E32: From Expectation to Achievement: How I Landed My Dream Sales Leadership Role with Kwame Aforo-Addo

How do you manage the stress and the rejection? The way that I look at any time anything doesn't work for me, it's more of a perception shift, right? And I've heard the line, life is a struggle, life is difficult, but I choose to see life as a teacher, right? So to me, life is— you're being taught or you have a challenge, so you have the opportunity to grow. So embrace that, embrace that and look at it as though it's not That things are, yeah, they may be difficult, but it's for you to grow and conquer that what's in front of you, right? It's it's opportunity for you to grow. For me, if anything isn't going well, that that's a perspective that I look at it from, and that helps me keep going because I know that it's just opportunity for me to grow and master that skill.

Kwame Aforo-Kado is a sales leader at UKG. He is also a third-degree black belt, and he has been a 100-meter sprinter at regional level. Now, he is someone who demonstrates the amazing ability of never giving up, and during his job search is when I first encountered him. He wanted a sales leadership role, but he was a sales rep prior to that at Salesforce. He had had a year-long break due to a very close family member being ill. But he basically came into my office and asked about a leadership role. And when I said that it was going to be really, really hard, he said to me, I will not reduce my expectations, but I'm willing to increase my activity to get to my goals. So you are in for an absolute treat as you meet Kwame today. So let's jump right in.

Kwame, welcome to my podcast, and I'm so excited that you're here today. Thank you.

Thank you, Freddie. Really appreciate the invitation.

All right, before we get any further, I'm going to start with a little story. Kwame is probably the most interesting person that I have met in the last 12 months, and I meet a lot of people daily. And his story is one which has inspired a number of leaders that I work with, a number of friends, my team members, as well as my kids, because there's something that I discovered about Kwame along the way that I've just shared again and again. And I thought that it would be a great podcast episode. So Kwame, you've been very kind. And I'm going to recount our little first meeting briefly, and then we will jump right into some of the questions. So about 6 to 9 months back, there was a knock on the door and I looked out of the office. I was actually in a meeting with someone and I looked out and there was this immaculately dressed man standing at the door and with a smile on his face. So I walked up and I said, hey, how can I help you? And he said that I've heard about you, so I've come to meet you. And I was a bit surprised because obviously we didn't have an appointment, a meeting. I was in the middle of something, but I was taken aback that here was someone and I was not going to say, I can't talk right now. And we proceeded to have a great conversation and we spent about half an hour together in which I was able to understand that Kwame was actively looking for his next career opportunity. And he had had a terrific background in sales at Salesforce. And prior to that, he was the customer service manager at Amaysim. And essentially, if you spend any time with him, you will get this vibe, which was very, very, I guess, uplifting, for lack of a different word. And the challenge was that Kwame had taken a break. And having come from a break, he also was in a senior role, but he was not a sales leader. And what he wanted was a sales leadership role. And I said to him, Kwame, you've had a break. You weren't in a sales leadership role, and it's very competitive, very, very hard to get a sales leadership role because there's a huge supply and few jobs. So why don't you go for a sales role? And he looked me dead set straight in the eyes and he said, I will not reduce my expectations, but I will increase my activity to achieve my expectations. I was stunned. And I bowed low to him and I said, that is amazing. You are very determined. I don't know if I can help you, but here are some things that you could or should do. Fast forward 3 months on, and I see this notification on LinkedIn. And Kwame has got a role. And Kwame is starting as a sales leader at UKG, which is a well-respected global market leader in workforce management. And I was so, so happy. It was like, wow, this guy's done it. So today we're just going to have a conversation around how did you go about doing it? What were some of the things that you did? And get to know Kwame a little bit better. So Kwame, thank you for listening to me patiently as I rambled on, but I am so excited that we're going to chat for a little while.

No, thank you, Freddie. Thank you.

Can you share more about the moment you decided to show up unannounced at my office and what made you take that bold step? Because you came, you drove about an hour, right? What made you decide to just Sure.

