WHY NOT Wednesday with Darrell Amy

There's a certain kind of coach who believes what we believe.

Who leads people to greatness, who gets people unstuck, who unlocks all of your passion. A coach who helps people discover what drives them to tap into their superpowers. Then knowing your why is the first step to untap potential.

To focus.

To breakthroughs.

A coach who's looking for a better way.

Are you that coach?

Foreign.

Hey everybody, welcome. Good morning to those of you in the mountain time zone and west. Good afternoon to everybody east of us and then good evening and good night to everybody around the world. We know we've got people all over the world listening. But I'm excited today to introduce you guys to one of my good friends, one of my favorite referral partners and one of the people I just enjoy listening to. He is Daryl Amy is the co founder of Selling from the Heart and of non profit Kingdom Missions Fund. He's a strategic growth advisor. He's a trusted business advisor. He's a professional speaker, he's a business contributor and he's the author of the book Revenue Growth Engine how to Align Sales and Marketing to Accelerate growth. He's a growth architect, a trailblazer. He's passionate about how helping purpose driven entrepreneurs grow revenue and impact. And you know what he is as a co host of the Selling from the Heart podcast, he's one of the people that I just enjoy listening to quite a bit. But Darrell, welcome to the show. How are you today?

That's super kind. I'm fantastic. I'm so excited to be here. This is going to be so much fun.

Hey, you know what? One of the things I always ask, so we're going to jam out to start the show. I like to ask people, hey, what's your walk up song? And, and somebody somewhere told me we can play up to 30 seconds of a song before we have to pay royalty. So we're going to play your favorite song and then I'm going to ask you a little bit about it. So let's see here. Hey, Liz Wendling is with us. Hey Liz.

The captain is with us.

Another time around the circle got a.

Bit of a retro version.

Hey man, so why that song? Tell us.

Well, so the song is called the Great Adventure and actually this song was given to me by a friend all the way back in college, many, many decades ago. And you know it. The, the chorus of that song says saddle up your horses, we get a trail to blaze. And this has been, you know, the theme of my life is saying hey, what can we Do I'm a better way guy. I'm sure we're going to get into that.

Yeah.

And. And I look at. At life, I look at business, I look at all of the different things I get to do as an adventure. And really I see my role. I've seen my role inside this for decades as being a trailblazer. Which when the. When the why came back to me and said better way, it was like the lights came on and I was able to look all the way back three decades ago to that song that was given to me. And this concept of the great adventure and blazing a trail, that is what resonates with me so much. I listen to that song literally every day while I'm planning my day each morning, and it's been a tremendous inspiration to me. So it's my walk on song for my morning. Yes day when I sit down with my impact planner. So, yeah, absolutely.

It's your wake up song. It's your walk up song. And so we got a trail to blaze. We got a better way. Right? And so, yeah, there's. There's the usual path and then there's a better way. And that's. That's where you're gonna go. I love it. Good stuff. Well, Darrell, let's. Let's start the show like we always do. One of the things I love doing is going over your yos and you've already mentioned it a little bit. So your why is to find a better way.

Absolutely.

We know about you. Yeah. What we know about you is you're somebody who loves to innovate, take things that exist and make them better. And the great thing about people with your why is that when you find that better way, you want to share it with the world. You find better ways, and then you share them with others. That's amazing because a lot of people with the why have better ways say, well, I want to be. I want to contribute more. Well, that is how you contribute. You find better ways and share them. Your how is to challenge the status quo. So we share that. How you find better ways is by looking at things from a different perspective, challenging the status quo and asking the question, hey, why do we have to do it that way? What if we did it this way? What if we blazed a new trail? By the way, Bruce, Bruce, Kirk says, hey, you're also Mount Everest alumni. That's also right up there with one of the coolest things you've ever done.

That was a why not moment. Maybe we'll use that one later.

Yeah. So that so your house. So how you find better ways is by challenging the status quo and thinking differently. And then your what. This is really cool. The why of simplify is very rare. And that's your what. So what you bring are solutions that are simple, easy to implement. You take stuff that's complex and you make it simple. You boil it down to its essence. And so when people work with you, they're going to get a better way. They're going to get stuff that's out of the box and different, but you're going to consolidate it and make it simple and easy to implement. And that's a lot of what the selling from the heart process is. You guys have taken a lot of information, you put it into one book, and now you've created a process. So how did that resonate with you? You've already mentioned it a little bit. How about the full yos when you look at your better way challenge and simplify?

