Full Throttle Leaders Podcast - Kevin Dorsey - Episode 12

Hello everybody, we got Kevin Dorsey, who is a big influencer on LinkedIn, um, runs a really cool company called Finally and has his own coaching accelerator group, um, company as well, right Kevin?

Correct. You know, I still, I still do the thing that I teach. It's something that I'm, I'm proud of in, in this day to day.

So tell me a little bit about what kind of grabbed your attention to want to chat as well, but then also, you know, what do you do differently than other guys that are in the CRO role?

I mean, if I think about what I do differently, it's probably 2 or 3 buckets. One is I'm very system-based. So a lot of CROs still fall into sometimes like the glorified, like VP of sales or like hero seller. Like they're still selling at their core versus building a machine and a system. So I'm very system-based, very process-based, very data-driven. So I think that makes me a little bit different. But also I have a— and I still don't know why this is different. And I get asked this question sometimes. I don't know why this is different. I have an immense amount of focus and pressure on skill development. So we obsess over— we practice. We roleplay, we script, we fine-tune, we measure. And that's not the case in a lot of orgs. A lot of orgs don't practice at all. A lot of orgs don't read books together. They don't go through courses together. And that has always been a foundation of my orgs is we're going to get really good at this thing. And so I think those things are a couple that I think I do a little bit differently than a lot of CROs out there.

And what's your favorite book or, or strategy that you're— that you've developed in the last, you know, 12 months to 2 years that you like?

Okay, favorite. So that's— there's 2 questions there. There's strategy and there's books. Man, it depends on the category. Which category of the books? I'm an avid reader. I don't know if people— if you're not watching the video, there's a couple hundred books behind me on the bookshelves. I got books for— what category of books? I break them into categories like sales, about leadership, like what What, what category?

Whatever you think that's most influential in your life or, or it, or what you're teaching your, uh, I mean, tell us, tell us a little bit about who you're actually working with right now. Is it SDRs, AEs? Is it individual partners?

Um, yep. So all that rolls up to me as a CRO. So SDRs roll to me, inbound rolls to me, marketing rolls to me, AEs roll to me. Success, onboarding. So everything that touches revenue rolls up into my, my world. I would say probably over the last year, and I had my, my whole leadership team read this, is The Science of Scaling by Ben Hardy. Phenomenal read. And I took a lot from that and actually rolled a lot of those things out to my leadership team around impossible goals, floor versus ceiling, like systems. So that was a— I would say that's probably one of my favorites over the last 12 months.

Okay. And how do you, uh, how do you basically look at what you're doing on the AI side, right? Like, are you, are you strictly go looking at these AI tools or this tech stack, or what's kind of grabbing your attention on the AI side for your business or for you personally?

I mean, I'm, I'm obsessed. I, I am deep into AI. I've got my Mac Minis right here. I'm constantly studying, you know, Claude Code and Manus. Learning Open Cloud. Like, I'm obsessed with it because back to that first question around systems, when you have systems, you can now leverage AI. Like, whereas if you don't have systems, now you're asking AI what to do versus I tell AI what to do because I have the context, I have the system, I have the documentation. Here's what I want you to go do. So I'm very deep into building my own things with AI. And then there's also some really cool tools out there with AI right now. Swan, Ask Elephant, Manus is probably my favorite tool right now AI-wise. There's a lot of great tools that are doing really cool things in the GTM space. Of course, there's the Clays of the world and everything else, but I'm trying to pay attention to the products out there, but also I'm building a lot internally myself, and that's a lot of fun.

Yeah, I've been hearing a lot about the Mac Mini. I bought— buying one, it's on its way, but my, one of my clients, developers, that now they're like, that's the most amazing little box for $500. I'm like, I don't know much about it, but I'm gonna buy one now. Yeah.

Because I have my studio that I work from, like that's my main computer. Of course I have like a laptop and everything, but the, the Mac, that's where I can keep things running in the background, right? So I can switch over to it and I, if I wanted to run a sequence or I wanted to run a process that can just run in the background and have access to my my drives to my files to everything else. Oh, Perplexity, Perplexity computer that just came out recently is like OpenCLAW, but like for not like super, super tech people. It's wild what Perplexity can do. And so to have that running while I'm working, that's kind of the goal.

