Latest / We Built This Brand / Leading The Sales Rebellion with Dale Dupree
Transcript
- 0:00A lot of people saw the track like, Hey, if I do these things, X, Y,
- 0:03Z, line up A, B, C, do my thousand calls a week, blah, blah, blah.
- 0:07I'll make success and eventually I'll be the manager and then
- 0:10maybe I'll get a shot at equity.
- 0:12Right?
- 0:12And I was just kind of like, I don't care about any of that.
- 0:14I want to do what I love.
- 0:16Welcome to We Built This Brand, where we talk to the creators and
- 0:19collaborators behind your favorite brands.
- 0:22Today, I’m talking with The Copier Warrior himself, Dale Dupree.
- 0:25Dale’s the Founder and leader of The Sales Rebellion, and his unique
- 0:30approach to sales and marketing inspires New Hope for the industry.
- 0:34This is a guy who cut his teeth in a Metalcore band and now channels that
- 0:38DIY attitude into changing the game.
- 0:40Are you ready to and take down the established Empire of sales?
- 0:43Then suit up!
- 0:44Here’s my conversation with Dale Dupree.”
- 0:51Welcome to We Built This Brand.
- 0:52Thanks, man.
- 0:53We're just diving in.
- 0:54Excited to be here.
- 0:55Yeah, I'm happy to have you.
- 0:56Thank you for your patience as we've been getting set up and everything.
- 1:00Good.
- 1:00It's a lot of fun to have you.
- 1:01So excited to talk to you today.
- 1:03You know, a lot of who we've been talking to recently have been agencies,
- 1:06like marketing agencies, PR agencies, folks like that, and always love being
- 1:10able to talk to someone who runs what I would call, like, "a true brand," a
- 1:13business that is not just representing other people, but you're actually doing
- 1:16something, creating something unique in the marketplace, and I think what you're
- 1:21doing with Sales Rebellion's really cool.
- 1:22So happy to dive into that with you today.
- 1:26Would love to start, as we always do, with a little bit of your background,
- 1:29and if you don't know who Dale Dupree is, there's a lot of places you can learn
- 1:33about your story, and would love to hear just your Reader's Digest version, because
- 1:39I know you, we've talked about it a bunch.
- 1:41Everywhere I look you up, it's like, alright, your background, and 30 minutes
- 1:44in, we finally get into some meat.
- 1:45So I'd like to kinda bypass that today and dive more into where you're at with
- 1:50Sales Rebellion and everything else.
- 1:52So, I'll let you take it away.
- 1:53Thanks.
- 1:54It's easier this way too for me, 'cause it typically, when I do those podcasts that
- 1:59you're talking about, people say, they go, "Tell us a little bit about yourself,"
- 2:02and then they hear like four things and they go, "Yo, you gotta talk more about
- 2:05that," and then all of a sudden we're 30 minutes in, and we haven't talked.
- 2:08But, Dale Dupree, my friends, they call me the Copier Warrior.
- 2:13Now, to ultimately understand where I come from.
- 2:15You gotta go back a little bit further real quick.
- 2:18In 1984, my father broke away from the status quo of sales selling copy
- 2:22machines for the corporate monster, doing awesome, number one rep in
- 2:27line to take over the business.
- 2:28He left all that safety, all that security, everything that he
- 2:32had built because he just didn't like the way they did business.
- 2:34Had nothing to do with what he was making or ultimately like being
- 2:37an entrepreneur even, he didn't like how they treated people.
- 2:41He didn't like how they ran their operation, and he wanted more,
- 2:44not just for himself, but for his customers and his client base.
- 2:46He felt like he could get that too.
- 2:48So he said, you know, by the grace of God, I'm gonna go build something.
- 2:51And by the way too, just to like mention it, although my father eventually
- 2:55became a born again Christian at that point, and when I say by the grace of
- 2:58God, my dad was like an atheist, right?
- 3:02So he just leap of faith, like literally on himself in that moment said, this
- 3:06is something that I need to do, and I shouldn't call him an atheist.
- 3:08He grew up in a Christian household.
- 3:09Sure.
- 3:09He did not know who God was and didn't really care at all, right?
- 3:12But the year after 1984 is my birth year, 1985, and people
- 3:18joke with me all the time.
- 3:19They say, "Dude, Dale was born with toner running through his veins," okay?
- 3:24So, 'cause here's my dad's 10 years into the copier industry
- 3:27from an injury, a football injury.
- 3:30He broke his neck.
- 3:31It kept him from getting into the NFL basically, and instead
- 3:34he was like, what am I gonna do?
- 3:35And he sold paper like Dwight Schrute, and that led to copiers, and then all of
- 3:39a sudden he is opening his own business.
- 3:41So it's my legend, right?
- 3:42It's my legacy.
- 3:43And so I spent years from a child to an adult teen wandering the
- 3:50halls of my father's business.
- 3:51Letting that toner really sink into those veins and into my bloodstream.
- 3:58I learned the industry without ever really trying to learn the industry, if
- 4:02you will, and what I really learned is I learned how to become a servant leader.
- 4:06I learned how to give experiences.
- 4:07I learned how to be a man that didn't need recognition.
- 4:11That's what I learned, and I learned all those things from my father in a nutshell.
- 4:14There's a lot more that I learned on top of that, but like how to now lose
- 4:17money when you're selling stuff, and you know, lots of other things, right?
- 4:21But ultimately that shaped me.
- 4:22It gave me an imagination, and my father was, he was always very
- 4:25entrepreneurial to say, "Yo Dale, I want you to do what you love. I don't
- 4:30want you to do what you think is gonna make you a lot of money," and whatnot.
- 4:33So with that same motivation, I took it, and I actually ended up skipping
- 4:38college and touring in a band on Warner Bros. Records eventually.
- 4:43That's awesome.
- 4:43I mean, we started on Pluto.
- 4:44Sure.
- 4:45Indie label.
- 4:46My boy Brian, shout out to Brian if you're listening to this, influential
- 4:51entrepreneur in my life as well for sure.
- 4:53You meet people along the way that have such a huge impact on you, and they
- 4:57never even know in the first place, but yeah, that man helped me and guided me
- 5:02and got me into Sony distribution and Warner Bros. Records distribution, and you
- 5:07know, we had people buying our stuff in Tokyo, you know, and our albums, right?
- 5:12And so for me, like, I could see I had this vision, right?
- 5:15But then I saw it come to life, and it was never the glitz and glamor that
- 5:19people say it is at the end of the day.
- 5:21'cause we weren't the Rolling Stones.
- 5:22That's how you have to, that's the only way to make money in the music
- 5:25industry, is sell your soul and become a 50, you know, year band, right?
- 5:30But I digress.
- 5:32The passion was why we did it, the love is why we did it, and eventually,
- 5:36those things brought me back to the copier world, and I would say
- 5:39that there was some instances and circumstances that put me there, but,
- 5:44you have to really understand that I started in this place of creativity.
- 5:47I started in this place of entertainment.
- 5:49I started in this place that I loved That I wanted, that I
- 5:51dreamed of becoming, if you will.
- 5:54I even turned down somewhere in the ballpark of a dozen scholarships, some
- 5:58partial, some full rides, all of, most of them, there was only two academic ones,
- 6:02but most of them are sports related.
- 6:04So here I'm an athlete, but I play in a metal band, and I'm like the weirdest
- 6:08kid you've ever met, right, at the time.
- 6:10Just imagine, long haired dude, dunking on you, and then moshing,
- 6:15you know, later that night, right?
- 6:16Yeah.
- 6:16Like it was, I was a very unique person, right?
- 6:19So, and I, hopefully, I still am to some capacity, but got back into copier sales,
- 6:23spent 13 years doing it, and that's where I created the moniker, The Copier
- 6:29Warrior, and I built my reputation on the back of serving leadership principles,
- 6:33and ultimately on the back of a ton of failure, a ton of risk, which led to a
- 6:39lot of reward at the end of the day that I don't think a lot of people of my age
- 6:43would've ever really even thought about, especially in the industry I was in.
- 6:46I think a lot of people saw the track that were in my industry, like, "Hey,
- 6:50if I do these things, X, Y, Z, line up A, B, C, do my thousand calls a week,
- 6:55blah, blah, blah. I'll make success and eventually I'll be the manager
- 6:59and then maybe I'll get a shot at equity, right?" And I was just kind of
- 7:02like, I don't care about any of that.
- 7:03I want to do what I love.
- 7:05I kept going back to that.
- 7:06I wanna make people feel seen and heard, and not because I have to do that, but
- 7:11because they deserve that, and that ultimately I'll build a community similar
- 7:15to the one that my father did for himself.
- 7:17Eventually that led to me leaving, we were talking about the corporate world
- 7:21a little while ago, like, it led to me leaving corporate, knowing that in my
- 7:26heart, more so than anywhere else, it wasn't a place for me, and that there
- 7:30was no way I was going to change it.
- 7:32That's impossible, but instead I said, yeah, but I can go and start a
- 7:37movement, and I can win the hearts and minds of people that feel the same way
- 7:42that I do, that want to be more than just a salesperson, that desire more
- 7:47for their life than just transactions that want to experience it, that want
- 7:52to breathe life into something that's dead and stale, and badabing bada boom,
- 7:572019, launched The Sales Rebellion.
- 7:59Had no idea what I was doing, still don't really understand what I'm doing, but
- 8:02I'm six years in, and I haven't taken a paycheck from anybody else but myself.
- 8:07Yeah.
- 8:07And man, even if it crashes and burns tomorrow, and I'm done with
- 8:10it, what a ride it's been for sure.
- 8:12So.
- 8:12That's exciting.
- 8:13That's really cool, and I know there's a lot more to that on all fronts.
- 8:18One of the things that I think is really interesting is how
- 8:21you've kind of kept this creative element going this whole time.
- 8:24Like, there's been
- 8:27kind of this pattern of, you know, you wanted to do music, you wanted to do
- 8:30something artistic, then you got into sales, which can be very structured
- 8:34and very formal, and you found a way to make it really creative and really
- 8:37unique, and dare I say, a little metal, I found as I was looking back.
- 8:42I was checking some stuff out last night and I came across
- 8:44your band, and, Imperial.
- 8:47Is that right?
- 8:47That's it.
- 8:47Yeah, and very metal, and that is the genre that you would consider, right?
- 8:53I just wanna make sure you went like, oh, it's actually
- 8:55this mad sub genre, Gothcore.
- 8:58I don't know.
- 8:59I'm just kidding, but you know what I'm getting at, but very metal.
- 9:03And then I went and checked out your video that you have for The Copier
- 9:08Warrior, which was really fun.
- 9:10Yeah.
