#120 The SDR DiscoCall Podcast - Matt Banks

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Speaker C: Neil from Happy Selling. And a quick note before the episode starts. Alongside hosting the show, I Also sales coach, SDRs, account executives, CSMs and founders, especially those without enablement support or looking for that external voice. See it as sales therapy. Coaching with me is 100% confidential, recorded and bookable on demand via Zoom. Sessions start at 150 pounds sterling with no long term commitment. If you're curious, just email me at neilappyselling IO and I'll send you the details. All right, let's get into today's episode. Hello listeners, watchers, fans and subscribers of the SDR Disco Call Show. Welcome through to another chapter. We are currently in September 20, 2025 and we love having you on board. If you could do us a really big favor that would be to go ahead and if you're watching this on YouTube is to go like comment and subscribe down below. If you're listening to this in your local podcast platform, be it Apple or Spotify or wherever you're getting this in the world, go do the same, give this a rating and share this episode. Because what you're telling the algorithm is that this content is really good and then it should be shared and it should be searched by others out there as well. So if you can do us a favor that would really help out and and this is what we're doing in exchange for lovely chapters that you're gonna be joining us with today. So with today's guest, this is somebody that I've had the privilege and pleasure of getting to know a little bit better since last year. This person used to and perhaps still does join the daily Cold Cold Power hour with my sales coach and we got chatting in the DMS and I've seen this guy grow phenomenally on LinkedIn and win awards as well. But without further ado, guest, can you tell us who are you, where are you based in the world and what do you do?

Speaker D: Hey guys. Welcome. Yeah, so I'm um, Matt Banks. I am um, a guru of Guinness and avid cold caller. Uh, I've been based in Manchester for the last couple of years now. But I work for salesfinity which is a tech based sales reaching out to salespeople and works remotely. So lot of flexibility to do that. Nice to meet you Neil, and appreciate being invited on.

Speaker C: Thank you very much and a pleasure to have you on board, sir. Uh, this guy is a big character and as we can see there's some Guinness going on as well. But mat, before we dive into the world of sales and all of that stuff, outside of sales, when you're up in Manny, what kind of things do you like to get up to, dude?

Speaker D: Oh, definitely varies depending on my day. A main, uh, bit is obviously finding nicest pint of Guinness that I can in Manchester. Whether that's with friends, your dates, just trying to enjoy the 27, to be honest. I'd say normally I like going hiking, I like keeping myself fit as well, visiting new places. Over the last year I've come to terms with solo dating quite a lot, which has done wonders for my confidence. So yeah, a lot of it is I'm in my adventurous era, I would say, love that.

Speaker C: Your adventurous era. And we're about to go on an adventure. Matt. I love that. And uh, yeah, we might need to talk about that dating bit. And I would love for people to understand what is this thing about Guinness and like why it's synonymous with you, your LinkedIn posts and your personal brand. So talking about personal brands, what we like to do at this point of the show is go to our guests LinkedIn profile. So with all guests that come onto this show, if you just head down to the show notes, whether that's on the podcast or on YouTube, you'll be able to find their LinkedIn URL. And with Matt, as we can see is a Guinness guru, a cold caller, sales and uh, salesfinity and SDL top voice. We're gonna find out more about that. This guy puts out a, uh, lot of content to the point where I get intimidated and I'm a content creator, so I absolutely love it. So I highly recommend checking him out, connecting with him, pick his brain on any of the topics we've discussed today, or if you want to go a bit deeper, go for it. But Matt, if we Go like way back in the day. We can see, uh, that you've had the chaos and joy of hospitality. So I'd like to learn more about that. You've worked in corporate sales as a BD manager up in Manny. You've got your own biz called Cold Calling from pubs. And there is a big story behind that as well. And obviously we met and, um, you've been, for the last 10 months, you've been working in the world of sales development at Salesforce Infinity. So Matt, as our audience and myself would love to know, what is your story, Matt? How did you get to where you are today? Oh.

Speaker D: So as with all good stories, we'll start with the beginning. And yeah, it would have been just after college. I decided university wasn't the right option for me and started going into hospitality. I remember my first job now was at, uh, Woburn Safari park, at a little lunch cafe, serving kids, ch all sorts of experiences, working shifts there. Um, it was great. I was only 15, 16 at the time, so I, I had no clue what I wanted to do, where I wanted to be. And a lot of it was just giving myself some spending money for that new Call of Duty coming out or FIFA. Towards the end of the year, there wasn't much plan, but I stuck with it. I really enjoyed hospitality and once I was old enough, moved over to bars and that's where I kind of just grew my life. There I found something that I really enjoyed, decided, yeah, definitely didn't want to go to university. Worked up to management and yeah, covered some slug and lettuces, some cocktail bars, some waggle mamas. There was definitely a huge amount of variety and I think hospitality is a major part of who I am. And also the success that I've had in sales, I feel like I've managed to bring a lot of that to help me overall. Say something that I'll always be grateful for. Would I go back? Never? Uh, I think now that I've managed to escape hospitality, uh, definitely something I'm enjoying seeing in that rear view mirror. But it created what I am today. So I've always got a little bit of a soft spot for it and I'm grateful for my time that I spent.

Speaker C: I love that. And if I could pause you there because there's a lot of things I'd like to unpack, uh, from there. So just to confirm with one safari park, is that the, uh, the safari park where you can drive through your car, you can see the lions and the monkeys as you're driving through Is that the same place or like, with the deers and everything?

