How I Went From 0 Experience to Sales Champion - Dev Sethi

In this episode of The Quest for Success Podcast, Dev Sethi takes us through his incredible transition from a career in IT to becoming a top-performing salesperson and successful entrepreneur. Dev shares his insights on the critical importance of mastering sales skills, particularly the art of closing deals, and how curiosity can be a powerful tool in sales conversations.

Dev delves into the nuances that separate good salespeople from great ones, including how to effectively identify and disqualify time-wasting prospects. The conversation covers a broad spectrum of success strategies, such as the importance of timing in sales, the most common mistakes young salespeople make, and the vital role teamwork plays in achieving outstanding results.

They also explore the idea that everyone is in sales, the significance of negotiation skills, and why delayed gratification is key to long-term success. Dev highlights the importance of mindset in achieving your goals and shares the valuable lessons he’s learned from his role models.

Additionally, Dev introduces his Wealth on Command Movement, a coaching and mentoring initiative aimed at empowering individuals and businesses to maximise their potential.

Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to sales, this episode is packed with practical advice and insights that can help you elevate your career and achieve success.

Resources We Discuss:
Dev's Channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/devsethi
Dev's LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/devsethiofficial/

What We Are Reading:
Dylan - The Power Law: https://amzn.to/46h7F3I
Jam -  Think Faster, Talk Smarter: https://amzn.to/3xvOZQI 

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Transcript

Dylan Pathirana (00:00.224)
Sales guru and entrepreneur, please welcome to the show Dev Siti. And in that very moment, it was like a whole like, what happened? I was just hoping and I was praying like, please give me another chance. I'll do whatever it takes. I was willing to be bad at it so that I learn how to become good at it.

Dylan Pathirana (00:37.73)
All right. Welcome back to the quest for success podcast. And thank you so much for tuning in once again. We're really looking forward to today's episode because we've reached the point where we're actually getting referred guests by some of our, close friends. so today's guest is a Dev Sethi, who is a sales coach and sales consultant. And so we're really excited to kind of dive into the world of sales and also your journey as well. So Dev, thank you so much for joining us.

Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Thank you, Dave. so Dave is the managing director of Stella wealth. Dave, before we go into full detail of your business, as well as your journey, Dylan's got a question for you. Sure. So we like to start this conversation and really set the ground rules by asking a very simple question. What does success mean to you? So I think success, for me, it's more about.

Having the choices to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want, whenever you want. So I think it's all about having that choices. So it could be in terms of money, could be in terms of spending time with family, could be in terms of doing health thing, whatever you want to do. But it's about having the choices whenever you want. You want to spend it with whoever you want, however you want. It's about having choices. Choices.

Yeah. So it's really about having agency and freedom for you. Yes. But we gave a very high level introduction to you, but if you're going around and introducing yourself to a stranger, what would you be your introduction? How do you introduce yourself? So for me, I would like to say I'm an ordinary person that likes to do extraordinary things. Awesome. And I'd like to help other people reach that extraordinary level as well. So my business is really around helping people succeed.

and help them actually be able to get their financial success, give back to their family and then give back to the community. That's what I like doing. Is that the purpose of Stellar Wealth? So Stellar Wealth actually, the name itself, know, so Stellar is a name of an Italian word which means star. And wealth is for me, it's beyond just money. So I like to feel that anybody who's doing something, it's making an impact beyond money.

Dylan Pathirana (03:01.92)
and internally the self -image is we are all a superstar. So I got those two names and I combined and I created a company called Stellar Wealth. And what Stellar Wealth does, it does two things. So it started off by actually helping coaches and consultants learn how to close sales. And I'll share a little bit more how I got into the journey. But really close sales and build a six -figure business and beyond in the coaching business.

And then as I grew, it became a consulting business in sales where companies earning over a million plus were coming to me and says, Hey, can you help us optimize our sales, build our sales team, builds our sales process, show us how we can go to the next level. And that's how the consulting business started. But it started with the coaching business first and then moved into consulting. Yeah. Right. And so before we dive too much into your current career,

I want to take it a step back because what we found is childhood plays a massive role in someone's journey. And so how do you think your childhood has shaped who you are today? I actually, I'm very grateful to my parents to start with. You my childhood has not been a very tough journey, I would say. Okay. But there was a turning point and we get back to that. for me, when I grew up, I grew up with a lot of love in the family.