- 9:10And it had just so many elements of it.
- 9:13I was like, "Okay, this guy hasn't left his roots." Like, he's still got
- 9:17some of it with him as he is traveling.
- 9:19Yeah.
- 9:19And then where you are now, even within, you know, The Sales Rebellion
- 9:23and things, there's a lot of creative elements there that are very unique.
- 9:29So it's cool to see you being true to yourself as part of the process, too.
- 9:34And so with that, we get into starting this rebellion, this sales rebellion.
- 9:40Tell me how did you come up with that idea?
- 9:43I mean, you left, you got burned out and you started, wanted to start something,
- 9:46but where did you go from there?
- 9:47Know I'm such a nerd.
- 9:49In the beginning when I started to look at this idea of leaving the corporate
- 9:56landscape, and let me just say too, that I didn't suffer from burnout in
- 10:03the corporate landscape, or even in the private business side of things, too.
- 10:05I mean, I did a lot, I worked really hard.
- 10:10I preach the idea of not doing that as much because of my experiences
- 10:15and the things I learned, and there was also a balance there.
- 10:19I hate to call it that, but really what there was, there was a rebellion there.
- 10:23So in my, and like to just give a little context to that, in 2013, I made the
- 10:28first year that I made six figures, basically like 2012 was the year my
- 10:32father sold his business, and by the way, I started in 2008 as well too.
- 10:35It was late 2007, so I was picking the copy machines up from the companies
- 10:40that you're talking about going like, "Yeah, we're outta business now," and
- 10:42they were shredded files everywhere.
- 10:44I mean, Severance, the TV show like we were talking about.
- 10:47I mean, it was like war zone stuff, dude that we were experiencing.
- 10:51Oh man.
- 10:51So this is like my introduction to the B2B space, right?
- 10:54Well, this is a great place.
- 10:55Like, no, I felt terrible about the B2B space and thought, well, this
- 10:59sucks, and why I'm gonna go work at a fast food restaurant and at least know
- 11:04that I'm gonna make a paycheck and then like do something else, right?
- 11:07That I had that temptation many times, but, you know, ultimately I came back to
- 11:12this space for myself in my upbringing of business that stayed the course.
- 11:19And by 2012, 2013, right, I, my dad's business sells, I go over
- 11:23to the new company through the acquisition, and I'll tell you
- 11:27right now that I was ready for that.
- 11:29I was so fired up for that, dude.
- 11:31Four years of basically rebuilding a business, and you know, hitting a
- 11:35million dollars in there selling, for any of my copier homies listening,
- 11:39used equipment and hitting a million dollars, which I think a lot of people
- 11:44respect that thing more than anything.
- 11:46So, 'cause if a machine costs $15,000, brand new.
- 11:49Yeah.
- 11:49Used, it costs $2,000, dude.
- 11:51Right.
- 11:52That's the literal cost, right?
- 11:53That's a lot of volume.
- 11:54It is a lot of copy machines, dude.
- 11:56I mean, I think one year I was over 110 total accounts, like, with
- 12:00my father and net new business.
- 12:02The average in the copier space at the time especially, was like 12 to 15.
- 12:06Right.
- 12:06Maxim right?
- 12:07Yeah.
- 12:07So, I 10Xed, if you will, shout out to Uncle G or whoever.
- 12:11Grant Cardone, isn't that his name?
- 12:13Maybe, yeah.
- 12:1410X or whatever the hell.
- 12:15Let's call it 11X.
- 12:16I 11Xed it.
- 12:18I went one step further than Uncle G. Anyway, so the idea
- 12:22though, was that, like, I took that to the corporate landscape.
- 12:26I never lost myself in the process.
- 12:29People tried to get me to lose myself, for sure.
- 12:32"Hey, man, you need to be at your desk more often." Yeah, right, dude.
- 12:35No, I'm in the field.
- 12:36I'm a salesperson, right?
- 12:37So when I looked at this idea of starting a rebellion, it was really just looking
- 12:42at all the things that I had already rebelled against in the first place.
- 12:46From being like slapped on the hand and saying, "Hey man, this is
- 12:50the marketing you're passing out?
- 12:51You stabbing copy machines in the middle of the woods?
- 12:54Like, this isn't acceptable.
- 12:56Like, at least you have clothes on, but this is strange.
- 12:59We don't like this," to that same group of leaders coming back to me
- 13:04and going, "Do whatever you want.
- 13:06I'll never forget the first email that ever went out from my second
- 13:13generation of leaders.
- 13:15Shoutout to Rich Johnson, by the way.
- 13:16If he's listening, he was one of the good ones, but in that second
- 13:19generation of leaders, I got Steve Clap.
- 13:21Love this man.
- 13:22He is such an incredible guy, but he sent an email out after the first
- 13:25year, and he said, "and the words of Rocky Balboa," and it wasn't Rocky.
- 13:27It was somebody in like Rocky B that was like, "he's not human," and that fired
- 13:32me up so much to hear a person that knew Jack about one year of my life,
- 13:37to see what I was capable of, and to tell me that, it was so exhilarating.
- 13:44It was so, just in general, it was powerful from a motivational standpoint
- 13:48for my life, not just my business walk, and I took that fire and I turned it
- 13:53into six figures that next year for the first time in my life, right?
- 13:57Because I had to not take a paycheck, man.
- 13:59Like you remember 2008, right?
- 14:01Yeah.
- 14:01Imagine running a small business with your dad, basically, and you're
- 14:05like the only ones left that aren't getting paid at one point because
- 14:08you're trying to keep the employees on.
- 14:09You're paying them.
- 14:10Yeah.
- 14:10Yeah.
- 14:10It was a wild ride, dude.
- 14:12So when I hit those milestones for myself, I think the number one thing I realized
- 14:17was that it wasn't better than the four years that I had spent leading up to this.
- 14:21Like, I hadn't suddenly, like, changed my life.
- 14:25Like, I was already changing my life four years ago by making the decision.
- 14:29The journey became something that I started to romanticize.
- 14:32Mm.
- 14:32And so then I started thinking, well, if I can make my first year, I made
- 14:35$180,000 when I made six figures.
- 14:36So it wasn't like a $101,000.
- 14:38It was like BAM.
- 14:39Like from $65,000, that was the most I ever made, to $180,000.
- 14:43That's awesome.
- 14:44It was a crazy jump, right?
- 14:45And from, and that was 2012, 2013, right?
- 14:48So from there it was insane what happened to me.
- 14:52And so when I looked at starting a movement around money, that
- 14:57was never the motivation.
- 15:00Starting a movement around loving what you do and achieving ultimate
- 15:04freedom from those things?
- 15:05That was the motivation.
- 15:07And so it had nothing really, ultimately, to do with burnout or being sick and tired
- 15:11of stuff or, you know, my corporate job, definitely, they brought me back to work
- 15:15way faster than they should have when my baby was born, and they cited, "Well, you
- 15:20know, you haven't actually earned, you're two months shy of your tenure here to earn
- 15:24those extra weeks. So, sorry about that."
- 15:27Yeah.
- 15:27Like, things like that really just set me off, and then words that were
- 15:31expressed to me by my leaders, and I mean, I've never, I don't know if I
- 15:36can even say it on this podcast, but.
- 15:38You can say it, and we can take it out later.
- 15:40Oh, I've never heard the term in a meeting with the HR person present, and all the
- 15:45leadership of the organization, the word ****sucker used, pointed at an individual.
- 15:51Good Lord.
- 15:52Never heard that.
- 15:53Wow.
- 15:54I've heard it in a fist fight, but like never in a boardroom setting.
- 15:59Like, whoa, buddy, this is intense.
- 16:01And really, I realized that I was in a place that when people were powerful
- 16:05enough, they could get away with anything.
- 16:06Mm.
- 16:07So it, again, it had nothing to do with like, "Man, I'm sick of
- 16:10this," and it had everything to do with, "Man, wouldn't it be nice if
- 16:14we changed the way this worked?"
- 16:16Mm.
- 16:16And and even if we didn't change the way these people worked,
- 16:19that we built our own thing.
- 16:20Yeah.
- 16:20And we did it ourselves.
- 16:21Yeah.
- 16:22And we ignored all this crap and all these rules and all this stupidity.
- 16:25And we did the things that I was able to do to make myself a millionaire,
- 16:28make other people millionaires, and ultimately gain financial freedom that
- 16:31led to ultimate freedom in my life.
- 16:33So yeah, that's a real, I took like some left turns, some right turns in there, but
- 16:37hopefully that hits your, your question.
- 16:39No, no, no.
- 16:39It's good because, like, you're showing kind of the rebellious stage of it, but it
- 16:44was really about a rebellion for something better, and, like, for me, like, in just
- 16:50thinking about my own career, that was a lot of what I experienced too, of like,
- 16:53oh, people are getting away with stuff they shouldn't be getting away with.
- 16:55And, you know, I was told at one point in my sales career to lie to a customer.
- 17:00Boldface lie to a customer.
- 17:02Now, how do you think my sales career went after I told my
- 17:04boss, "No?" Did not go well.
- 17:06Yeah.
- 17:07And so, like, that became the tension and the ultimate impetus for me moving
- 17:11on and leaving sales entirely for, well, I thought I was leaving it.
- 17:15I didn't really, but I thought I was leaving it for a while and,
- 17:21yeah, I didn't wanna be around that.
- 17:23I didn't wanna be around an environment that encouraged that
- 17:25and thought of that as the winner.
- 17:26Right.
- 17:27And those people as the good people, so I can totally relate to that, and yeah,
- 17:31that call to something better, I think salespeople need to hear that because it
- 17:35can often be a very toxic environment.
- 17:37So tell me a little bit more.
- 17:39So you get this name, Rebellion, where else does, I feel like there's
- 17:43something else with Rebellion too.
- 17:44It feels very Star Wars-y.
- 17:46Yeah.
- 17:46I've noticed some Star Wars themes to what you do.
- 17:48Yeah.
- 17:49Is there's some elements there?
- 17:50Yeah.
- 17:50Imperial, The Sales Rebellion.
- 17:52Yeah.
- 17:53Yeah.
- 17:53It really was easy for me to decide to call this a, "rebellion," and
- 17:59then it felt like everybody wanted to use the word after I used it.
- 18:03So it's almost as if like everybody was thinking about it, and I was
- 18:06the first person to just like, dare mighty things and say like, I don't
- 18:09care if I'm in a corporate landscape.
- 18:11I'm gonna call this what I wanna call it.
- 18:12And yeah, it, 1,000%, I'm a rebel dude.
- 18:15Like, I'm a rebel scum, bro.
