[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: Welcome. This is the Sales IQ Podcast. My name is Luigi Prestinenzi, and I'm on a mission to help salespeople be the best sales professionals they can be. Each week, we'll bring you a different message from thought leaders from around the globe so we can help you master the art of selling.  

Welcome to another episode of the sales IQ podcast. I'm your host, Luigi Preston Indian as always I'm pumped and honored that you've decided to join us today. This week. We've got an awesome episode coming up. We have a special episode. We are joined by Donald C. Kelly, the sales evangelist. That's right.

It's Donald C. Kelly thus says evangelist. Now, for those of you that have. Donald, it's a host of his own podcast. It's been going for five years. He's produced over 1100 episodes, which is insane. When you think about the work required to put out an episode to produce 1100, he's an absolute machine. Donald he's also the founder of the TSA sales program.

Donald is also a true. A facilitator and coach who is actively pursuing and helping give back to the community and helping salespeople do better and do bigger things. So this is truly an awesome opportunity for us to learn from somebody that is engaged with so many different thought leaders around the world, around the, you know, the topic of sales and marketing.

Why is this important for me? Why am I so excited to have Donald on the show? Over the years, I've listened to countless hours of podcasts. I read books. I listen to audible and there's one show that really stands out for me. And Donald has been producing content forever. And he's content has made me a better sales professional.

So we're going to talk about, you know, what he's learned during this journey and what are some of the characteristics that these guests share and implement that make them so good at what they do, because the other thing I want to remind, please jump in. Like us, right? Us, wherever you listen to your podcast, share with our listeners, these podcasts and what you like about it.

Also hit me up on LinkedIn. I'm loving, receiving feedback from everyone. It's truly humbling to hear the impact the show is having on so many sales professionals. It's a guys buckle up. This is going to be an insane episode, and can't wait to hear your feedback about, you know, the sales evangelist.

Welcome a man.

[00:02:28] Donald C. Kelly: Hey, Hey, Hey everyone. This is Donald C. Kelly, the sales of Ben jealous.

[00:02:39] Luigi Prestinenzi: I love that, man. Thank you so much, brother. What an honor, it is to have a guy that's contributed to my career on such a positive level. Join the sales IQ podcast. So welcome.

[00:02:54] Donald C. Kelly: It's an absolute honor. I appreciate you being, having me being here, man. Cause I know it's, I know what it's like to get guests to come on your show and you, you know, you want to feel, you want to make sure people who are going to be good and appropriate and you know, can actually add value to their audience.

So I'm actually really humbled whenever somebody invited me to come on your show. So thank you, man. I appreciate it.

[00:03:13] Luigi Prestinenzi: And I appreciate you brother. Like I said, I, you know, I spent countless hours. Or on the train, listening to the sales evangelist and the content you produce is insane. I mean, I think five years you've been going for five serves me correctly.

[00:03:28] Donald C. Kelly: My memory like goodness. Yeah, five years

[00:03:33] Luigi Prestinenzi: and, uh, hitting over 1100 episodes.

[00:03:38] Donald C. Kelly: Yes. Yes, dude. We just hit today. Actually I was just doing mine, some of the stuff, cause Monday is my podcast recording day. So recording all day today. Um, and then we'll get everything, all the content prepared and stuff like that throughout the week, um, for the next couple of weeks, but we're this for my next week's episode.

So next Monday, it's going to be 1120 to 1122. That's insane. Yeah, man, we're cooking with fire. I got a dime or a dollar for each of those episodes. Well, technically I have so

[00:04:12] Luigi Prestinenzi: above, I think, you know, like as a listener, right? When always running. And listening and, you know, the study, I didn't get an appreciation of what is actually involved in putting a podcast together until I decided to give it a crack.

Um, and, and I'm not talking, you know, here's some really great podcasts and here's some, you know, some podcasts. Maybe not as good, but I think the preparation that goes into a really good podcast and the questions that we think about and when you bring it, you bring it. And so I can only imagine how much time goes into actually preparing for, for your podcasts.

[00:04:50] Donald C. Kelly: Yeah, dude, it is it's, uh, it's gnarly. I mean, it got, got, gotten easier over the years, but the first time doing it, it was like anything else that, which we persist in doing becomes easier. Not that the nature of the thing changes, but our ability to do it changes. And, uh, that's an Emerson quote, but the. The th the preparation still has to be up to par in order for listeners to come back and to listen, because if it's a boring episode, then they're going to be turned off and not want to check it out.

So it's, it's grueling, but you know, somebody has got to do it. Right.

[00:05:24] Luigi Prestinenzi: So, so tell us, obviously, before we get into the whole, you know, what you've done from a podcast perspective, what you've learned, how did you get, like, tell us a bit about your sort of, um, Entry into the world of

[00:05:37] Donald C. Kelly: sales. So I did sales growing up as a kid in Jamaica.

We had a, um, I've always just seen my family, uh, hustle. I was talking to my dad is still in Jamaica. So I was talking to him yesterday and do down there still hustling and trying to, you know, still doing stuff. Right. But one of the, the, in for those yesterday's father's day, um, whenever you're listening to this episode, but one of the things that he, uh, I saw him do my mom and my cousins and aunts was just the idea of working hard.

And in my mind at that point, selling was just being business. It's just, that's what business was about. So want to be a businessman. And then I was pretty outgoing and then friends in high school and college were like, man, you should be, you should consider going into sales. And so I did some telemarketing stuff.

