It's time for confessions of a serial salesman, author, expert sales trainer and serial entrepreneur Steve Noodleburg wants to help you change your life and your business using his 27 rules for influencers and leaders. This is the Confections of a Serial Salesman Podcast. With Steve Noodleburg, here's Josh Cohen. And welcome to yet another edition of the Confessions of a Serial Salesman, the podcast based on the book of the same name, the 27 rules for influencers and leaders.
We got hardcover, we got paperback, we got an audio book in your Dulce Tones. Yes, sir. And we made it already to number 57 last week. I was like, Hines 57, Sauce.
And then your guest goes, wait a minute, Dwight Stevenson, Hall of Famer, South Florida's sports legend and entrepreneur. So he's perfect for this. So shout out. Yes, Byron has done business with Dwight.
And I actually did business with Dwight back in my sports marketing. So let's introduce the audience to your guest who's a friend of yours, I guess for 25 years. He may say otherwise, you know, he may be like, well, I didn't like it for the first 13, but we're in front for South Florida last 12. Never known.
He never known. He never known. He never known. Great.
Now, probably I don't trust anyone with two first names. I've got three. Very much. I really don't trust you.
Great initials, though. DCD. You can't beat him. So you've about 29 minutes to earn my trust actually.
If you've jump with that. It's CBD. It's a different conversation altogether. Steve, why don't you tell us about how you met our guest, why you have been friends 25 years and why he is deserving to be one of your guests on your podcast?
So here's the best part. We met 20 plus years ago. We actually met at a cigar event with Jim And it's, God rest of all we were introduced, God rest and soul. My only windows open.
So we met, we sort of, you know, enjoyed our conversation and little did we know that shortly thereafter we would be in Tampa at the Super Bowl together. Right. Right. And the story really goes is you had a meeting in Tampa with a good buddy of mine.
Correct. And you told him you'd met me and he was like, you know, stop telling whatever. How could that be? Right.
What are the chances of that? And all of us are tremendous friends to this day. Byron and I have actually gone into business together. Really?
We actually created a product which I is no longer in business, but we are true entrepreneurs. We've had some of the best times in my life with this guy to such a degree that before we got here, we, we filtered the conversation and said there's certain things we cannot talk about. So, yes. So, Byron, you're aware of the, uh, the no flight list.
Absolutely. Topics, conversations, probably people, places and certainly things. You can talk about some stuff. I mean, there was a time when we would travel and I was Vin Diesel and he was Wesley Smith.
In LA, that's right. We did that. You've been in like a hotel lounge. People thought that's what we were.
No, no. I wanted autographs. I wanted autographs. I wanted to go with it.
I said, yes, my friend was, how many years ago are we talking? Because I'm looking closely at both of you. Yeah. And I don't see a strong resemblance really to either of them.
They didn't have to be. They've been drinking it. Yes. Yes.
If you want to, but it works. Listen, and so, you know, the reason why I wanted him on here and I'm, I'm shamed that it's taken so long, but you should be. I'm, I'm sure because I propose like episode four, I go, what about Byron Davis? And you said, uh, who's Byron Davis?
I'm only going to let you say a couple of bad things about him again. And that's it. That's it. That's it.
We got about 26 more minutes. So here we go. So I truly believe that he, we are brothers from another mother. I totally believe that I know people say that.
We have all of these life history things that happened when the hurricane hit and spend time in your house with a friend, God rest his soul, Junior Seo buddy, which was unbelievable. I mean, really, I mean, just the level of we that New Year's Eve, we spent betting on the golf course. Yes. Yes.
Again, that's one of those stories. Sounds like you're getting into the things that you told him you couldn't talk about. No, no, no, no. But those are clearly out of bounds.
Yes. But why he's on the show, yes, aside from being just, you know, one of my favorite people on the planet is he lives the entrepreneurial dream. We talked about, we just updated each other on all the projects we have going on and you had a line that I hope you remember that I said, that's what we're going to start. Right.
Right. What's the line? I'm going to slip my wrist or I'm going straight to the bank with a big check from this contract that I'm waiting to hear about right now. So he's waiting on an other one.
