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September 22, 2023 • 18 mins

Sometimes, life throws us curveballs that make us question everything. This episode of Surviving Outside Sales is a testament to that. I, your host, Mike O'Kelly, find myself wrestling with the imminent loss of my father, a veteran pharmaceutical sales rep who has been my greatest inspiration. As I navigate the emotional whirlwind, I hit the mic to discuss how personal challenges shape our professional lives.

While the episode is deeply personal, it is also a reminder of the importance of seizing opportunities when they come knocking. As I share anecdotes and insights from my journey in sales, influenced by my father's principles over shortcuts, my aim is to motivate you to embrace every moment in your sales career. Remember, the ripple effect of our actions as sales professionals can have far-reaching impacts on people's lives. So, join me for this heartfelt conversation as we traverse the uncertainties of life and the world of outside sales.

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Connect with Mike:
Website:
Mike O'Kelly
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
IG: Mike O'Kelly - Sales Builder
______________________________________________________________________
If you are in outside sales and have had any of the following:

- New to Outside Sales
- New to an industry, new product, new territory - any type of change
- Experienced, but have lacked training and business development
- Seasoned but feel like you have hit your ceiling and need a reboot

If any of those descriptions sound like you or someone you know,

Check out the blueprint at MikeOKelly.com/salesbuilderblueprint.
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, presented by SalesBuilder Academy, the goal is to
survive and thrive all phases ofoutside sales, whether you're
getting in, dominating orgetting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Welcome to Surviving Outside Sales Podcast.
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly.
You know I was really debatingwith myself whether I should
reshoot this episode, and thereason why I say that is because
while I was shooting theepisode and talking about this
topic, my computer crashed.
So I thought to myself is thisa sign that I should not be

(00:49):
talking about this?
But I believe that when Istarted the podcast and those of
you who are listening and youmight be new to the show I told
you this is going to be.
It was a very raw, very realpodcast.
I don't script any of the shows.
I have one topic and then Ijust turn on the mic and I know
that my show could be a lotbetter if I did rehearse it, if

(01:12):
I scripted it.
But that's just not who I am.
That's not my personality and Idon't think it's going to be as
authentic because I willremember things as I'm talking
that I haven't talked about in ayear or two years and it's very
pertinent to the conversation.
So by me just doing a free flow, it taps into my creative side

(01:34):
and that is where all mymemories are stored.
That's where all my expertiselies, is in my memory.
So that's kind of what I do,and so the reason why I bring
that up is you know, right nowis a very difficult time in the
O'Kelly household.
The reason why is because myfather is in hospice and he is

(02:02):
probably not going to make itlonger than a few weeks.
And the reason why I share thisis because my dad was the
consummate professional.
He was in sales his entire lifepharmaceutical sales for 30

(02:24):
years, and this was back whenpharmaceutical sales reps would
sit down with doctors for 15 to20 minutes and have a clinical
discussion.
It wasn't just simply featuresand benefits.
You know, my dad was requiredto know more about the heart
than sometimes first yearmedical students.

(02:45):
When he had a product thatdealt with the heart, I would
see my dad studying all the time.
He'd have medical textbooks out, he'd be jotting notes, et
cetera, while I'm sitting therewatching TV, cartoons, et cetera
.
And it was just a differenttime.
And the reason why I bring thisup is a lot of what I talk about

(03:10):
the sales builder blueprint.
Not about scripts, not aboutgimmicks, not about hacks.
It's about principles that weretried and true even back in my
dad's time 70s, 80s, 90s theprinciples of building
relationships, bringing somebodyinto your own world and a lot
of people say, well, younaturally got into sales because

(03:31):
your father and I said, no,actually I didn't want to be a
sales person.
I felt backwards into it.
I wanted to be a baseballplayer.
That was my entire life.
I didn't have a plan B.
So I tell people, have a plan B, because plan A might not work
out.
You might want it.
I hear this all the time.
Well, I really want this.
Yeah, I wanted to play in thebig leagues.

