Douglas Mitchell - How To Build A Great Sales Team

SPEAKER_01 0:04

This is the Beyond the Story Podcast, a show that goes way beyond the story. And now Subesti. Welcome to the show, brother. I appreciate you having me. It's an honor, man. Well, I'm in your fucking podcast studio trailer. Okay, in the parking lot at Million Dollar Mastermind in Dallas, Texas. It's a little surreal right now. It's like one of those things where you think, is this real life? No, you really ask yourself. You're like, I might, I think I had a dream last night that a client of mine built a podcast trailer and we were at an event together and we were recording my podcast in his podcast trailer. So anyway, great to hang as always, bro. We've gotten some good, ever since I've been part of Apex, you've probably been the one that I've been able to get some good hang time in with. Went to Vegas for the Super Bowl. That was a good time. We were talking about that a little while ago. But uh you reached out to me in the beginning of this year.

SPEAKER_00 1:09

Yeah, so I I I posted in the Apex Executives group, and I was like, I'm gonna start a podcast. I want to compress time here. You know, who should I hire? And then it was you and one another individual that was recommended, and I reached out to the other individual and uh I reached out to you same time, just wanted to chop it up with both of y'all. Yeah, and then found out very quickly that um you were on your shit and he wasn't, so that's all I needed to know. It's funny how that works out, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Funny how that works out. No, but and I I remember our conversation because you were like, here's what I want to do, and I'm like, dream client. Yeah, dream client. And like I think we hung up the phone. I had not I hadn't hit send on the invoice, and that thing was paid. And I'm like, we got a player here, ladies and gentlemen. This guy's ready. This guy's ready, and we were able to really get in here. Um, I was able to navigate through your type A, extreme type A. Yeah, uh, but I knew that when I signed up, and I'm like, I he, I'm gonna just let him do whatever the fuck he wants and make I'm gonna make strong recommendations and he can just shit on them whenever he gets there. You know, that's pretty much what's gonna happen here. But um, when I look at what I do to help people figure out what their strategy is with a podcast, you saying, hey, listen, I I train sales teams, I make them better, I build them. Yeah, uh, and I want to start a podcast that supports that process, but also allows me to share what I know. Yeah, but it also, I and I don't, I'm I'm sure it's happened already, you know, kicking tremendous doors open. Because as you know, this is a phenomenal networking tool. There's not a better networking tool in your arsenal than hey, let's get you on the podcast versus I want to sell you shit.

SPEAKER_00 2:34

Yeah. Right now, people know me for two things. One, the podcast. You know, obviously that that has strengthened my authority so much within my own company. You know what I'm saying? Uh my own employees are coming up to me saying, Hey, I listened to episodes, such and such. And you had such and such guests on.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

You're like, good, you can stay another 30 days. Yeah, exactly. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Right. You did your homework.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

Excellent. Back on the phone.

SPEAKER_00 2:56

And then and then for us, though, it's a it's a recruiting funnel. That's what it is. You know, we building great sales teams, a lot of the people that are listening to it are the type of people that we want working with us in our company, or we want as affiliates uh sending us business. You know, so it it works as a great funnel.