He's waiting on one right now. Yeah. And it's either going to be the end of young or you're going to be really the start. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Yeah. Sounds like a major risk, somewhat major reward. Well, that's what entrepreneurship is all about.
I mean, Steve will tell you, I mean, I spent the first, you know, 20 odd years of my career in the corporate sector had some great success. But in terms of what we're doing from an entrepreneurial standpoint, the satisfaction that you get is unbelievable. And I'm the product of two entrepreneurs. It took me a while to take that lead and jump in.
And I've got both feet in and looking to make it happen. 2019 is already shaping to be a great year from a business standpoint. The life lessons that I've learned, I tell people all the time, I'm an entrepreneur and I've got the scars to show you. Right.
Yeah. I mean, unbelievable. You know, the how we came to get into business together. You were representing some big logos.
He had worked for Coke, worked for Coors, which were big, big jobs. And doing what? And doing what with those brands. Yeah.
So my background is really on the consumer products side from what's called traditional brand management and retail sales. So at Coors, I, my last row with them, I managed the entire convenience of business, which is a $500 million business. I had probably a 45 man team around the country managing what's called key account sales. So your responsibility is to not only maintain the business, but it's to grow the business the right way.
And then we say convenience. We talk about like the type of retail outlet. Yeah. So in the retail business, your, you know, your station sales station, your sales business is based on channels.
So your team can say manage grocery retail. Your team can manage big box clubs, convenience stores, more in premise. So my last row with a mic team managed convenience, which was at the time the biggest piece of the business. All right.
So factoring the impulse purchase portion of your sales. When people start paying at the pump, how do you counter that when they don't go inside the store like they used to go inside? That is a huge challenge for convenience stores. And if you look at all of the digital things that they're doing now in the pump, they try to get you to come in with the rewards cards, things of that nature.
There is a lot of data out there that says what percentage of the gas pump, if you will, purchases don't go inside. And if you can convince one more person to go inside, it would grow your sales by double digits. So the whole idea is again, to try to get them to come inside. So you'll see what's called pump poppers, which will be advertising on top of the gas pumps themselves.
There's the digital advertisement itself. So there are a lot of different tools that convenience stores trying to utilize with their retail. We should say they're consumer products partners to try to get you to come in and buy products. I'm sure y'all say, I told you that in 2013, chewing gum sales in America were down 5% from the year before.
It was a big deal. It's a billion dollar industry. And they bought wire gum sales now. What was the smartphone?
Because the majority of the gum sales were impulse purchase when they went to check out line, instead of looking around now for mince and gum, they looked at their smartphone to check Facebook, Instagram, send emails. And that's why they stopped buying gum because they were doing something else with the eyeballs. Anyway, back on top. Well, the takeaway there, what's really cool is that somebody had to go in and sell those programs in and the thing that Byron did better than anybody I met and does it today is knows how to build relationships, maintain relationships.
And that's where all of that stuff comes in. Once you use that topper, that's it. There's not 10 toppers. Right.
Everybody wants that real estate. It goes to somebody based on relationship and then product. So much of the book and what we talk about is about relationships. So if you're the master Byron of relationship building, one of the biggest mistakes people make when they're trying to create or build a relationship is really based on trust and you understanding when you've got the opportunity to meet someone, you've got to make sure that the opportunity is valued.
In other words, if I'm going to meet someone for a particular sale, if I'm only coming to talk about what my product can do and not really relay how the use of my product is going to help that particular person reach their goals, if you only talk it into me instead of the we, it may sound very elementary. But at the end of the day, you will be more successful if you can try to figure out how do you help your customer reach their goals. And what I used to tell myself guys, of course, and if you don't know what your buyer's goals are, or how you're going to get them to meet their goals. Right.
So ask them. When we talk about this last two episodes, identify what their problem is, what their need is and come prepared to provide those solutions. All relationships have to be symbiotic. Well, if you're going into sell something, you want their money and they're not getting it from it, their relationship is dead in the water.
So here, even before that, when Byron and I met, there was no logical way that we would do business together. That was not a parent. We had a mutual friend, we liked each other, we spoke cigars, we knew how to have a good time. At one point in our careers, we said, Hey, we both know a lot of people.
