories of channel sale to find out the demand of how many would how many are aware of the bill, you know, from a from a lobbying aspect, but also then how many would purchase a license when the license had become available if the bill passes.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And what I found in this process is the light bulb kind of came off over me.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, yeah, we have Nielsen, we have IRI, we have all these chain-activated data sets that we can look at, but really there's nobody collecting independent operator data that I'm that I'm aware of.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: To the detail of also that I'm aware of.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because sometimes you see independent, but they're only counting like you know, still chains and stuff like that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm talking Jack's Tavern and you know, Jim's package store and stuff like that.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's interesting.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_01: The now that's one channel that I hardly ever work at is in the on-premise.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: I do go out, but my on-premise for for the brand that I'm working with now is a little bit different than yours.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, on-premise is like Academy, Home Depot, um, health and hospital, call collegiate.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I would it depends, I guess, on the system that you're using.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: And then yeah, that's just some good old good old fashioned get out there and ask the questions and take some surveys and and try to make sure that you're talking to the right people whenever you collect that intent to purchase or um and whenever you're out there educating.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: How do you go about lobbying for something like that to the actual people that it matters most?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's one thing to sit in front of the courthouse and talk to people, but Jack at Jack's Tavern isn't going to be at the courthouse uh willing to see what the latest hemp beverage lobbyists have to say.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have to?
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I would imagine that you plan pretty strategically and you go to the right places.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's exactly where we uh the same way we would sell a product is is not in a sales aspect though.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So the mentality when when I have these conversations is it's strictly education.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I have zero because I believe in the bill from a principal standpoint, and we wrote this from the best of intention for actually opening up the entire market.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to just I know that if I show, I call it showing, not selling.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And basically I have when I bring in products or if I bring in services or if I bring in advocacy like we're doing with this, it's just tell them.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I have zero care if they come on board or not.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: But the fact is, when I show them everything, that's all I can do.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because the boundary of that becomes if I cross that boundary, then I'm selling.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to sell somebody a bill.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show them the bill, and then if they buy into it, then they're gonna be the biggest advocates also.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's usually what happens is once they're educated on it and they understand it, then they're standing right next to me, literally offering any any time to go do anything as far as interacting with lawmakers or speaking with the media.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: And also from a strategic standpoint, to go back as well to what you're saying is me being in the state that I'm in that I've been in for the past 22 years, I do know how the hierarchy of the communities go.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously the ones with the most connections and the most reach is where I'm gonna go first and let them kind of or I'm a big organic guy.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like I want to go talk to that guy, and he'll be like, all right, I got six other people I want you to meet.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: He does warm intros over here.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Those people are connectors.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: They got six, each of them have six more, and then that's how it's going.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And at the same time, what I do is I run the technology side of things where I have an uh organic newsletter that goes out on a bi-weekly basis, and then I'm so I'm I'm hammering those out as one-on-one emails, not as a general mass newsletter.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: So those one-on-one emails are running out simultaneously as I'm going out there, and then surveys are being called with a with a team that's doing not tell cell, but they're just doing a strict five-question survey asking what kind of products they have inside, trying to assess the category.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then if they have any knowledge, and we want to know for this one do they work there as a staff member or are they a manager and a buyer?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: And are they aware of the bill as well?
