2: Triblio's #1 Seller – Jeff Zelaya

0:08 Scott Ingram: You're listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast, where we deconstruct world-class sales performers to provide insights and strategies to help you improve. To learn more, visit us at top1.fm. Here's your host, Scott Ingram.

0:25 Scott Ingram: Today my guest is Jeff Zelaya. Jeff is the number one sales manager at Triblio, which is an account-based marketing solution that generates demand and drives engagement through web personalization. Did I get that about right, Jeff?

0:36 Jeff Zelaya: You got it, Scott.

0:38 Scott Ingram: Awesome, welcome to the show.

0:39 Jeff Zelaya: Thank you, thanks for having me.

0:40 Scott Ingram: So, like we do here, I've asked Jeff to try and boil down what he believes are the 3 things that have helped him achieve such significant sales success. So, Jeff, how do you wanna tackle your top 3?

0:52 Jeff Zelaya: Let's take it from the top.

0:53 Scott Ingram: Go for it.

0:54 Jeff Zelaya: All right, so the first one that I put as a bullet point and something that is important to me, and actually it's at the core of what Triblio does, is about personalizing and personalization as a whole. And it's something that I think salespeople have to do a better job at because I mean, you and I, Scott, we've probably got those sales emails where we know we're probably 1 out of 300 people that are getting that same email that day. And I ignore that and I just send that right to my spam and junk. And it's just, you didn't spend the time to really get to know me and you're asking for a demo or you're asking for time to meet with me. So personalizing just your entire sales process from prospecting to when that person's in the sales cycle to even after you close a deal is key to differentiating yourself as a top producer, as a really quality salesperson. So we're going to dive into that, talk about, you know, how we do it here at Triblio, how I've done it, and what works and what doesn't. So that's definitely one area that we're going to cover. The other area is about transparency and how important it is because Salespeople have gotten over the years a bad rap for just, you know, being pushy and having ulterior motives. And, you know, we all know about the stereotypical salesperson. And I think the great salespeople today are changing, or we're shifting that paradigm to be more transparent with our process. So although we are, you know, trying to sell and everything happens when the sale is made, it's still important to be transparent about the process because in doing that, you earn trust. So that's something else that we're gonna talk about is how to build trust in a relationship with a prospect, with someone that you're working on the deal with and how that will help you accelerate the sales cycle. So we're gonna talk about that. And then the last piece of which I hope to discuss with you, Scott, in detail, and I know you're a fan of, is technology and how amazing it is to Today, as salespeople, we have all these great tools that just help us become more efficient, more productive. At the same time, if you're not using these tools in the right way, they could just be a burden on your schedule and just adding things to things on top of things that are broken. So we want to make sure that we embrace technology and that we use it in a way that actually makes us more efficient so we could focus on the things that really matter.

3:26 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Great list. I look forward to digging into these. So the list was personalization, trust, and technology. So starting with the personalization, I think the most natural place to go is what is that like in the real world, right? What is, what does that mean in your process? How does that manifest?

3:43 Jeff Zelaya: Excellent. So to first understand how we use personalization, I want us to look at what is not personalization. So, I mean, like I said earlier, we, we are just inundated with emails all the time, phone calls. And here as a sales manager for Triblio, I've gotten many calls and actually I give people now coaching advice, these sales BDRs, poor BDRs. They, they probably don't wanna hear advice from me, but I, I am, I take my, my profession very seriously. So whenever I get a chance to coach someone on improving their process so they could get better, you know, I jump on it. And part of where, where people are dropping the ball is that they're not spending enough time really getting know their target, you know, who is someone that they should be going after. So I think it starts there, you know, as at the top of the funnel, it's understanding what makes a good client, what makes a good customer for your organization, for your business, and getting to know that profile in detail. And you should be able to tell me, you know, what, what is an ideal customer? What does that look like for you? And if you cannot answer that question, we have, we have a problem. Because you don't, you don't wanna just be calling people at random, cold calling, and, you know, just using a generic script or a generic template to try to get, uh, the, the sales process moving, uh, when you haven't, you know, paid your dues. And when I, when I say pay your dues, it's again, understanding who you're going after, whether it's a target account or a certain persona and understanding their behaviors, where they live, You know, what they're interested in, what their goals are, and just get putting yourself in their shoes. And that's part one. And then part 2 is then going down to that individual. So if I want to get some time with Scott, you know, what's the best way to, to know more about Scott so I could then tailor whether it's an email message, whether it's a phone call, whether it's social media, how can I tailor my message to really intrigue you and to perk up your ears so then that way I could get a chance to pitch you whatever it is that I'm selling. And at the same time I'm doing the pitching, although it sounds kind of salesy, I'm doing that with the interest of that prospect in mind because I'm reaching out to you for a reason and this is the reason why. And it should be to add value. It should align with what that person cares about. It should be in a way that really helps them expand or grow their business. So, you know, that's… I think that's where the personalization process begins. It's, you know, number one, understanding what the targets look like and putting yourself in their shoes, and then drilling down to that actual individual and getting to know more about the person that you're reaching out to. They're just not another number, but they're a real person. And what is that real person interested in? What can you do to get their attention? You know, what do they care about? And I think if you take the time to really research that individual and you spend, you know, the extra couple minutes that it takes to tailor these emails, to tailor your phone outreach, to make sure that you're going after the right folks, it will make a world of difference in your ability to get meetings scheduled, to get those first sales calls scheduled. So I think that's where the personalization process begins.

7:16 Scott Ingram: Nice. So what I heard is sort of avoid the spray and pray, right? We get really targeted and focused on who's on the other end, right? Who am I reaching out to? So you're more efficient and effective. And then just to me, it sounded like extreme empathy, right? How do I put myself in their shoes, think about what they're thinking about, worry about what they're worrying about, and then, and then come up with those insights and solutions and come at them that way, right?

7:41 Jeff Zelaya: Yes. And again, you know, I to personalize the message for, for the audience that's listening to this show. Uh, you know, this… I'm in the SaaS B2B space where we're selling solutions that are, uh, thousands and thousands of dollars, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars. So you have to spend that time to do that. Now, you may be in the spray and pray type of business, but I think most of your listeners aren't, and they could relate to what I'm saying. Um, so yes, that's… you nailed it, Scott.

8:12 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So let's talk about the building trust piece.

