Episode 112 – Rylee Meek: Social Dynamic Selling

Casanova Brooks:
What’s up Dream Nation. We are back again with another episode that I’m sure is going to have impact on your life and hopefully on your sales skills. If you are someone in sales today on the show we have Mr. Riley Meek. You want to go ahead and say what’s up to dream nation.

Rylee Meek:
What’s up, what’s up Dream Nation,

Casanova Brooks:
Man, it’s a pleasure to have you here. So I always like to think of entrepreneurs and change makers as superheroes. And the reason why is because we’re constantly putting on capes and we’re flying around the world and we’re trying to solve problems, whether they’re for ourselves or for other people, hopefully.

And I think that this situation is no different, but I always like to make sure that we can give the proper context. So before you have been impacting the lives of thousands of salespeople before you’ve been featured and being able to develop a system and a process that can help anyone with their relationships skills, and also selling skills.

Talk to me about if we could take it back when you were just a young boy, tell me who is Riley meek.

Rylee Meek:
All right, man. When I was a young boy, that’s a good, good question. I’ve given my story before, but. just, you mentioned in that really reminds me of, I remember this, this unique time. I was eight years old and it’s funny now, cause my daughter is eight years old, but I remember I grew up in small, small town, South Dakota, and I’m like literally less than a thousand people.

So it’s not like there was a, you know, a ton of opportunity or anything. at this time I’d lived with my stepdad and my mom. I was eight. My folks had been divorced for about three years. I got divorced when I was five. but I, I remember this unique time I was walking down our driveway and for whatever reason and whatever your faith is of any sort.

But I just felt like this immediate, like just this download. And I feel like I get these every now and then where it was just like, I just knew in my mind, my no, or like in my inner being, like, I was gonna do big things in this world. I was going to make a lot of money and at eight, I didn’t even didn’t even realize what that actually meant

Casanova Brooks:
Did your parents have money or did you come from like no money? Like where my dad money at an early age?

Rylee Meek:
Yep. So it was unique. We had kind of ebbs and flows of it. My mom and dad were, you know, my dad he delivered mail, rural route as an independent contractor. Never really made more than 30, 40 grand a year, which in South Dakota, that’s fine.

my mom pretty much, you know, waited tables was a bar tender, things like that. So we certainly weren’t. In a wealthy, by any means. But my, when my mom had married my stepdad, my stepdad was an engineer. He had a pretty profitable company. And during that time it was like, yeah, I, I, I had all the toys, like the Go-Kart and the trampoline, you know, all that fun stuff.

so it kind of went through ebbs and flows of it, which ultimately my mom and stepdad did divorce, when I was a, you know, in high school and I think. A unique time, you know, having gone through like a lot to a little lot to a little, and I, I remember this one time too, when my mom, when this would have been, when I was like, you know, probably five or six years old when my parents were first divorced and we had lived off and on kind of with my aunt.

And I remember, I don’t remember this, but my mom tells me the story of me asking her specifically, like, you know, mom, why, why are you and aunt, my aunt Chrissy. I’m just kinda tired and crabby all the time. And I don’t, again, I don’t remember saying this, but she had mentioned this. I brought this up a while ago and she said, well, honey, it’s because, you know, we have to work long hours.

And, you know, we don’t make a lot of money and it just, it takes a lot of work. And I, and what I said at that point to her was that, well, I’m going to just, I’m going to make a lot of money mommy. And, and again, I don’t want to sound like all about money or anything, but that was a unique time. My mom said.

You know what had happened there again, I don’t have any recollection of that, but fast forward to when I’m eight years old and I had just like this kind of download that this is what I was going to do to where I am now. It’s kind of interesting because you know, when I was 15 years of age, I I’d actually moved down with my dad, a town about 30 miles from where I’ve lived with my mom and stepdad.

they had a better sports program. I wanted to go down there and, you know, my brother was a senior, I was a freshmen. So I thought we would have kind of fun, you know, going through our high school like that and being a part of a better athletic program. And when I was 15, I thought, you know, I should get a job.

not because my folks even asked me for it. it was just something that I just felt like I can I’m well, abled. There’s no reason that I can’t contribute to the cool clothes and get the cool car. You know, you’re in high school, you want to impress the girls, right. So right. so I remember the only, the only real option there within this town, was making pizzas at our local gas station.

in this gas station was called The Humdinger and, minimum wage at that time was $5 and 15 cents an hour. And so I took the job, thought cool. You know, no big deal. I didn’t know. What the meaning of, you know, an hourly rate really meant. And when I did, I did my first eight hour shifts. There’s my, the first summer that I had this job, I did one shift in, after that I did the math in my head and I thought no way in heck I’m ever doing that again.

And it was like the first day on my job was the last day on my quote unquote job. And the reason why it was really what made me so upset during that timeframe. Wasn’t that. Somebody put that, that hourly rate, that wage on, on my, on the value of what I provide, it was more that I allowed that to happen.

Cause I knew I was, I was worth well more than 40 bucks for eight hours of time. And so I, that, like I said, I quit and that was really my last quote, unquote job. And that’s when I really kind of seeked out different mentors. And, I read every book possible that I could find on personal development, sales marketing, and, I ended up finishing my, I moved up to Minnesota the summer of my sophomore and junior year and contemplated even, even staying here to finish out my senior year.

