Get FREE Sales Leadership Resources at go.transformedsales.com/pod

In this episode of the Science of Selling STEM, I had a chat with Ronnell Richards, the Founder of Business & Bourbon, a platform dedicated to helping people do business better. Ronnell has built a career out of creating businesses and developing sales professionals into high-level performers. He’s taught individuals how to feel part of a team and perform better as a result. He successfully strategized with both small and large businesses to take their progress to the next level. This has given him a unique perspective on success that he brings to every aspect of his life. 

As an award-winning entrepreneur, Ronnell knows what it takes to aim high and hit even higher. Within ten minutes of listening to Ronnell, you’ll see why he's been so successful as a sales coach, entrepreneur, business coach, speaker, and trainer. He and I discussed how his parents instilled in him the values that made him a success in sales and entrepreneurship at a young age, why philosophy is important in sales, what effective sales leadership looks like, and so much more. Get ready for the sales development training of a lifetime in this 42-minute episode.

And if you ever need help with a sales or leadership issue don't hesitate to book a complimentary clarity session with me HERE. You can also email us at podcast@transformedsales.com with any suggestions or comments about the podcast.

On Today’s Episode of the Science of Selling STEM:

• How his upbringing equipped him for a long and successful sales and entrepreneurship career (01:59)
• Shut the Hell Up and Sell: Philosophy + Execution in Sales (10:05)
• Why you need to learn how to build a connection in a short period of time (16:00)
• Disrupting an improperly built system that programs salespeople to be too product-focused (20:41)
• How to help your sales managers consistently lead their teams to success (25:17)
• Business and Bourbon: Creating an environment that’s conducive to building relationships and connection (30:24)
• Everything he’s most grateful for (36:43)

Connect with Wesleyne Greer:

• Wesleyne’s Website
• Wesleyne on LinkedIn
• Wesleyne on Facebook     
• Wesleyne on Twitter
• Email Her at wesleyne@transformedsales.com

Connect with Ronnell Richards:

• Ronnell on LinkedIn
• Business and Bourbon
• Ronnell on Instagram
• Ronnell’s Website
• Ronnell@RonnellRichards.com

Rate, Review, Learn, and Share

Thanks for tuning into The Science of Selling STEM! If you enjoyed this episode and want to learn even more about what it takes to transform your sales, don’t forget to tune into our other episodes and share your favorite episodes on social media!

Join The Science of Selling STEM community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and visit my website for even more content, information, and resources.

As a sales manager, you are judged by the

performance of your team, and you're praised when they do

well. But one thing that you've not been able to figure out is

how to get everyone on your team consistently hitting quota every

single month. On the Snack size sales podcast, we discuss the

science of selling stem sales leadership in the science,

technology, engineering and manufacturing fields is

difficult. You will learn from sales managers just like you

that will give you actionable insights and tips on how to

develop as a leader and achieve your revenue targets every

single month. So pop your headphones in and get ready to

listen to my guests today. They will give you information and

inspiration to ensure that you have actionable insights that

you can put into place today. Hello, and welcome to another

episode of the science of selling stem today. I am so

delighted to have Ron L. Richards here with me. How are

you doing today?

Wesleyne. I'm fantastic. You know, really been

looking forward to this been on been on my calendar for about a

month, you're super busy, it's hard to pin you down. So let's

knock it out.

Awesome. Let me tell you guys a little bit about

Ron. Now he has built a career out of creating businesses and

developing sales professionals into high level performers. He's

taught individuals how to feel part of a team and perform

better as a result, he successfully strategize with

both small and large businesses to take their progress to the

next level. This has given him a unique perspective on success

that he brings to every aspect of his life. As an award winning

entrepreneur, Ron now knows what it takes to aim high and hit

even higher.

Wow, that's low corporate, aim high and hit

higher. I'm so excited to dig into your

background. So tell me how did you start your career? And how

did you get to where you are now?

Well, I wish that it wasn't such a long

story. But it is a long story because it's a long, long time

ago.

So you know, my journey and path to corporate sales. And that

world is is not like a lot of folks, right? Like a lot of

people that go to college and get that corporate job. And

yeah, it wasn't the case for me. So you know, I started out as a

kid really in into entrepreneurship, right. But my

parents were entrepreneurs. And you know, and so I got an

education in cells and business that most kids just don't get it

that young of an age, right? I'm working cash registers, I'm

learning how to do add on cells, I'm taking deposits to the bank,

doing things like that we're doing inventory, right. Not fun

stuff for kids. But it really kind of set me on a course for

where I first of all helped me to identify where my talents lay

right in terms of communicating with people and being able to

articulate myself really well. Right. And so I kind of learned

that an early age and was able to kind of lean into that. So

you know, fast forward into my college years. You know, that's

when I started my first professional sales job. But you

know, I was always a salesperson, always a

salesperson, right? Always the salesperson, always an

entrepreneur as a kid, you know, and I didn't do it. All right,

because that was a horrible.

