73: Dale Dupree – From Top Selling "Copier Warrior" to Leader of the Sales Rebellion (Part 2)

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.

0:24 Scott Ingram: This episode is brought to you thanks to the generous support of Vidyard GoVideo. Get started with their free solution today by clicking over to top1.fm/v. Today on the podcast, I'm super excited to welcome Dale Dupree back to the show. If you haven't yet listened to our first interview in episode 71, you might want to start there, but there was just too much greatness to cover with Dale in just one 90-minute session. So here we go again. We've got about a dozen of the regular questions that I try to ask everyone, and then we're going to go deeper into developing a personal brand and Dale's warrior mindset and how he's overcome depression. We'll talk about coaches, mentors, relationship, and we should probably also talk about what Dale will be presenting at the Sales Success Summit. So lots of ground to cover. Let's just get started. Dale, let's jump in and start with your information diet. What are you reading, listening to, and watching, and when the heck does that happen?

1:25 Dale Dupree: Yeah, Netflix every night. So I disconnect. So I get… you kind of have to understand me and my creativity to really understand how I digest and consume content. And so it kind of starts when I was a kid. My favorite story to tell is that I went around the lake with my dad for a walk one night. I was like 6 years old or so. And when I came back… my mom tells this story the best, by the way. She says that when I came back that I had like fought off a dragon and, you know, been attacked by an alligator and, you know, saved the damsel in distress from the castle, you know, literally from going out for a 30-minute walk with my father. Like, my imagination is a very wild place in general. So within the time span of 30 minutes, I had literally created a world that I lived in with my father around this lake. And if you ask me to think back to it, I'm like, I had a stick in my hand and, you know, my dad was encouraging the creativity, right? And, you know, saying things like, do you see that in the water? You know, as we walked around the lake and just again, like being my mentor in life. My father's my mentor in all things in my life, all aspects of it. You know, seeing like, hey, my son is extremely creative and at a young age and like understanding that and then tapping into it with me and helping me to understand it. So when I, when I look back at that piece of me and, and how it evolved, I was homeschooled. So my mother homeschooled all of us actually, all 3 of my siblings and myself. So there's 4 of us total. And the big thing on the classical education side is that either you can be a really weird homeschooled kid or you can be normal, is kind of the idea. And so my, my mom got us hooked up with local co-ops and, and into society essentially. Because of that, we were, we were also with other very creative people, you know, because that the outside-the-box thinking piece, it runs rampant in the homeschooling community. Anybody listening to this that's been homeschooled is nodding their head right now. Like, it's not what people think essentially. And one of my favorite classes was a writing class, and they would literally give me the freedom to kind of say and do whatever I wanted. And so I would create these worlds, you know, with heroes and villains, and, and even dumb, you know, dumb that down more generically and more realistically and just make moms and dads and stories about their struggles. And I mean, I, I could go from one end of the spectrum to the other, and this is from the time I was like 10 years old until I graduated from high school that I participated in these kind of activities. And, and because of that, you know, when my mom would… like once a week we would go to Long's Christian Bookstore. I'll never forget that. And we… it was right down the street from my house. And like at a certain point in my life, I was there like every weekend checking out the CDs and, you know, in the heavy metal section because I was the weird kid.

4:19 Scott Ingram: But wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, you had the heavy metal section in the Christian bookstore, bro?

4:24 Dale Dupree: I know, there was like 6 CDs total. But that was, that was actually when I played and toured in my band Imperial, and I toured across the United States and a couple other countries. I… it was a metal band, it was a Christian metal band. I was very influenced by heavy metal. And again, there was like 6 bands that the Christian bookstores would allow the CDs to come into. So, you know, anybody that's familiar with it, it's Solid State Records and Tooth and Nail Records. Those are the 2 record labels back in the late '90s and early 2000s that produced those heavy bands. Again, you could find them inside of those stores. I was probably their best client for buying those things. They probably literally stocked the shelf just for me. I had that creative side, right? I had that music side of me, right? Where it really comes together is that When I would leave the bookstore, my mom would buy us a book, right? A new book. And it was like Frank Peretti was one of the authors I can remember. And again, like these people are extremely imaginative and create these worlds. And some of them are a little scarier and some of them are a little bit more action-filled and kind of thrillers to a degree. But my mom, she just loved to allow my creativity to blossom. She never made me read an autobiography, right? As I started to enjoy that part of my life and I got older, you know, and technology was being introduced, and I mean, when I was a teenager, I am a millennial technically, you know, they call me a xennial actually because I'm at the end of it. I was born in 1985. And, you know, for me, like, the iPod was something that existed. Like, for some people, they're like, what's an iPod, right? Like, already it's crazy to me that that doesn't exist anymore. It's just iTunes and Apple Store now, right? But I had all these, these mediums that people were testing, you know, like trying new things out. And so podcasts were a thing, right? You know, it wasn't really even podcasts, it was like radio, like talk radio, you know. So like listening to Coast to Coast AM, you know, and, and that only came on at like midnight or 1 AM. And so it was when you were being a rebellious teenager and you wanted to stay up late, you know, you turned on Coast to Coast. And the stories on Coast to Coast are crazy, right? From demonic possession to aliens existing to you know, how a rock can heal your, your brain tumor. It's just crazy stuff, right? So, you know, for again, for me, like I dove into this world of creativity. And so part of my cadences and part of my rhythms and habits is that I wake up extra early in order to consume my content. And right now, like it exists, what exists inside of that world for me is that I'm on LinkedIn. Like 80% of my content consumption comes through LinkedIn, the LinkedIn feed, great content writers. And, and it's not always salespeople. It's all kinds of verticals and industries and people. You know, I even dabble in guys, influencers like Quentin Alums, you know, I think they call him Q, it's like his nickname if anybody's listening and they recognize him, right? But, you know, String, I love String and her journey, you know, that she's on. She's more of a video content creator, but, you know, again, like I like looking and seeing the world through other people's eyes. I love the culture side. Again, that's the creativity in me coming out, but think of me as a copier rep. I was on the road a ton. I drove 40 miles from my house to the office. Well, that was my dad's drive. So I actually moved to Winter Park when I was working for my dad and then for North American. So I drove more like 36 miles, 35. So it was a few miles off, but that's how I went to my territory. I literally drove out of my community that I lived in and went to where I worked. It was kind of a crazy concept, but the place I worked was my second home. I was on every board of director. I mean, you name it, I was involved with it. But again, because, because of the traveling and the driving and the consistency of those things, like, it's important that you keep that creative bone in your body aching. If you don't, if you succumb to just this boring drive on the highway every day of your life, it will literally beat you down. And so podcasts are a huge piece of that part of my existence. And, and dude, I don't have a podcast I recommend. People ask me all the time, like, what's a podcast you recommend? Like, I like yours. And I like Stu Heinecke. Like, those are 2 that I'm listening to right now. And yours, I like your daily tips because they're so quick and because I don't always have a whole lot of time to just sit and listen to 40 minutes. I might only have 20, and if the podcast is 40 minutes, I'm literally not going to listen to it. But I do, I love my friend's podcast. I love James Carbary's B2B Growth. You know, there's a lot of people out there that have great podcasts, right? But, but again, it's like, for me, it's about how do I… it's not so much about like, how do I consume as much content as possible, as much as it's about what do I need to be listening to right now? And also what works for me? And the whole premise behind it being, how do I keep my creativity flowing? And that's a big part of how my content is born as well too, because I'm reading other people's thoughts and I'm listening to other people's stories and it's applying to my life. And I'm thinking like, I agree with that, or I don't agree with that. And it's sparking again, you know, things in my brain to say, that's great content to write about, you know, maybe an alternate perspective on this. I just had a couple of friends do it recently, reading other people's posts inside of my little circles. You know, some of the sales leaders that I follow and hang out with, you know, I noticed one is posting about something and the other one's like posting a counter article to it and they're buddies. And I think that that's a great practice, right? So for me, it's more or less like, it's not just about passively listening to things and passively consuming. It's about how can I like literally engage with the content that's coming into my, to my very being. And I, and again, I think that's for me, that's the creative side coming out. You know, I create these worlds for myself essentially inside of that. Like, I, I love the lights to be dim and the LEDs going and a little bit of music even sometimes while I'm listening to a podcast that doesn't have lyrics. You know, just setting the mood. And, and that's again the musician in me to some extent as well too. But I, I really truly think that a lot of people have what I have from that standpoint of curiosity and wonder, and that they just need to tap into it. It's the same thing that we're trying to pull out of our buyers on a daily basis. And so that's why I'm so consistent with it.

10:21 Scott Ingram: Nice, nice, nice. Now, what about from a technology standpoint? Like what are the tools and apps that are must-haves?

10:29 Dale Dupree: So for me right now, the tools that I love, my Apple Podcast app, super easy. I can subscribe. To everybody I want to listen to. And then when you guys put up new episodes, it pings me. When it… as a road warrior, I love the maps apps. Like, Waze is a great one because if you're driving to an appointment and you're late and you're speeding, it'll let you know that there's a cop ahead. And by the way, I don't condone speeding whatsoever, and I don't do it if there are any police officers listening in my area. But what I really love is… and this might deviate a little bit from the conversation here… but I love Google Maps, okay? And Call me old-fashioned, but I love Google Maps 'cause it's very much like Yahoo Maps when Yahoo Maps first started. And I'm not talking about the aesthetics. What I'm talking about is that every business listing will show up in your Google Maps app. So if you open it up right now and you don't know where you're going or what you're doing, you could zoom out on the map and it'll show you specific landmarks like a museum or a lake or a park. But when you zoom in, you can see literally every single business. And so where you might think a neighborhood exists, if you zoom in on that app, you can see that there's literally 50 businesses on this strip, you know, right outside of these suburbs. And so for me, like, it's my wanderer theory inside of the Sales Rebellion. We call it the sales wanderer and the concept of like not making excuses when all you have is a list that won't pick up the phone. Like, go out and wander your territory and, and utilize again the tools that we do have. You know, this might sound extremely old school as well, but I love the local newspapers. You know, we have a few of them around here. A couple of them are in a magazine format as well too that I, that I pick up. But the thing is, is that these people are going door to door and meeting other individuals and writing stories about them. And so it's like, it's this, again, it's this like, Dale, are you living in the 1950s right now. But at the same time, it's the human connection that we're missing inside of our prospecting, inside of our daily cadences on so many levels, right? When you can literally read another person interviewing the individual that you're trying to meet at a business, and you, you can like hear the inflection by reading their words and, you know, understand this person's culture better by the way they answer these questions and tell their story and It's insight. And that's the psychology nerd in me coming out as well too. But, but they're hidden gems because there's 150 copier salespeople around here that have zero idea that I did that when I was selling copiers, zero idea how I was finding their little hidden church in the middle of nowhere that they've never had to worry about upgrading because I wandered my territory.

13:16 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. And I love the human piece of that. And I'm going to do a transition here because I think that one thing that is losing its humanity in a lot of ways is email. And one of the ways you can make your email more human is by sending personal video messages instead to connect, convert, and close with Vidyard GoVideo. Vidyard GoVideo helps you easily record, send, and track who is viewing your video in content in 3 simple steps. First, you can capture your screen or tab and add that personal human touch by recording yourself on camera too, right in your browser. Next, you share that video through email, social, anywhere else, just a few clicks. And finally, when somebody watches your video through browser notifications, you're going to see that they've played that video and how much they've watched. You can install GoVideo for free by visiting top1.fm/v. And if you want to practice, even if it's horrible and not very good, send a video to me at scott@top1.fm and I'll send one right back. All right. That was fun little transition. Dale, what about, and I'm super interested in this and maybe just kind of the foundational pieces of this, because I'm going to ask if you subscribe to a particular sales philosophy.