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's important for me if I start seeing that all the managers know what's going on, but the staff don't, then I get to make a phone call and it's not confrontational, it's just call the owner up and be like, hey, the staff that are actually working the register aren't aware of the bill.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore, they can't communicate that then to let this organically trickle down to the consumer.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, you also want the public at large to be aware that this bill exists.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if they want to get on board with it organically, great.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: If not, then then unfortunately, that's that's that's you know, it is what it is.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: But in the lobbying world and and all that stuff, it's not a sell.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm anybody that I'm not a lobbyist by any means, we work with a lobbyist.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I just use the term lobbying as in our supporting the bill.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh with that said as well, uh, that's not the case for people that might be in that industry.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like they might be selling.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just one that is a citizen advocate that is donating my time and services uh to the bill to get it moving forward.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty cool.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I have a buddy of it's I didn't know that you were in the hemp business industry.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: A buddy of mine has created and cultivates his own hemp beverage in dripping springs.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's called Teha's Tonic.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: And uh is that uh Aaron and uh Yeah, that's my that's my good friend.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know him personally, no.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: I just know the name, yeah.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's my good friend Aaron.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've known him since we were like eight years old, and I actually consulted with him a little bit on bringing the brand to Austin and parts of San Antonio and helped out a little bit.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but it has been it has been tough watching the legislation on this come around.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: It seems like there's been a lot of uh back and forth.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, especially in Texas.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: You guys uh one of my uh my clients is down there in Texas, it's just like every other hour it's the light switch coming on and off as far as what they're gonna do.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like it's very it's very it must be I can't imagine to be a brand in there based there right now, trying to navigate what that means.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I mean, and trying to be, you know, follow compliance, follow regulation while it's all zigzagging.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I deal with it in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and then the federal off and on.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but Texas seems like it's a whole nother beast as far as the the the wrong wind uh seems to change their uh opinion on how they're gonna do it.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're in a decent space right now, but I don't know what the future holds.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did recently walk into a circle chaos here, and it seems like they're on board.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: They have like incremental coolers with uh you know hemp beverages in them now.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, all right, this is interesting.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: We'll see where this goes.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: But there is probably some light at the end of the tunnel, but I'm not 100% sure.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we never are about when it could change or what could happen.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, the in the past few months I I think uh I had I had a lot of uh mixed feelings about politics and stuff like that.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm an unaffiliated voter intentionally, I don't believe like go either way on stuff.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And in the in the last end of it, I've realized that like watching the wishy-washiness of all of this, at the end of the day, it comes down to education and sitting in these congressmen and senators' offices doing this, these conversations, I realize that how much stuff goes through and laws become reality when they don't really have a whole lot of education about what it is they're passing.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: So going back to what we were talking about earlier and exactly what you're talking about with educating field sales reps and helping people go through.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go back to like the past 20 years in sales and things like that.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, everybody wants to think you can just come right in and do this, but really education is the foundation of the actual sale.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about that a little bit.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like you went through the consultative aspect of things, and and I use that word intentionally, and I do the same thing.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: We're not sales reps, we're we're consultants or we're consultative sales reps.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, if we're not educating people on the category as a whole or that trend or the data points, there's no sale that's actually going to happen because they're not gonna be passionate about the product that's on the shelf.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: Thus, your rate of sale is gonna be zero, and you're gonna have 800 points of distribution with a pat on the back, but then six months later you're scrambling to figure out where to go.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're picking up valid dates.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um I'm while you're while you're asking that question, I was thinking I had a conversation with my son.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: He's 16 years old, and uh he just got his first job in fast food, and you know, he's thinking about the future and where he's gonna go.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh he's like, so whenever I get out of high school, I do a couple of years of college, and then he's already I can already see the gears turning.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to go into beverage, he wants to sell, he thinks what I do is cool.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um he's like, so is that how it works?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I get my if I get my associates, do you think that will uh put me in a good role within, you know, within uh, you know, a beverage company?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I mean, yes and no, it definitely helps.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, there's a lot of what I'm noticing also just in this business is there's a just a ton of nepotism.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: So also it's like who you know and and where they're at in the company and how they can help you.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's not always that way.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: But then I, you know, I showed them, I said, I'm probably one of the only people at my company that really was just hired on.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't have a connection to anybody uh at this company at all.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: And while I am recognized as being one of the better sales reps here, uh it came with a lot of additional work, which I think people necessarily wouldn't want to do, or they're just kind of happy with where they're at.