So here’s one more.

In 2017 I closed my company. It was the loneliest, most devastating stretch of my life. When you build something like that, it isn’t just a business. It’s you. Losing it is a loss of identity. You question everything, and it takes a long time to build your confidence back up.

Honestly, it’s innocence lost. You are never the same.

There were always people in that office. Employees, business partners, and their families. Always energy. I took great pride in creating a positive, energetic environment, but on the day I carried everything out, there were just four of us. Me, my mom, my dad, and John Spaeth, one of my employees.

That’s the whole lesson, and it took me years to say it out loud.

Watch the video. Then go tell somebody who showed up for you that you noticed.

If this one hit, share it with the person you thought about while you were watching.

Subscribe now

In a world increasingly fueled by AI and automation, your greatest advantage is your humanity. Your story, perspective, experiences, values and personality are what create connection. And connection is what creates great relationships and great business.

This is one of my core teachings: use technology to become more human, not less.

I created a prompt that helps you tell your story beyond the résumé, title and company bio. Not just what you do, but who you are, what shaped you and why you do the work in the first place.

Because another product slick probably isn’t going to make someone care about you.

Your story might.

People care who you are before they care what you do.

It’s time to reintroduce yourself.

Check out how I used this asset and use the prompt below to create your own.

Click The Example Below:

The Prompt

Personal Reintroduction Carousel Prompt

Create a 13-slide Instagram carousel, 1080x1080 square, that reintroduces me through my personal and professional story.

Use a bold, editorial visual style with:

• High-contrast typography

• Black, cream, and one accent color

• Large condensed headlines

• Minimal copy

• Strong negative space

• One consistent illustrated version of me across the carousel

I will upload several reference photos. Use those photos to create a recognizable illustrated likeness of me and keep that character consistent throughout the slides. The illustration style should feel polished and editorial, not cartoonish or like clip art.

Structure the story like this:

1. Introduction
   “Hi, I’m [NAME]. Let’s start over.”

2. Experience
   How long I’ve worked in my field and one impressive measurable accomplishment.

3. Early success
   A major business, career, or life milestone.

4. The setback
   One short, dramatic statement about a major failure, loss, or turning point.

5. The lesson
   Why that difficult moment became a catalyst.

6. What I rebuilt
   My current companies, projects, brands, or major initiatives.

7. Credibility
   Book, awards, audience size, customers served, students taught, notable accomplishments, etc.

8. Relationship / partner
   A personal relationship that has been important to my journey.

9. Family / legacy
   Kids, family, mentors, or something I am deeply proud of.

10. What matters to me
    Family, legacy, community, faith, service, culture, or another personal value.

11. Who I am
    A personality trait or principle that people who know me would recognize immediately.

12. What I believe
    My strongest professional philosophy or point of view.

13. Closing / CTA
    My signature phrase, brand, newsletter, business, website, or next step.

Copy rules

Keep each slide readable in about three seconds. Use short sentences and strong statements. Avoid corporate jargon. Make the story feel like a journey, not a résumé.

Visual rules

Use the same overall layout system, typography, margins, colors, and illustration style throughout the carousel. Let the darker or more difficult moments feel visually heavier, then gradually open the design back up as the story moves toward rebuilding, family, purpose, and the final CTA.

Before creating the carousel, ask me for:

1. My name

2. My profession or industry

3. My biggest measurable accomplishment

4. My major setback or turning point

5. What I built afterward

6. My proudest professional accomplishment

7. Important personal relationships or family details I want included

8. Three words that describe me

9. My strongest belief about my work

10. My final CTA or signature phrase

11. Three to five reference photos of me

New Content

.

Right now, everyone is building using AI.

Sounds like progress.

Sometimes it is.

Most of the time, it’s just expensive amateur hour with better technology.

That was the premise of a recent Backstory AI webinar presentation I led on one of the decisions every business is going to have to get much smarter about in the AI era: Do we build it, or do we buy it? I laid out the framework, walked through the risks, and then facilitated a conversation with Ian Friedman, who leads go-to-market operations at Pathlock, to pressure-test the idea from an operator’s perspective.

My framework is simple:

Simple? Build it. Complex? Buy it.

And before the AI nerds start yelling at me, understand something: I LOVE building. I’ve invested 1000’s of hours and six figures of my own money experimenting with AI technology and creating tools for my businesses and clients. I believe deeply in what AI makes possible.

But that experimentation has also taught me how quickly “I can build this” turns into “Why the hell am I still working on this three months later?”

The $15,000 Basement

During the presentation, I told a personal story. When I was about 12 years old, Dad decided we were going to finish our basement ourselves. He bought the tools, we bought the materials, and then we spent basically my entire damn summer hanging drywall, painting walls and figuring it out as we went.

When we finished, did we have a finished basement? Yep. Did it look professional? Well kinda... It looked exactly like what it was: a basement remodeled by a father and his 12-year-old son.