Yeah, certainly, certainly. So as I was conducting my job search, one of the key things I had done first of all was define exactly what role I wanted. So I'd set the goal and I wanted a sales leadership role. And speaking to other recruiters that I'd been to see, they had also mentioned that the market was quite competitive. So my plan was, well, I need to make sure I take some, some action every day. Rather than applying on LinkedIn here and there and waiting for somebody to invite me for an interview, I knew I had to be more proactive. I had to kind of go out there to get the role. So I wanted to go out there, see recruiters so that I could build some relationships. So I was actively going out every day looking for who else I could see who could help me. And during my research, I came across your company, Pree, and tracked you down to to your location. And it was about a 50-minute drive from where I was. But just reading about you, and I knew you'd written a book, I saw that. I subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, so I downloaded that. And just reading that, I knew that you were somebody who knew your craft and somebody who could help me, who could provide me some value. So you were the only person I saw that day, but I drove out there to see you. But even before I knew, before I drove out there, I knew it was gonna be a valuable visit. And it certainly was. Yeah, it was very pivotal in my job search.

That's amazing. Uh, it— that just says— that's packed with so much about you more than me. But, you know, you have clearly reached out for what you want, and, and that seems to be, uh, a consistent theme. So, you know, you said something which really, I think, is like putting up on the walls, is that you would not reduce your expectations, but you will increase your activity to get to the goal. So tell me a little bit more about this mindset and how have you applied it to your, to your life, to career.

Yeah, yeah. So I wish I could have coined the, uh, the phrase as I mentioned to you, but I actually read it from one of the key people that I follow, Grant Cardone. And, uh, the line was, never lower your target or goal Raise the activity required to reach the goal, and it struck even with me. But behind that, though, you first have to believe that you can achieve the goal, right? And and that belief there's a couple of things that that where that belief comes from. So as I mentioned, first of all, I define the goal in terms of that belief. There are two things that I had to do to make sure and help support that belief. First of all, taking that daily action because when you take action. Action is what whittles away any fear, any, any doubt, because you know that you're doing something to move towards the goal. And that's why I had to take consistent daily action. And what Ryan was saying is then you raise the activity. The more action that you take, you know, the faster you're going to move towards the goal that you want. The second thing, and this is through my own personal development and personal reading, is I learned the secret of creating confidence and the secret of creating confidence is keeping your— keeping promises to yourself. So what I mean by that is if you say that you're going to wake up at 6 a.m., you wake up at 6 a.m. If you say you're going to go for a run at 6:30, go for a run at 6:30. So whatever it is you say that you're going to do, you follow through. And also with others as well. Whatever you say you're going to do with others, you do that. And why that's important is because you reaffirm to yourself that you follow through on what you're going to do. And that's what stacks and builds confidence. So now if I set a goal and I say, hey, this is the role that I want and I'm taking consistent daily action, well, I think back to what I've done before. And since I follow through and I know I've done that, I know I can do this as well. So that's where the whole idea comes from. So I set the goal and I raise the activity. The more action that I take, the faster I'm going to move towards that goal. And that's kind of that mindset in terms of where I've applied it to my life. Look, I teach my team members about it as well, even my children. Whatever it is that we want, as long as we first have a vision and a goal. I'll be clear, when you write the goal down, I'd written my goal down exactly what leadership role I wanted, how much I wanted to get paid, where I wanted it to be, how many people I wanted to manage. Not everything panned out that way, by the way, but I got quite precise in terms of exactly what I wanted, wrote it down, and then I mapped out the steps. And that then helps me to stay on course towards what I want. So in anything that I want in my life, I apply that philosophy. And it's also where I teach my team members and my own children as well.

That is amazing. Tell me, you know, the season where you are searching, you know, between finishing a role, you know, dealing with the things that life throws at you, the choices you make, and that transition until you— when you start in your role, Often can be a challenging one, especially as the months draw on. I have walked this journey with so many leaders who, for a variety of reasons, whether it's personal health conditions themselves, their family members, other situations, but it is a difficult season. So tell me, what are some of the challenges you faced during your career break, and how did you overcome them? In terms of moving towards securing what you really wanted?