8:14 Jeff Zelaya: Yes. Okay. So I think, you know, by personalizing your outreach, that is one aspect of how you build trust because that person, when you're reaching out with a very personalized touch, that person that you're reaching out to knows that, wow, you know, this Jeff spent the extra minute, the extra time to get to know, to get to know me. And also the outreach, it's, you're not going there with a self-seeking or self-serving attitude. It's really more focused around, again, super empathy, right? Getting to know how you could add value or adding value to that conversation from the start. And the way that we do it here at Triblio is to maybe point out things that they could be doing better, challenging that prospect to look at ways that they can improve what they're currently doing. You know, providing research, providing statistics that help them do their job better, providing ideas that help them think outside of what they're currently doing, and to look for ways that they could improve their process, their market, in this case, market, their marketing. So, you know, that is one way that we we build trust because, you know, most salespeople will go out there, hey, you know, it's about me, it's about my product, my company, what I do. And, you know, that's one way that you actually take away, you know, the trust because you're just sounding like everyone else. But if you're able to add value, look for ways immediately that you could help them, areas, and it doesn't have to always be tied into what you sell. It could be other, other ideas, you know, bringing them sometimes information that they don't know or competitive intelligence that would help them or pointing out certain things that are happening in the news that could affect their business. And by providing that value upfront without asking for anything in return is one of the key ways that I build trust with my prospects.

10:21 Scott Ingram: Oh, that's awesome. So for the last piece, we're going to talk about this technology. And that's something you and I have definitely spent some time together on and talked about kind of comparing our sales tech stack. So excited to dig into that. But, uh, given that we're talking about sales technology, this is a pretty opportune time to quickly thank our founding sponsor, which is Nudge. Uh, Nudge is a modern sales platform that leverages relationship strength to help you find and keep your best customers. Uh, something I've been using myself since their, uh, real early beta process, and they continue to add a lot more value, uh, to that solution. So, uh, if you value relationships the way I do, then you need Nudge. You can sign up for free at neednudge.com. That's N-E-E-D-N-U-D-G-E.com. So Jeff, talk about technology.

11:10 Jeff Zelaya: Oh, I am a technology geek and I love all types of tools. I was brought up, you know, I'm a millennial brought up on technology, on social media. So you could bet your butt that's part of my toolbox, right? We're using here at Triblio tools and platforms like LinkedIn Sales Navigator. We're using Twitter, we're using Salesforce, right? Your CRM is the blood vessels of a salesperson. So, you know, that's very important to us. But we're also using some cool technology like Outreach.io, which has helped us scale personalization via email and gain intelligence on what emails are actually resonating with our prospects and what isn't, and to help, at the same time, scale but keeping it personal, our cadence, our sales cadence, our sales process. So, that's one of the tools that we're leveraging today, and it's been very beneficial to us. And of course, data. We need the right people, the right information, and that's part of our process here. So, we're using DiscoverOrg as one of our partners to get that type of data and information on the appropriate prospects and phone numbers and emails and roles and departments, etc. So those are part of our toolbox. Triblio… I mean, I'm plugging my company, but we also do some really cool things around gaining intelligence on knowing what accounts to go after so you're not wasting your time going after cold accounts and you're actually spending time on the accounts that are engaging with you right now, with your website right now. So that's something that we we leverage at Triblio. But those are, you know, that's my core tech stack. And then we have other tools which, you know, we'll talk about that are for the individual that help the individual become more efficient, more effective with their own life, and in turn become a better salesperson.

13:08 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Yeah. And you are the king of that. So I look forward to circling back to that piece. But now, now let's get into just a little bit of the, of the context. So maybe talk about your role and how you got to be number one. And to be clear, I mean, your title is sales manager, but you are an individual contributor, quota-carrying guy who's had some pretty good success, right?

13:30 Jeff Zelaya: Yeah. So actually, I'll tell you the story how I got plugged into Triblio. So Triblio is a startup. We're a couple of years old. I was the first sales hire for this startup. I teamed up with some amazing co-founders. Our co-founders are former Eloqua executives, and after Eloqua was acquired by Oracle, they transitioned to start Triblio. And I worked in the very early days alongside the CEO, the CMO, selling to our initial prospects. So it was a very difficult, you know, for me it was very new because I came from a more established enterprise software sale where they already had a process built, they already had all the content you needed. You know, they were doing marketing, they had that down to a science. And I left because I wanted to grow and accelerate my professional development, my professional career growth. And the former CMO at that previous company became one of the co-founders for Triblio. So he knew about me, had learned about me from that previous company, saw my how I excelled, especially when it came to social selling. And he felt like that was some key attributes that he wanted to bring as he built out the sales team for Triblio. So I became the first sales hire. And in the first couple of months, you know, it was exploring, you know, what is the best way to position Triblio and sell and just creating the sales process. And it was very challenging. I mean, I, a lot of sleepless nights, you know, pulling hair, Because I was sometimes very frustrated because you're selling a dream. I mean, essentially that's what it is. You had at that time not a lot of tangible things to show like results and case studies. And, you know, we were creating a lot of that stuff on the fly. So it was not just a sales role, but it was a little bit of marketing, a little bit of customer success, a little bit of IT, and just, you know, a lot of different hats that I wore. Now, as time went on, our product developed, our customer success stories became a lot stronger. So, and our sales process also became more defined. And, you know, it's easy to brag about being the number one salesperson when I'm the only salesperson, you know, at Triblio. However, you know, that's changed in the past few months because our process has become predictable. And now we're starting to scale and we're at the point where we're bringing on account executives. We've got a BDR team. We've brought in sales leadership. So I'm working directly with the chief sales officer to start scaling our startup and get it ready for, you know, the next level of growth for our company. And it's been very exciting for me personally because, you know, I went from this enterprise, like where everything's already laid out for you, where I had to create a lot of that and experiment with a lot of these different processes to figure out what works. So it was very frustrating, but at the same time, to see how far we've come, it's so rewarding. And now, you know, we're at the stage that we're at, I'm very excited to get to that next step in our, in our growth. So it's, it's been quite a journey for us. And, but, you know, the numbers don't lie. I've been able to double my sales every year since, since starting Triblio. So now I'm going on my third year at Triblio, I've actually closed more deals and revenue this past quarter than I did the whole second half of last year. Today, right, we're a couple weeks from the end of the quarter, 3 weeks from the end of the quarter, 20 days to be exact. And I'm already at my number and it feels amazing to be at my goal. And now I'm in that sales accelerator bonus territory where every deal that comes in, every extra bit of revenue is incremental bonus and income that I'm adding to my bottom line. So it's been great, very rewarding at this place where we're at, but I worked very hard to get here. And now I want to be able to create opportunities for hungry salespeople to come on our team.

17:46 Scott Ingram: Yeah, such a great story. I mean, that's why I wanted to connect with you because you've gone from really a pure startup sales role, right? Where you got that early traction, you've been growing and growing and and seeing really significant expansion and been along through that whole journey and really excelling through the entire path. So it's, it's been fun to watch. But let's, let's go back and dig a little bit more into your history. I know you were in kind of on the enterprise sales side, but how did you get into sales? Where did this all start for you?