A few years later, when my parents went to sell the house, the real estate agent pointed at the basement. My father ultimately spent somewhere around $15,000 fixing our DIY project.

We had the tools. We had the materials. We had the willingness to work. Maybe I should retract that last one. I definitely wasn't the most willing worker😂.

What we didn’t have was institutional knowledge.

That distinction matters enormously right now. AI has handed every business a giant box of power tools, but owning a nail gun does not make you a carpenter.

Stop Confusing Capability With Expertise

One of the biggest traps I’m seeing right now is companies confusing the ability to create something with the ability to create something well. Claude can help you build it. ChatGPT can help you build it. Your RevOps person can probably cobble something together over a weekend.

Cool.

Who maintains it Monday morning? Who fixes it when the underlying data changes? Who owns it when twenty salespeople become dependent on it? Who gets the phone call when it produces the wrong forecast?

That is where the sexy little AI experiment becomes another damn job.

I asked the audience how many hours they were spending every week building and experimenting. Then I asked a much more important question: Has that time actually made you more efficient, or have you simply added another job to the one you already had?

There is a huge difference.

Build the Hole Patch. Buy the Basement.

Here is the analogy I use. If you have a small hole in your drywall, you can watch a 15-minute YouTube video, spend $20 at Home Depot and fix the damn thing yourself. Hiring a professional might cost you hundreds of dollars.

Build it.

That is the equivalent of a simple internal dashboard, a small workflow, a Slack bot, a lightweight reporting tool or a highly specific automation. Low risk. Limited complexity. One owner. Easy to repair. High upside!

Now imagine remodeling the entire basement. Plumbing. Electrical. Framing. Drywall. Building codes. Multiple systems interacting with one another.

Different decision.

In business, that is your mission-critical platform. If the thing you are creating touches quota, compensation, forecasting, revenue, customer experience or critical operational data, you need a much higher standard.

Because now the cost of being wrong can dwarf whatever money you thought you were saving.

Four Questions Before You Build Anything

Before your next internal build, I would ask four questions.

1. Does this run on data we already trust, or are we building the data pipeline and the application at the same time? If you are solving multiple complicated problems simultaneously, complexity is already multiplying.

2. Will someone need to maintain this after it goes live? Spoiler: the answer is almost always yes.

3. If this gets something wrong, could it cost us a forecast, rep, customer or deal? The higher the consequence, the less interested I am in DIY.

4. Will this pull someone away from their actual job for a quarter or more? This one gets ignored constantly.

The internal build is not free just because you did not write a software company a check. Your people’s time is money. Their distraction has a cost. Their opportunity cost has a cost. Testing has a cost. Maintenance has a cost. Delayed deployment has a cost.

And sometimes, being wrong has the biggest cost of all.

The Spreadsheet Is Probably Lying to You

Someone asked a great question during the Q&A: How do you justify buying something when building it appears cheaper on the spreadsheet?

Easy.

Fix the spreadsheet.

Add the employee hours required to build it. Add the hours required to test it. Add maintenance, infrastructure and usage costs. Add the cost of pulling somebody away from the job you actually hired them to do. Add the cost of delayed deployment.

Then add the hardest number of all:

What does being wrong cost you?

Suddenly that “expensive” platform might look pretty damn inexpensive.

There is also something valuable in buying that does not always show up cleanly on the spreadsheet: someone else owns the problem. A credible vendor brings engineers, infrastructure, security, support, expertise, development resources and years of institutional knowledge.

More importantly, you can hold them accountable.

When you build it yourself?

Congratulations. You’re the vendor now.

The Rule I’m Using

I am not telling anyone to stop building. Quite the opposite. We should probably be building more than we ever have before, because the cost of experimentation has collapsed and the upside is enormous.

But we need to get smarter about what deserves to be built.

Build the lightweight stuff. Build experiments. Build prototypes. Build narrow internal tools. Build things where being wrong is cheap and learning is valuable.

But when the tool becomes mission-critical, technically complex, widely adopted or directly connected to revenue, I want expertise and institutional knowledge, like Backstory.

Because the question is no longer whether you can build it.

In 2026, increasingly, you probably can.

The better question is:

Should you?

Just because you can build it doesn’t mean you should.

A lot of us are building right now. Custom GPTs, Claude projects, internal tools stitched together with whatever’s available. Some of that is the best work you’ll do all year. Some of it is a liability you haven’t met yet.

The hard part isn’t building. It’s knowing which is which before you spend the time.

Today at noon Eastern I’m giving you a simple framework for that call, then putting it up against a real decision with Ian Friedman of Pathlock.

Register even if you can’t make it live. Everyone who registers gets the replay.

I just returned from an amazing trip traveling down the PCH with my wife. When I say I just got back, I mean literally just got back via a red-eye flight, and I’m on fumes, but I wanted to get these pictures out and these thoughts out of my brain.

If you’re like me, once you get inspiration, you have to take action!

You’re going to notice a theme in these pictures; it’s a common one when I travel, in fact it’s one of my favorite things about traveling.

