Leading with Clarity and Heart with David Reyes

A stage 4 brain cancer, a career on pause, then a comeback that took a $30K region to tens of millions. Today, David Reyes shows us why clarity and heart beat chaos and fear. Every time. Welcome to the NeuroLeadership Edge podcast, brain science for bold leaders ready to master their mind and own their voice. I'm your host, Claire Hayek, NeuroLeadership expert and founder of Mind Soul Purpose team building. So, by the end of this episode, Leading with Clarity and Heart, you'll know how to stay steady under real pressure, lead people with purpose, not panic, no panic here, and give your team the clarity that speeds everything up. Without further ado, let me introduce our guest. David Reyes is a Senior Sales and Business Development Executive with over 18 years of experience building high-performance teams, leading international market expansion, and delivering multi-million dollar revenue growth. Known for crafting scalable go-to-market strategies and forging strategic partnerships, he has successfully launched and grown business units across LATAM, North America, and beyond. Pretty special guest, don't you think? David brings a blend of strategic vision, operational excellence, and people-first leadership that drives sustainable growth while inspiring teams to exceed their goal. David, welcome to the show.

Thanks so much, Claire, for having me.

Yes, thanks for accepting to be on the show. I mean, you have such an extensive experience. This was really relevant for, for, for me, for you to be here because you have so much to share with us. Your story really touched my heart and I'm looking forward for all our listeners to, to get to know you better and basically learn from your insights. So let's dive right in. I want to know, you know, I think, you know, you've gone through a lot with stage 4 cancer. I kind of gave it away at the beginning, but I still want to ask you, what was it that really shaped how you lead today? Whether it was a stressful event you went through or a career change, please tell us more.

Yeah, I would say surviving cancer was a big shift for me. It was a moment that instantly reframed my perspective on leadership, Business and life, fighting through the challenge taught me the the power of clarity, resilience, and focusing on what fully and truly matters, which is people and purpose. I found that sometimes as leaders, sales leaders, we miss our primary job, which is two things. I I think is the first one is. To remove obstacles, to stop our team's ability to succeed, to help them to succeed. And the second is to empower them to reach their full potential.

So if we can talk a little bit more about your cancer, if you're comfortable sharing that with us, you know, when you're diagnosed, I mean, what went through your mind? You were successful then. I mean, you were, you had a big job and what happens, what happens as a leader with all these responsibilities and you get that. And I can't even imagine. I know a lot of people that have gone through cancer, even in my family. And still, I can't even imagine with somebody in your position and responsibilities, what does it do? What's that first thing that you could, that comes to your mind? When you see something like that and when you experience something like that?

Yeah, the first thing is what compromise and partnership you have with the company, because that means that you're going to be gone and then you're going to lose the opportunities, the revenue impact and everything. And then your family too. What does it mean for you as a head of household, you know, having, having A wife, kids, and everything. Just I feel like your personal and professional life just flash and chaotic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So you're obviously here with us, and you're healthy. So we're know you you beat cancer. So yeah, this is this is huge and so inspiring, and and I haven't even scratched the surface yet. So just teasing the listeners here about about you. your career. But just a quick 60-second brain tip, if I may, for all of our listeners. Obviously, in high-pressure situations, whether, you know, you find out something horrible is happening, or, you know, a project is going to hell, I mean, who knows? You know, we all go through challenges at different levels. What really happens in your brain now that, you know, the stress is completely at a high spike? You can use a simple physiological Sigh, two short inhales through the nose, one long exhale through the mouth. So, and you do that three to five rounds. What that does, it really dials down the body's alarm going. You know, that's that's kind of ringing and going. You know, going fast. So what happens is you bring it back to your prefrontal cortex that can think again because otherwise we're just completely freaking out. We're in our amygdala or Other other areas in the brain, and we're not now we're not thinking properly. You know, the CEO of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, is no longer operating. So when you do that that that breath, so the two two inhales and and the long exhale, kind of like a sigh exhale. Do three to five rounds. That really helps you just refocus and stay in your decision area, and. Before, before you speak or make a decision. And if somebody's right in front of you, just throw that at you. You could do that. Just take 5 seconds and do it in a very subtle way. Everybody sighs all the time, so it's nothing embarrassing. You'll be surprised what that does. So this has actually been proven with a study done by Stanford. They did the research on the exhale-heavy breathing and how it really affects the mood and puts it back in our prefrontal cortex. But enough geek talk. I'm an engineer, as you, as you all know, and I love to geek out on neuroscience. So you don't have—

That's, that's really good. Excellent. One thing that I discovered is that the brain is such an amazing machine. And I mean, taking those steps to learn how to, like, take a break and restart whenever it is happening is actually meaningful, especially in sales. I mean, this is huge. We deal with so many things. So that's a good tip.

