Gabe Lullo

"You're only going to go as far as your identity takes you." - Leo Martinez Jr Leo is the Co-founder of Martinez and Associates Consulting. 25 years in business with his wife Clarissa. A 21-year-old company that now runs 99% without them in it. He didn't learn that in a classroom. He learned it after spending seven years inside Patrick Bet David's inner circle, having 15 to 18 conversations a day, six days a week, with founders and CEOs running companies from $2 million to $12 billion. After all of that, the pattern was clear. But before we get there, here's what actually built the foundation. Leo is the dreamer. Big vision, moves fast, commits before he has all the answers. Clarissa is the one with 27 objections and 30 questions. She pumps the brakes. She asks what nobody wants to ask. Her words: "You need two people that are almost opposites coming together in order to balance each other out." That's not just their marriage. That's their entire operating model. Most entrepreneurs live in the "if it is to be, it's up to me" trap. All the pressure on their shoulders, nobody empowered to carry any of it. The business grows to a point, then stops. Not because the market ran out. Because the founder's identity did. Clarissa added what most people miss: founders think they're doing the right thing by pouring everything into the business. But while they're winning at work, they're quietly losing at home. You don't have to pick one. But you do have to be intentional about both. Their ops manager Diana has been with them 14 years. Not because of the salary. Because Leo and Clarissa invested in her life, not just her output. "You have to love them. If you love them, they will go through walls for you." That's not soft. That's the whole system. Link to the full episode in the comments! 😎 Do Hard Things.

"My success is actually when a client stops working with me." - John Zurowski John is the Founder of JZ Sales Consulting with Twenty years of corporate sales leadership before going fractional. And that line is the most honest thing you'll hear from a consultant this year. His goal isn't to become indispensable. It's to build companies to the point where they can replace him with a full-time leader. He calls that the win. Most founders hitting a growth ceiling make the same move: rush to hire a senior sales leader. Big salary, fancy title, high expectations. And more often than not, it doesn't work. Not because the hire is wrong. Because the foundation isn't there yet. John sees it constantly. You sit down with a company's employees and ask a simple question: what does your company do and what problem does it solve? You'll get five different answers. Every time. If your own team can't align on that, no sales leader in the world is going to fix your pipeline. That's where John starts. Not with a CRM. Not with a headcount plan. With clarity. Get the team aligned on what you do and who you help. Build process that's designed to flex, not break. And when you're stuck, stop looking for a new tactic. Go back to the fundamentals. He put it simply: "When you're in a rut, it just takes one small win to get that wind in your sail again." Make the extra calls. Review your proposal with fresh eyes. Do the basic things well. The breakthrough rarely comes from doing something new. It comes from doing the right things consistently. John's also direct about AI: it's a productivity tool, not a replacement for genuine human conversations. People still buy from people. That hasn't changed, and the market fatigue with AI-driven outreach is only going to accelerate it. The sales leaders winning right now are the ones combining structure with hustle, and knowing the difference between a phase and a ceiling. Link to the full episode in the comments! 😎 Do Hard Things.

"I don't hate my mom. I don't hate my dad. I certainly don't hate my best friend, nor my wife. I hate myself." That was @davidmeltzer , sitting on the edge of his bed at 5:30 in the morning, wasted, freshly cut off by every person who loved him, after building one of the most recognizable sports agencies in the world. He had the planes. The Super Bowl sidelines. The Grammy backstage passes. The things billionaires couldn't buy. And he was completely empty. Here's the thing about high achievers: the external scoreboard can be flawless while the internal one is broken. David's problem wasn't money or success. It was that he believed he was the source of both. No faith. No accountability. No room for anything bigger than his own ego. His wife said it plainly: "You need to take stock in who you were and who you want to become, or you're gonna end up dead." He told her to go to hell. The turning point wasn't a mentor or a business framework. It was a jacket his dad gave him six years earlier, a warning he'd dismissed. Looking at it the morning after everything collapsed, something cracked open. He started telling himself the truth for the first time. "You can't find outside of you what you can't see inside of you." That's the whole game. 18 years later, David has rebuilt everything, on completely different terms. Not from arrogance, but from accountability. Not chasing control, but practicing humility daily. He puts it simply: "You're either humble, or you're about to be." If you're building something real right now, write that down. 😎 Do Hard Things.