18:21 Jeff Zelaya: Wow. So, so for me, I've always been attracted to sales and actually came from my first job ever. So in high school, my senior year, I actually going from my junior to senior year, I went through this transformation where I lost a lot of weight. I went from being this fat chubby kid to being the most diesel guy in the classroom or in the high school. Then I used that to actually become a personal trainer. So I sold the ability to become a personal trainer because at the time you had to be 18 and I was 17. But the guy, the manager there said, hey, if you come back on your 18th birthday and you sell me, I will bring you on board. So I did exactly that. I showed up to this gym, it's Bally's Total Fitness, showed up on my 18th birthday, pitched them, told them exactly why they should hire me as a personal trainer and they did. Training clients at this gym. And the way that it worked is that you had to bring on your own clients. So you had to really sell yourself, right? You had to pitch these people that wanted to lose weight or build muscle. You had to convince them that they should work with you as opposed to maybe other trainers that were in the gym or as opposed to doing it on their own. So it was, you know, that's where my love for sales started because at first it was more a passion for exercise and fitness and helping people, you know, change your life through weight loss or becoming healthier. But as I explored different sales tactics and strategies, I realized, wow, you know, the better I get at selling and these methodologies, the more clients I'm able to bring on board and to convince to, to work with us. And it, it just… my business started growing. It came to the point that I was not able… my schedule got so packed, I was not able to train actually any clients on an individual basis, but I was really selling on behalf of the personal trainers. So my role shifted. I created this, this new role at the gym, and that's where I realized, wow, I have this, this gift, you know. I have the I guess it was… I was discovering that not only did I have this gift and this natural ability, but I also loved it. Just the exhilaration of getting someone to say, yes, we want to work out. We want to commit to this personal training program and pay this money to work with one of your trainers. Just that rush of closing those deals and knowing that these people would would, you know, would be on a better path for their health, you know, was, was a rush. So, you know, going, going through that experience at, at Bally's, you know, made me realize, wow, this is great, but there's also other opportunities that I could leverage this skill for. And it actually was… got into my first inside sales job because of a client of mine. So I was working with one of my clients, one of my early clients, so I still trained them all the time. And he said, you know, he had a great, a great job selling marketing consulting services for people that wanted to like patent their idea or, or start a business. And he's like, man, you're Jeff, you're so good at this that you should maybe try selling, you know, what I sell. And, you know, come check out, you know, what I do and see if you like it. So I went to this office and it was an inside, you know, cubicles, right, lined up in this building. And it was very fishy, you know, but it was a legit, you know, business. And I actually came to that building, it was payday, so everyone had their checks, their manila folders with their checks inside. And, you know, salespeople at that time, they were very eager to show kind of what they made, and they were very proud of, you know, what they were, what they were making. And then I seen those checks, I'm like, what? You know, you mean I could be making this, you know, doing kind of applying the same type of skills at that I'm doing now at the gym. So I'm, you know, I said, okay, let me try it. And I had the intention of like, or, you know, doing it part-time. And in the first week, I got so many more appointments than any other rep on the floor and made more money than I did like at working 4 weeks at the gym that I just left the gym completely and said, okay, no, this is gonna be what I, you know, devote myself to. So I started doing sales at this, it was like a call inside sales role and went from being just like a meeting appointment setter to actually closing deals, to closing like the small deals to now closing, like got promoted to closing the bigger deals and was one of the top salesperson there within a span of a year, became one of the top producers And really flourished in that role and realized, wow, this is a rewarding career. And that business unfortunately did not… it tanked. They went… at the time, it was economy issues and they didn't really strategically plan the business. They didn't have foresight to look into that, so they went bankrupt. And I was in that position where I really knew that I loved sales, but, you know, in order to maybe get the right job or the right path, I needed to go back to school. And so I enrolled and I was still just a high school graduate, but, you know, a year kind of doing the personal training business, selling the services, transitioning to this inside sales role. And now, you know, without kind of a next move, but understood that I like sales. I also, I liked marketing because when I was a trainer, I was also creating a lot of the marketing materials to do the pitching and to promote and to promote our services. So I knew I liked those aspects of business, but wanted to have the degree to kind of back it up and having more of the business knowledge that I lacked at that time. So enrolled at Florida International University and started my college career. I crushed it during my college career because I was already out of school, high school, for like a year or 2. I learned from the mistakes that everyone else had made while they were going to school, my friends. Also, I was more focused as a student, so I knew, okay, these are the skills that I want to learn. I already came to the professor with, this is my agenda, this is what I want to get out of this classroom. So I was very productive during my college years. I was a member of the American Marketing Association, which the year that I was one of the executive members of that club, it became the number one ranked organization in the country. I also competed at the national level in sales competitions and won the first place for my university, for my college in the sales contest. So it put us on the map and it was just, all these professors were coming, hey, what else can we do? We know that you have these skills. What else can we do to help kids, to help our students gain these skills? So I started collaborating with the professors, building curriculum for sales, bringing ideas to them, and we started a sales club at the university. University. And that was my legacy. I left, you know, that club now has grown and now they do international competitions. But I made an impact there. I graduated at the top of my class, was recognized by the president of the university for being one of the most outstanding students of my graduating class, not just because I excelled academically, but because I also excelled with extracurricular activities. And I I ended up graduating with 4 job offers. At the time where the economy was not as good and jobs weren't plentiful, I had 4 job offers waiting for me. And guess what? They were all in sales. They were all sales-related. So that's when I realized, wow, I love sales. It could be very rewarding. It's difficult. It's not for everybody, but that's why I enjoyed it because it's like, not everyone could do this. So I felt special knowing that I could… I was good at sales. And also what I really enjoyed about sales is that you could apply it to anything because, you know, if your interest is in sports, there's sales for sports. If your interest is in fashion, there's sales in fashion. If your interest is in, like me, marketing, guess what? There's sales in marketing and marketing technology. So I felt like there was a lot of options for what I could do with with my career. So that's, you know, I kind of went way back there, Scott. You know, I took you to my college years, but, you know, that's the story. That's the background of how I really got into sales. And my first, you know, out of the 4 offers, the one offer that really stood out to me that I jumped on was the opportunity to do sales for an agency, for a marketing agency. So I joined this company called Mediawiz. And they were based out of New York. I worked in the floor, the South Florida office, and I was selling, you know, from day one, right out of college, I was selling to CMOs, selling to CEOs, marketing, high-level executives at Fortune 1000 companies. And what made me unique is that part of what helped me succeed that maybe some of the more seasoned sales reps did not have at that time was my background with social media. So I really used that as a way to set myself apart and give myself an edge. And I actually ended up, you know, when I was… my last day at the agency, I was one of the top 3 sales reps, over $1 million in revenue, huge pipeline, and they did not want to see me go. But I eventually transitioned to and moved up to Washington, DC. But I had a great time at the agency that was like my… built my foundation to do what I do now. So like every, every job, every move that I've made has helped me be successful today. And it shaped me as a sales professional. And I embody that in everything that I do now with creating our sales process here at Triblio and helping our team succeed. In closing deals.