You know, so my parents did everything they could to actually get me the best education. So I was born in Thailand. I studied in India and then I moved to Australia. So my childhood was full of love, full of good relationship. But when I went to India to study boarding, that's when I really realized that, hey, it's not just about the family. It's actually about being able to stand on your own feet as well. So I went to boarding school literally from kindergarten until year 12.

So I was in boarding school, I went to boarding school when I was four and a half years old, right? Kindergarten. Wow. Yeah. So from four and a half years old till, you know, till I graduated year 12, it was purely like learning how to stand up on your own feet. So even though I had come from a family where I got everything, but when you're in boarding school, you're by yourself. You got to stand up by yourself. You got to actually look at how to be tough, you know?

Dylan Pathirana (05:18.924)
There will be people around you that are good to you. There will be people around you that will bully you. There will be people around you that will agree or disagree with you. There was a lot of competition, especially in India, as you know, there's a lot of competition, right? So all that, I would actually say, shaped who I am. know, so, yeah, childhood plays a very important role. You get all these kinds of certain beliefs that you get as well. I come from a family where it's very traditional as well.

modern, I've started off very traditional. So the values that you get is certain things about money, certain things about success. It's a very different belief I had of what I have today. but yeah, my childhood, I think it was really shaped with, first of all, I was very secure from a love perspective in family, but really what shaped me was the tough times I went in boarding school. And that really made me independent. Yeah. So a four and a half year old going to a boarding school.

What was like enough? I mean, you might not even remember that time, like, you know, and you're away from your family. And you're talking about love. It's kind of distance love, right? Yeah, yeah. So it was about so the boarding school was from from March till November. Right. And mid November till about early March, I was in Thailand. That's where that's where I grew up. Right. So four and a half. All I remembered.

And I did not enjoy the first five years. The first five years was like, I was just there for the sake of being there. I don't quite remember a lot about my first five years, but I remember the first year I was there, I was I crying and crying and crying. But I think that was the, I would actually say it was more tough on my parents probably to actually, they knew why they were sending me there because at that time in Thailand, there was not good education in terms of English. And this is what we're talking about.

you know, 45 years ago, the English wasn't as great, the schools wasn't as great at that time. So the culture wasn't there. So to shape who I am today, I think that tough decision needed to be made. And to answer your question, yeah, it was actually a long distance relationship, if you can actually call it. But when I came back three months back to Thailand, I loved it. I loved it. Yeah. I used to just come back and just...

Dylan Pathirana (07:43.946)
gets boiled by all the food and travel and everything. So it was a good balance. You have other siblings? I do. I'm the youngest. I got an older sister and then my brother and then me. So they all studied the... Everybody studied boarding school. In fact, my parents also studied boarding school. I think that's probably where they said that they could do it when I could do it. And throughout your career, like after school,

You went to university and you had any interest? I know you worked in technology before you get into more business sales area. Yeah. So fast forward. So schooling was in India. My bachelor's was actually in Thailand. Right. And I was going down the business route. this was when did I do when I started uni? 96 I started my bachelor's. Right. And at that time I went into business administration. It's a four year degree.

Very soon in two years, I'm like, hey man, there's IT coming up in this world. And then I entered, I did a major in business information, right? And that's when I started my IT. I learned my first programming in uni. And then after four years of bachelor's, I got a scholarship to come to Australia. And that's when I did my master's in IT here. So initially started in business and then transitioned into IT. What's your parents' background?

My parents background, they are in business as well. They're mainly in wholesale trading business. They all started there, correct. So did you have any choice to work with your parents? yeah, yeah. But I was not interested. I was not interested. So the reason I was not interested is I was the youngest one as well, right? And my sister was there, my brother was there. So my brother joined my dad. And I'm like, hey, if you've joined, let me go and do something. Let me go get a job.

Something different. very, very surprising, know, everybody was in business. Everybody I surrounded in Thailand, my parents, was in business. When I said, I'm going to go and get a degree, I was the first person in my family to actually get a degree. I was the first person in my dad's extended family to ever get a master's degree. Wow. Right? Nobody had done. And if you talk about the family business, they had big families, right? So my dad had, my dad's dad had 10 siblings.