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker C: Okay. Because it just reminds me of me and M. My boy, Phil. We used to drive there once. We, uh. In another life, we were, I wouldn't say under the influence, but it was kind of a funny day and we was driving through it, so I remember that bit there. But there was another bit that you said that you. Where you said that university wasn't for you. And as some of, um, our long listeners have may have noted, I've said this multiple times. I got kicked out, uh, of college. I never went to uni. And my problem was authority. And I wanted to work more than I did study. But what was, like, the background for you where you felt like uni wasn't for you? Dude.

Speaker D: Yeah. To be completely honest, very similar to yourself. It was the first time that I had a harsh, difficult conversation with my parents, which was throughout college. I was. I was an idiot. If I look back at the time, I thought I was the coolest guy on earth, as I'm sure you can probably relate as well.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker D: I think most guys go through a period where they think they're the bee's knees. Yeah, bee's knees is probably that. I like them for it. And, yeah, I was more focused on partying, chasing drugs and drinking and just girls. Things that didn't really matter at the time, but you thought they did. And so I had a place at university. I was offered a spot mechanical engineering at Manchester. So it's weird that I've, um, gone full circle.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker D: And, yeah, I spoke to my parents. I was very lucky throughout college that I managed to still get good grades with very little work because I was smart enough to just kind of get myself over the line. When you go to university, that kind of goes. You've got to put the work in. You've got to dedicate time to actually learning, and you can't just wing it. And, um, with looking at the expense of university, had a chat with my parents and decided it was too much of a. There'd been so many times when it came to my education that I'd not taken it seriously. And at that time, I was definitely too immature. As much as it hurt at the time to kind of come to terms with this, I was way too immature to be going to university. It was not gonna do me any kind of value or benefit into my life at that stage. So, yeah, decided not to and just carried on working and knew that I needed to make the best of the situation, if I didn't go to university, I needed to make as much money as I could quickly. So foolishly thought that that was working and managing a bar. So, yeah, that's kind of how I went and just missed out on university. Which, looking back now, I don't regret too much. I'm quite happy with the decision I've made.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And, you know, it's different for everyone, right? And the example I give is myself. Where I love how you say. Where you say that you wasn't mature enough for it. Right. Um, and your mindset and you sat down with your parents and had the chat. Like, the chat with my parents was different. Like, Neil, what are you doing with your life? You're going to throw it away, you're going to end up here. It was just like this shock for them because my sister, who's older, did do the traditional path and there was me saying, I prefer to be in the working world, I want to go get a job, I want to do different things. What I wanted to do, I didn't really know. But we've had a lot of guests on here that have gone to uni, that haven't gone to uni. But then to think with my own friend, my mate Ashley, um, he's what, 39 now? And I was speaking to him yesterday because, um, he's now started uni and he's going off to become a chiropractor and it's like a four year course and he's up in Bournemouth. But he was talking to me yesterday, said, bro, like, I feel so out of place. I'm older than everyone and I can't connect with mates and there's these little kids on the street. Somebody tried to start me, I wanted to knock him. And he's a proper South London geezer, right? And he just found it a bit of a weird. But knowing Ash, like in his younger days, he wouldn't be able to apply himself to do any of that sort of stuff, but he can now. And I rated him for doing that. And I said, bro, like, I don't know many people coming up to our age that's going back to education to do it. But I know you're going to smash it, right? But there's the other bit. It's hospitality that you're talking about. So again, weird, um, timing, I don't know, but I was in an Uber yesterday going to see my dad and as most you know, I don't know what you think, but Uber drivers are the best chats. In life, they're like the best chats when you're talking to somebody that you don't even know, Right? But this guy was asking me, like, neil, how's your day? Uh, and I said, yeah, it's going really good. Can't complain about a good day. I'm off to go see my dad. Um, and then we got the talking, and he said, what do I do? And I said, sales coach, mc, podcast host, dad. And his question to me was just like, how the hell do you find the time to do all of that? You sound really busy. And I said, what's busy to you may be normal for me, but I'm curious to know, outside of being doing this Uber thing, what else do you do? And he said, I work in hospitality and retail. And I said, doing what? And he said, working Greggs. And I said, awesome. I love Gregg's. Right? But he was then talking about, you know, he struggled working in a shop where people were always late. He just got fed up of it. He was a manager. He'd worked his way up for, like, seven years, and he'd been doing all this good stuff. But then he went on to education and saying, like, his kids need to be going to uni soon and doing all of this sort of stuff. And I said, I got kicked out. I never went in, but here I am doing what I am doing a couple of years later. But retail, I said to him, taught you so much because of customer service, talking to people, dealing with complaints, angry people like that. So I'm curious to know, coming into that retail bit now, going into bars, what was that world like for you, bro?

Speaker D: As in coming into, like into sales from hospital.

Speaker C: So just before getting into sales, but that experience of working in those bars and those people, what was that like?

Speaker D: I think the main bit that it showed me in the biggest takeaway I have from my time in hospitality is the life experience it gave. And, um, I think that's a lot. I've always relatively. I mean, some people would argue I'm very immature for my age still. But, yeah, almost that, uh, that wiseness and, like, wise. Who do I think I am? Life experience and, uh, that knowledge to kind of go, I've met hundreds of, if not thousands of people in my time of hospitality, and it very quickly opened my eyes onto no matter what's going on in someone's world, no matter whether things are, you've overcooked someone's steak and it might be the worst thing in the world to them, it made me realize that when you, when you meet people from all over the world from. They've all got different stories, they've all got different backgrounds that uh, everyone is living their own life. And when you realize that almost that main character feeling that a lot of people talk about. Yeah. Main character energy and it not necessarily a negative thing but everyone's the main character in their own life. So you can never. You've always got to take how people respond from a pinch of salt. And I'm sure you can see where that starts linking into sales. We can cover it again later on. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hospitality.