29:07 Scott Ingram: Yeah, so Jeff, two sort of related questions to follow that up. You know, one is I think there's very few straight-line career paths in sales these days, right? So kind of thinking about is there anything you would have done differently if you were if you were starting that process over again today, knowing what you know now, and maybe if you can work in there's a lot of folks. That are probably in inside sales interested in making the transition to an outside role or an enterprise role or whatever that may be. And I think a lot of people maybe get stuck there, right? That's… that can be a pigeonhole place. So, you know, what are your thoughts on that front, especially as you're starting to build your own BDR team there at Triblio?

29:50 Jeff Zelaya: Yes. So something that I personally did well, of course, I always think I could do this better. Is that you always work on building your brand. So no matter what company you work for, no matter what you're selling, always work on building your personal brand and getting known for, you know, whatever it is that you want to be known for. So that's something that I did at that time. But, you know, I always think, oh, I could, I could have done this and I could do this and add stuff to it. But, you know, working on building your personal brand. And the reason I say that is because you could take that personal brand anywhere. Anywhere. And you could, you know, transition to going from an inside sales role. But if you build your personal brand to reflect that your goal is to become an outside sales rep or enterprise rep, you could, you could build that through what you create for your personal brand. And then it's easy to transition because if someone Googles your name, you know, maybe you're already creating content, although you work inside sales, you're creating content or talking about outside sales. Well, you know, your next employer will see that, will know that, hey, you know, he has a passion for that, has experience around that, and will, you know, it'll be more, it'll be a lot easier to transition into that new role. They'll be more trusting of you. So I think that's, that's one of the pieces of advice that I would give to any college student or anyone that's looking to maybe change or, you know, take their career in a different path is to, to, you know, don't wait for that job to open for you to then start talking about that new role to start talking about it today. And you do that through social media, through LinkedIn, through networking events, through maybe creating your blog, your website, you know, writing articles about it. But that's, you know, a piece of advice that I think would be very… it's critical to anyone that is maybe thinking of switching careers or, you know, just wants to be in the position where they could easily transition and go to a new opportunity. Without having a lot of challenges present themselves along the path.

31:45 Scott Ingram: Yeah, nice. And obviously all things you've, you've done along the way, so that's great. And so, Jeff, of, of all of your accomplishments kind of along the way, which, which are you most proud of?

31:55 Jeff Zelaya: That's a great question. I, I, there's a lot of things that I feel really good about personally. I feel, I feel accomplished, but I would say that the one that really, uh, stands out is, you know, and it's not even sales related. It's when I was at FIU and I was recognized as what they… it's a World Ahead graduate. So they only give that to 2 students in the entire graduating class of over 1,000. And the reason that it meant a lot to me is because when I graduated high school, I actually didn't graduate on time. So all these, you know, my friends that I have gone to school from elementary to middle school to high school, uh, and we were supposed to walk the stage together and celebrate this milestone together. Uh, it, I did not end up, uh, walking with them. And the reason for that is that in my senior year, I got really sick, Scott, and I, I came down with a really bad case of senioritis and I was absent more days than I was actually showing up to class. And all my other teachers, they, because they, they knew kind of who I was or, you know, I had charisma, you know, They're like, okay, fine. We'll let them slide. We'll just give them the minimum to get them to walk the stage. My English teacher, Ms. Hemmings, which I will never forget to this day, she says, Jeff, if I pass you, it's not ethical. I don't believe in just passing you based on what you're telling me now. You got to earn it. I'm sorry, but you didn't earn it. Because of that, I was… my graduating, you know, I had to… it was delayed by a summer. So I had to go back and retake that English class in order to graduate high school. So, you know, that made my mom very upset because my mom, an immigrant, I'm coming, you know, immigrant parents, they came here searching for a better opportunity for myself. And, you know, they wanted something they always harped on, focused on was education, education, education, you know, will open up doors of opportunity for you. And it was heartbreaking to tell my mom, hey, Mom, I'm not going to be graduating with the rest of my classmates. This is not going to happen. It broke her heart. And it was for that time period, she just never kind of forgave me for it. So going back to college and having not just graduating with my class in college, but just being recognized. And I stood out up in front of thousands of people, but they also… my family, my mom, my stepdad, my brother, sister, they were also present. They got a chance. They told them to stand up. So we were all being recognized at this commencement ceremony. And that stands out to me because what she felt there, it was redemption for me. And I know it just made her so happy that it doesn't matter how you start. You could always change, you know, you could always improve. Uh, so that, that for me is one of the accomplishments that I'm most proud of.

34:59 Scott Ingram: So let's go to sort of a sales redemption story. I'll leave you there on the couch and maybe you can put us in the, in the place where, you know, at the time that you were struggling the most or that you had the most challenge, uh, at any point in your, in your sales career.

35:14 Jeff Zelaya: Yep. I, I, you know, most presently here at Triblio, I think I have a lot of little milestones that I'm proud of, but probably the one that I'm most proud of is, is how, you know, how far we've come in that in the first half of this year. You know, I look at the number, I look at our revenue, and I accomplished more this first half of the year than I did all of last year. And that means so much to me because, you know, I know all the challenges that it took to get here, right? Our first year, our first half, a year and a half of Triblio, it was a very difficult sale. Like no one, you know, we were just selling this, this dream. There wasn't any success stories yet. You know, we didn't have a really a process defined. And now we have all these pieces there. They've fallen into place. And now we're in the place, you know, in the point where we're just now adding, we have to just add more wood to this fire that we were already, it's already burning You know, very, very brightly. So I think I'm very proud of that because we started essentially with nothing and now we've got something amazing.

36:24 Scott Ingram: Do you have maybe a specific morning routine you go through?