- 18:17I'm a big fan of Luke Skywalker, his story, I know it's not real and it's
- 18:23fictional, ladies and gentlemen, but I just love this idea of like
- 18:27the farm boy who knows nothing but his parents upbringing, who are
- 18:31not even his parents, by the way.
- 18:33Gosh.
- 18:33Spoilers, spoilers, by the way, Darth Vader and Luke.
- 18:37There's something, there's something happening in there that maybe.
- 18:40Maybe I shouldn't talk about it anyway, but yeah, we don't wanna spoil it.
- 18:42But like his erraticness, his, you know, just his energy, his excitement to go
- 18:48to war, you know, against the empire and to fight back, and man there that,
- 18:52I was inspired by that, and my mother was the big push and those things.
- 18:56She loved Star Wars too for the storytelling and the sci-fi, and
- 19:01it was like one of her first movies that she ever saw in the theaters.
- 19:05And, you know, because that was like a big deal at that point in history in the '70s,
- 19:09and like, you know, my mom was primed.
- 19:11She was like in college and it was like perfect timing for someone like her to be
- 19:16immersed into those stories, and she's a pretty straight-laced woman to be quite
- 19:18frank with you, but she's fun, she's quirky, she's got a big imagination.
- 19:23And sometimes I wonder if ultimately I get my imagination from my mom,
- 19:27and she's just never really said that, you know, in the first place.
- 19:29But because of that, I operate in nostalgia dude, and I believe
- 19:35that most people do as well.
- 19:36I believe that when I get a marketing piece, or I field a sales call that if
- 19:41there's some type of experiential moment there that leads toward curiosity, toward
- 19:46nostalgia, toward the idea of even like taking a little bit of a risk, like some
- 19:52adventure, if you will, that people will respond better, more efficiently, and
- 19:57different, and, like, different is what all of us need from people in responses,
- 20:02because otherwise it's just the status quo and otherwise, like, we're just noise.
- 20:07So when I thought of, you know, like how do I name a corporate brand, it
- 20:10made so much sense for me to just go back to the things that drive me that
- 20:14I'm passionate about, that I love, like a sci-fi thriller called Star Wars
- 20:19that kids, which is even crazy, right?
- 20:22That kids, you know, around us coming up in a whole new generation think that The
- 20:27Acolyte is Star Wars, and I'm like, no bro, it's The Return of the Jedi, dude.
- 20:32That's Star Wars, right?
- 20:33But anyway, the goal was really also to think about what is
- 20:37the evolution of the buyer?
- 20:38So if I call my company "Deal to Pre-sales Training" or something
- 20:42more corporate, well in about 10 years, who am I selling to?
- 20:47Well, I'm selling to kids, man.
- 20:48I'm selling to the next generation, 65% of decision makers, even with
- 20:52the groups that we support in the B2B space, from solar, to copiers, to
- 20:57IT, to the financial side of things.
- 20:59Like you name it, like FinTech, SaaS, they sell to people that are
- 21:03between the ages of 25 and 45, dude.
- 21:06That's the majority of buyers now.
- 21:08So if, again, like in my mind, just like you have looked at my brand
- 21:13and said, "this is cool, this is fun," like, that's the point is to
- 21:16let people know that like, hey, like stretch your legs a little bit, man.
- 21:19Like, unbutton the top button.
- 21:21Take your tie off even like.
- 21:22Be yourself.
- 21:23Be authentic.
- 21:24It's okay.
- 21:25it's fine.
- 21:26Yeah.
- 21:26And you bring up a good point with like who you're marketing towards too.
- 21:30Like that positioning is saying, "Hey, we're here for the people who
- 21:34see this, get this, understand it, which is gonna attract a certain
- 21:37type of person to you," right?
- 21:39Which is really helpful for you as well.
- 21:41But also with that positioning, you know, I tend to forget about it, but as you're
- 21:45saying it, I'm like, let me think about all the sales training I've ever been in.
- 21:49Oh yeah.
- 21:49There was SOCS at AT&T.
- 21:52The Science of Consultative Selling.
- 21:53Yes, and it was a whole formulaic thing.
- 21:57I even had to get SOCS sales certified, which included like sales tests
- 22:02and role plays and all this stuff.
- 22:04I did Northwestern Mutual at one point in my career.
- 22:07Like, that was actually my first experience was insurance sales
- 22:11with Northwestern Mutual, in a market where I didn't have family
- 22:14too, which was really tough.
- 22:15And so like, it was, you know, I've, I've been through all that, and then
- 22:19I've also dealt a little bit with like Sandler Sales, and the one constant theme
- 22:23through all these is they are boring.
- 22:25They are not fun.
- 22:27It makes sales out to be just a science and a numbers game, which it can very
- 22:31well be, and very much is at times, but it's very much just this boring process,
- 22:36and you're breathing new life into it.
- 22:38And I think that's what I find really interesting about it.
- 22:40Word.
- 22:41I like the concept too of, so I feed off of the old to create
- 22:49what I have put together.
- 22:50So, I like going back to the Zig Ziglars and, like, learning about what they
- 22:55were trying to relay, or the David Sandlers, and then seeing, finding
- 23:00the gaps first, and then also like understanding their science, if you will.
- 23:06Because the way that that helps me to break it down is I get to say, okay, cool.
- 23:10So, in all science it becomes predictable is the thought process.
- 23:15Well, humans are not predictable, so if I boil everything down to a science, you
- 23:21know, and I'm Sandler Sales Training, it's gonna definitely work throughout
- 23:24the '80s and the '90s and maybe even some of the early 2000s, but over
- 23:28time, like, people are gonna start to understand what you're doing to them.
- 23:32That science, that predictability of that science with an unpredictable
- 23:36environment, they don't mesh, and so at a certain point you lose it.
- 23:41And so here we go with the whole, like, this is anybody listening,
- 23:45this is the literal purpose, let's just say, of The Sales Rebellion.
- 23:51The purpose of The Sales Rebellion is to meet people where they are, not to
- 23:54force something into their ecosystem.
- 23:59Science forces stuff into your ecosystem.
- 24:01It says, "Well, now what's important is your ROI." We all wanna make
- 24:06money off something in the business environment, but that's not the
- 24:09most, what's actually important is what I'm doing with that money.
- 24:13My people that I'm hiring, how I'm supporting their families.
- 24:16My customers and their happiness.
- 24:19Not just because I had a good product, but because I treated them like normal,
- 24:22rational, intelligent human beings.
- 24:25Right.
- 24:25And that I respected the emotional side of things as well, too.
- 24:30Groups like Sandler, the Challenger, so they don't respect the emotions of people.
- 24:35They don't care about how you feel.
- 24:38They need you to meet them where they are.
- 24:40That's what their systems are all designed to do, and mad respect for,
- 24:44you know, the old guard and the people that have built what they've built,
- 24:47but they live in a fantasy world now.
- 24:50They live in a fantasy world.
- 24:51They put out books, like, right literally at the peak of COVID saying, "Oh, I'm
- 24:58an expert now in selling on Zoom. Here's my book." Like these are the companies.
- 25:03This is who they are.
- 25:04There's no integrity in that.
- 25:06Four weeks of selling on Zoom, and you're an expert.
- 25:09I mean, GTFO, bro.
- 25:12Like, that to me is absolute garbage and totally nuts.
- 25:16And ultimately too, like selling, expertise of selling doesn't
- 25:20come from sales experts, dude.
- 25:21It comes through the way we experience the buying market and the way that
- 25:25we buy ourselves just the same because we're buyers too, right,
- 25:29ultimately, at the end of the day.
- 25:30So really, like, the science of sales, the numbers of sales, those
- 25:35are mythology, in my opinion.
- 25:36The art of sales is the only thing that is a constant that will always
- 25:41for generations to come until every, until you and I are robots, right,
- 25:46doing this interview, which no one will watch at that point anyway.
- 25:49I mean, just robots watching robots talking to robots.
- 25:51Well, it's part of why we're here in person.
- 25:53Right?
- 25:53Exactly.
- 25:54Yeah.
- 25:54Real, living flesh.
- 25:54This
- 25:54is the rebellion, bro.
- 25:56You're leading one in the podcast space, right?
- 25:57That's right.
- 25:58That's right.
- 25:58So, but yeah, that the point being though that like emotion, the human experience,
- 26:04that is the thing that's always consistent within sales and marketing, and that's
- 26:08why people that look beyond what is corporate, what is acceptable in the
- 26:16business what is even appropriate in the business box, those people fail.
- 26:24Yeah.
- 26:24Constantly.
- 26:25Like, I want you so lit up that you're angry with me.
- 26:27Because when I call you and I go, "Hey, this is Dale, the guy that sent
- 26:30you that thing that made you angry," and you're like, "I hated that."
- 26:33And I go, "Yeah, but like, you remembered me. For the first time
- 26:37you remembered a salesperson."
- 26:38Yeah.
- 26:39"Okay. I can see that." And then when you understand the context of like, why
- 26:43I sent you what I sent you in the mail to have this experience and you give it
- 26:46a couple days, you're a $400,000 sale.
- 26:50And not because I like did some weird science on you, but because I met you
- 26:54where you were, and you didn't even know it at the time, but because I understand
- 26:58you, and I made the effort to do those things right, it might feel cold, but
- 27:02man, the internet, AI, when you use it right, powerful places in order
- 27:06to, like, for me to learn about Chris.
- 27:07Yeah.
- 27:08Knows just like you, we're going out and checking Imperial out
- 27:10before we got together, right?
- 27:11Like, you would've never known that without the option of being able to go
- 27:14and do that research in the first place.
- 27:15Right.
- 27:16And that's, I believe that selling, it's not about, I'm not a big
- 27:18personalized everything kind of guy.
- 27:20I'm just like a, I'm rational about that.
- 27:22Man, if you just like mention one thing that's important to
- 27:25me, I'm gonna listen differently.
- 27:27I'm gonna trust you differently.
- 27:28There's more credibility here.
- 27:29So.
- 27:29Yeah.
- 27:30There's a rant for you.
- 27:31I like it though.
- 27:31I mean, finding that human connection with people, is something, and
- 27:35even human emotion is something we're learning as we've interviewed
- 27:38other folks for this podcast.
- 27:40Like, it's a big thing to find that human element to a sale, to a purchase.
- 27:49Impulse buying is becoming more and more common right now with the
- 27:52way the Internet's going and things like that, and a lot of that's
- 27:55driven by people that are bored, that are tired, that are interested.
- 27:58It just gets you, just right time, right place.
- 28:01You're always looking at your phone, so why not throw an ad up there for
- 28:04something that looks mildly intriguing and dirt cheap, or claims to be dirt cheap.
