Going Viral on Instagram: The Dark Side No One Talks About I Daniel G DSH #498

You have a bunch of hate comments when you wake up in the morning and you're like, whoa, this feels like TikTok or a YouTube short.

Because the people on my brand don't hate on me.

It's the people that are outside in.

So it's like you're almost doing a good job when you could see that pushback starting to come in.

Because not every, I don't think everybody should agree with you.

Everybody's entitled to their own opinion.

I don't think you can ever please all sides of the crowd and all haters or whatever the case is.

Absolutely.

And the hate actually fuels the virality too.

So it's meaningful.

Of course, man.

It's great.

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All right, we got the sales goat in the building today.

Daniel G.

Goat, man.

My man, I've known you for like six years and seeing your journey from a distance, dude, congrats on all of it.

Thank you, bro.

Appreciate it.

The hard work you put in.

I mean, I'm not surprised.

No, the same dude goes for you too because we started probably just at about the same time.

You probably started at the same time, right?

When we started kicking off our journeys, right?

Remember you running Jersey Champs, and I could still remember you till today in always backstage, hustling, making sure like everybody has their jerseys before events.

And I always see everything blow up.

So likewise, bro, thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, man.

And to see you speak in stages of 100 to now thousands, I mean,

incredible.

What's the biggest stage you've spoken on?

Probably the crypto arena.

This past September.

Wow.

Probably about 10,000 people.

Damn.

Yeah, it was filled up, filled up arena.

Yeah, it was crazy.

It was nuts.

It was nice.

Talk to me about the nerves going into that.

You know, man, actually,

it's more of exciting.

Like the bigger the stage to me, it gets a lot more exciting.

Wow.

Right.

Cause I feed off of energy.

I think a lot of speakers that train a lot, they feed off of energy.

So I would say the bigger stages, and it's crazy to think because you would think the bigger stages, you get a lot more nervous.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But

no, to me, it's just, it's just, I just get more energy.

It's like a feedback from a crowd.

I think as a speaker, it's like you feed off energy, right?

So if you're making a joke and, you know, only three people out of 10 people laugh, right?

You're like, I don't know.

But if 3,000 out of 10,000 people laugh, that's a lot of laughs.

Right.

Or like, ooh, or ahs.

So it's like you're a volleyball player.

You're like, you hit the ball and you want the ball to come back to you.

Right.

So that's what you're doing as a speaker.

So I think the bigger stages are a lot more fun.

Yeah.

And you're able to retain people because you talk for an hour, sometimes even two hours, and you're able to retain people.

How did you get good at storytelling?

You know, I always thought that,

listen, in sales or whatever the case is as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, a lot of people give concepts.

And I don't think the concepts are done without an analogy for somebody to wrap it off because they can't make it relatable inside of their head.

So I always made a commitment to myself saying, like, listen, who are the people that we listen to the most?

You know, you listen to your pastors, your parents, whatever you listen to, a rabbi,

your teachers, your grandparents, because they're the best storytellers.

So I'd always say, okay, I'm never going to give concepts.

in sales, especially without giving a story or analogy behind it.

So it can finish off the concept and people become relatable with that concept.

So, um, yeah, man, I just always, I see a concept.

I said, okay, how do I make this relatable to the crowd?

Who am I going to speak to?

How do I make it relatable to the crowd?

That makes sense.

And you teach sales, but I feel like you teach like a greater purpose as well.

Correct.

Yeah.

100%.

I think it's just, you know, it's, it's influence in general, you know, like I've always been nailed for this, like, oh, the sales guys, you know, is manipulating or whatever the case.

I'm like, dude, regardless of what you want to do inside of life, you're going to have to influence people.

If you want to have a show, you have to some way, somehow, influence people to get on your show.

You know, you want to get a better job inside of life, influence your way up to the job.

So I'm like, influence is going to be done at every stage inside of your life, right?

So yeah, and I think, I think, of course, my energy comes off with motivation, right?

Within sales.

So it reaches just a broader audience of just sales, right?

I'm also super good at marketing and branding.

I think that supports sales in today's day and age.

I always say sales is very difficult if your marketing and branding is weak.

If your marketing and branding is high, sales is easy.

Like the more you are on your marketing and branding, the less convincing you have to do on the sales side.

You know, like you see, you see salespeople that have to work off convince because their marketing and branding is weak because their brand didn't walk in the door before they did.

Like, for example, your brand enters the room before, you know, you actually enter the room.

Well, I'm going to talk to Sean Michael Kelly, whatever the case is, because you've pushed so hard on your brand, right?

So I always tell people, like, now more than ever, make sure your brand is entering the room before you enter the room because it makes sales a lot easier.