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, this whole this whole idea for Bevy DU really started whenever I was working in beer as well.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: I worked for uh Reyes out of Austin.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_01: And so I guess I can go back to the very beginning.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: For me, everything started a long, long time ago in Sherman, Texas, where I started as an order selector for Coca-Cola.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: I moved my way into being a forklift operator in San Antonio.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I picked up my family from Sherman, moved to San Antonio as a forklift operator, then I started, uh, then I got an opportunity to work as bulk logistics for Coca-Cola overnight.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: And all the while I'm thinking I want to get into sales.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: I wasn't really sure why I wanted to, but I I like the planning part of it.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_01: I really was an advocate for the brand.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And in South Texas, we're raised on Coca-Cola, so it's kind of a it's a religion out here.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I was bought in.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I know I can do this, I have the ability to do it.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: And it just got to a point where the writing on the wall is like, we're not gonna give you a job in sales.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we're gonna they were gonna keep me in the warehouse.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was pretty clear.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: A friend of mine um was working for a third party out in West Texas for Red Bull, and he said, Man, with what you know on logistics and your ability to speak, just try to get a job in San Antonio with Red Bull.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I did.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it worked, and I I spent the next nine years there.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: I worked as a sales trainee all the way up through being a I actually got my own route, became a district sales manager whenever I moved to Tulsa about four years later.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: Spent, you know, three and a half years, three years there, moved back to San Antonio as a DM, kind of fell out of love with the culture and went to go work for a roofing startup.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: And that job was not as advertised.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did learn that selling business to business and selling business to consumer are very different.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm more, like I said, I'm not a relationship seller.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: I am more of an insights person, and insights just don't really uh hit the feels to a homeowner uh like they do a business owner.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I spent uh I think a little less than a year there, but did did pretty good for never being in that business before.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_01: But I all that to say, while I was doing that, we had a few consultants come in.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we had these these gurus that created sales systems for roofers, and they had um marketing gurus that came in and showed you how you market yourself.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: So all this stuff is moving in the back of my mind as I left their company and then I got back in.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: My buddy worked for Saznerak.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, Reyes is going through some changes.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like, just hop on over here, and I'm like, dude, I gotta get back to something that I'm familiar with, like my wheelhouse.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: So walk on star quarterback for Reyes.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_01: They had a territory that was like right where I lived.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_01: I just killed it, but it's it seems the bigger a company gets, the more they take away the fun parts of their job.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like I was saying earlier, we need to get back to having a little bit of fun.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I was selling beer, like that should be a fun job, not uh something where you get like micromanaged, overlorded, you know.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that's neither here nor there.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: All the while I'm thinking, you know, I could do this a lot better than the company that I'm working for, the leadership that I saw.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I had that voice of my dad in my back in the back of my mind.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, well, if you can do it better, son, why don't you go do it?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, all right.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I spent the next year while I was working in beer creating this whole program, right?
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, true onboarding for people that don't get onboarded, true sales system for people that don't know how to sell.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then recently, just in this role, we were talking about the nepotism.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: Well, how do you get to the next level?
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_01: So you have to market and brand yourself as a as a brand.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_01: So as I was creating these two systems, then I was like, all right, well, what would be the natural next step for somebody that has become like an elite vendor?
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I said, Well, I would try to be a coach or a leader or in some type of different role within the industry, hopefully ideally with the same company.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: So then I created, you know, I took everything that I was doing whenever I was with the beer company.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: I um started getting more active on LinkedIn.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: I really was intentional about when and why I posted.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: I really took uh I dove in on the beverage industry, all things beverage, what was happening with certain brands and certain companies, and started posting all that, and it really just got me better at that.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: Started uh up-leveling the way I posted.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: So then it started turning into these time-lapses where I start time-lapsing my displays, then it started turning into like longer format day in the life content, and all the while um people were kind of saying, like, well, aren't you giving away secrets?
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or aren't do you are we really allowed to do this?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: Are you allowed to like post what you do like that on the internet?
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_01: By then I had, you know, left, I had got my job, I got my role with Monster, and I was doing all this stuff for them.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I just saw like a a kind of a scared mindset or a scarcity mindset in people whenever I was telling them, hey, this is what I want to do.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I want to coach people how to sell.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: I want to coach people how to develop their career.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: I want to show them how to build their own personal brand.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, can we really do that?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Are we giving away stuff?