Uh, getting people to go to timeshare presentations and realize that I kind of liked this idea of encouraging and persuading or Kevin people persuade themselves. And then eventually I did well in, in different consumer sales stuff. I eventually did door to door security sales. It was amazing earned some pretty decent money that summer, and that did it one year.

And then after I graduated, I went into B to B selling and then I got kicked in the face because the way that I was selling B to C, it was totally different when you're trying to get executives and people on boards to say yes to a software enterprise solution, that's going to affect the whole organization.

And it takes months to get that stuff set up. Yeah. So I went through a sales training program, a company put me through actually, it was a Sandler program at the time. And then I started seeing a hockey stick in my performance. And I started to, from there, continued with my sales development and study.

And one of my buddies was like, man, you should check out. Podcasts. And then he was like, he had a podcast. I said, invited me to go on his podcast. But anyways, that we'll talk about that a little later, but that's how I got into the sales arena. And then from there, I just started doing really well in software space and started improving my skills and grew and, um, made some pretty decent money and was very, very excited and fortunate for the career that started.

[00:07:42] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's awesome, man. And you you've referenced your dad and yet we in Australia, it's not father's day yet. Um, we're going a few months, but, um, and I saw, I saw a photo of your. Sort of photo of you and your dad? Uh, I think you're wearing a pink shorts on Instagram or LinkedIn. I mean, you mentioned that he had a bit of an influence.

Um, what are some of the, you know, characteristics or some of the attitude and mindset that your father, um, I mean, did he have that influence on you or was it someone else that helped sort of describe that mindset?

[00:08:18] Donald C. Kelly: Well, some of it was, were, was through him through osmosis, so to speak to him. He and my mom separated when we are, when I was younger, but I was still a part of his life and you're still a part of my life.

So I would go and see him and I would see the things that he was doing. And he took care of my, my schooling. And, uh, you know, most of the countries, like, especially in Jamaica, you have public and private schools. Private schools like bomb diggity. So I went to private school and he functioned that, but I wasted the money.

I wasn't smart of a little kid, but anyways, the, um, he. I just saw that he took something from nothing and created it. It had a, it was a cesspool company that he started. Right. And he had one truck and they would go out and do the sets, pulling stuff. And then from there, he started doing blueprinting as well.

And so he had this compound that he created with like five businesses that one of them was doing a blueprint there, the cesspool company going, which was pretty known, he is pretty known in a community. And then. He had a, his bed, a salon there, like as well, and then it had a restaurant and, um, but yeah, the restaurant cesspool were two different, so don't worry about that.

But he had a restaurant and, um, and then he had these, uh, performances that they would rent out his downtown amphitheater, low area. So I was like, man, this is cool. It's like the Kelly empire. I want to be able to do that. I want to be able to push, you know, make stuff like that happen again or in the future.

So that was there. And then my mom, she, when we moved to the us and, uh, you know, she hustled and just worked her tail off and worked multiple jobs and so forth. And the. Income that we received was meager in the us and Jamaica money translated to us dollars. Wasn't all that fancy. Right. Um, but so with, uh, with still yet, my mom just like hustling and seen her work two jobs and doing all of those things, it made me realize that I, I want to be able to provide for her someday and also be able to see though how hard she worked, showed me that I needed to work hard.

So anything at this point, Anything that you needed, you needed anything that, uh, I see my family do stuff and all of that stuff that they've done, they have to work for and to hustle for, for my dad working to go to his business, to my mom, hustling multiple jobs. So therefore translate in my mind, DK, if you want something, go out and hustle for it, go make it happen.

You know what I mean? Yeah, absolutely.

[00:10:44] Luigi Prestinenzi: Man. So it's really, it's really been doctored, some really strong work beliefs for

[00:10:49] Donald C. Kelly: yourself. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:52] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's awesome, man. And may I want to ask because. Five years ago. I mean, look, podcasts. They're really taking off in the last sort of couple of years, but I mean, five years ago, what inspired you to just get up and go, right?

I'm going to, I'm going to start a podcast.

[00:11:08] Donald C. Kelly: Ooh, Ooh. I would say it was Jared easily because I started alluding to that. And Jared easily. He invited me to come on his show. Yeah. Then all backup. Let me to give you the full story. You've heard a podcast movement, right? Yep. Okay. So podcasts moving biggest podcasts.

And in the world here in the us, my friend, Jared easily is one of the founders, he and Dan Franks. And one of the things Jared and I were talking. He was, uh, one of the technicians that came in, uh, a project manager and we have interaction with a project manager and a software company I was working with.

So he said, you know, we should do breakfast sometime. He saw my energy and excitement and personal development stuff. And we started talking about some business ideas and we just didn't have the funding or the capital to be able to get these softwares that we were contemplating off the ground. But then he went to this event and came back and he's like, The world of podcasting is a whole new world.

We, you should check it out. So he started doing a podcast, a podcast on it's called starve, the doubts. Okay. And then he invited me to be a guest on that kind of like personal development. And then I did a couple of little segment and then he was like, man, you should start your own podcast as well. So it was like interesting.

And then I, uh, started, uh, just started doing it. I started a video one first off and it was included in a blog cause that was, I thought it was easier then to go through all the tech stuff, to set up a podcast, I was like, I don't know how to do that, but it wasn't that difficult. He gave me the guidance and I.

You know, saw some different trainings on how to do it. Pat Flynn had a course on how to set up a podcast and it was pretty, fairly simple. So anyways, I went through that and did that. And then from a net, from that standpoint, it was, it was scary. But it was cool that I could share something with other people.

