57 Tips learnt over 47 years of work with Author Glenn Poulos

Glenn Poulos is the cofounder, vice president, and general manager of Gap Wireless Inc., a leading distributor for the mobile broadband infrastructure market. With over three decades of experience in sales, he has developed a successful belief and strategy system by spending thousands of hours in the field or on the phone with customers and working with salespeople in several successful companies.

Author of: Never Sit in the Lobby: 57 Winning Sales Factors to Grow a Business and Build a Career Selling

www.glennpoulos.com

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Olivier B: Welcome to Business Not 1 0 1, a podcast that explores the uncommon side of business, goes beyond the conventional teachings, delves into the practical real world strategies and insights from successful founders, entrepreneurs, industry experts that understand what drives growth and how to achieve success in an ever-changing business landscape.

So join us and let's go beyond the basics.

Hi, Glen. How you doing?

Glenn Poulos: I'm great, Olivier. How are you?

Olivier B: Excellent. Thanks for joining us on business, not 1 0 1. All right. Let's just jump right into it. Please introduce yourself and give us your background.

Glenn Poulos: Well, thanks for having me, Olivier it's great to be here. And my name is Glen Pullis. I'm a former business owner. I just sold my company. It's the second company that I've started and built up for both of them for 15 years. I'm basically a salesman that, that built a company and I've been active in the sales and business arena since 1986.

You know, like I said, selling and building businesses [00:01:00] and primarily in the high tech field around wireless.

Olivier B: That's really interesting. All right, so let's get pitch of your business book.

Glenn Poulos: Okay, so the book is sort of a compilation of the my 35 years in the business. The title's never sit in the lobby. 57 Tips on Building a Business and a Career in Selling. And really it's, it's a book you can flip to at any moment in time. Flip to any chapter, you don't have to read it from beginning to end.

And there's tips. What I like to say, getting, staying and acting in front of your customers. And it's not just for salespeople. There's lots of tips for business people on listening, rapport building and what have you. And these are just 57 interesting rules that you may not take them all away, but you'll take some of them away and you'll say, Hey, that's a great idea.

I'm gonna incorporate that into my my business routine.

Olivier B: That's really interesting. So what was the, the aha moment? What was the story behind you deciding, Hey, you know what, I should write this down.

Glenn Poulos: So the, [00:02:00] so I started in 86 and I was a young fellow in my twenties. And I had some really good mentors or you know, they were the owners of the sales company that I worked for. And these guys had some really good you know, They really didn't articulate them as a set of rules, but they had behaviors that they repeated, and I noticed them, and I noticed how well they they worked.

And so I, I started I would notice the situation occur. And so basically what I did was I started writing down the, the name of the person and the behavior that I liked and tried to give it a fancy, a funny name or something like that. And a lot of these things, a lot of these stories said you know, some pretty funny back stories to them.

And and so I saw, I started telling these stories to people and people would ask me to repeat them to other people and then I even got invited to, to speak at other sales companies to repeat the stories. Then people ask me to write a book. It took me until the Pan Pandemic to actually write the book.

But really it's a compilation of these, [00:03:00] you know, these rules and to follow and some rules not to follow. You know, that I've built up over my career of being in front of customers.

Olivier B: That's a really interesting story. So what were some of the roadblocks that you hit that you didn't expect writing a book? Because obviously it's something that we don't do every day. All of us. So, , did you have any, and how did you overcome them

Glenn Poulos: well, one of the, yeah, so not, not really a roadblock, but you know not on podcasts and on YouTube or what have you, but I sometimes use colorful language in my in my everyday speech. And so when I'm just speaking with my normal, You know, my normal tone, or not my normal tone, but my normal speech there, there tends to be a lot of colorful words, you know, like swearing basically.

Right. And the, as I said in the book, I wrote 75,000 words and the editor sent back the, the book and said, Hey, you can't. , you can't swear that much. So I said, okay, fine. Let's remove the F word and we'll agree on 71,000 words. And so, you know, writing in a style that is acceptable to the grand masses was something that I had no [00:04:00] idea about.

And I was just telling the stories as they occurred in my memory or as I had written them down over the years. And then there were you know, the other sort of roadblocks were you know, like, how do I get it edited? How do I come up with a name? And I did end up finding a lot of online services that were that were instrumental in allow.

Self-publish the book. It's really actually quite simple now for people to follow these recipes. There's many, many companies out there that will give you the recipe. You still have to do the writing. You still have to, you know, hire the editor get the graphics done, come up with a title, but, and you are self plugged, published.

You do own all the rights and what have you, but but you don't have to like, On Google and what have you to figure out, Hey, what's my next step? Right? They tell you, do this, do this, do this. Right. So as I, when I, once I ran into those roadblocks and I had found that service that kind of opened up the the floodgate to me, to showing me how to do it, and and made it a lot easier.