I'm a horrible artist. But I've got notebooks of all my little

business ideas, right? Anyway, so fast forward to college is

when I started my first professional sales gig. And that

was working for a jewelry company. Right. And that's how I

got into sales professionally and worked for that jewelry

company did pretty well. And you know, became one of their sales

managers after being a sales leader for a bit. And yeah,

that's something I'm pretty proud of, you know, this was I

became a sales manager for them, I think at 21. It's reference

21. And at the time, I was the youngest sales manager in their

company and the only African American sales manager in the

company. And I'm going to claim it because I think that it's

true, and I can't confirm it, but I believe I was the very

first so which is something that brings me great pride. So

anyway, did that for five ish years, right jewelry industry.

And then then I transitioned into technology in the telecom,

like, wow, that's a pretty big jump, right? Like how do you go

from selling jewelry to selling telecom technologies? Well, you

know, that was right around the turn of the millennium, right,

right after that, and telecom was booming, right, tons of what

we call at the time Sealegs competitive local exchange

carriers hopping into the local services, b2b market and there

were a ton of companies out there and I just happened to

have some friends that went over to one of these companies and

they were actually jewelry guys as well. They had been in

leadership in jewelry and they were just killing it. They were

killing they said, Oh, no, you need to come over and do this.

And at the time, I had actually transitioned to a I was doing I

was on the street, I was on the road and it sucks the worst job

I've ever had. But I was on the road as a traveling wholesale

jewelry guy. God was very stressful. You driving around

with a million dollars worth of jewelry is not. It was tough.

Anyway. So that's how I got into into the telecom industry,

right? There's some friends and kind of took off from there had

some success at my very first company, McCloud, USA. Again, my

background is entrepreneurship. I've always known that I was

going to be an entrepreneur, it's who I am. And so you know,

after working for a couple of companies in that run, that's

when I started, my first company started my company rd Direct,

which was a channel agency focused on selling telecom and

technology solutions b2b and grew that and had some really

good success there. transition that to a few other companies

doing some of the same things. Again, this is a long story. So

I'm going to try to make a long story short, here we are today.

And I've run four different agencies that have done some of

the similar stuff, selling technology products and SAS

products, telecom products, b2b growing those organizations

leading their sales efforts. And you know, today, so I'm one of

those agencies that do a lot of consulting and coaching for

channel agencies and for carriers and suppliers that are

looking to expand their businesses in indirect channel.

And we run this little brand called business and bourbon,

which is doing pretty well too.

Little brand business and bourbon. So you had

a very, I would say, different upbringing, because so many

people that own their own businesses today, I call them

first generation business owners. So they don't really

understand how to run a business. They they're really

they're like learning as they go falling and failing and coming

back up. So what's one thing that you would say, you growing

up in the business, watching your parents as entrepreneurs?

How has that helped you in your career?

So I think it's, I'll say this, there are a

lot of people that have experience of parents being

entrepreneurs. The difference in my upbringing, and this is

something that I would tell any of you entrepreneurs out there,

or leaders in business, just in general, involve your kids in

the process. You know, the difference is between my

upbringing and lots of others that had entrepreneurial parents

is they knew their parents did something, but they weren't

really involved in it. I was involved in it in a daily basis.

You know, when I was, I can tell you right now, when I was in the

third grade, and when I was eight years old, I'd come home,

we lived about three blocks away from my elementary school, there

was a bus stop, right outside of just on the next block over from

my house, I'd hop on the bus, and I ride that bus downtown to

where my parents shop was, and then I'd be there and I work

there, I'd be on the cash register, and all those things

that you do. And so yeah, the difference for me is, I was

really involved. And, you know, there's some might say, came out

a little bit of a cost. I wasn't the kid who had a lot of toys,

and all that sort of thing. But, you know, I learned some skills

I learned through experience and things that people don't know,

you know, well into their adulthood. And so that's one of

the differences for me, right? Being engaged in. So in the

business. And so, you know, when I started my businesses, I

follow my parents example, right? So my kids, now they

didn't have to take the bus. I wasn't, I wasn't gonna take the

bus. They didn't have to do that. But my kids are now both

college students, but I have very fond memories of elementary

school, and then getting off of their little school bus, I'd

pick them up from the school bus, drive them right to my

office, and they'd sit in cubicles right next to all of my

employees doing their homework and all that other stuff. So

they've always been involved and engaged in the business that

I've been involved in, as well as including business and

bourbon, my daughter and my son will back we're about to head to

Tampa for an event and my daughter will be there working

that event.