So that's the difference between, it's just more powerful than, like I have a 20-core Windows, like a Dell computer. So I'm just wondering what the big difference is.

So it's not so much about, so Perplexity Computer isn't actually a computer. It's what they call their product. So it's like their version of Cloud Code or OpenClaw.

Sorry, I'm talking about the Mac Mini.

Yeah, it's the Mac Mini. It's not so much about power. You can do, like the reason most people are doing Mac Mini is because Anthropic only really right now they still haven't, I think, released the Windows version for desktop. I think Cloud Code only works on Mac right now. In terms of the desktop terminal. So that's why everyone's scooping up the minis is because it works on that versus when they release a Windows one, like you can run it on any computer, to be honest. It's just right now that it operates on the iOS.

Yeah, that's okay. Tell me about your, like your go-to market at Finally. What, how do you, how do you guys go to market? What tools are you like, you know, what's your, what's your favorite lead magnets? Are you doing LinkedIn automation, email automation?

So yes, except we're not doing a ton of lead magnets right now. Something I'm actually working on building. I'm working on that with my, my product team right now to build me out some interesting— I'm calling them like micro SaaS or like micro agents that we can bring to market. So, you know, getting away from like the white papers and the downloads, but like truly building like, here's a workflow, do you want it type thing. And so those are some of the things we're working on right now. But in terms of go-to-market, I mean, we do, You know, my, my SDRs, they're heavy on the phone, which I'm also still very proud of. A lot of teams started to hide behind email and social. My SDRs are 80, 90% on the phone and we build the other systems behind them. So email automation is behind them. LinkedIn social automation is behind them. They don't have to run those things. It's kind of giving them air cover overall. And so that's, that's how we build it. And of course we have an inbound flow as well. That we drive, you know, leads through and we have some cool like AI follow-up happening there in terms of text, in terms of voice scheduling, things like that. Sort of really just squeeze every, every ounce out that we can.

Yeah, I'm using email automation, LinkedIn automation.

Nice.

Regen company, but I'm using things like, hey, do you want to be part of the roundtable today? But we need to talk first. Right. And it's going to be a good source. We're talking about everything from AI to ML, machine learning, to go-to-market strategies. And that gets meetings instead of saying, hey, we're this and we're that and we sell this. Like, no one cares. Yes. And even these podcasts are a great way to get to know somebody without having, you know, having to sell them and basically gives you content. So it's a double whammy.

So indeed, I ran one for 2 years and I put it on pause because I had to like, I look at everything and it's like, you know, almost like dollar per time of like, okay, like Is that, where is that helping me? Is there another place it can help me over there? I should put it on pause, but I'm hoping to bring it back this year. It should be fun.

Yeah. You got like 145,000 followers. I have like 30,000, which is good, but, um, I think there's a max of 30,000 connections that I'm almost hit, but obviously the followers, I think it's unlimited. How'd you, what made you get that? How'd you grow that so fast?

Or, um, I mean, one, I've been doing it for a long time, call it good or bad. Like I started writing on LinkedIn. 8 years ago, 8 years ago. So like before it was cool to do, it was, you know, like there was a few OGs that started kind of like writing content because like, you know, 8, 10 years ago, LinkedIn, literally you just did for jobs. Like you didn't like—

resume.

Yeah, like that, that was it. And so, you know, so started writing a long time ago. So that's one benefit is I started a while ago and just kind of stuck. With this, the consistency. I mean, there was a 3-year stretch that I don't think I missed a workday. Like, I wrote every single day for 3, 3 years, you know. So that helped. I think also knowing— I talked to a lot of people, like, how to, to build, like, brands— is like knowing who I'm speaking to. I've never wavered from it. I, I speak to sellers and to sales leaders. That's everything that I write about, and that has been that way. And I think part of it too, we talked about in the opening, I talk about the things I'm going through, the struggles that I'm seeing, right? Like 30% of what I'm writing, I'm writing to myself, you know, like reminders, things that I need to make sure I'm doing, like things that I'm learning and experiencing. And that tends to resonate with people. I have a very, let's say, authentic style of writing and posting. It's like, this is just me putting it all out there. So that's been there. Then I really do try to go tactical. Like you can do the viral posts, you can do the things that like, you know, everyone will like get rah-rah behind, but I really try to provide value to it. And then public speaking is big too. I don't think a lot of people realize that, like speaking at conferences, like you're going to pop off 200, 300 connections or followers from a single speaking engagement. So I've been also speaking for a decade. So that helps a lot as well. So it's just a combination, I think, of all of those things. But I'd say consistency is probably the biggest. And then just learning who you're talking to. Because a lot of people, I look at their content and it's changing. It's this type of post, it's this type of post, it's that type of post, and they never really nail who they're speaking to.

