9: Special Guest Morgan J Ingram

cool all right everybody hey this is john barrels with making happen mondays i am here with the one and only morgan ingram say hi everybody say hi morgan hey what's going on everybody hey man thanks for joining me today and uh i appreciate you you spending the time here because as we were kind of talking before this and sorry for the technical difficulties everybody um trying to use this uh blue jeans thing and it's working out real good now um but with that um i appreciate you coming on because like we were talking about earlier the premise for this conversation is this i'm 41 years old right um i've been in the game for a while 20 years selling that type of stuff and and i've i felt like i've done a pretty good job building my brand right i'm getting to the point where it's getting to a comfortable level where it's getting out there right you're what 24 now before 24 right so you popped on the scene real fast and in my opinion built your brand to the level that almost mine is at at this point and so what i want to dig into today is first of all what got like i've i've watched the interviews i've watched all your videos so i'm not talking about okay talk me through your college and that type of stuff i do have some clarifying questions there one of the things i wanted to hit on was was early days though early morgan and kind of where that drive came from and then as we go through kind of your career here questions but then also kind of what does it mean moving forward here and why is brand building specifically personal brand building so important or is it and it comes again that's kind of my thought process right i talk about kids about training and prospecting and all this other stuff and i talk to them about how important brand building is but the question i ultimately want to get to is is it really for the average sales rep all right so but before we get into that um and by the way if people have questions um you know hit me up uh put them on the facebook chat uh here i'll try to get to them i got a ton of questions from morgan to myself here so with that morgan talk me through like before college right like yeah one of the videos you i watched i forget which one it was but it said you've always had a chip on your shoulder right and and whether that was born into you or whether you got it like people always doubted you like what was some of the things that you can point to early in your career that you can say yeah that's the reason i got my chip on my shoulder or was it just or were you just born that way uh i don't i don't think anyone is born with the chip on their shoulder i don't i don't think that's actually i don't think that's a possibility uh because it's all perception on how you feel like your environment is so for me um i like yeah we talked about this before john but like i grew up in a normal family right so like there's nothing actually nothing crazy right two younger brothers mom and dad have been together ever since i've been born so nothing's been crazy but the events surrounding my life is what has caused me to have a chip on my shoulder so i'll go into that so um my younger brother he goes to harvard so obviously that's that's part of that as well so a lot of people don't really think that i'm as smart as i am and so i got a lot connotations where it'd be like you know if you're the older brother no one's like oh hey like you're you know hey you're the older brother but it almost seems as if i was just another brother you know everyone would be always be like oh wait yeah you're miles's brother and you're not like this is morgan they never knew who i was they always knew who my brother was so that was that that kind of fed into it um i also growing up i never was really i never was really the best at anything i was always just like average and i never i never really knew what that meant until i started reading levelment which i'll go into that in a minute but i was always pretty much average at everything um at basketball i was never the best um at video games i never was the best i never was the best at um school i never was the best at anything so i was always average and i was over i was always overlooked because there was always someone that at least had a perception or in the top tier that they were better so in classes i would be in the smart classes but i would never be like one of the top tier students i was just kind of there and in basketball you know i i i played really well but i never was like one of the best right so because i had that connotation because teachers you know always gave me that connotation of like i never was the best i it kind of like over time it kind of fueled me and so i've always had the chip on my shoulder because i knew that i could always be better than what i was being told but i didn't know how to actually go out there and show people that i was so um one of the things that i ended up finally doing was that my mom actually gave me a book uh it's called how to get your dream job by pete liban and so i read this book and i literally was just like you know i don't have much to lose here um no one really expects a lot out of me so i'm just going to literally take everything this book says and i'm just going to do it this guy's obviously success i'm just going to i'm just going to emulate it and so i did it i took every single tactic from that book i utilized it and all of them worked so then i was like okay then i found like my hack and i was like wait if i can just read books no one else is doing this everyone else has been is naturally talented they're naturally good at these things if i could take books and just started and just start doubling down on them and start executing on them i will surpass everybody so what i did is that the back of the book um on most books they give you other books to read so i was just fortunate and blessed there was about 200 books in the back and so what i did is i took that book i took it with me and i went to the bookstore and i started getting like buying like five books at a time and i legitimately was you know i always this is my joke you know instead of chugging beers i was chugging information from books so like that's all i was doing i literally was just reading reading reading and i became um more so what i like to call a human processor so one of the biggest gifts that i have is that i can process information at a very fast rate and so what i would do is i would just legitimately just take books and i would just start learning so the stuff that i know about branding the stuff i know about marketing the stuff i know about leadership the stuff i know about sales i all read it from a book this isn't something i naturally was just