That's awesome. I know. Recently, my son asked

me said, Mommy, why does it seem like you need a CRM to live?

Like, I'm so glad you asked. That means you've been actively

listening to my conversations. And then my younger son was

like, so I'm curious. I heard you talking about such and such,

how much money did you make on that? Like, it's like, the

things that they are hearing. And that gives us an opportunity

as parents to really help them understand like, Hey, this is

what I do every day and this is how I help people. So these

things that you hear me say over and over and over again, this is

the why behind it. And I really commend you for involving your

kids in the business because I do think that that's one thing

that us as leaders as whether you're a sales leader within a

company or you own your own business, we don't actually tell

our kids how the how right but they just see what's happening

at that moment. They see whether we're stressed out which When

we're gone, but they don't understand all the little baby

steps involved in getting there.

Okay, Wesleyne, here you are touching on

something that I really wanted to talk to you about. And so I'm

going to talk about it really quick. So my book is coming out

this year. And it's called, you know, shut the hell up and sell.

And what you're talking about right now is really kind of the

crux of what my book is about. It's two parts. It's one part

philosophy. And it's one part execution, right? So, as a sales

leader, Coach and Trainer, you know, I've personally hired and

trained hundreds of salespeople, right. And I've been involved

with other firms that coached and trained salespeople. And one

of the things that I see that's consistent in this is that

trainers and coaches will go out to companies and they will teach

people and whatever their tactical. They'll teach and

tactical execution, right. And when they leave the people that

were successful, well, they're still successful, and the people

that were failing, they're usually still filling, right.

And so as I sat down to think about my book, and this took a

few years to really kind of marinate and think about what

how I wanted to present myself and that that type of media

thought about how can we be most most effective and making impact

and helping people? And so I think about kids, you just made

a diss talked about educating your son. And you know, I

thought about discipline, see if your kid does something wrong,

like a lot of us that are a little bit older, we got we've

had those experiences where we got spankings, or we got

weapons, right. And as I used to call them my house, so there's

always that kid that did something wrong, got the

spanking. And what did he he kept doing the same thing and

just kept getting more spankings and just kept getting used to

the spankings. It didn't really change the behavior just kind of

got used to the spankings. Right. So I look at that from a

salesperson standpoint in sales, coaching and training. And what

is lacking is philosophy, understanding, right? See,

there's a big difference in when that child does something wrong.

And you say, hey, look, look, son, here's why that's wrong.

Here's the impact of what you're what you just did, right? You

did that. And this is going to happen as a result. And let me

tell you how I know that, I know that because here's my

experience. Now, when you do that, it makes a total different

impact in terms of learning. And so what I set out to accomplish

in my book is really teach my philosophy on why these things

are important, why they matter why there, they will impact your

business and correlate that back to my own personal experience

through stories of my own past, um, to help people better

understand. So my goal, my focus in training and coaching sellers

moving forward is to connect them with the philosophy of why

we do what it is that we do not just go do this, and it will

result in that because you know what I've seen it for again, I'm

25 years now in sales, it doesn't work. Now, don't get me

wrong, there are always outliers. But by and large, it

just doesn't work. Because people can't really commit to

process and commit the frameworks and commit the

structures unless they can really understand why that's so

good. And, you know, I guess I didn't even know

that we have the same philosophy because a lot of times, that's

the missing piece, right? It's you have these people, and

they're watching out so quick, right? One of the the biggest

things that a lot of companies are talking about these days is

the lack of diversity, right in leadership positions, whether

it's women or underrepresented minorities, and I'm like, Yeah,

so the reason is, because you don't have enough entry level

people. And those entry level people that you get in, you're

not giving them enough ante to understand the why behind what

they're doing. And so they just washed out, they just leave,

they're like, Well, why am I here? Why am I doing this? And

so when I'm working with people, that's like, one of the very

first things that we do, they're like, oh, yeah, we want to do

this, we want to do this want to do that? I want to do this. I'm

like, Yeah, okay. So what you need to do is you need to stop

and think about the why. And then even as a leader, so many

times a leader wants to be upfront and answer the questions

or be the one that gets the acclaim and fame. And I'm like,

No, you have to the only way your salespeople are going to

learn is if you step behind, and let them do and if they fall,

that's okay. You explain to them, Hey, you weren't

successful because this happened, or that happened? Or

you did a great job. These are the things you did really,

really well. Right. So really helping them understand what's

happening underneath the scenes. And as you were talking,

something that popped in my brain that I literally never

thought of is my mom, her degrees are in early childhood

education. And when she disciplined us it was same way.