SPEAKER_01 3:14

And you know, I never really thought it was going to work out like that in the very beginning. I just thought, but I also had not found my passion. I didn't find my life's work um until a few years into this. So it was 2016. I had started, started the whole story, all started in the beginning of 2010, but then it took six years to realize I don't want to do this shit. Being a digital marketer is great and everything. There's got to be more. And when I found podcasting, it was just, well, I've got another service that I can go and and sell and I can hustle. I can whatever it is. Uh, and people pay me. It'll be a high ticket item. I think I sold it for like 2,500 bucks for a 30-day program when I first started. Yeah. Um, and and then it just continued to evolve and my desire to to do more and figure out more and realize what does this do to really impact people's lives and business? And uh, you know, I'm grateful to be able to have a good, you know, we're almost seven years into this, you know, crazy, crazy idea of I'm going all in with podcasting halfway through because I had already gone out. I'd, you know, I met Gary V in 2010, and that was my first like being able to like, he gave me the roadmap. Right. And I became a speaker, I wrote a book, and it was social media, social media, social media. And then what? Like it didn't feel like now people say, what do you do? I say, I help marketers, entrepreneurs, and business owners go from idea to iTunes in 90 days or less by starting a podcast. But that's just a very, very small part of the equation, right? You know, and uh it's just been cool to see that I get to live out what I teach, right? I live out being able to say, hey, um, I build relationships with the podcast. My content solves all my social media content problems for the most part on here. Uh, but but it's been great. But um, so so you guys are primarily focused in in the just sales in general. I know you're hyper focused in solar.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

Yeah, so we've been a sales organization for 10 plus years now, and uh our main clients have been ATT, ADT, Vivant, you know, typically uh Fortune 100 clients, and basically they they pay us to bring them clients, you know, and most of our uh experience has been sales reps. Yeah. Uh well the the companies pay us to bring them uh clients, not sales reps. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:11

So uh you're outsourced sales almost exactly. Got it.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

And so um solar's been on our radar for a long time, and we started uh we started in solar about eight months ago, and you know, we've been tripping over our own feet, we've been figuring it out, yeah, but we feel like we finally got it figured out and we closed uh 18 deals last month.

SPEAKER_01 5:29

Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Yeah, we were I think uh 230 or 240 kilowatts, somewhere around there, which is if you if you're even near solar, you understand what that means, you know. And um, so yeah, it's uh you know, we're a sales organization, and then of course I do consulting as well on building great sales teams, and the the podcast has been huge for that.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So you clearly found your passion with sales, yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 5:52

And it and it, you know, people say I'm a great sales trainer and I appreciate that, but uh more than anything, I love building teams, you know, and in and businesses. You know, it's crazy because I'll I'll get a consulting client and I'll start out with their sales team, and then all of a sudden, you know, I'm consulting them on their whole business. You know what I'm saying? Because uh the everything feeds the sales team. And if your business isn't operating properly, your sales team's not gonna operate properly.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

Exactly. Yeah, you had just gotten back uh from a trip with Stuman uh out to the East Coast. You went out to go see the got credit guys, Jose and his team out there. Um so when you were like, I literally just did one of those fly, you know, yeah uh mil a mile-high masterminds uh with Stuman flew there, and uh I don't think they planned for you to do anything there.

SPEAKER_00 6:37

No. So I I I messaged uh Stuman and I said, you know, are you speaking? And because he does he doesn't tell you what he's actually doing there most of the time. Now he does, but but back then it was like, hey, you're paying to fly with me in the sky. You get uh myself and six other high-level entrepreneurs for six hours in the sky or however long it is, and uh, you know, five grand ticket, sixty five hundred dollar ticket, uh completely worth it. First off, you go there to hear from Stuman, you know what I mean, for for six hours, and he just chops it up about life, you know, right, which is cool. But where you really get the value, in my opinion, is the other people on the plane. Right. You're you're building these relationships are gonna last a lifetime a hundred percent. And everybody that I've been on one of those planes with, uh, I have a great relationship now. All right, now I need to do it. We do business together.

SPEAKER_01 7:24

Now I gotta get on the plane with Stuman. I've I've done they they flew into Miami for Dan's event. Um you remember Meta Bounty Hunter's uh launch and and uh got some time to hang just at after party type stuff. So I got a gist of what it was all about. Uh-huh. Uh, but I'll definitely have to get on one of those trips. So as all as it always go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 7:41

