MASTER Your Sales MINDSET with DYLAN ALI! [Bullpen Sessions Episode 17]

All right, here we are. It is Bullpen Sessions. My name is Andy Neary, and this is episode 17. If you are a business leader or a business professional and you know that you want to get more done in less time doing what you love, this is the podcast for you. Now, I'm excited. This is episode 17, but this is interview number one. And I couldn't have picked a better individual for the first interview than to have none other than Dylan Ali with me. Dylan, welcome aboard, man.

Dude, thank you. I am honored and blessed to be number one.

Nudge, nudge.

A little self love there. But no, I'm absolutely excited that you chose me to share this space with you, and I'm excited to jump into the dialogue. I'm excited to share with your audience. And at the end of the day, you and I have this great relationship, and I'm just happy to chat with a buddy, just to chat with a buddy for a few minutes, and hopefully that we can take some of that and give some value and lend some impact, brother.

So.

It'S the beauty of a virtual world right now, Dylan, right? You and I have only met one.

Time for what, yes, half hour maybe.

And I feel like you're a good friend now. I feel like I've known you for a long, long time. The irony is you currently live where I came from, but now we're 1,000 miles apart. So if you right now are in sales and you know that you need to work on your mindset and you have to create some better habits and rituals, you are going to love this interview. So let's dive right into it. Dial in. One thing I work with so many on right now is telling their story, sharing their story with the world. So I am going to give you a chance to tell yours. Take a few minutes to tell us about who you are, where you came from, and what you are doing today.

Absolutely. Before I jump into that, though, Andy, I want to frame it out right? We talk about mindset, and specifically in the world of sales, through my story, I want you to pay attention to a few things, because what we fail to recognize is that our history equals our present. And even more so, from a subconscious standpoint, the emotional traumas or attachment that we have to stories dictate how we operate. And.

25 years in IT sales, I can tell you that there were a lot of bad habits that were based in fear and anxiety. And so creating the rituals like you talked about, understanding where the root came from. So, you know, here I am, eight years old, right, on an Airplane. And the airline hostess walks by and the guy next to me who is probably around our age, right, but this is back in 1981. So he's got the cool porn stache, right? And he's wearing the navy suit and he says to her, hey, I'll have a whatever, rum and coke and get my buddy over here whatever he wants. Boom. Emotional attachment experience number one. In that moment, what I didn't recognize as an eight year old little boy coming from Trinidad to New York City was that was a first vision of success for me. Like in that moment, what I didn't articulate in my little boy mind and heart was I want to be that guy and give this kid or another kid this same type of feeling. And here's the reality of things, dude. At the end of the day, we are all little 8 and 10 year old boys and girls and it doesn't matter what we build. All we want is to feel worthy, to feel enough, to feel loved. Put that on the back burner because that's going to be really important to the story. So fast forward, we land in New York in 1981. I mean, wow, Boom. Right? What's going on? I come from Trinidad, what, 60 square miles? My block was bigger than that in the Bronx, right? And so, you know, fast forward. We moved down to Texas and you know, fast forward, fast forward. I did not go to traditional route of getting a college degree. I tried three times and by the third time I tapped out and said, this isn't for me. So now you've got 19 year old dialing that's trying to figure out what to do. And at the time down in Beaumont, Texas, we were opening up a lot of prisons and a state prison opened up. And man, at that point in my life it's like, you know, okay, $24,000 a year, it's a good job. I know that the fed pen's gonna open up next year and I get a federal job and man, I'm gonna be making 50 grand a year and I'm living life.

So fast forward two years and literally I think 12 use of forces, which is a, not a verbal but a physical altercation with an inmate. There have been people that have been prison guards for 20 years that didn't even have half of that. But I was really in my head, I had a big ego at that point, so I attracted it. There was a point where I said, you know what? Mike Tyson is the only person that I know that gets paid enough to fight every day. There was one weekend Andy, within three days, I had. Within two days, I had three use of forces. Now, I'm not bragging about it, but I'm just saying that was where I was at. So I had an opportunity to go into sales. A buddy of mine became a manager of a retail store. Long story short, said, hey, I'll hire you. The DM says, nope, you're not cut out for sale, but I'll give you a job in the warehouse. My buddy Andrew Vandegrift said, d, give me six months, bro. I'll get you on a sales floor. I trusted. I had faith. I moved into it six months later. Within a month or two, I was a top sales guy in that store. Within six months, I was one of the top sales guys in the company, right? Two years later, as the story goes, I chased a girl. So left Beaumont, Texas, to Austin and literally bought a house, quit my job. At that point, I was making about 70 grand a year. Bought $125,000 home at what, 25, 26. Quit my job and said, hey, I'm set, idiot. Right? But I did it. I walked by faith, not by sight. Long story short, I'm leaving. And a buddy of mine, Mike Malpa, says, hey, you should go to work at Dell, man. Even the janitor at Dell's a millionaire. So I said, okay, I'm moving to Austin. I'm going to work at Dell. Six months later to the day, I walk in my first day at Dell, and that was my IT career to startup. I literally walked in the door. $32,000 a year OTE on target earnings. So if I hit 100% of my quota, I made 32 grand. My top year prior to leaving was 320. So I 10x'd it.