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't know if it's I don't know if it's insider trading.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I'm giving I don't I don't I'm not giving away trade secrets.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: All my stuff is I've gone through the process of actually uh copywriting all my stuff, so I know that I'm okay.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it just it it it was kind of strange to me that nobody had this thought before because nobody's really built like a I've seen one other person recently since I've started doing this that's actually taken the time to uh want to consult smaller distribution and sales teams within the beverage space.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know if the niche if there's just not a call for it or if it's just so niche that I don't know, but then then there's like a lot of uh there's a lot of like secretism, or I guess there's a scarcity mindset in some leaders where they're like, I I just want to keep this because I don't want somebody to um take what I have.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: I was never like that.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was a district manager for several years.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_01: I was always trying to show everybody everything.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, and then even had people like, well, aren't you worried they're gonna take your job?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I kind of want them to take my job because I'm tired of this one already.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't have a I don't I'm never a complacent guy.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_01: Like I remember one time whenever I got promoted from um, you know, a trainee to having my own route, I was there for a few months, and then my boss came up and you know told me you're killing it and stuff.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: I said, that's cool, but like I'm already ready for the next thing.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, however long I have to be here, but I'll never be that complacent employee.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, whatever you give me, I'm going to try to elevate to the next level.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I want.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: I I need to find people like that that still have that passion.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: I know that some of these companies and the culture has a way of beating you down.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You have to find that culture within yourself and build it up and really and really show what you're about.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a system and process to doing that too.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_01: So you go through these steps, you build yourself out, and then you try to also align yourself with like a culture within a company in the industry that really aligns with who you are.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's whenever you find happiness within your work.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: So while I'm really enjoying my time at Monster, it's just a vehicle for my personal brand.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, my my personal brand is this.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: I just happen to work for Monster, which is a kick-ass brand that allows me to do all these super fun things and um gives me content for days, to be honest with you.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: But if I ever left Monster, if Monster decided they didn't want me, I'm fairly confident I could go to another brand and I could do the same thing there.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: Or it would just give me more time to, you know, concentrate on Bevy Du and try to find some other, you know, some other brands, distributors that need my that need my help or want it, you know.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: I can tell you that uh you and I had a very similar path.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: So at 19, I started at a uh working in breakage and in the warehouse at a beer wholesale in Philadelphia.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was eventually working night shift doing order picking, which you know I can commiserate at 2 a.m.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: to 3 a.m.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: when uh trucks are shifted and you're an order picker and there's no orders to check.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's the worst time in the middle of the night.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then I went on to merchandising and then I went into a sales route, and then I ended up running a craft division at uh another beer wholesaler of Pennsylvania.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I started this business in 2008, and I want to actually connect with even deeper to say, keep doing what you're doing, because that's what I've been doing the last 18 years.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: We've I've been going out and working on site with sales reps, training sales reps, opening up new markets, and then basically what I which is something that might be, and niche, I'll give you I'll give you the secret sauce right now, and anybody listening, if you're somebody that's comfortable cold calling over the phone, as well as walking in and pulling a cold door, there is a huge opportunity in the beverage world for you because every sales rep under the sun is good, it wants to maintain accounts that are already open.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: There are tons of brands looking for people that are gonna go open up a brand new account for them and a new brand new market for them.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_00: So that's something, as well as education.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, Wes, I'm gonna tell you keep doing what you're doing and don't give up on this because eventually that side gig is gonna become a full gig.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna call it right now on the air and in public.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't mean that as a dig-on monster.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's phenomenal that they have the the open mind and understanding that it also benefits them to have you creating that content.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: Where most businesses, like you said, there are a lot of businesses, exactly, they're closed-minded and they don't want to they don't want to share that type of stuff.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go back, like the reason I'm saying all this stuff confidently is I've documented my entire career.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: You go on the YouTube channel that this episode's gonna be on, and you scroll all the way to the bottom, you're probably gonna go to the beginning of YouTube and you're gonna see because it's the same channel I've had my entire career.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: And you go in and you'll see it's me with a flip camera, one of those, remember those white cameras back in 2010 to 2012 when this business started, I was booking bands.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it was exactly the same thing where everybody books a band at a bar and in the 2010, early 2010s, 2015, but nothing was ever streamed out.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, well, if I'm a band booker and I'm making money off of the door, I'd love to get more people in here.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_00: So what am I gonna do?