It's like, okay, you did this wrong, but let me help you

understand why and I do the same thing with my kids. And I think

that has actually helped me. So you just unlocked something for

me.

Wesleyne you know, what you learn after lots

of years of managing and leading people, and especially in an

entrepreneurial environment that there are a lot of correlations

to and this is isn't something to denigrate people, it's just

human nature. But there are a lot of correlations to

parenting. There just is, you know, a lot of the things that

you do in parenting to be successful and parenting, you,

you apply to leadership and sales, leadership and business

leadership and vice versa.

You know, it's so often I'm like, I don't want

to denigrate anyone. And I often find myself like, I asked

people, Do you have kids? Right? Because like people want and

sometimes they say, No, I'm like, do you have nieces or

nephews? Because when you think about something that way, and

I'm like, I'm not saying that your salespeople are white kids.

But let's use a real world example or something that you've

done, you know, coaching your kids sports team, okay? Do you

go get the soccer ball? And do you kick the ball for them to

make the goal? No. So why are you actually doing that? Why are

you going and closing the sale for them? You tell them how to

do it, right? You lead them. And so when we're able to help

people understand that connection, I really think

that's how they grow. So you went from the jewelry industry

to a completely different industry. And one thing that I

say often now you guys love hearing me say this is stop

hiring your competitors rejects. Right? So you knew how to sell

in the jewelry industry? What of those skills did you find

transferable when you completely transitioned,

super easy, super easy. And this is why I

love really great, like retail salespeople, they understand how

to build a connection, and a short period of time to really

understand the relationship building piece, one of the

challenges that we've had over the years, when, you know, we

hire you hire folks out of out of college right is and that's

their first entry into the business world is everything's

really academic, right? Everything's really academic,

and they're great at spreadsheets and graded, you

know, trying to do presentations and things of that nature. But

at the end of the day, I had a hot sales manager telling me

this when I first started in jewelry, a gazillion years ago,

he said, you know, go make a friend, at the end of the day.

That's what you learn in that environment, how to connect with

someone how to do a, I'm a big fan of Always Sunny in

Philadelphia, and there's a character named Mac on that. And

he had he does an ocular pet. What does basically, when people

come into their bar, he looks at his eye, okay, they're clear,

he's good. I did my ocular packet. Anyway, you learn how to

I don't want to say size people up, because I don't believe in

like, you know, because you also learn that, hey, don't judge

anyone, like, don't judge anyone like that person that's walking

in, it's dusty. And they can be a millionaire, right? But you

learn how to find connection faster, you learn how to build a

relationship faster, because in that business lesson, you walk

into my store, what happens in that first, even that first 15

seconds is impactful how I greet you how I look at you, if I

extend my hand, you learn the importance of all those little

things right in terms of building a connection with that

person in front of you. So when I transitioned to technology,

oh, man, I was way ahead of the game way ahead of the game.

Because here's the thing, sometimes people think that the

technology or they leave too much with the tech, they lose

too much with what their value props of their product and

service or their product are. But at the end of the day, your

value props don't matter to me, what matters to me is me and my

business and what's going on with my business. Again, this

stuff is all in the book guys is coming out. So like, you know,

that's what we teach. That's what it is that we teach in the

book is like, we need to create connection, you need to find out

what you think doesn't matter, we need to find out what's going

on in that person's world. What matters most of them, because

what matters, most of them. Nine times out of 10 is not your

product, it's not your services. But once you understand what

really matters to them, you can find a way to take your product

and your services and paint that in a way to where it impacts

what they really care about. Like that's one of the things I

always in my companies, we've sold bandwidth for a whole bunch

of years. And bandwidth was the fix all for everything. Whatever

else you this is what I've always taught my salespeople,

like, Oh, we got to find what the pain is find their pain,

that's fine they care about and then we're going to frame that

our solution in a way to where it impacts us. Because it will

it can as long as we paint the picture the right way. So

anyway, my long way of answering your question, that ability to

connect with people that ability to build the build the basic

framework for a relationship

fast, and I think you hit the nail on your

head on the head. What is most important it is those

transferable sales skills. I don't care what you sell before,

but if you're a good salesperson in one industry, I can teach you

my product because my product is great. Like you said it's all

about bandwidth, but who cares? At our product, let me make sure

that you know how to connect with the person. Let me make

sure that you fully know how to diagnose and understand what

their challenges are, then we bring the product knowledge back

in. And in these technical industries that I worked with in

STEM, everybody wants to leave with the product. Nobody cares

about that crap. Like, nobody cares about it. When I was a

salesperson, I used to tell people I speak engineer, because

my clients are engineers. So what did I have to do? I had to

understand all of the technical language that they were using

all of those things that they were talking about, and connect

that back to our product, right? And if we think about that,

like, I just love what you said, it's all about bandwidth. But

which bits and pieces do I need to connect with? They need more

bandwidth.