(03:53):
I wasn't good enough.
I didn't have the talent, havethe ability, and I couldn't get
it done.
I did have a very good baseballcareer.
I look back on it fondly but Ididn't have a plan B and I don't
know when my father will passbut it's soon and I spent almost
all of yesterday at his at myparents' house till late last

(04:20):
night.
I didn't get home until the AM,got up early, got the girls up,
was excited to see them becauseI didn't put them to bed last
night and I'm gonna go back overthere very shortly.
I just have about six or seventhings I have to do from my
house because I have computers,equipment, I have the
infrastructure.
There's just deadlines, thingsthat I have to do, and then I'm

(04:41):
gonna head back over there.
And the thing about the reasonwhy I bring this up is you don't
know what your future holds.
You can't predict everything.
Now I guess you could say weare fortunate to know that my

(05:03):
dad did not die of a heartattack in the middle of the
night randomly.
I didn't get a random call frommy mom saying your father's
gone.
I'm gonna have an opportunityto say goodbye.
I don't know if it's going tobe directly, but every time I
leave I say goodbye and I thinkto myself this could be the last
time I talk to him.

(05:25):
It is very morbid, but the pointof this is everything in the
surviving outside sales world isabout preparing you to not make
the same mistakes that I havemade, for you also to accelerate
your success through mysuccesses, sharing my stories,

(05:48):
learn from the failures and copythe successes if you wish.
And when it comes to my dad, Idon't believe I have any
failures or successes, but itjust hits you like a ton of
bricks when you realize that weare not in control of our own
destiny.
You could walk out and I knowit's very cliche and get hit by

(06:12):
a car, something can happen toyou.
You can be a safe person, takeno risks, but something can
happen to you.
And when you're out there inthe field and you're sweating

(06:32):
and you're tired, you have toremind yourself there may not be
a tomorrow.
You have to give every singleopportunity you have in the
moment and you have to seizeyour opportunities.
You have to seize them becauseyou don't know when those

(06:58):
opportunities are going to comeback around, if ever.
I got a message on my phone thatmy voicemail was full, so I
went back and looked and I gotan iPhone.
In the fall.
I didn't realize I had todelete the voicemails.
I didn't know how the iPhone,all the iPhone systems worked,
so I deleted a bunch of thevoicemails.

(07:21):
I had four or five voicemailsfrom my dad I'm not going to and
my mom.
I didn't delete any of thoseand you know, when he's gone I'm
going to have his voicemails onmy phone forever and I do feel

(07:44):
very fortunate that, even thoughhe wasn't too sure about it, I
interviewed him last fall.
So if you want to listen to theconversation with my dad from
several months ago, I think it'sepisode like 120 or 123.

(08:04):
There's a three-part episode andwe talk about the sales world
and we talk about what haschanged, and I did it live in
his house and the audio is notthe best, but it's like the
baton is being passed and thatis what I'm trying to do every

(08:27):
day on this podcast.
That's what I'm trying to do atSales Builder Academy.
That's what I'm trying to dowith the next generation, or
even people that are in mygeneration that are still in the
fight.
I believe there's a lot ofissues in outside sales and I'm
trying to bridge the gap fromwhat people have to what they
need.

(08:47):
And while this is a veryunorthodox kind of episode, I
just want you to realize.
If you're out in the fieldtoday, right now, you have a day
to make change in your life.
You have an opportunity tochange the life of yourself.
You have an opportunity tochange the life of your family,

(09:10):
but you also have a chance tochange the lives of the people
you're selling to.
Your product or service may savethe life of the end user, the
end customer.
Maybe it's an end patient ifyou're in the medical sales, and
when I say save your life,there are people that might be

(09:33):
going through bankruptcy.
There might be people that aregoing, are living paycheck to
paycheck and you sell them aproduct or service that saves
their business.
Going through the franchisingprocess my wife and I have been
going through, I have a newfound respect for anybody that

(09:55):
starts a business where you haveto get a loan, you have to rent
space, you have to buildsomething.
The amount of meetings that I'mgoing to be having, or I've
already had, the amount of timethat I have spent, it's
astronomical and it's about 10times more than I thought when I

(10:19):
first started that I wasgetting myself into and look,
don't, don't, don't shed a tearfor me on that.
I'm excited and I'm very happyof what I'm doing.
But the point being is keepdoing what you're doing, because
you might be selling somethingthat's going to change my life.

(10:40):
It's going to change myfamily's life.
You don't understand the rippleeffect and the power that you
have as an outside salesprofessional.
You have the ability to changepeople's lives forever and
that's not hyperbole.
You don't know what people aregoing through and people are not

(11:04):
going to tell you To theoutside world.
People probably thought thateverything was roses and
butterflies, but I've beendealing with my father, been
going through the franchising.
I've got my students.
I've got my clients that I'mconsulting with.
Meanwhile, I've got two girls,two toddlers.