born with uh which a lot of people think but no there's there's been five to six years in the making of personal development to even get to where i'm even at um to the fact that i can have conversations with certain individuals because i've been reading so much and i've put my mind there where they're at see because that's what struck me about you right because because i look at it and i i think there's two things that you're doing that that have that have um that i've grasped onto one is you really got into motivational speaking right which is your passion right you talk about liberation and those type of things and really helping people and i think i think um you know the tag of industry expert or or thought leader is a little bit overused these days and um but i think motivation right if you have that internal motivation and you can kind of put some context around it i think it's it you can get out there and start getting people to to buy into this right sales a little bit different right sales is you need to have some experience like you need to have some hey i've done this like i made that cold call i sent that email i dealt with this objection and what strikes me about you and to to reinforce your comment there about the books thing it's like i wouldn't consider you an industry expert in sales and and just let me phrase this the right way in the sense that you have all this wealth of experience to to pull from and share those insights right but where i consider you you somebody who's who's really interesting and somebody to pay attention to is because you're living it and you're telling your story as you're doing it so like you're reading something applying it seeing it work and then telling people about it so you're that translator for that book that all that all those other people because what's your goal this year 300 books a year i read yeah last year i read i i got close like 260 all right damn see i'm not a book reader i'm more of an experienced guy like i'm a guy who like i got to go experience stuff to in order like i'm an opportunity my my thing i've been blessed with is just an opportunistic lens so when i can see something i can usually size it up pretty quick i don't my brain doesn't work in terms of reading a book and then and then immediately applying that so i got to talk to people like this is how i learn the best right and so you're kind of that growth attack for other kids in my opinion of watching somebody who's in it day to day who might not have that all that experience to pull from but can read a book from somebody who does try it out and then say shit this worked or this didn't right yeah that's legitimately what i can do so have you seen have you ever seen blues clothes yeah yeah okay that's so so i am my ability is i can jump inside of a book visually there and pick up the experiences i need and jump out that's okay what i can do so um that's something that i've learned over time you know my i was super fortunate because my mom always took us to the library so i just went up around books so it wasn't unfamiliar to me to go pick up a book um and so that that is my extreme competitive advantage because i know that i can outread majority of people that i run into um statistics say that 53 percent of people um after college never pick up a book ever again 47 47 percent of people never step into a bookstore damn so it's just like this is the stats i'm not that bad yeah 60 um 50 to 60 books a year that a ceo reads so i just quadrupled that or yeah i four times it for one year because i knew if if i could basically read all that information at a time in my life where i could actually process that information now it's this year's all execution and action i i just have a ton a ton of stories and a ton of information inside of me and i can extensively now act on that information so that uh that is something that's helped me because like that the chip on the shoulder is always there um you know i know you i've actually seen um previous interview that you did on real sales talk to talk about the thought leaders um gary v is like my guy and the reason i like him so much it's not because it's gary v um it's because i resonate with him the most yeah um he has a huge chip on my on his shoulder i do as well he's always been overlooked i feel like i'm overlooked all the time which is completely fine i'm not i'm not angry about it um i'm a minority that's also plays into it as well and i'm super young and so it's like i don't have like everything's everything's not going for me right so it's like i gotta have something so i have that edge um and i have that but i think that it should not actually be a complaint because i'm actually excited that i have all these things against me because that means i have to learn more um i have to get after it every single day that means i have to be consistent so it almost puts me in a path of actually striving for more excellence and nothing nothing can be given at this point yeah i mean i think that's you know you look at all sorts of people who are you know that successful and they all find that thing whatever it is that drives them right and whether it's the perception of reality you know i mean you look at tom brady right he's gonna wear that 199 for the rest of his life like i don't care if he's the greatest quarterback of all time sorry i know it's atlanta my bad but but um but um but he's gonna wear that chip on his shoulder until he dies you know what i mean always being underestimated and and i think you know for me i have a very similar story as you as far as i was pretty much average at everything all the way through high school and stuff now i was born as a you know middle class you know white suburban family so i had those benefits to me parents you know sister that whole thing um but like if i look at my town right i grew up in bedford massachusetts and at the time there was two real rich communities next to us there was lexington and concord and then it was bedford and we were pretty much the scrappy little blue collar middle you know nobody ever everybody always shit on us and that kind of played into it and then same thing with not being great physically gifted enough to to be the baller and you know i played ball too but i was never the best ball player but i always hustled everybody because i knew i didn't have the physical talents to to be that person right cool man well i like it um that was now getting so well actually my quick question for you with for somebody that doesn't have your skill set as far as being able to read a book and process it and translate it that fast what like what recommendations for you have let me add like for somebody like me that doesn't read a lot like i read some