You know, Wesleyne, I am, you're just

about to hear this from me because you don't know this

about me. So I'm originally from Ohio, oh, h i o grew up in Utah.

And so my parents moved to Utah, when I was like four years old,

and open businesses, and businesses that cater to mostly

African American community, we're talking about the 80s and

90s. So like, I'm a born disrupter, it's what I do. It's

what I've always done. It's all that I know. So I say that to

say I give the problem you made mention of the salespeople and

how they're all product based, right and focused on their

product value props and everything, which is absolutely

true. But I give them a pass, because it's not their fault.

They're part of a system that creates that. Because when you

get that job at whatever tech company, and you sit down, and

you go to their two weeks of training, or whatever it is, you

know, what they're focusing 90% of that training, here's our

product, here's why it's awesome. Here's our value props,

you know, and so when I say I'm disrupting, I'm coming in, I'm

kicking in the door. And I'm saying no, that's not how we do

it. And I say, look, tech company, you can add all of

these technical overlay people, right? When I started my career

in technology, I didn't know anything. I didn't know what a T

one was, it didn't matter, though, what didn't matter is

that I had the resources to be able to bring in those people.

So when I say you have all these technical overlays? Do we have

to know our product? Sure, do we have to know our product as much

as we think no, because you know, what our customer wants is

they want somebody that will attend to their needs, that

cares about what they care about. And it's a resource for

solutions. So like, as a salesperson, I don't need to

know everything about the product, I don't know everything

I need to be up, I need to absolutely be a resource to it,

and you absolutely have that overlay or that specialists that

can bring it in, they can help to really create the solution

that's tailor made to that customer. So again, what I'm

saying is that what we're doing and what I'm doing with my book,

and what I'm doing with my coaching and train is disrupting

a system that is built improperly. Does that make

sense?

Absolutely. I think one of the things that

boils my skin is when you start talking to some of these larger

enterprise companies, they're like, oh, yeah, we have sales

enablement. Oh, yeah, we do our sales training. I'm like, You're

doing product training, you're not actually teaching people how

to sell. And then you know, you're like, it's not the

salespersons fault. I go a little bit deeper. And like, I

see so much stuff on LinkedIn about this is how you cold call,

this is how you do this, or this is how you do that. Like they're

talking about symptoms, right? But I'm like, Hey, if you're

able to sell all of this to the salespeople, the problem is not

the salespeople, it's the sales leadership, it's the companies,

they're not providing what they need. Because if I am a good

sales manager, I'm going to teach you what you need. You

don't need to go out there and spend $1,000, to learn how to

cold call or how to write a script. So that's for me is the

big issue. It's the companies, it's the sales managers. And

then again, when we say it's not the salespeople problem, it's

not the sales managers problems, because they were the number one

salesperson, they got promoted. And all they know how to do is

what they know how to do. That's it. Right? They don't know,

virtually, because we're here on that.

Because, again, this is part of the problem in the system. Like,

again, Wesleyne. We're right here with this. So your path to

sales management is to be a great seller, right? A great

individual contributor, but you and I know that the skill set

that it takes to be a great leader, and the skill set that

it takes to be a great individual contributor are very

different. They're very different. And so you know,

that's why were you talking about these weak sales,

management and leadership. It's because they don't know how to

do it properly. All they know to do is what they did, and you

can't it's like Michael Jordan, becoming a coach Michael Jordan

is a he's a horrible coach, because Michael Jordan is just

like, Listen, what you do is you do a crossover. You go between

the legs, you go, you do a windmill, and then you dunk on

him. And meanwhile, I'm sitting here at six foot and 200 pound a

light. But Mike, I can't do that. Well, why can't you I can

do. So you can't you know, you have to have that ability to

really, first of all be able to invest in others. really care

about others because let's be honest, a lot of really

successful salespeople are very selfish, you gotta be, it just

is what it is, you know, bigger egos. And so yeah, when you talk

about that sales, leadership and sales management, I think

there's another opportunity for disruption too, in working with

these companies and how they hire what they look for. And

then hey, I get it. If you're a top salesperson, you want to be

a sales leader, we got to do better in how we train these

folks and how we prepare them for success. Whenever someone

fails under my watch, this is always been always been my

monitor, if they fail under my watch, that's on me. If I hire

somebody for a role, and they're not successful, I take it

personally. Does that mean that I don't fire anybody knows,

sometimes you got to fire people. And that doesn't work

out. And yes, there is some culpability that they have as

well, right ownership they have to take but for me, I'm always

taking it's I think it starts for anyone that's in a hiring

position and looking and saying, Hey, look, what am I doing to

best prepare that person for success in this role that I'm

putting him in? In the sales tech sales world, there's room

for a ton of improvement.