36:29 Jeff Zelaya: Oh yes, I'm a big believer in morning routines. Like today, today I was up at 5 in the morning. Actually, I texted my chief sales officer. We hold each other accountable for getting up up at 5 o'clock in the morning at least 4 days during our work week. We text at 5 AM, hey, I'm up. Are you up? Then we'll text pictures. Typically, this is what my morning looks like. I get up. First 5 minutes, I'm just on my phone just to open up my eyes a bit, just to get my brain going a little bit. I might read some emails or an article or go on social media. Right away I have my clothes laid out. So the night before, my morning routine actually starts the night before. So the night before, I typically review my calendar for that upcoming day. This is what, you know, the meetings I have scheduled. This is what I should be expecting tomorrow. I also lay out my gym, my gym wear. So I have my shorts and my shirt and my shoes ready to go right by the door. So I have no excuse, you know, I get find my way to that easily, put that on, and I'm out the door. And my day starts with like an hour and a half workout or workout session, which includes the first 5, 10 minutes I'm doing… I'm praying. I'm also expressing gratitude for what I have, my family, my health, my career, my finances. So I express gratitude For that, I also pray and visualize things that I want to accomplish that day and I want to accomplish that quarter or that year, think about those goals. And then I also go into my cardio workout. So I'm running, usually start with a little warmup and then go into half an hour of running. And like this morning I did a 3-mile run. Typically that's what I do in the morning. Sometimes a little longer if I have maybe no early morning meeting scheduled, you know, I would go a little longer, maybe switch it up with some weight training. So depending on the day, do weight training and cardio. But really, the routine looks like, you know, expressing gratitude, prayer, visualization, reviewing my to-do list for that day, you know, what the day should look like, going into my workout, and then wrapping up with… and as soon as I finish that, I immediately transition to eating my frog. And for those that are not familiar with what that means, frog, you know, if you ate a frog this morning, Scott, your day after that looks pretty good, right? Because I don't think anything else, you know, anything worse than that could happen, having to eat a frog. So what that means for me is that I try to do like that, that task or that project or that email or that phone call that I really don't want to do. Like, I'd rather just maybe push it off, but I know that it's important for me to do. So I try to get that knocked out of my list immediately. So that's typically what my morning routine would consist of.

39:37 Scott Ingram: So what was this morning's frog?

39:39 Jeff Zelaya: So this morning's frog was to get you the bullet points for this conversation today. I was like, man, I can't I can't believe I forgot. So I had to get that to you. And then also had an important email follow-up that I wanted to do for this prospect that's kind of disappeared on me a little bit, so that I have to hammer them. And so creating that email to send them was part of my morning routine.

40:01 Scott Ingram: Cool. And then are there other routines or habits that are key to your success maybe later in the day? We talked about the morning, but, but maybe how do you structure the rest of your day?

40:10 Jeff Zelaya: Yep. So I am a big believer in also having alarms set up throughout the day. So in the morning, I usually do that as well, set up different checkpoints for me throughout the day. So on my iPhone, I would say, hey, 12 o'clock, I have the midday goal check. So look at my goals, where am I, how productive have I been? So that's a question that pops up on my phone just to remind me to look at my game plan to make sure I'm still on, on on the plan. I also have a reminder to call my son, to FaceTime with him, just to spend time with him. You know, since I'm not… you know, I'm a working dad, I want to be able to spend as much time with him just to check to see how he's doing. So I have reminders to do that. So I set up those reminders typically, you know, during the day, but they remind me throughout the day at the appropriate times. You know, occasionally I would do like midday or around 2 o'clock I step out of the office and I go for a walk. And I, I live in, you know, here in DC, but my office is in Reston. And we have in, in the backyard of our office is a beautiful, just this forest that's actually, it's a federal preserved forest. And I go back there and do a walk and, you know, maybe some meditation, some affirmations throughout that time. But it's a great, it's a great way to break up your day. So, and when I come back, usually I come back Like energized. And I would do like phone time typically after I come back from that walk. And, you know, that would include that in my day. I try to get out of the office, you know, no later than 6:00. You know, of course it doesn't happen every day, but sometimes you got to work late. But, you know, I would try to get by 6:00, make it home, have dinner with the family. That's very important to me, family time and getting to spend time together and just hang out with my wife and son. And we do that in the evening. And then if I have work, extra work to do, you know, I'll do it when they're asleep. Like last night, you know, instead of… I didn't have a huge workload. So instead, I actually went for a 6-mile run at 10 o'clock at night. So yeah, I do things like that just to stay very active. And I find that by exercising, I actually have a lot more energy throughout my day. And energy is important to sales because you got to pass on energy through enthusiasm. You got to make your energy contagious because you're motivating these people to move. And it might be easy to… it's easy to stay where they're at. It's easy to be complacent. It's easy not to do anything. But I have to transfer my energy over to them sometimes just via my voice for them to get going. So that energy is key for us salespeople to be able to harness and use that throughout our day. So the more energy you have, I think the better you will be at selling. So exercise has helped me maintain and increase my energy, as well as, you know, eating healthy. And thank God I have a wife that cooks for me, you know, so I don't have to worry about even like going out to eat unless I'm eating with a prospect or a client or with our teammates here. So I have, you know, lunch here, I have my snacks, and, you know, that's what a day would look like for me, an average day.

43:24 Scott Ingram: Nice. You know, it's… the energy thing is so interesting, having done a lot of research around this, and it's really counterintuitive, right? The idea… you would think, well, they've only got so much energy for the day, so I want to apply that to my selling efforts, and I'm gonna apply most of that in the office. Office, maybe a little bit with my family. But the flip side is true. You actually get more energy if you expend some energy and go work out or go for a run or go for a walk. And obviously, if you paid attention to all of the points that Jeff is walking, running, working out during the day, that is obviously the reason why I usually am at the top of the charts on my Fitbit friends, but then Jeff came along and he's obliterated that. So Jeff, I'm surprised you haven't brought it up yet. Can you talk a little bit more about just your tracking mechanism because Fitbit's a part of that, but you've got this really, really great system that I think has, I mean, particularly in the last year, year and a half as I've kind of watched you do it and execute it, has made a huge difference. Talk about that.