People…

When you travel as much as I have and probably many of you, the places start to look alike in ways; you mix up experiences, restaurants, hotels, or scenic attractions.

Was that Nashville or Knoxville? Did I have the great dinner in Dallas or San Antonio? You get the picture.

The cities, while all cool in their own right, start to melt together like crayons in the sun.

You know what doesn’t, though?

The people.

No matter where I go, I always meet interesting people. I learn about their lives, their travels, their families, and I build relationships.

I’ve been invited to strangers’ homes, restaurants, bars, vineyards, farms.

I have 100s of pictures of people I’ve met during my travels in recent years; that’s what I want to remember most, and that’s what I find the most fulfilling.

That’s also why I’m pretty damn good at sales and training people to sell better.

Listen, I’m not the guy who’s going to talk all day about your Salesforce design and automation workflows; honestly, a million people can do that.

What I am is a guy who understands the value of human connection and how to build authentic relationships.

For me, relationship-centricity is not just a sales methodology; it’s a way of life that has enriched every aspect of my life.

Want to know my secret?

I know this might cost me some money. Once I give you the secret you might not want to take one of my courses or hire me to help your company, but here it goes.

Curiosity and listening.

There you have it; that’s my secret. Now I’m out of a JOB!

Jokes aside, because I’ve committed my career to it, I also know it’s not that easy for people to do in sales.

So my job is safe… for now… until the robots take over😜

Speaking of jobs. Vacations are expensive! It’s time to pay the bills and get back to serving up sales and business wisdom.

I’ve got two exciting projects I’d want to make you all aware of.

This week, on August 20th, I’ll be hosting a webinar presented by Backstory.AI. The topic is Build vs. Buy. I’ll be sharing a framework to help you decide when to build tools using AI or buy them from a vendor.

The second project is a new course on selling like an athlete. This course will be 100% free, thanks to a generous sponsorship from Flitehouse, making it available to all who would like to gain valuable insights into how to create structure and cadence in your business to prepare you for greater success.

Sadly, the numbers aren’t great for effectiveness and business outcomes.

Why?

Well, there are a lot of reasons, but like an elaborate domino design, the first domino is the most important. The first domino to fall is what sends you down a road of compounding failure.

That first domino falling could be prevented by pondering this simple question.

Just because I can, should I?

What’s the risk, what’s the investment?

Am I better off just buying it?

Lucky you. Help is on the way.

Join me for this discussion.

👉https://www.backstory.ai/events/build-vs-buy-the-framework

It wasn’t tough talk, hard labor, or physicality that made who I am today. It was what I witnessed; it was what I saw. It was the drive, the refusal to quit, the perseverance and willingness to endure difficulty, the example of standing on your own two feet against the world that made me who I am.

Thank you, Dad.

A friend recently told me that when my name was brought up in a conversation with peers, one of the reactions in the room was, “He’s controversial.”

I can’t get it out of my head, so I’m writing about it.

There are a few things to unpack here.

First, if I were to self-describe myself, that’s not a word I would use, but it comes as no surprise to me, as my simple existence has been controversial. From the moment I stood up to my teacher in elementary school or the 300-pound custodian who put his hands on my 6-year-old sister who I went after (I was 11 at the time), I’ve been unafraid to stand up to bullies and speak truth to power.

I have NEVER changed.

Does that make me controversial?

Well, that’s the first lesson in this. Everything in life comes at cost. There is always a price of admission, and one of the costs of being who I’ve always been is that people will seek to label you and define you in negative ways.

You make people uncomfortable; you challenge the status quo.

The truth is, I never really had a choice. My existence is controversial. My intelligence, my confidence, and my gifts have made people uncomfortable my whole life. Growing up in Utah, I was reminded of that daily. In the classroom, on the street with complete strangers, and it only got worse as I grew into adolescence and adulthood.

So again, I never really had a choice.

The only real decision was whether to be self-serving or use my gifts and my pain to help others. I’m very proud to say I’ve always done that. Whether it was marching on the Capitol to make MLK Day a holiday in the 90s, organizing and creating youth groups, sharing my experience with press outlets, speaking to and inspiring other youth all before I could legally vote, I was willing to do it.

The responsibility was and is always bigger than me.

30 years later, it’s never left me. It’s why I’ve mentored, coached, and led with courage and used my platform and influence to make the world I touch better.

Does that make me controversial?

I’ve been sitting with that word and why it bothers me so much.

First, I’m not afraid of it, AT ALL. Either you stand for something or you fall for everything. That’s what I was taught. I’m not going to diminish myself to make others comfortable. I’m not going to NOT advocate for the voiceless because it might change some people’s perception of me.

I think why it bothers me is that it’s the same old tropes and dog-whistle language I’ve heard all my life. The language that implies that I’m a troublemaker, a reminder that people don’t like intelligent, confident black men who challenge them.

They want the nice guy, who makes them laugh and entertains them. Makes them feel safe and unthreatened.