So in terms of that period when I was off, I took it as a time to recharge. So I read up on a lot of books and I was thinking about this is the role that I want. So I also took that time to prepare myself for the role that I wanted. So I did a lot of reading. I'm big on reading, big on self-education. Then as I began the job search, see, the feedback was, you know, the market was really, really tough. A lot of redundant— there were a lot of redundancies and there were a lot of leaders, experienced leaders out in the market. So what I did again was just stay focused on believing in my ability because you have to believe that you have something to offer, right? And trust in yourself. I once heard a great line and many great lines I've heard, which was never, ever not believe in yourself. It's an absolute waste of time. What value do you get out of that? Right. So I decided that I was going to believe in myself and the ability that I have to offer. So that's, that's the first thing that I I— that's a decision that I made for myself. And in doing that, I prepped for my role and as I mentioned, moved towards the goal that I wanted and then mapped out the steps and kept moving forward. And even then, when I got feedback in that, hey, it'll be really difficult for you, the market's really tough, I politely put that advice aside. And again, another great line I heard was every day from Jim Rohn, every day stand guard at the doorway of your mind. Because those— there is feedback and it's your choice whether you choose to take that on or whether you choose to park it. But it is important because if you absorb that, that can then impact what action you take next. So as much as I was getting that feedback, I still chose to believe that, yes, that's fine. And that may— I was thinking to myself, that might apply to the average person, but it'll take a lot more than that to stop me. And that's kind of what kept me going through.

Okay, now let's take a sidestep into your, uh, athletic background because, you know, we've talked about martial arts, we've talked about sprinting. Tell me a little bit more about, you know, you told me about how you prepared yourself for the, the 100 meters. So tell me a little, tell us that story.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, it was in year 11. I was, you know, 16 at the time, and, uh, that's when it first happened in year, in the year 11 race. I wasn't the fastest in the school at that time, but I got a great start in that race. And at the 50-meter mark, I was coming first. But by the end of the race, I ended up, I think, third or fourth. And at the end of it, I was just thinking, you know, what happened? And when I think back to it, I really faded towards the end. You know, I started well, but I really faded towards the end. So moving on to the next year after that race, I thought, how can I prepare better so that I I make sure that doesn't happen again. And in my mind, if you want to prepare for something, you make it a little bit harder. So where I lived, there was a straight stretch of road and it was exactly what I was looking for. It was up a slight incline because I thought if I can run up a very slight incline, that makes it slightly more challenging than on a flat surface. And I mapped out 110 meters, not 100, but 110 meters, because if I can run a little bit further, And it's slightly more challenging because it's on a slight incline. And master that, then 100 meters will become much easier. So then every night I would go out, you know, late at night, about 6 or 7, when there were not many cars on that road. And I lived towards a dead end, so it wasn't too crazy. And I would sprint up about 4 or 5 times every night, and I just kept practicing and kept practicing. And the next year, I came first that year in school, and I made it to zone, and I made it to regionals, which was the level before state. And so it was, it was a great outcome for, for the training that I had done. But to be honest, I wasn't even thinking that far in terms of how far I could go. When I set the goal, all I was thinking was, I don't want to fade again. I just want to make sure that I'm able to, rather than fade, even accelerate towards the end. That was the whole idea with the training. How can I make sure that I stay stronger and get faster towards the end?

Wow. Well, that Completely makes sense how you, you know, plan to exceed what you were aiming for. Tell me about your interest in martial arts. You know, how did you get into it? What are you doing with it?