44:26 Jeff Zelaya: Yep. So, Peter Drucker says, if you can't measure it, you can't manage it. So I have goals set for me for this year and one of those goals is around fitness. It was very difficult to kind of monitor how am I doing on the fitness level. So I looked at the Fitbit, it was popping up on my radar. My wife actually got it for me for my birthday. So at the beginning of the year, I was armed with my Fitbit and wow, it just made a huge difference in my overall health and fitness level. By having the data now to know where I'm at. So a lot of us, I think we tend to overestimate kind of how active we are or how many steps we take. So when I had the first couple weeks I had the Fitbit, I was like, what? That's it? You know, I'm not even doing the daily recommended steps that they… that the, you know, Heart Association recommends that you do. So, you know, I felt like, okay, I'm really out of shape. And I felt it as well, like going up a couple of flights of stairs, you know, a little bit breathing heavy, out of wind. And it just gave me the data to now know, okay, this is where I'm at, this is where I'm starting. If I want to end up here, I want to lose my 15 pounds this year, this is what I would need to do. This is how many calories I would need. But more importantly, this is the activity level that I have to achieve. So of course, you know, we can't double that overnight or even in a from one month to the next, but I found ways to gradually increase that over time. So, you know, kind of in our sales process, right? That's how we got better here at Triblio at selling is that we started really keeping track of activity and the correlation of that activity with results and, you know, discovering those patterns. So the same thing was true when I got the Fitbit, I realized, okay, you know, the weekends, you know, I'm not very active, but during the week, you know, if I wake up at 5, I usually get, you know, over my… or I get my 10,000 steps in, no problem. If I'm at 10,000 steps by lunchtime, I mean, I'm probably… I could probably do 20,000 steps a day. So just like seeing those patterns, I started realizing, okay, this is what I need to improve upon. This is how I could get better. And also the competitive atmosphere of Fitbit got me going. So like, you know, in the beginning, right, seeing you, Scott, at the top of the charts, as a salesperson, just innate… is innate desire to be the best, right? If you're in sales, you want to be the best. You want to be number one. I don't want to be at the bottom. I don't want to be in the middle. I want to be number one. So that drive, that competitive factor helped me also. It pushed me to go for an extra walk that night or to go for an extra run, to get myself going when I really did not want to. It was easier to not do anything. So that helped also drive me and just the community around that and, you know, helps push us to become better. So that really is one of the mechanisms that I use to increase, you know, my steps, increase my activity, become more fit. And I apply that also to other, other things in my, in my life. So there's other habits that I wanted to create. One of those habits was in professional development. So spending time reading and listening to podcasts like this, I think is key, right? We have a lot of downtime, especially commuting or even like while doing mundane activities in the office where we could make it more productive by listening to a podcast and watching an interview or reading a book. So I started creating habits or a wishlist of habits that I wanted to create and by creating these habits, I knew that I would be able to achieve a certain outcome or result. You know, I might not be able to get that result, but what I control… that result… but what I could control is the activity. So setting time throughout my day, creating those habits where I would spend, you know, 10 minutes just reading. I would be reminded of that with this app that I use. That is called… and I'll tell you right now the name of it is Habit List. And I use that as a way to keep track of my habits. So right now I'm looking at my habit list. I have here read 15 minutes, and right next to it is a number. That number is how many times I've done that and how many times I've, I've been able to keep that habit going. I also have here reading to my son at least 15 minutes. I have weight training 20 minutes. I have Calling a friend, you know, keeping my personal relationships, nurturing my personal relationships. I have that on my list today. Affirmations, 10 minutes is part of my list. So I have all these habits that I know if I, if I create these habits and if I upkeep these habits, they will eventually help me achieve that desired result or goal at the end of the year. So that's something else that has helped me And has kept me on track. And again, you know, to be successful, it's not just about hitting your sales revenue number this year. That's a big part of it. But I also want to be successful personally. I want to be successful spiritually. I want to be successful as a family man, as a man, as a family, you know, as a leader of my family. So I figure out all these different habits that help me accomplish this ultimate goal. And that has been a huge help for me. And I track, you know, I have a spreadsheet where I call it my life dashboard. And I'm tracking all these numbers. I'm tracking, okay, how good was I at keeping this habit? And why didn't I keep it? And just kind of doing that every… I do a quarterly check. And then like halfway between the quarter, I also go in and see, okay, how can I still get to that number or get to that that goal. And I do this not just by myself, but also my wife is my accountability partner. My boss here, Shawn Cook, who's our Chief Sales Officer, he holds me accountable to my professional goals at Triblio. And it's helped me. Again, you know, accountability partners, having these apps like the Fitbit app and having HabitList, which is, you know, reminds me daily of these habits that I want to create has again been so useful in my, in becoming better and becoming a better Jeff.

50:57 Scott Ingram: Yeah, that's, that's awesome. And Jeff shared his life dashboard with me. So, you know, Jeff, maybe that's something we can talk about putting into the Sales Success Community that we're building. I think that would be a real nice, nice give, maybe not populated, but empty so people can have a template.

51:13 Jeff Zelaya: Of course, we could create a template for it so they could easily go in there and start mapping out their life and the life that they want to create. Makes it easy. I break it down into financial, into personal and family, into career. So those are my categories. And of course, fitness, and you'll see how I structure that in my template. So yeah, I would be more than happy to share that with our community.

51:39 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So stay tuned to the end of the show. We'll give you details on how to get an exclusive invite to that community and apparently Jeff's tracker. So Jeff, talk about… you mentioned you're listening to some podcasts and you're reading. What does that information diet look like? What are some of those things that you're consuming that you found the most value from?

51:58 Jeff Zelaya: So I am an Audible subscriber and I love Audible. It allows me to consume books. You know, I don't have a lot of time to sit down and read like I used to. Maybe I could once in a while, but it's more difficult for me to read books. It's a lot easier for me to listen to books, and that's been very helpful. I've used Audible, and I get recommended books, put them into my Audible queue. Every month or every couple of weeks, I have this new book to listen to. That's been very useful for me. Podcasts, oh my God, it's free. You know, for a lot of them, it's free. You don't have to pay to listen to some awesome content that's on these podcasts. Scott, you know, you've done many podcasts, you've interviewed some amazing people. And if people that are listening today go back and listen to some of those episodes, they could gain a lot of value for, you know, for free by listening to these podcasts. I think that's something else that we… I take advantage… I used to take advantage of it more in the past.

53:04 Scott Ingram: It's…

53:04 Jeff Zelaya: I kind of go in cycles with the podcast, so I want to get back into it. You know, Audible kind of… I have certain books that I want to complete, so like that's been eating up most of my listening time. But beyond that, I also minimize kind of like watching TV. I'm not a big TV watcher. You know, I might binge… like right now I'm binging on Narcos.

53:27 Scott Ingram: Somebody else got me on that. It's not good. It's not… I mean, it's good. That's the problem.

53:32 Jeff Zelaya: Yeah. So like, you know, I might do that like on my wife, you know, that's our time together. You know, we watch some TV, but you know, I really minimize kind of TV watching time, right? I rather do more productive things like, you know, working out or listening. I also, you know, might listen to Audible while I'm walking on the treadmill or walking outside. So you can multitask with listening. So I prefer that as opposed to watching where it kind of, you know, it takes up a lot more of my senses and I get… you got to do it, you got to focus on that and you can't really multitask while watching a show. And in reading, you know, kind of the same thing there, but I like to you know, I prefer the listening route. And what I tend to do is like after a chapter of listening, I go back and take notes. So I have an archive of all my like sales notes, or I break it up into categories, but like notes for professional development notes. Like I have one on becoming a better dad. So I take notes, like I listen to a chapter. Okay, what did I learn from that? What did I get out of that? Any tidbits that I gained that I took from that content, I just go back and write it And into why I use Google Keep as a way of tracking that stuff. But you can use like Evernote or any other app that helps you keep notes. But I use Google Keep, and then I could go back and review these, you know, these notes from the content, like my Cliff Notes for my books. So that's, that's what I'm doing when it comes to professional development. And then obviously, like, always following the right people on Twitter, right? And LinkedIn, you know, you get great content there. I pay close attention to what my prospects are sharing, what they're talking about. So I spend a lot of time also reviewing like those articles, those websites, you know, the content that they share. So that's another kind of part of my professional development.