Dylan Pathirana (10:12.206)
Each of them had 10 kids. So that's already a hundred. And if you include all the grandchildren, you're looking at around 400 people. And I was the first one to actually get a master That's a big family. Big family. So everybody was in Thailand. But yeah, that's how it is. And so that's so interesting because that's almost counter to the normal. Right?

Whereas most families and most parents are pushing their kids, go to university, go get a degree. You kind of had the opposite. Totally. It was frowned upon. It was frowned upon. Right. It was frowned upon very early days when, so it's, how do I say this? If you're, if you get something, a lot of one thing, you want the other thing that you don't have. Right. So I had everything, but what I didn't have was like,

my own independence. I wanted to stand up on my own feet. Although, like I said, I had a good family life, but I wanted to be me. I wanted to be me. I wanted to find who I am, what does success mean to me, what do I want? So I said, I'm just going to go for a degree. I'm just going to go get a job. I just want to go and find out. So that's one thing led to another.

So coming from a very traditional background, as you said, you know, was there a challenge like anyone said, no, no, this is the way it should be? No, actually, some, it was opposed to like a lot of people like in the community said that, hey, why are you getting a job? Just join the business, you know? But, know, as time grows, grows, one thing was very good in my family. One thing was very good is my parents were also very like they adapted very well. And in the year 1997,

It was an Asian financial crisis. So you remember 2008, there was a financial crisis. Equally as bad was in 97 in Asia. Okay. So I give an example. So was in Thailand and all the South Asian countries, Southeast Asian countries had a global financial crisis. One US dollar, which is about 25 baht, right? In one year, it became 54 baht. So the currency like just devalued. There's like over 60 financial institutions in the country just failed. Right?

Dylan Pathirana (12:33.23)
collapsed Thailand at that point went into they had to take a loan from the IMF, right? So it was terrible time and it was just about that time when I was in uni my second year and that's when I decided that I'm going to go down the IT get a job and at that time the business back home was also not very like, you know, was actually at the the down going down and then because I said I want to go get a job on a fine like who am I? I think that also supported the decision. Yeah. So

Change from business to technology, that's a kind of a totally different direction. Did you actually enjoy doing working in the technology? I loved it. I loved it. I absolutely loved it. When I was in uni, university bachelors, I loved it. And I was like, this is it. This is actually it. So I did very well when I was in bachelors as well. And then there was a lot of university in Australia. They had come and done an exhibition in Thailand and I went to apply and then I got a scholarship. I'm like, that's it.

I'm going to just do that. So I just flew to Australia. It was in Gold Coast. My university was in Gold Coast, Bourne University. And I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And I enjoyed programming a lot. Initially, I didn't. I was a very tech kind of a guy. I like tech. I like gadget. You talk to me, all these latest mics. I love it. I love it, you know? And when I was programming, so I must have said I loved it like six, times. So you now know I actually enjoyed it. Yeah.

Was there a particular area in technology that you kind of found your nation? So what I found, I actually enjoy working with people a lot. I actually enjoy working with people, but to get the level that you get to work with people, I had to prove myself, right? So I literally started right from the bottom, like literally, although I did a master's degree, but I had to start right at the programming level. So I went in.

And I was like, hey, this is good fun. I wasn't good at programming. Out of uni, you're not good, right? You know the theory. Although I actually went back after I finished my masters here, I went back to Thailand, I got a good job. But I started out of programming. But I had one thing, one thing I always had is to be good in life, to grow. You have to be able to work with people. So even though I was like an IT programmer and I could speak to the computer really well, I wasn't very good talking to people.

Dylan Pathirana (14:58.68)
So I said, I need to learn that skill. So I made it like a very conscious effort right from the start to actually say, get interested in others. And it just one thing led to another. And then I just found myself that, hey, that's all what's it about, working with people. That's interesting how you looked at technology, because coming from a different background, I didn't come from a business background.

But then I went to technology as well as a business analyst. And then when you're working on the more tech side, like when you're writing code, I found I didn't have that connection with people. So that's why I thought, well, I need to get out of technology. it's interesting that you found other way around. You saw that technology to help you to work with people. Yeah, I did that.