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, no problem. And I've mentioned another one quickly, you know, David, this is your fault because you're encouraging me. Like, I was ready to move on. Now I'm going, maybe I should mention this other one. I promise it's going to be very fast, but I'm sharing this because I want to add value to our listeners. And not only by giving our mic to our guest leaders that are so inspiring, just like David. But also, so you can part with tips like, how do I do it? What do I do? Right? So another one I mentioned the last episode, previous episodes, is the 4-7-8 pattern. So for a 4-second inhale, slow inhale, hold your breath for 7 seconds, and then exhale on 8 seconds. So 4-7-8. Now, if you can't hold your breath for 7 seconds, it's not a problem. You can hold it for 4 seconds and Build your way up to 7. This really, really— those longer controlled exhalations, they increase the vagal tone and they downshift the whole stress response. So enough about neuroscience for now. But yeah, do you, you know, try that? Let me know how that goes. And I know it helps me a lot, especially in the morning to help me refocus.

And 4, 7, 8 right here.

4, 7, 8. You got it.

You got it.

Tell me about the mindset shift. Or a lesson that helped you as a leader, helped you show up differently, regardless whether it's cancer-related or not. But what did you have to change?

Yeah, you know, as I was saying, that the human brain is a fantastic machine. If you would ask me that, you know, a decade ago, I would say probably starting the business for LATAM Qualtrics, because, you know, it was a brand new journey, new product, new business, a new market and all those things, right? They just demanded a lot of learning. But to be honest, I got to go back again to cancer because, you know, it taught me to be truly resilient and then it taught me also the power of humanity, really, and how we can achieve the impossible sometimes. And that was, for me, it was a total mind shift on that because I, you know, I never experienced that before. But now when I was living that, it really changed my whole leadership operating rhythm and everything had to To be involved with.

Yeah, I bet. I mean, I can't even imagine. It just kind of— I think when we talk to, or, you know, we meet people that have gone through cancer and it puts things in perspective, and I think it brings people to their core. And you said it, David, you know, leading with heart, putting it back, back to your heart. You feel more focused and now you're not bombarded by a gazillion things. Now you're just focusing on surviving and focusing on your health, on yourself. You put yourself first. And this is something that I'm always telling leaders and clients that I coach is that sometimes they come to me and say, my team is not working. Things are not happening. How can I fix it? And all that. And what we realize is the— I don't want to say the problem, but the challenge is The focus on themselves, on growing, on dealing with their own self-sabotage patterns or the chaos happening in their brain, in their life, in their reality, their thoughts, their inner critic, so on and so forth. So when you focus on yourself and grow and be in your heart and live in empathy and humility and clarity, everything just makes sense at that point. Once you're anchored and you're grounded. grounded, then everything else around you follows. Things just become clearer, simpler, right?

Yeah.

And unfortunately, a lot of us, whether we're in leadership positions or not, have to go through some kind of disease or an accident or life-threatening situation to wake up. And again, I'm not an exception and I'm not gonna Elaborate on that today. But, you know, we've— I'm sure we've all gone through different things at different levels, different serious levels, right? I'm not comparing here. But wouldn't it be nice if we just took that upon ourselves and worked on ourselves and tried to really get better and play at the level we need to play and try to, you know, maybe avoid a thing or two about hitting a wall?

Yeah.

But you know what? All experiences are good experiences. All challenges are good, and there's always a gift. I always talk about the gift. It's there's always a gift, and I'm curious about the gift that you got from if you want to look at it in a positive way. Now, looking back on what you've gone through, and you know cancer coming back to to the business world, and and and and you know all the the struggle and hard work to get back on track. Like what is the gift for you? What was that gift? Going, my God, if we connect those dots, that was, you know, this is it.

Yeah. And for sure. I mean, the coolest thing about this whole journey is that sometimes you feel that you are alone and you have to take everything by yourself and to do everything on your own. But the, and this is why as a leader, it's so important to lead with heart, because sometimes you have no idea the support you can get. And having great leaders around you can do so many things for you, positive things, those gifts that you actually want to have. You know, I had the opportunity to work with, with great leaders, great people— Carl Barksdale, Dan Watkins, John DiGustino, I mean, he was my CRO and let me tell you a quick story about John. And this is what made me change everything. You know, I came back from Qualtrics after I had my cancer and I had to start pretty much everything from scratch because I didn't have my opportunities, my accounts, nothing. Right. So it was one of those days that I, it was, you know, pretty dark. I had no confidence. I was really in a, in a bad place. And my CRO, John DeGustino, he was walking by, he saw me, and he said, hey, he asked me, hey Dave, could you come to my office? I want to talk to you. So of course I was, I was nervous. I went to his office and he said, first of all, he's a big boxing and MMA fan, but he asked me, he's like, Ever wonder what makes some fighters iconic while others stay average?