So why did I do it one? I want it to learn too. And I figured if I could get guests that I could learn from, I didn't have to spend thousands of dollars. So it was kind of selfish to get their trainings, but I can have conversation with them. I can build relationship. I rub elbows with folks. I get them are in all of these different.

Uh, Jeb blunt. We did some with the sales gravy organization. We did some co-branding things early on. So all these things were pretty cool. And I was like, wow, this is. And then the other parts of this was because I was getting my personal development. People also was benefiting from it like yourself. Like you, you know yourself, you mentioned you were listening to the show and you started getting, you know, motivated and getting excited from some of the content from some of the guests.

And then started hearing people share how it's benefited their lives, or it helped them. Like I have an email right now in my extra a LinkedIn message from a guy. Said you probably don't remember me and I have to go back through my email, but he reached out to me like several years ago and started to when I started into his career.

And anyways, fast forward now he's at, uh, a company in the Midwest, um, drift. They do the messaging and. You know, big with their sales team. And he was like, bro, I don't think you realize how much you helped me and so forth. And you know, we want to connect. I want to send you some stuff and all of this, and it's just kind of cool to see individuals.

And now that five-year mark we're ended up this year will be six years. We're going to see that how people have transformed from I've seen individuals come from. Entry-level seller to now be an executive or to a sales leader role. And it's just really, really cool to see that they're able to feed off of that.

So that's why I started it and it was my personal development, as well as now. We're seeing hope in other people and then the gravy off of it as well. I mean, we created a business on it and now it's evolving like a canceled.

[00:14:48] Luigi Prestinenzi: And the TSC, um, the course have jumped on and had a look at the course and it's, you know, it's got the man on there, the sales evangelist, and it's great content.

So we'll put some show notes of where our listeners can, can engage with your content further later. So appreciate it, man. So man, five years you're into it. Um, you must, you know, like you said, to get them as the giblets you've interviewed, you know, the best of the best globally. Um, yeah, I mean, I know it's hard to say, but he's anyone in particular that really stood out for you that made you stop and think, wow.

You know, what, what an episode that was,

[00:15:26] Donald C. Kelly: bro. There's so many of them, like, I, I can't really go back and pick one in particular. That was just, that just smacking me in a face. But let me see if I can talk about a couple of them. One by David Hoffeld. David came on the show and we spoke about the science of selling, selling made sick book.

Yeah. So that was pretty interesting. I was like, I was really blown away by some of the things that David was sharing there, um, and had an impact on me and helped me to tweak the way I was doing some of my selling. So that was a huge one. Another one that was. It very impactful. It's very way back in the beginning was Ralph

So if you go back, I think it's episode number three, Ralph can said something that he was a big grant Cardone fan and a new grant and all of this stuff. But one of the things Ralph talked about was his idea was mantra, was this concept of, uh, doing, uh, it wasn't, it was just doing extraordinary things that going forward, just going big at something, because if you go small, you're going to get small results.

Just go big. So when I listened to that episode, Hm. What if I was to start saying, do big things and literally that's where it started. So from there I was, yeah, it was like this big things. So challenge yourself every day, because sometimes what we do, and obviously I'm not telling you to bypass your ideal customer profile, but yeah.

I have seen where I've sabotaged myself because I've said, you know, I can't call into that person. I can't reach out to them on LinkedIn. I can't make connection with that person. They're too big was like, what's, what's, what's the worst. That's going to happen. Do some big things. And I can tell you for me doing big things and thinking big that's, what's helped to catapult me.

And, you know, grant has this TEDx concept and many people have a different iterations of this, but you'd must challenge yourself to go bigger at times than what you're typically used to. So. No. That's awesome. Yeah.

[00:17:20] Luigi Prestinenzi: And, and during this journey, I mean, I know that like you've met, you know, countless professionals and countless, um, experts at their craft.

Um, we'd love to learn, like, or get an understanding from you, especially as a journey that I'm going, I'm really trying to understand, you know, what makes high-performers, you know, so unique, um, From your experience and from the learnings from these guys, are there anything that stands out to say, this is what separates, you know, high-performance from everyone.

[00:17:52] Donald C. Kelly: Yeah, one of the first episodes I did. I can't remember. I think his is five episode number 5, 0, 0 5, but don't worry guys. I don't remember all, but I can pick some of them out, but Justin SUA, what he, what he shared on the show was, um, it was, he had written an article and it got. It started, it got a little viral and I was like, this guy sounds cool.

And then one of my turns, a couple of my friends knew him and got introduced to him and we had an interview and it was about 10 things that high performers do something to that nature. But here's what I feel that high performers w what, what makes them tick different? They have the, of. Of out beating themself.

Right? If you think about it, sometimes I'm a competitive person and I like to compete, but you got to make sure your competition is not always. Your enemy or somebody else the competition oftentimes needs to be your well, I guess it's mediocrity. And if your mediocrity is always going to try to find you and always try to, to, to tell you to keep you from performing to your best abilities, but top performers, they have this vendetta against mediocrity against themselves performing less and each day to try to outbeat themselves.

Yeah. The other thing that I see that top performers do is that they don't do things that other people aren't willing to do because of that internal drive to. Improve themselves. They're not necessarily, they don't have an external factor all the time and they usually do, but the external factor could be a family or it could be, you know, some kind of accolades or whatever, but it's really comes back down to there some wiring in their brain that says, I need to be the best debt I can be.