- 28:09If you spend any time on TikTok, you know what I'm talking about?
- 28:13It's just they're crappy products, but you get 'em.
- 28:16'cause it's like, ah, well you know what?
- 28:18It's only $20.
- 28:20If it doesn't work, I can throw it away.
- 28:22You know?
- 28:22Yeah.
- 28:22And it's sad that we're at that point in the economy, but like, you know,
- 28:27but that's just that human element, and even as you get into sales, like,
- 28:31yeah, if you can't interact with people in a way that grabs their attention,
- 28:35like, you're just wasting your breath.
- 28:38So how do you get people to respond for those that may not know much
- 28:44about The Sales Rebellion, like, what is your, what are kind of the core
- 28:48things that you do to help people?
- 28:51And then specifically, like, what kind of, like, I don't wanna say
- 28:54products 'cause I don't know that that's the right way to put it.
- 28:56It might be, but what are the things that you all offer to help people with
- 29:01this sales process to think differently?
- 29:04It's a great question, and you did.
- 29:05You put it all the right way.
- 29:07Yeah.
- 29:08We believe in layman's terms.
- 29:10So you call it a product, if I call it something different,
- 29:12you're not gonna know what it is.
- 29:14Right.
- 29:15We're always about meeting people in those spaces, and so ultimately
- 29:19though, like, what we do is we create differentiation when you find it.
- 29:22So if you see that The Rebellion has curriculum, but so does Sandler,
- 29:28most likely you're gonna be drawn over here to this Sales Rebellion
- 29:32thing, especially 'cause of the aesthetics of what we provide for you.
- 29:35The experience that we give you.
- 29:36It's not like, "Boost your sales by 20% today!" It's more like, "Hey,
- 29:40are you tired of doing the same stuff that your boss keeps telling you to
- 29:43do over and over again that barely helps you hit quota every month?
- 29:46It makes you stressed, makes you anxious, makes life at home
- 29:50harder, makes you drink, makes you pick up bad habits in general.
- 29:54Makes you hate your life, and you've been doing it for seven years now.
- 29:57What the hell?
- 29:59Well come over here.
- 29:59We have something for you that will elicit freedom in your life."
- 30:02And like when people see the difference in those things, it's like, well they
- 30:06saw it 'cause we called it curriculum, but they bought it because we pulled
- 30:10at their heartstrings, and ultimately because we offer something so much
- 30:12different than everybody else.
- 30:14That's really what we offer, man.
- 30:15We offer this I idea of changing the way that your sales works.
- 30:18So, the thing is though, is that we're not cutting edge, dude.
- 30:22Like, I have traced contact marketing back with the father of contact
- 30:27marketing, if you will, Stu Heinecke.
- 30:29It's a silent mentor turned really good friend of mine at this point.
- 30:33That's cool.
- 30:33He's actually gonna be a Totality in Knoxville, Tennessee.
- 30:35August 26th, 27th, and 28th.
- 30:37Shout out to Totality.
- 30:38Fascinating.
- 30:39Okay.
- 30:39If you wanna meet him and learn about his crazy life, you know, 50
- 30:44years almost of contact marketing.
- 30:46It's a wild ride.
- 30:47That's amazing.
- 30:48You know, but through people like him, I was able to find like the Medici bro, like
- 30:53Da Vinci created a, like a painting for the Medici to like sell this other banking
- 31:00family on using their, you know network, if you will, by painting this picture, you
- 31:08know, through this famous artist, right?
- 31:11Like, to get these people to basically be like, "This is awesome. Let's
- 31:15take a meeting with these guys." Like, this is something that's
- 31:18been happening forever, dude.
- 31:19Yeah.
- 31:20But the idea is that we've lost touch with it because of the word "scalability,"
- 31:24first and foremost, and the greed that people have toward quick, fast, easy
- 31:28money, that doesn't last, by the way.
- 31:30Yeah.
- 31:30Right?
- 31:30Most of the companies that quick, fast, easy money, they sell, or
- 31:34they have to become an acquisition God among the marketplace in order
- 31:37to remain relevant to begin with.
- 31:39Yeah.
- 31:39Yeah.
- 31:40It's crazy that the biggest brands out there are big because they
- 31:43bought everybody else that was coming in to beat them, right?
- 31:46And that's what the, like literal strategy is a business these days.
- 31:50That to me is not sustainable, bro.
- 31:52Yeah.
- 31:52It's monopolizing networks and marketplaces.
- 31:56No one likes it on the consumer side.
- 31:58Like if you can only get one type of cable TV to your house
- 32:02and one internet connection and one phone, you know, provider.
- 32:06What the hell?
- 32:07Yeah.
- 32:07How is that a free marketplace?
- 32:08Welcome to America, right?
- 32:10The concept of what we sell is getting back to the roots of
- 32:15like, you don't have to build a big company and sell to some guy.
- 32:18You could just do this by yourself for the next 25 years.
- 32:21Make plenty of money.
- 32:23Be happy.
- 32:24Live in ultimate freedom.
- 32:25Give yourself time back to your life.
- 32:27Spend it on the things that you love and really literally do it different
- 32:32than everybody else, 'cause if I send a trash can to an office where I could
- 32:38potentially make $10,000 a year on a B2B product for a four year contract, right?
- 32:44$40,000, right?.
- 32:47One office, outcome, one type of revenue, like if I'm looking
- 32:49at ROIs, and everything else.
- 32:50And instead of, like saying, let's do the science and let's make a 47 touch
- 32:55sequence that lasts, you know, four months with emails and phone calls and
- 33:01you know, some drip stuff and blah, blah, blah, like if, but if instead,
- 33:05if I were to just say like, no, we're gonna instead just do like a tense touch
- 33:10sequence, and we are gonna take our time.
- 33:12If it takes a couple months, that's fine.
- 33:14Yeah.
- 33:14But we're gonna give people an intense experience unlike anything they've
- 33:17ever gotten, and so that person has people calling on them all day long.
- 33:22"Hey, can I get 15 minutes of your time?" "Hey, this is a sales call.
- 33:24Do you want to hang up?" Like, no shade.
- 33:26No shade.
- 33:27Like those are, those things work sometimes, right?
- 33:29For sure, but the obnoxiousness really, and like the tone of voice is because,
- 33:34like, that's what a lot of people who buy, that's how they feel about it.
- 33:38Like, a lot of 'em will still entertain it just because it's
- 33:40different, but they're like, yeah, you know, it kinda gets old over time.
- 33:43But that's with anything.
- 33:43Yeah.
- 33:44Like we just talked about over time.
- 33:45Oh yeah.
- 33:45People catch on, man, but if instead I send you an experience and it's
- 33:50not like a catchy line or a, let's just say a misleading subject line
- 33:57about, like, chicken soup or something stupid, like these people think are,
- 34:01you know, are a pattern interrupt, but instead it's a trash can, and you're
- 34:06like, "What is this?" And you open it up, and there's a letter that says,
- 34:09"Hey, I threw this away," 'cause sales marketing, you know, and brochures
- 34:12and white papers, they're trash.
- 34:14Yeah.
- 34:14You toss 'em anyway, so made it easier and just like pre-crumpled and pre-threw
- 34:20mine away, then some people would say that that's a gimmick, and while I
- 34:24would agree, I would also say like, in this buying market is actually the
- 34:27most relevant thing you could tell somebody because well, all they do is get
- 34:30inundated with cold calls all day long.
- 34:32They freaking hate it, bro.
- 34:33Yeah.
- 34:34And so I can literally speak the love language of the person
- 34:36I'm calling on by doing that.
- 34:38Yeah.
- 34:38And it's a great pattern interrupt too, because you don't expect to get
- 34:40a crumpled up letter in the mail.
- 34:42You look at it and you go, why the crap am I getting this?
- 34:45Like, what's going on?
- 34:46And then.
- 34:47You know, you're more likely to read it because you're curious about why
- 34:49it was crumpled in your in your enve
- 34:51lope to begin with.
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- 35:34I think you, did you say at one point you even, like, I think I recall this
- 35:37from previous thing I saw where you actually were, I think you talked,
- 35:40you do like a basket, you send 'em like a basketball goal for the trash
- 35:45can or something like that as well.
- 35:46They, you know, there's like variations of the crumpled letter for sure.
- 35:50I learned it by, so I actually, the origination of the crumpled letters that
- 35:55I was tearing my business cards in the middle and telling people, people would
- 36:01say, "Can I get your business card?" And I would hand it to them, and by the
- 36:04way, I actually had somebody manufacture them where they velcroed in the middle.
- 36:08It cost me so much money, but it was like one of the coolest things I ever did, but
- 36:13I was sitting in my car one day, and after like an FU experience like a literal, "Get
- 36:20the F outta my office," experience, and I, you know, I'd gone through stuff like
- 36:24that before, but this one was just super intense and I thought to myself like,
- 36:27what, you know, what can I walk in with?
- 36:30'cause the card, even the business card was like something I gave at the end,
- 36:34you know, when they asked, I got the like the scissors that had like, the texture
- 36:39to them, so it looked like jagged edges, you know, when I cut down the middle.
- 36:42So it was cool.
- 36:42People loved it, but I couldn't, I didn't walk in the door and like
- 36:46say, "Hey, here's my business card.
- 36:47It's pre-torn so you could throw it away." It didn't feel right, so I started
- 36:51coming up with this idea of, well, most of what we're doing angers people, and
- 36:59I actually came up with, at the time, I came up with two other letters that
- 37:03I just didn't try, because then I heard about a version of the crumbled letter,
- 37:07if you will, which I'll get into.
- 37:07But first, I burnt the edges of a letter, and I put it in a matchbox, and I just put
- 37:15like, "Light this on fire," on the top of the matchbox, and I was like, that's sick.
- 37:19And then I did a coffee stain letter, 'cause I was
- 37:22thinking about my demographic.
- 37:23Who am I selling to?
- 37:24Why would it be relative relevant to them?
- 37:26And the second was like IT.
- 37:28I deal with it all the time, so I did like Mountain Dew, and then I did coffee.
- 37:31And I put these stains of Mountain Dew and these stains of coffee on
- 37:35the letters, and I just put like.
- 37:37So wait, were you hand staining though?
- 37:38Yeah, dude, I was doing this my hand at the time, right?
- 37:40That's impressive.
- 37:42Okay.
- 37:42We were like sitting in my office like a scientist.
- 37:44You're just making a mess.
- 37:44Just like making an absolute mess, and my boss like, "What are you doing man?"
- 37:48You know, like, and this was my dad at the time, so I was my boss at this stage.
- 37:51This was 2009 when I first started dabbling in contact marketing, right?
- 37:55Yeah.