And I remember one story here when I was in Australia, I was working in a wealth management company, right? And as a programmer, you'll know as IT, nobody likes to document stuff. We'll just program. We don't like to document the next person come here, figure out on your own. I was like, you know what? Let me take this challenge up. So I got all the various people in very different teams. Hey, document this, document this. I started facilitating that just out of sheer...

like curiosity and one thing led to another and you know by just doing that this person said this is so good and when the team started onboarding other people they're like hey this document works and then I'm like good and I started talking to other teams and because of that just the interaction with people you form a relationship and that's when I was like hey I can actually use the strength of or this curiosity of mine to work with people. Amazing, amazing how you looked at in a

Totally different way to... Yeah, that's how I did it. Awesome. So from technology to business, so you decided, well, it's time for me to do my own thing. So I've always wanted to do my own thing, okay? But I was not ready for it. So I came here in 2006 and I came here to Australia. Also the business back home had sort of really gone down really a lot. And I was like...

Dylan Pathirana (17:25.23)
I need to be able to come in and stand up on my feet. So from having everything, from having everything, I had nothing. Absolutely, when I came to Australia, I had $3 ,000 in my pocket and that was also borrowed from my parents. I actually came zero. You know, and like the only dream I have is I want to stand up on my feet, give back to my family, that's it. So I...

told my dad that after one year being here, I called him up and I'm like, I'm going to build something on my own. I don't want to be in a job anymore. He's like, no, you stick around. You need the experience. You need to know how to work with people. You need to know how to work for someone so that you just need the experience. Just do it. I brushed him off and I was like, okay, okay, okay, I'll just do it. And I did it. And I was there. was in for the next, for the next 12 years, I just kept in my job. Then 2018 happened.

It was a turning point in my life, 2018. So my dad was visiting me. And I was growing very well in my job. By then, from a programmer, I was working in a company that I became the IT strategy manager, Australia -wide, for very big brand, Toyota Finance. was working in that company. 2018, my dad was with me on Thursday, right here in Australia. He flew back on Friday.

and on Saturday he entered ICU. So his heart rate went from 80 to 190. And in that very moment, it was like a whole like, what happened? So that was like, so I was crying and I was feeling really bad and I was like, there's so much more I need to give back to my family, so much more. So I flew back and I flew back on Saturday, I reached there Sunday.

in the ICU room at the footstep of his bed. I was just hoping and I was praying that, please give me another chance. I was praying to God, right? So give me another chance. I'll do whatever it takes. So he's alive, he's happy, everything. It was in May 2018. I flew back in June and I made the decision that I'm not gonna stay in my job because no matter how hard I work in my job,

Dylan Pathirana (19:45.998)
my income is fixed. There are certain boundaries I need to play with. It's okay for some people, but for me it wasn't okay. So then I was like, I'm going to step out and build my own business. It was in 2018, June.

But how do I build a business? Although I came from a background in business, I was like nothing happens in business until a sale is made, until you get a customer. So in June 2018, I made that decision that I am going to officially learn how to close sales. So that was my turning point. So I then from then on, it took me two years to transition out of my business.

But that was my turning point why I decided to go from an IT to build a business.

So that moment when you realize that's what you want to do, you mentioned closing sales. Yes. Why that? Why did you use that? Any reason? So I started researching a lot online what business to do. And there was a lot of people saying make money, this make money. And and and I was what I've learned is it's not about it's not about making money fast. It's about making money.

keeping money and multiplying money. You make fast, you lose fast. So all the things I was looking online didn't tally in my head. And then suddenly I came across someone's video and he started talking a lot about, like, you gotta learn sales. And then I was like, yeah, man, you gotta learn sales. Because I saw my parents and then the definition of sales changed. If I'm in a job and I can influence you to share with you.

Dylan Pathirana (21:32.076)
what the idea is and you're like, hey man, let's do it. That is sales, right? And I had kids also by that time, right? And if I can tell my kids and show my kids and influence my kids, hey, that is sales. So pretty much the definition of sales in my head changed that if I can influence someone to get them to do what I want to do, but make it their decision to do it, that is sales. So then I was like, hey, this is actually good. And then I looked at it and it looked so powerful that

I could negotiate better, I could build a business better, I could form relationships better, but where do I start? And that's when in this video that I saw, it actually said, go learn how to close sales on the phone. And that's when I did it. So Dave, explain to us, what do you mean by closing sale? Closing sale is pretty much, so if you and I are in a transaction and you agree,

If you have a problem, pretty much sales is like, if you have a problem and I solve your problem and you are able to pay for that and you're willing to pay for that. And we say, okay, let's, let's take a deal. I'll solve your problem. You pay for me. Handshake and that's it. That's closing sales. So literally that's what I taught my nine year old daughter as well. Sales is number one, solve a problem to get paid. I mean, that's a really good discussion. that's something that I really wanted to discuss with you.

many salespeople, right? Sometimes spending a lot of time talking to customers and building an amazing relationship, but they don't turn into sales. Right? So how do you be in a good relationship person to become a closing sales, like, know, making an impact? Yes. very simple. So I'll share with you.