Well, the better way thing for me, I mean, I can, when, when I got this report back, and this was one of the most insightful things I've ever seen on myself. And I'm, I'm a, I, I'm a personality profile junkie. This is my folder of strengths finders and all that. All fascinating, but I love the why. Probably because it was so simple. It was, it was a very better, in a lot of ways, a better way to do. Yeah, I agree, Liz. And so better way for me, I, I began to go, yeah, this is what I've been doing all through my career. I remember I was thinking about this last night, preparing for the podcast. I got straight out of business school, got a job in sales. I was going to be in sales for a few years. I was waiting for my new wife to graduate, and I was going to go to law school. A couple years in sales. I'm doing better than my friends who are graduating from law school. So here I am now, three decades later, in a profession I absolutely love.

But I showed up. I remember showing up in the new sales job. I sat down at my cubicle and they handed me a shoebox full of business cards. Now, this is circa 1993. I'm looking at this shoebox full of business cards. I'm going, this is not a good way to manage my future success. So at lunch, I went over to the Office Depot. I bought a Windows 3.1 computer with a monochrome screen. And I think it was ACT or gold mine, I can't remember which one CRM and said, there's going to be a better way to manage my success. And I was the only person in that office with computer. Fast forward, started selling, got bored with the product I was selling. There's got to be a better way to sell. So we innovated in a very hardware centric technology space. Innovated how to use software to get attention, sell hardware, maximize product. So that led to starting a business in 2004. And I was training salespeople a better way to sell. We were teaching hardware salespeople how to have a conversation about business problems. Incidentally, I met Larry Levine doing that in. We just figured out yesterday. It was 2005.

Yeah.

And I was, I came and to Larry's company and trained them on a better way to sell. We developed a better way to market. So we ended up starting a marketing company. And then fast forward now, about seven years ago, Larry says, you know what I really want? Oh, I told Larry, actually I said, you need to bring to the world your flavor, your way of selling. And I think there's a better way to do this. We've been on this journey at selling from the heart now for seven years, Building out and coaching people, selling sales reps and leaders on a better way. And last but not least, during that process, I sat down one night preparing before a conference and said, there's gotta be a better way for sales and marketing to work together to drive revenue. And so next thing you know, I get a better way idea. And on the other end of that, you know, comes a book. All of this, this is a better way to structure sales and marketing to accelerate your revenue growth. So everything. There you go. Hold that up. Revenue growth engine. I'm super proud of this. But all of this, all the way along has been, hey, what can we do to find a better way to sell a better way to grow business? A better way has been a massive theme throughout.

Every section of my life. And so the why getting my yos and seeing the better way really lit things up. And that's when, you know, you go, okay, well, how do I do that? Challenge the status quo. So from the heart, you know, Dan, it challenges the status quo of the perceptions of the sales industry. Yeah, I love that we're pushing the envelope with the podcast, with our. With our coaching and training programs for companies in highly relational industries. We're challenging the status quo. And now, Bruce, you got to know that as an attorney, the reason I wanted to be an attorney is I wanted to be like Tom Cruise in the courtroom. Did you order the code red? I wanted to do that.

Can't handle the truth. Darryl. Amy.

I started to realize for my friends who are attorneys that have to, like, do a lot of paperwork and read a lot of boring stuff, and that's not my jam. So I'm glad I didn't go down that. That road.

I see I could. I could see you getting a lot of fines. Daryl, as a better way challenge guy, you going to follow procedure in the courtroom, right?

Not at all. That would have been a terrible idea. But. But challenging the status quo to me go pairs really, really well with the better way. Because, you know, the reality is there are so many different aspects of life, but if I just stay in. In my business role right now, I go, there's. There's got to be a better way to go about growing a company. There's gotta be a better way to sell. And in order to do that, you've got to have the confidence and the courage to stand up to the status quo. We do that at selling from the heart. Right now, sales has a reputation for being anything but authentic and for really struggling to build trust. And we knew that if we were going to coach reps in highly relational industries where they don't have a lot of product differentiation, which is so many companies, we were gonna have to challenge the status quo on how salespeople sold. And so that drove me, along with Larry, to go, okay, well, there's a better way to do this. Let's figure that better way out, and let's bring it to the world. And by the way, it's so much fun, and it's showing a lot of fruit. And we're helping people discover their why along the way, because it also is a better way for sales leaders to be able to engage and connect with the people on their team. It's better way for salespeople to begin to understand themselves and their customers. So I love it. I want to push the stat the envelope, challenge the status quo. I'm getting better at being a little more tactful and polite about doing that than I used to be. You know, Larry and our integrator Jackie, may disagree with that a little bit. But challenging the status quo, I think, is in a world where there are so many things that are broken. I think, you know, it takes people that are willing to challenge the status quo to make the world a better place. So it's a better way over.