- 37:56But then I heard this story about this guy who he was sending letters to
- 37:59people through real estate, and he was like friend of a friend kind of thing,
- 38:03so I heard, I didn't read about this.
- 38:05I heard it from the horse's mouth when he saw my letters.
- 38:08He goes, "Dude, check this out," and this guy was sending in the real estate
- 38:11world, he was sending to all these people who had listed their houses for 90 days,
- 38:15he was sending them advertising and getting like a less than 1% response.
- 38:19And so like he'd send it and 10 days later when he got a response, he'd
- 38:23send it again, except this time he put like a marker, a red sharpie on it
- 38:27that said, "Don't throw me away again." It was almost like it got resurrected
- 38:31from the trash, and I was like, damn.
- 38:33That's a good idea.
- 38:34Yeah.
- 38:35The guy was calling it the crumpled letter.
- 38:36I think it was actually crumpled too, which is why he called it that.
- 38:40But that was the story I heard, and then I took one of those letters
- 38:43I had and I like, I balled it up, and I opened it back up, and I was
- 38:45like, yo, this is a really good idea.
- 38:49Bought some little mini trash cans, and then I made envelopes too that said
- 38:53like, "crumpled letter inside," using like the red handwriting like he had.
- 38:57Where he had put, "don't throw me away again," I just put, "crumpled letter
- 39:00inside," you know, dot, dot, dot, 'cause I felt from my perspective, it was
- 39:04how do we drive curiosity in people?
- 39:06How do we create relevance to the messaging?
- 39:10Drive back to what we fix and help people with and then also
- 39:14give them this epic experience that makes them curious, excited.
- 39:17Even if they're like, yeah, you know, it was whatever, 'cause they're just
- 39:20not a very fun person, that they would never forget what you did to them
- 39:23because of the way that, typically, salespeople reach out in the first place.
- 39:27So that's like the entire context of how I started to create this
- 39:32idea of doing things different.
- 39:34And that's what The Sales Rebellion does, man.
- 39:35We literally, and every imagine that you get a response from somebody
- 39:39in your typical sales walk that says, "Hey, reach out to me in 12
- 39:43months." What do we typically do?
- 39:46We reach out to them for the next six months, like every other month
- 39:49kind of thing with like some stupid marketing thing that we think they'll
- 39:53like and enjoy, but we have no idea.
- 39:55They've never, they didn't even ask for that in the first place.
- 39:58But imagine like a month later, they get a save the date in the mail like you
- 40:03would send out when you get married or have a bar mitzvah or whatever, right?
- 40:07Imagine to save the date.
- 40:08And it's like, you know, the alignment, or you could even call it the matrimony
- 40:15of ABC company and XYZ company, and then it's like the date they asked you
- 40:2112 months later, and like, "Hey, I know you asked me to reach out in 12 months,
- 40:24so I'm saving the date for us, and I look forward to meeting you then."
- 40:28And they have this whole experience and they're like, they say two things.
- 40:32Like, either this person is genius or they're insane, and both of those things
- 40:35I believe to be really good options as opposed to indifference, right?
- 40:39Because that's how they look at 99% of salespeople is
- 40:42they're indifferent to them.
- 40:44You don't exist in their mind, in their heart, in their ecosystem, period.
- 40:48Because you're forgettable.
- 40:49Yeah.
- 40:50Yeah.
- 40:51Nothing like finding ways to stick out, and when you mentioned people
- 40:56being angry at you all the time, like so much PTSD just flashing through my
- 41:01head of times where I've been yelled at or hollered at, and I wouldn't
- 41:04consider myself that annoying.
- 41:05You learn to be persistent and not, you know, pestering as I like to say.
- 41:10But yeah, you definitely
- 41:14run into situations where people are like, "Stop bothering me, quit," and they do
- 41:18anything they can to tell you to stop.
- 41:20So if you can do something to make them laugh or at least make them think before
- 41:23they throw it away, you know that that's gonna help you on that next follow up
- 41:27or that next contact, so that's awesome.
- 41:29Yeah.
- 41:29That's really cool.
- 41:30So you do stuff like that, you also do what?
- 41:33Consulting on top of that as well?
- 41:34Yeah.
- 41:34You know, we're like a, I don't know, there's just like
- 41:38a trash can of options, right?
- 41:40Like ultimately we have "advisors" is what we call it.
- 41:44So like if you came in, and you're looking at your sales process, whether
- 41:47it's just your outbound or it's a couple different, it's discoveries, it's
- 41:51closing, like wherever your problems are, we have an advisory program we put
- 41:54people through, but like ultimately, like what everything drives back to
- 41:56in our organization is fulfillment.
- 41:59So if you're a company that doesn't have salespeople that are
- 42:03achieving outcomes that you desire, you know, we used to do training.
- 42:07We did it for like five years almost.
- 42:09This is the first year that we haven't really done quote unquote "training," and,
- 42:13but because the problem with that is that like five of the 50 people that you put
- 42:16to the program are gonna actually do it.
- 42:18And even though they make, they end up filling the gap and getting record years
- 42:22to the organization, we got 45 people that still, yeah, just kind of like existing.
- 42:27And so what like B players and C players, right?
- 42:30Like do they exist?
- 42:31Yeah.
- 42:31In a competitive environments, but if you culture that, there's nothing good
- 42:35about that, so I, what we figured, you know, about a year ago was we
- 42:40need to make some changes here.
- 42:41We need to not just go in and show people what to do and how to do it and
- 42:44provide them with all the resources.
- 42:46You just do it for them, so we become more of like a boutique
- 42:49agency, if you will, for sales.
- 42:51So you hire us on as like a sales rep.
- 42:54Okay.
- 42:54And we become, we're in the bullpen, like we're a ghost because, you know,
- 42:57we're just an empty chair 'cause we're remote, but we use the mail
- 43:01system, which is widely effective.
- 43:03People just don't know how to do it right is the thing.
- 43:05There's a lot of rules that have changed.
- 43:08Mail forwarding, digitizing mail, so there's a lot of ways to get to people,
- 43:12remote or not, through the mail.
- 43:14So we use the mail, and then we have a system of follow up, which is way
- 43:19different than agencies that are doing just straight cold calling
- 43:22using their pitches, which are great.
- 43:24You know, I have a couple great friends that run agencies like
- 43:27that, but our calls are hated.
- 43:29This is the guy that sent you that trash can in the mail, and
- 43:32the conversion of that is insane.
- 43:33I mean, we'll take a list of 150 people and we'll, 51 of them will become
- 43:37disqualified really fast because they'll respond, "Yo, I got your letter. We
- 43:43don't have what you offer though, and we don't need it, you know? Thank you
- 43:46though." You know, so like enrichment, things like that are important, right?
- 43:49But like, imagine that you put a, I say it this way, 'cause imagine you put
- 43:52a rep into that seed and gave 'em 150 names and said like, get some responses,
- 43:56and 51 of those people don't even qualify, but you never hear from them.
- 44:00You chase them for the next 10 years.
- 44:02Yeah.
- 44:02What a wild thought man, and so like, we're helping organizations to understand
- 44:07list integrity, data integrity.
- 44:09We're helping organizations to understand that sales doesn't have to
- 44:11be done the way that everybody does it.
- 44:13Right.
- 44:13And that ultimately, like even if this idea becomes
- 44:15mainstream, it's freaking good.
- 44:17For the buyers.
- 44:18So people say all the time, like, "Well, it works now, buddy, but it, you know,
- 44:21enough people are doing this, it ain't gonna work," and like, bro, everyone
- 44:24calls and says, "Hi, this is a sales call.
- 44:26You wanna hang up?" "Hi, can I have 27 seconds of your time?" You
- 44:29know, like everybody says that.
- 44:30So like, what's the difference?
- 44:32Well, the difference is that people like ours.
- 44:34People really enjoy the experience and when, and again, like when they don't, it
- 44:38doesn't really matter that much, right?
- 44:39Yeah.
- 44:39So I think the problem and why I bring that up is that people
- 44:43are afraid of those risks.
- 44:44Well freaking just hire us and we'll do it for you, man.
- 44:46Right.
- 44:46And then like, and if we don't work, fire us, right?
- 44:50Like you've got 12 months of us building a pipeline for you, basically,
- 44:54which is highly effective, and then you just fire us and take the
- 44:58pipeline and go close it however you want, if you feel like it, right?
- 45:00Yeah.
- 45:01But additionally, like an individual, like if an individual is listening
- 45:03right now that doesn't like, have $30,000 to hire us as a sales rep and
- 45:07then pay us commission, you know, like.
- 45:10An individual can go to the rebel arcade and just buy the tutorials $24.99,
- 45:14all the way up to $490.98, right, of like the different packages, and
- 45:17you can, you'll coach 'em with that.
- 45:19You get resources with that and show you exactly how to build these
- 45:22campaigns for contact marketing.
- 45:24How to implement them, your ICP, how to speak to them
- 45:27effectively through written word.
- 45:29How to follow up with them effectively over the phone and through email
- 45:33after you're using these mediums.
- 45:35So we're really, like, for the people is how we look at it.
- 45:37Like, we're for the rebels.
- 45:38Like, we want everybody to be able to experience rebellion.
- 45:41So if your boss is like, "No, we would never bring these guys in for a workshop
- 45:45to show all 50 people for three days," or "No, we would never hire them for
- 45:4812 months to do sales for us," or you know, like, "No, I'm not putting
- 45:52you in one of their sales cohorts.
- 45:54You can just like outta your own pocket," spend a $100, $200, buy our playbooks
- 45:59and go implement them yourself. And then we have a free community that attaches
- 46:02to that as well too, for people that just want to come and like get some
- 46:05feedback and say like, "Yo, I sent a hundred things in the mail, and I
- 46:08didn't have the greatest experience.
- 46:10I need some help."
- 46:11Yeah.
- 46:11And allow, you know, our ecosystem, our community, our
- 46:13people to breathe life into them.
- 46:15So I mean, ultimately I think what we're turning into, bro, like just
- 46:18in a nutshell is, we're turning into a community for people that's more
- 46:21in-person than it is anything else.
- 46:24Yeah.
- 46:24And we're not a community that offers like a service that we coach
- 46:27you on for you to go and implement.
- 46:29We offer life transformational moments for you that go beyond sales, that help you to
- 46:34think bigger about your life, because as soon as you make that $20,000 commission
- 46:38check for the first time in your life at 27-years-old, or 21 or 47, because you've
- 46:44been jerked around your entire sales life thinking that, you know, $2,000 or
- 46:48$3,000 is acceptable, right, but instead we get you those big wins, that I'm
- 46:53telling your life changes in a flash, and especially with the things that we preach.