Where the real work gets done is not under the cover of safety and comfort; it’s in the trenches, in the mud. It’s impossible to get the work done in the trenches and not get dirty.

Getting dirty means some people will not like you; they will label you and impact your business or life. I’ve accepted that it’s all I’ve ever known. Again, for me it’s coming whether I want it or not, so why not make an impact?

That’s not the full story

Don’t cry for me Argentina.

There’s something I know that people who have lived lives trying to avoid any controversy will never know.

I’ve become wealthy because of my work. My actions over the years have made me wealthy beyond measure.

Some years back, I told myself I needed to build wealth by the time I was 50. I wanted freedom and a great quality of life.

I made one mistake when I set that objective.

I used the wrong KPI of success.

At the time, I was thinking in terms of millions of revenue. How much money in my bank account was the KPI to the freedom and quality of life I wanted.

What I didn’t think about at the time was that it was actually my investments in relationships and being unafraid that would ultimately give me the wealth I seek.

Today I have freedom, great quality of life, and wealth in the depth of relationships and connection with people, in large part due to my “controversial” work. It’s brought respect, credibility, and connection beyond the superficial and transactional relationships that exist in business and life.

Not by design, that’s also created tremendous financial opportunities. The opportunities that present themselves to me, collaborations with brands, consulting opportunities come to me FOR ME. Not some manufactured, whitewashed version of who I am. They believe in me and can get behind what I stand for.

Those are the types of relationships you want in life and business.

Think about that.

How often are you playing it safe? Are your relationships superficial and transactional? Do the people around you respect you for who you are, or some homogenized, watered-down version of yourself?

If you’re comfortable with that, cool, I’m not one to judge, this path isn’t for everyone.

Good Trouble

Well, it’s time to make some more people uncomfortable. The last time I got into some serious industry “good trouble” was for a video post I made a few years ago in regard to women’s safety in Technology Channel sales. That’s one of the hills I’m ready to die on, and if you think I’m controversial for my stance on this topic, so be it. I’m not your guy, and I’m ok with that. So here’s what’s next. No Questions Asked. I don’t care if you don’t like it or don’t support it. I care that women in technology sales can easily identify who has their back in compromising situations. I ALSO care that the wearer understands and accepts the responsibility of advocacy and has a reminder to be courageous.

The King Era isn't about looking back on what I've accomplished. It's about having the wisdom, influence, and clarity to accomplish what matters most.

I turned 50 this week.

People have asked me how it feels, expecting me to talk about age, milestones, or the passing of time. But the truth is, I don’t feel older. I feel different. Not because of the number itself, but because I’ve finally reached a place where my decisions are intentional, focused, and driven by wisdom earned through lived experiences.

I’ve been calling this season of my life my King Era.

When most people hear the word king, they think about power, authority, or status. That’s not what I mean. To me, the true strength of a king isn’t found in his ability to conquer. It’s found in his wisdom. A king in his prime has already survived the battles that taught him what matters. He’s no longer trying to prove himself. He moves with intention. He understands that patience often accomplishes what force never could.

His greatest weapon isn’t strength.

It’s judgment.

The night before my birthday, I went to see The Odyssey. What impacted me the most wasn’t the great cinematography, creature effects, or battle sequences; they were awesome, but it was Odysseus’ return home that moved me.

After years of war, unimaginable loss, and hardship, he doesn’t charge back into his kingdom announcing his return. The younger version of him probably would have. Instead, he disguises himself as a beggar. He watches. He listens. He studies the room before making a move. He’s still the same man, but he’s been transformed by everything life has demanded of him.

In the days since I saw it, I can’t get that out of my mind.

Because I realized that’s exactly where I am.

The last decade has left its mark on me. There have been victories worth celebrating, but there have also been losses that changed me forever. There were mistakes I regret and battles that nobody else will ever fully understand. All of it shaped the person writing these words today.

I’m less naïve than I used to be. Maybe even a little more cynical.

But somehow...

I’m also more compassionate.

I’m more patient. Less judgmental. More interested in understanding people than evaluating them. Experience has taught me that almost everyone is carrying something you can’t see, and that realization changes how you move through the world.

Where It Really Began

If you’ve followed my work for any length of time, maybe you’ve wondered where some of these perspectives came from. If you respect the leader I’ve become or aspire to build the kind of life or career I’ve built, then you should know something about where it started.

Not chapter one.

That’s a story for another day.

Chapter two can be summed up in a single photograph.

Look at that little boy.

Really look at him.

Look at his expression. Look at his eyes. Even without knowing the story, you can tell something is different.

And you’d be right.

I was a dark-skinned Black kid growing up in Utah, where Black people made up less than one percent of the population. That alone made me stand out. And yes, everything you think could happen when it came to race. Did happen, but I’m not going to get into that today.

It didn’t stop there.

My mother was one of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which meant I didn’t celebrate birthdays, Christmas, Halloween, or any of the traditions my classmates participated in. When those celebrations happened at school, I wasn’t part of them. I was sent somewhere else.

Usually...