right i usually read kind of uh cliff notes versions of a lot of stuff and i i'm a big experience but for a 22 year old kid out of school right now what are some concrete recommendations that you can give to a kid that doesn't that brain doesn't work as well as yours but sees what you're doing and says man i wish i could get to that point like any any small tips right now for somebody that's not like you that doesn't have that processing power yeah so a couple things um one you need to be more active in reaching out to people um and asking them questions so one of the things that i learned in the book that i read is uh informational interviews and so what i would do i would literally go on linkedin this is this is at the time where no one actually is using linkedin not much was probably back in like 2011 so it much was being utilized on linkedin it's completely different ui back then but the thing that i would do is i legitimately i felt like okay i'm on linkedin i could pretty much reach out to anyone so at the time i wanted to be a sports agent so what i was doing is i was reaching out to people at fox sports south uh the nba the nfl like sports teams eight sports agents i was just literally just going hard at agencies i was reaching out to these people now how i did that is i would legitimately go on linkedin and i would see if either they went to uga or they were in my area i would just send connect um i didn't actually send a personalized note back then i wasn't i wasn't there yet but i just hit connect and majority people would just connect with me and they were so then what i did is that from that connection they always had an email address so what i would do is i'd find that email address i would literally type in informational interview and he'd be like hey john uh so excited that you connected me on linkedin um i actually just wanted to talk to you for legitimately 10 to 15 minutes about your career at the nba um i'm actually super curious in it um not really asking for a job or anything i just really just want to know more about your role and how you can help me in my career trajectory i probably got a 90 response rate yep and but here's the thing when i met with these people um i always ask them why did you accept this meeting right like it always was because because of not enough people are doing it and because you're doing it that means you're probably gonna do something a lot more special in the long run so my advice to people is a lot not a lot of people take this advice ever i don't know why but if you go find 10 people to talk to a week if you want to go a little bit shorter craig rosenberg said 10 to 15 people a month if you're currently in a job if you do that 10 50 10 times 12 is 120 new people you connect with out of those 120 people it's probably five people that legitimately help you to have a paradigm shift so my thing is that you've got to go on linkedin you've got to figure out the job titles that you want careers that you want people that you emulate and you need to legitimately just hit them up through email i mean that was probably the most beneficial thing that i did because there's just certain things in my career right now that i know what to do and i don't have to ask questions around because i heard it from 200 other people who are already successful and basically i connected the dots and realized okay that's something that's important because 200 successful people said that like obviously i can't neglect that so that's a number that's one thing i think also you need to watch people that you want to be like or you want their lifestyle so for me um i love gary v a ton like that's my guy so i legitimately watch everything he does because it's like that lifestyle is the lifestyle that i want to live yeah maybe not as aggressively but like to that level that's where i want to be um so yeah exactly i mean i guess it's like the falcons we never can win anything so i guess i feel the right but at the end of the day like that's someone i emulate because like that's the lifestyle i want but if you don't like that lifestyle you need to find someone to emulate because they're going to give you the tips of how they got there by osmosis you just have to watch them you have to listen to them um so those are like two big things that like you can do legitimately right after we're done this conversation yeah and actually and before linkedin i had the same like i used to interview anybody who i saw that i felt was successful and again everybody's definition of success is different right so anybody i felt was successful i would do exactly that i'd say hey can i grab lunch 30 minutes 15 minutes whatever it is and i actually used to come prepared with very specific questions based on what i knew about them and their background but all in the interest of just learning how to skip a few steps right because i think there's a there's a fine line between um you know i i was always taught earn it earn it earn it right and so that was a beat of my mentality but there's a fine line between earning it and and then skipping a few steps so that you can still earn it but but you can jump up a little bit like i remember uh i had the opportunity to work for jack welsh like ge jack welsh and i ended up yeah exactly winning he's so i worked for him and suzy for two months and one of the things was the ceo because it was an online mba program and the ceo asked me hey why do you want to work here you got your own thriving business you're doing your own thing why would you want to come down here i'm like well outside the obvious jack you know jack welsh i go look you ever you ever played uh shoots and ladders you know the game shoots and ladders the board game you know how like when you grab a ladder it lets you skip up a few steps so i was like well kind of i've been doing things a hard way my whole career i've been going grinding grinding grinding and this represents that ladder that'll get me up a few steps and and so i can kind of reach that top goal of what mine is a little bit quicker and he was like that's a good analogy i was like yeah because that's and that's what i think you're talking about is like growth hacking if you will like you still have to earn it but i think you can emulate and follow people and listen to their stories and say you know what uh you know there's their mistakes you know let me learn from their mistakes as opposed to you know let me let me do this all by myself so cool man there's legitimately no reason for you i think it's there's no reason for people to be like i'm gonna do it my way and i'm not gonna listen to anyone at all and i'm not gonna look at different like i just think that you just you're gonna be you're gonna be in a tunnel