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Speaker D: It was about meeting people. And I think that's the main thing I learned from that is you have no control over the people you meet. You have control over how you respond to them and who you are when you meet them.

Speaker C: Yeah. And you must have met a lot of characters. And the reason I say that is I had a bit of hospitality work of my days of working at Pizza Hut and a fish and chip restaurant and then going into working music as an mc. I was working in a lot of nightclubs, weekends to weekends and I loved like working with bar staff, behind the scenes bouncers and all of that sort of stuff. But to your point, punters, um, coming through the door, you'd meet a lot of different people, nice people, not so nice people, people kicking off fights and you'd have to learn how to defuse a situation, uh, and stuff like that. But to uh, what I love that you said it's, you know, how you respond to those people rather than reacting to those people as well. And have there's been any like situations in your life where you've either reacted or you've been able to channel yourself to be able to respond or like change and turn things around?

Speaker D: It I'd say there was a, there was a life changing experience for me when I was in hospitality. It was a New Year's Eve, um, and we'd had a couple of punters come in. Long story short, the night escalated. There was a lot to drink and there was people that ended up being cut off and being told they couldn't drink anymore.

Speaker C: Anymore.

Speaker D: And it ended up with the venue being smashed up, police being called and actually security guard had a glass smashed glass held up against their neck.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker D: And it was a scary moment and that was probably a time that I saw hospitality genuinely go out of control. As much as you're given training when you manage venues to control these, I'm sure you've seen similar things. MCs.

Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker D: It's scary. Especially when you interact with people and going back to sort of like it's how you respond and how you react to people, not how they behave. When you realize that you do have very little control over someone's behaviors and someone's choices, it makes a decision yourself a lot easier because you've got to put yourself first and you've got to try and put. You can be empathetic towards other people's feelings when it comes to that and obviously you should to be a. The half decent human being in life. But you've always got to understand when you put in a situation that you've always got a choice on how you respond to it. Uh, and I think as soon as people, whether it's deciding not to go to university, whether it's having a bad experience running a bar, whether it's being told or sworn out on a cold call, you've always got a choice on how you respond to it.

Speaker C: You're right, you're right. And it's brought up a memory of something that's happened to me this year, like coming back into my music thing where I had to respond and I was put in a not nice situation. Right, so imagine this. I'm going off to an event called UKG Brunch and it's at Stormzy's house party, Poland street in Oxford Circus. And three months before this I decided I'm going to stop drinking and going alcohol free. And this was the first time Neil's coming to an event to mc. But I ain't drinking. And that's something that I'm not used to. I hadn't been for a number of years. But I was like, I was apprehensive because like, am I going to be able to do this? Because I need that Dutch courage. I want to jump on and do those things. But anyway, the event was awesome. We go down, I'm with my mates, everybody's having a wicked time. And in Stormzy's house parties, like, sections of different rooms. You've got like a loft, a bedroom and a kitchen downstairs and it's all themed out. And you've got these DJs playing. And I'm hearing some top DJs that I really write and respect. And my boys to the side of me, they're all waved, right? They're all drunk. And there's me sober. And I remember I was chatting to somebody at the bar because, um, I went to go order a drink and this girl next to me says, what's in that? And I said, seven Up. And she's like, yeah, but what are you putting in that? And I'm like, just seven Up. And then she was just like. Like, she just looked confused. And I just said to her, I don't drink. And she was like. And she looked at me a bit in disgust. But then it turned into, that's really mad. You can come to a rave and not have a drink. She was like that, I respect that. And she spotted me. I was like, all, uh, right, safe, cool. But then as I'm standing watching this DJing, this other girl comes in front of me and Matt, uh, she's looking at me smiling and everything. And my boys thinking like, oh, look, Neil, somebody's interested in you. And my boy Ashley, the guy that's gone uni, shoved me towards her. I said, go on, bro, because I'm single. He said, go on, bruv. And in my head I'm like, I don't give a damn about this person. I'm trying to listen to the mix. I'm more interested in the dj, so I'm looking towards the dj, but then this girl's demeanor and face changes and she starts screwing up her face at me and I sense something's not cool here. And I look at her and I was like, are you all right? And she was like. And then she grabs her finger, pushes it into my chest and really screws in. She said, I don't like you. And I was just like. And I look at her face, man, I can see the glaze in her eyes and the drunken. Working years in clubs, I know what this is, right? And in my head, what I'm trying to understand is I'm looking at a mix. My mate sits inside me and I look to my friends and I was like, help but they're so drunk, they think me and her are flirting. And then I go on, they'll go on. And I'm like, it's not that. And she gets more and more angry and she gets more and more like screw faced at me. And a big part of me is like, I'm going to kick off in a minute. And I've never hit anybody and I don't do that. But I'm getting more and more irate and she's digging me, she's pushing me back and stuff like that. She's like, why won't you dance with me? And I'm like, in my head, I don't give a shit about you. I'm trying to listen to the mix. But she then goes to headbutt me. And in that split second, Matt, I had to kind of compose myself. And now coming to the point of respond, and I was just like, I can either do a couple of things, this could all kick off. I could drag my mates in. I know if they get dragged in, then something's going to kick off. And this is a lady, right? And I don't hit women. And I took a deep breath and I'm full of this anger. M and I just walk out of the venue and I go on to Poland street and I had to sit down on a stoop and I had to really calm myself down because in my head the way I was looking at was, here's Neil finally getting back into music. I'm, um, at an awesome venue, I've had an awesome day with my friends and this one individual has F'd all of that up and put me in a mood. And normally at this point what I'd want to do is just go home. But I sat there for 20 minutes and then eventually my drunk mates came out. Neil, we've been looking for you. Where you been? I said, that girl tried to kick off, bruv, I'm not, I'm not going to have this. But I didn't want the day to end. So what I decided was to go back in the venue, ignore that person, just go into another room and enjoyed it and came out of it. But at that moment it was a case of I could have reacted with a drunk punter, but then I just said to myself, something was within her that she wasn't happy with and she's trying to take out on somebody that's not giving her the time of day. But I can't let that ruin my day. But it really tested and I'm just Wondering, I don't know where I'm going with this, but it's just to your point of choosing to respond versus reacting to it. What do you think, bro?