So I he he told me that they were doing a a one a one-day consulting with this client, and I said, you know what? I know we're supposed to like go find our own thing to do, but I'll hold a fucking camera for you, bro. I want to see this happen. You know what I'm saying? Um, because I know I want to get into consulting and I want to see what it's all about, you know, and I want to learn from the best. And they are the best at what they do. The BFA, BFA group are amazing at this. And so um he he was like, I'll I'll get something for you. And then he came back a couple days later. I guess he had done his research and he's like, Hey, you do sales, right? I said, Well, I like to think it's more than that, but yeah, sure. Yeah, I do sales, and he's like, Do you think you can uh do a consulting for a credit repair company? And I was like, I used to sell credit repair, I was the top salesman for the company when I was younger. Done. Done, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:26

And you shave a couple grand off the flight? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Yeah. No, I didn't ask for anything. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah, you know at that point you're like, I'm in, coached.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

Yeah, exactly. And so they put me in, and all the feedback I got from like Droby and Thomas and Ryan was that blew it out of the water. My after action report was on on point. Drewby's like, all right, you're trying to make me look bad now. You know what I'm saying? Because Druby's all about the follow-up game. Sure. And I'm all about by now. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

And so, um, so we, you know, we went through that whole process and everything, and that gave me the validity, you know what I mean? That gave me the confirmation that hey, yeah, I'm doing this. You know, and I taught those guys 1.0 stuff. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I got 2.0, 3.0, 4.0. Me and Jose Rodriguez with uh got credit have been talking at least once a month. He's sending me videos of his his operational staff role playing uh in in the offices and stuff like that. Because I I got him into role playing. I said it doesn't, you know, it could be customer service. You need a roleplay every day. Everybody, everybody, the first time that they pitch, the first time that they take on a customer, the first time that they throw the ball, you know what I mean? It's just like sports, you gotta warm up. Yeah, you know, and so I always have everybody role play every day. Love that.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

Yeah, I roleplay in the mirror. I was like, so tell me about your podcast. It's crazy here. I I actually speaking of sales, like you know, half of 90% of it's showing up, but I post in the groups to introduce myself to connect with some folks before because a lot of non-apexers here at the event. Yeah, and uh I swear I set up five meetings.

SPEAKER_00 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:56

And I didn't even walk in the door yet. That's one thing I've noticed about you. You're not afraid to ask for it. No, you know what I mean. That's there's a fine line though. I got my hand slapped a couple times about you know being pitchy. I told you about that. Fuck it. But I said, hey, you know, I listen, ABC, baby, let's go. And I go, listen, I but I I don't pitch you're I mean, true sales is not pitching, it's just having a conversation and finding where the pain points are at.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And and here's the deal this isn't insurance, this isn't right a vehicle. You know what I'm saying? This is something that for us in Apex that could completely change you know your whole business. Sure. It creates leads, it puts you in the right rooms, you know what I mean? And so I I don't know. I feel like if you believe in your product, you know, uh it's not a sale, you know what I mean? It's just something that is gonna be a good thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

It's a transaction that takes place, basically.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

Yeah, the the transaction takes place, of course, but you have to genuinely believe that you're helping every customer you sell. Yeah. And if you don't, you're selling the wrong product. Sure.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