My OTE was 250 when I left. So I got my OTE up to where I wanted it. I 10x my first year in corporate. I was successful, man. I was absolutely successful. And I was just looking for a way to make more money. And what I found was my way home. And what I mean is that instead of. Instead of being external or finding what I wanted external, I found it within. And that led to a lot of my framework and my morning rituals, and it led me to dissolving those, you know, those fears and those bits of anxiety. Here's an example. I had a goal that I wanted to make 100 grand a year by the time I was 30. Now here I am, no college degree, right? Literally, like, brand new place. Don't know what I'm Doing, like, literally walking into corporate America like, dumb and blind, but in my mind, I'm gonna make a hundred grand a year. And so what? I went to work, and guess what? Fear and anxiety drove that 30. I made $97,000. I failed. I was miserable, Andy. Miserable. I thought I was the biggest loser. So what did I do? Discipline says, pull your britches up. Pull my britches up. And I went to work. Next year, I made 113. Do you know how long I celebrated?

I'm guessing not very.

Every bit of five minutes. Why? Because while I addressed everything from a mental standpoint, I had yet to go under the covers and go to an emotional standpoint. So now when I hit the 113. Yeah. But now I had to go back into protect mode. Oh, my God, what if they find out that I don't have a college degree? What if they find out that I just got lucky? What if they find out? Or what if I can't do this again?

And so 31 to literally 40. I'm 46. So three years ago. 43. Yeah. 42. 43, maybe. So the better part of 10 years, man, I beat the shit out of corporate and I took big paychecks home. I was slamming big deals left and right. I built a freaking mansion, but it was empty because I never went back and I never healed those emotional wounds. So every time I got successful, I would knock myself back down. Every time I would win, I would lose. And over the last three years, because of some of the shifts that I've made, because of the absolute shift that I've made, I mean, I've had some of my best years in corporate. I had the courage to walk away because guess what? There's not enough zeros to keep me in that mask, right? But before I did, because I never wanted to run away from anything, and because I have a vision that's so strong, I allowed myself to be pulled. So as you see me today with the earrings and the hand tattoos and the beard, the sense of fashion, I sold out to what I thought corporate was years ago, and I looked really cookie cutter. And I made a lot of money, right? I had a lot of success. But like I told you, there's not enough zeros anymore to go to make me play that character. You know, in Hollywood used to be, the actors always strive for that $20 million movie, right? That 20 million dollar paycheck. And I say there's not enough zeros on any paycheck for me to step back into that character. Because that character was not who I am. Over the last three years, I dissolved that character and I allowed myself to shine and I was accepted. And actually my, my branding went up in the corporate space. My W2 went up. Right, because of who I truly am. And it's what led me to walking away. Because I know if I can do it, you can do it, and anyone else listening can do it.

Man, I hope if you're listening to this right now, you took away the message that Dialon is saying right now there is not enough money out there that can overcome self doubt. There is not enough money in the world that there's not a house, there's not a car, whatever it might be, that can fill your cup if what is inside is empty. Now, Dylan, we're going to get into the habits and rituals which I'm so excited to get into in a minute. But I want to go back to your story quick. And there's so many questions that can come out of this, but very few people, I would say, in this world have had the experience of being a prison guard before they got into sales. Right. If I were to ask you the question, is there one thing you learned as a prison guard that actually helped you in sales?

What would you say that's really good?

Not having resources, but being, being resourceful. So I'll give you an example. Some of the most jacked dudes that I've ever met in my life were in prison. They didn't have supplements, they didn't have weights, they didn't have a coach, they didn't have all that. And I've been fortunate enough because I love lifting, I've powerlifted, but my main thing was always martial arts. And I've had the opportunity to train with some killers. I've had the opportunity to be around like, you know, some really top level athletes. And no joke, physically, there are some guys that are locked up 23 out of 24 hours a day that look better and are in better shape. So what does that mean? You know what? I've seen guys order books from the library and have the biggest law books and you think they're the jailhouse lawyers. They're not. You walk by their cell, they've got them in their pillowcases and they're curling. Right. I've seen guys make, you know, toilet bowl punch when they had, you know, they wanted a little bit of alcohol and man, I smelt that stuff.

I would not drink it.

But you know what? They, they learned to be resourceful and it taught me to be resourceful. So now when I came into corporate, I brought a lot of that with me because I didn't feel that I was up to par. Here's the reality things. Most people that are sitting on left and right or across the table had a degree. Now even worse, most of them had double degrees and most of those guys had or gals had mba. So they were way, way ahead of me. So for me, I knew that once I got to the table I had to be resourceful. So now I had to go back to what can I use in my environment. So what I became really good at was being a grinder. What I became really good at was thinking outside the box. And I think those prison years really helped me to articulate that well.