I need to be the best married or Joe or Donald that I could be. And they're going to do the things now. That's separate them such as staying late or coming in early, or they're going to get up and do the workout, even if it's cold or raining, or if it's sunny or hot, they're going to do it because it's just in their brain that it has to get done there.

Go also going to go above and beyond the call of duties. So they may be. To get follow these three qualifications or get, these are the three things you need to do. These are the people that are going to do five, six. And again, it's not because of any outward acknowledgement, their coworkers or people around them say, oh man, they're just sucking up.

They're trying to, you know, outbeat us. No forget you. They're just trying to be there yesterday and to perform better than the way they work. And that's what I feel that separates these top performers. Yeah.

[00:20:28] Luigi Prestinenzi: And that, and that is in the circle. That's in our circle of control.

[00:20:32] Donald C. Kelly: Oh, for sure. By all means we have total dominance over that.

And no matter what, go back to Victor Frankel, right. Victor talks a lot, uh, from his, uh, the. Oh, man, it's going to kill me. What's the name of the book. Now you're going to a man searching man's search for meaning or search for happiness or whatnot, but the, one of the things he, he emphasizes and at least the principle that I got from it is that I'm in control of my destiny.

I have control over my life, no matter what circumstance or situation I'm in, I can still have control over it. And I'll give you another personal example. There's a guy that from my church, uh, and. It feels so bad for him. He's uh, his paralyzed right from the waist down from, since he was a teenage years, a terrible car wreck, he was married.

And right now like, uh, his wife, well throughout his life, his dad helped him. Dad lived next door to him. His wife is on life support and is more than likely going to pass away today. Think they're pulling a plug. It's sad. And here's what this guy does though. Even with all of the circumstances, he just keeps moving on.

He always pushes through, I'm not making this stuff up. Like, um, it takes him forever to get into bed. Um, and. A bunch of us from a church or, you know, helping them each day now and so forth because he has no one else around to be able to help him do this stuff. But the independence that he has and the way that he looks at life is so different than us who take it for granted, the things that we can do when we can walk and we can lock our doors and easily and unsecure ourselves and all of this stuff that he has a hard time doing.

But he just has this look on life that he recognized. I'm not going to make excuses. I'm not going to complain. I'm not going to argue against God or universe or whoever circumstances. He just takes it. And he takes control of what he is, what he does have control of and make it happen. And I feel that too many of us, we blame other people as opposed to taking control of what we have said.

These are the cards I have. These are the recipes that I've given. What can I make with it? And let's go make something. Yeah.

[00:22:40] Luigi Prestinenzi: Absolutely man. And, and that's, you know, that's a pretty powerful story that you're sharing, you know, because, and I say this often to sales professionals or salespeople that they have that fixed mindset, you know, they've got that, that blame mentality or that below the line mentality of somebody else's fault leads are no good.

We haven't got the right systems, et cetera, et cetera. And often say, you know what, for a profession where you don't need a degree, um, well you don't need education. You can get into sales with pretty much. You know, little qualifications, right? And you can make an abundant, you know, a huge amount of money for what we do when we actually, we're not saving people's lives, right.

We're not actually operating on brains or, or, you know, giving, giving sight to the blind, we're selling a product or service that is sure it has a positive impact. Because I believe that we've got to do good in the world. Right. And our product should have some form derive value. That's a positive, but we get rewarded really well for what we do.

And so, um, but sometimes it's hard. Yeah. We get stuck into that zone of, um, you know, that negative mindset. Have you ever had that experience where you've, you've been a little bit negative or the negative talk, fixed mindset. And if you have, cause I know you're such a positive guy, man, but if you have w what have you done to sort of break down.

[00:24:00] Donald C. Kelly: Yeah. So I'll give you two reasons why one, I became lethargic and two, it was three reasons. So one I'll give you three examples where I became lethargic. Two, I was, uh, became jealous and then through. I started mingling with the negative Nancy. The first one where I became lethargic, I started doing well and I'm pretty young, right?

So I went on the sales team and six, uh, I was, uh, I was the youngest guy, one of the youngest sellers in the company because of software company. A lot of these guys were seasoned account executives and then. When I was hiring for the job, the boss, the CEO is one of the person that did the interview. It wasn't a large enterprise.

It's a small mid-sized company, but he did one of the interviews with me after a group interview. And he asked, why should I hire you? Versus the people 10 years experience, 15 years experience selling software, sitting in a hallway. And I was just like, I'm Donald freaking Kelly. I know I can do it. I can make it happen.

I've done everything else. I've done. I've performed well in just teach me and I'll make it. It took a risk on me. They didn't hire me as account executive and I was kind of upset, but I said, whatever, this get the job. They brought me in as inside sales, when was the best decision ever, because now when an inside I was able to understand the process, I knew how to hunt.

I went throughout the organization, met everyone in the teams. I understood what we were the best customers. And then in six months, the, some of these top, uh, account executive quote unquote were out of the company. And I was one of the account executives now. And I knew how to hunt as well as I was getting inbound leads.

Yeah. Um, that sales. So I was performing well, but then what started happening? I got cocky and I got lethargic. I didn't want it. I didn't want to practice the things that I knew I needed to do. And then I started to see a negative, uh, uh, the outcome I didn't like. And then I started to get a little negative in my mind saying, you know, quickly starting to think, well, this is not working, blah, blah, blah.