of darkness for for a while and there's stuff that you could have just straight up just skipped if you just listen and execute like and i don't i think it's more so like a an ego of like i did this all myself instead of being like hey legitimately there's someone who did what i'm about to face like i probably should just listen so i can just evade a pitfall like there's no reason like it's like driving it's like it's like this like you know when you're driving in the car and you see like a pothole in the road right you know you avoid it right yeah what most people do in life though is that they're like oh i'm just gonna keep running through potholes like just avoid it like avoid the pothole you're still going in the same direction there's no reason well it's kind of like ways versus regular going the route right it's like i turn on ways even though i live here in boston i know the city of boston like the back of my hand i still try to light up ways because it helps me get around the traffic right so it's the same thing so cool man well let's uh let's keep going here like you know you so your background right so you kind of grew up in that you get a little bit of a chip on your shoulder because because the average piece of it then you hit college you do sports management and finance you know dual right because that's you know most of us get into sales we get something that's kind of like what the fuck i did sports management too yeah well it's it's kind of like you do it you do whatever you think you're supposed to do but i always find it insane at 16 17 18 years old there's what you're supposed to know exactly what you're supposed to do for the rest of your life so again i'm following gary on this one as far as i think college is i think it's a social education not an actual education um so but you know so then and then you went to you had this professor who taught entrepreneurship and kind of got you hooked on that and then you went to this atlantic tech village and then some judge what was this judge told you to go talk to terminus no so it wasn't a judge so so this is what happened so i met the person of entrepreneurship i i just learned what the word entrepreneurship was when i was like 22 years old so legitimately for my whole life i thought that like rich and famous people just popped out of nowhere and you just kind of got like so i was like dang i just didn't get chosen like i guess it is what it is right i never did i did never did enough research for myself um to really figure that out like i had the mindset in the first development rolling but it hadn't clicked while there's like an actual process behind this all um so i i saw i had that class my thought process changed a lot my friend who was really big in entrepreneurship was like dude you need to start something and i was like what am i gonna start like i don't know how to build anything i don't know what to do but i knew i had the energy to do something so i actually what happened is i started a company um i was a gaming company right hosting hosting video game tournaments on college campuses um i ran that it was profitable um but at the end of the day i was running a business with college people so like it just didn't work right and like i didn't have like the crazy thing is like there was no funding there was no mentor there was no advisory board like there was nothing it was just me just legitimately just reading and figuring it out um probably a mistake at the end of the day but like i learned a ton just that's the best way to do and then yes we just did it right i just didn't care but i mean i built a partnership program i got sponsors like i was we were closing deal like it happened right like i legitimately was moving pieces which it was really fun but after it didn't work i was like okay like i don't have any money because i spent it on the company my graduation money's gone what the heck do i do like i can't just start something else like i don't know what to do i've never been here before so i met i went to the because i was actually wanted to be a public speaker i was like this is something i want to do long term i think i could legitimately just make money in a turnaround found out that like you got to build your brand for a while you can't just show up on the scene and request 5k for a speech like who are you right to do that like where's your value so i just didn't understand that yet learning pieces but i went to the because i just i was like i have to learn and because i at this point i legitimately just i have no i have no cares for things i'll just do them yep it's in the national speakers association i met someone f shihan he liked what i was doing with periscope and he told me about terminus and then i was like okay let me consider it because i was still trying to figure out how to do my life and then january i cold called tony the the director of sales at the time now vp sales and i was like this is the reasons why i want to work at terminus this is why i want this job and that that's how i ended up getting it okay so because i was going to be my question now let me back up a little bit when you because i when when i was listening to some of your interviews you said when you did that was a collegiate gaming land that was a company right so you said that people started to ask you to come and talk to them just because they were like man i love what you're doing here so did you purpose like when did you catch the bug for public speaking i guess is my question is like was it because when you were doing this this this company and people started bringing you in you started talking to people or was it a conscious thing where you know what i like talking let me go out and search for it uh so so perspective so when i first saw someone speak i hated it i was like this is a joke this guy's no idea he's talking about i don't ever want to be a speaker like i hope this is something i've never because these guys are jokes right oh it's interesting because i'm never like i took a public speaking class i got an a because i was just naturally good at it and someone was like you could be really good and i was like i legitimately do not care like let me get my A let me move on um so it all changed when i actually did it so i did get asked to go speak to a group of students about starting a company and like doing your process and then you know once i started speaking i realized that like wait i'm really good at this and i'll have to suck you don't have to be one of those shitbags right yeah and like people are really attentive and i'm actually helping these people um because after they were asking me questions and i was like and i was actually diving into them and they were like no one ever like