And beyond that was the just the discipline and and so I had, I had said, I had, [00:05:00] when I first started, I googled, Hey, how do you write a book? And I actually ended up on a podcast very quickly and I listened to it and the guy said, , anybody can write a book. All you have to do is write 500 words every day without fail until your book's done.

And I said, Hey, that's actually a really good idea, but given the way my workday is and what have you and my day job I decided that I was gonna write all 500 words Monday to Friday on Saturday and Sunday. And so I was gonna do, you know, 2000 to 25. 2,500 words every weekend. And I committed to doing that.

And once I, once I figured out about that, getting that writing time down, I got up really early on the weekends and a few months later, the book was done. It was it was really quite surprising how fast it goes once you get into it.

Olivier B: That's a great point and I, I discipline, I think it's really important when you're writing a book, a lot of other people have said that, that as they write the books, they struggle with discipline to keep up and be able to do all the words and really just be able to pump out the material the. That they [00:06:00] need.

That's great. One other questions I have always about this is, what is the secret sauce you're hoping to give to your readers? What is the one thing the readers, you really want them to take away from your, your book?

Glenn Poulos: So the book sort of appeals to people that are, are, or want to be in business or selling around, you know, sales type companies. I mean, most companies are selling something, right? Whether it's toilet paper or air conditioners cars or, you know, or private jets, right? And pretty much all companies have a sales team and what have you, but it's designed around the, the, the business aspect and the sales people doing it.

And you know, the, the goal is to sort of, Take away some of the, the mystery around, you know, how do I, how do I, how do I get started? How do I stay active? And but the real goal is to learn, I always like to say is learning how to be a pleasure to do business with always. And [00:07:00] that's really, it comes out in the book.

And if you, if you deal with my company, you'll find that we are actually a truly a pleasure to do business with and it's. Incredible differences in the growth of the business and the success. And we were able to sell the business to a US company last year. And so that's the real ultimate goal is to show you how to be a person to that is a pleasure to do business with you know, rapport building, listening, things like that.

And you know, in plain language, not be a pain in the.

Olivier B: Yeah, it's brilliant. I love it. That's a great answer. So when you, when you're writing your book and you're about to launch it, what was some of the steps that you've taken to build a community to support your book launch? Because it's really the first few months of your book is the most important they say. And what was some of the steps you did? To create that community and create the hype around your book.

Glenn Poulos: So that, yeah, that's really interesting because normally I'm selling products that I've worked with for years and I've, I've grown into and have an [00:08:00] affinity for them, and I, you know, I feel that they're good products. They're you know they're well, like great reputation, great warranties and whatever.

But now all of a sudden I was faced with this product called me that I had to you know, get ready for the launch. And it was really quite a, you know, it was quite a leap for me to you know, Get, have the courage to sort of, you know, push past that and start and build this thing that's called a book Army.

So, you know, and, and it, it wasn't the easiest part, but once I got going, it was fine. And I, I found my voice and you know, started reaching out. You start with friends and family people that you know easily and asked them to join your you know, your, your mail list campaign. and then you reach out to friends.

Friends of friends, you know, Facebook friends you start going back and also business associates and, you know, companies you work with, customers you work with, and asking them, Hey, would you, you know, would you join my book Army? Would you read the book? Would you make a, some people I asked for pre-release [00:09:00] reviews and and endorsements that could be put on the book.

And yeah. And so that was the, the major part, you know, there was the parts about graphics and things like that, but essentially most of that, I, you know, I hired companies on like Fiber and Upwork and places like that to do that format, the book in an Amazon format. The audio book I had to prepare.

I, I you know, I had to find a very quiet place at home. You know, get set up, find the software, the microphones, all that, and and learn learn how to say the book in a proper manner. And I hired a. A vocal coach for that, that was giving me feedback, you know, you're going too fast, you're going too slow.

And and then after a couple chapters, you kind of get the right gate. And but the biggest challenge was getting that book Army going and getting them to you know, to want to help me. And you know, kind of, you kind of figure out who your friends are pretty quickly when you're doing that.

But yeah, that's, that's what I did to get, get ready for the launch.

Olivier B: I love the vocal coach. That's something that I didn't even think about. That's so true. That's a [00:10:00] brilliant step to

Glenn Poulos: yeah, yeah.

Olivier B: yeah, it's like starting any business, whether you're doing freelancing consulting or I think writing a book. It is, the reason I ask that question is because I think that's an honest struggle for everybody cuz we, you know, we are probably, all of us have a ton of friends and connections and family.

It's one thing to ask them, but it's another thing for them to actually do the work and help out because it's something you're asking and it's not always evident. So it's a hard job I've. Yeah, that's great though.

Glenn Poulos: Yeah.