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on YouTube in the back with a flip camera recording the show, and then I was clipping shows and putting shows up on there to try to draw business up for the bands that I was representing, and then all of a sudden, different alcohol brands wanted to partner on shows and things like that.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, but also at the same time, I'm a solopreneur, so I've been doing this for a very long time, but I don't say this like the regular creators where it's like, here's your Lamborghini.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've done this because I wanted a balance in my life and I wanted to keep things at a certain contained level.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so I respect what you're doing, and I want to tell you that there's a it's a grind, it is there's nothing easy about it.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's gonna tell you you're crazy and you're full of shit, and everybody's gonna do that part too, the gatekeeping part.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: But I've also been a big fan of Gary Vaynerchuk and all that.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: So if you follow Gary V at all, everyone thinks he says the greatest thing that is the truest thing is that share everything because 90% of the people aren't gonna do it.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: And then when you get the 10% that are interested, you know that those 10% are gonna be your audience and your community.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And that's if you're sufficiently happy there, then that's perfect because anything past that 10% is just bots and people that aren't ever gonna buy from you, they're not ever, they're just vanity metrics.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh you know, it's it's I and that's the thing is when you get to a place where you know I built I built a program called the beer race back in from 2010, 2017, before any targeted, we did no paid ads.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: I literally went to beer festivals with a QR code on a business card and took selfies with almost every attendee at every beer festival, and then I would tell them that their photo go tag themselves in their photos, and then that was how I built a 20,000 audience in the early 2010s, which today would be you know a couple million if it was the same way that the algorithm works today.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: I say all that because I'm a grinder, I I I grind everything, I'm resilient, I'm persistent, but I'm not annoying.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I'm I'm one of those things where if I get an idea in my head like you, it's like I'm gonna do this, and if you're if you're running alongside me, then we're gonna all benefit from it.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: And go to go back to the monster conversation, that's all an ecosystem.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a benefit to them as well as a benefit to you to be able to create that content.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And a majority of businesses don't see that, they'll say things to their employees like, oh, you're spending too much time on social media, and they're not realizing what that quality of what that comes out of that, but also the authenticity of you being vulnerable and exposing that's going on.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not exposing in some clickbait way, it's exposing so that other people can understand the reality because let's be honest, you like you said, everybody thinks selling beer is fun.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: People don't realize that there is there's a lot of fun in it, but there's also a lot of Excel files, there's a lot of dirty basements, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of moldy, you know, out-of-code product you're buying back.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that the more we expose the transparency or be transparent into that, the more people can come into things with the reality of what it is.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's the biggest thing with anything in in trust, and like you said earlier about trusting data and trusting insights, is like people be real, we'll be real with everybody.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like this is a day on the job.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Today I'm gonna spend six hours on windshield time and I'm gonna have two hours worth of meetings.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then that's gonna be a time-lapse video because nobody wants to follow you for six hours in the car while you talk to yourself.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_01: I tried to uh strategically plan my day in the life based off of my best reps.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: So recently I posted um some red, white, and blue displays that we did for 4th of July that happened on the last day.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, it happened like early, early in uh June, but I edited it all up and then I posted it for uh the July 4th, like the Friday before July 4th.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_01: So very strategic in how I do that, and then I can reuse that content uh as shorts later on.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_01: I've started to realize that as well.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's so much niche, like weird things that you learn as you go.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm also running, I just I created a own uh my own media company, says ChatGPT.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like I uh you know, type in all this stuff and it got overwhelming for a little while too, because it was like always on.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like I'm trying to also schedule podcasts.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: I am uh making I call it, I I always say you gotta feed the demon, which is the the content demon, because it wants you to be on there all the time.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: But I luckily I have a website that allows me to schedule some things, and I think people look at it like um this guy is on the internet all the time.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of do have to be everywhere all the time, and that's where I do kind of love and hate Gary V also, because Oh, yeah, I don't agree with him on your metrics on that at all.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's got a 50-person team, you know.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Sure, yeah, I don't have that.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: So I also spent a lot of time thinking like, how do I do it as a one-man army?
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I I just recently started to figure that out.