You know, so that I know that I didn't do I, you know, social media was my game for so long, and I I I came to terms that I'm not gonna be Gary Vee. I'm gonna be Sebastian. Somebody said, you know, I used to say I'm gonna be the next Ryan Seacrest. You know, I'd study him on American Idol and be able to, his mannerisms and how he showed up on camera and being able to really refine my game a lot. And I had somebody ask me one day, why don't you be the next Sebastian Rusk? And I was like, What done? We're doing it. Ever since then, it's been a you know, it's been a just a phenomenal um, you know, experience to to become who I was designed to be. I thought for a long time, because I got the gift to Gab and I've got a service and I know more about it. It's not about that. Yeah, it's being able to say, what have you lived and what can you bring back to the table to the people like Sean Whalen just crushed the game this morning. Yeah. I mean, that was just absolutely unbelievable for him to say, you know, you woke up today. It is now your duty and responsibility to do something with it. You know, I fact I sent that to my family chat, my mom, my sister, my daughter, and uh they both replied with wow. And I just sent that like that quote on there. Yeah. And, you know, he's like, What do you want? And I'm like, Oh, I know what I want, brother. I want lives change. I want to say, hey, listen, I was a lot different before I met Sebastian, you know, and it's not that I know the end all end all. It's that experience and that opportunity, that exchange that you have to become. I I I become better. I mean, we've done a ton of conversation over, you know, life and and business. In fact, I I contribute to you, to my the entire agency being ran completely different. I mean, before it was, hey, you we'll launch your podcast and we've got an option if you want it. And you're like, what? Yeah. Now it's like we have an entire program, and if my mom calls, that's the program she's signing up for. So, yeah, absolutely, man. So you've been on this 75 hard program. They're like 75 life now.

SPEAKER_00 12:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

You told me you failed it like the first eight times, and you told me good luck, and I was like, fuck it, if he didn't, that guy didn't, that disciplined motherfucker didn't do it. There's no way I'm gonna make it through here.

SPEAKER_00 12:38

But man, my my social media must be full of shit then, because I am not a disciplined motherfucker. And that's what I realized through it. I thought, you know, before you get into something like Apex or any mastermind or just around a bunch of business owners, you think, you know, as a business owner or as uh uh a top producer, you think, uh, oh, I got my shit together, right? And what I realized through the 75 Hard program was I was undisciplined.

unknown 13:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

You know what I mean? And it and the reason that it took me six times is because I've been living my life a certain way for the past three years, and that's in integrity. And so I'm failing it because I'm I'm holding myself to to the standard, and I'm gonna I'm gonna be honest if I fail it, you know. Sure. So it took me six it took me six times, and on the seventh I finally completed it. And it helped that on the seventh time Alicia was doing it too. I was about to say, yeah, yeah. That was huge, you know. So our second workout was often a walk in the evenings, and then after that we got um re-engaged, and then in about six weeks we're gonna get remarried.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Let's go. Yeah, I love that, dude. Yeah, so all kinds of brand new beginnings. Um, so did you have a desire just to continue it, or were you like, I'll drink a beer?

SPEAKER_00 13:48

So I was on a call with uh Mark Salmanoff, uh Dust Dustin Johnson and a few of their other clients. Mark Zolmanoff trains me, and I was on a call with them, and uh one of their other clients was like, Hey, I'm having this issue, I can't get motivated, you know what I mean? And I've always tried to lose weight, and this has always been an issue for me. And he's he's attempted 75 hard before, and I was just like, What are you waiting for? Let's go. We'll we'll both start tomorrow. I'll start phase one, you start 75 hard, and then I'll go for an extra 45 days just to support you. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, and um, because I knew, you know, and it and it and it sounds like I'm being generous and you know, I'm doing something great for somebody else, but no, it's selfish because I know if I'm accountable to him, yeah, there's no fucking way I'm letting him down. I'm not gonna let him down. Right. You know what I mean? And so I was able to complete phase one. He broke his foot, you know what I'm saying? So he didn't complete 75 card. So I was like, uh, you know what, I'll let you off the hook because it gets me off the hook for the next 45 days. I'm like, I'm okay with this. I love it.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yeah, I've I found I enrolling other people, life's enrollment, right? But enrolling other people, I do a lot of that when I I don't like to leave the house at night. Not leave the house, but like evening events, right? But if there's somewhere that I need to be or I should be, I'll invite somebody. For example, I do breath work often a couple times a month, breath work class, and I'll I'll pay 75 bucks for the class, and it's incredible, it's life-changing. I always go, I'm so glad I did it, but I'm known to skip it too. Yeah. So I brought a friend last time, and then I'm like, there's no way her first time coming to experience this, which is like a healthy psychedelic trip for an hour and a half, there's no way anybody should miss out on this. Uh so enrollment's a big thing, dude.