sticks around and i actually answers questions and i was like that's what you're supposed to do like why would i leave like i wouldn't want that you know so once i realized that i was like this is this is it like this is why i'm here i'm legitimately here to give value to be in a public spotlight not because i i've always i mean yeah i guess at some level everyone wants attention but also because i knew i was naturally good at this like this was a god-given talent so i was like okay i can't be selfish with this i need to amplify so like what do i need to do next so once after i did that first speech i was like this is it like i'm legitimately good at this and so um as i continue to do things that i continue to speeches i realized that like yeah this is it like this is what i'm supposed to be doing like i have enough fire to give it to someone else and also like i wanted to do it from a spotlight of good um and not just selfishness because there's there's just a lot of there's just a lot of people out there who are speakers and that that's all like they do their speech and then they dip you know like i don't ever want to be that person like i want to surpass everyone else who's on that level and then also do it better than them on a level that like i actually care about my audience um because that's something that frustrated me seeing other speakers is that they never cared about their audience they just showed up for the money and they left and i was like that's kind of lame so that's kind of how i got that perception yeah it's kind of same in training man like i always know like i always said when i got into training i'm like hell no when i got the opportunity i'm like god no and they're like why not i'm like i hate trainers they're like why i'm like because every trainer sales trainers every trainer i had to come up against up at that point in my life was either a failed sales professional or professional presenter you know and it was the person that just stood up there and regurgitated a slide deck and never got any insights or never practiced what they preached right in the sense that like if you haven't sold anything if you haven't sold anything ever i can't hear you if you haven't sold anything in the past 5 10 15 20 years like i'm gonna have a hard time listening to you as well and so i had the same thing with you it's like i always said as a trainer i was like you know i'm never gonna be that guy who's like hey 20 years ago that's why i always consider myself i'm a sales guy that happened to be all right delivering some content that i feel very passionate about and that makes all the difference in the world and sticking around for those q a and actually doing stuff like that because that's where the real meat is it's not in the slide deck right yeah yeah cool man hey um so you started at terminus right so you co-called your now that what was tony tony yeah yeah so you co-called tony and which first of all recommendation for reps out they're looking for jobs don't just submit your resume do that okay like do your homework just like you would prospect into account prospect into a company that you believe in and um but then like what was when you first came on board with tony right how did you guys align expectations or because because a key to a lot of reps getting in and staying into sales is that first manager that that gives them like the the guidelines and helps them put them in a position to be successful what were some of the things early on that tony did and you did to kind of say hey look i'm i'm here i'm brand new you know what i mean like i think sales is cool like this is whatever but but what were some of the things early on that you all did to make sure that those expectations were aligned and you were on the right path and what did he do yeah so first 90 days um so lucas is the director of sales development and tony was director of sales so i just told him hey look um legitimately when i told people i wanted to go into tech everyone thought i was going insane they were like why would you do that that doesn't make any sense and i was like look this is where i need to go i just i had the instinct i had the hunch um so i took uh every single week i had 30 to 45 minutes uh of cold calling with tony and i said legitimately i want you to be like the hardest prospect i've ever called i want you to be cold i want you to be super difficult um a lot of people don't ask for if you but the thing is like if you can do it when it's super difficult because you're going to do it when it's easy like just make these comments you just need to ask right now and don't wait to like when you get a difficult situation and be like oh i wish i would have trained in difficulty so like that's how i did with tony and then lucas every single call every single email um and every single uh check my voicemails as well for like 90 days straight and i said like if it's like little nitpicky stuff i want you to like just tear into me like i just treat it as like not to be sensitive of like when you're getting you know getting picked apart and i don't like getting picked apart because i like i like being i like knowing what i'm doing is right but at the same time i knew it's important because it's like if i don't get critiqued along the way then like that's kind of like that's not going to be helpful so expectations i set them super high i told them to legitimately like just ride me hard like literally just get on me um so that can be the best you know um you can't make a masterpiece unless you're chiseled so at the end of the day like that's i needed that i needed to get chiseled by the people that obviously have done it i i know a lot of things but i didn't know anything about tech and sales so i can't come with the audacity that like they can't teach me anything because obviously they're those they're obviously in those positions for a reason so i needed to listen that's that's kind of how i came into the role i love it and so again just takeaways from this because i'm always trying to figure you know my audience is like i love takeaways nuggets is and i say the same thing if you want to be your managers if you want to go to the top of the manager's list proactively ask for feedback you know what i mean and i think you're spot on i don't think i think most reps just sit back and say tell me what to do and they go about their days where i tell reps hey at nine o'clock at night co-call your manager leave him a voicemail come in the next day and say hey would you have responded to that like you know hey sit down and listen to me and be be be harsh right be like be it's kind of like playing ball i always say like you don't just jump out onto a court right right and just start