One thing that I always ask leaders, because a

lot of times they're like, oh, yeah, this person isn't

producing, they're not doing this and not doing this. They're

not doing that. And so I say, Well, okay, let me ask you a

question. Have you given that person 100% of what they need to

be successful? And they have to pause and think, and I think

probably 99% of the time, they say no, I have not right? And

that's the thing before we place blame on operations isn't doing

this product isn't doing this salespeople aren't doing this?

What in and of yourself, have you done to ensure that you're

managing across, up and down? Right, so those things that

sales managers, salespeople, we're always placing blame. And

then as a leader, as an entrepreneur, you take it

personally, right? It's like, but I hired this person who

thought they were gonna be good, what happened? Right, like, what

did I do something wrong with them? And so what you as

somebody who seems very introspective, what are your

tips when you have somebody who may be on the fringes and

they're not doing right? How do you deal with that situation?

Oh, communication? Yeah, I mean,

like, I had a leader that I learned, I learned from a long

time ago. And I always kind of apply this in my business, I

believe, in some respects, you over communicate like, so this

particular scenario, where you're talking about, hey, look,

maybe they're not meeting expectations, and there's, you

know, over communicate, here's what's going to happen. When you

do that, and you're really honest with where we're at, and

where people are at. They're going to either go one of two

ways, they're going to go like this, they're gonna really check

in, or they're gonna check out. And both are good. Both are

good. I often say like, you know, people, certain people, I

someone's watching this right now, I really lean into Ron out,

too. So if you haven't noticed, I lean into who I am. Because

there's certain people that are watching this right now.

Wesleyne. And they're like, you know, this guy, I dig, man, this

is my guy. And other people are like, Oh, no, I'm out this dude.

I don't like him. And part of that, again, is because I over

communicate a little bit, right. And I think that gets us to

success faster. And bringing this back to the salesperson,

you know, if you over communicate, you sit down, you

have that conversation with them, and you tell them hey,

look, this is exactly where and you tell them what you're

concerned about what's going on on your end, like right and how

they relate to that. They're gonna go one of two ways. And I

believe in making it and controlled emotion. I am an

emotional leader. I'm a controlled emotional leader. I

don't ever I think a lot of great coaches are that way. If

you look at like, sports coaches that are really successful, like

Nick Saban, Nick Saban is he may look emotional at times on the

sideline, oh, he's not he's controlled, he's sending a

message. And so I've learned some I would share with leaders

out there learn how to use emotion as your tool. never, I

never get out of pocket. I never lose control. But I will place a

colorful expletive I'll do different things at different

that really kind of shoot the message but it's always under

control. That's always respectful, but it's just

another way of sending home the message. So again, bring it back

I'd sit down have a conversation, put all the cards

on the table, all the cards on the table that's going to get

you fastest to wherever it is you want to go going through all

of your let me do my 90 Day performance plan I'm going to do

I'm putting you on for now man, you know what that'll do usually

it'll usually get people just kind of dragging it out dragging

it out and still underperforming, put all the

cards on the table there they're gonna check in or they're gonna

check out and both of those are good for you because you don't

want someone dragging along hanging and not really checked

in and if someone really was want to check in with you want

that you want a little more emotional. You want them to be a

little more emotionally connected, because that means

they're going to work hard and you can lean into them more

i communication, something that so often in our

relationships, whether professionally or personally, we

don't do right and a lot of times it's like you're this

shrinking violent when there's difficult conversations to be

had, but it's better to just come out front and be like, hey,

we need to have a conversation. And these are the things that

you're doing well, these are things are not going so well. So

how can we move forward? Right? Just having that upfront,

honest, open communication with your employees really helps you

grow as a leader, and helps them grow as a individual. So you

have this really cool business, I want you to tell us a little

bit about it. How did it come to be? What's it called, and what

you guys do there?