The library.

Before you feel sorry for me, don’t.

I don’t feel sorry for that little boy. I never have. Looking back, I realize those experiences gave me something most people spend their entire adult lives trying to find. They taught me how to be comfortable standing alone. They taught me that acceptance isn’t a prerequisite for conviction, and that being different isn’t a weakness to overcome. It’s often the very thing that prepares you to lead.

The Lesson

Now that I’m a parent, I understand why we try so hard to protect our children. We don’t want them to feel left out. We don’t want them to experience rejection or loneliness. We want them accepted, included, and liked.

But life has taught me something difficult.

Sometimes, in our effort to protect our children from discomfort, we accidentally protect them from becoming who they’re capable of becoming.

The world doesn’t change because people fit in.

Businesses aren’t transformed by leaders who chase consensus.

Communities don’t move forward because everyone agrees.

The people who create meaningful change almost always begin as outsiders. They’re willing to question what everyone else accepts. They’re willing to endure misunderstanding in pursuit of something bigger.

Over the last decade, my influence has grown beyond anything I imagined. More people know my name. More people support my work. More people pay attention to what I have to say.

If I’m honest, that has always made me a little uncomfortable.

Because none of it changed who I am.

I’m still the kid who sat in the library.

That’s why I’ll always advocate for people without a voice. That’s why I’ll continue saying the things that need to be said, even when they’re unpopular. That’s why I’ll never confuse acceptance with purpose.

This is what my King Era is really about.

Not becoming someone new.

Becoming the person life has been preparing me to be all along.

A Question for You

Whether you’re raising children, building a business, leading a team, or simply trying to become a better version of yourself...

Ask yourself one question.

Are you chasing acceptance?

Or are you developing the courage to become the person you’re meant to be—even if it means standing alone?

Because history rarely remembers the people who fit in.

It remembers the ones who had the courage to be different.

There is A LOT of talk about A.I. replacing human tasks and ultimately jobs.

Rightly so; it’s a reality people face every day.

Just last week, Microsoft announced 4800 layoffs. What I’ve seen in my 25 years in business and technology is that once a larger domino falls, it opens up the floodgates for others to follow suit.

That’s the unfortunate bad news.

Here’s the good news: if you're in sales, you have the same opportunity you’ve always had, even though the landscape is changing.

There might not be as many opportunities, but those who develop the 5 skills in this short video will not only find themselves employed, but they will thrive in this new era of A.I. in sales.

By the end of this video, you’ll have a real-world example and instructions on building your own tool just like mine that will not only SAVE you money but DRIVE more revenue.

I’m pulling back the curtain on the AI tech stack I’m actually using every day in my business. Not theory. Not “one day this might be useful.” Not some generic influencer list of shiny tools.

I’m talking about real tools, real workflows, and real business outcomes.

And when I say outcomes, I’m not talking about saving 10 minutes here or there. I’m talking about tools that have helped me save and generate real money in my business. Six figures worth of impact.

Everybody wants to talk about AI like it’s magic. It’s not magic. It’s leverage. But only if you actually know what the hell you’re doing with it.

In the video, I walk through one of the simple SaaS-style tools I built for my own business. It’s not complicated for the sake of being complicated. It solves a very specific problem in my sales process and helps me deliver a better client experience.

That’s the lesson.

The future is about using the right technology to drive revenue, eliminate friction, and make you more dangerous in the areas where you already have expertise.

Most of you don’t need another subscription. You need better judgment. You need to understand what you should build, what you should buy, and what you should stop wasting money on immediately.

That’s why I’m sharing this.

I’ve spent the last few years deep inside these tools. Testing. Building. Breaking things. Rebuilding. Spending money. Saving money. Making money. Learning what works and what’s just tech bloat dressed up in a pretty landing page.

I’m also sharing why discovery, personalization, clean design, and context still matter. AI doesn’t replace the fundamentals. It exposes whether you had any fundamentals to begin with.

One more thing before you go.

I’m excited to share that I’m collaborating with Backstory because their platform lines up with how I think about sales, data, and business outcomes. This isn’t about adding another piece of tech to an already bloated stack. It’s about using better data, better RevOps thinking, and better sales execution to drive actual revenue.

That’s the separator for me.

I don’t partner with companies just to slap my name on something. If there’s no alignment, I’m not interested. But Backstory gets it. They understand that the real opportunity isn’t more dashboards, more noise, or more tools nobody uses. It’s turning the right data into action that helps sales teams perform better.

We’ll be doing more together soon, including training around when to build, when to buy, and how to stop wasting money on technology that doesn’t move the business forward.

Stay tuned.

Download the directions and prompts👇🔽

Read more

Most channel managers aren’t failing because they’re bad at their job. They’re failing because they never had a good strategy in the first place.

I was talking to a channel manager this week who’s about a year into the role. Smart. Hardworking. Doing everything they’ve been told to do. And they’re stuck, because the pipeline isn’t building and partners aren’t adopting the way they thought they would.