• 36:54
  SPEAKER_01: I spent the last three years building like crazy, and now I have all of this content and this information, and then I've gotten really good at chopping up shorts now, too.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I've gotten my own style, and this is something that I share on my YouTube channel as well.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to know, I don't want to champ up my shorts.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: I have a very small uh I have a like an 18-minute video where I literally do a walkthrough of how I do it.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_01: And this was like the early days where I wasn't paying for anything.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to, I showed you all the little workarounds that I use on CapCut, and I do that all from my phone, just sitting right here uh at this desk.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: But man, you just learn so many different things whenever you are trying to start marketing yourself or whenever you go out.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is kind of uncharted waters.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I now the more people I talk to, I see this in them.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're this now the person I didn't realize you've been doing it for this long as far as trying to be a consultant in this industry.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's one thing to be a consultant for a company and to a retailer, but it's also another thing entirely to try to find customers that need you and are willing to admit that they need your help.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um that's that's that's the biggest rejection under uh in everything.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people talk about business-to-business sales as far as retail goes, but it is a very uh arduous process sometimes to get to getting those clients.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's really uh Wes, it's sometimes out of the control of the intent.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like sometimes it's like trying to make the financial piece work.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where both people want to work together, but you gotta make it work and you gotta pay your bills because you're a solopreneur and you have to like that's where that's the hard part is when you your services sometimes are skewed a little differently than a large agency.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: So trying to compete with that comes down to the wire, too.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: I I feel like people would pay I don't know if companies like smaller small to mid-sized distributors would they um have the budget for a large company.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that is where I kind of offer some value because I am just one guy and I do have some tiers as well.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: So if you are a small to mid-sized distributor, I'm very approachable in what it costs.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I have individual rates on my site, but if you were a company and you wanted to get team rates, I I feel like I'm fairly approachable and there's different ways.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I actually do have that also in a system where it is tiered, like you uh ramp up to a certain point where you would be able to pay for me to actually be there in person.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: We do live in a day and age where you can get a lot done online, so you can do that, and then we can have virtual calls like we're having right now, where we can go through all of these systems as well.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't have to be a boring call that lasts for a really long time.
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like me as a rep, I'm like, yeah, that's what we need, another sales call.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: But um yeah, it's there's there's ways to to work with the customer, and that's definitely what I what I'm trying to do.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just trying to find that one person that's like, yeah, we're doing good, but we need to scale.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: And to scale, you have to have a system.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_01: And to have a system, it's one thing to create a system, but can you coach and and teach somebody a system?
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so that's kind of where I'm at.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's like if you don't have the time or bandwidth as a company to do that, but you know you need onboarding, you know you need it, you know you need to coach your guys to sell better.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then there is like a tiny little spot where you have like 5% or 1% of employees where you're like, this guy needs to go to the next level, but I also don't have the time to coach, give him the career development coaching that he needs, because we get caught up in the day-to-day.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: As managers, you're gonna get caught up in the day-to-day.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: You can't uh, and that's something that I talk about in brand builders is like, how many times has it happened where you went to your boss, they know that you're the next can the next right candidate, and you're like, okay, uh, I'm ready for the next step.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_01: What do I need to do?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then they sit down with you one day and they break it all out and say, This is our career development program for this company.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: If you do this, this, and this, then you'll you'll you'll be recognized and ready for the next step.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: And you're like, okay, cool, how long does this last?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_01: It might be like a two to three month program.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_01: And then that leader, your coach that you just asked for that will be like, All right, we're gonna go through it together.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: You sit down with them, you get you do a check-in next two weeks, and you've you've done a couple of things, and then that person, then you go to check in with them in another couple of weeks, and the meeting is a little bit shorter, you guys are kind of more caught up in the day-to-day, and then that's probably the only time you probably see them a couple of times when you talk about your career development.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I'm saying.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be more intentional with that part of it.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you really want to grow, you have to invest in yourself and put that time in yourself.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Even the person within that company that wants to see you grow and develop and will put yourself, will put your name out there, but they can't market you the same way you do.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like selling a brand.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if if you go in and you talk to that clerk behind this behind the counter, and you're selling them on this display and why you should do it, and what the promo is and how much you're gonna do, and they say, Okay, that's cool.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so and so comes in tomorrow, and you're like, Well, I don't have till tomorrow.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_01: So you do your best in selling that, selling it to that clerk that's gonna later talk to the decision maker, but you know they're not gonna sell it as well as you do.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: You want that in-person connection.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you get that right person at the right time where you have an opportunity to to sell that display.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's just what it is with yourself, too.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: You have to create a brand that you feel passionate about.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: You have to you have to chart your course and know where you're going so that you can get that message in front of the right people and get where you want to go.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that's my I don't even know what we were talking about there, but that's my thought on trying to try to think of yourself as a brand and build yourself up and get to that next level.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's one thing to be able to um understand the ins and outs of the industry, be able to sell really well, but then where do you want to go after that?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_01: You can't last 20 years in this industry as a route sales rent.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's just not gonna work.