Speaker D: Yeah, I really appreciate you sharing that with us now. I think no matter where you are in life, you're always given opportunities, whether you are challenged. Maybe it's fate, maybe it's a sign of something greater than us, but I think, yeah, that's what really, my dad used to say to me. Like, what really makes a man is when he's given challenges and when he is put under the microscope and he is tested, how he responds. Not when he's comfortable, not when he's happy. You're going to have periods where life's great and that's not when you're tested. When you're tested is that you get bumps, um, you get challenges and you can give up. It is an option. You can give in and say, you know what, this isn't worth fighting. Or you could have turned around and gone, yeah, I'm going to headbutt this person back. Ultimately you've got to look at the bigger picture in life and one of the things you realize is we are very small and insignificant when you look, we are a grain of rice on a massive spinning rock.

Speaker E: Mhm.

Speaker D: Why would you waste time choosing the option that's just going to bring yourself hurt? Why would you waste time choosing the option that isn't going to help you? Choose the option that gives you a good day, choose the option that makes you happy, the people around you happy. If you're wasting time with the wrong decisions, then life's precious. But you've got to make take advantage of that.

Speaker C: So, uh, you're right.

Speaker D: Being able to make the right choices, being able to step back. And it's not just when you're in a club, there's so many situations. It applies to just being able to take a step back, look at the bigger picture and make a decision.

Speaker C: It's always smarter, 100% mate. Because I think also what was going through my head in that, that was my first debut of working with this brand. And if one of their MCs that's coming for trial day kicks off with a punter, uh, that could just scarpet everything. So I had to make all of those split decisions in that quick moment. I'm grateful I did walk out because I've done some awesome events with them thereafter. But yeah, you're putting in challenging situations and topics we do want to talk about with you today. Matt is obviously Guinness cold calling Sales. Finny in that life as well. But you yourself, as you alluded to before we went into this recording today, you've had a challenging moment in your life, which, you know, set upon a journey to get you where you are. Would you mind sharing that with the audience?

Speaker D: Sure. Yeah. So, uh, I think, to be honest, it started a few years ago, uh, during COVID as all good stories do with everyone. Um, it was a tough time for a lot of people. A lot of families broke apart. A lot of people lost their jobs. Life completely changed for a lot of people. And especially if you're not out, like. Well, even if you were outgoing, like, that went out the window. If you're introverted, you might have liked it a little bit more, but it was difficult to find someone to talk to. I lost a friend towards the end of COVID to suicide, and it was a really tough time. Obviously, for him, it'd been something going on for a good 612 months. Unfortunately, that it wasn't healthy. And, yeah, that took a toll on me, uh, I think internally. And there were certain parts that I definitely lost about myself. And it was a rough few years after that. A lot of hurdles. I applied for the army. I'd always grown up and, like, part of me had wanted to do that. I'd had family that had signed up and served. I didn't get in. I'm half deaf. I found that out while I was doing medical tests. Um, and that, again, made me kind of lose part of myself. And instead of doing hospitality because I enjoyed it, I was doing hospitality because I didn't have any other plan. And this is kind of me transitioning into sales as well. Yeah, this is me building up to that. Maybe six months before, as. As I joined sales. And it's a saying I'm sure you guys are very familiar with. I started off, I used to be really crap at sales, and I got. I got a lot worse because my partner of three, nearly four years, we broke up, um, to be specific, cheated on me. So as I just walked into sales, a career that's renowned for rejection and being told that you're not wanted, you're not needed. It was definitely a hurdle for me, and there was a lot of. A lot of challenges that came through that, both mentally, physically, just to keep me going. And, yeah, obviously we can kind of open them up individually. Uh, but I think the main bit that that taught me was you need to drive yourself. If you. You can have a network to support you, you can have friends, you can have family. You've got to be the one to decide. I'm going to do this. So appreciate you might have some more questions for me. But that's. Yeah, main that to summarize the chapter of that my part of my life. Yeah, you've got to drive it.