And then I have to wake up and realize, no, it works. It's just, you stop being stupid. And I had to break myself out of that, but I have to first acknowledge that I was doing something that was. Makes sense on that. Yeah,

[00:26:06] Luigi Prestinenzi: absolutely. Man. So you had to really have that self-awareness though, right? That you needed to

[00:26:12] Donald C. Kelly: make a change.

Yeah. The second time was jealousy. We had this other individual came into company and she had worked for the company before. So, but in a different capacity in marketing, but then she came into the sales side and started to do really well. And I was like, man, how in the world, she's going to come in here.

And. Do the stuff. And I was like, well, maybe it's because she knows more about the company is because she has better understanding is because of all of this other stuff out or things that I was looking at as opposed to looking at it. So then I started to, cause I was when I, when you run track, as you know, uh, I run, um, the track being Jamaican and had one of the things that you learn is that you don't look back.

Right. And none of your, your focus should be looking forward. So whenever I had a situation where, um, You know, I look back to see where my competition was. It slowed me down, and this is same idea too, with this. I was looking back and, um, you know, slowing down my performance because I wanted to see how this person was doing or, you know, they're, they're winning these other deals and blah, blah, blah.

And I didn't see that as me help, you know, as a. As a team, I was being jealous of them and that narrowed my performance. But then once I started to embrace and say, dude, stop being stupid. This person can teach you stuff, open up your mind to it and start learning. Then that's what happened. He started to teach me things I didn't know.

And I started to perform even better. So that was the time there. So I acknowledge again myself by limiting beliefs and that somebody can't do better or. You know, perform better than me and maybe I can learn from them. And there are times that I won deals that they didn't, weren't able to win and so forth.

And we just became friendly rivals. Right. And, uh, but it was a good thing. It was a great thing. We started helping each other and we started working on different plans to, you know, help each other generate leads. And it was just so cool, but it was because I became a. Yeah. And the third time was when we had some, um, this one guy came on our team.

It was, you know, we all have them, they talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And the, it was a team. Cause you know, when you usually hire in classes, right? So these new account executives came in and dude, they were so negative. Like one of them was like, this is stuff different here and blah, blah, blah. And my last company and I was listened to him and then he started bringing up some things that were no, no one's perfect.

So I started, he started pointing out some of the faults that I saw in the company. But then I started I've ignored them before, because I didn't care for them. I just could perform doesn't matter what, but because he wasn't performing because he wasn't working. He started to bring down a team like a rotten, apple, and I gave into it.

And then when I noticed it was happening, cause it just, it's subtle. It's just like over time. You know, a few weeks I'm like, come on, I can't be like this. I got more things to do. I got to provide for my myself. I wasn't married yet. Actually I was married. I was dating my fiance at the time. I was like, I need money, man.

Forget this crap. And then I re I started ignoring. I just started ignoring them and started to focus and started to do what I need to do. And naturally what happens is that person eventually got fired because they were. Working and we're complaining and it's always somebody else's fault. So those three instances helped me tremendously.

My career one, I got lethargic taught me that I need to always be on my game too. I got jealous and I realized need to get rid of jealousy. You can't have that early. You can't have that in sales. And in three negative people, we just need to put them out of your life. And I started to perform better. And then eventually he got fired.

Well, we give you a lot more than you were asking.

[00:29:40] Luigi Prestinenzi: That's gold though. That's gold stuff. And on the flip side, because I found that being positive and trying to have that continued growth mindset, especially in sales, right? It's the one profession that we can do something to today. All for the past three months or six months, that gets us a result.

And then all of a sudden what we've been doing just doesn't work anymore because people change. Right. And so it's one thing that I've found that it's always challenging. It's always an opportunity for me to continue to challenge my capability and growth. Um, and I find that I have to get myself a certain rhythm, a certain routine to enable me to have, you know, to be on the ball.

Right. Um, what's something that you've done. You know, managing a family, um, you're pretty engaged with you with your church and your community and then your business. Um, do you have a routine that you follow that helps you get the best mindset possible to be the best you

[00:30:39] Donald C. Kelly: can? Yes.

[00:30:42] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yes. And do you mind sharing just a couple of.

[00:30:45] Donald C. Kelly: Yeah, by all means I'll be more than willing to share. And, um, yeah, I'm actually working on something too. So maybe an eventually in the future in a year or so, maybe it will become actual product, but I, but what I did was I, um, I've always been a. No, I, I, and it's a in high school, I used to be a checklist and I had this girlfriend that she was like a planner.

Everything was all planned out. We're going to have classes at the time of this stuff. This time we're going to go out after school at this time, we're going to do this, blah, blah, blah. I have to go to work. And I was just like, Hey, these five things that just have to get them done today. But eventually as I, as I progressed and as I grew, I started becoming more of a, a day to day planner or planning out everything.

Yeah. So then, because I started to see that it optimizes, optimize my performance. It started to help me to perform in a much better way. So I then started to plan out everything in meaningful each hour of the day. And then I eventually realized that I can do certain activities that gives me much more bang.

And one of them, for me, personally, everybody has their own thing with a spiritual, whether that's like, um, you know, whatever their, their beliefs are. But I love the first thing I do in the mornings. I'll go into. Uh, personal development in scriptures. So I'll read scriptures for 30 minutes. And then from there I have my workouts.