14:37 Dale Dupree: I subscribe to the philosophy that my father taught me of what the true form of sales is, which is the mutual grounds on which a deal meets, right? So you and your buyer having mutually beneficial reasons for doing business. I have always liked to look at my sales walk from that plain perspective. Like right now I've been taking a lot, I've been getting a ton of inbound since I started the Sales Rebellion, just 'cause, and mostly just 'cause I perfected it over the years and I kind of understand what I need to do in order to drive my inbound. And then from transitioning to copiers over to being a sales trainer, it's definitely different. I'm not gonna say that it's not, but I'll say that I realized that, oh, I'm actually gonna be able to get more inbound when I start doing sales training with some of these methodologies. Of these tools. But, but right now I'm, I'm talking to a lot of people that are coming to me and saying, hey, I want more information on your services. But I write them back and just say, can we talk first? Like, because I, I truly need to know if I'm gonna want to do business with you. And you might have seen some things that you liked about me, and that's awesome, and I'm super grateful for the activity, you taking a minute to reach out to me. But your best interest is what I'm worried about more than anything. And so if I can't click with you, or there's things that I notice in your personality or the way you tell your story that I just know I won't be able to accommodate, then I'll set you up with someone even better than me. And I've got a list of sales trainers that I can do that for, right? So, you know, and I say that's another thing, Scott, that… not to deviate, but the community of sales trainers is awesome compared to the community of copier people. The community of copier people are just like, they make fun of me every time I show up You know, and call me Best Boy, and they say the Copy Warrior and then LOL after it, right? But which is fine with me because, you know, I think I did a pretty good job while I was in the industry. But at the same time, it has been absolutely brilliant to see the camaraderie of, of sales trainers around me and, you know, rooting me on. And even the ones in my backyard… I mean, one of my mentors down south is literally a sales trainer, you know, and he's right here around the corner. We're literally trying to target the same types of organizations in some cases, right? But it's not about that. Again, it's about the right fit, you know? So, so when I look at it, when I look at everything as a whole, you know, from that perspective, I mean, that's kind of my full take on it.

16:59 Scott Ingram: Yeah, great. And we're going to come back to a lot of those pieces, right? Sort of developing the personal brand and, and that, that mindset that you're leveraging in so many ways within that philosophy. What's your style like? How do you describe your style and your approach?

17:16 Dale Dupree: Yeah, it's basic human interaction. Like I talk to people. So like anybody listening right now, I want you to go to your emails that you send out, you know, for cold prospecting that you keep wondering to yourself, like, man, what am I doing wrong? Or, you know, could I do better? You know, I'm only getting a 20% open rate or whatever it is. I want you to go and read those emails and I want you to read them out loud. And I want you to read them out loud to like your mom or your dad or someone that loves you so that they can break it to you a lot easier. Than somebody that you don't like, when they tell you that, honey, nobody talks like that in real life. You know, when I look at, sometimes when I look at reps' emails and I was guilty of this at an early stage in my career that, you know, the words we use are obnoxious. You know, like we try to sound like, I don't know, these scholars inside of the industry, right? Like, well, you know, all of a sudden you're talking to Archimedes, the, you know, the copier sales rep, you know, out of nowhere. To me, it just… that makes sales complicated. So we overcomplicate sales. When you call someone cold and you ask them for a minute to tell them why you called, they're gonna probably say no because you're a stranger. Like, that is the basics of human interaction. And so my approach starts there, is that like I'm proactive in my sales walk where I say to myself, what is normal about what I'm about to do? And what is not normal so that I can tell my prospect before I start pitching or even get the conversation going that, hey, look, I know what you're expecting out of this call and I don't like it either. So let's try something different, right? So I just like the approach of, again, like being transparent in that process and not like the surface level transparency that a lot of people talk about, like the authentic leadership behind what transparency means. Like, Being a leader day in and day out as a salesperson and as a sales professional is extremely important. You know, it ties back into servant leadership as well too, which carries a lot of great principles that salespeople need, like empathy. And so I think about all those things when I write an email, like have some empathy when you write an email, right? Like you will literally sound the opposite of the way that you sound right now, most likely. And people will look at it and go, huh, I'm interested. You know, Josh, you want to know who writes great sales emails is Josh Braun. I met Josh Braun not too long ago, maybe about a year or so ago, and I've always been interested in him. SalesDNA. He's a great dude. His cold emails are fire, right? And the thing is, is that he writes emails to people the way that he would want them to be written to him. Like, again, like the principle of basic human interaction, matching and mirroring, right? All these, these very simple psychological effects that we, that we work on. You know, I, I took SPIN and I took Sandler sales training and I learned the Challenger Sale. And I mean, I've done a ton of, of different sales trainings and, and gone through processes in my early stages of my career and even over the years just to dabble in it. But I'll tell you that every time that I… what I see and what… and, you know, kind of as a climax to my statement, what, what I get out of it is that everything… we try to make everything a move and a technique and a tactic, but people just want to be treated Like a human freaking being.

20:32 Scott Ingram: Absolutely. Absolutely. So what motivates you? Like, how do you think about motivation in general?

20:39 Dale Dupree: For me, it's about the fact that I understand my walk. I understand every day what it is that I need to accomplish. I understand what it is every day that I'm looking forward to from a long-term perspective. I don't dwell in the moment. I dwell on what it is that I'm building. I'm dwelling on the legacy that I'm trying to leave myself. You know, and I'm, and I'm following the legacy of my father every single day. And so for me, it's like this self-awareness piece. And so we, I talked about leadership just a second ago and like, so self-leadership is extremely important, you know? And one of my habits in the morning is getting up and Mel Robbins talks about this and she's, she is absolutely one of my favorite people on the planet. She has been for a long time. I've, I've listened to her for a very long time. She's just now getting the credit she deserves in my opinion, but she's been an influencer on, on me and my sales walk since the beginning. And so I think about like how she talks about positive affirmations and the simple psychology behind waking up and telling yourself that like, you know, maybe everything sucked yesterday and like maybe you got a ton of nos and maybe you lost a deal that you were counting on because it was a $20,000 commission check, right? You know, those hurt, but wake up and affirm that you're a good salesperson and that you are doing the right thing inside of your community, inside of your profession, inside of your personal walk. On a daily basis to get the results that you're looking for. Because the more that we wake up and we dwell on those things and go, God, I should have done this different, or I should have done that, you're basically telling yourself that you suck. And, and the more that, like, you go out and someone cuts you off and they're like, you suck at driving, right? And then they're affirming that you suck, right? And then you're, you're in line and, like, you're on your phone checking a text message, and the late… and there's people behind you, and, like, the lady at the counter is like, next. And somebody is like, you suck at paying attention. And then you're, you know, again, like you're just constantly affirming for yourself, right? The negative side of what life can bring to, you know, to the forefront, to your front door on a daily basis. As someone that struggles with depression, like I cannot have a negative thought. I mean, I know that sounds insane, but I have to stay in a positive place because it digs a very dark and very deep hole for me. And so motivation for me is my wife, it's my son, it's the bigger picture. It's my mother, the queen, the matriarch of my family. It's my siblings. It's my neighbor Terry that literally watched my mom and dad bring me home that I live next to now. I mean, what a blessing that is. You know, life is so unique and so magnificent and we treat it like shit, for lack of a better term. Sorry to your listeners, but the idea again of Um, you know, the core value and principle of motivation is self-leadership and self-awareness of who you are and what it is that you'll get done on this earth.

23:28 Scott Ingram: Nice. I'm so weird about this. We will actually bleep that out just because, because you know what, like I listen to this stuff in my car with my kids and I know I'm not the only one that does that and I don't want anybody to have to worry about it. So that's, that's what we'll do to kind of clean that up. But talk about, talk some more and, and if you want to insert kind of the, the warrior mindset into this as well. I think that works. But just maintaining that mindset, how have you trained yourself not to think those negative thoughts? Because that's, that's not easy.

24:01 Dale Dupree: No, it's not. I mean, I, yeah, I can remember being, you know, 15 years old and getting so caught up in that, in the negativity and the thought that I'm worthless and that, you know, I don't deserve to exist and taking myself, you know, just down again that dark, deep hole that negativity can, can cause and create for you, you know. And like, if I think about it too, bro, you know, I, I think about, I think about people in general. I think about the cranky old man that, you know, that lives in your neighborhood that just bah humbugs at everything. And, you know, the person at the register that you see constantly and you can just tell that they're faking that smile, that they just, they hate what they do. And I, I think that negativity comes in so many different forms for so many different people, but that at the end of the day, it all leads to this dissatisfaction with life and this question that we ask ourselves at some point during it of like, what am I doing? Why am I here? And again, like those types of things and questions and that attitude in general is just, it is the opposite of the way that we were meant to be created and, and walk this earth. Right? And when we were created, and, and I'm a spiritual guy, like, when we were created, we weren't created to go to work from 8 to 5 every day. Like, you know what I mean? You know, and some, and some people feel differently about that, right? But like, well, I, I think about those types of things. I'm like, yeah, I mean, this isn't supposed to be happening. So we have to adapt to these things. Like, we have to persevere through these moments. We have to live a larger life. And so the warrior mentality, I mean, it's technically, it's And I talked about, you know, sitting around the dinner table, and I'm pretty sure we did at least on, on the last podcast about how the Copy Warrior was born, just like through a conversation. But, but really, the warrior mentality is something that's always existed with me and something that people have always spoken into my life to some extent, you know, like, Dale, you're a warrior. Like, I've been hearing that throughout my walk. And again, I think it's because, like, I'm not afraid to speak my truth. And that my truth isn't just my opinion. It's, there's an inclusiveness in my truth. Like I believe in people. I believe in more than just myself. And I think that that's where my biggest motivation comes from and keeping myself in a place of positivity and in that warrior mindset is that I wake up and I don't wanna do anything today because I'm lazy this morning or I was up too late editing videos or doing podcasts or writing proposals. And so I just don't wanna, but you know what? A warrior wouldn't think that way. And the person that I wanna be and that I am every moment that I possibly could be cognizant of doing so doesn't think that way. And so again, it's that self-awareness piece that I've said a few times now, but it's so important. It's important to say to yourself, I suck at waking up in the morning. I'm terrible at this. But then like not just to recognize it as a truth, But then to work on it in a different way than what people would say, like, well, dude, you just got to try. You just got to set your alarm and like set 10 alarms and like make the lights turn on. And like, and those things are great. Anybody that's listening that does that stuff, like good for you if that gets you awake. But really like, you need to understand that like, you just, you are not going to be good at this. It's a failure for you, but where can you pivot in life to make up for it, for lack of a better term? You know, for me, I was never a morning person growing up. But I like, I love the mornings now. And I'll tell you why, because I started to romanticize my daily walk. I started to love more in my daily walk. And because of that, I am just absolutely over the moon to wake up in the morning and get started on my day. Because I think to my man, like number one, how blessed am I? But, but there is a community of people out there counting on me. And that's for, that goes for every sales rep, especially those that are tenured in their business and have an account base, people rely on you on a daily basis to make sure that they're okay. And so, it's this hero mindset too, not just a warrior mindset, it's this hero mentality. Like, how can I be someone else's hero? And that goes back to the servant leadership piece that I was just talking about. Like, how can I authentically serve people on a daily basis? Because I'm telling you right now, Scott, and anybody listening, that when you tap into those pieces of the reality of who you are at the core of your existence as a human being. We all have this, that you will be fulfilled when you see the smile on someone's face or the tear in someone else's eye, or you get that first note that someone took the time out of their day to write for you with their chicken scratch handwriting to say, hey, thanks. You know, take those things seriously. Take life more seriously and romanticize these things as well too. Don't just be like, oh cool, I'm gonna put this on my wall and I'm gonna show all my sales friends, right? Like Keep that sacred, right? Put it in the drawer. That's for you, right? Those are the things that will motivate you to become better and better.