playing a game like you gotta warm up a little bit you gotta stretch out you gotta take a few shots and that's what role play that's what practice is is to get you so that the game time you're ready um so i'm a i'm a big fan of just to your you know i think the takeaway for that for me is just you know for all the reps out there is just make sure you go to your managers and say hey i want that feedback can i proactively outside of our weekly management you know team meetings or stuff like that can we grab lunch once a week or something or could you sit in on the call blitz and specifically listen to me or something like that right i love it man uh then ralph my boy ralph you got 10 you got 10 more minutes yeah 10 more minutes okay cool um so then my boy ralph is the one like you so you're in sdr you're like kicking it you're like all right i like this i'm catching the groove i'm listening to all these people i'm putting this stuff together i mean by the way i'm going to recommend everybody go check out sdr chronicles what number you on 65 now 659 just did 59 so it'll be 60 yeah so i didn't have enough chance to watch all of them but but i saw some of the highlights right which is you know you know goal setting and structure and structure your time there's a question that came in on facebook live here about how to how to advice to advice providing them for prioritizing their time we'll get to that if we have some time here but go watch sdr chronicles because it's all up there on morgan stuff um so ralph told you what brought that conversation off with ralph because you were like all right i i like sales i'm i like motivational speaking i want to start doing something we're talking me about that conversation with ralph that kind of puts you on the hey let me start a youtube channel here um yeah i'm super i'm just super advantageous i'm super hungry um i'm not willing to just sit back and and wait for things that's just not who i am so i read a blog post and i literally just saw i read it through because i was before i started my role i was just reading a ton of stuff i was like i'm gonna be very prepared i'm not gonna come in behind it uh so i saw the thing getting out of security um and sdr should create a youtube channel and i was like that's it that's exactly what i do i've already been creating videos i've already done other stuff like this will be this will not be hard for me so i literally found him on twitter i sent him a video i was like hey look i'm morgan ingram uh you have no idea who i am uh but i'm gonna create this youtube channel and watch out that's legitimately how that conversation went with him he responded and he went okay awesome see you soon i saw him at rainmaker i hadn't made any videos yet i was two months in a row he was like where are the videos i was like just wait like i want to learn more before i actually do it i don't want to just come up see and be like hey this is morgan and you have i have no experience or know anything yeah so then it was like three months later i started it so that's kind of how that process went all right so just get going with it but have something to offer there right i like it um so now you've kind of moved into this perception reality world of you know i think a lot of people do and again this is kind of the loose term of thought leadership here right i think it gets overplayed quite a bit and you know the conversation with real sales talk was you know i don't think you're a thought leader if you say if you tell everybody you're a thought leader you're probably not a thought leader like it's kind of like you if you tell everybody you're an entrepreneur you're probably not an entrepreneur so so but you've moved into this world where like it or not you know people i think with whatever their definition is look at you and say hey this is a thought leader at least in the sdr world right so help me understand what what your definition is of of what a thought leader is and why it's important to for for an end this is where i want to get into the conversation why it's important for that 22 23 year old or that 55 year old you know what i mean like or the 41 year old why is it important uh to move in that direction so first definition of what you see it as and second of why is it important yeah so first of all yeah if you check every single one of my content all my videos go check every single one i never mentioned myself as a follower no never mentioned myself as an expert i never i never even i don't think i've been mentioned myself as an influencer no i don't mention them at all so that's first thing don't mention yourself as that you've already lost yeah couldn't agree more yeah yeah it's like wait no like i've never said it but to your point there are tons of people who would say that i am um and there's and they're credible sources it's not like my mom and dad and like my best friends you know like oh you're in it no it's like legitimate people like legit stuff like legit so it's like that's when i knew okay like i'm obviously doing the right thing i'm obviously providing the right value in the marketplace um that's when i knew then i was i guess a thought leader or whatever the heck you want to call it now like what that means is that the stuff that you're doing is is influencing people and they're and they're actually getting your content and they're actually utilizing it and they're actually seeing results cool that's that's what the thought leader means to me is that like i'm providing you real thoughts from my head and i'm and it's leading you to take the right action and you're actually listening to it do you have to be do you have to be a practitioner and and when i say that you you you're you're blessed with the ability to be able to read read a book and then kind of crunch that down and say cool so you could easily get away with standing up here and effectively regurgitating what other people say and be considered a thought leader do you think it's necessary for somebody to go live it before they can really be actually considered at that level okay so i so the earlier part is what i used to do i'll be straight up 100 honest on that like i would take books and i would tell them i would say hey like this is how i feel and i would i have enough energy and personality to make you believe like that's could be actually for me right like it is like that's how that's how i was processing information at the time because like i was excited about the information i was only 21 yeah 21 when i made my first video and i legitimately would just take books and i would say hey this is what i learned in this book this is how it applies in my life hopefully it can apply to you so like i was trying to do it from a place of