(11:28):
I'm spinning plates everywhere,just making sure that none of
the plates fall down so youdon't know what people are going
through and your product orservice could change their life.
So I'm going to do whatever Ican to facilitate you being able

(11:49):
to do that to the best of yourability, and I do not believe
that companies are doing thatright now.
Companies are not teaching youabout business acumen.
They are not talking aboutbusiness acumen.
I call it the business of sales.
I'm going to keep talking aboutthe business of sales till I'm

(12:10):
blue in the face and everysingle person in the world has
heard about business of sales.
At that point I will stop, butuntil that time I'm going to
keep going.
I feel as if that I owe that tomyself.
I owe that to an industry thathas given me so much.

(12:31):
I owe it to my dad, whosacrificed for me.
So keep going.
I know you're tired, I knowit's hot, I know you're sick of

(12:55):
getting in and out of the car,but that is the life that you
chose.
That's the life we all chosebecause it's a way to change our
lives.
I've mentioned this before andI'll say it again you can go
from zero to wealth with sales.
You can't do that in accounting.
I've told you before my wifehas a very important job.

(13:19):
She's in corporate finance.
She pretty much knows whatshe's going to make the next
five years.
I can sell a million dollarsworth of courses.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
My franchise could make a million dollars in profit
.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
I could get 15 companies on board.
I could go speak on stages.
The possibilities in sales,when you're selling a product or
service or you're sellingyourself, are endless.
That is why we do what we do.
The possibilities are endless,but in order to see the

(14:02):
possibilities being endless, wehave to take the opportunities
that are before us.
You have an opportunity today.
You don't know if you have anopportunity tomorrow or the next
day or the day after that, whyyour company could sell.
Things could be happening behindthe scenes that you don't know,
so you might as well prepare.

(14:26):
It's one of the reasons whytomorrow, thursday it's July
20th at noon I'll be talkingabout this on LinkedIn.
I'll be talking about expandingyour income, looking around the
world and finding things thatalign with your mission, your

(14:48):
goal, what you do, what you'regood at and ways for you to
leverage that for more income.
And I was just thinking toyourself well, it's pretty good,
I'm just gonna keep doing whatI'm doing.
I said that many times in mycareer.
And then I got the dreadedemail.
We have a conference call today, and it happened far too often.

(15:13):
I got too many of the phonecalls.
I mean I think I shared one ofthe phone calls I got was Mike,
we ran out of money, we can'tpay you anymore.
I said I don't understand.
I don't understand how youdon't have money, but you don't
know what's going on behind thescenes.
What you can control is what isout in front of you today and

(15:37):
what you prepare and plan forthe future.
Go out there and crush it today.
Or, if you're listening to thisat night, go out and crush it
tomorrow.
If you're listening to this ona weekend, go out and crush it
on Monday.
You have that opportunity.

(15:59):
Success is out there.
You just have to go after itwith every fiber of your being.
And if you need help to getthere, reach out to me.
I'd love to see more faces.
I'd love to see people at thewebinar tomorrow.

(16:23):
If not, that's okay.
I'm gonna be doing webinarsevery Thursday at noon on
LinkedIn.
I'm just gonna go liveDifferent topics, because I
believe that is my opportunityright now is to give back to the
sales world, to share thewisdom that I have been taught.

(16:44):
I have learned the hard way.
The school of hard knocks hasprobably been the best teacher
for me.
The ability for me to perseverethrough the difficulties has
made me stronger.
Thank you for a much differentsurviving outside sales episode

(17:08):
than in the past.
I really do appreciate it, asalways.
Please download the episode,share it with somebody you think
is also struggling or maybethey need to hear something
today and reach out to me onLinkedIn and I'll try to get

(17:31):
back as fast as possible.
I do feel bad.
There were a couple individualsthat I didn't get back to in a
timely manner.
I'm not gonna be able to dothat.
I'm gonna be able to do that.
I didn't get back to in atimely fashion and I'm trying to
be a lot faster.
I just there's just a lot.
There's a lot spinning in theO'Kelly world.
But thank you so much.

(17:54):
I really do appreciate it.
I hope everybody has afantastic day and you get after
it out there in the field andwe'll see you tomorrow surviving
outside sales.
Bye-bye.
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