But. You know, back in South Dakota, when there’s like 18 kids on the football team, of course, I’m going to, you know, I’ve got a be there, right? It’s like your senior year, you gotta be, you know, the athlete, the quarterback, the point guard, things like that. So I moved back and finished my senior year and literally the day that I graduated high school, I moved back up to the twin cities here, which is where we reside part time now.

But, and that’s really when I. My initial thought was to go to college, become a chiropractor. my, my brother-in-law was a chiropractor and I loved that. You know, I was really in the nutritional and kind of fitness world. I became a certified personal fitness trainer, was retelling a ton of nutritional supplements at the time, upwards of over 10 grand a month and actually nutritional supplements.

so I was making a decent coin and, and I had that realization of like, You know, I’m making pretty good money here. Why do I want to go to school for another, you know, six years go $150,000 in debt and then have to build the business from scratch again. Right. So I just continued kind of down that path and, I had great, again kind of ebbs and flows with income and different business opportunities that had.

Had to come along my way, opportunities to open up new operations. One of them happened to be down in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. And at this time I actually, I had owned a, a fitness center in anytime fitness franchise. I’m sure you’ve got those in Omaha, right? Oh yeah. When I was 23, that’s when I had bought my first kind of brick and mortar business and I thought this is going to be at man.

This is great. I’m gonna, I’m gonna, you know, build out. I’m gonna own multiple of these throughout the country. And dude, I tell you, I’d never worked so hard in my life and made so little owning one of these fitness franchises and nothing against that. It was just like the deal that I got myself in.

Cause I didn’t know how to negotiate leases and. And, you know, I did have the person I bought it from like, hold a portion of the note, but I really put myself in a predicament where, you know, I had to have six, 700 members just to break even at this thing. And we were putzing along at, you know, five to five 50.

So it was like, I’m constantly hustling to get more members, but there’s so much competition in that space. And again, it was like working 5:00 AM there I’m training clients. I’m there until 11, 12 at night, trying to keep the place clean. Cause I couldn’t afford to hire anybody. And I was just like, okay, this isn’t it.

This is not what I thought it was going to be. Certainly don’t regret it at all. But I ended up finding a kind of an apprentice we’ll call it. Who came into to take that club over. That allowed me to. take an opportunity of a new company opening up operations in Mexico. And so ended up, renting out.

we had a condo here in the, in the twin cities. My wife was pregnant at the time, so I was like, I gotta make some freaking money here. I gotta provide for my family. Went down to Mexico, things were going great. We were crushing it. We were recruiting new reps, retailing product in five months into this.

The, the government actually came in and closed all operations. Just the entire company had to close down operations in, in Mexico. So five months into catching a flight back to the cities, the twin cities here. And not only was, I pretty much broke. I’d invested everything that I had. I still had my fitness center, but.

That was bleeding. You know, there’s no income there. and not to mention at least at my condo. So I was coming back. I was virtually homeless. Right. We found ourselves sleeping on my sister’s couch and, it was, it was a unique time in my life, dude. It’s it was like, I don’t want to call it like my.

Well, I hope it is my rock bottom. I hope I don’t ever get to that point again, but it was, I was just on a quest at that point and it was like, what am I going to do next? And I knew I couldn’t go. I mean, I certainly could go work for somebody. There’s never a point where I would be too prideful to do that, but I knew that’s not what I wanted to do.

The power of one-to-many

I wanted to be able to provide, I had bigger visions. And I was just on a quest looking for different opportunities. And I came across this ad on Craigslist of all places and it simply read, it was very simple headline. It said work three days a week and make 10,000 bucks. So I’m like, yeah. Right, right.

Like, what am I doing? Dealing crack here? What am I doing? You know, three days a week, 10,000 bucks. So, but of course I had to inquire upon it. just the inquisitive nature. And, and I ended up getting on the phone with this dude and. And he started talking about doing these presentations to groups of people, is the first kind of introduction of selling one to many versus one-on-one because everything that I had done from, you know, fitness sales to, nutritional supplements, to sold siding and windows and, and business appraisal has done a lot of different things.

but it was always just selling one-on-one and it was, I would, I would take in as much as I love the idea. Of, you know, my, my earning ability was uncapped. They would always promote that, or it was all up to me. I owned, I owned, I earn what I’m worth. Right. I love that idea of it, but I never truly believed it because I knew.

My earning ability was capped by the amount of time in a day. Right. I could only do a certain amount of presentations. It dependent upon what you’re promoting or selling, before you’re just emotionally exhausted. And you just can’t, you know, you just can’t go on. You can just always sell higher ticket items to get a higher commission or, you know, manage a sales team or something like that.

But it wasn’t like, I just knew that I had, I needed to. Figure out a way to earn more. And when I went down to this presentation that this dude was doing, it was a couple of hour drive. He invited me out and I walked into a room and it completely blew my mind, man. It was like we were, I walked into the room, he had 20 to 25 people that were eagerly listening to him.

He did a presentation, he fed them dinner. And then at the end he simply said, For those that would like to learn more about what he was promoting at the time I’ve, I’ve scheduled out tomorrow only. And in all of that, he ended up getting seven actual appointments for, to meet with people one on one. And so it blew my mind.

I was like, this guy did one. One presentation. It was a rockstar presentation. Right. But what a great presentation?

Casanova Brooks:
What was he selling? What is it like timeshares or what was he selling?

Rylee Meek:
Dude, no, this is you’re going to love this. He was selling like radiant barrier, like insulation that you put in people’s attics.