Yeah, so with martial arts, I think back in the late '90s, uh, we're all— I was a fan of Jean-Claude Van Damme. Who wasn't back then? He was fantastic. Yes, I watched a lot of those movies and, uh, like many other kids, I wanted to get into karate as well. So I started that, yeah, in my late— sorry, my early 20s, started karate. And I've been consistently doing that now for, yeah, quite a number of years. So I'm a 3rd-degree black belt. I'm an assistant instructor now. And it's great that I can teach the kids and give back to the children. And, you know, it's the same. I always say to them, whatever it is you're going to do, Give it your very all. Go home and practice. When you come back to the dojo, the dojo is showtime. I want you to go home and practice. Come here, show me that you've learned so we can build on top of that, right? And it's the same approach that I have. I teach them anything worth doing is worth doing properly. And that's important because the way that you do one thing is the way you do everything, right? So give it your all. And it's, it's, it's been a great journey for me in martial arts, and I'm thankful that I can, I can give back to the children as well.

Right. Thank you. Now, we'll circle back to the search. Tell me, in terms of that search season, what were some of the different things that you did that got you closer and closer and eventually to the role that you wanted?

I knew that I had to stand out a little bit because, as you mentioned, I'd come from a senior sales role, but not from sales leadership. So, as I was applying for these sales leadership roles, I knew that I had to stand out a little bit more. So going out to see the recruiters, the whole idea was if I can build a relationship with them, if they can see me, see that I'm different in my approach, you know, showing up at many other recruiters and just dropping off my CV and they would say, hey, this is refreshing, this is old school, you know, because my approach, I wanted to stand out from everybody else. So that was the idea. If I could stand out, if I could connect with them, they could see where I was coming from and then be able to put me forward. I've always had a very strong interview strike rate. So I was always thinking, I just need to get my foot in the door, and I'll be able to prove my value. But that was the plan that I had with going out to see the recruiters every day and how I was planning to differentiate myself.

Okay, now that's, that's really good. And so, you know, how did you end up landing the role that you're currently in?

Well, Pri, and that's thanks to you, really. And, but again, it just goes to speak to that philosophy of that daily consistent action, because I took that daily consistent action, I knocked on your door and you gave me fantastic advice. The advice you gave me was, hey, the market is very competitive. Your best bet would be to start going to companies directly. And that's where I pivoted when I, when I came back home. So I switched my tact and started to approach companies directly. And from there I was able to secure an interview with UKG and went through the process. And that role was the best role out of all the ones that I'd applied for because I did get some, some— I did get some interviews from LinkedIn, a couple. But this role was a great role and I was very, very thankful. It's a fantastic company. I'm having a great time there and just grateful for the opportunity to learn from their leadership team and also add value to the sales reps there.

Fantastic. So how do you push yourself to get better? Professionally, personally, what do you do?

So as I mentioned before, I'm really, really big on reading. I think it's really important that we're able to grow and evolve ourselves. And in doing so, we— Oprah talked about this concept. I once heard her say, you've got to fill your cup first before you can, you can give to others, right? If your cup is empty, you can't offer others anything. It's very, very difficult. So I want to fill my cup. I want to increase my knowledge. Leadership, sales, marketing, and I have books on everything. You know, as I mentioned, leadership, sales, marketing, books on parenting. I even bought a book on how to toilet train when I was teaching my— he was 2 years old at the time, how to toilet train, how to go to the bathroom, moving on from nappies. So I read books on everything, on everything that I can find. But apart from that, I also focus on the basics. And the basics are sleep well, You know, sleep is a superpower of top performers. So sleep well, the basics, eat well, do some exercise, meditate, just go and focus on some self-care just to grow myself. And then I can go out into the workplace and then give and help others and serve others. So they're the main things, things that I do. And I speak to my team members about this, my my children as well, you know, my wife. Because the whole idea is if I can evolve, if I can be more, then I can inspire others and I can be an example to them in terms of what's possible. But first, I've got to keep going on that journey to grow myself first.

And how do you inspire and motivate your team to reach their highest potential? You know, especially, you know, whether it's their sales goals, daily activity, hygiene, staying motivated, How do you do that?