- 46:57It's not, "Go buy a dope car and a big house," it's cool, how much time
- 47:01does that buy you with your kids?
- 47:03With yourself, with your spouse, with your friends?
- 47:06How much time does that buy you to invest back into your own life?
- 47:09How many times do you need to make that check in order to just stop altogether?
- 47:14Having to make a big check, right?
- 47:15And just go be a greeter at Walmart for the rest of your
- 47:17life, and like, live in happiness.
- 47:20Yeah.
- 47:20And like we really, really, really, really preach the
- 47:23identity of doing what you love.
- 47:25And we believe that sales is a great place to start that, and that most people
- 47:28will end up making sourdough and selling it for $50 a loaf at like the local
- 47:32farmer's market because of what they found in the process of becoming a rebel.
- 47:37So rebellion is really a lifestyle.
- 47:39The Sales Rebellion in our product offering is life transformational.
- 47:43It's not just, "Let's sell more stuff," it's, "Let's be better."
- 47:47That's awesome.
- 47:48That's awesome, and with that, I noticed, you know, you talk
- 47:51a lot about the joy of selling.
- 47:54It's, dude sales is not always joyful, you know that, and I think it's counter
- 48:00cultural almost to talk about it being a joy and something people can love doing.
- 48:04Because for me, like I know through my career, it's been
- 48:06like, "Alright, this is the job.
- 48:08This is the career I chose.
- 48:09This is the path I went down.
- 48:10This is what I'm stuck in," and then coming back to it almost like
- 48:15in the Young Frankenstein where Gene Wilder's saying, "Destiny!
- 48:19Destiny!
- 48:21No escaping!
- 48:21That's for me!" That's how sales has felt for me most of my career.
- 48:25I try to avoid it, I try to be the Frankenstein, not Frankenstein, you
- 48:29know, up until that moment where he realizes, "Oh, I am Frankenstein,
- 48:33and for me, that's a challenge.
- 48:36So tell me more about like, that finding of joy.
- 48:39Like what does that mean within sales to you?
- 48:42And I mean, you've said a lot of it I think here, but I'd love you
- 48:45to just to kind of like sum it up.
- 48:46Yeah.
- 48:46Life is sales, and sales is life is the way that I look at it.
- 48:49I don't box sales into like some kind of compartment.
- 48:52I see sales as like a literal motion of life.
- 48:56That in sales, just like in my life, I'm gonna meet strangers and have
- 49:00the opportunity to be impactful to those people, to give them something,
- 49:06which is again, going back to the principles of serving leadership, but
- 49:10also to the principles of just being a good person and living a good life.
- 49:14So if we really look at, like, life is, we wake up in the morning, we do, you
- 49:19know, eight cold plunges and, you know, 7,000 pushups or whatever y'all do.
- 49:23And roll a banana on your face and all that.
- 49:25Banana water, and then we go to work, right?
- 49:30We eat lunch.
- 49:32We get outta work.
- 49:33We hang out with friends.
- 49:35Watch Severance, you know, like.
- 49:37Yeah.
- 49:37Whatever.
- 49:38Life is very predictable, ultimately.
- 49:40Yeah.
- 49:41It's the same thing over and over again, and it's very simple things,
- 49:44and those things do what for us.
- 49:45They bring us joy.
- 49:47Except for work.
- 49:48Hmm.
- 49:49Right?
- 49:49And the way that you described it, I think it's beautiful because it's, you
- 49:51know, it's like, "Well, life hasn't been good to me, bro." When I think of what
- 49:56you just said about sales, like, but I still find joy in life all the time.
- 50:00I think that the real opportunity is finding the failure.
- 50:03That's what brings you joy.
- 50:05I love it when somebody says something like, "You know what? I don't like
- 50:07what you're sending me in the mail. It's weird." Because it happens.
- 50:10It's rare, but it happens.
- 50:12I love that.
- 50:13I love to say to that person, "Sorry that it came across that way for you.
- 50:18I'll cease and desist, hang up on them instead of trying to like, do something
- 50:21crazy with them, and then immediately I'll do a little research, call the front
- 50:24desk, Hey, what's Jeff's favorite thing?"
- 50:27And then like a ghost or a fart in the wind, right?
- 50:30Like, I'm in and out and no one even knows I existed.
- 50:33I'll send him something without my name attached to it, nothing, and
- 50:36just say, "Hey, someone out here wants you to know that you're appreciated."
- 50:39Because when I hear some people say things like that, I think, man, they
- 50:43don't get enough joy in their life.
- 50:46They don't have the things that I have.
- 50:47They don't have a incredible wife.
- 50:50They don't have two amazing kids that I shouldn't even have, bro.
- 50:53I should be dead.
- 50:54My story is that 2014, I should have been gone.
- 50:57Hmm.
- 50:58Right?
- 50:58I'm a miracle.
- 51:00I'm a product of grace.
- 51:02So when I think of joy, I think, bro, everything in life is joy for me, right?
- 51:08Again, because of my story, because of the things I've experienced, because
- 51:11of the fact that I shouldn't be sitting here with you right now, which gives
- 51:14me chills every time when I think about it, just how miraculous my existence
- 51:19is, and I totally take advantage of it.
- 51:21I eat too much.
- 51:22I play too much, right?
- 51:23But I love my life.
- 51:27I love the good.
- 51:28I love the bad.
- 51:29I love the indifference.
- 51:30I love the ugly, all of it.
- 51:32I find joy in it.
- 51:33Instead of stress and anxiety.
- 51:35I'm a patient person.
- 51:37I seek out moments where I have to test that and challenge that, and in sales, I
- 51:42think, like when you make the commitment to it, what you have to understand is that
- 51:45because it's a part of life, that's why it's the hardest thing for people to do.
- 51:49Because me and my preferences, I would prefer that my life look like this,
- 51:54but I am not the driver, and that's the thing that most people don't understand.
- 51:58Like, I might impact the decisions through my action and my free will if we even
- 52:03have that in the first place, right?
- 52:05Sometimes it doesn't feel like it, but sure, I have to be the
- 52:10one that makes the decisions.
- 52:11But man, like if I could just like surrender and die to myself every day, my
- 52:16life would be full of joy, and those are the decisions that I made a long time ago.
- 52:22You know, so a kid is getting outta hand at the home front,
- 52:25standing up in his chair, you know, screaming and yelling at his mom.
- 52:29Like, sure, there's an appropriate way to reprimand that child and to help
- 52:35that child learn versus one that's not.
- 52:37But you can find joy in that moment.
- 52:39Just like when someone tells you to, "F off and never email me again."
- 52:42You can find joy in that moment.
- 52:44I'm going to literally, I'm gonna write an email, I'm gonna print it.
- 52:48I'm gonna send in the mail with a little note that says, "Hey, you said never
- 52:51to email you again. So, I sent this one in the mail," and literally when I call
- 52:57back or behind that guy, I like, either they have a restraining order, you know?
- 53:02Like it's over.
- 53:03Yeah.
- 53:04Or they got a really good moment from that, even if it wasn't like a
- 53:09chuckle, it was more like impressive or intense, you know, can't
- 53:14believe this guy actually did this.
- 53:16Yeah.
- 53:17Which hopefully just opens people's mind to what joy really is.
- 53:20Yeah.
- 53:21Yeah, because I mean, the way you're describing it too, it's not just, and
- 53:26I've always thought of joy this way too, of like, it's not just about having fun.
- 53:31Joy is really more than just being pleased with something in the moment,
- 53:36or, you know, something that like what a Marie Kondo, like, sparks joy in you.
- 53:40You know, it's not just something that makes you happy.
- 53:42Joy can be something that you feel even when things are tough, and
- 53:46having that ability to identify that.
- 53:49I think that's a great perspective on it because a lot of people,
- 53:52including myself, you know, you're gonna get down on yourself.
- 53:54You're gonna get frustrated, oh, I didn't close this, I didn't close that.
- 53:57Oh, this didn't go my way.
- 53:58And all of a sudden things start to fall apart and it's really easy
- 54:02to, get stuck in those moments.
- 54:04And then just to give up entirely.
- 54:06So,
- 54:08I think that's a, that's a really good perspective on it, so that's awesome.
- 54:11So you mentioned you're doing Totality.
- 54:14What, what is Totality?
- 54:16Tell me about that.
- 54:17Yeah, simply put, If people are ready for something different, if they're
- 54:23ready for something that isn't gonna teach them to be a better seller or a
- 54:28better marketer, or a better business owner, but it's gonna teach them to take
- 54:32risks, to challenge themselves, to do things that are unpopular, if you will,
- 54:39with the end goal in mind of becoming a better person, that will subsequently
- 54:44make them better at their profession, Totality is for you, and it really,
- 54:50what we decided is like there's a lot of people out there that's like, "We're the
- 54:53anti-sales conference," or, "We're the anti-conference," and then you go to 'em,
- 54:56and it's like, are you sure about that?
- 54:57It's just a conference.
- 54:59Y'all are still just throwing a conference together.
- 55:00It's just, I'm not getting pitched as much as I normally would.
- 55:03I'm still getting pitched, right?
- 55:05Ours is a community-based concept that you don't know the agenda when you come.
- 55:11You know that there's speakers, but we also don't have any speakers.
- 55:15It's nothing but live workshops.
- 55:17Oh, wow.
- 55:17It's nothing but interactive workshops as well too.
- 55:20Oh.
- 55:20So like you're immersed into something that you didn't even know
- 55:22was gonna happen in the first place.
- 55:23You have to do something.
- 55:24You can't just nurse a hangover the whole time.
- 55:26That's true, and actually there's no alcohol at Totality either.
- 55:29Oh, interesting.
- 55:30Yeah, we do everything actually against the grain of the way the conferences work.
- 55:35So we make it exciting.
- 55:37There's tons of twists and turns, lots of very just experiential moments for
- 55:42people instead of just like a, "Oh, that was a great talk," it's like a,
- 55:45"I participated in what just happened just now that I didn't know was gonna
- 55:50even happen in the first place."
- 55:52We have it at a place we call the Rebel Hideaway.
- 55:55Which is really fun because the lore of The Sales Rebellion is that there's
- 55:59all these mythological creatures and people like The Copier Warrior, and
- 56:02we've got a guy with a personal brand called The Finance Viking, and it's fun.
- 56:06Like we've built this mythical place and all this lore where you come and
- 56:09experience that lore, dude, in person.
- 56:12It's like you said earlier, there's more to this name, dude.
- 56:16I feel some like something go, I'm a nerd.
- 56:18I said it right earlier.
- 56:20I'm a nerd man.