Speaker C: Well, first and foremost, thank you for sharing, thank you for being honest, thank you for being vulnerable, um, because that takes a hell of a lot of strength and my heart goes out to you, bro. And a lot of admiration and respect. Um, because with these traumatic things that have happened within your life, these are the things that shape you and your character. And what I love that you said is that you got to take charge and you gotta be the one that drives yourself. Right? And I think somebody personally myself, where I've been through a lot of traumatic shit in my life, right there is that thing of nobody's coming to save you. You will have support, you will have friends around you, but it's you that has to save yourself. Right. I remember in my sales career I lost a friend, um, in a car accident when I was an mc but was an SDR manager. And the day that I got the call, I was in Mayfair then. I had said before RIP, he was, what, 26, just became a VP at Barclays. He just got engaged to his new missus. He was about to go Ibiza on his first tour and he'd gone. And losing that friend when I was in work, it effed me up a hell of a lot. Right. Um, losing somebody close to yourself, but also with suicide in the last two.

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Speaker C: is I've lost three mates to suicide. And, um, when you get that information, you realize that somebody has to be in a really dark place to be that. But with all those errors, like, you've got your friend with suicide, you know, you've got your partner and the infidelity on that side. If you were to share any of those stories as to how it did affect you or, you know, kind of the advice that you would give to somebody that may be going through those things, which one would you start with? Matt?

Speaker D: Uh, I can cover both, so just said there was a good few years between both of them. These two moments. When I lost a friend, it was a difficult time for me. It was not unexpected. Uh, it was something that would kind of between him and I. We'd had conversations about, and I was prepared for, and I knew that it was potentially something that we could be looking at. Initially, there was a lot of emotions that came through. You feel anger, you feel almost resentment. You feel like you could have done something more. Uh, and it's very easy to let negative emotions swallow up and kind of take control of how you're feeling, because negative emotions typically are a lot more intense than positive ones. That's something else I've kind of picked up over the years. When you've got these negative emotions, and it is kind of slowing you down, and it is something that is just completely taking over your mental state. That's where it's so much more important to be thankful for. And you'll hear different stories about this, but it's about being thankful of the times you had together, different memories that you've been able to make. And, uh, that's where I started turning that hate and that resentment. And this is again, where it applies to infidelity and being cheated on your partner. And you start creating opportunities where you're happy about it. You go, right, okay, well, I now get to look back at my friend and go, look, we're never going to argue anymore. We're never going to be having a fight over a girl ever again. As much as sometimes you might wish that you could have those opportunities, I kind of went, do you know what? I get to look back at my life. And it was only short. It was only four or five years that I knew Aaron. But, uh, uh, there were some of the best five years of my life. Especially if I look back in the memories Now, I'm sure 20, 30 years time when I'm old and I'm still cold calling people, I'm sure. But I'm going to be thinking back in it and going, you know what? I'm glad I got that time with them again. We're a. We're a grain of rice on a massive spinning rock. Even scientifically, chances of us, the chances of you and I being alive at the same time having a conversation on this podcast.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: It's moments that I realize that life is for granted, or a lot of people take it for granted. And I guess, yeah, that was the main bit I kind of realized with Aaron. It opened up a lot of perspective for me when I realized life is short. Life is quick. One minute you have an opportunity, whether it's a friend, family member, partner, even a job, that can all change in a matter of a day, even shorter. So that's why it really does matter to be doing what you love and doing what you enjoy. And that will lead me onto something else that I want to talk about in this show. But it is. I've. Since losing my best friend and losing my ex partner, I kind of made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to live another day not doing exactly what I love doing. And again, that's where it leads onto the Guinness, the cold calling, everything about sales. I promised myself after losing two people that I cared deeply about.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: And it put me in a rough time. And there was a time that my mental health was awful and I was in some really bad places and I just reminded myself, I was like, you know what? If you really think things are that bad, then the least you owe yourself is give it one last go. Uh, do everything you love doing. Sacrifice nothing. I follow two rules now, and it's something I'd always recommend. People are going through hard patches or they don't know where they're going or they've got no plan. Because a lot of people, especially new SDRs, have got no plan what they want to do besides make money. So two rules. Always put yourself first. I, uh, say always put your best intentions above others. I know obviously it might change once you have kids and other factors, but always go about life putting yourself first and what you need, get yourself whole before you help other people. The other rule is don't hurt anyone. And obviously that you can take into. And both of them seem really basic. But I've realized, and this was even me coming to terms with religion. Over the last few years, I've had conversations with myself about whether I'm religious. And it brought me back to those two things. If you live your life and you always put yourself first and you never try and hurt, huh anyone, if there is a God out there, if there is a life afterwards, you shouldn't be punished. If you follow those two rules, and it's the same way if, even if there isn't, if you follow those two rules, then how bad can life be? If you put yourself first, you keep yourself happy, and you try not to hurt anyone in your life, you can't be that bad of a person.