29:02 Scott Ingram: Such great stuff. And I think this is… that's a pretty good sort of lead-up to the talk that we've been talking about you giving at the Sales Success Summit, which, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we ultimately landed on purposeful prospecting and your sales legacy. You want to talk about just that in some broad strokes and really what that's about?

29:23 Dale Dupree: Yeah, so the kind of the whole lesson is, it's a blast from the past for me. It's kind of going through my legacy and my childhood, you know, learning sales, like what did small business mean to me and how did it shape me as a salesperson? And, you know, I talk about my band years even and like selling in my band years, you know, as a musician on the road and like what that looked like. And throughout the whole thing, you know, it's all about, the hope that my father instilled in me and the community. And it's, it's about that culture that he created that, you know, that I've talked about a few times here. And as much as it's a blast from the past for me too, like, it's, it's relevant to what it is that salespeople have to deal with on a daily basis. Because, you know, for me, like, everything that I talk about in the, in the speech that I'm going to give at the summit is 100% the purpose behind my existence. The lessons I learned, these stories that I'll tell, all of them culminate into my purpose. And, and so for me, prospecting has to have a purpose, right? Like it goes back even, Scott, to my reason theory that, that we've talked about and that I put on the Daily Sales Tips, you know, that there has to be a bigger picture perspective to your prospecting. And, and for me, it's, you know, again, it's a legacy. Right. And for salespeople in general, it should be a legacy. It should be more than just, I sold a product and it was, you know, a $40 million sale or a $200 million sale. And it was the biggest one in the company's history. And it should be about the person that signed that thing and that $200 million sale and looked up at you and said, thank you. You know, that's the legacy of your walk, right? Is not the stories you tell, but the stories others tell of you. You know, and because those stories that people tell of you, they carry them with them on a daily basis, on a yearly basis, forever, right? You know, one time there was this guy, you know, like that's a reality. I know people tell that story about my father. I mean, Scott, people literally in my walk have, you know, that haven't seen me in years, or maybe they never talked to me. Like they, they love to tell me about my father. They love to do that. And so I think, you know, the big, the big topic and the big focus is, is how do we replicate that as individuals? And I've had people tell me all the time, dude, that, Dale, I don't have your story. Yours is so unique. And, you know, you played music in a band and that's really cool. And, you know, I really, I can't stand hearing that. I really truly can't because, man, I meet people all the time that they think that they're not that special. I'm telling you right now, You are, and you just don't know it. Because guess what? I feel that way about myself sometimes. Like, does any of this really that cool? Like, does any of this really matter, right? You know, and so stop with the self-doubt and start telling your tale, right? It's kind of the concept. But I think too, also, like in the talk, the thing that we're gonna talk about is, you know, how do we create this foundation for purposeful prospecting and your legacy, but also learning and hearing my stories and my upbringing and my walk will hopefully cause an awakening for you to sit back and say, man, there are some things that have happened to me over the years, even like in my childhood, or maybe even in my early 20s, or just 5 weeks ago, right? That I didn't really think about it like this, but the way you present it and the way that you take everything so seriously, Truly, I do way too seriously sometimes, right? Like, and give meaning and cause impact, you know, with those lessons, right? Like, I can do that. I can see that in my own walk. And I think that that's more than anything, that's what I want people to walk out with.

33:11 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. I can't wait. And as we record this, I'm almost done and I'm just gonna be nimble if something really, really interesting comes up last minute, but I'm almost done building the agenda. And if you go to top1summit.com, not only can you register there, But by the time we release this episode, you should be able to see the full agenda. And broad strokes, I mean, the first day is really following the sales process. So we're going to open with prospecting and building your personal brand and stealing great ideas from marketing that we can apply to sales and work through the rest of that process. How do you have a great first meeting and drive really strong discovery? And then how do you take that information and build your business case and make sure that you're closing an gaps that you have in your sales process. And then we'll talk about close planning and joint action planning and how you can work with your clients to basically bring the deal together with them, right? Again, I, it was Anthony Iannarino that said this originally. I love this line. He says, sales isn't something that you do to someone. It's something that you do for and with them. So I think we'll bring that full circle. And then the end of that first day, we're going to talk about just epically huge, massive deals. I've had a number of folks on this podcast who have closed multiple 8-figure type deals, and we're just going to get in and understand how they're managing those processes and what that looks like, including some Q&A and things like that. And then the second day is really more about the individual. We're going to talk, we're going to talk a lot about mindset. We're going to talk about productivity and how you can manage all of your own kind of personal processes that you apply to the sales process. And then the part that I'm really, really excited about, because I feel like there's very little talk about this, is how do you intentionally manage your sales career, right? As you start to look at 5 years from now or 10 years from now, what do you want to be doing? And that's really going to be a series of panels. We're going to have a panel with folks who are what I call intentional individual contributors like myself. And actually, I think that entire panel is going to be made up of folks who went into sales leadership and decided, you know what, I can actually be more effective and do more based on my skill set in the field and just carrying that quota themselves. We're going to have a sales leadership panel so we can sort of explore that path as well. And then Dale and I are talking along with a couple of others about really just a, I'll call it the alternative path, right? So you can continue to carry a bag and sell directly, or you can be leading a team, or there's lots of other things that you can be doing, whether you want to go down an entrepreneurial path or down a training and consulting path or other kinds of things. And I think Dale will bring some interesting insights into that process as well. So super, I can't tell you how excited I am about the summit and not just because of the content. I'm actually even more excited about who's going to be there and what we'll be able to learn from each other beyond just the pure presentations. All right. That was a really, long commercial for the summit. Dale, let's talk about… I love these couple of questions just to understand some of the mindset and what you see out there. And the first one is, is there something you believe that the average sales performer would think is crazy?

36:50 Dale Dupree: I mean, probably everything. Yeah. Like I have people hit me up all the time, Scott, that say that I'm nuts. They say that the things that I talk about are irrelevant. They say that, you know, this concept of building relationships is stupid and, you know, that the challenger sale is the way to go. And again, like those are just opinions and I'm not saying that the challenger sale is bad, right? But there are a lot of people that have this very big idea, but not just a big idea, but they're stuck on this big idea of what it is they think sales is. And because my idea is just as big and You know, again, like most sales reps, I think have a bigger picture concept of what sales is. And because of that, like there's no space for anybody else's opinion. And I think that's a travesty because look, dude, I'll, I'll listen to anybody. Right. Keenan just came out with a book called Gap Selling not too long ago. I bought it like right away. You know, I mean, I guess there might be some great ideas in that book. Right. And I've read it and I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna say anything about it, but if you're out there, I mean, you haven't read the book yet. What are you waiting for? And again, like, I think that should be the mindset and the mentality of most people is that, look, we can learn from anybody and everybody. We should never say that's crazy. We should never say those words, right? We should always be open-minded to somebody else's success and knowing that we cannot do it the same way that they did, but that if there's a principle, a mindset, or a lesson they learned that we can take away from, it will better our walk and it will sharpen our steel. And I think that that's the thing that we miss out on when, when we take that stance of this is nuts. So, and that's probably not the answer you wanted, but there you go.

38:30 Scott Ingram: No, I, I think it's a good one. And in our first conversation, you talked about really being a student of sales, right? And I think that's a good example of that. How else do you apply that? How do you, how do you think about being a student of sales and what does that mean?

38:44 Dale Dupree: Yeah, for me, it's a student, like to be a student of sales and to just be a student of success in general. I mean, I, I look at it as anybody and everybody can teach me something. My reps I coach, people that are at the Professional Selling Program at the University of Central Florida where I mentor, you know, anybody can teach me, you know, marketing professionals, business owners that I know here locally, but they can all teach me something. Like it doesn't have to be a guru or an expert. It doesn't have to be on a podcast.

39:11 Scott Ingram: Right?

39:11 Dale Dupree: It doesn't have to be in a book. It can literally just be in an experience. For me, like, I learned things about sales at the diner down the street, listening to conversations between one human to another. And what's funny though, is that a lot of times they are about, oh, this sales guy came in today and you should have heard what he had to say.

39:32 Scott Ingram: Right?

39:33 Dale Dupree: But again, you know, it's, it's still, regardless of whether the topic is even sales in most cases, like Guys and girls listening, you're all in sales. I don't care what you think. You know, in the book, in my book that we're, that we're, you know, putting a bow on right now and getting ready to start announcing a release date on it, we talk a lot about the dynamic of sales that everybody is in sales to some capacity, right? Like even the janitor, right? They sell cleanliness, right? A clean environment. That's what they sell. You know, that concept again of the service we provide, Right? The action that we take to help another person, to give them the experience that they're looking for, to either relieve a pain or create a pleasure, is, is sales 101 all the way through and through. And again, I think it… the learning side of it and the way to continue to be curious and, and to be a student of it is just to be humbled, you know, to, to say like, hey, look, this is how I prefer to do it, but I'll always listen to anybody. I just had a post a couple days ago, maybe even this week, or, or maybe even last week. I mean, yeah, and you know what, I think it was this week. So check my feed and you can read it. The comments in it are interesting, but I always learn a lot from the comments too, by the way, Scott. But I, I wrote about like how I'm sick and tired of hearing that cold calling is dead from people that have never done one. And I'm sick and tired of people saying that you have to live and die by the phone in sales. And I'm sick and tired of hearing people talk about social media or LinkedIn is the new god of sales, right? And if you're not on it, you're, you're dead, you know? And here's why, dude, because those are your opinions, right? Those are your experiences and they're nobody else's. It's like, instead we should be helping other people to see your perspective instead of creating drama out of nothing, instead of creating negativity out of nothing, out of something that somebody else might find comfortable doing. It's like the concept of arguing with a Democrat that they need to be a Republican. You know, like that ain't gonna happen. That conversation is going nowhere. It's ending in a fistfight or, you know, flaming poop on the back door, you know, at 1 in the morning, right? Like that's what's gonna happen, dude. Like there is no common ground in you pushing your agenda or trying to get someone else to see it your way, right? We have to be good students of life in general. We have to constantly be asking questions. Listening and actively listening at that, not just like, uh-huh, uh-huh, to try and, and catching like one word or phrase, I should say, that you heard that you want to come back to and like trying to remember it the whole time. Like, I'm going to come back to that, I'm going to come back to that. Like, guys, just be present in the moment and, and just always be learning, right? It'll help you with a lot of things, you know, including in your personal walk. It'll help with the way that you develop relationships. It'll help with your outlook of being inclusive with other people, you know, and accepting culture, you know, a culture that's, you know, foreign to you or not normal, or, you know, we have to love more, dude. And I think that that's what it comes down to at the end of the day is like, just love, like love to learn. Like it's that simple. I know it sounds stupid and basic, but it is powerful. And there is power in that statement if you believe it.