Sure. So um, so I run a couple of companies,

again, we have a sub, I have a channel sales agency that sells

b2b products for mostly SAS products for larger technology

companies, right. And I do coaching and consulting, but as

well, which I mentioned earlier, but what people get most excited

about is business and bourbon. And, you know, like I said,

earlier, in this conversation, I'm a born disrupter, it's who I

am. And we are, here's the big broad statement, a, we are

disrupting the way that business is being done. Okay. And this

goes back to some of my core philosophies on how people sell,

right, and how we sell which is product based, and all that. And

so, when I say disrupting how we're doing business, we do that

by creating experiences and creating events that really help

to create a foundation and an environment for connecting at a

higher and deeper level, where I told you that I lean into who I

am, the reason I lean into who I am, is because I want to connect

with the people that are in on me as fast as possible. And

people that aren't, I don't care, because I know the people

that are in and on me, those are people that I'm going to be able

to do business with, because we've got high alignment, right?

Maybe they got kids like I got maybe they curse every now and

then may they enjoy whiskey, all those sorts of things, right.

And so we'll connect at a deeper level, which will allow us to do

better business and do business for longer. All right. So that's

what we do at business and bourbon by creating these

experiences, both in person and virtual experiences that connect

business professionals and sales leaders so that they can create

those types of deeper relationships. Right. So the

ways that we do that, again, we have an in person event that

travels across the country, which is a we call whiskey

wisdom and collaboration we do we have whiskey tasting, we have

our chef, our Food Network, Chef, Steve Beatty, who prepares

food pairings on site, we have dynamic speakers, we have a

panel discussion. And you know, the focus of this, I'm giving

you the shortened condensed version, those are just kind of

the highlights. But the focus of this is the audience. It's the

people that are in attendance, we want to serve them, we want

to serve them, we want to create an environment where they can

connect with other people, right? So this high energy is

not sitting, there's a lot of moving around, there's a lot of

getting to know people. Because, you know, again, we understand

that I understand through my 25 years in business, that the key

to doing great business and doing better business is finding

people that you have great high alignment with and connecting

with them. So that's one of the things we do we also do virtual

stuff as well, we have a fantastic webinar series, which

I don't even like call it a webinar, because when people

think webinar, they think like traditional webinar where it's

like people talking at you, but we don't do that like we are

when I say disrupting, like even my partners, our corporate

partners, and sponsors have a hard time doing what is asked of

them on our platforms, because I tell them, hey, listen, I say

listen, big company don't pitch. You don't get to pick your

product. That's all they know how to do is okay, here's my

money. Okay, so I get to speak. Okay, cool. Well, I'm gonna

speak and say, hey, well, you know, we do XYZ new, here's what

you do, you bring value to the audience, you can share based

upon your expertise, it just has to be a valuable, impactful

share that's going to make get at high emotional impact with

our audience. Because I understand, again, going back to

what it is that we're about, we're about creating this

environment that is conducive to building relationships and

connection, right? And so that's going to happen when I've got

when you come on Wesleyan, you speak and you talk about

something that's not Oh, I do this, and I do it. Nobody can

sit. When you talk about hey, look, you know, here's how you

can be a better leader. Here's why I think the sales model is

flawed and how you can do better. And then what happens

people are like, Oh, she I dig her. I need to find out more

about her. But they also talk amongst themselves. They're

like, Oh, that was pretty good. What did you think of that? No,

I thought and guess what happens organically and naturally,

people connect at a higher level. So again, we do that we

do virtual whiskey tasting experiences. We do virtual

cocktail experiences. Each of these are designed for different

things. Our webinar series, again, is a virtual version of

our in person where we we do a mixer where people get to

connect and collaborate and then our panel gets to engage with

the audience. We don't talk with them. We involve them in the

discussion and the discussion. and serves them so anyone that

hops on one of my platforms, like the first thing, you'll

find that they're going to be panelist is that you're going to

get like two three questions from me. And then we're done.

Because we really lean into what the audience needs. Because

we've done our events all over the country. And you know, what

people care about in Missoula, Montana is way different than

what people care about in Tampa, you know, and vice versa. So

like, that's what we do. We bring whiskey as part of it. But

it's not about the whiskey guys. It's called business and bourbon

for reason. It's always business before bourbon, always been this

before. Bourbon, the whiskey a lot of people that come to our

events and they don't drink, and that's fine. Because it's not

about drinking. It's about connecting with people. It's

about doing better business through building deeper

relationships.

Wow, that is amazing. There were so many

things that you said that really resonated with me, I think the

one thing is that I feel like networking is broken, right? The

way the traditional model of networking is very broken,

right? Because you show up, you do your little elevator pitch,

you're like, Okay, what business do you have for me? You don't

have anything, okay, I'm gone. And I'm never coming back.