What can we do together to sort of take those relationships to the next level? And we did. And that only happens because people like know you, like you and trust you, not about course, not about coke, not about any of the other things that I had done in my career. He just knew people valued his relationship the same way he valued it.
It was that mutual respect. And it happened. Incidentally, we went to meet somebody. I said, Hey, I got an opportunity to go meet somebody who actually manufactures shampoos and potions and lotions and cosmetic related.
Yeah. It was here in the realm we go. I said, come with me. Let's see what happens.
We go. We sit there and we look at the opportunity and the opportunity was probably good for our friends at Publix, which I'm sure Gary Carell will be listening to them. Why is that? Why is it good for them?
We thought we could entertain them doing their own private label. Gotcha. We looked to do something on their own with their name on it. And so long story short, we have this fantastic meeting.
We're leaving. And before we leave, the owner of the company says, I want to show you something. I got something else going on. And he brings out the chemist and the chemist shows us something.
And I like, I look at the product and I go, I think this is like that product, LaTis. You know, LaTis at that time was doing about $140 million. And one of the byproducts of it was that it would change the color of your eyes. Like, wow, women are buying this product to grow their eyelashes and they're willing to risk all of the downsides.
I go, when you say, when you say, when you say, when you say, when you say, you mean side effect? Yeah. Okay. I just want to make sure.
Right. Yeah. So the, they were really nervous changing the color of their eyes. I believe it was on my mind because there were squixing products that actually had these, you know, so the takeaway was the product we were looking at that they had developed was all natural.
I look at him and I go, here it is, buddy. This is our business. I'm turning it goes. What are you talking about?
I go, between everybody that we know, the only barrier to entry was I think a 50,000 dollars. Yeah. So you know what? Boom, both of us put together a business plan, bellied up.
And I don't know if you want to finish the story, but it was. Well, again, it was a great idea, Rick concept. We created, we took a product that didn't have a name, didn't have packaging, didn't have a home and created all of the different channels for it. We thought that the packaging was a very beautiful packaging.
We obviously learned a lot. We obviously lost a lot. But, you know, in terms of that whole entrepreneurial path of learning and developing and trying to figure out the next step. So we went into it thinking that the growth opportunity and the, really the profit was going to come from online sales.
I'm so glad you remembered. You know, I've discussed that. Yeah. But it really, we thought, Hey, well, all of the people that we know in the SEO space, and I tell people this all the time from an entrepreneur standpoint, there will be vendors and other people and agencies that come up to you, they're going to promise you the world and they're going to deliver.
Of course. You know, but we looked at all of the different channels that we can sell this product and, you know, the interesting thing, because of relationships, our biggest channel became duty free. This topic was the number one selling product from a profit standpoint per inch on American Airlines and Ashley Delta Airlines and a lot of other cruise ships. And that became and the way that we got that relationship was because of someone that I knew in that space that when we started the business, inventory all packed up, ready to do these online sales and the first day that we started the first day, we had all the credit card, all the merchant processing done, we get a letter from the bank that says we are shutting down all of these recurring programs, you know, like right now, if you order something they are actually very stay automatically.
You know, we were like, I got with the exact term that they use, but they go, we're shutting it down. I looked at him and I go, we have $50,000. Are they in the basis was that every month we're going to get new. We were basically counting the checks because the first day sales were off the chart.
Fantastic. The end of the day, we got to think up the bank won't get credit cards. Your homework, this was an unforeseen sudden change in the marketplace. So that's the best story for us, because as entrepreneurs, we dreamed big, we took a big shot at the plate and something happened that was completely out of our control that what a two sales guys do, let's start hoping, but then we got a start calling and we were able to get distribution through some of the retail friends we had, and then the scootie free thing.
So what the original, so this is what I wanted to get out, find a way. The original business plan that we had was total shit, light it up, done, it could not happen anymore, couldn't collect money to do it. So we went another route and man, did we learn so much about who we were, what we could do. I mean, all of a sudden it was like a big business.
We had a bunch of people working for them. I actually met Michelle through this. He went to Dallas to hire reps and Michelle was one of the early reps. What's the name of the product?
Celia. Celia. Celia. And it's an eyelash natural.