Casanova Brooks:
Wow.

Something you wouldn’t even think of. And it was that’s what blew my mind. Cause I was like, well, I’m not going to sell that crap. Like I don’t, I didn’t. I don’t know anything about home remodeling or construction might Lilly, my wife hangs the pictures in my house. That’s the most mechanically

They look good though. For anybody watching, they would agree. I mean the symmetry of everything, it looks good.

Rylee Meek:
It looks better, right? Yeah. That’s all my wife, man, for sure. Isn’t me. So, but anyways, we, we, I ended up, I left that presentation on at a couple hour drive home and my wheels just kept spinning and turning and turning and I couldn’t believe.

That this is all this guy did. And if he can do that in one presentation, you know, a couple hours. Heck I’ll do, I’ll do five a week and meet with people. And, and that’s when I realized the leverage of the group selling, selling one to many, not only in time, but even in your marketing dollars as well. And I started to just to think like, what could we sell through this?

And I took, I did take some of his ideas and, and threw in a couple of mine added in like some led lighting and. And just simple things that would make a home more energy, you know, energy conscious, or just the ability to save money on your utility bills. And we did within a few months, I ended up doing our first presentation in at this time, dude.

I remember I’m pretty much broke. So I remember so clearly I had 673 bucks in my bank account. And that was like, I invested with my credit card. Right. And it was like, I’m going to fill these events and see what I can do. And it was kind of a do or die moment. Like I’ve got to provide, remember my wife is pregnant at the time.

And, I did my first presentation. We made a few sales. I took the profits from that and reinvested into the next event and the next event. And within that six months, man, this would’ve been in July of 2011. But by the end of December, we did 2.1 million in sales. And that’s when I was like, all right, let’s start, let’s start recruiting.

Let’s start training some guys here. And that’s what I did. And the next year we did 12 million. We did another 12 million. And that’s when I realized we got a well oiled machine here, like, what else could we sell through this? And I found another product we could sell. And that company, we did 5 million our first year I found a different product that we could sell.

And from now, whatever it’s 2020. So. Nine years later, seven different companies within different industries. We’ve taken all of them to seven and even eight figures within the first year and generate over a hundred million dollars in sales now. So it’s been a pretty drawn man.

The power of one-to-many

Casanova Brooks:
Yeah, no, that sounds incredible.

And we’re definitely gonna dive into all of that. The first thing I want to go back to is you said that, Hey, you quit. That first job, a $5 and 15 cents an hour. And my thoughts on that was what did your parents think because your parents, obviously they had to know upfront that you were taking this job.

Entrepreneur parenting

You’re young, you’re 15 years old. You’re saying I’m going to take a $5, 15 hour job. And then all of a sudden you come back, you say, this is not worth my time. I’m going to quit, but I’m sure that your dad and your mom who had worked very hard, especially being in the Midwest, what was their mindset on that?

Rylee Meek:
Yeah. You know, I don’t think, I mean, I think one of the things that was unique about my folks and it is is they always let me kind of do my own thing, run my own race and yeah, I could. I could make my decisions on my own, but I was going to suffer the consequences. Right. And from even like early on, if I want to go to a party in high school, you got, if you get caught, bud, you’re, I’m not bailing you out for this thing.

Right. And, and that’s who they were. And I appreciate, I certainly appreciate that, to an extent, of course. So it wasn’t anything that they were really upset about or gave me backlash about, because I think they knew. You know, I think they knew who I, who I am, or, you know, was in, in that, you know, I had, I had big visions even at a, at a young age.

Casanova Brooks:
You’re a pretty good kid. Right. You might make a couple mistakes here or there, but they had a lot of trust in you.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah, I think so, man. Absolutely. Yeah. So I didn’t really get into any trouble, any big trouble by any means. Maybe my dad had to come pick me up at a partier, but no, no legal trouble or anything like that. So.

Casanova Brooks:
And the reason why I ask and why I think that that’s relevant is because nowadays, no matter who you are, if you have a younger brother, younger sister, or definitely, if you have kids, kids nowadays, they’re looking at things the similar to the way you did. And they’re saying, Hey, for $15 an hour, even 20 bucks an hour, I don’t know that I necessarily want to do it for that.

Cause I feel like I can’t allow myself to get paid that when some of my friends right now we’re playing YouTube and they’re bringing, you know, they have a Twitch. Account. And then they’re bringing in $10,000 a month or $15,000 a month. And so I think the takeaway from there is allow your kids to be who they are and just kind of have trust into them.

And I think for parents, it’s very tough to do that. And I know myself, I’m constantly asking myself, you know, cause my son is gravitating more. Especially when he sees that I have the podcast and he sees my whole setup and he’s like, man, dad, like, and you’re just like, ah, But you want to protect them because you’re like, listen, there’s levels to this.

So kudos to your parents. I think that obviously it worked out for the best, but it was because of the values that they had in you early on.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah. And I think I completely agree with you. Cause my daughter is eight. How old are your, your kids?

Casanova Brooks:
My son will be nine in July and my daughter will be three in November, so right.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s, I think the biggest thing. Is is everybody has their own journey that they’ve got to go through. And if, you know, hitting for me, it was like when I, when I came up here to Minnesota, I didn’t like I did, I had to figure out how to make money on my, my own. I wasn’t really given anything.