Here’s the story they were sold when they took the job: the product is different. It’s unique. There’s less competition. Once partners see it, they’ll get it, and the relationships will do the rest.

I hear some version of that story constantly. And it’s almost always wrong.

Because the truth is, there’s somewhere around a thousand companies in this space, all screaming for the same attention. Being different doesn’t make you heard. It just means you’re one more voice in a room where everybody is convinced their voice is the one worth hearing.

So companies do what they think is the smart move. They hire a channel manager who “has relationships.” And that channel manager does what every channel manager before them has done. They go after the people they already know.

That sounds reasonable. It is not a strategy. It’s a shortcut, and it’s the reason most of you are getting churned out of this industry every eighteen to twenty-four months.

Here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud. When most channel managers build a target list, they’re really only asking two questions. Do I know this person? And if I don’t, are they currently successful?

That’s it. That’s the entire qualification process for half the partner recruiting strategies I’ve seen in twenty-six years in this channel.

And here’s why that’s a fatal flaw. In this industry, roughly five to eight percent of the total partner community is actually successful. Meaning they generate consistent, monthly revenue. Not the partner who signed up two years ago and closed one deal. Not the guy who says he’s “got some things in the pipeline.” Real, repeatable production.

You are not competing for partners. You are competing for the same tiny sliver of already-successful partners that everybody else is also chasing, using the same weak criteria everybody else is using.

And then we call it a relationship strategy, like that makes it sound sophisticated.

Let’s be honest about what “relationship” means in most channel programs. It means this person likes me. Or I like them. That’s the qualifying bar. Not shared business goals. Not technology alignment. Not whether their company is actually built to sell what you sell. Just, we get along.

I can tell you from direct experience, liking someone and doing business with someone are two completely different things. I’ve watched channel managers who knew hundreds of people in the industry, who were liked by all of them, who couldn’t get real production out of more than a handful. You end up with thirty partners sending you the occasional deal instead of five partners you’re actually building a business with. Occasional isn’t a pipeline. It’s a hobby with a CRM attached.

I started my first agency in 2004. Went on to found and acquire four more. We had a partnership with AT&T that lasted almost twenty years, and it was not an easy channel to work inside of. About six or seven years into that relationship, I got a brand-new channel manager assigned to us. Came over from the direct side. Green. Still had the tags on.

Over the next ten years, I made that man very successful. Not because he showed up with the perfect relationships or the right pedigree. I trained him. I taught him how to work with us, how to actually nurture a partnership instead of just checking in on it, how to think about our business the way we thought about it. That investment is the reason it worked for two decades.

When I tried to take that same model to other carriers, I ran into the same wall over and over. Channel managers with plenty of lip service and no real alignment. People chasing whoever could move product fast instead of finding the partners who were actually built to sell it. I didn’t have the bandwidth at the time to train every one of them the way I trained that first guy.

That gap is exactly why I built the Blueprint for Channel Manager Success. Not as a nice-to-have training module you skim once and forget. As an actual operating system for how you identify, qualify, and develop partners, so you’re not out here betting your entire quota on the same overworked five to eight percent that everyone else is fighting over.

And here’s the part that should genuinely worry you if you’re still doing this the old way. This used to be optional. You could get by on charm and a good Rolodex for a while. That window is closing fast, and AI is going to close it completely. The tools are already exposing which channel managers actually understand partner alignment and which ones were just really good at grabbing coffee. Relying on relationships and vibes is not a strategy anymore. It’s a liability.

So if you’re a channel manager reading this and something in your gut just tightened up, good. That’s the part of you that already knows your target list is built on the wrong two questions.

Here’s where you start fixing it.

1. Build a real partner profile, not a contact list. Define what an ideal partner actually looks like based on business model, technology stack, sales motion, and goals. Not who you already know.

2. Stop defaulting to “successful.” Successful at selling someone else’s product doesn’t mean aligned with yours. Alignment is the predictor. Existing revenue is just a number that makes you feel safe.

3. Go deep with five before you go wide with thirty. A handful of strategically aligned partners you actually develop will outproduce a rolodex of people who occasionally throw you a deal.

4. Train, don’t just recruit. The channel managers who last are the ones who build their partners, the way I built that guy from AT&T. Recruiting gets you a signature. Training gets you a decade.

The old rules of this business aren’t dead. But the channel managers hiding behind “I know a lot of people” are running out of road, and most of them don’t know it yet.

The Channel Chiefs who are hiring based on “who do you know”, you’re not far behind the channel managers.

Development and intelligent, strategic alignment is the future and the future is now.

Now that you’ve taken the red pill, Neo, there’s no going back.

What are you going to do?

There are certain tools in business that are not optional.

A phone. A computer. Zoom. A CRM if you are serious about pipeline. And now, an AI notetaker.

Not “nice to have.” Not “maybe we should try it.” Not “we’ll get around to it.”

Non-negotiable.

