May 6, 2019
Sam Monreal is a strategic advisor, the Founder and Head of Sales of Pitchstack, and the Director of strategic partnerships at Opcity, oversees enterprise sales efforts leading to growth from $30M to over $4B in transactions in 2.5years with a successful exit to News Corp subsidiary Move, Inc. in 2018. He is also an amazing author, art collector, real-estate investor, and a dad to a 7-year-old daughter. This guy is a ‘sells machine’, knows more about sales & how to scale things through sales. He has written, Why Startups Fail, and The Ten Commandments of Scale.
Sam is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in the intersection of tech & real estate and has been involved with multiple technology firms resulted in over $1B in successful exits as a part of the leadership in those companies as a Sales marketing and branding expert. He’s leader and owner of firms with over 600 employees in central Texas with 49 products successfully launched, scaling high productivity and efficient prospecting organizations, and mastery level proficiency in complex negotiations and deal closing.
Sam grew up from a poor family and had failed so many times. He filed bankruptcy twice and failed 13-14 businesses, but Sam is hyper-motivated by the need to provide the utmost value to the society. Sam believes that his calling is helping more people in homes, doing his best for the society. He lives intentionally in all areas of his life, truthful with himself, and show up his best version. He describes himself as an ‘intropreneur’, the guy that takes someone else idea and executes it. But what was so hard for Sam is building a full and end solution and held the whole journey 100% accountable.
Moreover, he learned to pull his ego from the shelf and be part of the bigger journey, process, and the greater good and not having the name on the side. Sam believes that though they are working on different areas, they belong to one culture, in the same team, and in the same mission. Despite being a successful leader & negotiator, he still learning how to be more patient, be a better trainer, be a better leader, and really his own world through leverage. According to him, the best entrepreneurs really understand the power of leverage.
Sam used problems as opportunities to figure out new things. He learned of not making a judgment of the people based on your perception of them but allowing them to prove who they are.
Sam emphasized of being selfish enough, be honest with yourself about what is going to drive you and the things that you want and stop focusing the money and focused on the mission and the money just comes.
Some Questions I Ask:
- Tell me about that epic piece of artwork over your left shoulder. (03:15)
- What it looks like for you before all of these massive exits? (08:13)
- How do you know when it’s time to stop & packed it up? (11:12)
- Do you think that every entrepreneur needs an entrepreneur or that integrator to be successful in vice versa? (18:24)
- Why the first hundred clients are the hardest? (24:22)
- What is the couple of top points in The Ten Commandments of Scale that you think is imperative? (27:53)
- How did you continue to push through the challenges in life after all the failures? (38:35)
- How did you learn to focus on mission & not the money? (50:28)
- Sam’s one message about finding the path for growth and rich life. (01:06:37)
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- The primary reason why Sam doesn’t accept the client. (28:36)
- The two biggest things that most companies struggled with. (31:08)
- The common misconception in the industry. (31:42)
- One of the most impactful moments in Sam’s career recently. (32:22)
- Sam and his team mission. (35:44)
- One of the hardest things about scaling the company. (36:02)
- A unique place for an entrepreneur to get to. (41:42)
- The three common things that most startup companies make them fail. (43:04)
- The most important thing in becoming an entrepreneur and being successful at it. (45:04)
- The why & the mission attached to that why. (45:45)
- Be selectively selfish. (53:18)
- The tough things for people who excel in business. (56:27)
- Ayahuasca and the plant-based medicine experiences and the lessons that Sam learned. (58:30)
- The importance of practicing acceptance. (01:01:39)
Quotes:
“Only buy things that you can’t live without and it will make your life better if you see them every day.”
“Not every idea is going to land, and not every idea is going to be a great idea.”
“The best entrepreneurs are aggressively lazy.”
“It’s not because nobody sold it yet, & nobody’s paid for it and nobody’s willing to buy it doesn’t mean it’s not saleable.”
“If you keep your eye on the future state, all now slips away.”
“Cash flow over ego, it is not that important if I’m right, it is not that important if I’m important.”