Yeah, one thing I see is like, like say for Filely, right, you guys help with ledgers and getting all that content, and then your credit card processing too, right?

Yeah, so we have a corporate card, AI ledger, payroll, like it's an SMB platform, like a Square would you compare it to, or, or, um, partially, yes. It's kind of bringing— it's like pieces. So most SMBs, right, are using anywhere from 6 to 9 pieces of software to run their business. They have a QuickBooks or a Xero, they've got ADP or Gusto, they've got Bill or Expensify, they've got, you know, a Square restaurant, like they've got all the— it's all the— we bring that all together. So like Square does pieces of it, we do, we try to bring it all in one for people to make their lives a lot easier versus trying to use 5 pieces of software to make it happen.

So probably closer to a, to like a QuickBooks versus Square then.

It's a little bit closer to a QuickBooks because I don't think QuickBooks is offering payment processing at this point. We do offer payment processing. So like we do that piece as well, but I don't think they do yet.

I don't think, I think it's GoDaddy that offered me that for some reason.

Yeah, interesting.

Yeah. Do you guys, do you guys find a way to bring all these different SMBs and light enterprise companies together to talk to each other and then kind of like build your own events versus white papers? Like, like I do these roundtables and it gets a lot of people clients and then it's powered by Full Throttle for a lot of leads because that's one of my tactics. But it's finally things where it's not just about their product but it's about getting everybody together and talk about best practices. What tech are you using? What strategies are you using? What's going on in Dallas? Maybe one for Dallas, one for Chicago.

Yeah. So not yet. No, it's something that I'm hoping into this year, like building out kind of like a, call it like a customer engagement team to own that and run that. So we haven't done, I've done that in previous companies. We did that a lot at Patient Pop, a lot at ServiceTitan. We just haven't done it as much here yet. Mostly just been about a resourcing, you know, I got so many people that I can put around and do. And so, but no, definitely I think is a great tactic and a great idea.

You guys are under 300, sounds like under 300 employees. That's what I saw.

Yeah, that's our sweet spot is under 300, especially in more of like, I'll say the traditional businesses. So we actually don't target tech that much. Like we go where we're in construction, home services, marketing, consulting, law firms, restaurants, like We like do like the, call it the normal businesses, not just the, the tech ones.

What's, what's one or two things in the last 6 months that you learned that was really a great idea or great tech, or it was horrible idea and it, and you learned, you, you, you lost and you learned on that? Mm-hmm.

So I mean, one that I still think is massively underleveraged is video. Video still is not leveraged enough by a lot of people in terms of not only outbound, but like in-deal management, you know, follow-up, onboarding, things like that. So we leverage video, I think, more than most. And that is still one way to stand out. Like, I don't know how many cold emails you get or how many cold calls you get per month, but I get maybe, maybe a video a month, maybe. And I'm a CRO at a tech company and I'm easy to find.

Like a Loom video, you're talking about?

Mm-hmm, like Loom, Vidyard, like, and like to, like, sound like, because it shows your personality, it shows you're human, right? Especially in the day of AI. Now, AI video is getting very close. So that's a whole nother bar that we'll have to deal with and cross, but it stands out. You can do emotion. Like, that's why we're on video right now talking. This would be a lot harder if it was just over phone and even worse if we were just in writing, you know? So that's one that still works to this day very well that most people don't leverage.

I, I really find that giving them a compliment, making their ego feel a little bit better— and that's where I do the podcast and the roundtable. Like, hey, I want you to be on this roundtable, but I want you to be a special guest, but I need to chat with you first. Versus, like, I hate— I have people send me a Loom video, hi Michael, and I think I'm like, that's so stupid because you did— you've been for 10 years on Loom, you know? So you gotta, you gotta come, you gotta get out of the like showing that you're, um, you're viewing the guy's website, which you know you're not. You're, it's just put it up. So if you're gonna be unique on video or voice, then be unique. Don't, don't, don't use automation unless you could find something that's really unique.