This particular one. Eyelash. I don't recommend that they use this. Not that they use it because of shelf life on that expired years ago.
This one will shut your eyes forever. Okay. In that case, let's not search out. I try and bring to people on the show.
What we talk about is that it never goes the way you think it is. And there's that, you know, success was this straight line to the moon. For no one. Correct.
We had no idea. We wound up doing a much more business in this product than ever thought we did. But at the end of the day, realized we weren't making any money. Actually, a very good friend of ours, that S.D.
Lorder said, two good looking guys like you should not be in the cosmetics. Now why is that? She said you should have a female perspective. You're going to create female products.
And she said, you can't have one product. Now you've come with something that was good. Everybody loved it. And they said you've got to come out with another product.
That's where we said, I don't think so. Didn't have a stomach forward at that point. So you guys got a master's degree in entrepreneurial ship, I guess, when the market changes. You don't look at losing that money as much as paying for an expensive education you're preparing for.
And challenging and changing. It was equally so the challenge was so much fun to go through together. We will always have that. You know, the scars that he talks about.
So there are very few people in the world that if I needed to call them about a sales challenge, I would. This is that guy. This is that guy that knows how to be in the field, knows how to manage sales teams, sales opportunities. And he's an engineer.
Okay. In addition to the good looks. That's what you were saying. In addition to being too good looking for women's cosmetics is also very smart.
I think the good looks in there. I think that I can get away with it. All right. So Byron, you know, Steve says managing seals teams and effectively and such.
So there's a lot of folks listening to this podcast, and that's exactly what they do. And they're trying to figure out why it is or how it is and not quite yet where they want to need to be. So you would tell folks that you know, try to follow him on from today's, I guess episode. Absolute dues absolute don'ts.
I know there's very few episodes in life. But some people don't realize they continue to make this mistake and they really need to stop. Which would that be? in terms of the don'ts is never promise something that you can't deliver.
People don't forget. If your word doesn't mean anything, you can forget it. And no matter what, I can remember that being part of what my dad taught me as a kid. But also as I got into the workforce force itself, one of my old sales managers always told me that never promised something that you can't deliver.
And I still say that to this day. And then the second thing is what I really mentioned earlier, make sure that you understand not just what your business is about, but also what your, if you will, your economic buyers, goals and expectations are. If I'm selling to someone something or some product or service, I need to make sure that this product or service has been communicated in such a way that they can clearly see the relationship between what I'm sharing with them and them attaining and reaching and exceeding their goals. Them to easily understand why it would be good for them to do business with you.
Exactly. In advance. In advance. In advance.
Do your homework in advance. That theme seems to continue. Well, you know, you also, you just never know where things lead. He's going to a health care company now, which nothing in your background pointed to that.
No, it's an opportunity. Well, it's all about the relationships. You know, I had a friend that was working for Quest Diagnostic about 10 years ago. Ended up meeting his fully, yeah, fully meeting his bosses, bosses, bosses, which was one of the guys that took Quest Diagnostic public from Corinne and he'd retired with that, you know, the good life and he and I stayed in contact over the years and I would always share with him some of my entrepreneurial thoughts.
And so about five or six years ago, he was like, look, you got this great idea. I love it. I want to be part of it. And so with the three of us, we created this business that provides a really unneeded service, what we call an auxiliary services for Medicaid and Medicare insurance companies.
So the average Medicaid insurance company, we're talking about billion dollar organizations. They literally cannot get in contact with 30 to 60% of their members because of that membership population, you know, low to no income. Sometimes their phone numbers change. Sometimes their phone numbers only good certain parts of the day or certain times of the month, I should say.
So if they can't obtain their quality rating scores, if they can't locate the members, so they hire us to locate, educate and reengage those members back into their wellness plan. So you saw, I guess, a need in the marketplace and said, okay, here's our next adventure. Exactly. Which is the absolute entrepreneurial.
That's what it's all about. That's exactly what it is seeing an opportunity, seeing the need, creating and then and then having the risk tolerance to say, I'm jumping out of the plane and I'm doing it. You know, I don't know where it's going to take me, but I'm going to go there that that is not most people's makeup. Most people's makeup is I need a clearly defined path.
