that's a

great question.

Because back in the 2000s, when I was at Salesforce, and even 2011 and so on, there wasn't as much cold email.

And in the Predictable Revenue book, specifically talked, like I said, using cold email to get referrals.

Now, that's not the only technique at Salesforce you use, but that was probably the most interesting and different.

So today, they're there's a lot more technology to do that.

There's 1,000 applications to send email and follow up and do phone calls.

those

Yeah, the question was, Aaron, was how is it, how is it for you coming from Tyler, where there's such a rich history of UT athletes succeeding?

Oh, it's, it was huge.

Um, so just to give a little more context, I'm originally from San Antonio.

Um, and then I ended up moving to East Texas, and if you know anything about San Antonio, it's more basketball-based.

So I thought I was gonna be a basketball player coming to, um, uh, [laughs] growing up the whole time.

But when I moved to East Texas, uh, Coach Wilson, that was the coach during that time, he sat me down and said, "Hey, you're a 6', um, defensive back or a 6' point guard.

The chances of you making it in the NFL compared to the NBA, this is..." He kind of sat me down and, and really shot it straight with me.

Talk about the talent in that secondary and the competition, what that brought out of all you guys.

So, Aaron, tell our listeners a little bit about what happened.

Man, it was hard.

So I went to two different high schools.

My freshman and sophomore year, I was in San Antonio and I went to high school there.

But then because of different situations, I had to move to East Texas during the second part, second semester of my sophomore year.

And I finished end of sophomore year and graduated from John Tyler in East Texas.

graduated came to to ut um went through tour days that during that time we had two weeks of of um tour days um and what was it coach maybe a couple of days or a week right before our opening game um came and told me that i wasn't eligible with the clearinghouse they found they found that they couldn't find a half a credit of English two on my, um, official transcript.

I mean, what keeps you rolling? What keeps you going? And you have tremendous confidence and energy.

When you were breaking through at Salesforce.com, growing the team to 100 million in revenue, what was that environment like? And what were some of the insights you had that others didn't have?

Um, well, I think it, you know, I wrote about this a bit in the book, first book.

I think it's important to know that before I joined Salesforce, I had started a company and it failed as a venture backed company back in the, you know, dot com days.

And through that, I need to, if I'm going to start another company, I need to know sales like from the ground up.

And so I got it.

I tried to get a job at Salesforce, but they didn't have actual quota carrying job.

They only had the They call it sales rep, which is answering the 800 line and responding to website leads.

Yeah.

He has a residency this year.

He has a residency this year, yeah.

He's doing Hi, the club room.

It's a brand new event brand that he's launched, that we've launched, called Senses, and that's every Wednesday, August and September.

Um, I've worked with him a long time.

I've worked with him since 2008 when I was an A&R at Defected, and I signed him to Defected.

And in 2012, we both kinda left Defected, and I set up the management company, and he left to expand what he was doing musically, let's say.

I mean, um, who are your biggest influences in the industry?

How did you get through that then? I mean, how did you get help outside help or did you just figure it out?

I think we started to, and it took a while, but we tried to communicate as best as possible and kept coming.

Okay, this was the major change.

And you kind of touched on it.

What it was is we started to attack the problem instead of each other.

So we started to attack the issue.

And I think that was the light bulb for us.

When you think about the mistakes couples make, the mistakes even you've made, what would be your best advice for a couple Happy

How did you get through that then? I mean, how did you get help outside help or did you just figure it out?

I think we started to, and it took a while, but we tried to communicate as best as possible and kept coming.

Okay, this was the major change.

And you kind of touched on it.

What it was is we started to attack the problem instead of each other.

So we started to attack the issue.

And I think that was the light bulb for us.

When you think about the mistakes couples make, the mistakes even you've made, what would be your best advice for a couple happy relationship

How did you get through that then? I mean, how did you get help outside help or did you just figure it out?

I think we started to, and it took a while, but we tried to communicate as best as possible and kept coming.

Okay, this was the major change.

And you kind of touched on it.

What it was is we started to attack the problem instead of each other.

So we started to attack the issue.

And I think that was the light bulb for us.

When you think about the mistakes couples make, the mistakes even you've made, what would be your best advice for a couple Happy relationship.