Absolutely.

I mean, it's helped me so much get podcast guests.

Imagine if I had no followers.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

It would be impossible to get guests.

So I think Instagram these days is like one of the biggest assets you could have it's free it's great i don't think uh i don't think still enough people take advantage of it it's like you still don't pay for it right it's like you know all the attention is great attention you can never go negative views it's like i say you can never post something because i think i think sometimes people get crippled from like you know social anxiety or posting something and saying like oh well what are these people gonna think it's like well you can never go negative you can't post a video and go negative views it's like in sales you can't go up to somebody and lose that customer if you never had the customer in the first place.

I said the beauty about social media, it's all a gain.

Everything you do from the day you start your brand to the day you enter, the day you exit, everything's a gain.

It can't be negative views.

And I love that you said that because I had self-limiting views of, oh, if I post this, I won't get enough likes or so-and-so will see this and talk.

And that was how I thought for five years, honestly.

And that held me back so much.

And now I post three times a day.

I don't give a about the comments, about people judging, because I know, like you said, it's a gain.

Yeah, yeah, it's a gain.

And it's like you almost know this now, you know, I think through creating content that you know your stuff's doing very well because you could see viral posts, right?

You always see your post and you're like, oh, this post went viral.

Cause there's a whole bunch of people that aren't part of your brand and that start on you,

hating on you, blah, blah, blah.

And you're like, oh, wow, you know, this is actually a good sign that that post went viral.

Because the people that don't hate on you are the people that are in your brand and in your community.

So on Instagram, let's say, for example, if a post goes viral, you're going to see a little bit of a TikTok effect because TikTok's not a community.

TikTok's a virality platform, right?

Instagram's more of your brand building platform, but then you could start seeing your videos do super well when you have a bunch of hate comments when you wake up in the morning and you're like, whoa, this feels like TikTok or a YouTube short because the people on my brand don't hate on me.

It's the people that are outside in.

So it's like you're almost doing a good job when you could see that pushback starting to come in.

Because not every, I don't think everybody should agree with you.

Everybody's entitled to their own opinion.

I don't think you can ever please all sides of the crowd and all haters or whatever the case is.

Absolutely.

And the hate actually fuels the virality too.

So it's worse, man.

It's it's great.

It's like I was saying this joke on stage the other day.

I'm like, guys, imagine you guys make videos and you have a thousand shares on your video.

Maybe 300 of those shares are freaking haters sharing it to their freaking friends and talking.

But at the end of the day, it's like they go share it.

Like, just think of the effect.

They go share it.

It boosts your engagement up.

You end up back on their explore feed because your engagement is always high.

They can never get rid of you.

It's like you're like a leech.

It's like, it's like my videos get tens of thousands of shares, like your guys' videos.

It's like, if you hate me, you share out my video or you make a video or some about me, and then I keep popping up.

It's like you're feeding the algorithm for me to keep popping up.

You're like, I can't get rid of this Daniel G guy.

Right.

And you're the face of an industry that gets a lot of hate.

A lot.

A lot.

Yeah.

I always take the hits.

Like, I'm always the guy that takes a hit on the front end because I'm the sales guy and I'm the guy training sales too as well.

Right.

Right.

So, but yeah, I'm okay with it.

It's fine, dude.

I don't, I never, I always tell people, I'm like, don't open up your hand inside a business.

asking for more and then complain when it's full of

you know what i mean like like it's like you've asked i've asked to build a brand.

I don't complain when there's haters or whatever the case is.

Like I've asked for more inside of my life.

I asked for more people.

With more people comes more BS, right?

So comes with the territory, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, of course.

More eyeballs, more haters just makes sense.

Do you respond to any of them or do you just ignore all of them?

Sometimes we have fun.

Like, I mean, I'm not, I'm not feeding into it because I know exactly what they're, you know, it's a, it's, you know, haters just, they want that response to play into their delicate egos, right?

So, um, yeah, to me, but the funniest response is like when somebody puts something, I'll just write, okay.

Yeah,

like like, like, like we do, I do that 24/7.

I go to bed, I look at some hate comments, and I'll just be like, cool, we're great.

And then they just keep going on and they have discussions and forms underneath that comment.

But it's all, it's like, Sean, I teach people to do that also as well inside of sales.

I teach people, it's like, you know, I think a mature human being can always just acknowledge something and not just always argue.

Like if it's an objection or it's a difficult prospect and they're like, I don't have the money.

I don't want to do something.

It's just okay.

And people will just keep talking and just keep giving their ideas.

And this works the same thing online and offline.

You're talking to a difficult prospect and you just say, okay, allow them to elaborate.