Hmm.

And then that made me— that made me think. So I was like, well, I, I don't, I don't really know. And then he's like, it's about how they get up. Every fighter fails eventually, but the great ones rise. They leave— they learn from their mistakes and come back stronger. than the rest, because the other ones stay, stay down, even though they're still standing.

Right.

So that really was powerful to me, and it really changed everything. From that point on, I went up to achieve success after success, but it was because of those, those words. But then As I was thinking about them, it wasn't just the fact that those were some powerful words. It came down to my CRO, which is, he probably had over 500 sales leaders underneath him.

Right.

He took the time to talk to me about my performance, about my mental issue. Obviously he knew. what I achieved in the past. But he took the time to talk to me. And then I thought, what if I bring that to my leadership style? What if I am always there for my team, for my people? I don't make everything related to just numbers and metrics, but about, you know, you're a human, let me talk to you. Let me see what you have in mind. Do you want to get promoted? Do you want to reach your OTE? What is it that you want as a human? You want to be the best father? You want to invest in different companies? What is it that you want to do? So it wasn't just the fact that, you know, that someone gave me some powerful words. It's just the fact that you have somebody in your corner, especially when that person is in a higher position than you.

So this is amazing. I mean, you know, it's, it's as simple— look at how simple that was. I mean, he took the time to speak to you. He probably, you know, felt that the need was there. So that's somebody that is mindful and aware of the environment around him. And for somebody to be that sensible and, and connected That's somebody that has, you know, a lot of clarity within them and that is grounded. That's a great, great thing. And that's one thing we underestimate. Sometimes we hold back and say, ah, you know, I'm not gonna go up to so-and-so and tell her or him or whoever they— give them the talk or encourage them. And the inner critic comes in and says, ah, you're silly. They don't care who you think you are. What, you know, mind your own business. But it takes courage to go up to somebody. And I think the moral of the story, listening to your story there, David, is that look how 5 minutes, what was shared with you with the person. I'm sorry, I can't remember the name. What he shared with you, that effect, huge effect that had on your career. That for you, that's what you needed to hear at the time. And you just needed that extra little support and you just flew. He literally gave you those wings and just, it's like you got the wings. He reminded you, you had the wings.

Yeah.

You just, you know, he gave you the encouragement and the motivation to fly again. I believe that's the way I see it. And we underestimate the effect that has on people. Don't hesitate. Don't hesitate to say what you have to say. It could change life.

Yeah. Especially, I think, again, as a sales leader, you have to take some time in your one-on-ones and talk to that person. Before, for my operating freedom was having one-on-one meetings with my team, talking about forecasting, quotas, talking about metrics, talking about all those things, right? All the great things that everyone wants to talk about. But now it's more like, okay, let's talk about those things, but let's start with meaningful conversations before we do that. You know, because you're also talking to a human, right? And it's so much so valuable. It creates trust, loyalty, and that's what you want. You want to, you know, the deal will turn. You don't want to deal with the whole mess of hiring, rehiring other people, right? So it's very simple.

It's really simple. And it's so overlooked. And I think this comes up— I don't want to exaggerate, but almost every time I speak to a leader, provide that psychological safety, provide the recognition, listen, active listening.

Active listening.

Everybody's wondering, how do I retain my people? How do I create culture? How do I fix this? Show up, talk, be authentic, connect, and really care. But you need to really care. I mean, this is not pretending to care because people, the brain is amazing. There are mirror neurons. They can feel when somebody's pretending.

Yeah.

But they will also feel when you're genuine. And the impact when you're in your heart is huge. It's quadrupled, 10x, 1,000x really. So, the power of really leading from the heart, I believe that's a great ability that a lot of leaders— maybe, you know, it's something we can develop. When you're stuck and overanalyzing and self-judging, Of course, you're not going to do that because you're afraid. What are they going to think of me? Oh my God! I'm gonna. I'm gonna sound like this. I'm gonna sound like that. Are they gonna think I'm I'm too I'm too soft? I'm you know it's it's simple. Just do it and just be authentic. Do it your own way. You know we're not putting words in your mouth here, right? Do it your way. Everybody's got their own way, but be authentic and people will feel it and people will appreciate you and. You know, people stay for the leader, for their boss. And they leave because of the boss, you know. So, keep that in mind. So, let me bring you to the next thing here. I am dying to share this with the listeners. So, I know you've got a line that I love. Make deposits before you ask for withdrawals. So, yes. Tell me a little bit about this. And what does a real deposit look like on Wednesday afternoon? Give us an example.

Yeah, I actually learned that one from another leader, great guy, JJ Trehan. So what it means to make deposits is you can always be there to help, whether it's for people on your team, prospects, your champion. You're always there to provide information. If they ask you for something, you're always there and you're present. But When it's time to ask for something valuable, you know, because of all those little deposits that you have been making for the past few, few weeks, months or so, is you're more comfortable to ask for a withdrawal.