How can you make it better if you keep doing it the exact same way? And you're. You're absolutely right, Darryl. And I'm Going to tell you, I don't care what. I don't care what Jackie and Larry say. You're one of the nicest guys out there. You really do. You have figured out a way. Because a lot of times, and then this. You know any better ways that are on the phone? A lot of times people do. Why a better way tend to come across as almost aggressive. Right? Because you figure out a better way and you're like, hey, there's a better way to do that. And you're constantly at it. And people often feel inadequate almost around you because you're so good at innovating. And when we look at your values, number one innovation, right?

That's right.

That's you. You know, you take stuff that exists, find a way to make it better. Let's innovate. Let's. How can we be different? The second one, Inspiration. I love that when we talk about inspiration, Challenge is all about doing things differently out of the box. Let's get inspired. Let's be creative. Right? And then, of course, we got to bring Larry in here. Integrity, trust, that's so important.

Wholehearted.

So much of Selling from the Heart is about that. I can tell you there's. I read a lot of books. You look behind me, I've got a whole bookshelf. I'm lucky that I get to meet people like you that, that write books like Revenue Growth Engine Larry, who writes Selling from the Heart, and then I read those books. But Selling from the Heart, I literally read it in three. In three days. I was taking some vacation. I read it, and then I said, this is so great. This is what I was looking for in terms of this is how we want to sell. We want to sell authentically. We want to make sure we're being ourselves when we're doing that. So, so much of it really resonated with me and why Institute has. We have really enjoyed our partnership with you guys, sharing the yos discovery with your clients. Sharing. Selling from the Heart with our clients and just getting to a place where we are so in. In sync. So I, I wanted to talk about your values, but Darrell, your mission for.

A second though, because I think there's something really special I just realized. And, and that is. And. And so Larry and I are business partners and we've been working on this thing together. As you know, Larry is a clarify guy. He clarity is extremely important to him and he believes in. In a greater cause. So, you know, this alignment of the better way and the cause has been really, really good for us. Larry Flies the flag.

And you know, and I work to take the ideas and actually turn them into something that can be used and scaled and you know, and improved and all of that. But the other thing is Larry's all about clarify. And this has been really interesting. We look at selling from the heart, which by the way is re releasing. Larry got picked up by New York publisher. It goes live at barnes&noble.com on August 15 and pre orders are happening right now. Just tip of the hat to Larry actually have, actually have the new edition. It's got some different content in it. Thanks to Morgan James for picking this book up and expanding the movement. But so I got, I've got challenge the Status Quo. So I'm like, I love what Larry's all about when I meet him. He's challenging the status quo and how we sell.

And I pushed Larry to write this book. He did not want to write a book. I mean it took, we were on an eight hour road trip and I hammered him. And it was about 7 hours and 45 minutes into the trip he finally said okay, I'll do it. But he was able to take this and clarify all of this down to clearly explain it. And that's what's really been beautiful. I'm pushing the status quo. I have a business partner who's clarifying this. And so you've got to have clarity when it comes to, if you want to write a book that anyone's going to read.

And so I think that if you think about the partnership of a business partnership and understanding the why of your business partner, this has been extremely helpful to us in being able to communicate and complement each other's strengths as we, as we grow the business and grow.

The movement which so interesting because I, when I met you and Larry and Jackie, so let's bring Jackie into the conversation too. You guys all really are complimentary because there's, there's a whole set of wise there. So Larry is contribute, clarify, trust. And you see that in him and Jackie is trust, mastery, I believe. And so she, she brings that for, for someone like Larry who needs that clarity. She brings that mastery. She digs deep and gives answers. Those questions that Larry probably has and you've probably helped him. I love that you talked about the fact that on an eight hour car trip you challenged him and you challenged him because with the why of clarity he, he might have spent a long time trying to get even more clear and get even more clear before he finally took that step to write the book. But I bet having you around to push him and challenge him and say, hey, just let's get it done. Let's put that book out there. And how long did it take him to write the book?

Ah, that's a. Well, I think the correct answer to any question like that is 25 years. Right? This was, this was Larry on the street in Los Angeles selling a high commodity product in the toughest market in North America, consistently being at the top of his leaderboard in his office by doing things totally different than everyone else. Everyone said, slam the phones, get out there, you know, do what everybody else is doing. Larry said, no, there's a better way to do this. I'm going to approach my clients with authenticity, with art of service. I'm going to build those relationships and they're going to refer me through into their, their, their friends and their colleagues. And, and what happened out of this was Larry brought authenticity and service. He built trust, and those people were glad to help him grow his business. And, you know, he did it over and over again. He was at the top of the leaderboard doing that. And so, you know, and so I don't know how long. I can't remember how long. I know when we started the business, Larry committed to write a blog every single week, which he's done now for seven years. So, and those, that, that exercise, that first step of writing an article every day or every week is what really became the core content behind this book. And, you know, so it, a book like Selling from the Heart. Larry put over two decades of experience into this. And I think when it actually came to writing it, it all came together pretty quickly because it was just second nature to him. And I'm so grateful that he's given this gift to the sales industry. This is a really special book.