42:44 Scott Ingram: Yeah. I think that was such a good articulation. I mean, the way I think about it and, and the way that I encourage people to think about these conversations, right? If you're a student of this show and you dig through these conversations, I mean, there's, there's lots and lots of them to go for. I don't think the outcome you're looking for is, I want to be like Dale and I want to do everything that Dale does. I think instead it's, oh, that's interesting. What, what are the pieces about how Dale thinks or some of the things that Dale does that I might be able to apply to the way that I operate?

43:20 Dale Dupree: Right.

43:20 Scott Ingram: And it's just that, That iterative process of, let me take a little bit, let me try this, let me take a little bit and just kind of continue to build this giant arsenal for yourself. And that's the thing where I just don't think that there is an out-of-the-box sort of training program that's going to teach you everything, right? At some point you have to take ownership of this and decide, you know what, I'm going to expose myself to a whole lot of different thoughts and perspectives. I mean, Challenger comes up over and over again. I think just because it was probably the most successful sort of new philosophy that's been put out there in the last, geez, I don't know, 10 years almost. But there's parts of that that are just misunderstood, but it doesn't mean you throw out the whole thing, right? I think you have to sort of adopt the pieces. And I love what you shared about, I mean, none of this is all or nothing, right? And it is all situational. It depends on who you are and your style and who you're selling to and what they care about and who those humans are. Of those different components sort of inform this. And it's certainly a common theme through all of these conversations that I've had. There's no one shared philosophy. I do, I love that question though, because you sort of get some of the foundational pieces, right? You sort of pull out the Challenger certainly influenced me or Sandler played a role or SPIN Selling had an impact or, you know, pick your poison, right? But at the end of the day, it's not, is, you know, I'm a Sandler robot. I've not met that person. I mean, maybe his name was David Sandler, but, you know, beyond that, you know, beyond that, I think you kind of pull the pieces and go, hey, you know what? There's some value in this idea of an upfront contract, or there's some value in this idea of really pushing my prospect because I know that they could be thinking bigger. They could be doing more than the way that they're thinking right now. So I do want to challenge them or give them a new idea. All of that stuff is valuable. You just have to kind of take the time and assemble it yourself. And it takes years or decades. I mean, I'm certainly not done.

45:34 Dale Dupree: Yeah. You know, what I would say, Scott, is that like one of the principles that my dad always taught me is just be open-minded. You know, don't hear somebody say something and think, no, that'll never work. Right. You know, whenever I would say that to my dad, he would say, okay, have you tried it?

45:51 Scott Ingram: Let me…

45:51 Dale Dupree: here we go, here we go. Let me… he'd go, oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Let me ask you a question. Do you mind if I ask you a question? Yeah, sure, Dad, do that. And that question, I think, again, like, that's the challenger sale right there, right? Like, my dad constantly saying, did you… but have you ever tried it? You know, anybody listening right now that thinks, oh, I could never, you know, make a 6-foot cardboard cutout of myself pulling a sword from a copy machine and send it to a multi-billion dollar firm, like, let me tell you right now that yes, you can. And here's the thing about it too, is that don't knock it until you've tried it. Because realistically, again, like, this is just a mindset. It doesn't have to be a 6-foot cardboard cutout. All it needs to do is cause a massive amount of curiosity in the prospect. So be open-minded to when someone says something, a little bit more than just saying, okay, well, all right, I'm gonna be open-minded, I'm just gonna do exactly what they told me. Like, no, it's like you just said, like, take take what you heard and say, how do I do that? How do I make that my own? Because I'll tell you right now that I created that concept because of Stu Heinick's book, How to Get a Meeting with Anyone. I read some great ideas and stories. The guy with the swords, you know, $1,000 swords, and, you know, they were custom to the… he was sending it to. And I thought, how do I… because I'm… I could have sent a sword because I'm the Copier Warrior, right? But like, that's not really my thing. You know, the Copier Warrior just uses the sword on copy machines. Like, he doesn't give swords out to So, you know, so what, what is my thing though? Right. And my thing is just, for me, I mean, it's audacity. Like that's, that's what you, how you describe any, my go-to-market strategy is audacity. I mean, my launch video, we literally retired the Copier Warrior into people, you know? I mean, like, I think about that sometimes and I'm like, I don't know that any like corporate brand or, you know, and not to say that we are, But anybody that thinks outside the box of, you know, business would even dare to do something like this. And that's like where I get my ideas, right? I have a shirt that says, dare mighty things. It's a Teddy Roosevelt quote. And that is the way I live my life, right? To dare mighty things.

48:00 Scott Ingram: Love it. Love it. Love it. So for somebody that's brand new in sales, right, they're, they're walking into their first gig, or maybe they're, they're a couple of months in, what advice do you have for them? To really just set themselves up for a long tenure of great success in the role?

48:19 Dale Dupree: The number one thing that you gotta, you have to put in your mind right now is patience. Patience. And then the second thing, persistence immediately. You know, some of my mentees that have graduated recently from the University of Central Florida, you know, I've been catching up with some of them and I mean, Scott, I'm just gonna be real with you. Like, it breaks my heart to talk to a few of them. Like, I, I'm getting choked up just thinking about what they're having to deal with because I've been there and it sucks, right? And you don't want that for people, right? It's because it's about quality of life more than anything. Like, you don't want to have these 5 years of your life that were miserable because of your choices, you know? That's the hardest part about it is that then you just… going back to that negative mindset, you just beat yourself up constantly. Like, why did I do this? Why did I think I'd be good at this? I mean, that's what breeds that toxicity. And, you know, so I, but I've, I've had a lot of experience recently and I had it throughout my career with young green reps. Right. But right now in the moment, I mean, everybody's kind of saying the same thing. This is not what I thought it would be. You know, prospecting is not what I thought it would be. Running an appointment with somebody is not what I thought it would be. Getting the close is not what I thought it would be. And I'm not going to hear that. And I want you to understand that I'm not being negative when I'm saying all this. All I'm… what I'm saying is be realistic about the way that the world is and understand that the things that you were taught in sales was that you pick up the phone and you dial, dial, dial, and you give this generic benefit statement. You ask for a decision maker, they hang up on you, you do it again, right? And that's where people have to start, like in the beginning with the patience side, like be patient with your pitch. Like, slow it down, right? Stop trying so hard to force an appointment on somebody. You, you need to be focused on the appointment because that's what creates the result, right? But you need to be focused on the person on the other end of the line. That's what you need to do. You need to be patient with them. You need to understand that there are 100 other salespeople calling on them right now, and they're annoying them because they suck. And no offense to salespeople, but everybody hates salespeople, right? That's my next book actually, Scott. So don't steal that if anybody's listening. Everybody hates salespeople. That's… we're working on it right now actually. And again, like it's a reality that we have to come to terms with. You need to know, guys and girls that are listening, that when you're just getting started in sales, that there's like this big shadow hanging over you. It doesn't matter who you are. You could call your best friend's mom because she works at this really big insurance agency that you can sell your product to. And she's gonna be like, oh yeah, we already have one of those. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, and maybe she gives you a shot, right? But probably just to humor you, right? I mean, honestly, you know, because again, when people find something in the consumer world, especially when they find a salesperson that they can finally click with, that finally makes it work for them, and a sales organization that actually provides what they say they will, that's a whole new story. Dude, yesterday I was with a client, and since this won't like air on the exact date that we had this conversation. Everybody, I'm safe. But, but I was with a client and they were telling me about their copier because of course that's where I came from, right? And they were telling me the horror story of buying it. And dude, I mean, like, I wish everybody could be a fly on the wall in that room. And in, in those instances where people get to really hear how the buyer gets treated A lot of the time, and that's where the callus starts to build, and that's where the emotions start to go away. And that's why when you call and you're peppy and you're like, you know, I'm a stranger, this person doesn't know me, they're going to be nice to me. No, no, no, no, actually not even close. But so patience, everybody, patience. And then remember that like the majority of sales, I think it's like well over 50% actually. I remember it was like in the 47% range at some point when I was doing these studies back back in the day, you know, 2012, 2013. But I think it's a majority of sales now are maybe in the 60s or 70%. I hate giving fake statistics, dude. That's why I'm like really not committed to this number. But all those sales based on that percentage were closed from follow-up, right? And I think this is a, this is an actual number. It's like 9% of salespeople follow up effectively. And by effectively, I mean like most salespeople call 3 times and that's it. Hit, they move on to the next. That's an average in the industry. And what's crazy is I, I even have coaching students that tell me like, yeah, I tried 3 times. I always kind of giggle to myself because I'm like, yeah, like I've literally been hearing that all my existence. And that's what always motivated me to be pleasantly persistent with people because I knew that that was true, a true form of follow-up, to be persistent but while being pleasant, to build that relationship, to understand my prospect and from a deeper and bigger perspective picture, right? What is it that I can fix? What is it that I know I'm good at and I know that they don't want to deal with? What is it that I can do better than my, my incumbent, their incumbent, but how can I deliver that pleasantly instead of being this hardcore strong-arming closer, right? That bashes his competition everywhere he goes. And that it's like the gentleman sales, right? It's like what my dad used to say. He's like, "We're gentlemen around here, bro. We say yes, ma'am. No, sir." Right? And so, but when somebody tells you no, just understand that it's not you, right? It's the other salespeople that caused this. And so, how are you going to get around that? And again, so follow up is key, and persistence is important. And if you remember those two things in the beginning, you'll continue to motivate yourself toward the failures that will come inevitably at the beginning of your sales walk because you'll be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel. One of my my students. He set… he started setting appointments like consistently in his vertical that he's in, and more than he's ever set, you know, in the vertical, but, but more consistent to where he was before, right? But, you know, 3 a day, 5 a day, right? Those are real numbers. And that's, that's where you get to eventually once you've been… because most of those appointments are people he's been calling on, right? And that have told him to bugger off, right? Accepting appointments. So, so again, patience and persistence, practice them.

54:42 Scott Ingram: Nice. What about the other end? What about somebody that is further into their career? And I don't know if the answer changes, but I think of this person in one of two ways. Either they are, they're good, right? So they're, they're, you know, 110%, maybe they're making President's Club, but they're not number one, right? There's, there's a whole nother gear available to them. Or the individual who is just kind of struggling. Right? Like they're not making their number, right? They're underwater and just frustrated and knowing again that there's another level and it shouldn't be this hard. They should be able to have success.