Olivier B: If you could send yourself past self, a message to do or not to do while writing this book or about this writing a book, what would it be and why?

Glenn Poulos: Yeah, norm, normally people ask me that question just about, just about business and life in general. Right? And I usually have some pretty good pat answers for it, but to, to send myself the. You know, I, I guess the one message I've sent myself would be you're doing the right thing, . Yes. And don't, you know, don't, if you're thinking of giving up, don't give up because you will get there and [00:11:00] you'll be happy when it's done.

And you know. The, the not, not everyone becomes, you know, an Amazon New York Times, whatever, be bestselling author, you know, we're not all Stephen King or what have you. But really there's a, a huge sense of pride and of accomplishment you get when it is finally published. And it, you know, the, the absolute number of copies that get sold and what have you become.

Less important than your ability to reference it in conversation and business discussions, whatever, whatever environment you're in, and say, well, in my book, I cover that in, you know, in detail and things like that. So I would, I would tell myself to, you're, you're doing the right thing and to keep going.

And yeah, I'm not sure there's there's too much I would tell myself not to do. You know, I took it at a, at a good pace. It was a comfortable schedule that I created for it. Yeah. You know, the you know, on a, on a funny note, right? The, the biggest challenge I had when writing the book was figuring out, Hey, can I, can I lose enough weight to take the photo for the back cover that I'll be proud to have on the book forever, and

Olivier B: just Photoshop [00:12:00] it. You know, there's so many apps for that. That's brilliant. That's brilliant. How did you stay productive while writing? And you still have your family life, your work life, your personal life. So you're adding this extra layer of, of work to your everyday life. So how did you stay productive and focus.

Glenn Poulos: so I was lucky in, in a way, in the sense that I had a and I talk about the exact thing in the book, the notebook that I used to create the book, which I had started. At my beginning of my sales career, and I kept it. And it had all of the points listed, right? So you know, these 57 tips and what have you, most of the, like, the, the actual writing wasn't done, but the, the tips were already there.

Who I, who I named them after, what they meant, what the punchline was, or whatever, whatever the lesson was. And so I, you know, That was basically the 57 chapters. They're not really in chapters, but I mean were already laid out for me. And so I didn't have to worry about that. That wasn't a challenge for [00:13:00] me to, and to answer your question, I mean, I actually get up really early you know, on the weekend.

It doesn't matter what day of the week it is, by five 30 or six, I'm just. and I, that's where I do all my you know, things that are creative or, you know, during the week I'm doing things that are probably somewhat business related, but on the weekend I'm doing things that I'm passionate about and learning about things.

And so that from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM I was writing, my wife was sleeping, and and by the time she woke up and poured her first coffee, I was already burnt out and ready to stop. And so I just changed the. That I was doing, you know, I might have been reading about the latest technology or, or there's some kinds of music things that I'm, that I'm into, and usually that's what I'm playing around with on the weekends.

And so I just deviated the activity for a few months and changed it to writing the book for a while. And, and to be honest, my wife didn't even know I was writing the book until [00:14:00] it was finished and the photo had been done. And when it, and the photo, like I was joking about that photo. and I showed it to her and I said, oh, by the way, this is the cover of the book, right?

And she said, oh, that's what you've been doing all this time. And I'm like, yeah, that's, yeah. And so she was pretty shocked, right? So, so that, that's basically how I did it. And it really wasn't a disruption other than gi, you know, giving up a another guilty pleasure, distraction on the weekends in the.

Olivier B: Yeah. That's brilliant. I love it. And that's funny that your wife didn't know you were writing a book until he wrote it, so

Glenn Poulos: I wasn't sure I would finish it, so I wanted to make sure it was done be before I started bragging about it.

Olivier B: that's it. Excellent. I love it.

Glenn Poulos: Yeah.

Olivier B: What is one personality trait af now that you've written a book that you feel anybody who's going to write a book should have or a strong personality trait general to be able to write a business?

Glenn Poulos: Well, obviously honesty is one. You're gonna want to be honest and the, [00:15:00] you know, the and genuine, you know, the. , you know, your, your temptation nowadays would be to use a lot of helper things to help you get through. Like nowadays, honestly, this week, you know, you could get chat g p t to write your book if you wanted.

Right. But it wouldn't be genuine and you wouldn't you wouldn't feel good about it. It would be very hollow victory, right. . So yeah, I mean, I'm struggling to think of something else, but the, you know, the one thing that I was proud of was doing the some of the things I had had had online, but it was really very superficial and I had to do a lot of research and then the discipline to establish the discipline to have my genuine.

You know, to genuinely write the long version of it was it required some stamina and some, you know, I had to be constantly encouraging myself, right? Like the, the, you know I can't speak for anyone else, but I mean, you know, the temptation is there to be, you know, overusing things like Google and what have you, right?