55:26 Scott Ingram: Nice. Jeff, do you, do you follow any particular sales methodology or philosophy?

55:34 Jeff Zelaya: I don't. I am aware, you know, of like the Challenger Sale, you know, the Maverick Method. You got Sandler, you got all these different schools of thought around sales. But I think what you need to do is it's… you have to know them, you know, learn them, and then figure out which ones to take for your own for creating your own sales process or making your… that complement your sales structure, your sales cadence, or your sales strategy. So I don't think there's like one that will solve all your sales problems. I think we could, you know, combine aspects of all these different ways of selling to make kind of your own. But I really, again, going back to the personalization, I feel that you have to understand what, how you sell and what and how the kind of selling environment that you thrive in. And for me, like, it's really, it's less salesy, less pushy, less about, you know, just smiling and dialing and more about really focused on nurturing and building relationships while providing value and being very relevant to the people that I'm reaching out to. So I think it's important to know about the different sales methodologies, but don't think that one will solve all your issues. You got to figure out what to take from that and apply to your own and build your own method of closing deals, and the results won't lie. So again, track to see if it's actually working for you, but I believe that you should create your own method based on your sales environment.

57:17 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So, I mean, you, there was a line or two in there that probably distilled it pretty well, but if you were to create sort of a tagline for your own style, how would, how would you describe what your sales style has evolved to?

57:35 Jeff Zelaya: I would say it's personalized for my prospect. So it's the sales methodology of being personal and again, applying whatever it is that my product is, but personalizing that for specific. So I was, again, I think maybe it's account-based sales. That's, I think that encompasses it because when I'm personalizing it, I'm personalizing it for the individual, but that individual is working for a company. And my message is very personalized for that particular account or company. So you could say it's account-based selling.

58:15 Scott Ingram: Nice. And that fits very well with the account-based marketing place you live. So that's awesome. So from a motivation standpoint, I mean, you're out there, you're doing a lot, you're tracking a lot with your dashboard. What lights that fire? I mean, what motivates you? What keeps you getting up at 5 every day?

58:37 Jeff Zelaya: Yeah, for me, it's about knowing your whys. And I think that's a big quality that top producers have is that they know their why. And for me, my why is always… it's first my family. So like my wife and my son, I want to be able to provide the best future for them. And I want to set an example for them and lead by example. So when I'm waking up at 5, They see that and I think my wife, I think she pushes herself. If I'm up by 5, she's going to push herself harder I believe because she's motivated by the fact that I could be in bed but I decided to get my day started at 5 because I want to be healthier or I'm going after this particular goal. So that's at the core of why I do what I do is because I want to provide for my family. I want to make sure that they're well off. Experience, you know, life in the best way that they can. We do a lot of traveling, we do, you know, a lot of different events that we go to, we have a lot of different experiences as a family that are possible because I excel in selling and I'm closing deals and I'm able to provide a certain level of income that helps us advance, you know, our life and do things that we weren't able to do before. So that, that's always a motivating factor for me. Uh, the other one is just to be the best at what I do. Anything that I take on, like I want to be, I want to master it. I want to be the best when it comes to account-based marketing. I want Triblio to be the best company to be really known for that. And to, uh, you know, I want to beat my competitors, right? Because I believe that our product is better. I believe that our team is better. And if that, if that competitor is winning deals that I should be winning, it really pisses me off because I know that that client is missing out because they don't have us. And that's a driver for me, right? I want to be able to help people accomplish their goals. That's really at the core of what I do. That's my mantra, is to help people to reach their goal, to help them accomplish what they, what they want to accomplish, what they're going after. So I believe our product, you know, does that better than other solutions out there. So that is a driving force for me to, you know, continue to improve my sales process so I could convey that in a better way and have that conviction when I'm talking to possible clients of ours or prospects. So, that's, you know, something that motivates me. And also, I believe that, you know, there's a lot of stakeholders and a lot of people that have helped me get to where I'm at today… professors and friends and past bosses. And I want to make them proud, Scott. I want them to be happy. I want them to point to Jeff and say, I had a say or I had something to do with Jeff's success. And that's again, it's a driving factor for me because I want to be in a position where I make them proud that what I've accomplished, I say I didn't get here because of me and myself. I got here because of the people. That played a part in developing me to where I'm at today. So I want, you know, these are stakeholders, I call them, in my success. So I want to make them proud. I want to make them, you know, happy. Same thing, and my team as well, same thing here. You know, I want them to have more opportunities. I want them to grow professionally. So, you know, I do it for them. But, you know, when I look at, you know, what motivates me, what helps me get up 5 in the morning, you know, most days, you know, that's, that's really at the core of it. It's that, you know, it's not just to close a deal. It's to… it's people that are my biggest motivating and motivating factor.

1:02:17 Scott Ingram: Yeah. Very cool. I'm glad I could serve as your rabbit in the early Fitbit days. Now that you've lapped the rabbit, it's, it's pretty awesome to see. I think you hit, you hit 200,000 steps in a week, a week or two ago, and it's just ridiculous. So awesome to watch. So Jeff, is there, is there something that you believe that the average sales rep would think is crazy?

1:02:41 Jeff Zelaya: I think breeding and just like doing more than what's called on for you to do for your job, right? So every, you know, sales job like has roles and responsibilities and this is what's like expected and required of you. I think most, like the average salespeople, are afraid to go above and beyond that. And, you know, when people do, they think they're crazy, right? And I think that's always something that I've, I've done and I've pushed the limits, right? Back, you know, before Triblio, I was working at Vocis, right? Enterprise PR software company. And at that, what I was doing that was looked at as crazy is that I was using LinkedIn as a way to nurture relationships, right? A lot of the reps, what they would do is if someone's not ready to buy, they toss that lead away. And I thought that was crazy, right? So I kept those leads and I nurtured them through social, through Twitter, through LinkedIn, through email, getting them to stay in front of them. And that gave me the edge. And then when I closed more deals, you know, I became the Rookie of the Year at Vocis and, you know, closed… I was almost 200% of my number and I got to President's Club within 6 months, less than 6 months of joining the organization, which has never happened there previously. You know, they looked at me like I was crazy, but I had looked at them like they were crazy when they were throwing those leads away and I kept them and worked them. So it just depends, you know, and then later they wanted to start learning from me and like, okay, Jeff, what are you doing? You're not crazy. I know this is working. So we just need to start doing it. So they wanted to start learning, which I found it crazy that they weren't doing that even before, right? Because I think that's what makes salespeople really good is that they figure out, they talk to the people that are doing it and they figure out how can I replicate that? And when people aren't doing that, then I feel like they're crazy. But many people think it's crazy to go and ask a top producer for their secrets when, because they feel like they're going to get rejected or why would that person share with me, you know, what works for them? You know, they come up with all these excuses or rationality in their head when it's, it's false, right? It's maybe not, it's not true. Yeah.