Speaker C: And I'll put it better myself, bro, that was beautiful. I don't think we've ever gone this deep on the show. So I thank you again for being honest, for being vulnerable, for sharing this. And I'm hoping that it inspires somebody, um, that's either listening or watching to this that might be going through that dark patch, bro. And I think loss or when bad things go bad in life, right, they can come up. And as we said earlier, it's like how you. How you kind of respond to it. And I think taking stock of, you know, somebody. And I've said this on an episode many years back, but when somebody's asked me what is my biggest motivator in life, I'm like, it's death. Death is the thing that motivates me the most. And the context that I put this into is we are not promised tomorrow, but one thing that we are 100% sure of is that we will all pass and we will all die. And I had this conversation with my son in a child appropriate way when we were sitting on the sofa a few weeks ago, and he noticed daddy's got some gray hairs. And he's like, what's with the white hairs, Daddy? I said, daddy's getting older. And I said, you know, daddy's a bit more tired nowadays, so I need to kind of take a rest every now and then. And he just said. And he started tearing up. And Blake said to me, I was like, I don't want you to get older. And I was like. And I was like, well, it is going to happen. You know, daddy's not going to be here forever, but that's a long way off. So that's why we need to have fun. That's why Daddy needs to go to the gym and look after himself, right? And if I go back to like two and a half years ago, I lost seven friends in one year. Some passed away, one or two from cancer, two from Suicide and a few others. And it screwed my head up, bro. I was not in a good place. But it really put in some perspective of I cannot be doing. As you said, don't do stuff that you're going to be miserable about.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Do things that make you happy. Um, and that's why my tattoo, I've got this skull and everything here. So one side's all about the sun because I went through a trauma of having to legally get him back in my life, you know, when I was launching a company. But on the other side, it talks about death and being reborn. And I say that I have death by my right hand side as a reminder of, you gotta get done, Neil, you know, and you need to move forward. But I think to pull yourself out of that dark place is not easy. And sometimes you have to have chats with yourself or with therapists or with friends, or sometimes you have to go on a bit of a journey. And like, one beautiful thing is some of my mates don't like it when they get to another birthday because they feel they're getting old. I go, I'm, um, gassed for every year that I get older. It's my birthday in two days. I'll be 41. Send any birthday gifts if you want to know, at HappySending IO. But I get excited every time my birthday comes around because I'm like, some people don't make it to that age, some people don't make it to that year. And yet life is beautiful. And again, audience and listeners, we are getting d. But it is to celebrate their life and to do those things. But I do think another thing is, again, I had a separation with my son's mother. Didn't have him. That was traumatic in itself.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker C: And I won't go too deep into it. But today I am picking up my son from high school, right? This is the first time he's going into high school and this is the first time I'm going for the first of something with my son in eight years. But if I went eight years ago, I couldn't have fathomed this when I was not in a good place. Yeah, but it's that drive to move forward. But, yeah, this has been a beautiful conversation so far, Matt, and it's a little bit off the beaten track that we might have, but I love it. This stuff is awesome.

Speaker D: People are going to start tearing up.

Speaker C: I feel it coming. I feel it coming, bro. But it's through these hard things that builds your character and defines you into the person that you Are and being nice. I love how you say that. Right. I, I live by the same rules of do the things that you love, don't be a dick to anyone, don't go out maliciously trying to hurt people or like one up in them. And you may come across those type of people in life and I ain't got time for them anymore, but I can spot those people a mile off and just make sure that I cut it down. But you know, with yourself, the transformation that I've seen in the, uh, limited time that we've had with each other is this guy on LinkedIn that came into a cold call power hour. And then you're this Guinness guy, you're this cold calling guy, you're building this personal brand, you're winning awards. Tell me about the transformation, bro. What was that?

Speaker D: Yeah, so obviously it's going to be a little bit of a lighter topic. Very much connected. So I said, started in sales, did my year, uh, cold calling, commercial property tax. Probably the most boring sales I've ever come across in my life. I was cold calling people that owned a wooden shed and trying to tell them that the government was charging them too much money. We were going to save them half of it and we were going to take 50% of whatever we saved. It sounds like a pyramid scheme of extra steps. That's exactly what it was. We were, we were stealing money off the government. So be careful where you post this. It was definitely interesting. And it was boiler room sales. And I'm sure many of us kind of experience that where you've got to fit a certain type of Persona. Um, I think there was maybe two people of color in the office, maybe one woman that had been there more than six months. And yeah, your typical boiler room. Not the nicest environment. And yeah, you weren't allowed to be yourself. Or at least one of the things I noticed was there were some great salespeople who worked in that office and had so much potential, but they were gamers, they were nerds, they liked anime. They just didn't fit the typical let's go drinking on the weekend and let's go play five a side and break each other's legs so that they can't work for six weeks. True story, by the way. Um, yeah. And I just knew that it wasn't the right environment that I wanted to grow in. It wasn't the right environment where I felt people were given an equal opportunity. And that really, really bothered me, especially when, and I'm sure he won't mind me sharing this, but this guy, we'll call him James for argument's sake. But he worked at the office and he was pips Performance Improvement plan I think it's called. But it was actually an informal pipe which doesn't really make sense because if you're being disciplined out of the company that sounds quite formal to me. But each to their own. And he was given no support, he was given no kind of training to get out of that pit. It was more of a we've just punched a hole in your boat. You've got to think of a way to fix the hole otherwise you're going to drown. It's not a problem if you do. But I decided to had enough of it and I quit. I'd started posting on LinkedIn, I'd started doing call stats and it was gimmicky but it gave me that kind of right. I've taken a step out there and I've started doing it. And I knew I needed to find something I loved doing. And when I quit my job I was cold calling hiring managers. Difference was it was great weather and I was just sat in a bar beer garden making some dials, calling people and I realized that it was almost a dream for me. I was sat in a beer garden, I was cold calling people, trying to convince them to give me money which when you think about it uh, is, that's cold calling. Uh, so with all the kind of lows and the moments I'd had I'd have become a big advocate of do what you love doing because then you're never going to work another day again in your life. So that's where it came from is I perform my best when I'm happy and I'm enjoying myself and I'm in an environment I thrive in. Wise sure that looks like a load of Guinness and keep constantly drinking them down. But even then the uh, the brand has evolved from what it started. It started off being a rebellious 20 something year old lad just having fun chilling pints of Guinness whenever he could. And it more became putting myself in an environment where I put myself first. I am um, in a location. I love being Bubba Wallace here from 23 Xi Racing.