• 43:46
  SPEAKER_01: You have to know where you're going after that.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't think a lot of people think that.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_01: I talk to people that have like, I've been a merchandiser for this brand for 20 years.
• 43:53
  SPEAKER_01: I think I know what I'm doing.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you don't know what you're doing because you wouldn't be a merchandiser still after being.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Being here for 18 years and doing the same thing poorly over and over.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: If you knew what you were doing, we probably wouldn't be having this conversation because I come in and I tell you that you're merged it wrong every single time.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I know go, I know a couple of those.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, have you ever have you ever thought so as you were talking, and as much as you got at the end there, you didn't know where you were going, but I'm gonna tell you from the op from the receiving end, it was completely cohesive and everything made sense.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it actually led me to this uh closing question for you and a compliment.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Your cadence, have you ever like thought about doing creating those online courses to scale what you're trying to do where it wasn't a manual process or anything like that?
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: Your cadence is like spot on, yeah.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Which obviously I can tell your season your season sales rep, yeah.
• 44:49
  SPEAKER_01: My well, my very first job was in broadcasting from a very early age.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: I knew that I wanted to be in radio.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_01: Radio died, unfortunately, but we have this cool thing called YouTube.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_01: We have podcasts now.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_01: So whereas like the traditional format of broadcasting is kind of going the way of the buffalo, now everybody has this.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um everybody has this platform where they can do it.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I do agree with Gary B.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody does have a platform.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_01: If you want to do this, you have a way to do it.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yes, I have created.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, all these courses are created.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I started I started in 2023 creating.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: I got everything copyrighted as far as the foundational knowledge and sales system in 2024.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is up at BebVDU.co.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can buy you can as an individual, you can purchase one or you can purchase the whole bundle as far as the foundational knowledge, the sales system, and brand builders.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, uh man, I I I can't even begin to tell you what it took to actually put everything together.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, a lot of long nights, a lot of development, and my equipment.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can tell from my very first video.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if you purchase um if you if you go in and you take the course of the foundational knowledge in the sales system, and then you switch over, you almost get the bins whenever you start going into the brand builders part.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because my abilities in editing and recording and developing scripts, and the way I went about the brand builders part was way different than the tr the first two.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_01: The first two are very traditional corporate uh training videos on how to do stuff, which at some point whenever I get the whenever I get the freedom, I might go back and you know, if I get the freedom in the team, then I might go back and redo the videos to make them a little bit more exciting.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_01: But the idea is that all the information is there.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, uh, you know, this comes with 20 years of experience in this industry and a passion for coaching and developing talent.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: And putting some putting some excitement back into that person.
• 47:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think a lot of people a lot of people will spend time overcomplicating it in a way that kind of pushes the front line away.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: We don't need to be doing that.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: We need to make sure that we simplify everything for the front line, show them how easy and fun this is, and then once they get the basics down, then we start lifting them up.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, you're good at that, you've done really good at that.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Check this, check this technique out, and that's where I get into the idea of advanced techniques.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, get the basics down, get really good at that.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: Once that gets boring, I'll show you a little more, and that's what we should be doing and having a lot of fun along the way.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and it doesn't always have to be uh a big grand gesture.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: We're having a UFC is coming up soon, and I just took it upon myself.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_01: There's a local bar here uh in my small town, uh rural town of San Antonio, and I just send a message out to all my monster team in Austin, Laco come on down, we're gonna watch some UFC.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: This guy is brand, it's small business.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: He gave us the run of the place, doesn't cost us anything.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: We're monsters.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_01: So of course he's like super excited like to have us there.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_01: Opportunity to convert uh an account that's not a coke account into a Coke account.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um it's that kind of stuff thinking outside the box that that gets you recognized, um, and it doesn't cost you anything.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: So you just start seeing there's different ways to grow a brand, grow the culture.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, I don't know.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's just it's a weird passion that I've I've become like low-key obsessed.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if it's a a dysfunction that I have, but it seems like whenever I get into something and I start and it starts clicking, I like low-key become obsessed with it, whether it's creating a course, whether it's coaching, whether it's selling drinks, just whatever, I've become um kind of engulfed in all of it.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: Dude, that's awesome, man.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really, I'm really glad we we got we finally got to to talk and stuff like that.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking forward to some more conversations with you and picking your brain on a few things, as well as anything I can do to help you as well, man.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's uh it was this is much more in as far as how much our our lives aligned over the past past 20 years, it's pretty wild.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I just gotta admit that also that that's the joy of uh of doing this show without any prep is that I get to learn a lot of these things and it's it's exciting.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I got uh to to meet somebody else who who was in this and and to you, kudos for the work you put in.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm uh while you were talking, I was uh I did hop on your website and looked at the the courses and stuff like that.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: Beautiful website, very user-friendly as far as that goes.