- 56:20Like, when people come to Totality, their life changes because of what we desire for
- 56:26them, not what we want to build ourselves.
- 56:29Like we're meeting people where they are.
- 56:30Like most people, that came for Totality One, 90% of the feedback
- 56:35was, "I would normally, I would never say yes to something like this.
- 56:40I didn't even know what to pack.
- 56:41In my back, other than a toothbrush," you know, "but I just trusted
- 56:46that this was gonna be insane and holy cow, you delivered." And
- 56:50that was just the first one, bro.
- 56:52On a shoestring budget, you know and losing money, even like, you know,
- 56:56like, so imagine what it's gonna look like in year two, and then I've
- 56:59already planned 10 of these, man.
- 57:00I've never told anybody that outside of the close circle.
- 57:03So you're getting an exclusive right here, but I've planned 10 of these.
- 57:06So, who, because who knows, you know.
- 57:08Like what, eventually when you build something, what you're trying to work
- 57:11toward, the thought is that in most cases we have this idea of the outcome.
- 57:19Man, I'm here for the journey.
- 57:21So when I sat down and made the first one, I was like, okay, but
- 57:23what does the second one look like?
- 57:25And then by the time I got to 10, I went, oh man, I'm feeling this.
- 57:29I'm feeling this, and the idea is that if we can, it ultimately allow
- 57:34people to dream the same way that we are through Totality and giving them
- 57:37permission to just think outside the box, to be rebellious, to be more
- 57:40creative in their work life and their personal life, to be more present in
- 57:45their work life and their personal life, to really like experience this thing
- 57:50that we get to do as people together.
- 57:54We were talking about the actual Totality, like the eclipse, right?
- 57:58Going to that, like a lot of people have never experienced that, dude.
- 58:04It, and then the people that have, when you ask 'em like, what was it like
- 58:08if they didn't have their phone out recording everything, they'll say, "Oh
- 58:11my God. Buddy, you suddenly realize how small you are in the grand scheme
- 58:16of things when everything goes black."
- 58:19Right.
- 58:19From a moon in front of a sun.
- 58:21Like this is insane what's happening right now.
- 58:23Right, but.
- 58:23Right.
- 58:24That's what exactly the kind of feeling we want people to have at Totality.
- 58:28We wanna break you to the point of like, oh my God, am
- 58:32I letting them do this to me.
- 58:34Sadness and overwhelming emotions of man, am I doing enough, man?
- 58:38Am I trying hard enough?
- 58:40Absolutely.
- 58:40What we want you to feel in those moments.
- 58:42Wow.
- 58:43Because otherwise you go to a conference and you leave and you're like, oh my
- 58:45God, that was great, and then you get pitched for nine weeks, you know, from
- 58:49a bunch of people you never met to go, thanks for coming by our booth.
- 58:52You know?
- 58:52Oh gosh.
- 58:53Yeah.
- 58:53This is such a nightmare, right, in general.
- 58:56And then ultimately, it's this idea too of like micro meetups, if you will.
- 59:02So we cap it at 150.
- 59:04I'll probably do less than that this year.
- 59:05We did a hundred people a year one.
- 59:07We had a hurricane, like literally.
- 59:09Oh wow.
- 59:10Eye of the Storm came over where we had the event.
- 59:13Right.
- 59:14Were you in East Tennessee or where were you this year?
- 59:16Yeah, we were here.
- 59:17We were up here in Knoxville.
- 59:18Yeah.
- 59:18And we're here again.
- 59:19Golly.
- 59:20This year, right?
- 59:20It's about like, we still had an amazing turnout even with, despite
- 59:25the storm people still landed somehow and got to the event.
- 59:28It was crazy, dude.
- 59:28Yeah.
- 59:29Right?
- 59:30And we got to experience what it's like to just like have a
- 59:32hundred people in a room, right?
- 59:33Like, so we're not gonna go much bigger than that.
- 59:35I'll probably cap it at 125.
- 59:37We're like 50, 60% tickets sold right now.
- 59:40This time last year we had nine tickets sold, right?
- 59:42Like, it's a whole new thing for us, right?
- 59:45But I believe we're doing it right.
- 59:47I believe that we're doing it effectively.
- 59:49I believe that we've started something.
- 59:52I won't be surprised to see other people doing it too and giving us zero credit,
- 59:57which is totally fine, but I won't be surprised by that at all because
- 1:00:00man, people are looking for this.
- 1:00:02And that's the ultimate outcome of the question is that you're looking for this.
- 1:00:06If you're listening to this right now, and you're hearing this, I promise
- 1:00:10you that even if you don't think you are, I bet when you show up and
- 1:00:14have the experience that you leave going, holy cow, I needed that so bad.
- 1:00:18More than I knew.
- 1:00:19Yeah, I could definitely, I mean, I could definitely see that, 'cause I
- 1:00:23actually had a chance, I was spying on you a bunch last night doing my
- 1:00:26research for this interview, but I looked at a little bit of your documentary
- 1:00:30series that you did on last year and everything you're doing there.
- 1:00:33And I could tell, like it's definitely a different event.
- 1:00:37It's definitely something that people, I think would really get
- 1:00:39a lot out of, especially being in, having been in the sales room.
- 1:00:42Like I've been in a room in an auditorium in Little Rock, Arkansas with Zig Ziglar
- 1:00:49and his whole crew of people, which aren't direct salespeople, but they definitely
- 1:00:52are, you know, the motivational types.
- 1:00:54And they'll tell you how to get a million dollars overnight if
- 1:00:57you sign up for this one thing.
- 1:00:58And I think Rudy Giuliani spoke at that.
- 1:01:00He did.
- 1:01:01Yeah.
- 1:01:01Shoot.
- 1:01:02Good Lord.
- 1:01:02Yeah.
- 1:01:02That was wild.
- 1:01:03Sorry.
- 1:01:04I know.
- 1:01:04Thank you.
- 1:01:05Yeah, I didn't notice the oil running down the face or anything, but yeah.
- 1:01:10Anyways, so that was, that was just a wild, flashback in my head just now, but
- 1:01:16yeah, you know, like you're used to that or you're used to these sales training
- 1:01:20events you have to go to, and it's like, I mean, again, I'll go back to my AT&T days.
- 1:01:23It's like, I would be in a room in, you know, Dallas, Texas, and you just
- 1:01:29be in a windowless room for hours on end and learning sales principles and
- 1:01:33reading things and falling asleep and trying to stay awake and hope you can
- 1:01:36get to the evening when you can use your per diem and go out and get some
- 1:01:39good food and beer and just be done.
- 1:01:42So the idea that you're doing it differently, even down to no alcohol,
- 1:01:45to, for, I don't know if it's a personal principle that you're not doing that
- 1:01:49for, or if it's a, "Hey, we want people to be focused at this conference,
- 1:01:53and we don't want the hangovers at the every day during the event," but
- 1:01:57that idea alone is like different.
- 1:01:59It stands out and it's gonna be for people that want that difference.
- 1:02:03And I think that that's cool.
- 1:02:04So.
- 1:02:05Yeah, I think you're doing something neat.
- 1:02:07Thanks, dude.
- 1:02:07I
- 1:02:07think you're doing some cool stuff, and I'm not just saying that to
- 1:02:10like just brag on you, but I've been really fascinated with everything
- 1:02:12you've done with The Sales Rebellion.
- 1:02:13So it's really neat to be able to learn more about it today,
- 1:02:16learn more about what you
- 1:02:17're doing.
- 1:02:18Last question on The Sales Rebellion.
- 1:02:21I noticed on the website you have a button for submitting a prayer request.
- 1:02:25What's that about?
- 1:02:27My business is a ministry.
- 1:02:28Just like I said, that sales is life.
- 1:02:31I also believe that like in all facets of everything that I do, that I want to make
- 1:02:37sure that people understand my purview is, or really like I should say, that the
- 1:02:43vision of my life is not what I'll do on this Earth, it's eternal, is the idea.
- 1:02:50It's that I'm looking at something completely different
- 1:02:53than what everybody else is.
- 1:02:54So when you see a website and you see this cool thing that this guy is doing,
- 1:02:58I really want people to understand too that like, I don't find that to be
- 1:03:01the most important thing in my life.
- 1:03:04Most important thing in my life is people, and ultimately in my faith
- 1:03:09and the way that I live my faith, and I practice my faith, and I've learned
- 1:03:12my faith, and I've become deeply ingrained in my faith is that people
- 1:03:16matter more than we have let on.
- 1:03:19And that in most cases, something as simple as letting a person, which
- 1:03:24by the way, we have thousands of submissions, letting a person just
- 1:03:30reflect for a minute, first on like what they're grateful for and then
- 1:03:33what we could pray for them for.
- 1:03:35And like knowing, even if we never contact them, if they're not interested in that,
- 1:03:39knowing that someone out there is lifting them up, even if they don't believe in
- 1:03:44the same God that I do, or they don't follow the same religious principles that
- 1:03:47I do, just knowing that a person cares that much to stop what they're doing and
- 1:03:52lift them up, or to take a minute out of their morning and to lift them up.
- 1:03:56It's that joy principle that we keep coming back to in
- 1:03:59this conversation, really.
- 1:04:01How do I give people joy in their life by helping them to
- 1:04:04see how important they truly are?
- 1:04:07And again, like through my religious principles, I think that, I believe.
- 1:04:11I'm a follower of Jesus, bro.
- 1:04:13To me, it's that, right?
- 1:04:16It's love for everyone, man.
- 1:04:17Eternal love too, not just while you're here on earth, but this
- 1:04:21idea of like, where are you headed?
- 1:04:23What does the story look like when you're gone, who will you bring
- 1:04:26with you through the process?
- 1:04:29I just, I think that we look at that as more of a fairy tale than
- 1:04:34we do as reality in this generation and in this world in general.
- 1:04:37I think that we've dumbed religion down to just a church, like an organization, even.
- 1:04:45We don't live it on a daily basis.
- 1:04:47It's just Sunday or whenever we did our Hail Marys.
- 1:04:50Shoutout to my Catholic friend over here, but
- 1:04:54the real principle to me is like, well, what, what about every other day?
- 1:04:57What about every other moment?
- 1:04:58What about the ability to be able to let other people in on what it is
- 1:05:02that you do without it being a place where they think they might be judged?
- 1:05:06Or where they don't believe they can go.
- 1:05:09Right.
- 1:05:09But if you give them that outlet, and that's why there's
- 1:05:11a prayer request on the page.
- 1:05:13I love it.
- 1:05:14That's awesome.
- 1:05:15I'm a big believer in like, well, I'm a big believer, period.
- 1:05:18I am a Christian as well, but one of the things I'm big on is, like, not just
- 1:05:24including a Jesus fish on your website if you're gonna preach your faith.