For me, that tool is Fathom. I think it’s the best AI notetaker on the market, and I’m not casually recommending it to clients anymore. I insist on it. It is a baseline for working with me.

If you are not willing to invest in recording, reviewing, and improving your sales conversations, we are probably not going to be a good fit.

That may sound harsh.

Good.

Because this is one of those places where the serious people are separating themselves from the unserious people in real time.

Most of you are using AI notetakers wrong. You’re using them to be lazy. You want the summary. You want the action items. You want the little recap so you don’t have to pay attention as hard.

That is amateur hour.

An AI notetaker is not just a transcript machine. It is not a digital secretary. It is not there so you can mentally check out and pretend you were present.

Used correctly, it is a force multiplier.

It helps you coach. It helps you sell. It helps you write better follow-up. It helps you build sharper proposals. It helps you expose the gap between what you think they said and what they actually said.

That gap is where deals are lost.

The Biggest Miss: Training and Development

Great athletes watch film.

Professional athletes watch film. College athletes watch film. High school athletes watch film. Hell, when my son was playing football at eight years old, those kids watched film.

Eight-year-old peewee football players were sitting in a room watching what they did right and wrong so they could get better.

Meanwhile, grown salespeople with quotas, commissions, families, mortgages, and careers on the line are not doing the same basic work.

Sales managers are not doing it either. Or WORSE they us some automated AI to review transcripts and they never actually WATCH the film for context and soft skills.

That is not coaching.

That is basic ass management.

If you are not watching the call, you do not know what happened. You know the salesperson’s interpretation of what happened. And most salespeople are not lying intentionally, but they are absolutely filtering the truth through their own bias.

They remember the parts that made them feel good. They minimize the parts where they lost control. They overestimate how strong the pain was. They exaggerate the buyer’s interest. They confuse politeness for intent.

Then the manager reinforces the fantasy because they did not watch the film either. Or they rely on a robot to interpret the nuance. AI can do a great job of reviewing and checking boxes for fundamentals, but nuance is where it fails.

Nuance is where massive improvement happens.

Not in motivational speeches. Not in another sales kickoff. Not in some generic training module your team watches while checking email.

Improvement happens when you look at the actual work.

Most Salespeople Are Building Bigger Bias

Here’s the danger nobody talks about.

If you don’t review your calls, you don’t just stay the same. You often get worse.

Why?

Because you keep practicing the wrong thing.

You keep asking weak questions and calling it discovery. You keep pitching too early and calling it educating the customer. You keep sending generic follow-ups and calling it professional. You keep letting prospects drift and calling it a long sales cycle.

No.

You’re just not confronting the truth.

The AI notetaker gives you the truth, but only if you are willing to use it that way. That means reviewing calls with a critical eye. It means asking what was missed. It means studying the customer’s exact language. It means getting a coach, consultant, or manager who is not emotionally attached to your excuses to evaluate the work.

That is why I use it so aggressively with clients.

I don’t want opinions. I want evidence.

Show me the call. Show me the questions. Show me the customer’s pain. Show me the next step. Show me the follow-up. Show me where the deal actually advanced.

Everything else is noise.

Three Immediate Impact Ways to Use AI Notetakers

This is where most people stop.

They record the call. They skim the summary. They maybe copy the action items. Then they move on.

That is why they are average.

Here are three ways to use AI notetakers immediately to create real sales advantage.

Read more

I thought I’d share a little bit of ours.

28 years ago, we went on a honeymoon that was less than ideal. It was not like a scene from a movie.

Jorge, that was the little boy my wife befriended who was trying to sell us Chicklettes. We still have a picture of that little boy who is now knocking on 40… wow.

It’s funny the things you remember.

Aside from meeting Jorge, it was a bit of a disaster.

Spoiler alert, we made it through. It wasn’t our first time facing turbulent waters; it’s how our relationship started. That story is for another day. Today I think you ALL need to hear the story about the ‘Honeymoon’; it’s a little bit of a love story and a LOTTA bit of business and life advice.

I sincerely hope this story hits some of you REALLY DEEP, your future depends on it.

I got asked one of the best questions I’ve been asked in a long time.

It came from a young entrepreneur. Smart guy. Hungry. Curious. Trying to build something real. We were having a conversation about business, sales, the technology channel, consulting, courses, coaching, and all the stuff people love to package up and sell once they’ve had som…

Read more

I got asked one of the best questions I’ve been asked in a long time.

It came from a young entrepreneur. Smart guy. Hungry. Curious. Trying to build something real. We were having a conversation about business, sales, the technology channel, consulting, courses, coaching, and all the stuff people love to package up and sell once they’ve had som…

Read more

Have you seen these videos going viral on Instagram and TikTok?

People are taking jars of pineapple spears, dumping Kool-Aid powder into them, letting them soak, and selling them out of coolers, trunks, and folding tables.

The videos are everywhere. Somebody pulls up in a parking lot. Somebody has a handwritten sign. Somebody is taking Cash App, Zelle, Apple Pay, and whatever else gets the money from your pocket to theirs. The jars are stacked up. The colors are bright. The customers are lined up. The seller is usually loud, Southern, unpolished, animated, and unapologetic.