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Speaker D: any pressure and um, I'm able just to let my personality out and shine. So that's where kind of the love of Guinness did. Obviously with the background of hospitality as well, there was a lot of factors where it just feels like home. My family all live in the south of England. When me and my ex partner split up, I didn't have many people in Manchester. So a lot of it was just myself and a few friends here and there, mainly from work. So any opportunity that I had to feel like I was home, where I felt like I was comfortable in an environment, I used to go down to my village pub like with my dad a couple days a week. Just even if it was just popping for one, say hello to locals at home, even just taking the dog for a walk. So every day that I was in just put me back at home, remembered that mum and dad aren't too far away.

Speaker C: Yeah. And I love that. It was nice and just, and just. So thank you for sharing that. And just for our uh, like international listeners that may be listening to this in the car or something like that in a different country. So to get this right, like a pub or a bar, like that's kind of where you far at home and you know with Guinness, it's a black piece of alcohol or uh, what is it? It's not, is it an ale or. Yeah. That you're showing up. But for the listeners. How would you describe what Guinness is, Matt?

Speaker D: It's a, it's a variation. Someone's gonna shout at me for saying this. It's similar to a beer. It's called a stout by name.

Speaker C: Stout. That's it.

Speaker D: Yeah. And uh, it's a different brewing process and Guinness itself has a different gas mixture. It just means that it's a dark red, almost pitch black drink, uh, alcoholic beverage and it normally has a thick white cream at the Top almost like a Vickers collar.

Speaker C: Yeah, love that. So just hopefully painting a picture back there. But then again, like you said, so you're like, you, you're cold calling from pubs. So, like, if for our listeners and for our watchers, I'd highly recommend, if you're watching the YouTube version of this, going over to Matt's LinkedIn and I get Matt, you're awesome at, uh, content creating, right? The Matt posts out a ton of videos. There's a lot of good stuff, but we can see it's like you're actually cold calling from pubs. And there's the Guinness in its glory out there as well. And this became the thing for you because I remember, like when you came into the power hour, so seeing this guy, like cold calling from pub, I was like, what's this all about? And then I went on onto your LinkedIn profile. It's like your thing, right? But as you said, it made you feel like you were at home, like close to your family. Like when you haven't got people around you as well. It was kind of your zone. It was like your arena. Is that right?

Speaker D: Absolutely. So, yeah, there's a million reasons we'd need a whole separate podcast hour to go through them, Neil, to be honest. But the two main factors were put me in a situation I felt comfortable in. And I think regardless of what you're doing, but specifically with cold calling, that's one of the most important things. Like you've got to, uh, feel comfortable in what you're doing, what you're saying, what you're doing will have a massive impact. You can have all the coaching in the world, but if you don't feel comfortable saying what's coming out your mouth, someone's going to see through that in a second. With helping myself at pubs and calling from them, it helped with two things. The first one was just putting myself in the environment I felt comfortable in. Uh, as well as that. When I first started posting on LinkedIn and this was similar timeframe that I'd just been cheated on, my mental health, my resiliency had definitely taken a hit. There was quite enough. Often times I was laughed at in my old office for putting some cringy content up or something like that, I'm sure a lot of us have been either the receiving end of it or they're worried about getting it. And I'll be honest, it will happen. You start posting on LinkedIn, people are gonna laugh at you.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: But, uh, it very quickly gets the amount of people saying that what you're doing is incredible. Or even inbound leads, they very quickly overtake it. But back to the point is I, instead of being so worried about what anyone else thought, whether that was people listening to me or even the prospect on the end of the phone because I'm surrounded by so many strangers, typically I found there was less pressure on that phone call because I was challenging myself by getting myself out of bed, getting myself out of the house and actually finding a new work, uh, location. That in itself, it's a lot easier for me just to jump on my laptop here at home. Yeah, you guys can see my flat than it is me actually trying to find a new location, set up, get lighting, camera, all of that. It's not as easy as just open up a laptop. The other side of it was just, uh, it just opened my eyes on just how much potential there is if I want to. If I can get the all clear on calling from a pub and no one to bat an eye at that. If I turn around and you see Matt Banks cold calling from a beach, I mean, comparatively, a lot of employees would probably rather the beach. So it kind of, it opened up a massive door for me where I realized I only need two things to be cold calling. I need to feel confident and I need a wicked product to back as well. So it made my next kind of step in my plan with sales so obvious because there's so many opportunities for me, because there's so many products out there, there's so many bars and pubs and pints of Guinness for me to view that I realized that this job is never going to get boring.

Speaker C: I love that, man. And you've been on a journey and being able to watch Your journey across LinkedIn chat with you in zooms, like when we were doing powerhouse and stuff like that, and seeing you grow, I think the theme or the big takeaway that I just got from that is you were getting out of bed, you was getting out your house, you're looking for a place to work, you're around strangers so that when you're speaking to prospects, you're really putting yourself out there and putting yourself out of your comfort zone. And when people do that, that's when you get into your growth zone. Right. And I'm wondering, like, if you were to compare the Matt Banks of, you know, a couple of years prior, when he was going through all that madness, what do you think the older version of Matt would have said when he saw the version of today, what do you think would be going through his head?