And, and I appreciate that because I think so many are they have a trust fund or they’ve got a. something to fall back on. Like, could I have picked up the phone and called nine 11 to my mom and dad? Absolutely. which I think was maybe a sharing, I guess, but it wasn’t like. That’s my thing, my pride maybe wasn’t would never allow me to do that, man.

So it was like in the same thing, even for my eight year old now it’s like, how do I I’m reading so many books, like, okay, strong daughters or strong fathers, strong daughters. And they’re like, okay, how do I parent this child? Because the world we live in right now is Jacked. And it’s like, how do we, I think the biggest thing is lead by example.

Yeah, Ellie, my daughter now I think is going to have a lot of luxuries even, but we tell her that every single day, like, you know, this is not normal, that we’re, you know, going to the, the arcade every Friday or whatever, like most kids don’t get to do that stuff. Right. We try to lead the best possible, you know, the best possible way that we can, by not over, you know, spoiling her, but just making it and making her understand that we are very blessed to, to have this.

And we need to be good stewards with, with what we have.

Entrepreneur parenting

Casanova Brooks:
I love it, man. We go through the same plights and the same challenges. And I think as many people will be able to relate to this. And especially if you’re a new or, you know, aspiring entrepreneur, at some point, if you put in the work and you build it on the right relationships, you’ll be in that position where you do have to just figure out ways that you can lead by example, just like you said.

So I’m glad that you brought that point up. So fast forward and get back to where you are now. Talk to me about what was the biggest struggle that you think you’ve had over these last 10 years? Because, you know, in the beginning it was very rocky, but then you found your framework and we’ll get into that, but then you started to really take off, but what was those things that we all have them?

Those one or two things that continuously pull us back that were like, man, if we could have cracked this code a little bit sooner, it would’ve made our journey less volatile.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah, man. I think, I think self doubt is, is the biggest struggle, which ironically, I feel like I have more of it now than I did when I had.

Nothing. Right. When I had 673 bucks in my bank account, there was no way in hell I’m I’m not going to succeed like that. I am, there’s no way I’m not making sales. There’s no way I’m not going to continue to grow this thing because I had the vision that it was going to happen. And I think once I, you know, 2011, 2012, 2013, I.

I let off the gas. And I was like, kind of coasted. I had things where things were great, you know, built a beautiful home life was good,

Casanova Brooks:
Which was crazy. Cause we were even still coming out of a recession then obviously of 2008, 2009. So we’re still okay.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah, absolutely man. And it’s funny now, cause right now is we’re kind of entering one and it’s like, I don’t even remember.

Yeah, I remember that away, but I was still, I actually remember, I bought my first condo in ’06, the highest peak of any, the dumbest time to ever buy. And I finally got rid of it last year for the same price that I bought it for in 2006. but that being said, it was like, I don’t even.

Business & Relationships

I think the biggest thing was getting to the point where it’s like, all right, cool.

This is good. Life’s good. And then losing that fire, losing that drive, losing that. And, and dude, then I started, I started drinking a lot. I started just like, life was just like letting it happen versus going and get it. And, and you know, some of my businesses, you know, peaked and then they came down and I had to start another one peak came down and for me.

I think it’s always has been about the thrill of the hunt. It’s not like the, you know, I’ll be. I’ll be real transparent here, dude. So, I’ve got divorced from my first wife, Ellie Ellie’s mommy and I are, we’re separated my wife now Ash amazing, amazing step mommy. But that all happened during this kind of ramp up.

So 2000 we got married and when we get my 2006 and we divorced, officially know we separated 2012, But that was like during my peak, my ramp up right. 2011, 2012. And it was just like, I was, there was no way that I was not going to let my business succeed at that time. And, and then I had to start another one and I had to start another one.

The one, because I reached that pinnacle and it’s like, okay, I’ve checked the box. Now I can back off and do to I look back now and why I think my, my ex wife and I are great friends. So now as with my, my wife and her, like go get their nails done together because we’ve made it all about Ellie. And we’ve realized that like during that time period, it was all about like, I got married, I checked the box.

And it was like, I checked out from that, that time in my life. And I mean, again, I was, I was there, I was present, but I wasn’t present. Like I was kind of, I was crappy husband. I wasn’t providing what I needed to, you know, emotionally for what she needed emotionally. I was getting everything I needed because I was building my next thing.

Right. And then I was able to build the next one and the next one. And, you know, we’ve, I’ve come to that realization. And now that’s, I think why we have such a great relationship because I’ve learned a lot about myself and who I am, through this process. And so everybody’s on a journey we’re still on a journey.

And, I think having that realization or that awareness. That allows you to be intentional, intentional about your actions is the biggest thing that I’ve learned just through my journey, up to this point and who knows what will happen over the next, you know, 10, 20, 30 years.

Casanova Brooks:
And from what I gather. You know, is, is the fact that just like you said, you were just checking boxes, you weren’t very present. So it was more so living in the moment. And I respect you for saying that because I think a lot of, especially new entrepreneurs, they need to be hearing that because it becomes the thrill of the hunt and the thrill of the chase, just like you said, and once you get that success and especially when you come from rock bottom, and you can remember having nothing to now, you have everything it’s easy to kind of start to coast.