Focus on the people who matter most in your life. That’s your circle, your foundation, and what everything else in your life should support. It can sound harsh at first, but it’s not about ignoring people or becoming indifferent to the world around you. Respect, kindness, and decency toward everyone still matter. You still tip well, you say thank you, and you treat people with care. What does change is where your emotional energy goes. My focus is my family. I care deeply about what they think of me. I listen when they need more of my time. I adjust when they want more presence. I show up when it matters. That’s not an obligation, that’s priority. Everything I do is grounded in that. Not in performance for the outside world, but in responsibility and love for the people closest to me. When your priorities are clear, your decisions become simple. You stop splitting your attention in a hundred directions that don’t matter. You don’t live for everyone’s approval. You live fully for your people, and for the life you’re building with them. 😎 Do Hard Things.

“If the problem isn't worth solving and it doesn't wake you up in the morning, then you shouldn't be in business to begin with.” - Johnathan Grzybowski Jonathan is the co-founder of Penji. A guy who went five years without a paycheck, lived on $50 a week, split rent with his business partner, and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day. He also found out two years ago he's allergic to peanuts. So yes, he was slowly destroying his body and had absolutely no idea. Here's what most people miss about that story: he didn't suffer through it. He just... went through it. "What am I gonna save for in my early twenties? Retirement? It didn't even phase me." He worked until his eyes bled every morning and every night. Not because he had to. Because the problem Penji was solving felt worth it. It felt necessary to him, the kind of thing that, if solved, would create real wealth, real purpose, and real change for a lot of people. That's what kept him off the W2 track. Not discipline. Not willpower. The problem. Today, Jonathan is still working with that same intensity. The difference now? He has an actual vision and a real team. Proof that the sacrifice meant something. 😎 Do Hard Things.

Season 6 of Do Hard Things is wrapped, and this one feels different. When I first started the podcast, I didn’t really know where it would go. I stayed close to what I knew, sales, marketing, the conversations that felt familiar and safe. It made sense at the time. But somewhere along the way, things started to open up these past few seasons. This season, I found myself sitting down with people I never would have imagined having access to in the beginning… chefs, founders, public figures, athletes and people with completely different paths and perspectives. And yet, every conversation somehow circled back to the same thing: what it actually takes to keep going. That’s been the most rewarding part. Every week, I get to learn something new. Not surface-level advice, but real insight, through people’s experiences, their setbacks, their wins, and the moments in between that usually don’t get talked about. It’s changed how I think, how I work, and how I show up. I don’t take that lightly. I feel incredibly lucky to have built a platform where people trust me enough to share their stories, and where those stories can reach others who might need to hear them. And this season… you all showed up in a big way. The growth, the messages, the shares, it’s been unreal to watch the momentum build. So if you’ve listened to an episode, sent it to a friend, or been following along at any point, thank you. It means more than you probably realize. Season 7 dropped this morning! 😎 Do Hard Things. Follow our guests: @b_cole16 , Sugata Sanyal, Fabi Preslar, @davidmeltzer , Johnathan Grzybowski, Laura Skinner, @therealkrey , Justin Zelik, Teegan A. Bartos, James Bissell, Matthew Beaudin, Karen Laos

You can’t guess who your customer is. Knowing your ideal customer is step one in building your outbound engine. Yes, we make 13 million cold calls a year, but that is not impressive. What is impressive is we’re calling the right people, at the right time, with the right message, to get the right results. What are those results? Quality conversations with your ideal customer. Here’s what you need to do to start understanding your ICP… Target a specific title in a specific industry. If it works, great. Double down on it. Start there. 😎 Do Hard Things.