SPEAKER_00 15:22

Yeah, and I I did that for the first time uh two months ago at the RBO mastermind. It was literally the first thing that we did. Is that breath work?

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

And uh I I told myself that when I got back to San Antonio, I would find someone to do it with there. And I and I needed to do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Yeah, try to find a one-on-one if you can, yeah, so that you can get that true experience and you got the music playing and this whole burning sage and whatever that. And listen, I my challenge was that I was, you know, I'm a devout Christian. I was like, Jesus is the ultimate healer, I'm not gonna go to man for this. And somebody said, Hey, maybe Jesus sent her. And I was like, Oh, snap. So from that point forward, and we're polar opposite on belief system, but that girl is tuned into something. She's got a gift, man. I'm telling you. Met her at the gym. Oddly enough, girls don't smile at guys at the gym. She did tall, beautiful, tall drink of water, and just got it tuned in and was doing it as a hobby. Yeah. And I said, Um, you know you're gonna quit your big girl job, which was a great job in the medical field selling robotic uh operating equipment. Okay. And uh I said, uh, you're eventually gonna quit your job. And she's like, Are you crazy? Like, do you have any idea how much cheddar I make doing this? Like, this is my passion. I love helping people. I go, just chill. Guess who quit her job six months ago and is booked solid, runs a little practice out of her apartment. I mean, it's it's it's unbelievable. I sent everybody I know to her because of that, you know, again, it's that whole lift as we climb here. We're all trying to unfuck life and go through this whole um experience, you know, together for for the better. So yeah, dude, get I'm gonna hold you accountable.

SPEAKER_00 16:49

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

Breathwork San Diego uh San Diego, San Antonio.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

Yeah, it was uh amazing experience for me. I called Alicia afterwards and she was like, I don't know what got into you after that. Yeah, dude. It was possible.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

We access um different parts of our brain based on it. It was Freud originally used psychedelics, and psychedelics were became outlawed and there was nothing left, and realized that if we over-oxygenate our body for a period of time, there's several different gateways into the brain and body that we can go into that we can actually heal and release locked, pent-up energy. Um, that's why your hands get all cold and you get all like a little warm and sweaty and you're freezing, then you're hot, and you're crying, then you're laughing, you're screaming. You don't know what the fuck's going on. But hey, get it out. I always like to say, right? Well, dude, um, I'll have to we'll have to get you back on the show too, but I want to make sure we got uh at least an episode in the podcast trailer. Like the initial episode on here. I'm gonna go back home, make some shit up about building sales teams, and I'm gonna get on your show. Yeah, that sounds good. Maybe I'll just write a bunch of comedy material about sales.

SPEAKER_00 17:49

Honestly, uh, you need to be on it just to talk about the podcast angle. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? In order, in order to uh Dan Henry went crazy about that.

SPEAKER_01 17:58

Yeah, exactly. I'm like, of all people. Like he was like, we went out to dinner, he's like, I want to talk more about this. Yeah. And I'm like, is it is this real life? He was over. He's like, so you're telling me that you find people that you can sell stuff to, get them on your show, and sell them something. I agree. Brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 18:11

Absolutely. So yeah, we'll definitely talk about it.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Thank you, my brother. You're a friend, you're a client, you're a mentor. You know, I'm gonna hold your ass accountable to uh breath work. You do the same for 75 heart. I've been dodging it like the plague. I am. I dodge accountability, I'm told. So I throw myself the only way to not do that is just throw yourself into accountability and go, hey Doug, I've been putting uh 75 Heart off because I know you you'll have like a like a ninja. So thanks again, brother. Absolutely. I appreciate you having me. Yeah, man. Until next time, friends. Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of the Beyond the Story Podcast. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. If you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. We're sure to appreciate it. Signing off from the podcast, launchlab.com studios. We'll talk to you next time.