You know, because you’ve lived, you’ve exerted a lot of energy, a lot of effort, a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. And so I respect you for saying that and hopefully somebody else takes heed to that. But let me ask, was your wife, when you were first starting out and you were checking these boxes and having this success, was your wife on board or do you feel like some of it contributed because you were an entrepreneur and you tasted the blood, but she necessarily wasn’t.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah, dude. so my first wife, right? Yeah, your first one is ramping. It was on board man. And this is, she was extremely supportive. Like literally anything you could imagine that you would want in a, in a wife and which wasn’t what I needed at that time. Really. and so it was like to the, to the extent where I would come home from a day and she would be like, how was your day?

And want to talk about it? And if I had a bad day, I was like, Already lived at once. I don’t want to talk about it. You know, just a dick. I mean, it was right. So she was great. And she was on board with where we were heading. cause she was, I mean, she’s like a supporter. She was a very, you know, great partner in a, in a relationship that you would want, but it wasn’t really what I was needing or desiring at that time in my life again, dude, I was 20.

We have engaged at 19, we were young and dumb. Right?

Casanova Brooks:
Understandable.

Rylee Meek:
It was just, I’m a totally different human being as a she right now, but we have, we still have that mutual respect and on, you know, just the journey that her she has been on. And I’ve been, been on as well.

Got it.

And I, and the reason why I asked that one is just because for a lot of people, I know I’ve often gotten the question that people say, listen, I want to become an entrepreneur.

I want to take these risks, but my spouse doesn’t necessarily see it that way. My spouse thinks that we’re gambling with our savings. My myself, my spouse thinks that I should stay at this job where I’m working towards a pension. And so with try and obviously everyone’s different. And I think the intentions are always good.

But if you’re not on the same page of both people don’t understand that yes. There’s this minor setback and taking a risk for a major come up that could necessarily, that could sometimes contribute to the fallout, even though both sides had good intentions. So that’s why I was asking that just to kind of see if you felt that that had any, you know, a contributing factor to it.

Casanova Brooks:
Yeah. And even to. To kind of piggyback on that. Now, when I hire our, our sales reps, or even a new client, that’s like wants to become a new entrepreneur. Cause we deal with startups a lot that are looking for that. They need a source of leads and sales. That’s one of my first questions is how’s your relationship?

Like is your wife on board with this or your husband on board with this? Because if they’re not, and in what we do, all of our sales reps, they travel usually two to three nights a week. They’re on the road. And so that’s my first question. And not only do I interview, like, are my sales rep, but I’m going to hop on with the spouse too, is I want to figure it out like.

Are you, are you on board with this? Are you cool with them being gone two nights a week, three nights a week?

Because it takes a lot of sacrifice.

Rylee Meek:
It does on both, both ends on both ends being on the road, sleeping in a hotel room, things like that. It can be. You know, very lonely at times, and then being home, taking care of the kids or the house, and, you know, it can be very lonely at times too.

So, but if you’re, if you’re on the same boat, same page with that, then great things can happen. You know, a lot of money can be made if that’s your goal. but it’s, it is crucial if you don’t, if you’re not on the same team, like this is a team effort here in any stage in the entrepreneurship world, you’re going to struggle with, without a doubt.

And I would always choose relationship over business.

Casanova Brooks:
I love it. Do you think that there’s a way you can balance it?

Rylee Meek:
Here’s the thing? I don’t really even like the word balance because if.

If we say balance that that puts the picture in your mind that one’s on one side and one’s on the other, right? You’re, you’re balancing each other. This is more of, of, of working cohesively in a world where there is no balance. It is what it is. And it’s a life lifestyle that we have right now and, and live.

And yeah, it may mean I got to work long hours, but the point of this, I’m going to work these long hours over the next two years. So we can live the life, start the family that we want. No year three or whatever the case is, whatever the goals and aspirations are, but absolutely my wife and I are our prime example right now, dude.

There’s no way that I work every single day. Like I just, cause that’s what drives me and fuels me. And she knows that, but when I’m with her, I’m present and I’m there to be with her to give her what she needs as

Casanova Brooks:
well. I love it. We had a guest on the show. Her name was, Tiffany Aliche and she’s The Budgetnista.

They’re not asked her that question as well. And she gave me one of the best answers that I’ve ever heard. And she said, there’s not a thing as balanced, but more so harmony. You know, when you’re talking about harmony, they worked hand in hand together and they start to flow, which is what you said as well, rather than just like you said, putting one, cause you’re apart then, and you’re not working together.

You got one side and when you’re tying to do balance, that means one side’s got to go down and the other side’s got to go up and it’s a lot of friction that way. So when you can do a harmony. That just means you find a way to cohesively, as you said, work together. And, and I think as long as you have the right communication and the right expectations are set from the beginning, if both sides want to make that work and they understand, like you said, that you’re living like no one else now, so you can essentially live like no one else later in these next couple of years and build our family.

That’s what makes it work? That much better. So I think you put it pretty beautifully and I love it.

Business & Relationships

So let’s fast forward. Now you’ve developed a framework and this happened in your, your first couple years, you developed a framework and talk to me about what is that framework and it’s called Social Selling or is that right?

Yeah.

Rylee Meek:
So I coined the, what happened, you know, fast forward, like from 2011, four or five years into it, life is great making a lot of money, but we did, we were selling products that I could give a rip about. Right. Like, I don’t care. I didn’t care about. Saving people’s utility bills. Yes, it was helping them.

Great. I would never sell something that would harm anybody, but I didn’t care about it. I had zero passion for what we doing, and I remember so clearly I was coming home. It was a Wednesday night after I had Monday, Tuesday events. And as a Wednesday night, I got home late. Wife and daughter were already sleep.