Don't be like, no, no, no, no.

Just okay.

It's just like knowledging somebody out.

But same thing happens online.

Yeah.

Are you still going live every day on Instagram?

Yeah, majority of the time.

Yeah.

Yeah, every single day.

You're like the only person I know that does that.

So why did you start doing that?

I do that.

Well, because of the first thing that you just said, when you're like, you're the only person that knows that I do that, I do that.

And I do that even more now because I used to do it pre-pandemic.

Then I realized during pandemic, I'm sure you remember everybody was going live because everybody was home, fitness coaches, influencers, everybody was going live.

And then everybody stopped.

And I said, holy shit, this is the easiest way to build a community, not just a following.

I think there's a difference.

Like I have a very strong community.

If I have an event in California, people are showing up.

It's because I built a community and just not people that just like like a video.

I'm in there answering people's questions.

It's real with them.

And I feel like just building content is not enough.

Now, people want to be involved in community and culture, right?

Especially as you travel and you do a lot of events, they want to see that the person's real.

So to me, that's the best way to build my trust with my community.

Ask me anything, open and open questions throughout the live streams.

And yeah, at the same point, it's a great way to collaborate and collect people's audiences.

So what I've done a lot was, you know, the same way we collaborate on stages and share each other's audiences, which is, you know, a way to leverage your brand and keep building your brand is I've done the exact same thing on live streams.

I've got in friends on live streams and then Sean comes on my live stream and, you know, 100 people come in from your live or a thousand people coming from your live live that don't know who they have Daniel Gere

you know they give you four four open spots on a live stream I don't think people utilize this live function enough it's like it's almost lost out like you know like you can get four heavy hitters on one live stream and just discuss a bunch of and have all the audiences come in and then even treat it as a QA on the third open spot bring in an audience and let that audience ask the three heavy hitter experts a question and people love that and you'll start to see like I'll do once a week beaming into my audience and they can come ask questions.

Even hater can come in.

We discuss it, have some fun.

I try to beam in the haters a little bit more, but

I say the best thing is like when you start to see that, nobody requests to join live because everybody's scared in the kiddie.

And then one person's like, hey, Dan, I'm struggling here in my business.

And then boom, you see everybody that you know that follows a trend.

They're like, oh, okay, now I want to go ask him a question.

And think of it.

Like if Jenna goes live and she only has a thousand followers and she comes live with me, 20 of her people now just came in my live stream.

And they're like, who the heck is this Daniel G guy?

Click follow, right?

So I always say,

you know, I don't think people leverage the resources within social media enough and that's one of them right now and the best way people want to become speakers coaches whatever the best way to practice always on a live stream i got good at speaking through live streams wow yeah like i i if you were to ask me in 2016 to speak to a crowd i would say no i was great at sales one-on-one

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But speaking in front of a crowd wasn't my thing.

Maybe one or two, three people influencing some decision makers, but in front of a big crowd wasn't my thing.

I didn't like speaking in front of my, you know, high school classes.

But then I got on live streams and it trained me how to speak and how to communicate.

So when I got on stage, it was like, you know, I always say the best time to build a brand is when nobody's watching you.

Like practice when nobody's watching because when everybody's watching, everybody's trying to pick you apart and everybody's judging.

But when nobody's watching, when two people are watching, it's the best way to build your brand.

That's so powerful.

It's almost like a live podcast.

Exactly.

Yeah.

That's super cool.

Yeah.

Always take advantage of new features.

Instagram just launched polls.

Did you see that?

Yeah, I've seen that on posts.

I just started playing with that.

Oh, yeah.

The one where you can vote now underneath a post instead of comments, right?

Exactly.

Smart.

And anytime a social media platform launches a new feature, use it because they're going to push it.

When Instagram launched Reels, people were going stupid viral.

When YouTube launched shorts, so easy to get millions of views.

Correct.

Same with TikTok.

When they launched stories, people started using stories, et cetera.

Yeah.

So you've been in sales for what, eight years now?

about 15 oh 15 15 years well what we could say i could i could say like you know full-time after university probably nine years uh been in sales since i was 14.

okay have you seen any major changes in terms of the psychology of the customer buyer of the buyer yeah i think people's attention span is a lot shorter right just a lot shorter just like we've been talking about like you know marketing branding and sales um you know they have tick tock brain i call it's like you know people's attention span is 15 seconds so now i say you know the the the power of getting somebody on a phone call for 15 minutes is so important or the power of getting somebody to show up to a workshop live or in person or on a phone call is so important because they don't watch videos for 15 seconds.

And people could check their stats.