I want to know. And then they look back and say, wow, I wish I could have or should have or, you know, and so, you know, as I coach individuals, it's not, it doesn't make you bad. There's plenty of presidents of companies who do not have an entrepreneurial spirit that are great presidents. You know, there, there's a roadmap for everybody, but once you cross the bridge to be an entrepreneur, you can do it over and over.
And for me, the upfront stuff is the most fun. The building, the vision, the all of the energy, once you get it, you know, the car on the racetrack, then it's already driving. It's for me, it's never been as fun as the early stage. Like, where is this thing going to go?
I remember your first entrepreneurial activity. Last last episode, Kat was in high school. He started a Monopoly game for his hometown and he sold the local businesses to be on the game board, which sold a lot better than the game itself. That's a good question.
Right. You remember your first foray? You said you're a product earlier. So you're probably of two entrepreneurs.
Right. Imagine that you tell my family, wise, okay, what was your first foray? Where it wasn't, Hey, can't go do a lemonade stand. We said, Oh, I'm going to go do this.
Well, as you mentioned, I'm the product of two entrepreneurs. My dad owned a drag cleaners for about 45 years. And I ended up taking over that drag cleaners when my dad was in his probably mid to late 80s. I was still working for Coors at the time and going back to what Steve said earlier about sticking both feet in, you can't do both.
I still was managing a team. I was living in Denver, but my dry cleaners was in Jacksonville and other people managing it. Yeah. So I'm taking money from one entity and putting it into the dry cleaners and quickly that money was being evaporated.
That's the way I'm cleaning. It has a way of going away. Just like that. Yeah.
So that was your first one. Yeah. I bought that. I bought it from my dad and subsequently in about a year.
So unfortunately, I had to close that business down because of the sheer losses that I was experiencing. But you had major takeaways from that that don't necessarily equate to the dollars, but that education is invaluable. There's nobody ideal with that successful that can't point exactly to the failures and what they took away from them. You know, I wish looking back on, I wish I'd taken those same dollars and just put them into making my dad a consultant and flying him around to provide expertise of the dry cleaners around.
My dad was in a drag cleaning business before World War II. Think about that. He was already was considered a master presser before World War II. So, you know, the the tell people all the time when I would go to school as a kid, I had creases like, you know, you could cut you could make some creases that my dad would be my dad.
Sharp. Yes. Yeah. So, you know, that was some learning a lot of learning from that, though.
So I was afraid looking sharp comes from absolutely. Is it really? I believe it is. I believe looking sharp has to do with the creases that that is firing more to school.
That's the best takeaway yet. Kidding fourth grade with the sharpest edges on his pants. He's handsome and the man can death. You learn something every week.
Looking sharp comes from you. Break the ice. We would have a teacher that one like that. You teach it out one.
You want to guess that one? You know that one? I don't break the ice into the origin term breaking the ice. Tell me.
Because it sounds kind of social, right? So you think like cocktails and such? That's the way tugboats getting into the harbor to break up the ice so things can get flowing. Things can get flowing.
The shift could get in. The shift could get out. So how about, do you know what the origin of on the ball is? Being on the ball, that's an amazing company.
True, but there is an origin for the term on the ball. Oh, why don't you share with us? So in when you fly in aeronautics, is that what it is? Aeronautics?
Yeah. When aviation aviation, you fly. There's a ball that you steer on. And if the ball stays in the middle, that's where you're on the ball.
You're actually flying the plane from being on the ball. Mm-hmm. It's something like a gimbal. The amount of second.
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So one more on that.
Balls, give me all. Balls, give me all. As fellas, we think it means something of just stick to their fortitude. It doesn't.
It's from the water of aviation. It's from the old pushing that yoke all the way forward for aviation. That's fly as fast hard as we can. So the one guy you got, those balls on the end of that yoke.
Right? But balls to the air, I told you we promised education, education. But I'm like, why am I here? Why am I here?
It's a great conversation, guys. Please go, keep going. But actually, the reason why is here is the smoke is a cigar. Is that right?
Is that right? For the entrepreneurs out there. Because they're young people I know. I mean, they're Facebook friends of mine.