And I just had this feeling of unfulfillment within me. It was just like, just like hated what I did. And I sat down at my kitchen table and just was like contemplating life. Like what, what am I here for? And I thought back to the early days of when I was originally starting out in sales, right. Whether it be the nutritional supplements and how to figure out how to get leads or a door to door with siding and windows.

One of the worst jobs in the planet, but one of the best jobs, one of the, one of the most unique jobs that I learned the most out of sales and just how human beings interact and make decisions. so I would never take it back, but I just thought back to those days of what life was like, the feast and famine lifestyle of.

That of a salesman or an entrepreneur. And I thought, man, there are so many entrepreneurs out there that have a passion for their product that have a passion for whatever their service is, but they just don’t know how to bring it to the masses. They just don’t know how to sell it. Right. And I thought maybe, maybe the system here is the product.

Could I actually teach people how to do this, that have a passion for their product? Cause I knew my passion was people I’ve always known that I love to be able to pour into people and build relationships, expand their visions. And I just started to write, I grabbed pen and paper and I just, I just started to write everything that we do on how we, how we start a marketing campaign from identifying our true client avatar, to creating a message that speaks to them to understanding like, what do you really sell?

Like if you sell a. I mean, just a common example of, you know, people don’t buy a drill because they want the drill. They want, they want a hole, but we take it so much deeper in the fact they don’t want a hole, they want the hole so they can hang the picture and they don’t want the pitcher. Cause what’s a picture.

Do they want the picture hung? So that the way that they feel. Within, you know, when somebody comes into their home, the pride that they get, or the warmth that, that it just exuberates within their home. So we get to the such so deep into this and the benefits of the benefits to how to, negotiate pricing.

We do a lot of dinner, seminar events. So how to negotiate pricing with our venues, how to set up the room, how to deliver the presentation scripting to use on how to. you know, take our RSVP cause I just laid it all out and it was like, could this be the product? And that was really the birth this Wednesday night of, of what we now call Social Dynamic Selling.

And the reason why I coined it, that. Because most people, it kind of confuses them a little bit. And I like it because most people think social, like, is it social media or what is this social selling thing? And at the end of the day, it’s selling and groups, because with any, with any social setting, a group setting, there’s a dynamic that’s happening within there.

Right. Whether if you go to church, you’ve got your pastor, you’ve got the ushers, the greeters, the rest of the congregation. There’s a dynamic that’s happening in that room, right? During worship service or whatever. Or if you go to a bar and you’ve got the, the bouncer up front or the bartender, and you got the drunk patrons over here, the, the girls over here, you know, whatever it is, there’s a dynamic that’s happening there.

Anchoring

And we we’ve figured out how to use that in a sales setting. Right. Which, which should they, it’s more of an educational setting, but we were able to use language and in certain techniques or tactics that we’ve learned on how to create an environment in which people just want to buy.

Casanova Brooks:
If you have a tough crowd, right. And let’s say in the world of, let’s say real estate agents, Right. If you’re working for a real estate agent and they want to know how to convince their clients, right. So use them, do you have a technique that you would say for a tougher crowd?

Rylee Meek:
Sure. So first off we want continuity with everything here. So I’m going to start with the messaging that we’re speaking to them. How do I get them to show up? Okay. So maybe it’s before you, you know, here are the top five things you need to know before you pick your real estate agent. Right. It’s something.

Get them curious, curious curiosity is, is going to cause them to pick up that phone and RSVP and, and all the copy. We would write out for that. So they know what they’re coming out to. and once they’re at the event, you know how to greet them. We’re building rapport throughout the entire process. so certainly it’s some of it’s going to be dependent upon the size of the room, that what we’re, what we’re looking to accomplish there, but maybe just a simple technique that I’ll use.

that we’ve all been, we’ve all been a part of this before it’s been used on us before I guarantee it. And, and I’ll give an example here. Do you remember, so an example would be called anchoring and what I mean by that is if I’m in a group or go back to when you were in third grade, And when you come in for recess and everybody’s running around, it’s wild and crazy.

And your is trying to get you all to shut up, right? Like just let’s get an order here. She would always go over to maybe a place in the room, maybe the corner of her desk. And she would go listen up kids. All right, settle down, listen up. Right. And then she’d go on to whatever the next lesson was or whatever.

And if at any point during that next lesson, the kids started to get rowdy. Again, all she would have to do is go back to that spot that she already anchored and what she was clapping and telling them to listen up. She would just have to slowly walk over there. Stand still in the class is going to naturally know because subconsciously.

They know, they need to listen up here because teachers serious, right. Without having to do the other body language. So that’s a prime example when you’re dealing with a group of people on how to be able to actually control the room for you.

Casanova Brooks:
Yeah. That definitely works. And that got me thinking how many times have I been anchored?

Anchoring

I mean, it can be in anything when your daughter goes over to the fridge, you know? Oh, that means they want like, that’s what I’m thinking. So yeah. No, I love that. Yeah. That’s that’s, that’s a good one. It’s a really good one. Okay. And so you were saying social dynamic selling. Now you used this, you’ve developed the framework.

Can you for anybody who’s, you know, thinking, okay, well, what does that framework look like? Do you have a three step process or a four step process? Or how, how does it work for you or,

Rylee Meek:
Yeah, it’s really, we broke it up into six main steps or modules, we call them. and I wanted to, again, I thought back to the days of like, alright, I had 673 bucks in my bank account.