55:20 Dale Dupree: Yeah. So for the people that are just crushing it and they're tenured and, you know, they're doing well, right? I shouldn't even say crushing it because honestly, guys and girls, like look, go back and look at your numbers. Like tell me how much net new you actually wrote last year. In your sales walk, you know, how much of it was farmed and how much of it was you continuing to progress growth? Because that's the concept. Like, we hear all the time about the salesperson that they're 25 years in a business and they just, they, they're very good at tilling, right? And then, and farming, right? Like, they're really good at just like getting the soil nice and, you know, churned up and then, you know, continuing to, to make fruit come of those relationships. And And to me, the thing about that is, is that you might think you're doing well, right? And you might perceive it as, I've done so much for the company, but that's a selfish attitude. And I'm telling you right now that most people are looking at you going like, I do so much work and they don't. And it's a… those are both bad attitudes, absolutely bad attitudes. But the reality is, is that there's, there's no leadership in that. There's a massive amount of toxicity that comes with the two because, you know, your boss is is having a beer with his friends constantly talking about you. Man, I just wish that I could get him to sell something other than the existing base, right? That's a real conversation. I've heard it many times in my, in my career, you know. So I would say to the people that are crushing it in their mind that do not settle. That is, you know, the complacency mindset is, is evil. It is a, it is a mindset that will carry into a lot of other places in your and will cause you not to be effective in the relationships that you've built and not to be somebody who can help others become better and to grow and to learn and to be consistent inside of those relationships too, right? Like, I remember when this guy was cool, you know, like how many people just heard me say that and think, yeah, I know like 10 of those guys, right? You know, from that surface level perception of what I just said, you know, and that's the problem with society in general is all the judgment that we put on people, but also like the fact that most people just don't care. Like, that's what that is to me. It's just a lack of any kind of caring attribute or personality trait, you know? So there's no empathy in that. There's no compassion in that. Like, all you care about is just making everything stay the same for yourself, you know? Where's the growth? You know, you have literally made your mountain and congratulations. But you built your foundation, you know, built the house, planted your garden, raised your kids, and stayed on that mountain, right? And I made it to that mountain at some point, Scott. I'm gonna tell you that right now. But, but the person… the people that are on it, you know, they were like, hey Dale, welcome. And I just kept walking, right? Like, where are you going, dude? Like, I pointed off into the distance at those, those other jagged-edged mountains that look like total hell to get to, and I'm willing and, and able to bear those… that cross there, right? I'm actively searching for my next mountain. And so people need to do that in their walk at the end. And like the people that have been in sales for a while and they're struggling, I would say, look at, like, look back at your walk, like reflect, like hindsight is 20/20. Like look back and say, you know, what have I done like inconsistently? And what have I done consistently? Like look at your failures, look at your strengths and understand that like a lot of where you're at today is circumstances. But they're circumstances that you chose. They are your decisions. And so if you're at, if you're in this place where you're in a slump, like take action. Okay. There's plenty of reps out there that are doing that too. There's plenty that like recognize that they need a little shot in the arm. They need a boost. They need some help. And maybe it's been a couple years. Maybe it's been a couple months, whatever it is, but they recognize it. Those are the ones that will continue to grow toward the end of their sales walk, in the middle of their sales walk, you know, at the end. End of their sales walk. They will continue to grow because they have this mindset of being able to just ask for help every once in a while and being able to get somebody else's perspective, you know. So that's the concept too of like every guy that's listening right now, you know, like when your wife is like, hey honey, we're not going the right way, you should ask for directions. You're like, oh no, I know what I'm doing. It's literally what it is. And like, and, and we also have to understand, like men, women, you have to understand like what it is that's normal for you and consistent for you and and your genetic makeup, right? And, and that comes with a lot of territory too, bro. So, but again, like, these are the, the pieces of the puzzle of just knowing yourself, like being comfortable with who you are, and then also getting out of your comfort zone, right? When I talk about my dad and a lot of subjects that are… man, they're not easy, bro. They are not easy to talk about. Let me just say that. But I'll tell you right now, that is my duty. I believe it is my duty to share my experiences. And to speak about my struggles and to bring these demons to the surface for the good of others more than anything. And so remember, like, take the focus off of yourself. Remember that the big thing in fulfillment is what we can, you know, what do you, people say all the time, what are you gonna leave behind? So that's my challenge to everybody listening. Like, what are you leaving behind? You know, are you leaving behind a base that you farmed for 5 years with zero growth? Worth, right? Like, oh yeah, we've, we've done business with our firm for 25 years. Scott, I can't tell you how many times I heard that. And then you want to know what I would ask next? Oh really, what's the name of your rep? And the answer was never the name of the rep, dude, ever, okay? Even if it was a consistent rep that had been with them for 20-plus years, I'm telling you right now, they, they don't remember you. They don't know you. What impact are you having on people? What are you leaving behind?

1:01:04 Scott Ingram: Big, big, big, big stuff. Love it. Love it. Love it. So, let's talk about the personal branding piece, right? I mean, this is clearly something that you worked on over the course of years. I mean, having a great recognizable brand like that isn't an overnight thing. But if somebody is listening to this and they've decided, you know what, this makes sense for me. I want to invest in this. I want to start to build that brand for myself. Where do they start?

1:01:36 Dale Dupree: Yeah, it's this is funny that you bring this up because so was just with my business partner because Jeff Legas, him and I are are writing the the curriculum, putting the final touches on the curriculum that that we're about to release. It has everything to do with your social game. So we're calling the curriculum too the social game. And it's funny because I said yeah, I mean we've got a pretty good story because since I launched the Sales Rebellion, I have not done one. Technically done one cold call. Literally everything has come to me. Now, I did some stops recently when I was in the Midwest, like stopped in to see some people. But what's crazy is that every single place I stopped… and I was blown away by this, dude… but everyone knew who I was. And like, that was a reality check for me in a couple ways. And one, in that I, I definitely figured something out from the perspective of how do you get your voice heard You know, like, what does that mean and what does that look like? And so my business partner joked, he goes, yeah, you know, we got a great story. All we got to do is tell people that spend 2 years posting content every day and then you can start your own business. And I was like, well, that's not, uh, yeah, that doesn't work actually. So, you know, but, but really for me, like, what I think about is I think about the small the smallest effect that content and social media can have on others and inside of the community based on the way that you interact with it. So like, let's go back to 2005. I'm sorry, 2015. Wow, that was way back. That's MySpace. 2005 was MySpace. With my… let's actually go there real quick. 'Cause with my band, we used the MySpace platform to promote our band. And so we would be headed to some random town in Timbuktu, right? Or let's just say, say Arkansas, because that's a literal like wasteland state. There's like 1,000 people that actually live there, right? Like we'd be going to the smallest town in the middle of nowhere, but MySpace created something where we could find people that lived in the area. We could see what kind of music they listened to, right? Because that was what MySpace was all about. These little mini profiles where they were kind of all linked back to like music and entertainment preferences. And so we could, we could literally seek out our audience. And engage them through the internet, and then they would show up to the show, right? Very simple, basic facts here. You know, you, you were talking about email, and, and as you were talking about one of your sponsors, and email, for example, you don't have to send an email anymore. You can literally direct message somebody on Instagram, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, on Snapchat. Like, there are so many different methods of email now. Let alone, right? Like, so when you think about social media, it can be incredibly overwhelming. But the consistencies are this, is that if you are actively seeking the audience that you're looking to create a community around when it comes to your brand and the personal brand that you're… you will find them, right? So the big thing is messaging for me. It's like, be consistent in your messaging, especially if you're posting content. And if you don't like posting content or you're not good at writing, that's okay. Okay, all right, what I'm going to say is that let other people post content and then go to their page, read their content, and respond, right? Because if, if you're not good at content, that typically means that you're not good at just like sitting down and saying, I want to talk about this subject, right? And you might, you might start to write, and people listening right now are like literally laughing and rolling their eyes like, yeah, that's me. Like, you might start to write a whole paragraph and then you go back and read it and you're like, God, this sucks, and you just delete Right? And then you never post content because of it. Like, let other people post it. Like, go and engage. Like, that's what… that's like my community, man. If you go through my comments, you'll find tons of people that are in the comments and they're engaged. And the thing is, is that sometimes those people get more likes than my post, and my posts get a lot of freaking likes, you know? Like, so that says something. Like, that shows worth and value in that person, right? And so social media is so much bigger. Like, building your brand is so much bigger. Let's jump to 2015 now. I'm selling copy machines. I'm using LinkedIn like crazy. Actually, this is 2014, sorry. Using LinkedIn like crazy. And I found my UPS guy from back in 2012, okay? And I thought, oh, he's retired, but I'm gonna add him on here, right? So I add him on the platform and I'm posting content at this time, right? Like very stupid content. Like if you go back to my archives, you'll laugh pretty hard. It was like 180 characters. It was basically 'cause I connected it to my Twitter. Twitter. And so it was just like, I ate at Red Lobster today and sold a copier. Congratulations to me. You know, just again, like I was more than anything, I was just trying to be seen to some capacity because you don't want to be indifferent to people, right? Good or bad, you need some type of relationship. And that's what the personal brand is all about. And that's what social media will do for you. And so I add this, my old UPS guy. Well, his son is a big business guru in the area. And because he was liking my posts, his son was seeing them, right? And then I literally got a meeting set up with him indirectly just from him seeing my content. I did a cold call to his office and he saw my name and he knew exactly who I was. And he took a meeting with me and he told me, he said, yeah, my dad loves your stuff on LinkedIn. He likes every post. And so I see them all. And a light bulb went off in my head like, oh my God. Like nobody in my community is posting on social media, number one, and nobody in my community has a personal brand as a copier sales rep, right? And so look at those things right now, okay? And there's a lot of noise on social right now too, but so drown it or figure out, you know, how to not get drowned out by it. So go and look and be extremely intellectual in the way that you dissect the personal brand that you wanna build and the community involvement that you wanna create through social media. And then like what platform, you don't have to use LinkedIn.

1:07:38 Scott Ingram: LinkedIn.

1:07:39 Dale Dupree: I got friends that use Facebook and make more money than, than most people that, that, you know, are tenured in sales and have been around the block for 25 years, and they're startup companies. You know, I mean, all social media platforms are powerful tools to push your brand out. Now remember I told you earlier that my walk is based around audacity. Like, you don't have to be audacious with your personal brand, but what you do have to do is be authentic, be yourself. Do not look at somebody like Gary Vee or Grant Cardone or, you know, one of the big names, Simon Sinek, you know, somebody that you can find on social and see their videos and they've got a very niche and very specific personality that they have and a look and the kind of pictures that they post on their Instagram and the kind of content they post on their LinkedIn. Like, don't try to mimic those things. People are attracted to those men and women because they're authentic, because they're themselves. They're not faking anything. They're not doing anything that others are doing. They are just being unique. You know, so essentially with personal brands and building them, like it turns into what you're looking at and hearing right here on this podcast. Like I started a business and a business that is profitable. I am 5 months into my business. I mean, technically we're only really 4 months in, but 4 months going on 5 months into this business and we're profitable. And I have people in this business with me. It's not just Dale at the Sales Rebellion, everybody that's listening, there's more than me. So that's the power of it. Like, what do you want out of life is usually what I ask people when they say, hey, what should I do with my personal brand and with social media? I start at the root, like, well, what do you want? What do you want out of life? And like, that will help you to translate who you are from a personal branding perspective and the authenticity and the unique side of who you are. You know, 'cause I've talked to people that don't think they have a compelling story, right? But then I get them to tell it and I, you know, man, I'm baffled that people don't find themselves to be unique and to be authentic, right? As I sit across the room from somebody telling me about the fact that, you know, they never met their parents and that their grandmother raised them and all the struggles that they went through, but they're just like, yeah, you know, there's a lot of people with that story. Okay, that's crazy.