Speaker D: I think he'd be sad. I think if I was to see myself two, three years ago, I would be sad. And I think the reason why is because I really did lose a part of myself. Like, I'm. I love who I am now, and I'm unapologetically myself sometimes. Maybe some would argue it's not always the best thing. But, yeah, uh, everything I do now I do with confidence, and I do. I back myself. I know that I'm a good person. I know that I've got good intentions. I might not always do the right thing. And that's really key, to be lenient on yourself enough to do everything with confidence, but also be okay admitting that you made a mistake.

Speaker C: M.

Speaker D: Yeah, I think the main bit, I lost who I was, and I lost what I believed in. And I think that's the worst thing you can do as a person is you start questioning the values, you let someone else change, the values that you grew up with and you believed in. So, yeah, if I was to have a conversation with myself now, a couple years ago, let's say we were meeting over a pint of Guinness, I think the main bit I'd say is, you know, that things can get better. You know that things can also get a lot, lot worse. But there's. There's only one person driving that ship. Like, there's. So there's gonna always be factors outside of your life that change the direction that you're moving in. Like always, there's nothing you can do to control that. You might be driving along a motorway, someone's bumps into you, you're knocked off course. Yeah, but you're the one behind the wheel. You're the one who decides to turn left or turn right. So at, uh, a certain point, you have got to come to terms with it and have the confidence in yourself that you've got yourself this far. There's a reason you've gotten yourself this far. There's a reason you've not given up yet. So keep fighting for it.

Speaker C: I love that, man. That's. This has been a beautiful, beautiful episode, man. I've really enjoyed having you on and getting to know you a little bit better. And for our listeners and watches that have stayed on with this chapter today, we have spoken about a lot of sensitive subjects. So I'm going to definitely be putting some resources and links for anybody that might be going through a hard time and everything. But, Matt, like, my hat goes off to you, dude. Like, trauma in life, hard times, and getting back up to fight. And in the context of fighting. It's fighting for yourself, right? It's giving a damn about where am I going to get to. And sometimes we may not know what that next step looks like or where things are going to be in a couple of two, three years from now. But we know that if we take that step today, if we get out of bed, if we just wash our face, if we just clean a little bit of that flat first, just start somewhere, or if it's just joining that zoom or doing that first cold call, by taking action, it moves you forward. And you know, life can be limitless. You can really get into some really cool places and meet some really cool people. And I think when I had the opportunity to meet you back in, I think it was around November, December last year, like when we were in Power Hour and just being able to meet new people and have conversations and get lovely mindshare. In this game of sales, there are so many different personalities and things that happen, but you can learn from a lot of people. And I, I, you know, I look at when I see successful people or see people that have had some sort of success, the question that goes through my head nowadays is like, what did you have to go through to get there? I'm more interested in that and I think you've rightfully put it. So I think there needs to be another episode and a follow up to this and we would love to have you back, um, to go deeper into things. But it's this journey that's built you into this great astute of a salesperson that's smashing it on LinkedIn. And again, listeners and watchers highly recommend going checking Matt out on LinkedIn, checking out his content, picking his brain, seeing how he does his thing, um, with cold calling and pubs and everything, like you've got a really put this way. I've been on LinkedIn for like 10, 15 years and I've seen people come and go and there are some notable ones that are building their personal brand. And I have high hopes for you, bro. M and you're right, we may not always make the right choices, but that's part of life. That's how you learn, right? So, uh, yeah, this has been an awesome chat, but you may have already answered this question of if you was having that chat with yourself like three with a pint a couple of years back, but if you were to give three bits of advice to any SDRs or any salespeople that are listening in today to help them take that next step when they might not be in a good place. What would those three bits of advice be

Speaker D: if you're not having fun? So, great question, I think. Top three. First one, if you're not having fun, then you're doing something wrong. It's not worth doing if you're not having fun. Second one, the best way to learn is by doing it. So much. I wasted so much of my life thinking about what to do. Thinking about, oh, is this going to work? You find out by doing it. And there's no quicker way. Don't be afraid to get. And then the final one, don't be afraid to get some life experience. And I know that's a pretty vague word, life experience, but the biggest, the biggest mistake I find a lot of future new SDRs doing is they've just come out of university and they're ready to break into tech or break into sales. Don't be so quick to plan your life out again. It goes back to that first one. Make sure you're having fun. Because if you, if you're having fun doing whatever you are, then you're never going to work a day in your life.

Speaker C: Round of applause for Mr. M. Bangs. Absolute pleasure, mate. Thank you very much. And for our listeners and watchers, thank you for joining us on this beautiful chapter. If you are, uh, watching this on YouTube to help us out with the algorithm to get Matt's message out there further, could you please like, comment and subscribe down below. If you're listening to this in your local podcast, plat platforms such as Apple or Spotify giving us a rating or perhaps leaving a comment below will also help get this episode out in this beautiful message. As alluded to, there have been some sensitive topics, but Matt, I, I generally have love for you, bro, for sharing all of these things. Today I'll be putting some resources for those that are looking for support when they're not in dark times. And again, my DMs and hopefully Matt M. You may feel the same. Our DMs always open. If anybody just needs a chat, vent or a, or a moan, that's what we're there for in the spirit of mental health. But ladies and gentlemen, uh, we'll be back, uh, next week with another episode. But Matt Banks, thank you so much for joining. We're going to definitely have you back on, sir. But most importantly, have a great weekend and Happy selling.

Speaker D: Thanks for having me. Now, Happy selling.

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