I didn’t, I didn’t have money to really pay somebody to do this for me. Right. So I wanted to be able to make sure they had the ability to learn how to do this. If there’s a hope or a vision, you either got time or you got money. And if you’ve got time, I still wanted to make it available to people. So I wrote a book called “Food For Thought: How to use dinner-semina, marketing, to grow your business in ways you never thought possible” in which I lay out these six basic steps from building your, your marketing foundation to, you know, identifying your, your true client avatar to crafting your invitation.

We do a ton of direct mail. and it’s not, we do a lot of online stuff too, but we do a lot of direct mail still. It’s it’s, it’s the highest ROI that we get on, on, on our investment, into actually marketing dollars.

Casanova Brooks:
And is this goal, so is the goal to get somebody in the door for the live event or is it to get them in the door and close them within the six steps?

Rylee Meek:
So each step has one goal, right? So the invitation, for example, I got one goal and that’s to get them to RSVP. Okay, then I have a confirmation call. I have one goal and that’s to get them to actually show up. Okay. And there’s, there’s certain tricks that we can use that most of our events have over 90% show up rate those that RSVP, usually 90% will show, you know, short of a hurricane coming through or tornado warning, you know, but weather, weather dependent.

We get a such a high show up rate they’re at the event. Now you have a presentation. Your only goal there is to get a followup appointment. Hm. Right. So if we rush, if we try to rush to the sale, you can’t do that. It’d be like saying you go on a blind date. You know, maybe it’s, it’s a little different nowadays, I guess.

But when we used to go back dating, if you on the blind date, you’re not going to start out with, Hey, you know, I’m going to buy dinner and stuff here, but you know, I’m going to ask for sex at the end of it. Right. They’re going to go get out of here. Right? You got to go through, then it’s a natural progression in, in a dating process.

Just like there is the sales process. So we do the presentation, we get the appointment and then the appointment, once you’re one-on-one, that’s where you can actually get the sale. And then after the sale, it’s obviously to not get a cancellation, right? So there’s basic steps that we want to go through to create, because I believe every buying decision is an emotional decision, but it needs to be backed by logic.

Right, because you can get one of the things that we are not. And I want to be clear as we, I’m not the guy that’s raw rushed to the back of the room, get your $48 real estate course that you’re never going to freaking open or do anything with. That’s not us. We are all about know, like, and trust. Okay. If I can get them to know me and like me in an hour, hour and a half presentation, I’ve gained their trust because I’ve been positioned as an authoritative figure.

I’m nice enough. I’m a, you know, likable enough where they’re like, you know what this guy is, he’s a good dude. Let’s see what this, the next step is or how much to see how much this is going to cost. And then I can sit down with them one on one to actually close the deal.

Casanova Brooks:
Got it. And so walk us through now.

I just wanted to know what was the goal, walk us through if you could just briefly, what are those six stages?

Rylee Meek:
Okay. So. Building out your marketing foundation. Okay. And then we’re going to be crafting the actual invitation or identifying like what it is that you really sell. Okay. So that’s what I was talking about, the benefits of the benefits and then crafting the actual invitation.

and then once they’re at the event, so there’s key components in each one of these here, but once they’re at the event, it’s actually delivering the presentation. Right. And that’s where we’re going to talk about how to set the room up. what time to serve dinner. Do you do dessert? Everything from the, we call it essentially like your it’s, your you’re the ringleader, like your circus is happening and you are the ringleader here.

So we need to have you be in control of the, how to control the room. And then the actual, appointment when you’re one on one with them. And then always the followup we call following up and following through, to prevent cancellations. And it just because somebody comes to an event. And they don’t give you an appointment.

It doesn’t mean that they’re not a potential client down the road, right. There could just be times that it’s just bad timing for them or whatever the case is. So, you know, having a proper CRM program in place to continually follow up and work, those leads is, is just as crucial as generating the lead itself.

Casanova Brooks:
Got it. And for anybody that’s not aware, what is a CRM.

Rylee Meek:
It’s. So if you, if you’re in sales, you’ve got to have a program, like a tool that you’re going to be. So like a salesforce.com, right? So a tool that allows you to keep customer notes, and the whole point of it is to retain that information and, and be able to have a, you know, if you’re getting, if you’re getting.

if you’re on an email list that that person has a CRM in place, right. Where they know every time you click on that link. And, anytime, you know, you’ve gone to their webpage after the fact, it’s just, it’s, it’s collecting data. Right. I love, I love data. I don’t love trying to figure it out. I love looking at the results of certain things and how to tweak different things.

Like if I say this, what happens here? If I say this, then what happens? And that’s so important through any sales process, whether you’re doing live seminars or webinars, or you have an online funnel or whatever it is, you need to have that data in place.

Casanova Brooks:
I agree in, in CRM customer relationship management, , for most people in sales, I would agree that they probably know at least, you know, Salesforce or something like that. That’s been great. so has there been a book or a blog or anything? Like when you look for mentorship, when you look to advance your knowledge, your insight.

You know, especially over these last five years when you’ve had to really try to scale because you had the right system in place, but we know that what got you there, a lot of the times won’t take you to the next level. And so what what’s been that turning thing for you that you’ve helped to always level up your mindset.