1:05:01 Scott Ingram: So Jeff, who is the most successful sales professional that you know personally? Who do you think of?

1:05:09 Jeff Zelaya: Wow. Today, the most successful salesperson that I know, you know, that's a tough one. I would say, and again, he's not listening to this, so don't think I'm trying to kiss ass, but my boss right now, Shawn Cook, who's our Chief Sales Officer, I've learned working with this guy for maybe 6, 7 months now, I've grown so much as a sales professional that if I was to credit, you know, the best salesperson based on how they've impacted me and how they've helped me grow, I would say that he's been number one right now on my list. Prior to him, it was, you know, my… the other one that stands out was my boss at my first, like, inside sales job where I was at that call you know, the call center, you know, that, that individual, that sales manager there, his name was Frank Rose. I will never forget him. He was, he was the one that helped me get on my track of professional development, right? He would, he would go above and beyond. He didn't just want us to excel at sales, but he was always looking for ways to help us excel at life. So he introduced me to other great salespeople like Tony Robbins and Jim Rohn and Les Brown and and Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins. And I've learned from all these very successful motivational sales speakers and mentors. So they've had a huge impact on me, but I wouldn't have been introduced to them if it wasn't for that manager, my mentor, Frank Rose, you know, my boss at my first inside sales job. So, you know, I would go… I would say he was another one, very influential in my path, my career path.

1:06:55 Scott Ingram: Yeah, great, great stuff. So still early days with this show. Um, Jeff, I'm curious, what would you want to hear as, as I'm talking to other folks that are in, uh, different organizations? We're obviously trying to get some, some variety here. We've been talking to reps at much larger organizations and different types of sales roles. What, what questions would you have of them? What would you want to know about them and their success and, and how they got there that maybe I can incorporate.

1:07:24 Jeff Zelaya: Yep. So for me now, things that I'm looking at and I want to expand my learning on is as our team grows, you know, I want to be able to be that manager that Frank Rose was and being kind of, you know, what Shawn Cook is to me now. I want to become a better sales manager and managing a team that, you know, quickly is quickly growing. So that's something that I want to get more skills and more knowledge around. Also, Along with that comes hiring and recruiting and knowing what to look for in growing my sales team and what kind of structure, how to structure a growing sales organization. So those are the areas that I would love to learn more about that I'm seeking knowledge and wisdom on. And then how to motivate these people and how to help them continue to grow professionally. And push them. So those are probably the areas that I would like to hear some of your next guests talk about.

1:08:24 Scott Ingram: Nice. And you realize this was a trap. I'm going to turn this around. I know Shawn Cook. We go back to Eloqua days. What is it about those guys? You know, because obviously your manager in any sales role has a huge impact on that experience. So of the great ones, what is it about them, their style, what they're doing that has had the biggest impact on you? I mean, from, so from the rep's perspective.

1:08:58 Jeff Zelaya: Yes. Well, I feel number one is that they care. I think that's huge, right? You have a lot of managers, they don't, they just care about the numbers. What you're… the result. They care about you hitting your number, but they don't… I feel like sometimes they don't show that they really care about the individual and, you know, the stuff that I care about. So like, you know, Sean, one of the first things he did is just get to know me, you know, what drives me, you know, my family, and just getting to really know what buttons make me, you know, help push me and what helps drive me. And he got to know that quite well. So, and I, you know, of course it takes two, right? I have to openly share that with him and be very transparent with him. And at the same time, he was very transparent with me. So that trust, you know, got established very quickly early on. And I think that was key to forming the kind of relationship where I was able to grow without and be able to like still take risks and be creative without having, without fearing that you know, I'm going to be in trouble. Like we were just very transparent, had a lot of communication, you know, overcommunicated sometimes, right? Like waking each other up at 5 in the morning, that's a little extra right now. Not everyone's maybe open to doing that, but it worked for me and it worked, you know, I asked him for that. So like holding each other accountable, being able to, you know, take feedback, right? So I had ideas that, you know, he had ideas. I might not disagree with some of those ideas, but, and I was still able to present those ideas to him and why I objected to those ideas and he was open to it. He said, you know what? We'll go with what you're saying. I think that might be better. So like just being open to feedback and be willing to change or to try things out, I think that's also important. It's not just what I say goes, right? It went both ways. So I felt like an equal. Although he's got like tons of more experience and wisdom with me, like he was still open to learning himself. And I think that went, you know, it went, it meant a lot to me. You know, it showed me the kind of person he is. And because of that, you know, I think, you know, it just, he just stands out as an excellent sales leader.

1:11:15 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. Well, Jeff, this has been really great. I want to try and see if we can't find a way to tie it all together. This is probably the hardest question. So if you were to distill this or distill your top 3 points, if you will, and create a challenge for the community that's listening to the show, and, you know, maybe, maybe it's something they do for a week, maybe it's something they do for 2 weeks, what would that challenge look like?

1:11:42 Jeff Zelaya: Great. So I think number one is to identify the areas that you want to improve upon and then start measuring, you know, those areas, right? So look at your entire, not just your sales activity or results, but like overall your life. Like what, what is it? What habits do you have to create to become the salesperson that you want to ultimately become and to start looking and tracking kind of the activity of those habits? So I think that's, you know, a huge challenge right there, right there in itself. That's a lot of work to do, but you know, try to just focus on creating maybe 3 new habits. Think about, you know, what habits, if you created, would have the highest impact on you getting to your goal. So for me, it was, you know, getting up at 5 in the morning so that way I could have more hours during my day and be more productive. That was one of the habits I created. The other habit was doing professional development at least 30 minutes a day, reading, listening to podcasts, and networking, right? So figure out your 3 habits, start working on creating and tracking those habits. So that, that's one of the challenges I would give. And then the other one would be focused around making your process, your sales process, more personalized. So figure out, you know, in your process, what can you spend a little bit of extra time personalizing. So for me, you know, it's, it's talking more just like with who I reach out to, like not just having a random list, but like I really try to think of who would be the ideal client. And I have, I developed a really personalized message for those individuals that I know would have a high chance of getting listened to and perking someone's ear up. So I would just figure out in my process what can I add personalization to that would help me deliver value better or would help me communicate better with that individual, with that prospect or client. So those would be like the 2 targets that I would challenge your audience with today.

1:13:50 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Great stuff, Jeff. Thank you. I want you to know I really appreciate you and I appreciate your time on behalf of everybody that's, that's listened to this point. I think they hopefully they fall take your process and take some good notes because there's a lot there's a lot in here to be to be thought about and shared and again really appreciate you.

1:14:11 Jeff Zelaya: Thank you, Scott. Thank you for having me as a guest. I appreciate you as well. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast. To be sure you never miss an episode and for an invitation. To our Sales Success Community powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.