A lot of them look like me.

And then come the comments.

People laughing at the idea. Laughing at the seller. Laughing at the customers. Laughing at the accents, the presentation, the hustle, the whole scene.

The internet turns it into entertainment. Another viral moment. Another thing to clown. Another opportunity for people who have never sold anything in their lives to make jokes about someone out there trying to make money.

And while the world is laughing, I’m not.

I don’t think it’s funny. I think it’s courageous. I think it’s entrepreneurial. I think it’s somebody looking at what they have, where they are, what they know, and deciding, “I can make something happen with this.”

That’s not a joke to me. That’s the beginning of something.

Around 1983, my family took a trip to Las Vegas. While we were there, people were performing with these little monkey puppets. I don’t remember all the details, but I remember my dad seeing it. When we got home, he went to work creating his own version of those monkey puppets to sell.

Now imagine social media existed back then. Imagine somebody filming my dad trying to figure out how to make and sell monkey puppets after a family trip to Vegas. Would the comments have been kind?

Probably not.

In the 80s, people didn’t have digital photography. They kept their pictures in photo albums. My mom and dad came up with an idea to create photo albums covered in fabric with music boxes built inside of them. Would that have gone viral? Maybe. Would people have understood it? Maybe not. Would they have laughed? Probably.

In 1985, my parents had an idea to start a Black hair care supply store and salon in Utah, where Black people were less than one percent of the population.

Read that again.

Black hair care. Utah. 1985. Less than one percent Black population.

On paper, that probably sounds crazy. To some people, maybe even stupid. To my parents, it was an opportunity.

Was every venture successful financially? No. But every single one was successful in a way that mattered because they showed me what it looked like to bet on yourself.

They showed me that ideas don’t have to make sense to everybody. They showed me that courage usually looks strange to people who don’t have any. They showed me that the person willing to try will always look ridiculous to the person committed to staying comfortable.

And that is the part people miss when they’re laughing at someone selling Kool-Aid pineapples out of a trunk.

They’re not just selling pineapples. They’re learning customer demand. They’re learning pricing. They’re learning inventory. They’re learning presentation. They’re learning marketing. They’re learning word of mouth. They’re learning how to hear no, how to handle judgment, how to serve a customer, and how to come back the next day anyway.

Some of y’all paid a fortune for business school and still don’t have the courage to sell a $10 jar of pineapples to a stranger. That’s not an insult. That’s a mirror.

Because most people are terrified of looking stupid. They are terrified of failing publicly. They are terrified of what somebody might say. So they sit still. They hide behind comfort. They hide behind titles. They hide behind jobs they think are secure. They hide behind opinions.

Then they throw rocks at people who are actually in motion.

There is nothing funny about a person having the courage to try. What’s comical is the person hiding behind a thin veil of security they think they have, disparaging someone who has the courage to do something they don’t.

My parents’ example planted seeds in me I didn’t understand at the time. Without watching them try, I don’t know if I become the man you’re reading today.

I don’t know if I start my first business at 25. I don’t know if I employ hundreds of people. I don’t know if I educate, train, coach, and inspire people around the world. I don’t know if I build a life through entrepreneurship that allowed me to take care of my family and educate my children debt-free. I don’t know if I become one of the most respected and influential voices in technology sales.

People have called me inspirational, motivational, and influential. Maybe that’s true. But if it is, a lot of that started long before me.

It started with two parents who had the courage to try things other people may not have understood. Monkey puppets. Music box photo albums. A Black hair care store in Utah.

Those were not just business ideas. They were lessons. They were examples. They were permission.

Permission to believe I could build something. Permission to try before I had everything figured out. Permission to look crazy to people who were never going to understand the vision anyway.

So when I see someone selling Kool-Aid pineapples out of a trunk, I don’t see a punchline. I see somebody in motion. I see somebody testing the market. I see somebody creating demand. I see somebody refusing to wait for permission.

I see somebody who may be planting a seed in a child watching from the backseat, in a niece helping pack the jars, in a nephew holding the cooler, in a neighbor who needed to see somebody try.

That seed matters.

You never know what grows from courage.

So the next time you see someone chasing a dream that looks crazy to you, maybe pause before you laugh. Maybe ask yourself what you’re really laughing at.

Are you laughing because the idea is ridiculous? Or are you laughing because their courage makes you uncomfortable?

Because whether it’s Kool-Aid pineapples, monkey puppets, handmade photo albums, Black hair care products in Utah, or technology sales training, the principle is the same.

Having the courage to bet on yourself is never failure.

That’s what success looks like.

Are you ready?

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What’s the difference?

That’s what we’re answering in this webinar.

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They have a clarity problem.

If your business only works when you are touching every deal, every customer, every process, and every decision, you don’t have a scalable business.

You have a job with better branding.

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That’s how you build something worth keeping, scaling, or someday selling.

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