Like if somebody were to ever go on their phone and they were go to like, let's just say like any one of my videos, I click this video and I go to view insights, right?

I don't know if somebody could see this.

Okay, maybe they can't.

And I go here and it says watch time.

Okay, they watched this video for 375 hours.

The average watch time was 17 seconds, which was actually high.

If you go to a lot of your videos, you know, the average watch time is sometimes under 10 seconds.

So you're like, well, I got all these views or I got all these, you know, hours watch.

Yeah, but they're only watching it for under 10 seconds.

Right.

Even if it's the most like, we try to make the reels the most compelling reels, controversial reels,

you know, add a joke in there, make sales fun.

And even that is hard to get somebody's attention under 10 seconds.

So I think, you know, the power, again, to build that community and get people on phone calls, get people to events is the next step.

Yes, of course.

I think, you know, the attention span of consumer has definitely, you know, shortened.

Yeah.

And you're speaking for an hour on stage sometimes.

Yeah, four hours sometimes.

Geez.

So you're probably seeing people zoning out, right?

Yeah, yeah, of course.

And that's the, you know, that's, I think that's the main thing is like, how do you keep somebody's attention even in person?

Like, how do you keep them constantly hooked in person where you constantly switch?

When people go in one direction when they talk, you'll see burnout.

Meaning like you'll see the audience, if you have like a PowerPoint slide and you go one to the next, to the next, you'll start to see this burnout because the audience like, oh, they're taking me down a script.

But if you go watch a comedian, a lot of people don't burn out with comedians because comedians are so good that they make their show seem unscripted and uncuffed.

So like they'll be talking and Kevin Hart would be like, you know what, man, I was thinking about something two and a half weeks ago.

And then, you know, this girl came up to me in the elevator and they're taking them down this line and they completely hook you in another direction.

You're like, wait, he has a story.

So to me, like the human brain loves things that are unscripted.

And the moment you start to see a speaker go down a route that's completely scripted, it's almost like your eyes are shutting off.

Wow.

Right.

That's why some of the best speakers that you've probably watched on stage, you're like, man, they have so many stories.

And it seems like the stories are just pulled out of the, even though they know them in their head.

It's so, it's, it's done well inside of their head.

They have so many stories where they can make it seem so uncuffed and so unscripted.

And I feel like that's what's hooking the audience's attention.

Incredible.

And now that you've said that, I'm replaying all the PowerPoint presentations I've seen and I've never like enjoyed one of them.

Yeah, you only like the guys and the girls that are like almost like, you know, just freely talking, uncuffed, like we're doing right now, right?

And just to emulate that back on stage.

Absolutely.

And I've been to comedy shows for two hours and I'm not even thinking about leaving.

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Same Same thing.

Yeah.

And that's another thing.

It's like, how do you mix in both components?

Like, how do you mix in the logical component of business and also the emotional component of business?

Because you're staying in a comedy show because it's funny.

And I feel like too many speakers are scared of being vulnerable and being funny and open with their audience.

Like to me, I have, listen, I'm a hardcore trainer, but at the same time, I also do realize that from a sales perspective, you have to be a chameleon.

So as a chameleon, you're doing two things.

You're not being too, too pushy, right?

Too sales, you know, too much of a closing the person, but you're also not being too open and, you know, laughing with the person too much.

Right.

Because like you're, then you're going to become that sales guy.

Like, haha, okay, the guy's making me laugh so much.

When's the guy going to tighten up and actually like, you know, so it's just like how females make decisions.

Thinks of females.

A female likes a guy, number one.

A woman likes a guy that can what?

Make her laugh, right?

It's like the first thing.

A girl, oh, you go talk to a girl.

She'll always be like, yeah, I want a guy that can make me laugh.

Step number one.

But if the guy goes out on date one, makes her laugh.

She's okay.

She's open.

She's like, I like this.

But if he keeps making her laugh and she'll be like, holy can the guy tighten up?

Cause I'm a freaking comedian.

I want to date a man.

She wants a little bit of both.

She wants a guy to make her laugh, but at the same time, take control and also, you know, have a little bit of safety, security, hold the dope and for also act like a gentleman and a man.

I say the same thing goes back to sales.

That's a human brain.

If you learn how to sell, you can make somebody laugh, but at the same time, lead them.

It's a little bit of liking and a little bit of leading inside of sales.

You make them laugh.

At the same time, you can hook back in and get serious.

And that's what I do throughout my whole talk.

If somebody watches me when I train sales, it's like, boom, I'll make somebody laugh, but in two and a half seconds, I'm training a sales concept.

And the human brain freaking loves that.

I say, sell to others as you would like to be sold.