Right.

And it works every single time. Yeah.

I mean, you know, a lot of people talk about this. In sales in general because people are very reluctant to talk about their ideas and share what they can offer somebody. But the thing is, if you're adding value, making deposits, and keep adding a lot of value, give, give, give, give, give, that's the deposit, deposit. Really, it's an exchange in life. It goes both ways. You might not ask that same person. But if you do, Usually, sometimes you don't even have to ask. I find you don't even have to say, "Can I withdraw?" They'll come and say, "Hey, here, here's here's your interest." Yeah, yeah. They're just like, "How can I help you? You've helped me so much. What can I do for you?" You know, out of their way to do it, and you're like, "No, no, no, I'm fine. No, no, no, please let me do it." You know, sometimes you don't even have to make withdrawal. It just comes to you. It just. But this is leading from the heart, and I understand that. I understood that also from you. I mean, you know. Confirming all this with your story. Leading from the heart is really all about just giving for the sake of giving. Now, let's not overgive and drain ourselves from taking from you, taking, taking, taking. That's a whole different story. It's not what we're saying. But when you truly want to help people and give and be present, people will reciprocate without even asking for that withdrawal. That's my 2 cents there. But I love that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I can give you a couple of real examples for that that has happened. I had this wonderful sales leader that was working under me and he was always looking into get promoted, get to the next level.

Right.

And as part of my one-on-one was to make sure that, you know, he was performing well, doing his job, but also decided to go because of, again, that he started with You know, with meaningful conversations every single time, I discovered that he wanted to get promoted so he can get a bigger salary to buy a house for his wife and kid, a new kid that's coming. So we work on a plan to make sure that he can get promoted.

Right.

As I said, if you hit those 3 metrics that I expect you to hit for 2 quarters in a row. You're on track to get promoted for the following one. And that's what we did. And he hit his OTE, he got promoted. And, but at the same time, when he was, when he got promoted, I asked him to be my trainer for my new cohort that was coming in.

Right.

And he was, he just loved to be the trainer. The hair at the time, maybe not. But he loved, he was the best trainer for my new cohort. I didn't have to do it, you know, because I have other things to do, but I'm talking about like, you know, withdrawals. That was it. And he knew exactly what I did for him that I had to do it. Maybe not as a leader, maybe not. Maybe, I don't know. But the fact is that he saw that as, as a minimal, meaningful contribution that I did for, for the, for him specifically. And the other one was for a prospect I had. I was working with a champion and he was really struggling trying to get the value message to the company. And what I did is I wrote a slide and also a document about how we present ourselves, what are the problems that the company was facing, and how we were able to help them out.

Right.

And I gave that information to him out of nowhere and he was like excited because he didn't know how to do it. Of course he took it back. He edited a couple of things, but you know, it was great because then he introduced me to a couple more champions, did multithreading and it worked out.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. Let's jump into the— thanks, by the way, for sharing this. Let's jump to the rapid-fire bold truth. So this is the way this works. I throw a couple of questions at you. You got about 15 to 30 seconds to answer. So biggest myth about leadership?

The biggest myth is that everything is hell or heaven, which is not.

Love that one. Okay. Next one. First sign your team has lost clarity. What do you look for?

Ground, making sure they're grounded to what originally was our vision.

All right. And the book that rewired your leadership?

I would say Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross. And I would say also the Sales Accelerator Formula by Mark Rieberg.

All right. Thanks for sharing. So let me throw the listener challenge here on screen. Run— this is what we really suggest for this episode. So, run a clarity check this week. Ask about 3 to 5 teammates in your team to write your team's number one priority in one sentence. If you have a priority for the month, for the quarter, for the week, doesn't matter. What's the number one priority? Compare answers and you'll be surprised. And if they don't match, fix the message by Friday and share your learning with #TeamClarityCheck. Lead with clarity. We really want to hear from you. Do tag me and tag David on this. So just so you know, a reminder, you can see a QR code up here. You have all basically access to all my socials when you scan the code and you could tag me on whatever social media you prefer. David is listed on the LinkedIn event and you can also reach out to him. And as always, if you Enjoyed the episode. This conversation was really moving for you or helped you in any way, please hit subscribe so you can never miss another episode of the NeuroLeadership Edge. And if you want to go deeper into the subject, please do subscribe to my newsletter. This is on LinkedIn. And I pretty much every couple of weeks share a lot of brain-based tools. Remember, I'm the geek. I love geeking out so you don't have to do it. And finally, David, any last quick words?

Just make sure that you're also dealing with people and you always need to lead with a heart.

Yes, I love that. Thanks again for, for joining us, and thank you for listening, everyone. Lead boldly, stay human, remember, and turn