Billion-dollar Acquisitions, Private Jets, and the Art + Science of Persuasion
July 27, 2023
AI Summary
5 min readThe Funnel of Life: Curiosity, Rejection, and the Art of Persuasion
Andy Elwood sold private jets for Warren Buffett, sold a company to Facebook, and sold another to Google—all before his early 30s. But when asked how he got good at sales, he doesn't lead with charm or closing techniques. He leads with a simple framework: own what you can control.
His first job out of college was selling life insurance, which he calls "one of the least sexy things you can possibly sell" because the conversation begins with "had you recently thought about your death?" He became the number one rookie life insurance salesman in America at 23 by realizing that one out of three people would say yes. That meant two people he had no control over. And to get three pitches, he needed ten leads—seven of whom would never let him pitch at all. So he worked backward: he wanted X sales, multiplied by three to get the pitches needed, multiplied by ten to get the leads required. Every week, he just made sure he got that many new leads. "I didn't control who would say yes, I didn't control who would let me pitch. I just controlled making the reach out."
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:00) **Introduction and Andy's Background** - Andy introduces himself, sharing his early career selling private jets and selling companies to Facebook and Google.
- 2 (01:29) **The Sales Framework: Owning What You Control** - Andy explains his core sales framework: focus only on the part of the process you can control.
- 3 (03:58) **Hardest Sale: Getting Hired by Warren Buffett's Jet Company** - Andy describes the grueling process of selling himself to a team of top salespeople.
- 4 (06:10) **The Power of In-Person Connection** - Andy and the host discuss the value of showing up physically, even at great cost.
- 5 (08:03) **The Coca-Cola Story: Missing a Flight for a Beer** - Andy recounts missing his flight to have a beer with the new head of digital at Coca-Cola.
- 6 (11:00) **The Lyft Co-Founder Story: Curiosity and Kindness** - Host shares his story of sitting next to the co-founder of Lyft on a plane without knowing who he was.
- 7 (16:29) **Community Beyond Transaction: Lessons from Religion and Burning Man** - Andy discusses building community not around "what can I get" but "what can I give."
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
Today Greg is joined by Andy Ellwood, a startup operator, sales genius, and all-around curious human. In this episode, Greg and Andy talk about how curiosity increases your surface area for luck, why journaling is an underrated life skill, and why you should be growing your business, not your burn rate.
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https://latecheckout.substack.com
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LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE:
Production Team:
https://www.bigoceanpodcasting.com
Andy Ellwood:
https://www.andyellwood.com/
https://www.andyellwood.com/journalchallenge
https://twitter.com/andyellwood
SHOW NOTES:
0:00 - Intro
6:00 - Increasing your luck
16:30 - What religion tells us about community
26:40 - Journaling for creativity and clarity
39:25 - Grow your business, not your burn rate
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