And you bring up so many good points that I think are shifting in society right now. If you are going to be successful, whether it's in sales or anything you don't need. The college degree has lost a lot of significance in the last five to 10 years. And I think so many, especially those that are younger in the professional world today, still live their professional brand as if the college degree is what it was about. Book smarts mattered. How others view me is important. Meaning my, my brand, my dress is based on others opinions. And that's one thing I love about you and it's you spent a good chunk of your career in that mindset, right? You made all the money in the world, you built a nice house, you wore the nice clothes. But a lot of that was based on probably what you thought others wanted you to have, right? It was based on opinions and at the end of the day.

It didn't make you happy. And what I love about you since I've known you is you have completely gone into creating the dial and Ali brand. Right? The beard, the way you dress, the style. Corporate America might shudder at that. But you know what? Now people are seeing the real dial in and it's paying off in 10x for you right now, which is so awesome to see. So on your website you say something that I want you to expound on a little bit and that is, you know, you have made all the money in the world in corporate America. You took home the big paychecks, but there is not enough zeros on a paycheck that can overcome a lack of self worth. Expound on that a little bit for somebody out there who might be younger, early in their professional career and they're just focused on the money.

Yeah. So many of us create this Persona or this character based on what we think other people's opinion of us are. I'll give you an example. At one point, my nickname in corporate was Big Duke. I mean, I was jacked. I was like 260, 270. All I did was eat chicken pizza and work out, right? And so guess what? I was good at sales. But that really wasn't a thing. It was the brand Big Duke. When I walked in and people were like, big Duke is here. I felt so great, right? So guess what? Over the years, I became Big Duke. And more of dialing got pushed away. Now, here's what I've learned. The quick time collapse is don't be Big Duke. Be who you are. Because when you are who you are, you know, even my sense of fashion is just an extension of myself. It's not because I want to look like a certain thing. But when you are, two things are going to happen. People are going to be attracted to you because you're vulnerable. You're allowing them to be vulnerable. They're going to see within you what they see within themselves. But really, the more important piece is the people, the haters that are detracted from you. So you talk about, there are some people in corporate that may shock at you, man. That's what I want. Because guess what? We're all walking reflections of each other. So now, the guy or gal that says, to give you an example, I've literally sat in meetings and I talk with my hands a lot, purposefully, especially now that I've had hand tattoos for a few years and I can see the CEO across the table just waiting. And then finally, man, I just gotta ask you, what's with the hand tattoos, dude? And then I'm like, I fucking got you now, bro. Because it's an ant and it's a heart. And so, Andy, the reason that I have these is in the shamanic world, the ant represents dedication, collaboration, teamwork, right? And the heart is simply a reminder that I have a heart to love myself and others unconditionally. So many of us pray to God and say, hey, I want this, I want this. Give me this. But the truth is, God has given us the hands to do the work. The ant, a heart to love ourselves without condition in others. And if you notice here, there's an eyeball. And when I'm not acting from that space, the eyeball is simply my soul staring back at me and putting me in check, saying, D, are you leading with love or fear right now? Are you working or are you just asking? And what I can say that Anyone in their career today, before you think about selling out for that paycheck, think about who you are. Because right now you don't have a big home, you don't have a family, you don't have big opex. So maybe eat ramen and soup for the first year or two like I did, There were guys around me that were just killing it, making me feel less and less every day. But guess what? No other way to say it. Then I fucking just blown by them. And I've lapped them several times. It's not ego, it's just reality. Because I was willing to stop and start to eat ramen and start to figure out who I was. So the first couple years, the first 10 years I was in it, but once I scaled back and said, man, I can be me, then it really started showing up. So don't get me wrong, when I started being me, the market kind of was like, what's going on? And there may have been a couple months where, you know, I was borderline eating ramen, but it was all part of my process in uncovering who I am. And today I can tell you, my old corporate job right now in the middle of COVID can call me back and say, hey, dialin. Hey, you were just kidding. We were just kidding. Take your old position back. We'll give you your old money. And I'd be like, thank you, but no, thank you, because there's not enough zeros to make me put those masks back on.

You know, what you said about stepping into your true brand? I mean, for me, that was a game changer about a year, year and a half ago. I admit, too, I was one of those individuals that even when I put myself out on social media, I felt if I didn't have the tie on, people would not take me seriously. And what I've come to learn, Dialan, is to me, it's not about what's on your. You know what, what's on your back, the clothing on your back. It's the content coming out of your mouth. It's the message coming out of your mouth that matters. If people are offended that I might be posting a video with me in a T shirt and you don't like it, unfollow me. It's okay, because this is who I am, what I love about you. I hope people caught this. If you are going to grow a business right now, whatever business it is, you have to have a personal brand. There is so much noise in the market today, you have to step up and stand out you are literally living your story on your body. That's what I love about it so much. And there was, you know, there's so much I like about you. Dialin. But now that I. Here's a couple things I realize and why you and I are so aligned. Number one, we both use our hands a lot when we do this.

Yes. Very animated.

You don't realize this, but you and I both realized that hazelnut coffee at Panera might be the most underrated coffee in America.

Oh, yes, absolutely.

I posted that on social media a few weeks back. I told Amy. I'm like, it is the most underrated coffee in the country. Nobody understands how good that coffee is, bro.

It's hilarious. So we talk about rituals and routines, Right?

And let's dive into that.