- 1:05:28Like, that to me is the most annoying thing ever because how many times
- 1:05:31have you seen it there, and then you know something about that company, and
- 1:05:34you're like, or you've heard something about them like that just completely
- 1:05:38discredits everything else about that.
- 1:05:40I think it's a very, it's not the worst thing in the world, but like claiming it
- 1:05:45versus doing it is something different.
- 1:05:47So seeing that button on your website really stuck out to me is like, oh,
- 1:05:50he's really doing it, and hearing you get people submitting and stuff,
- 1:05:53like, that's a great way to connect with people, and you know, even if
- 1:05:57you're not going to respond directly to them through that, it's just
- 1:06:00an anonymous prayer request thing.
- 1:06:02Like the fact that you're doing that, you're thinking you're praying,
- 1:06:04like all that stuff is awesome.
- 1:06:06So.
- 1:06:06Yeah.
- 1:06:07Yeah.
- 1:06:07I just found it really neat.
- 1:06:08So.
- 1:06:08Thanks, bro.
- 1:06:09Our mission statement, just for everybody here, is to tear down the castles of
- 1:06:13the old guard and to build a kingdom of rebels, and that kingdom mindset is
- 1:06:18really what we lead with in all things.
- 1:06:19That's so cool.
- 1:06:20So in the way that we wear our ministry and our sleeves, so.
- 1:06:22Yeah.
- 1:06:22That'
- 1:06:22s awesome.
- 1:06:24Okay, well this is, We Built This Brand.
- 1:06:27I always have this wrap up question, so I'm gonna ask it to you anyway.
- 1:06:31You know, I always like to know like what brand, out of everything that you deal
- 1:06:35with and everything in your life right now, what brand do you admire the most?
- 1:06:39I think the most disruptive brand right now that I admire a lot, I
- 1:06:43think a lot of people, don't like the brand because of their name, mostly.
- 1:06:48And they've done some really weird stunts as well too.
- 1:06:51Like, I saw something, actually a guy in my network, friend of mine showed
- 1:06:56me like where they hired a witch doctor for an advertisement, right?
- 1:07:00Uhhuh.
- 1:07:00Like it was total stunt, right?
- 1:07:01Uhhuh.
- 1:07:01But they made people think that they were like cursing their product for
- 1:07:04everybody to be cursed, you know?
- 1:07:06Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:07:07Total stunt, right?
- 1:07:08But anyway, but so I think they get a bad rap because of things like that
- 1:07:12in some circles, but bro, they are the literal definition of disruptive,
- 1:07:16and they're called Liquid Death.
- 1:07:17Oh, yeah.
- 1:07:18And when you think about how they started, there's three things
- 1:07:21that I admire the most about them.
- 1:07:22One is just that the world was inundated with cans of energy drinks, right?
- 1:07:28So when you go to the gas station, you can get a can of energy drink or a
- 1:07:32plastic bottle of water, and a lot of the time it's an emotional decision, man.
- 1:07:39So you look at this cool can with this awesome artwork, and like,
- 1:07:43I could use a little energy, even to an extent, and you buy that.
- 1:07:46And like water's just like, I can get that outta the sink.
- 1:07:49Yeah.
- 1:07:49Whatever.
- 1:07:50And so they've disrupted that whole mindset of the consumer that
- 1:07:53goes in to buy, and this is real.
- 1:07:55These are facts, bro.
- 1:07:56These are, I've learned a lot about this brand.
- 1:07:59I really admire them.
- 1:08:00I'm trying to give them to be the main sponsor of Totality.
- 1:08:03It'll happen one day.
- 1:08:03Don't worry about that, but the second thing that I love is that part of their
- 1:08:08model too was like going to bars and saying, hey, like, you know, instead of
- 1:08:13this like, tap water out of this gun, you put our water up here, and just
- 1:08:17like, 'cause it's so metal, like you said earlier about me and my existence, right?
- 1:08:21Like these guys, they are so smart.
- 1:08:23They go to all these bars and they go, "Here. Here's cases of our water. Sell
- 1:08:27it to your people," and people just buy it because it looks like a, you
- 1:08:29know, like a big can of beer, right?
- 1:08:32Like literally, that's why people psychologically we're just like, oh,
- 1:08:35this is cool, and then they drink 16 ounces of water after too many
- 1:08:39drinks, which helps to sober them up.
- 1:08:42Right.
- 1:08:42Which helps their health in general.
- 1:08:44Maybe not.
- 1:08:45Maybe I'm a little, it's a stretch there to say that, but again, the thought
- 1:08:49of how to disrupt a bar market with water is, it's a losing thought, right?
- 1:08:55Yeah.
- 1:08:56Unless you're Liquid Death, and then the third thing that I admire the
- 1:08:59most about them is they are so risky with the way that they advertise.
- 1:09:03I mean, like pregnant moms drinking their water for the Super Bowl ad, I
- 1:09:06think is what it was, and like, they sell a casket full of their water because.
- 1:09:11Yeah.
- 1:09:11And just their whole mantra of like, "Murder your thirst."
- 1:09:15What a genius idea, man.
- 1:09:18I mean, they're a really disruptive brand.
- 1:09:21Again, I respect the people out there that don't like the word "death" on a can
- 1:09:25that they're drinking water out of, or some of the weird stuff that they've done.
- 1:09:28But like, it's like I said earlier, I'm that guy, bro.
- 1:09:31I'll hang out with those people, right?
- 1:09:33I don't have to be a part of them, but like you can influence
- 1:09:36people that way as well too.
- 1:09:37Oh yeah.
- 1:09:37And ultimately, I do think to an extent too, like you
- 1:09:42should learn about these guys.
- 1:09:43I've gotten to know some of 'em over the time that I've spent,
- 1:09:45like trying to get them to sponsor us, and they're good people, dude.
- 1:09:49And I think at the core of what they're doing, they're misunderstood by the
- 1:09:53public, but they're a huge brand now because there's a lot of us out
- 1:09:57there that like, dude, every time I stop for water, I grab or at a gas
- 1:10:00station for what used to be a Dasani.
- 1:10:04Dasani is disgusting.
- 1:10:06A Smart Water.
- 1:10:08Whatever, you know.
- 1:10:08I just grab a Liquid Death now, dude.
- 1:10:10Yeah.
- 1:10:10I don't even think about it.
- 1:10:11I get two, as a matter of fact, every time, and I think a lot of people do
- 1:10:15that because they see less plastic.
- 1:10:17There's still plastic in those cans.
- 1:10:18For sure.
- 1:10:19There's a lining of plastic in it, but less plastic, you know.
- 1:10:22It's promoting something different.
- 1:10:24It's super, just, it's fun.
- 1:10:25You know, like, especially if you don't have kids going, "What's a
- 1:10:28Liquid Death?" You know, like, although my kids don't even question that.
- 1:10:32Oh yeah.
- 1:10:32They just go, "dad, the design on that is so dope.,"
- 1:10:35You know?
- 1:10:35I'm like, yeah, it's cool.
- 1:10:35Right.
- 1:10:37So yeah.
- 1:10:37Anyway, that's, I think those guys are doing it right.
- 1:10:39Yeah.
- 1:10:39No, no, for sure.
- 1:10:40My 6-year-old was asking me the other day if he could get Liquid Death, and it's
- 1:10:43always cute hearing it from your son.
- 1:10:45"Daddy, can I have Liquid Death?" I'm like, yeah, okay.
- 1:10:48Yeah, sure.
- 1:10:48That's fine.
- 1:10:49Yeah.
- 1:10:49Whatever.
- 1:10:50You can have Liquid Death, son.
- 1:10:52I got carded buying it the other day, by the way.
- 1:10:55Like.
- 1:10:55No way.
- 1:10:56Someone actually carded you?
- 1:10:57Swear to God.
- 1:10:57I was like, they go, "When's your birthday? I need your ID," and I was like.
- 1:11:00You do realize this is water?
- 1:11:01I just looked at 'em and was like, well, this is gonna be awkward for you.
- 1:11:04And I pulled my ID out and I handed it to 'em, and they were like, "Why?"
- 1:11:08And they rang it up, and it goes this water, and they're like, "Oh my God.
- 1:11:11Yeah.
- 1:11:12That is awkward."
- 1:11:13I am, I am in shock.
- 1:11:14But that's hilarious.
- 1:11:16That's funny, right?
- 1:11:16Yeah, yeah.
- 1:11:17But yeah, I mean, Liquid Death is just one of those brands
- 1:11:21you just can't get away from.
- 1:11:22Like, they're just so good at branding and marketing and their content is amazing.
- 1:11:28They partnered with ELF Cosmetics.
- 1:11:30Yes.
- 1:11:31Yes.
- 1:11:31To do like a whole makeup kit too.
- 1:11:33Like, they do the wildest things.
- 1:11:35I just love it.
- 1:11:36I just love it.
- 1:11:37So that's awesome.
- 1:11:39Well, good.
- 1:11:39Well, Dale, where can people connect with you?
- 1:11:41Where can people find out about you?
- 1:11:43Maybe even sign up for Totality if they're interested?
- 1:11:47Yeah, you can.
- 1:11:47Everything that we do, you can find on salesrebellion.com.
- 1:11:50We're doing a lot of changes to the website and whatnot and the
- 1:11:53brand, but Totality on there, a lot of our resources are on there.
- 1:11:58Our advisory programs, stuff that we talked about earlier.
- 1:12:02Really, I would recommend people to just Google my name.
- 1:12:04I know that sounds like kind of you know, vain or egotistical, but
- 1:12:09it's just kind of simple to find, and I have a lot of guest podcasts.
- 1:12:14I have a lot of just PR in general that I've done.
- 1:12:17So if people want to just like snag some free resources and learn a little bit more
- 1:12:20about our methodology, what we do, how we change the game, how we differentiate, how
- 1:12:25we lead as servants, you know, just Google my name or Google The Sales Rebellion.
- 1:12:29In general, our content feeds, our best ones are LinkedIn for sure.
- 1:12:32It's where most of our audience is, but you can find me on all the major channels.
- 1:12:36I'm a TikToker, not really, but sort of, I dabble in the Tiky Toky with
- 1:12:42my own videos, but wherever it's most accessible to the listeners, but
- 1:12:46ultimately, like salesrebellion.com is where you get all the resources, and
- 1:12:49then again, there's plenty of free stuff out there for people to come and just
- 1:12:52learn and start thinking like a rebel.
- 1:12:54Excellent.
- 1:12:55Well, Dale, thank you so much for coming on.
- 1:12:57Appreciate the time.
- 1:12:58It's been a pleasure.