Right.

So all about balance.

Yeah.

And we were talking earlier.

You're traveling three, four days a week, speaking at different stages.

How are you balancing family, friends, and all that?

No, I'm not.

I'm not.

Like, that's actually, I think three was a lie.

Like, I think we're on the road now, five days of damn.

Yeah, five, five days.

Five days.

At least two events minimum, but five days of actual travel because our events are not always just in North America.

Oh, wow.

Right.

So like we have a lot of events in Europe and South America, which the travel time gets a lot more hectic from there.

Right.

Yeah.

Like, we just did an event last week in India.

The week before that.

Yeah, in India.

And then the week before that in Australia.

And we went from, I don't know where I was, but I went to Australia from the States, back home to Miami.

And then in three days out, went back to India, which is also across the ocean, another, you know, 21 hours of flight time.

So

there is no balance to answer the question.

And I don't shoot for it because I think it's complete f ⁇ ing.

And I think, as I used to say this before, I used to get like a lot of, you know, people hating on me for for it.

But I think people start to realize that when you do push for something big, that you're not going to find balance inside a business.

Like, because balance, I think people try to shoot for like this 25% lifestyle where it's like, okay, I'm going to have 25% with my friends, 25% with my family, 25% of my work, and 25% for health.

Well, cut the crap.

LeBron James, when he's shooting for his fifth or sixth championship ring, he's not thinking about balance.

He's in the gym.

Like, you know, they're working their off.

They're going to have to sacrifice something.

When you go for greatness, I don't think you shoot for balance.

So it's like, okay, if you don't go through greatness, because what is balance?

It's a different term for everybody else.

Like you could be perfectly imbalanced to everybody else, but to yourself, you're shooting for greatness.

So you're balanced yourself.

But I think when you're asking me about balance, it's like, well, I'm not balanced to what other people think that,

you know, 25% here, 25% there.

No, there's no way it's impossible.

Like I'm shooting for something great.

I said, you know, I want to take over the world inside of sales.

Of course, I'm not going to have balance.

Of course, you know, I'm going to have to spend less time with my family, my friends, et cetera.

The first thing, though, that I'll always take care of is my health because my health runs my business.

You know, my business doesn't run my health.

My health runs my business.

So I'll always take care of my health first.

But other than that, of course, in all areas of my life, I'm going to be in balance.

Insane.

Where does this work ethic come from?

Did you have immigrant parents?

Yeah, I did.

I had family come from, you know,

my grandparents came from Italy to Canada.

And I grew up with my grandparents.

So my parents split up when I was young.

I grew up with my grandparents in the summer working with my grandfather.

You know, know, yeah, my work ethic, you know, I looked at my parents working, you know, 10 to 15 hour days always, seven days a week.

So I think, you know, your ethics is what you stand for inside of life.

When you break down that word work and ethics, ethic is just what you stand for.

So when you look at people above you working, it's like, you know, if you feel like you're doing an eight hour day and you've seen people doing 15 hour days, it's like you almost feel this disconnect because you've seen what the standard was.

growing up, right?

So yeah, I just, I enjoy doing it.

I like working.

I like staying on the move.

I feel dead if I'm not.

Right.

You know, there's this notion with salespeople that they're all about money, right?

That's the number one most important thing in life.

Where does money rank in your life?

I think it's super important.

I think it's the motivation for salespeople in the beginning stage for anybody.

I think anybody that says otherwise, I think it's when they're like, oh, you know, it's not just about that.

No, in the beginning, you have to be motivated by money inside of sales.

I was motivated by money inside of sales.

I wasn't motivated by a passion.

You know, because I hear a lot of this online.

It's like, you got to follow your passion.

Okay, wait.

When you're broke, my first sales job was a door-to-door sales job.

Like, you know, I was selling aeration services.

It was a door-to-door service, very cheap service.

When people are like, you got to follow your passion to make millions inside of life or to make money inside of life.

I say, woo,

stop and pause that advice.

That's great.

And I agree.

It would be amazing to be passionate about something.

But when you're broke, it's like you don't have time, number one, to find your passion.

Cause I was passionate about soccer and DJing.

I used to be a DJ and I used to like playing soccer.

I'm like, but these aren't paying me right now.

Like, right?

Like people that are passionate about sports.

So I had to get logical.

I said, okay, where can i go make money and i made money in door-to-door sales not being passionate about poking holes in people's grafts

but i made money because my hunger outweighed my passion i always say passion's like the cherry on top first you have to chase your hunger first and sales is all about not pushing a product on somebody it's about finding a product where you could solve somebody's problem.

You solve their problem, you make a sale, you get paid.