1:09:55 Scott Ingram: So I've been, as you've been talking, looking at my stats. So for future reference, we need to insult people in North Dakota, not Arkansas. I have a lot more listeners in Arkansas than I do in North Dakota. So apologies to all my Arkansas listeners. We still love you.

1:10:11 Dale Dupree: Connect with me on LinkedIn and I'll send you something, some free sales training, you know, just for that.

1:10:18 Scott Ingram: There you go. But there's very few people in North Dakota, not that they don't exist, but it's pretty close.

1:10:23 Dale Dupree: Truth. Well, I have a theory that North Dakota and South Dakota are actually the same state and it's just, it's all a lie. It's the government.

1:10:30 Scott Ingram: Yeah. So, so, you know, I think the other piece is just my experience is you've got to kind of find the thing that, that is you, right? Regardless of what it is, it's going to be uncomfortable, right? So whether that's, you know what, I'm just going to start writing. And Dale, next I'll ask you about kind of your writing process because it sounds like that is core to a lot of this and something that you started to develop real early on, right? But I mean, I chuckle at myself like I am the Tom Sawyer of authors. I mean, the Sales Success Stories book, it's nearly 300 pages. I wrote 8% of it. And there's just so much brilliance in there because it's, again, it doesn't have to necessarily be your own content. Times, it's creating community and it's bringing content out of other people. And maybe those other people are your prospects. You know, I had a conversation with, and somebody asked me about this. I haven't gone back to listen. A listener to the show emailed me and referenced something I talked about and I couldn't remember what it was. I know generally what I was referring to, but one of the things that I've done in my past is in a couple of scenarios, I've almost always sold to the marketing side of the organization. And in 2 companies, actually both of the companies that went public, shortly before we went public, we hired a new CMO. Well, in both of those instances, I just, I went to the CMO and, and both of them had been previous clients of the company that they joined. And I just asked them about sort of their perception and their sales experience and their buying experience and all of these different pieces. And one of the things that I asked, and this was, this was Heidi Malin, who was the CMO of Eloqua at the time. She, you know, I said, I can't imagine your world. I mean, being, being the CMO of a technology company, given how many marketing technologies are out there and just other solutions to marketing, I was like, what gets your attention? I mean, what, what breaks through? And she said, you know, Scott, the person who does the best job of this is a recruiter. And she's like, you can't imagine the number of recruiters that call me because when a new CMO comes in, we're always, you know, changing the structure of the team. We're always hiring new people. Oh, and by the way, we only last like 18 months in our job. So, you know, we're all… they're also kind of keeping a staple of folks they can reach out to when they've got clients and opportunities for new jobs. She said, but what this particular recruiter did that was brilliant is she just hosted dinners with other CMOs. And she says, it's so hard for me to find my peers. And, and just be in a place where we can talk amongst ourselves and get to the truth of what's really working and what's garbage. Like, what don't I want to waste my time and dollars on? And she's like, that recruiter built so much value. So what? She invited a bunch of people to dinner. That's all she did. Right. So it doesn't need to be magic. And I think a lot of this is also just talking to your customers and finding out, like, what would they value? You know, what would they appreciate? You know, some folks know, because I've mentioned it before, I host another podcast for my day job. We are a professional services company that sells to marketers. And the thing is, similar story, right? They're like, we just want to hear from each other, right? All of these conferences and all these other things are out there. They're so vendor-dominated, right? And I just have to hope that I get lucky and run into the right person in the hallway. So, I mean, that show, it's almost the same thing. Thing we do here, right? It's all practitioners. And let's just talk about, you know, that latest project that you had a lot of success with. What did you do? How did you do it? You know, what was the thing that almost tripped you up and almost screwed up the whole thing, right? And knowing everything that you know now, what do you wish that if you were starting over, what would you do differently? Just all of those kinds of things. It's gold, right? And all I do is, you know, I pick up the phone and ask somebody if we can have a short conversation and record it. And everybody's like, you know, Everybody loves to hear themselves talk. So again, I think my advice on personal branding front is kind of find that thing for yourself. Find what resonates. If you're great with video or you want to get into video, do it, right? And any of these things, right? Whether you're going to write or you're going to do interviews or you're going to do videos or, you know, I don't care what you're going to do. You're going to suck at the beginning. We all suck at everything we do in the beginning. Like get comfortable with that, Be patient with that. Ignore it. Like, just keep going. Like, you, you have to commit to it and be in it for the long time. And Dale, it sounds like that's almost the experience that you're having with the, with the, the newer folks that you're mentoring in sales. Like, yeah, it sucks in the beginning because you're not good at it yet. You haven't done it yet.

1:15:40 Dale Dupree: Right.

1:15:41 Scott Ingram: And you just got to keep doing it. And, and then ultimately you get better. Right.

1:15:46 Dale Dupree: Right. I, I saw one of the things that I love to say is embrace the suck. And because it's a reality, just, you know, based off of even what you're saying, everybody listening, they all know that that is exactly what happens, is that when we first do something, we suck at it. And it goes back to even my statement when I said if you go into my archives and you read my content, you'll be like, this sucks. It truly does. But you know, I remember the first time I did a training course, I said to everybody in the room, I said, just post. I don't care what it says. I don't care if it sucks, because trust me, it will no matter what. Even if you think that you got it down perfect, it'll suck. Just do it and just embrace the suck. And I remember we walked out and my business partner said, dude, you can't tell people to do that. And I was like, why not? And he, you know, and his perception of it was, 'Cause that's just setting them up for failure to a degree, right? And like, I totally understand the, again, the perception of the statement. But the thing is, is that it's really the mindset of practice makes perfect. And inside of personal branding, like all the basics, like how to define your personal brand, how to decide what you're gonna call yourself. And maybe it's just your name, right? But maybe, but again, like remember all the basics behind that. It. Remember how to always remember that everybody has their own style and, and their own flavor, right? But those people worked toward that to create that. They sharpened that style. They sharpened that flavor. And, and at the end of the day though, those same people still have to dribble and they all dribble the same way, right? With one hand on the ball, bouncing it up and down, you know, and that's essentially, that's it. You need to find the base You need to stick to the basics and then evolve out of that once you feel comfortable with it. And that's how, I mean, that's truly how I grew my personal brand. And now I dove in pretty quick as well too, you know, on top of it. But I, but the whole time I dribbled the entire time. I continued to remember how to dribble the basics. Those are the most important pieces.

1:17:58 Scott Ingram: And what, what were those basics and whether or not that ties to kind of the writing routine, which I want to make sure we touch Sean.

1:18:04 Dale Dupree: Yeah, I mean, content… like, content is a piece of the basics of your personal brand. Like, you can't be silent. A personal brand is very loud. It's in your face. And, and it, it could be in a soft way that it's in your face and loud, right? But no matter what, a personal brand has to stand out. And, and that's because that's the point of it. Like, don't make a personal brand and design your logo and design you know, your hand, your signature at the bottom and the colors that you use to be exactly like your corporate brand or like Pepsi or, you know, Uber or, you know, right? Like do not play off somebody else's authenticity. Like the whole point of a personal brand is to make it yours. And content plays in because that's your microphone. That's your, I should say megaphone is what it really is, right? It's your microphone in front of a million people at your concert is what it is. They're all waiting to hear what you have to say. And, and sometimes it takes 50, 60, 400 blog posts for people to start to pay attention. But, but that's the whole point of a personal brand. It's, do you have the long game in mind? Can you play the long game? Because again, that's what sales is. That's what life is. I mean, we might look at it as, okay, I'm out of college, and so this is so normal Normally, at this point in life, people get a job, they retire in 40 years, right? Like, those mindsets are false. Even the whole concept of the 4 years of college, and I'm not saying college is bad, but you're listening to a guy that didn't go to college, right? I took a completely different path. But from day one, I have always had this long-term outlook, not what is happening today that will give me instant gratification, but what am I building building to? And, and what is the legacy of that? Like, content… what's great about content inside of your personal brand is it's like a, a window into your life for the next generation. You know, like, I think about even my band that I brought up a few times now. I think about how well after we had retired the music… and I mean, it's 2019 and we still have people downloading our songs on Spotify, and you can still find us on iTunes and Amazon, right? I mean, like, we're still out there because if you do it right and you're consistent, it will never die. You know, some things are meant… like, I do believe that there are some things that are meant to be left in the past, but I also think that too many times we let the past die. You know, we kind of look at it as, yeah, once upon a time, right? You know, people should tell that story in a way that resonates now. With, you know, the message that they're looking to hear in the first place. I think content and I think a personal brand create impact more than anything, and they can create meaningful impact if we're intentional with the way that we're building the brand and creating the content. Well, I'll give you a glimpse into my crazy mind, right? Is that I have a piece, a marketing piece. I actually just emailed it to you last night. There's a baby on top of a copier in a little baby bath. And then to the left, like on the finisher of the copy machine, there's like a coat rack and like jackets, like laundry, like dry cleaning, I should say. And then on the right side, there's like a stack of pancakes, right? And then right below it, there's an espresso machine making coffee. And then at the very bottom, in the base of the copier, is a turkey oven, right? Like, or an oven with a turkey in it. And so the messaging on that marketing piece, you know, and this is part of my personal brand, like one of my first pieces that the copier warrior ever created. And I put, you know, wouldn't, you know, like, I can make your life easier with the right solution. You know, like the concept of, wouldn't it be nice to look at your copy machine and feel like it did the things you needed it to do, essentially? And so like, there's some sarcasm in there, right? And there's things that make it unique and funny. And I think that humor, like 90% of the people that use humor humor in their outreach are successful with their outreach, right? So, you know, again, like there's like that small 10% that think they're funny, but they're really not. Somebody needs to tell them for God's sake, please.

1:22:19 Scott Ingram: But my wife really keeps telling me that.

1:22:24 Dale Dupree: Oh man, are we gonna have to have an intervention, Scott?

1:22:27 Scott Ingram: I think I'm funny. My family, maybe not so much.

1:22:31 Dale Dupree: Well, hey, I think you're funny too, man. So we're both, we'll both be crazy together. You know, the concept though, again, of that humor is an icebreaker. I think that people think about it that way, but humor is like a universal language. Everybody loves to laugh. Like, we live a better life when we have, you know, a belly laugh. My friend Kimberly talks about it all the time. She's a coach for… gosh, I don't want to say who it is. I don't know if I can talk about that stuff, but she's a coach. She's a coach here in the United States. The whole concept put out not too long ago is like you have a better day when you can just get a laugh, especially a laugh out of something that you did, like laughing at yourself, which I think is a great point too. You know, be be able to like don't be so sensitive. Like don't don't be, and I'm not saying that you know if you're a snowflake or you're too PC that you're not a good person. But what I'm saying is like open your mind a little bit to the fact that it's okay that you're imperfect. And it's okay that, you know, not everything goes the way that you want it to and just laugh about it every once in a while and understand that like you can still love in those moments and you can still practice inclusiveness in those moments. It's just life, you know, at the end of the day. And so going back to that piece, when people look at that piece, the multifunction copier, that's what we used to joke. We're like, this is a real multifunction. It does everything. But people would ask me, you know, Is that you on the top? Is that you as a baby? And it's funny because it's actually a stock photo that I bought, you know, like a Gerber baby, you know, so that I wouldn't get sued by anybody, you know. So you just pay $100 and you get a baby, but just weird, right? Because I didn't pay $100 to get a baby. I paid like $20,000 to get a baby.