So I work out, dude, workout is like money. You do your work. I listen to podcasts. I listen to the workout list of podcasts. I'll listen to motivational stuff. I'll listen to books. Or listening to and, and get some juices going. And I cannot tell you, like, dude, every time I do this, every time I do a really good workout and I'm consuming content, all of a sudden afterwards, I have a plethora of ideas or I have a one idea that I'm able to mold through.

If I'm working on my speech or an event or workshop, when I go out and I do my run grow, next thing you know, I start to get that. Proper and started to set it up and it just like flows properly. And I was like, it shows money for me. So that's one of the things, and then the next thing is eating. Right?

Right. You got to the more, I wouldn't say older and the more mature I get and in age, right. You realize you got to whatever you put in and it's like, That octane, that right. Fuel is going to help your body. So I make sure I have a good breakfast that helped me out. And then obviously I kind of mentioned in there reading books, but sometimes they have dedicated times if I don't read a book during my war, uh, listen to a book during my workout or whatnot, I'll make sure I consume some kind of sales, educational content.

And those things helped me to be able to get a good morning going. And then from there, it's just like often a racist and I'm a big believer in. Um, I go to bed early and I wake up early and I, I love hustling and working hard, but I make sure I get the right. You gotta get sleep. Right. And I know some people are different on that, but like, you know, don't sleep, don't sleep when you're dead.

I was like, bro, I want to see my grandkids. So I want to sleep. So I, you know, put my sleep in, but I also make sure I optimize my time when I'm awake so I can perform to the best of my abilities. And um, then yeah, but those things helped me do.

[00:33:51] Luigi Prestinenzi: Man. That's awesome. And that re, and this is, this is a daily thing, right?

So you're daily consuming content that helps you get on the ball. Yeah, this is awesome. It's and it's funny, you talk about, you know, sleep and, um, being efficient. And I was reading of just almost finished Mike Weinberg, new book sales truths. Yes, it's a fantastic book. And he talks about, you know, high-performance or selfishly efficient, you know, they, they protect their time and their planned and, uh, loved, you know, the things that you talk about.

And again, this is, this is going back to, you know, to be the best in sales or in, in as an entrepreneurial or business, it it's skills important, but it's all the other stuff that is in our control. You know what I mean? It's. It's that you've got that rhythm and routine and I'll share something that I'm going through at the moment that I'm a bit challenged by.

Um, and I need to break this habit because I was always, uh, all have always been an early riser. Right. I love the four or five o'clock people got it's crazy, but I love to be able to get my run out before dark. And then, I don't know. I just feel like I've got the whole world, I'll get the whole day ahead of me, right?

Yeah. And I've now found myself getting up and I'm checking my. Right. And it's not good because I'll check my phone. I'm looking at LinkedIn or I've got a whole bunch of notifications and I'm like, shit, I've got to respond. So all of a sudden, cause I plan my day, the night before, it's all of a sudden the things that I had planned to do the next morning and I'm finding, oh shit, I better get onto this task.

This, this customer is emailed something. And then at five o'clock in the morning, I'm sending stuff ignoring. My most important, my affirmations, you know, thinking about what's important for me to achieve at the day and then getting out to do my early exercise. And although I'm getting my exercise in, it's not, it's not there in that first sort of half an hour.

And I find that it's affecting my mental performance, that I'm getting more fatigued during the day. And I'm just not at that creative, you know, we talk about sales what's w what makes us salespeople so great is, you know, that creative. Th our ability to be creative during the sales process right off found that it's limiting my ability to do so.

Um, so I really resonate with what you're saying there, man, about doing that first half an hour. Cause that's a habit that I'm destined to break this week. It's not like I'm going to do it. It's happening. It's happening tomorrow. Cause my phone is going in the kitchen. I got myself an alarm clock, man. It's no excuse tonight.

Right? So.

[00:36:21] Donald C. Kelly: Yeah, I know what you mean, man. I, I, I get it. I feel the same way because I mean, we've all had that. I'm not going to lie and say, I don't do that as well. You know, we all get that push, but I just quickly realized I need to go into my scriptures and to put that and put that there. And it's a habit that we all can improve on and we can do, and we can make possible because I've done it.

And I'm one of the other things too. Like I S like you said, go back to that. Become so efficient. I remember pat Flynn, I'm a big fan of pat Flynn, too. He's a, in a podcasting space or podcasts, but see me pat, one of the things that he shares was that he started doing, getting down to like inbox zero. And I was like, man, what kind of crack pack?

I don't know where you can get to inbox zero. I got 200 right now, 180 emails looking at me in a face. And it's like, but what I started to realize was. Efficient become efficient your time. And then also, fortunately for me, I have a team though, right? And I've been, as I get more, we're expecting our first little guy later this year and actually like month and a half, two months to do is scary.

It's excited and all that stuff wrapped in one, but a. I know I needed to protect that time even more. So one of the things, my executive assistants now doing more of my emailing, right? So she starts actually literally this week because we recognized that I wanted to be in control of so many things, certain things I can get help with.

So we created a plan. And she's new. She knows what to do with some of my emails, certain things that I need to respond to if she's going to market so I can get back to it. But things that we can take care of, she's doing that. And that's where you talking about optimizing your time. You really just need to become efficient.

We can't manage, we can't all of a sudden manufacturer and put an extra two hours in a day. We can't, however, we can stay up later, but this is going to take away from something. From the time you have to sleep. Take away from family time, take away from you going out, taking away from your personal time.