Yeah, I challenge him to set big, big goals. Big goals. Because we have to dream big, right? And dream beyond even what we, what we see as possible. That's what I believe. That's what I believe. So I challenge him to set big goals and then back that up with daily consistent action because our actions stack. Everything we do every day consistently stacks. It's like an exponential curve. And it's tricky in life because there is an echo. There's an echo. And what I mean by that is if, you know, tomorrow I start eating McDonald's every day, my figure won't change straight away. It takes a bit of time before my figure changes if I stop doing exercise and just started eating McDonald's and unhealthy food. So there's an echo, but it also works in the reverse when we're working towards something. When we take those initial steps, we don't always see the result, but we've got to keep going. So set big goals, put in the daily consistent action. You've got to take action every day. And then grow and learn. So if it's an area that you want to get better at and it's— if it's sales, if it's communication, if it's presenting, just do a little bit of reading. If it's the industry by your customers and even with reading, if you do a little bit every day. When I first got back into reading, I was reading just a page a day before I built the habit. Even if it's just a page a day of a book, that'll be better than nothing because one is better than zero. That's how I look at it. So even if you read a page a day, put it down, you'll start to build the habit. And as your habits build, Your wins will start to stack and you will see the result of everything that you've been doing. So I challenge them to set big goals, take daily action, read and grow. And for me as a leader, I want to develop my team members to be better people. It's more than just results. It's more than just performing and doing well and exceeding targets and getting promoted. If when they leave me, they're better human beings, then I've achieved my goal because I want to take them on a journey of self-growth. And my goal is to be that bridge from where they are to where they want to be. And I want to help them do that. So that's, that's how I challenge them. And it's the same for my children, actually, my wife, everybody in my circle is influenced by big goals and taking steps to keep growing themselves.

One last question before we wrap up. What advice would you give to someone who is in between roles and looking to obviously go to the next level. They're looking to, you know, how do they manage their— the stress and the disappointment of rejections or lack of responses? And how do they show up as their best selves every day to go after what they want?

Yeah.

So I'll, I'll answer the second part first, which is the how do you manage the stress and the rejection? And the way that, the way that I look at any time anything doesn't work for me, it's more of a perception shift. Right. And I've heard the line, life is a struggle, life is difficult, but I choose to see life as a teacher. Right. So to me, life is— you're being taught or you're— you have a challenge, so you have the opportunity to grow. So embrace that, embrace that and look at it as though it's not that things are— and they may be difficult, but it's for you to grow and conquer that what's in front of you, right? It's an opportunity for you to grow. So when for me, if anything isn't going well, I always have that perspective. That's a perspective that I look at it from and that helps me keep going because I know that it's just opportunity for me to grow and master that skill. And if I master that skill, then I'll be able to teach others as well. But coming back to the first point, you know, I would say again, get very clear in your goal what you want. And I would say write it down. And goal setting basics are you write it down because that way you can get very, very precise. You know what you want and that helps you know what you don't want. So write it down. And in the physical world, everything that is written, everything that we see was put on a piece of paper. You know, the chairs we're sitting on were drawn, the houses we're living in, they were first in the mind and then they were They were imprinted on a piece of paper before they were built. So that's the first thing you should write a goal down and that helps you stay focused on them and march towards them and then have the steps, take daily consistent action. I would recommend they come and see you, Pri, because you were very helpful for me and I know you can guide. And the other thing that I really appreciated that you did for me was saying, here's a list of companies that you can target. And in a sea of a million places that you could work, you also gave me direction there. So I would recommend anybody who's looking for a role with the Gap come and see you because Thank you again for your help. And I know that you can help them as well. If they take your advice on board, back that up with daily consistent action and don't get fazed by the fact that maybe you're getting a lot of rejections or it doesn't look like it's working. Just keep moving forward. And it's like prospecting. You keep hearing no, no, no. And then you get a yes and then you've got a sale. You've just got to keep going forward.

Kwame, this has been an inspirational masterclass. I want to thank you. You have enriched my life by knocking on that door. Thank you.

Thank you. You helped me, and I'm grateful.

I appreciate it very much. Thanks again.