1:24:09 Scott Ingram: But I was gonna say, when I pull that clip out of context, it's gonna sound really weird.

1:24:13 Dale Dupree: Yeah, please don't pull that clip out of context for my safety. But when they would ask that, I'd say, no, it's not me. But I loved that people asked that question because then I could tell them all the Easter eggs in that piece. And all of my marketing has Easter eggs in it, including the video I launched to launch the Sales Rebellion, including the first touchpieces that I've created, you know, to soften my appointments and soften my discovery sessions with people from the video aspect of it to the printed material, right? And so let's take the turkey at the bottom of the copier. I would say, no, that's not me as a baby, but there is… there are some meaning to this. And I'd say, do you mind if I share? And I would say that Thanksgiving was one of the most important pieces of my culture, that everybody on my mother's side came together for Thanksgiving every year, right? Because family is an extremely important component to life. Some people don't get to experience it the way that others others do. And that, and I, that's why it's important to also, when you do have good experiences, to share them and to incorporate them into your personal brand, because it gives people hope. It gives people a different vision, you know. And so suddenly I'm in a copier meeting talking about family, right, and what this means to me. And the pancakes on the right-hand side of the copier stacked up. My dad made breakfast for us every Sunday morning pancakes and bacon. It's amazing to me that we're not all 500 pounds in this family. But again, you know, these little things that define who I am and that can translate to somebody else, my authenticity. And if they don't like it, that's okay because you don't need everybody to like you, especially in order to buy from you. Like people buy from you for the experience, right? Right? You know, they… again, like, we're not playing this game of how do I impress people. Like, at the end of the day, that person will respect you for what you've put out there, regardless of whether or not it's their cup of tea. I'm telling you right now that that's the quote-unquote secret to sales. You know, just putting yourself out there to allow others to look into your life and to say, man, you know, this might… this person might have completely different a completely different upbringing, a completely different perception of life, you know, or they like skateboarding and I don't, but I'm telling you right now, Scott, that they'll respect you for the way that you put it out there and yell it from your mountaintop.

1:26:46 Scott Ingram: Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I want to… I'm gonna ask one giant question. I should know better than this than to ask like 4 questions in one, but I'm just gonna wind the Dale and let you go. So you talked before about really being intentional with your relationships. You talked about mentors, you talked about your coaches. Why don't you just unpack all of that however you want to tackle it?

1:27:11 Dale Dupree: Yeah, you know, so let's start with my mentors. I mean, since I can remember, I've, I've had mentors in my life. You know, Kerry Augustine is a mentor to me. He was one of my coaches in, in high school, one of my basketball coaches. Is a mentor to me. I mean, I, you know, I… and I'm intentional with those relationships. And I think you asked me about being intentional with relationships inside of those questions too. I might have to go back to your questions because I didn't write them down. I'm like stuck on mentors right now. But I, I've had breakfast with Kerry 2 or 3 times as an adult, and that's not enough. And Kerry, if you're listening, I love you, man. I'm sorry that I haven't reached out more often. But it's the fact that I did more than anything. And the fact that, again, that I believe that other people in my life, mentors or friends even, or just, you know, what some would call clients or even prospects, like, I believe every interaction that I get to have with somebody, that it has purpose in my life to some extent. I mean, I was just at the table with a man that, I mean, you listen to a guy like me talk and you think, man, dude, Dale's got it figured out. Like, guys, no, I don't. Don't. I'm still learning. I'm still experiencing. And again, like, I just sat at a table with a man that literally stirred my emotions, right, to a point that I thought to myself in the moment of when I was listening to him that, man, I've got a lot to learn. And I think too, though, that I don't know that that was his intentions. And I don't think anybody ever really thinks like that, like, let me blow this person's mind right You know, I mean, sure, we wanna be meaningful in our interactions, but we don't know what's about to happen. And that's why intentionality is so important, right? And that's why finding mentors is even more important because they teach you how to lead others and how to give back to the community in an effective way. Another mentor of mine is Ed Jordan. He was my first sales coach. I remember when I met him, he like gracefully introduced himself to me at a Titusville Chamber of Commerce networking event. I was with my friend Denny and we were, the two of us were like just absolutely rampaging through North Brevard, taking everything by storm. And what I mean by that is that we were really sucking at sales and trying really hard to become better. And I remember Ed came up and introduced himself to me and man, I was like, this guy has something that I want. And not like that I have to have, but that I just wanna be surrounded You know, because I think mentors, a big thing that we don't talk about about mentors is, you know, some people say, yeah, they give me the best advice. Like, bro, they make my mentors, when I think of them, my heart is full, you know, more than anything else. The advice is great, the relationships are awesome, but I think my mentors and I, man, I'm so grateful to have people like that in my life, man. Getting choked up just talking about it. So because I think about my dad, that's the big Biggest subject for me when it comes to mentors, you know, is who my father was in my life. Like the ultimate mentor. Like how are we finding that person during our walk? What are we focused on when it comes to a mentor? Like are we just doing it because we want to be better and make more money? Because if we are, you you are going down the wrong path. That's a selfish mindset. Find people that can help you impact others. And it will have an impact on you just the same, right? Because here's the thing that we don't think about with mentors is that we do something for them just the same as they do something for us, right? I can think of all the kids that I've been so privileged to be able to speak into the lives of, and I can think with every name, the lessons that I've learned from them over time. These individuals who are literally just like struggling through their existence right now. I've been there though, right? So for To me, you know, it's a reality more than anything, but at the same time, you know, you leave them and you go, man, like they are an impressive person, right? Regardless of what they might think of themselves or where they are with their confidence level right now, like that interaction that we just had was awesome. For me, just the same. And I hope I gave them good advice, right? And you always try to do that. But again, like I think it comes back to this concept of the way that when you ask me, hey Dale, like what's the foundation of sales for you? Like it's the same that's the foundation of life for me, which is every relationship that we… and person that we interact with along our walk, we should be focused on the mutually beneficial ground that we meet with that handshake. How can I help this person? Because I know that they're going to help me because people are inherently good. We constantly doubt that fact. I don't. You know, I, I do have a saying that people suck, right? Like I said, some of my curriculum is like, people suck, right? But like, that's also inherent in us is that there's a piece of us that if we're not careful will cause the perception to be just that. But inherently at the core of who we are as human beings, we are good. And to be focused on that is extremely, extremely, extremely important because again, This walk on earth is short. And honestly, Scott, it's meaningless unless we walk with intention and we surround ourselves with mentors in order, not just in order again to get better, but in order to make a bigger, more lasting impact. That's a legacy. You know, this has come up a few times in conversations recently, and I hope I'm not repeating myself on this, but there's a movie called Big Fish. And the movie is, it's a, basically it's about a son that just, he doesn't have the best relationship with his dad because the whole premise of this, of the movie is that his dad tells these tall tales that, that the son like wasn't just captivated by growing up. But then as he got older and he got into the real world, he's like, none of these things are real. You know, like it's the concept of like, how big was that fish you caught? Right. And like, you can't see me, but my hands are stretched as far left to right as they can right now. And I'm going going this big, right? And again, it's like, it's almost like that creativity that I told you that my dad, you know, saw in me as a young boy and that he sparked within me and that he nurtured, right? Like, but the opposite of that, right? Because this son just like basically did not like his father at this one point of adulthood. You know, dad tells tall tales, he lies about everything, is basically what the start of the movie is. And so the movie is, basically the story of the father, right? Him growing up and like, he's in this, it's Ewan McGregor that plays the father as a young man. And it is a beautiful story. Anybody listening that hasn't watched it, you know, watch it with your family. It is wholesome. It is meaningful and it's impactful. It was one of my dad's favorite movies actually. And again, throughout this movie, it's like watching a fantasy movie, right? Like there's giants and And right, there's, it's all kinds of crazy stuff happening. And like, it's the real world though, is what it's supposed to be, right? And it's the story of this guy, you know, going through his life. And like at the very beginning of the movie, like there's this encounter that he has with a person that can, that's like a witch that lives in the neighborhood, right? And that's how his dad describes this person, right? And they say, you know, if you look into this crystal ball, it'll, or into my eye, I'm sorry, she wears like a patch. She's like, if you look into my eye, you can see how you'll die. And so the dad looks into the eye and sees how he dies. And so like in the movie, the dad is sick. He's very ill and he's dying. Right. And as the movie progresses, like, and you're watching all these things and it's fun, right? You're like, you're kind of laughing. You're like, you really don't know what to expect, to be honest with you throughout this movie. And I'm not going to spoil it for anybody, but, you know, he sits at the bed with his father and his dad looks him in the eye and he's like, this is not… I saw how I die. And this is not it. And at this point in the movie, there's all these things have happened that have caused the perception to just be completely different. And for the son to realize the impact that his father was having on him and the impact that he owes the community, right? And also like the bigger impact that his dad had on the community because, you know, then, you know, circumstances happen and he meets the people from the stories, right? Like all these, the giants, right? And all these great, like the Siamese twins, and they're real, right? Like they're not as exaggerated as his dad made them sound, right? But they're real people and they loved his father, right? And so I look at our life sometimes and the way that we live them from such a selfish perspective in most cases, you know, that we think of mentors and we think of, you know, learning tools and, you know, I'm gonna buy this course for $999 because I'm gonna be better and I'm gonna make money. You know, like buy that course for $999 because it's going to have an impact on somebody else by making you realize your full potential.

1:36:24 Scott Ingram: Good stuff, dude. So the piece of that that we didn't get to was the coaches. So it sounds like that's something that you believe in and you've surrounded yourself with. Just talk us through that. How do you think about the coaches? How do you find them? How are you leveraging coaches in your your life.

1:36:43 Dale Dupree: Yeah, you need a coach for everything. Like, if you're in the job market, you need to get on LinkedIn and you need to have Carrie Twig as one of your coaches, right? If you're trying to figure out how to be better at producing video content, you need to find Trong Nguyen and you need to ask her to be your coach, right? There's a whole bunch of people out there that are very good at doing something just like you. But the whole point of your sales walk, right, is that there are going to be things that you're going to suck at. Again, like, we've already talked about this, like, embrace the suck, accept the suck, and have people help you. It's like, ask for directions. Okay? That's the concept. And so for me, like coaches are important. They're extremely important. Like some of my clients, like they might not know it, but they're, I call them and I mean, they might kind of understand what's happening. Right? I call them and ask them for advice. Like, hey, what would you do in this situation that I'm in? And like, to me, like that is the ability to be able to accept somebody else's expertise and perspective on something. Even if you know that you might not agree with it fully because, you know, you look at Dale and you think, I, you know, Dale's nuts. There's a lot of things that Dale says from a sales perspective. Like, if I ask him how to cold call, he's going to tell me to hire, you know, Ringling Brothers and go down with tigers and elephants and get an appointment. And I'm not going to do that. But like, that's the thing is that what you should see is that I am a guy that wrote consistently the most net new business in my company every single year. And so that's the part, like, that's the part I look at. I don't see so much about anything else regarding the subject of this person's success other than the fact that they were successful. And so I, I take a minute to say, how can they help me, right? And again, it's, it's the bigger picture concept. It's about how that will sharpen you to impact somebody else. Like, I sound like a freaking broken record right now, right, Scott? Like, straight up But it's important that this gets beat into your mind. Like a coach is important because again, they are sharpening you to become the legend that you are looking to be in the first place. Without them, you will always have these gaps. You will always have these voids. There will always be these missing pieces. Right. And so like, I guess a good way to look at it too is coaches come and go. Like again, my dad, the master mentor, right? The ultimate mentor. My coach, he's gone. I don't have him anymore. What am I going to do now?