And obviously you're gonna research your facts, but you [00:16:00] really want to be honest, genuine, and you know about the content you're creating cuz it's gonna last forever. And you want it, you wanna be able to be proud of it, good, bad, or indifferent, even if people don't like it, right? And yeah.

Olivier B: A hundred percent. I love that answer. Now I have a on a side, because your business book, what is one entrepreneur or other business book author you would like to meet and pick their brains for a coffee?

Glenn Poulos: Well the, the book that always continues to resonate with me is the the 48 Laws of Power. So I guess that's Robert Green and , the like that is, you know, there's, there's lots of other, you know, good books out there. And but that one is just you know, an absolute encyclopedia of the way to do things right.

And it, it, it, it really does. , it really did, does give you a foundation of how to be successful and, and a powerful in business. You know, which is the field that I'm in. Yeah, so I would love, and I've seen him a lot now lately on YouTube shorts and on you know, reels and things like that.

He's, he's got quite a presence out there now, so I never [00:17:00] really knew what he looked like, but now I see him a lot, quite a bit. And yeah, I would love to love to pick his brain.

Olivier B: That's brilliant. Yeah, it's true. And it's one of the first audio books that I actually downloaded was

Glenn Poulos: Oh really? Yeah.

Olivier B: and and it's, it's interesting. I, I don't agree with every part of it, but I, I feel his mantra's really strong. Like, he just gets in there and he repeats this and, and I, it builds up these foundation blocks, so I like it.

That's brilliant. is a book nonfiction could be any book that's really sort of, I guess, inspired you to become the the business person you are and to write your business book if there is one.

Glenn Poulos: Well, my most favorite book about, that's not sort of fiction related, right? You know, was the, the Power Of Now by Eckert Tole tole. I'm not sure exactly how he says his last name, but the you know, The books that sort of that I wanted my book to fall into were the you know, the thinking Go rich the, you know, [00:18:00] rich Dad, poor dad the you know, the, that style of, you know, the, the monk who sold his Ferrari that kind of genre, probably more closer to the, that, that than, than maybe some of the first ones that I had said.

But probably the most impact that a book ever had on me was the power of now and and staying present, you know, and as determining, you know, what what's meant by the ego and things like that. And yeah, and I really had to, I really had to dive into ego because in it, the same week that I launched the book in February of 2022, literally I sold my business of 15 years.

And the, and so I'm in one hand and there was a lot of. There was a lot of requirement for me to check my ego and look from what place I was coming from on a lot of different things. And the book, the sale of the business, et cetera. Right. And that, that book is, was always, always stuck with me. But you know, the ones I kind of wanted to emulate were the ones I said after.

Right. You know, it's not really a fable or anything like that, [00:19:00] but it's kind of these little snippets of lessons. You know, with with, with real world examples, some people have questioned me, you know, Hey, did this really happen? And I'm like, yeah. And I go, and a bunch of the ones that really happened that are in the book got cut up by the editor with a NS FW tag, right?

Like, not safe for work. And so there were a lot of other, you know, there's probably room for another book, but you know, maybe let's call it the R-rated version, you know, and there were so many, so many things I learned. You know, over the years and I just have to learn how to tell it in a, in a g-rated manner.

Right. So, long-winded answer. But those, those are my those are my books and my

Olivier B: yeah, they're brilliant books. They're brilliant books.

So, right. It was great. This is a great conversation. I love it. And my last closing question for you is, how can people reach out and connect with you and connect with your book?

Glenn Poulos: So everything to connect with me is on my name, Glenn Poulos dot com all the links are there to the book, to the to the webs. You know, it's the website and there's some resources there and Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, et cetera. But I will say that I'm [00:20:00] extremely active on LinkedIn and I will respond to you if you reach out to me.

Mm-hmm. and I, you know, I post a lot of valuable content there every day. And I'm always willing to chat and collaborate with anyone you know, so, you know, welcome, welcome the opportunity. So don't be shy if anyone wants to reach out to me on LinkedIn and otherwise on my website you can link to anything you want, the book or any of my other social media.

Olivier B: That's brilliant. I wanna thank you so much for taking the time and joining us today on Business not 1 0 1. I really appreciate it.

Glenn Poulos: Okay? Thank you Olivier

Olivier B: Business, not 1 0 1 is hosted and written by me, Olivier Bousette produced, edited by myself and the podcast team. Special thanks to Crrcle Agency for keeping us organized and productive. We hope this interview gave you some invaluable insights that help you along your business journey. If you have any questions, comments, please feel free to reach out to us to listen to Business Not 101

you can find us in all the podcast [00:21:00] platforms including. Thank you for joining us and listening to this episode of Business Not 101. We hope you enjoyed it until our next episode.

Business Not 101

57 Tips learnt over 47 years of work with Author Glenn Poulos

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