I think there's, there's no other way that I would want to be conducting sales if I. If you're leading a sales team, if you're a sales professional, you got to get the book. And Sunil put it up. It's www.sellingfromtheheart.net book. And we. Tell us about that promotion you're running right now because if we pre order. By the way, I pre ordered three copies so I could have. There are three people that I want to make sure I give those books to. They're coming to my home and I'm going to sign them and send them because I, I truly believe in what you guys are doing. But tell us about this promotion you guys are doing with Barnes and Noble.

Well, so here's here's what the way the, the publishing little window into the publishing world, the way it works is.

Companies like Barnes and Noble, which has over 600 stores here in the United States. Yeah, they, they will sell every book online. They've got millions of books online, but they can only fit so many on that sales shelf in the store. And so when they go to decide what are we actually going to put in the store? So as people are wandering around Barnes and Noble with their grande Americano or latte from the coffee shop there in the store, they're able to browse, they look at online sales momentum and they go, hey, if this is selling online, there's a good chance that this might sell in the store. So this is what we're trying to do here as we move into this pre launch and the official launch on August 15 is to generate as much momentum so that we can get this book on the shelves of Barnes and Noble. And really the reason I'm passionate about this, other than I just really like Larry Levine and I'm cheering him on like you are too. The reason I'm passionate about this is Selling from the heart is a better way and it's a movement. And we looked at this, you know, this started as a podcast which is just a series of conversations about a better way to sell. Then we invited folks like Liz into that conversation and you know, and so many other folks and, and we began exploring what does this mean to sell authentically. And then people started coming on board, they started joining our, our community inside Selling from the Heart. And we look at this and we have a business. We, we evaluate sales teams and we provide training and coaching for their leaders and we even help them build playbooks and process all, all around, helping them create a better way to sell and drive revenue. But really selling from the heart is a movement and this is what you know, our big hairy, audacious goal is to revolutionize the sales industry so that authenticity and trust are words that are used when people describe the sales industry. And so we're leading a movement of authenticity and trust in the sales industry. And so that's why we're, we're wanting to get this on the, the shelves. If you would be kind enough to grab a pre order copy while you're waiting for it. If you go to sellingfromtheheart.net pre order you can put your contact information in there. We'll give you over $300 worth of goodies, including a video. Larry just recorded yesterday, a live workshop on how he plans his day, it was pure.

Oh, I can't wait to see that. I saw you guys publish publicizing.

Yeah. So that was good. And you also get access to the audio version of the book, so you can start diving in. Excuse me. Right away. And this is, you know, this. I'm passionate about this, because the sales profession.

This revolution is so necessary.

It is.

And, you know, and this is. This is necessary for people who are burned out in sales. It's also necessary for us to continue to attract new people into the sales profession, younger people who are beginning their career, that they look at sales for what it really is. It's a profession of service. It's a noble profession. It's a profession where you can build relationships and you can enjoy a lot of fulfillment out of sales if you do it the right way. And so this movement is all about saying, what can we do to make the sales industry attractive to people to come on board? And for people who are burned out and looking for a better way, here it is. And for people who've been doing it this way the whole time and felt like they were alone. Come on in. You know, come on in, Come on in.

The water's great.

You know what, Darrell? This is so good. And, you know, it's one of the things that. That attracted me to your movement is the fact that it's all about authenticity. And when we help people discover their yos. And you've talked about it the whole time, by the way. How about Darrell? How about a hand for Darrell? And he was holding the book up the whole time. That is marketing 101. I mean, he did not let go. That is, you are selling the book as you're talking. And. And that. That's so amazing.

This is really nice. I. I just got to say, hats off to our designer. Cover designer. This. This is somebody that is extremely gifted because this was the first design they sent to us. This came back, and I was like, yep, Boom. Nailed it. That's it.

That's what we want. I love the heart shape with the authenticity. All of that. All of that really resonates.

Yeah.