1:39:05 Scott Ingram: Right?

1:39:05 Dale Dupree: And like I could sit around and you know live in that self pity, you know, and and say, well, woe is me, and this why did this happen to me? But instead, I'm I I have already and started to and will continue to pursue the men that were in his life that were coaches. You know, his business partner Carlos Thomas. A beautiful soul, a man I love so much, right? I've already started to reach back out to him in my walk and to be intentional with being around him. And you know what's crazy, Scott, is like Carlos used to coach companies too, all right? And so like boom, there you go. There's like your, your link, you know, that the one that like it's like wow, is that fate, right? But but again, you know, how are we how are we helping to sharpen the iron that we have inherited? Like, how are we sharpening it on a daily basis? Because look, if you're not, that armor will eventually chink or it will become worn and it will not be effective anymore and it will not serve your community because of that.

1:40:10 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So last thing, let's talk about the Sales Rebellion a little bit and more from the perspective of, you said it before, I don't remember what the context is, but I just happened to be looking at the note on my screen at the same time is this idea of a different path, right? So, you know, the more obvious path would probably be to continue to crush it in what you were doing and lead larger teams, but instead you decided to go down this path. What was the thought process behind that? What provoked that? And what's the big picture? I mean, what's the ultimate vision with all this?

1:40:51 Dale Dupree: I miss my, I miss my clients, like, but I still, I still keep in touch with them, you know, and I see them every once in a while, and it's so awesome to be able to do that. But I do, I miss that part of my life, and it's, it hasn't been long, you know. I mean, it's only been like 5 or 6 months technically, you know. But, you know, I've been gone from North American, you know, which is my father's company that, you know, Connectivity Business Systems, that he sold to North American, which where I was inherited and had my, you know, massive success. And I miss them. You know? And so there's this thing that, again, like I talked a little bit about the past and not letting it die and like the importance of that in some cases. Like I will never forget the Copier Warrior. Right? He's dead and gone, bro. We buried him. Like he's actually in our gamified system that we have for sales reps that we're launching soon, which is a monthly app where they can do challenges and become their own warrior in the sales world. And like, there's actually, we've hidden the Copier Warrior within this gamified system. And when you find him, you find his tomb and you open the tomb and like all the treasures are there, right? And so like, that's, there's your big picture vision right there. Like, do you think that when I first started in copiers and created my personal brand that I planned planned for that to happen? Absolutely not. I had zero idea that that would be the legacy of the Copier Warrior, that the thing that we're building now, right? It's not even what the Copier Warrior was at the time, it's what he will be moving forward more than anything, right? So, you know, for me, like, I think what I realized for myself was where my fulfillment was coming from. When I got my first employee ever, Alex Dunham. Shout out to Alex Dunham, CNI. If you haven't heard of them, hire them. Great dudes. Alex Dunham is a rock star. Now I got lucky, right? Because I found a kid that he wanted, he was motivated, he wanted it. He wanted the success that he's earned right now. I hired him over at North American and honestly, he was at the end of the first year and he was like, he'd only, the fiscal year, he'd only been with the company for about 5, maybe 6 months. Months, one of the owners came up to me and said, great job hiring that kid, right? And he was a kid. He's like, I think, 22 at the time, 23 when I hired him. And there was a fulfillment in breathing life into his sales walk, into… and coaching him and learning from him just the same as well too. Like, one that I can't describe to you, one that the only thing that, that I can say that, that made it familiar with me was watching the fulfillment that my dad had doing his own thing, right? Running a company and being a leader, being the CEO and all the fulfillment that he got out of that. That's the only thing that felt familiar to me about it from that perspective. But the fulfillment portion of it was like, man, this is epic. What do I do with this? Right? And then as I started to gain more employees and I led more people at different companies, you know, different companies, I started to realize that, dude, this is who Dale Dupree really is. You know, because the Copier Warrior is Dale Dupree for everybody listening. I blur that line. The things that you see the Copier Warrior do, the weird stuff, the zany stuff, like just come to my house for a barbecue and you'll be like, holy crap, like where does he draw the line? But for me, there's a bigger picture to that. It's like, again, like I told you a second ago that like humor, I believe humor breaks the ice. And that's why it's such a big component of who I am and who the Copier Warrior is because it's not just a methodology to get through to the cold call. It's like, how do we get people to open up? Right? The Sales Rebellion isn't here to coach and create better salespeople. We are here to coach and create better people. It just happens to be that we We train them in the sales vertical, right? But that is our vision, better people, right? And so for me, like, I think the pivot came in the fulfillment that I was recognizing. And really that for me as a spiritual guy, that the Lord was showing me, right, from my perspective, you know, was telling me, this is a risk, the greatest one you'll ever take. And I opened, I opened my ears to that, dude. It was difficult, and it's, it's still difficult. I mean, you leave a real comfy, you know, paid position, high 6 figures, I mean, to run your own business. I mean, guys and girls, just so you know, like, you don't make any money, like, in the beginning. Like, you really don't. But, but the Lord has really blessed us on this walk, and he has taken great care of us, and he has brought us the fruit of the labor that I've put into this because Because I would say probably about 2 years ago when I started posting consistently on Facebook every day was the moment that I started to have my little awakening of what I really wanted out of a career. And again, like it was fulfillment that I wanted and not just for myself, but for others. You know, like I got my, 2 of my first reference letters not too long ago for the Sales Rebellion, you know, just from students and dude, I mean, they broke me. I posted one on LinkedIn because I was just so broken by it. Like in a way that I can't describe, you know, just to see the impact that I've been able to have, not just on the rep and their sales walk, but their family life. I mean, gosh, like I think about that sometimes and I think it sucks that people live mediocre lives. Lives that have potential to be something so much bigger. And I think that that's every person on this earth. I mean, I know that's like probably a little insane to think about, but I truly do believe that. I believe that as a community we are strong, and that's what I'm building… a community.

1:46:55 Scott Ingram: Go back to though the, the why. Like, why, why this? Because it's, it's probably not the easiest path, certainly not in beginning?

1:47:06 Dale Dupree: The why for me is the movement, dude. You know, the movement that we have created, that we are creating, that we are giving back to others. That's the why. I mean, I think about, you know, for me, like it's always deeper. I think about the house that I'm sitting in right now recording this podcast, you know, in my personal office here. Like this is my father's house. He bought this a year before I was born. And when he died, I made sure that it stayed in this family. I think about how I'm going to give that to my son, right? And I think about how I don't really care what he does with it, by the way, if he's listening to this in 30 years, like, dude, you can sell the house and make some money, it's fine. But for me, it's important to keep in the family, right? Like for my walk, because I hope to impact him in that way that when he sits back and he's in the middle of some kind of turmoil or, you know, a tough choice or a situation that just brings doubt and anxiety in his life, that he'll sit back and go, this is just one small piece of my walk that I will get through, you know, to fulfill my bigger picture destiny. That's what I hope. And so the why, bro, is the people. It's the movement. I wanna leave something for others. I want people to look back on the Sales Rebellion's legacy, on Dale Dupree and say, Dude, thanks. At the very least, right? Like just like thank you. Like I I do. I take pride in in in what you've built, Dale. Like I want other people to feel that way about this. That to me is the why. The why is the next generation, right? The why is eliminating depression and anxiety from the sales world. The why is eliminating the pushy, you know, bullheaded shark. Dark mentality that salespeople have, the Wolf of Wall Street concept. You know, the why is that to help people to see that they don't have to turn to substances in order to get through the day, right? That they can turn to love and they can turn to other individuals. And that their… the why is that their clients, right? Their prospects are not the enemy, right? But that they are alliances that will be built over time if they earn it, right? Those are the whys behind this whole thing.

1:49:22 Scott Ingram: Nice. Let's leave it on this. I don't know if you saw this comment on LinkedIn. It totally spoke to me. So shout out to Andrew Hulsey, who the thread was kind of unrelated, right? But he posted this and it was in response to, he was calling out our Your First episode actually, and saying that controlling the emotional aspect of sales, the highs and lows, isn't highlighted enough and is crucial to long-term success, in my opinion. I would go as far as saying that it is the single biggest sales podcast episode I've heard to date and has had a huge impact on my overall mindset in just one week. Now, this goes on, and I think this speaks to, at the core, what I just heard from you, Dale, is it's about legacy, right? This is much bigger than you or me or us. It's really kind of what you're leaving. And so I thanked him for that and made some other comments. And he came back and said, I think I can speak for many people in saying that the Sales Success Stories podcast has not only made an impact on becoming a better salesperson, but a better professional and human in general.

1:50:33 Dale Dupree: Wow.

1:50:35 Scott Ingram: And, you know, that's, that's what this is, man. And so I appreciate you going deep once, once again, and just sharing as much as you have. I can't wait to see you and hang out with you and just spend time with our collective communities because I know you're going to bring a bunch of folks out to Austin in October as well. So, if you're listening to this and you want to join Dale and I, man, we would love it. If you go to top1summit.com, you'll find all of those details. Dale, any parting thoughts or one last, one last share?

1:51:09 Dale Dupree: Man, I just want to say thanks to you for even reaching out to me in the first place. You know, I mean, it's been an honor getting to know you, and I'm so grateful to be able to speak to your audience. I mean, listen, like, when you first reached out to me, I was like, I'm just gonna be dead honest with you right now, I thought, why me? Like, as I was looking at the people that you have interviewed in the past even, and listening to your new podcast. Because I remember you were like, hey, Dale, I don't know if you listen to my podcast. I was like, I rolled my eyes like, dude, yeah, I listen to your podcast, Scott. Like, it's a great podcast. But, you know, I think really like that, my parting words are to you, bro, that I'm just extremely grateful for all these opportunities and the friendship that we've developed, you know, in this small amount of time. And it means a lot to me that you would take a chance on the things that I'm out taking a chance on in the first place. You know, And your transparency, the things that you do for your listeners, and I'm one of them, right? And so from the bottom of all of our hearts, like that comment that you got, you know, thank you for what you do, bro.

1:52:10 Scott Ingram: Thanks, man. Well, and a huge thank you to everybody that hung with us. I mean, that is, we're gonna keep this just shy of 2 hours. And, you know, I love that, right? If you're still with us, do me, do both Dale and I a favor, whether you wanna just send a direct message on LinkedIn, you wanna post about it, publicly, however you want to do it, give us, give us a shout on LinkedIn and just say, hey, I did the whole thing, right? That's important. It's an investment. It shows us that, you know, you're serious. And, you know, I, we always try and end these things on a challenge. I'm going to leave the challenge this time. And the challenge is pick the one thing that you heard that really resonated and go act on it right now. Right now, like all these thoughts, all of these conversations are great, but it's what you do with it that makes the difference. So go do something with it, and then tell us what you did. That's that's the ultimate shout back out to what it was. Dale, we'll we'll see you in October, and everyone else listening, we'll see you next week. Thanks for listening.

1:53:21 Dale Dupree: Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast.

1:53:24 Scott Ingram: To be sure you.

1:53:25 Dale Dupree: Never miss an episode and for an invitation to our Sales Success Community powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.