like me learning the book but also wanted to share it because no one else was reading these books and i was like i just feel like i was the only one so i was like all right if i put it out here maybe people will actually either start reading these books or they can get this information and utilize it in their life now let me ask quick question quick question was that on the motivational stuff it was just yeah motivational stuff it was just across the board okay okay cool um a lot some of the motivational stuff came from experiences of like hey don't do this because i did it and like you should do this but some of it came from books and i was just kind of amplifying that message and saying it in my own way but it right so my thing is that like this type of leadership that i have now or this perception or this this kind of the transition is because i'm a practitioner i've actually done the stuff that i've talked about and i legitimately am currently still doing the stuff that i'm talking about so it holds more validity and it holds more weight and also if you ask me a question about sales development or or leadership at this point i'm able to answer that question and i don't need to go look at my notes and be like oh great question let me go check it column number three like no that's dumb like that makes no sense like the thing is that like i think you could really see if you're a really true thought leader influencer is when you ask me a question on the topic that i'm talking about i can answer it with without a blink of my eye that's what actually brings real true influence that's why on every single podcast i don't ask for the questions if they send me questions i don't read them because if i come on your podcast and i don't know what i'm talking about then i should be exposed i hear you i'm the same way man i don't like scripted don't give me the questions just give me the give me don't give me the questions beforehand let's talk yeah i like it give me some context obviously um but um cool man uh just a couple more you're going back to average sdr right so your average sdr that doesn't have the drive that doesn't have that chip on their shoulder they're sitting there making those calls it doesn't even know if sales is the right job for them you know what i mean like i got a cousin right now who got into sales i don't want to say the company but you know he's like i don't know about this i told him his life was going to suck for the first year or two um specifically based on the company he was working for but but my point is is like if you're listening to this right now i got this whole spiel about death of the average sales rep about how our official intelligence is going to start to take over and how our personal brands are going to really matter moving forward it is it important for the average sdr to to to start kind of moving in that direction at least sharing you know information and and what should they be doing right now to put themselves in a position so that in the future things are a lot easier for them this this is actually a good question and my answer to this is always the same it depends on what you're trying to do if you're just trying to be if you're just a nine to fiver you're just trying to get by you're trying to get an a role eventually then no don't build a personal brand don't waste your time right but if you're really trying to be the best and you're trying to crush it and you're trying to kill quota then you should because at this day and age like if no one knows what you're doing like on a digital level um it's just going to take you longer to build your brand i'm not saying that like you don't have to like i'm not saying that if you don't do this you're done for i'm just saying that like just clearly by the the people's journey and just i could even say for myself like i wouldn't be in the position i was in it if i didn't do the sr chronicles or didn't build a brand like i would still be do i wouldn't even be close to even the direction of where i'm going to go or where i want to be i just wouldn't be close so it all depends on like you as a person like do you like do you have the drive to actually do this like it's not that like i sit at work all day in videos right that's not the case i'm just saying that like between nine to five outside of that i'm doing more like on saturdays i would i'd be sitting in in the office for four to five hours making videos editing those videos preparing for content sending out emails but like the thing is that like is that individual are you ready to take that on because i think i think a lot of people just think it's like it take it's easy like to just show up and make a video or it's easy to set up a schedule of posts like it's not easy so like you just have to realize that like okay like this is what i want to do and you have to have a true why or reason behind it if you just want to have a personal brand so people can listen to you you're not going to win yeah that which actually brings me to kind of one of one of my last questions is about goal setting right because i agree with you i think everything starts with your personal goals not company goals that type of stuff but your personal goals like where you know what kind what kind of lifestyle you want to have what do you envision yourself and then how much money or what do you need to do to get there right and then back that into daily stuff let me ask you how far out do you push your goals like for you you know what is that big hairy goal for you and how far is it out there for you so it's actually it's actually quite interesting so i uh i believe in an over an overarching goal that always pushes you every single day you can't run away from so not like the goal of like oh cool let me get promoted because then when you get promoted then what right or the goal like i want to be the director of sales you get that goal then what you have to reassess everything in life so my thing is that like i want to be the best motivator of all time like all time legendary that's it so with that goal there's a lot of things that i have to do on a daily basis to make sure like that stands true um a lot of a lot of things a lot of daily habits that i have to take um and then also that's the big overarching goal and then for my for every single year i do it by i do goals by quarters so i have q1 goals q2 goals q3 goals q4 goals i make them right before the quarter so i made my goals on friday saturday i kind of combine those days to do that and then based on if i hit the q1 goals then cross them out i've got to hit it and if i didn't hit the q1 goals then they would move into q2 if the q1 goals that went over to q2 were not hit in q2 then i need to reassess that