• 50:07
  SPEAKER_00: And just like kudos on the work you've done because this isn't your full full focus.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: You have you do have a uh a job you're doing during the day while you're doing this, and the quality of what you're putting out uh is phenomenal.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: So keep doing what you're doing, man.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_00: I really, I'll I'll I really appreciate it.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thanks, man.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's like I said, it's that obsession that I have.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um and it's and it's user-friendly intentionally.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was it wasn't always like that.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: I just revamped that website because I didn't want any questions.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted it to be almost like Apple-esque, where you're just like you immediately go and you're like, I want this, and you can get it, and you don't have to menu dive, you don't have to go through a whole bunch of crazy stuff.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um quarterly, I'll be doing like some some webinars that that lower the price.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know when my next one is.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then I'm also gonna have a new offer, which is like a one-pager on how to build your brand that be even more approachable.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_01: But as it stands now, I feel like I'm giving each course for basically the price of an ebook.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't know why anybody wouldn't want to take that time to invest in themselves and get better.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_01: If they've asked, if you've asked for coaching and you're not getting the coaching that you need, and you know that you have more to give, like, bro, just spend the 60 bucks and go take a course, get better at selling, get better at managing your route, planning, you know, and then take the time to build yourself up and move away from that person that's not gonna give you what you deserve.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's that simple.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can go very far in this industry, it will take a little bit of work.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't want to put in the work, then that's fine.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_01: Just be happy with, you know, in the role that there's a place for people like that too.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: But if you want more, bro, you have the guy that's gonna tell you everything right now.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_01: I will show you everything that I did over the past 20 years, and hopefully you'll get there in like five years.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the goal of this, is like I want you to get there faster than me.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_01: Took me a long time to figure it out, but everything is in there, step by step.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to feel emotional about it or anything, just go do it.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely perfect.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, hey, Wes, we're gonna wind down here, and uh, I want to thank you for coming on today and thank you for taking the time.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it because I want to remind everybody in the audience watching and listening.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is no script, there is no agenda.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_00: Wes and I have never met, we've never had a drink together at a bar, we've never shared coffee together, and it's uh the power of the human connection.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I want everybody to understand that it is this easy to make friends.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_00: You have more in common with people than you expect every single day.
• 52:38
  SPEAKER_00: And Wes, for you to have the cojones to come on without any questions.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of people that say, Yeah, can we have a meeting prior?
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_00: Can we have some questions to get ready for?
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, there's no script intentionally because I want this to be authentic.
• 52:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want this to be organic, and that's exactly what we were able to do today.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, man, for having the courage to come on.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
• 52:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for having me, Nate.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 52:59
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I want to remind everybody as well, everybody watching and listening, when you are out in the street walking on the sidewalk, put your phone in your pocket, look at the stranger as you're walking down the street, when you're at the gas station filling up your cup of coffee, look at the person next to you, ask them how they're doing, how their day was, and actually listen to them.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_00: The challenge to everybody is five minutes of kindness to a stranger every week, 20 minutes a month.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about ROIs, we talk about drinks in here, and it's all fun and games, but at the same time, it's important that no matter how good your life is, show kindness to a stranger.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_00: Five minutes a week, 20 minutes a month, awesome ROI that we can put out into the world.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you, everybody, for watching and listening.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Wes, thank you for coming on today, man.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was awesome to meet you.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_00: Say, man, thank you.
• 53:39
  unknown: Awesome.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_00: You take care, Wes.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: Have a good rest of your day, buddy.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_00: Good luck on the route today.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.