So what can you do you really optimize that time? And I literally clear create a data planner, a daily planner, and that's where I'm saying I'm playing with something. So in a future, PE people might see that, but it's a paper and we might do a digital one as well. Yeah. Connect with our Gmail, but one side, what I do today before I write down each of the different, uh, must do tasks in different categories for my business, as well as for, I have sections for clients for different clients, what must be done for them.

And then on the other side of the page, there's a way to track that stuff. And I put in there, the, um, you know, the activities now that I. Mentioned that I must get done. They have to get done. And now I'm able to grade my day to see if I hit a, uh, a a hundred percent or 90% or B. And if it's, if I realize I'm not hitting it, what am I doing wrong?

Asked myself some questions end of the day. But it's been helping me be so much more efficient because I want to maximize those times, that time period that I have that I'm utilizing.

[00:39:06] Luigi Prestinenzi: It's so interesting that you talk about that, right. And cause I've been interviewing some high performing, uh, Salespeople.

And, uh, because I just want to, I'm doing a bit of a study on, you know, what makes them a little bit different, right? And that, that planning component is something that's coming up. As one of the top, things is going wrong. I know what my key activities are. They're also, um, you know, they protect and go. If it's not an urgent task, That needs to be done straight away.

It gets, it gets, it gets unplanned. It gets calendar that they, they diarize it. Um, you know, they've got their prospecting and the gamma, we need to protect their prospecting. And I know people keep saying time block and we hear it a lot. Right. Um, but yeah, they are religiously. They're going though. These are the activities that I need to do.

I need to work on pipe. I need to make sure all my daily activities that are in my CRM, they're not out of control and I have a set and I'm out during the day and I need to make sure they're actioned. And so they're following all these little, um, key tasks on a daily basis and they are, they're very, they're very, very well-planned.

And I, I do find that, um, that's, what's, you know, one of the. Differentiators between, you know, mediocre and

[00:40:19] Donald C. Kelly: high-performance. You know, and here's the thing too, bro. I'm telling you the first one to tell you, I am not the smartest tool in the shed. I am not the, the quickest. I'm not any of that stuff. I'm not the slickest, my words.

However, I am going to hustle and work hard based on what I've seen that my family have done before and I'm going to push myself. And when it comes towards the time like bro, I'm telling you, man, like some people who are, who I see people who are talented. You could ask a proper question, could diagnose really well and just have these, this capability of being a great seller, but they just don't do it, man.

It's just, like we said, they whine or to complain and all this stuff. And all you have to do is just put your time down. If you do the things, instead of saying, well, nobody's answering the phone or nobody's sending, responding to my emails or nobody is connected with me on LinkedIn. Idiot, switch it up, change some things, take some time to learn what to do and then do it.

And that's all that I've done. And I'm like, you could beat me. You should be beating me, but all it is comes back down to it's like, you're just not doing anything. I guarantee you, I will take somebody who's willing to do stuff. No matter if it's not exactly perfect or exactly right over somebody who knows what to do and doesn't do it.

[00:41:34] Luigi Prestinenzi: Oh, I love that, man. You know, it's funny because I'm working with, I work with a number of different clients and then I have the guys that have gone, man, I've been doing this for 20 years, 10 years. What can you teach me? Why should I change? I'm like, well, hang on. I saved the most respect and diplomacy.

Cause I'd only want to assault anyone, but I'm like, how are you traveling to target what we, 60, 70%, but delayed to crap and this, and they're giving me all these reasons why. And I'm like, but what you're telling me. The stuff that works, it's proven to work. You don't want

[00:42:04] Donald C. Kelly: to do it.

[00:42:05] Luigi Prestinenzi: Do you know what I mean?

Like, you know that if you do this, the doll shifts, you know, that you're prospecting today of impacts you in 60, 90 days. But then you don't do it. You don't do the work required for success. It's such an interesting place. You know, the sales world of people that no. Did the answers are there? You know what I mean?

We know the books haven't changed. Like I've got some great books that I've been reading and it's awesome stuff, but some of the concepts are red, you know, 20 years ago when I first started reading sales books, um, the concepts are the same man.

[00:42:42] Donald C. Kelly: Straight up. It is all the same. And it's amazing though, like, uh, cause I, I feel that sometimes we think that because time evolves and technology evolves that we, you know, the world's going to change and people are not going to be human anymore.

Like people are still human from the. A hundred years ago to the, today is the same thing. The ways that we go about doing our things are maybe a little bit different, but understand people, understand human being and just follow the core, I guess, their eternal laws, right? Or just like, you know, gravity, for instance, gravity, ain't gonna change.

If you live it on earth, gravity is gravity, right? You drop something, jump off a cliff. You're just still gonna fall. But I think sometimes we think, oh, it's going to be different. It's going to be changed. It's not going to work. Like, no, come on. Let's follow the same maternal practice. And, um, you know, and we're going to see success, but you've got to do stuff you really, really would

[00:43:30] Luigi Prestinenzi: have to do stuff.

No one asks you a question. If you could go back in time and do it all over again in your career, what's one thing you

[00:43:37] Donald C. Kelly: do differently. The biggest thing that I would say that I would do differently would be, I would start working smarter if I knew what if I could do. Then what I know and capable of doing now, bro, I'd be at a heap of difference.

Here's several things that I would do my first podcast. Cause I sold a city kind of governments and municipalities. Yeah. I would have started another podcast around, um, selling to government or something about the government I would have then interviewed. A bunch of my potential customers and some of these government organizations, and I could have helped my Oregon, the company I was working with do that.