We, you and I probably sat down with so many millionaires and maybe even billionaires that made millions and even billions of dollars that are not necessarily passionate about, I don't know, making this drink or making a toothbrush.

But they found a gap and they need inside of the marketplace because people say, do you need to be passionate to make money?

No, no, no, no.

If somebody just says yes, there's a lie behind that because there's a lot of millionaires and billions we know that literally found a gap inside of the marketplace, solved the problem, made a shit ton of money.

And then sometimes that funds a passion project.

Right.

Right.

So I say,

Your hunger and your desire to win always has to outweigh your passion.

If you're passionate about something, then there's no f ⁇ ing excuse to win.

You make in hunger and then passion.

It's like, that's when the person, like, I'm now passionate about sales.

I was not passionate about sales before.

Wow.

I developed a passion for sales and I have hunger to always win and always be the best.

Those two things are like the fire inside of me.

Nice.

I agree, though.

I think you should make a bag first, get that safety net, and then chase your passion.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And sometimes you don't even know.

It's like, like, again, I discovered my passion on the way.

Right.

Like, I just said like sales was the thing you usually fall back in.

You don't, you're not, you don't grow up to be like, I want to be a salesperson.

I want to be, be i want to be somebody that hosts a business or i want to be you know a podcast host no you don't you grow up to say i want to be a mermaid

like

for me you know yeah basketball for you it's like you don't you don't say uh you know i want to grow up and you know be a real estate agent or whatever the case is so i always say you know chase chase the hunger the desire to win first everything's a building block you know uh people watching this sometimes are like man i'm a little bit lost i don't know what to do i'm like hold on to your building blocks so because some people think they go into a business and they're completely at zero and i say well, no, you're not.

If you were an athlete and you know, maybe you didn't get into the NFL, yeah, but what were the characteristics that got you into college?

Like, those are the building blocks inside a business.

Some people lose the building blocks for the next business.

Like, they're like, well, I'm going inside of zero.

No, you're not.

You always go into the next business with a building block from before.

Yeah.

So you stack those building blocks always for the next journey.

Absolutely.

So you've generated over nine figures in sales.

Talk to me about how long it took to get that first million from 1 million to 10 and then from eight to nine figures.

Not nine figures net worth, though.

Not yet.

But but yeah, response went and generated, of course, for you know multiple different companies.

First million, 24 and a half, maybe 25

in sales before that,

generated in sales before that.

But you know, for myself, yeah, probably by 25.

So it took six years to get that first million.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Six years.

But I was also like, I've sold more than a million, but companies' products were very expensive that I was selling B2B services.

Right.

And then, you know, I always say it was exponential after that.

Like, me and my business partners sold tens of millions of dollars for other organizations and companies

because I think, you know, all business, it's not like a grading scale of like one to two, two to three, three to four.

You probably know how it works.

It's like one to 10, like you said, and then like 10 to 100.

It's always exponential because you compound all these small efforts.

And that's where it like kind of like blows up after that.

I always say like success is not just completely gradual.

There's going to be a point where it doesn't make sense to people.

And you get paid $50,000 to speak on stage or whatever the case is, but you did like 400 free events.

Right.

So it's taken me, not just from the sales aspect, but now to where I'm at, fees, the brand and everything.

It's taken me four years of doing a bunch of unpaid.

I don't think a lot of people want to do that.

They don't want to invest, right?

They don't see the point behind it, you know, investing into a studio or whatever the case is because they're very transactional with their brand.

So people are like, I want to build a brand, but then it's like you treat your brand as if it's marketing and two of those things are different.

And they get confused because marketing is a call to action.

It's like, hey, I'm watch this.

Here's some value and I'm going to sell you this.

Branding is just a long-term play and you're building trust with people.

Right.

And sometimes that costs a lot more than the marketing.

Right.

So that people don't see that because branding is usually invisible and it takes a little bit more time.

So my branding was investing my own.

dollars, hard-earned dollars inside of sales and my sales agency and my sales jobs and putting it back on the road and, you know, doing events for free in the beginning and traveling, doing that.

And then hiring, you know, film crews, et cetera, and then putting it back inside of my brand.

And I don't think nobody ever like you know then they say like oh man how did you get to where you are it must be so easy i'm like well you never said it was easy with the free events right whatever the case is right so i always say you'll always be heavily paid for the that you were never paid for in the past love that same story with me dude five six years took me to make my first million cash i was having free events for five years losing money because i was hosting them paying for the venues remember yeah

yeah now i'm making like good money on each event but it took five years of events that people probably don't even know which nobody will ever like nobody will ever care or even know of Right.

You know what I mean?