Hey, you know what? We're having such a great conversation, Darrell. And this happens to me all the time when I get somebody outstanding and. And fun like you is. I forget to ask the key question. That is, let's talk about your biggest why not moment. You know, as a guy with the how of challenge, of course, if we're the why Institute, of course. My show is called why not, Right. It's the opposite of what we are, but we. I like to talk about that why not moment. A time in your life when you said why not? You said yes to something and it was a risk, it was different, it was out of the box. But you're so glad that you did it. Tell us about your why not moment, Darrell.

Well, the one I was going to use is when Larry asked me to do a podcast and I was like, I was, I thought it was a bad idea at first and finally I said, why not? So, and that launched the whole. When I said, what do you want to call it? He said, selling from the heart. And I was like, that's good. So. But the why not I want to use is it was December 21, 2021. I'm going to see my last client of the year. One of the things I do, I have a handful of clients, innovative companies, better way companies that are making an impact and solving problems in the world. I'm a strategic growth advisor to a handful of those companies. So I'm going to see a client last client of the year, December 21st. 5:30 in the morning, I'm at the airport across from my gate. They're handing me my Grande Americano and I get a text message. 5:30 in the morning and the text message says, do you want to come to Mount Everest Base Camp with us? It's something in my heart. Dan said, you will do this. To which I'm holding my Grande Americano and my cell phone going, what? I, you know, I thought Mount Everest was a place where middle aged men in and women in middle aged crisis went to. Well, maybe, maybe that it's, it's not a place that I'd ever thought about going. However, I discovered you could go to base camp at 18,500ft. And, and so I said, okay, well, why not? Why not? Let's do this. And next thing you know, I embarked on a rapid training journey. And, and next thing you know, I'm landing at an airport, most dangerous airport in the world at 9,500 square feet in the Himalayan mountains, working our way up to camp and watch the sunrise over Mount Everest. And you know which, that picture in the background, I took that picture while I was on my trip. That was our campsite. Wow. It was amazing. And it was a why not moment for me. And I spent a whole episode talking about the transformation that happened inside me, preparing for and during that trip. And you know, to me it was, it was something that was so far out of reach for a, anything I dreamed of doing or even thought was possible. And, you know, so I'm thankful I did it. It was a blast. I got to. I got to Everest base camp on May 4th last year, and at 18,000ft, which is.

It was tough and it was fantastic. It was a great group of guys. And, and we, you know, waking up that next morning, 8 degrees Fahrenheit, watching the sunrise over the tallest mountain in the world, surrounded by mountains that were just jaw dropping, it was so fun. And the journey to get there was incredible. And it was a big moment for me to go, okay, well, why not? Let's do it. Let's do it. And yeah, this, this, this office desk jockey made it to Mount Everest Base Camp.

Well, well, Darrell, you know, you brought something up that's really cool. You talked about the transformation that it brought in you. And you know, we hear all the time, we set high goals. We set goals that are on not because of the accomplishment of the goal, but who you will become in accomplishing that goal. And that's exactly what I think. You went through a transformation in the preparation for accomplishing that goal, which made you a better person. Would you agree?

Yeah, 100%. And every year, you know, I asked God for a word for the year. And the year, word of the year for me in 2021 was endurance. So when I got that invitation, it immediately it clicked to me that this is going to require some endurance. And boy, that was an understatement to the training for that required endurance. The doing of it as the screws got turned tighter every day, as we got higher and higher in elevation. And so I think that all of this, I think the awareness, what I love about the Y. OS is it promotes self awareness.

Right?

And when you're aware of things, then when opportunities come across your, you know, horizon, you can say you've got a. You've got some type of. Of framework to be able to say yes or no to those. To go. That, yeah, that aligns with me. If a company comes to me and says we want a growth strategy, you know, I go, are they innovative? Is this something I'm inspired by? Do they have integrity? I go down the list, right, and go, is this going to be a good investment of my time and how's the payoff going to be? And what's the impact? Filter all of that through my values, and then you add the why to that.

And then the decisions make a whole lot more sense when you do that.

Absolutely. Well, Darrel, you've been fantastic. Can you believe our half hour is over? But I have truly, truly enjoyed having you here and I'm gonna have to have you back because we do have more to talk about. So just look for another invite. We're gonna bring you back and finish the conversation. But Darrell, it's been a pleasure having you on why Not Wednesday? Have a great rest of your week, everybody. We'll see you guys next week on why Not Wednesday. And we're here every day. Hey, remember, it's a new time, 11:30am Mountain Time, 1:30. For those of you on the east coast and those of you on the on the west coast, it's only 10:30 in the morning. So find a time for to meet with us tomorrow. Next week we're going to have Langley Downs, who is an amazing coach with the why of challenge. We're going to have a whole lot of fun with her. Have a great week, everyone, and we'll see you next week on why Not Wednesday.