Rylee Meek:
Yeah. One of the, a big book in my life at when I was like probably 19 or 20, it was called The Science of Success. And it’s by James Arthur Ray. And, Is there some great components in that book. And he was, he was a part of like The Secret, you know, Jack Canfield and things like that, where it was like, just what you think about you bring about, right?

Like that’s just, your mindset is the most important thing. And if you can continually. Fuel yourself with good content, like, like that book, the science of success now I think is a little cookie and some of the things that he talks about, but I at least love the principles of what he was referring to.

And James Arthur, Ray, I actually just searched, tried to find that book online. Again, it looks like they’ve kind of redone it with, with certain, different tools and components to it. So I’m going to, I’m looking forward to actually going through it again.

Casanova Brooks:
Yeah, we definitely will link that in the show notes.

but yeah, that’s one that I haven’t heard anyone mentioned before, and I’m a big, I tell people all the time I am an avid reader, but really I’m an avid listener because I have been one of the biggest clients for audible, for many years now, because I’m always going so fast. So, but you gotta keep the education.

I appreciate you saying that. Now, man, this has been a phenomenal interview and I appreciate you coming on a drop in so much value. There’s somebody out there right now that is very inspired and they love your journey. They love where you are now. And they would love to be able to blaze their own path like you’ve done, but they have that little voice in their head and that low voice maybe tells them that they’re not strong enough.

They’re not smart enough. Or maybe they just don’t have enough resources. What’s the one thing that you would say to them to get them to just take action.

Action & Mentorship

Rylee Meek:
You know, I’ve been in many situations in my life where I’ve thought that in you, you hit it right there. Taking action. With action comes clarity. Like just sitting back thinking like, what happens if this, or what happens if that, what happens is this nothing gets done, right?

There’s nothing gets done. If you, if you’re continually organizing your desk, if you’re not doing money, Like money promoting activities. If you’re not driving traffic or leads to your business, nothing’s going to get done. Right. If you’re trying to figure out how to get outside capital, just go sell something.

Like there’s nothing, I hate more than that. And I’m like, well, how can I get my business going? I need money. Like, no, you don’t, you can figure it out. There’s plenty of people that have figured it out that I’ve had zero money. Some of the most successful people in the world started out with nothing. And I think it is just knowing that taking action.

And if you don’t. If you don’t believe it, you got to surround yourself with the right people that do. And in look reading those books, like science of success, seeking out a mentor, finding a, you know, I didn’t have a mentor or anything until I was 27. Right. And I actually, I made a decent amount of money at that point.

And then that’s when I was like coasting and I realized I gotta get my crap together. Right. It was like, I gotta figure this back out. And the best thing I’ve ever done was hire a coach. And I have a. Business coach in a, life, a personal coach right now that I wouldn’t, I’m never not going to have that because having that accountability is well worth an investment in 10 times of what I paid for them right now.

I hope they don’t ever hear this, but it’s well worth the investment that I pay to have somebody, you know, have that accountability. And I really encourage it. That person not to be your spouse, right. As much as you want, you know, if you work together, that’s great. but you do need an outside source.

That’s not vested necessarily. They’re vested in you, but they’re not going to give you that. Personal opinion that you may, may want to hear or may not want to hear as well.

Casanova Brooks:
Got it. I love it. And I think that that’s very key as well. You need different perspectives and having people that are not going to be your yes man, or yes, woman, that’s going to challenge you right.

On not only your beliefs, right. And not to say spiritual or things like that, but why you’re doing certain things, because sometimes, you know, the temptation of whatever could make, we would know why we got into business in the beginning, why we decided to sell this product, this dream, this service, whatever it is.

But sometimes through, you know, other distractions or other pain points, we can lose sight of that value. And so having someone that. You know, again is going to challenge you to say, why are you doing this? Have you thought about the implications of what could happen on the backside of this doesn’t work?

I think that those are all the things that make us have a holistic and sustainable business.

Action & Mentorship

So I think that’s a great, great point that you brought up as well. man, it’s, it’s been a phenomenal call. Talk to me about if people want to stay connected with you, where can they find you at.

Rylee Meek:
probably the easiest is just, a website.

It’s my first and last name. Riley meek.com. Riley spelled a little differently. It’s R Y L E E and then meek, M E E K.com. there’s I mean, I think you can, on that site, we’ve got some resources you can download, like our dinner seminar blueprint. but if it’s all right, dude, I actually had my team, prior to this, this morning and I said, throw up, throw up a link for this, for the Dream nation group. If anybody wants to get a copy of food for thought, you can certainly buy it. It’s on Amazon and Amazon bestseller. now it will be a digital copy, but I’m willing to, to give it for free out to any of your listeners, man, if they go to socialdynamicselling.com/dreamnation again. , you do have to get your email and then we will email you the full PDF version of the book Food For Thought.

Casanova Brooks:
Sounds great. And we will make sure that we have those links. In the show notes for both Riley meek, as well as social dynamic selling.

It’s been a fun one, man. I appreciate you coming on. I’m sure there’s so much value that people are going to get out of this and people will understand the value and making sure that they want to present, but two that they can scale their business. If they have the right framework and looking at what’s already working and how can you then help other people do the same thing, which I think is what I’ve heard a lot from you and proud of you and pleasure to have you on here, man.

Remember Dream Nation and the dream we trust, but you must take action as he said, or otherwise it will only merely be a fantasy. We’ll see you on the next one.

DreamNation Podcast