“AI is just an extension of software. It essentially makes what we have been doing much better.” - Gabe Naviasky In this episode, Gabe shares a story about a company that chose not to work with his team simply because they were using AI. At first glance, it sounds cautious and even reasonable. This company had experienced a security breach the year before, so their hesitation around vendors like OpenAI made sense. But here’s the part that’s harder to reconcile: Avoiding a specific vendor is one thing. Avoiding AI altogether? That’s a different story. Because opting out of AI today doesn’t just mean skipping a tool, it means stepping away from the infrastructure of modern software itself. It means: • No Google search • No Siri or voice assistants • No smart automation quietly improving workflows in the background AI isn’t a feature anymore, it’s becoming the baseline. As workflows become more automated, the nature of work itself is changing. The repetitive, manual, and process-heavy tasks? Those are increasingly handled by systems. What’s left, and what becomes more valuable, is the work that requires judgment, creativity, and real-world experience. The human layer doesn’t disappear, it sharpens. So the question isn’t whether to use AI. It’s how intentionally we choose to use it and where we decide human expertise matters most. Link to the full episode in the comments! 😎 Do Hard Things.

“People will overindex on the talent and not really think about the vehicle.” - Laura Skinner As Laura puts it, being “too poor” will kill your business. A poor product paired with poor leadership is a combination no amount of talent can overcome. A great sales rep can only sell a weak product for so long. Eventually, even the best sellers stall out if what they’re selling doesn’t deliver. The product doesn’t have to be perfect, but it has to work. If it doesn’t, even your top closer won’t be able to close consistently. And the truth is, you don’t know if you have a winning product until you start selling it yourself. That’s why founders shouldn’t rush to hire closers too early. First, you need to understand how to sell it. Then, you need to build a repeatable process that someone else can step into. At the end of the day, there are two skills every founder has to develop: They need to learn how to sell. Then they need to learn how to coach others to do the same. Get those right, and you give your business a real chance to last. 😎 Do Hard Things.

“But this race isn't so fast. It's a marathon, so you gotta pace yourself.” - SOUL COLE When we sat down with SOUL COLE, a former NFL player whose career was cut short due to injury, he broke down what it really means to take care of yourself at a high level. His message was simple… if you want to perform, you can’t run on empty. Taking self-care seriously is not optional, it is a core part of sustaining long-term success without burning out. If you want to keep performing, you have to build in time to step away, reset, and then come back ready to execute again. It can look different for everyone. Whether it’s taking half days on Fridays, working remotely from different places around the world, using your vacation time fully, or simply being more intentional about spending time with your family. The point isn’t to slow down your ambition, but to create a routine that allows you to maintain it. The people who perform at the highest level understand that it’s not about going all out nonstop, but about knowing when to push and when to recover so they can come back sharper, more focused, and ready to deliver. Take the break, reset properly, and then come back ready to do what you do best… Execute, win, and hit your quota. 😎 Do Hard Things.

“You need to get comfortable with you. You are the reason you are going to fail. You are the reason you are going to succeed.” - Matthew Beaudin It’s easy to point fingers to market conditions, pricing, competition, or timing when things don’t go our way. But the truth is, the biggest variable in any outcome is us. Our mindset. Our consistency. Our willingness to have uncomfortable conversations. Our discipline to follow up when others don’t. The same is true on the flip side. The wins? They come from preparation no one sees. From resilience after rejection. From choosing to improve instead of making excuses. If you’re in sales right now, here’s the real question: Are your daily habits aligned with the results you say you want? Because growth in this field doesn’t start with a new script or tool, it starts with ownership. And when you fully own your outcomes, everything changes. Link to the full episode in the comments! 😎 Do Hard Things.

If you want to make money, you have to bring something of value to the market. It’s that simple. The market has to value it too. What does the market value right now? Person-to-person sales. People selling to people. It’s one of the most valuable skills you can learn in the market. Over 500,000 jobs are open for closers. People value closing. So, closing is the service, but do you have the skill? You can say you can close deals, but can you really? To provide value, you can’t just spotlight what the market wants; you have to deliver on it. You can only deliver on it if you invest in yourself. You are your greatest asset. It’s not your house, stock, or gold. It’s you. Your mind. Invest in it. My mentor told me the most important investment you will ever make is the investment in your personal development. As you grow and improve, your income will follow. 😎 Do Hard Things.