It's like almost as a business owner, you got to start swallowing that.

Like nobody gives a f actually.

Like it's like, it's like, I told one of my friends when he came up to me when it's like, yeah, man, I charge that, you know, this many thousands for this talk.

He's like, man, that's so easy, bro.

You just talk for an hour.

I'm like, well, f ⁇ er, why didn't you ask me when I did a bunch of free events?

Dude, that must have been so easy doing those free events when you and I were going in debt for five years, paying out of our pocket, flying out, breaking our backs on airplanes, not knowing if it's going to work out, speakers bailing on you, people doing you dirty.

I'm like, why didn't you say that was easy because i'm like that's business and i'm like you will always be you know paid one day like heavily paid for the that you were never paid for in the past it's not transactional that's sales um you know branding is like that too as well in sales it goes the same way it's like you do a bunch you create a bunch of relationships and then one day you're heavily paid exactly that you were never paid for in the past and i think that feeling is an entrepreneur is the best sometimes you know like that's the feeling you kind of play for because it's it's like wow man this person just paid me a hundred thousand dollars for xyz

all makes sense now right because in the past it didn't make make sense.

And one day there's going to be a day where it's like, this all makes sense.

Yeah.

That long-term vision is crucial, man.

Yeah.

I remember those economy flights, flying, speaking on panels for like 20 minutes.

Those were the days.

What age were you when you realized no one gave a s about you?

Probably when I got into business.

Okay.

Yeah.

I was probably, I opened up my offices 2017.

So I was probably 24, 25.

You just realized, I'm like, oh, nobody now cares.

No, nobody really cares.

Nobody's going to pay for this rent of the office.

You know, I've seen people, we're in the same industry.

I'm like, okay, I've seen people, you know, flip on people very quickly.

And I said, you know, you have to figure out this game for yourself.

You're always going to, like, I know people are like, it's only lonely at the top if you do it yourself.

But at the end of the day, you always sleep with yourself at nighttime, you know?

So

you have to become so emotionally secure inside of the business, knowing that my line has always been, I'm going to be good regardless.

So whatever happens to me inside of business, I always carry this very abundant heart and mindset saying, regardless if somebody says yes, regardless if somebody says no, regardless of what other people say, I'm going to be good.

And that energy, like to me, because I knew that always worked inside of sales.

Like when somebody says no to you, it's like when you bring in the energy inside of a conversation saying, if this person says no, and I'm going to be good, some way, somehow you get the yes.

You know, like when people don't, when people know you don't need them, they start needing you, right?

Like if somebody says, man, you know, I just don't want to do this right now.

And you're just like, all right, well, you know, I'll just move on to the next person.

They're like, well, that's a a little bit weird majority of salespeople would push back right there when i give that objection i had to learn how to translate that mindset inside of business saying regardless if i have a good month a bad month worst month in the world i will be good regardless because i'm you know i'm abundant in my mind i'm abundant in my heart and i think that's always worked out well i always believe that you know i'm a big believer in the universe and energy and i always think that you know um My highest form of gratitude, when I want to put energy into my business, when I say I'm grateful for my business, because I was grateful from the day I opened my business, I came from no money.

And then I had an office with my sales agency name onside of my office in 2017.

And, you know, some people write down their gratitude.

And I always said the highest form of gratitude is express it through your work ethic.

Wow.

Not just write it down.

Cause a lot of people are just like, you know, I'm grateful for my business, which you've probably seen, you know, a lot of people do and you may have done it.

And I say, but if you write down you're grateful for your business and you don't work your business tomorrow, you're not really grateful for your business.

You know, action.

Yeah.

It's like, you know, you show your business that you're grateful for it by doubling down inside of your business.

So that's always been me.

I'm like, all right, show, like now people say, what keeps the fire lit, Daniel, that you've already done a lot.

Like, why do you still travel?

Cause there's a lot of things that I don't got to do.

There's a lot of events still till now that pay me in other countries, third world countries that can't afford like a $20,000 speaker fee.

I'm just keeping it real.

Like they can't afford that.

They'll pay for your expenses, et cetera, if that, right?

And I always say, I say, well, people are like, well, how do you keep it going now?

Why do you keep doing it now?

I'm like, well, this is everything I've ever dreamed of.

Now, more than ever, this is the, these are the moments inside of my life that I dream to train hundreds of thousands of people.

Now more than ever, I'm going to express my gratitude inside of my work by doubling it down because I like the, the universe, whatever you believe in, God showed you that it worked out.

And it would almost be an insult when you make a sale or you make a lot of money to kind of take a backpedal when somebody said the process works out.

Why don't you double down the process?