Cause yeah, it's, it's, it defeats the purpose. Like when you start doing it like at pure automation scale defeats the purpose of The video, right? Like the tactics of old, like showing the board, like that was cool for a bit 3, 4 years ago. Like, oh, the website behind, but now I know it's auto-scrolling. Like I don't even do that anymore. It's like, hey Michael, like it's just me. Like you can see my hands, they're moving. It's like, hey, you know, that type of style, you know, and we have frameworks that we teach on like how to deliver a good video, but that's one for sure. Cold email is the place where I think a lot of people are struggling. It's a constant iteration right now because of how heavy that channel has gotten, just overrun. So that's one where just at the end of the day, more and more it's just coming down to the offer. But yes, you have to have the deliverability in place. Yes, you have to have all the inboxes. Yes, you have the right, you have to have all that, but you need an offer or you need, I call it POP, P-O-P, which has a proof of problem. If I can provide proof of problem, that works well in cold email.

What's the problem yet? Unless you talk to somebody, that's what the problem is. People are saying, here's the problem, but you haven't talked to me yet. So that's why I'm like, get a discovery call. That should be the thing that you get, right? Unless it's, unless it's like, hey, I want to sell you something that could self-serve over, over, over the phone or over the internet. That's different. Well, you're selling something that's Hey, I need to tell you how it works, but I need to understand how it works for you. That's what roundtable mastermind— or I did one for inbound and said, hey, are you going to inbound? Just want to get your thoughts on it, which is HubSpot's conference. 600 people respond to it, 45 meetings, because I just asked a question. So if it don't look like you're trying to get something, then you get something back. But when you're, when you're saying I can help you with this, and do you have this problem, Then it comes up to me, it comes off salesy. And for me, it's like I don't even answer my phone. So I wouldn't mind doing phone calls for people, but I hate when someone calls me cold. And I'm just VP of sales, like, well, I'm a founder, but before I was like, calls, you got to do calls. It depends what business you're like. With your business, those plumbers, those restaurants, whatever, that are kind of light enterprise or smaller, They'll, they call more than email, right? The painters, the, the plumbers, the AC guys.

Yeah, yeah. It's just knowing, it's just knowing your marketing space, right? There's no, there's places where phone's going to work, and it's also knowing your persona and who's doing the calling. There are things that a CEO can get away with on LinkedIn and DMs that a little SDR can't, you know. And so it's also knowing, we, that's another place we've tested, like exec-to-exec outreach. Right? Of like, you're going to have a higher response rate reaching out to someone for a roundtable than, you know, my, my SDR Faith is going to, or my AE Josh is going to. And so knowing where you can put those people is also a key tactic.

How big is your SDR team and sales team?

Um, SDR team is 16 right now. Inbound team is 10, 11 right now. My Um, AE teams, 4 right now, and then we're still doing a little bit of hiring there.

All right, okay. And you're based in Austin? Is the team based in Austin?

So no, the team's based in Boca Raton, and so I fly out to Boca for at least 1 week per month. Some months I go out there for 2.

Not a bad place.

No, it's not the worst place to go and visit, you know. It's great, great weather. It's close to the water. So no, it's not— I've traveled far worse places, let's put it that way.

I left Austin in 2016 and moved to Winter Garden. Then I go down to Boca a lot. And then I also have a place in St. Pete's area, which is really nice.

Yeah, my mother lives in St. Pete's, so I'm familiar with that.

But I just want to thank you for making time. I just want you to give us information of how to reach you and what would be a good ideal person to reach you.

For sure. So, you know, you can find me on LinkedIn, Kevin Dorsey. Everyone calls me KD for the most part. At this point. That's my only social channel. I don't do socials anywhere, anywhere else. So LinkedIn would be the best place. And then, you know, I'm putting content there for sellers. I'm putting content there for sales leaders, CROs, enablement. So if you are looking for sales support or leadership training, which is really where I put a lot of my focus now, because no one trains the leader, like everyone focuses on the rep, no one trains the manager, the director, VP. So if I can be a resource for anybody there, just feel free to reach out.

Thanks, Kevin. Appreciate you.

Awesome. Thanks, man.