Right. That's one thing. And then on the flip side, on the

business, corporate sponsorship side, I'm really feeling again,

the same thing, oh, I'm here to just pitch myself. And something

that I really hold on to is educate them and they will come

right you don't have to be pushing. Don't be so pushy.

Don't be spiked, definitely down their throat, teach them

something. And that like, Oh, I got that for free. Like, what

would I get if I paid a little something for it? Right, like,

make them curious. And so it sounds like you're doing really

amazing things traveling throughout the country, as well

as virtually so when you think about your career, what is one

thing that you are most excited about accomplishing? You've done

so much? I don't know. Can you pin it down to one.

So that's always been hard for me. And

it's been hard for me because I'm given my background. And

given where you know, where we come from, we being my family.

And I've never been one to I've had trouble with gratitude. And

I've been working on that over the last couple of years. And so

a lot of things that I've accomplished, and I've done, I

didn't really take time to really be grateful for it and be

like, oh, man, that was pretty dope, like, so it's been like,

just checking off boxes. Okay, did that are next do that do

that. And so I'm learning to do better with that. Which makes

that a difficult question for me, right. But overall, the

thing that I'm most grateful for, and my biggest

accomplishment, it's my kids, man, like just seeing them go

into young adulthood and both go and then natural tracker of

college students and everything, right? It's just, it's I'm

witnessing their lifestyle, the things that they've been able to

experience the things that are normal for them. Like, I'm

seeing generational change, like, right in front of my eyes.

I mean, like, you know, I'm from we're from Youngstown, Ohio,

man, oh, from, we're from steel mill country, and I just see an

experience through their eyes, how things that are really,

really abnormal for me, are just normal for them. And to me,

that's beautiful. And part of that comes from my

entrepreneurial journey, you know, and when I say lifestyle,

guys, I'm not just talking about loan money and stuff, it's just,

I'm talking about culturally, you know, like, they've been

able to be raised in a diverse environment where they're not

overly impressed by the BS, you know, so yeah, and a little tip

for my entrepreneurial folks out there people in general, but

especially entrepreneurs, it's five to nine plans, because you

know, in entrepreneurship, money is gonna come, money's gonna go,

I've seen a lot of success, and I've seen some massive failure.

And so the one thing that I started that when my son who's

the oldest one, he was a couple, and six months old son like that

started saving. And so there was always something regardless of

my business doing this and all that, that was always there. And

so now with them being in college, I have that to draw on.

And that's, that is, again, made a lot lost a lot had all those,

those cars that you guys are like idolizing, like, yeah, I've

owned them, exotic cars and all that stuff, but like, and

they've come and gone. But that's always been there. And so

that's the thing that I'm most proud of.

I love it. And generational change, I think

that's how I can kind of sum up the thing that you're you're

most excited about accomplishing and listening to you. I was

thinking about my son the other day, I was dropping him off at

school. He's like, Yeah, we had this conversation on the bus and

people were talking about how many states they've been to. And

I was like, I didn't want to say anything, because I've been to

25 states and they've only been to like one or two. And it's

because it's cultures like, oh, I travel for work. I need to

bring my kids to like, Come on, let's go. We're going somewhere.

Right. And so I think that the way that we're a But to impart

to change what has happened to us or the experiences we've had

in our children is really something that we can hang our

hat on. Oh, this has been a great conversation. What is the

one best way that people can get in contact with you?

Everywhere? Can't find me. I'm slipping. I'm

absolutely slipping but you can go find me on LinkedIn. Ron l

Richards. There's only one so far and two Ns two L's you can

Google business and bourbon, Ron l Richards any of that stuff

you'll find plenty ways to contact with me you can always

email me Ron L at Ron l richards.com. Doesn't get

doesn't get any easier than that. Ron L at Ron l

richards.com. Two NS two L

I love it. By now. This has been an amazing

conversation. We have talked all the way from starting out

working in your parents business to what you're doing now giving

back to your children. Thank you so much for sharing your time,

your talent, your expertise and your energy with us today.

No, thank you. I really appreciate the

opportunity to sit and chop it up with you. And it's always an

honor anytime anyone would offer up their platform and allow me

to run my mouth. So was saying I appreciate it.

Thank you so much again, and that was another

episode of the science of selling stem and anything that

you do, always remember to transform your sales. Until next

time.

Thank you for joining us today on the snack sized

sales podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and

leave us a review. Learn how to continue increasing your bottom

line by getting simplified sales strategies delivered to your

inbox weekly by going to www dot snack sized sales.com. Trust me,

your bank account will grow and love you