goal and probably make it a little bit smaller and not be as aggressive so that's how i do goals and ever since i started doing it um for the past two years i've i've i've hit the majority of them because it just helps me stay focused yeah and that's like the whole smart goal setting right specific measurable attainable realistic and timely um and i think like think and grow rich i'm sure you've read that one right that that's all about goal setting and being there so cool man well look i so so let me ask you so best motivator of all time um do you have a timeline on that one it's all time it's really all time for me like it's the goal that i strive for every single day but i mean do you like do you say you know what by the time i'm 40 years old i want to have like tony robbins type audiences or or is it more just yeah that's what you mean yeah definitely but i'm by by 40 i just think the the influence will be a lot higher than it already is now okay it's definitely building in a nice trajectory but the biggest thing that i had to take a self-awareness and a self-look on was that the fact that like the stuff that i'm talking about i actually need to be doing it um and it started pissing me off because a lot of millennials and a lot of people like around my age were talking about stuff that they did not do um and when i met them in real life they were jokes so like i was like i don't want to be a joke so i was like i need to legitimately find stuff that like i'm actually doing on a day-to-day basis that's actually real and so when you ask me a question about it like i know the answer to it and it comes from an actual genuine place and not because so and so told me this is how it works or because i made it up in my head or like i actually don't know at all and it just sounds good across the internet um i'm not i don't want to be exposed for anything and i actually want to build like real life stuff so yes so on a motivated level that's where i want to be at i think that people get confused um on the background of tony robbins and gary van derchuk and these people like tony robbins legitimately goes into c-level suites millionaires and billionaires and actually like changes their paradigms and actually increases their business on bottom line it's not just a motivation no he actually doesn't even consider when i like if you ask him he doesn't consider himself a motivational speaker legitimately does like real stuff right people listen like gary legitimately runs a business right so it's like for me it's like i want to have practicality around what i do and yes that's the level i want to reach because i want to show people like you don't need all these fancy things to do well like i i on purpose have done all my chronicles on my macbook air um and i got a studio just so there's no excuses for anybody right so like oh i don't have this i don't have a mic it's like no i have this macbook air and uh you see my home office same ghetto style man yeah it's like i i i put in the work and i and the content and the grind is what got me here it wasn't a fancy studio or something fancy that got me here it's legitimately i figured out how to edit my videos i figured out how to film my videos i made up my own content i reached out to the people that i wanted to be on the show if they didn't cool if they did great that's legitimately how i built it so um i stand by that because it's it's real like and i want that realness of what i built so that when someone asks me a question i'm like how do you how do you do this i can legitimately say hey look like i took what i had and i maximized it everything evolves nothing decreases love it all right man i did because i because that's kind of people ask me john what's the secret to success and my answer is always the same it's like it's working your ass off and doing it right because i'm i always said i'm not the smartest cat out there you know i mean i i did okay in school whatever but but i'll i'll outwork you and that's why i like gary right gary's like his biggest fear is that everybody who's watching his stuff isn't actually doing anything they're just watching it and it's like get out there and do it right so cool man well i appreciate the time here you any any kind of parting you know tell people where to find you uh and any parting gifts for the audience here okay so where to find me at morgan j ingram on twitter morgan j ingram on linkedin the youtube channel sdr chronicles where i talk about my sales development journey how i you know went from sdr to sdr manager in a year um and basically just telling you tactics and skills that like legitimately i've used on the phone and through email to to schedule new net opportunities for uh close business so it's got a lot of great tips there that's how you reach me i answer everything so feel free to reach out to me if you have any more questions based on this interview um the last the last tip is that like at the end of the day like just focus in on the stuff that you can control and don't focus on the stuff that you can't control so if you were in a spot that like may not be the best spot you you can't always control your effort you can't always control the resources you can listen to and you can always control um how much output you put every single day um so that was one of the best things that i ever out of every book that i've read is that control what you can control like you can control yourself going to the gym you can control how many people you reach out to how much effort you want to put into building a youtube channel your brain your business uh once you realize that everything else becomes kind of irrelevant and you realize that like i need to just put in the work or i need to actually do this every single day um and then you'll just start getting the results i love it man you like this my daughter she's six years old and uh and i said look you know because like she was affected even by the uh the um election and all this other stuff and she was getting all upset i'm like sweetheart let's just focus on eat effort attitude and effort attitude and how we treat people those are the things that you can control you control what you can control you can't control outside factors you can control your effort you can control your attitude you can control how you treat people so awesome stuff man well i'm gonna i'm gonna end it here i'd love to chat just for two seconds but i'm gonna end it here um really appreciate the time man and i'm looking forward to listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks brother all right thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time thanks for listening to more of what you got out there all right 100 had a great time Thank you.