Right. And when I interviewed his folks, it would then give me an opportunity to get a leg or a foot in the door way better than just trying to cold outreach to them. So that's one thing that would have done and. Catapult me. We have a different department, different section for, um, city county, government for city county governments and the private sector.

So it would have done something similar to that. And then understanding what I know now, I would've gotten my company to give me the funding to help pay for it. And then essentially they're paying for me to grow my own pipeline and to help get their notoriety, but also give it a good opportunity for me to, um, Uh, to then utilize, I would also utilize my, my capabilities with my virtual team because I wouldn't have to do all the work.

So I would have done that. And that would have been able to help me, but think about a prospect and efforts that would have been, been more effective. Yeah. Um, another thing that I would have done a little bit different back then, I would have start planning like real diligent planning sooner, and to make sure I became Nazi with my KPI, as opposed to not let my boss become the one that know oversaw my KPI, but really.

I should have become, especially as a younger guy, become a little bit more, um, diligent with that. Um, and then the final pour point that I would share, um, that probably would have done different is, you know, I think I would. I would look for more opportunities to help people. And early on, I think we all, we all need to psych up on an airplane, right?

You need to put on your own mask first before you help other people, but still yet you can do things to help others. And I think I should have looked, I would have looked for more means to guide and help other people, um, besides doing a podcast, but ways that can definitely directly. So now that's

[00:46:08] Luigi Prestinenzi: fantastic, man.

I really appreciate you sharing that with us. Um, and given that you've, you know, you've interviewed so many people and you've got, you know, the TSE it's it's, it's, it's cooking, um, in your opinion, east sales, a science

[00:46:23] Donald C. Kelly: or an art. Oh, dude. I think it's a, it has to be a combination of both. And I'll explain why I feel that no one is just boring.

Okay. Let's back that up. Some people may be born with an ability to help others persuade. And it'd be very persuasive, but I think a great is not necessarily trying to persuade somebody to do something that they don't want to do is helping the individual persuade themselves to do something that's in their best interest.

And they agree to that. So that's one. So some people do have those abilities to be able to ask better questions, cognitive skills and things like that. Yes. However you can be trained on it. So therefore there's a science part, you know, scientific that anyone can be trained on it. Anyone can do it. Anyone can make it happen.

The art comes in in the delivery of it. And again, I do believe that there are. That part is like, you know, you're going to include your personality. You're going to weigh your tone is your IQ, your, you know, your emotional IQ as well. And all of those factors tie in into the artistic form of it. And that definitely can be done through practice and through improvement.

So I believe there's a scientific part. The numbers, the data analytics, understanding. Being analytical, those things are there. And then the data of, I mean, the artistic point part of performance or delivering it can be also developed. So those two areas in. Oh, awesome,

[00:47:51] Luigi Prestinenzi: man. And you have probably the, you know, the, one of the best person to answer that question.

So I really appreciate it, man. And look, um, this has been awesome and I could talk to you for hours, man. Your voice is just awesome to talk to, and you've got so much knowledge, but before we let you go, where can our listeners find more about you? And I'll put all that in the show.

[00:48:10] Donald C. Kelly: Um, do it, um, the best place they can go actually is go back to the sales evangelist.

Um, you know, actually scratch that. Let's just keep this simple, just connect with me on LinkedIn. I don't see Kelly because here's why, because I personally respond to her once a week. If you will, they'll help us have a meaningful dialogue and, um, but just respond. Send me an invite. Tell me you found me on the.

It feels like you podcast and I will connect with you a little chat. And then from there, from that standpoint, you know, maybe if you're interested in like training or coaching, we can go that route. Or if you're interested in learning more about our show, we can show you how you can download it or give you access to that.

But,

[00:48:52] Luigi Prestinenzi: well also then we'll put links to TSC, um, to your website and your LinkedIn profile. So people can find you man. And Donald, I just want to say before I let you go, and I know obviously this whole. I have listened to hundreds of your episodes. Um, I have not just learn a bucket load, but you've helped me become a better sales professional for listening to your show, man.

And I just want to say I'm. Not just humbled and privileged that you've said yes to coming on our show, but I want to thank you for your contribution to our professional life because it's people like you that, you know, remove that stigma of what some people think sales is ease, man, it's a profession, it's a skillful profession and you know, what you've done for our profession is fantastic, man.

So I just want to show gratitude and say, thank you.

[00:49:40] Donald C. Kelly: Oh, dude, man. Thank you so much. I'm humbled to hear that. And I super, super appreciative of enough the fact that you actually listened to the show and, and so many people who listened to it, I just get, again, I was just a kid doing a show and, you know, sharing some stuff and the fact that thousands of people and you know, all over the world, A light year seems like a way for me and that you've benefited from our show.

It just it's humbling. It's humbling. And I'm grateful and thankful to hear that. So appreciate it, man. No worries, man. We appreciate.

[00:50:15] Luigi Prestinenzi: Man. How good was that hearing Donald talk about where he's come from, what he's produced and the impact these podcasts has had on him was amazing. What I love about Donald is his mindset. He truly is someone that's committed to developing his craft. And over that time, he's helped thousands upon thousands of people globally.

Get better at what they do every day. Me, I have learned so much from Donald. I've learned so much from his shows and I know that I had so much more to learn. So my challenge to you is what's the mindset that you're taking in your day. What's the mindset you're taking in your personal life, in other areas of work so that you can be the best sales professional you can be.

_This episode was transcribed digitally, some errors may be present. _