These are young women in their late 20s or 30s that listen to his podcast. For those that say, well, I consider myself an entrepreneur as far as advice. I'm constantly being asked for advice from the young kids in our internship program at ESPN West Palm. And I tell them, don't be looking for jobs.
Think to create your own opportunities in life. That's the one thing I always try. Think for yourself how you can A come to someone with an idea that is sustainable, makes their life easier, makes them look good, makes them money. And if all those things are met, odds are good, you may partner up on it.
What do you tell the folks when they go, wow, you're a successful entrepreneur. What advice would you care? Well, I think part of it is really adjusting your lifestyle. I think you need to look at it as an entrepreneur.
There will be struggles. I mean, it's not, you know, you open a business and it's immediate success. You've got to manage your day. You've got to manage your money.
You hear people all the time says you need six months worth of, you know, liquid cash to be able to take care of your bills as an entrepreneur. I think you need about two to three years. Because when you're building a brand, everything goes right back. Okay.
So that money goes back into the business. So you know, you really look at it. It might be five years before you're generating dollars to cover to get to the profit point. You want to first of all cover costs and then there's profit because generally if you're hiring people, they eat before the owner does.
Right. And Steve talked about earlier, you know, building a business plan. The business plan isn't really that you've got to follow it from A to Z, but it should help you look at and find some of the potential hurdles that you're going to experience throughout the process. So when you hear or read that the new American Alliance football prior to their second weekend of games, even with their CBS television contract, when they were not being able to make payroll, you thought what?
Well, I was actually very surprised because they've got some very good names behind them. And in fact, they've got a national TV contract. Yes. But then they'll be saying that depending on attendance, they can't.
And I think that's what I said. And I'm sure in that scenario, there's some hidden dollars that we don't know about, but for them to be saying that after two or three weeks. And let's be honest, I mean, it's a second week, it's a product that fills a niche. Right.
People want the product. It's not looking proud. It's a niche. It's a niche.
Yeah. So I found it very super and disappointing. I found a very disappointing. Because, you know, again, outside of the NFL season, some of us go through withdrawal.
Right. And you had a solution that could have taken us to at least. They weren't playing on the national network. They had a CBS contract with real names and real investors in Charlie Edwards, all right.
And it's the second pill, and it's the second pill, polling, and the second weekend of payroll, and then to cash and fusion, and I go, okay, they're in trouble. Speaking of in trouble, we're running late now. See now we're in trouble. We're having fun.
That's all about. Byron Dennis, partner at best foot Ford, sales and corporate friend of Steve's. And if you were in a Los Angeles area hotel lounge, possibly Wesley Snipes once or twice. I'm bigger than he is though.
Yes, you are. Yes, you are. And apparently you pay your taxes. Ooh, we're going to get into that.
Apparently. Listen, I don't. So who's coming? We don't ask.
Thank you very much. I appreciate meeting you. Appreciate you. I appreciate the time.
Steve, we don't ask people. How you doing? Well, I'm going to talk about number 57 for Dwight Stevenson and the people at Hine Sauce. Tell us something good, my brother.
Here's something good. At the end of the game, you can judge a person by the quality of their friends, and I am a very, very rich dude to be friendly with this guy. Yes, you are. I am.
I love him. No, he's got a coincidence. I'm going to say, can you say the same thing back, Byron? And I can say, now he's not really.
I'm sure it's mutual. It's mutual. I imagine. Absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah. The company you keep, right? Yeah, well, that theme.
I think you can do good things with good people around you. It always comes down. You don't need more friends. This is a guy you can count on, always over and over, and I'm just grateful for that.
And that's something good. We're grateful for you, Steve, and for the book, and for the podcast, and for the eyelashes, and I'm going to give away to a female friend of mine tonight. And, oh, no, don't. I see if I have some cards.
Galaxy Glue, do you remember the only crackle-shrinking woman, Lily Tomlin? The Glue, the husband brought home, and it wasn't approved yet, and she shrunk down. Nice. Yeah, but that would happen.
What a 1981 movie reference. All right, listen. Let's do it again. Let's go for five-eight.
Christine Nodberg, Josh Coincin, thank you for listening. We will catch you next time on the Confessions of a Cereal Salesman, the podcast. So long, everybody.