Because most people inside of life, they get a little bit good.

Their money goes up.

And it's just a sign that whatever you've done works out to double down the work ethic now.

Don't take your foot off the pedal.

Like double down until you get to a complete exponential point where you're good and you can remove yourself outside of your business and your business grows without you.

But until then, like I say, Dan, double it down now that it works.

Right.

And that mindset is what separates, I think, a millionaire from a decamillionaire, right?

Correct.

Because some people make that bag and they get complacent.

But for you, you're going all in even more.

Yeah, because then you also realize you're like, when you become, when you make a million dollars, first of all, you realize that it's not a lot of money.

Right.

And you realize that, dude, money doesn't actually completely create freedom.

I also think people create freedom.

So when you have good business partners, good teams, good management, good salespeople, those are the people that create you freedom inside of life.

Unless you're, listen, there's some great investors out there that have mastered the art of money.

And, you know, they learn how to make their money, just create them

freedom investors.

But to me, I always say like, I think people create freedom.

So I always play towards people, play towards relationships.

Cause at the end of the day, the only way to sip a margarita on the beach or, or, you know, scale out your company is when somebody else can do the job just as good or as better as you.

And then you have time.

People create time, leverage, and freedom.

So I always said it's, you know, how do I find good business partners or a good team or a good sales team to scale out so I eventually have time?

Because if you come from no money, if you make 20,000 a month and you start to become addicted to money, you'll want to go from 20 to 40.

So now do you really have time or do you just get stuck on the hamster wheel?

Right.

And there's another problem.

Like I think as people get better, it also works in a negative connotation, especially inside of sales and business.

I always tell people before I train them, I'm like, listen, it's about to get dangerous because I'm going to get you guys good.

And they say, what do you mean?

I'm like, I'm going to get you guys good in one hour.

I can get anybody in sales better in one hour.

I can make them think differently and respond differently to their customers.

But I said, it's different.

Now it's going to get a little bit dangerous because now you're going to get good.

And when you get good, because you know you can make sales anywhere to anybody, anytime, because you know you can make it, you're going to spend it.

And that's the death that every single person inside of business stays on that hamster wheel.

And people are watching this right now.

They're like, oh, it makes sense.

The better you get, the more confident you get.

So the more confident you get, you'll go here, you'll go blow your money because you know you can make it back next month next month.

Right.

That's what every salesperson up because they know they can make the money.

So they just spend the money because the next month they make back the money.

But what eventually happens, the hamster wheel, it spins faster and faster and faster.

And then eventually it's just a cycle of emotions.

And then they eventually fall off and quit.

It's not if you're going to make commissions or not.

When you get good, you're going to make commissions.

It's what you don't do with your commissions that make people successful.

Right.

Right.

So I always say it's like the most dangerous part part is, you know, knowing that you're going to make it, but almost like what you don't do with your commissions when you make that money.

It's like, it's like when somebody blows it, I say, you're going to go through an emotional cycle because it's okay being broke and spending $2,000 in a month.

But when you start making $40,000, $50,000, $100,000 a month and you go back down to zero, do that cycle enough times.

I've seen people quit the business enough times.

Wow.

Right.

You've probably seen it too inside a business.

You've seen somebody go through such, maybe you don't see it like people don't see it physically, but I know mentally that's such an exhausting cycle.

When you've made 100,000, you've blown a hundred thousand you made 250.

i've seen so many online

man sean in the last five years how many people have you and i probably seen build up and just disappear so many like it's funny to watch almost like i watch and i'm like

man i can't wait till 2030 to see who's still going to be you know still playing this game and i said this in 2017 in my head wow like i said like can't wait to see who's going to stick here till 2030.

there's not many And it's like, it's funny because what happened was all this boom of the entrepreneurs, there was a few that stuck out and it's the same guys from before that were actually real.

Right.

Like it's, it's weird the way it works because you're like, oh, the people that were slamming it back in 2018, the people that were real are still here till today.

Right.

But the people that just used one Lamborghini to sell a course or whatever the case was and really didn't have system structures and relationships, what we built.

Those people that don't have relationships, they're gone in two seconds.

They're gone.

Right.

So I always say it's not what you could do now.

It's like Drake has a good line.

He's like, we'll give it a, give it a decade.

We'll see who's around a decade from now.

I love that.

I always think long term.

Yeah.

Dude, it's been a blast.

Let people know where they can find you.

Yeah.

Daniel G on social media.

They can go on my Instagram at Daniel G.

Everything's there.

Absolutely.

All right.

Thanks for coming on, bro.

Appreciate it, bro.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Thanks for watching.

Bless you guys.

As always, see you tomorrow.