It's about having conversations, correct? But it's actually about having conversations that convert. So if you have in your mind that, hey, I'm going to have a chat with you, I'm going to solve your problem, but it needs to lead to a kind of a conversion. And conversion here is exchange of money. So that's the mindset it starts with. So a lot of people I see that, hey, we'll just have a conversation and then we'll beat up Pali, we'll be helpful. It doesn't work. It's good for relationship, but...

Dylan Pathirana (23:57.75)
At the end of the day, money is important. Right? So the mindset needs to be, let's build a relationship. Let's show a genuine problem, but the ability to ask for the clothes that is the ability to say, okay, this is my price. Let's do it. That is a skill in itself. Yeah. Yeah. And how do you go about developing that skill? So you got to learn it. Yeah. So I'll share with you my journey, how I learned it. Okay.

So it's, I was never good at sales. Okay, I've actually zero sales experience, absolutely zero sales experience. I was in IT job, but when I made that decision in June 2018, so I spoke to my wife. I had very young kids at that time, one and a half and three and a half, really young. So I told my wife, look, I need to learn how to close sales now. I've got a full -time job. I had a big team, had like a 28 people team, right, including contractors and all. And then I was like, I need to close sales.

So when I used to reach home at about 6, 6 .30, I used to reach home. I played with the kids for about two hours from 8 .30 at night till 12 .30 at night. I used to close sales for the European region or for the US region. And then the whole of Saturday, the whole of Sunday, I used to take calls. So the way I got good at was just by doing it. So there's a phrase that I eventually learned is I was willing to be bad at it.

so that I learn how to become good at it. A lot of people, what I found is they want to just be good without doing the work. It's not possible. You've got to do the work. It's okay to be bad. It's okay to be bad because when you know you're bad at it, you now know what to fix. So in the course of, and this is what happened from June 2018, and by the time I transitioned out was about 2019 December, for 18 months straight,

I was working 40 hours in my job and I took on the side 50 hours of phone calls every single week. So I was working 90 hours per week for 18 months straight nonstop. What were you selling? I was selling, there was people online selling their coaching services, their consulting services. I was selling for a real estate as well. I was selling for sales coaches as well. I sold like so many things. So you just want anything that you want to get that...

Dylan Pathirana (26:24.238)
Practice. So I took over 4 ,000 phone calls. Each call was about an hour, an hour and a half. Wow. So you do the math. About 6 ,000 hours worth of work in 18 months. Yep. So to answer your question, how does someone get good at it is you got to do the work. There's no fast success. But once you do the work and you come to one level, it gets easier. It gets easier. So I was willing to do the work. And I would also encourage that, like, if anybody wants to get good at,

This is great advice. I am not from sales. And when I did that, in a span of 18 months, I helped others close sales and I helped them close over 1 .5 million dollars in sales. Right. And that led that led to me being nominated in Canada across 6500 people, 150 countries. Five people were nominated to be like the sales champion of the year. Right. And I won.

I got the winner, right? Out of those five. So was named as the sales closer of the year 2019. Wow. And so what I'm sharing here is from someone who absolutely has zero sales skills, right? Never done sales. like getting an award, closing sales, winning the award. And if I can do it, anyone can do it. Yeah, that's a really good advice because I...

was having the similar kind of discussion with Dylan because he's a young guy. He just got a degree, went to Stanford, like, know, so he's full of confidence. Right. But for him, I keep saying it's a numbers game. Continue to go and talk to people. If you want to build your business, it's about how you talk to people, educate them and then convert them. As you said, no point just talking about it. How can we get them on board to your

true idea. But you know, sometimes kids like Dylan in their own right, they're very successful, but don't want to go into that initial face to face interaction with someone or just interaction with someone asking something. It's tough, right? It's very tough. But the key is you got to start somewhere. So for me, I started over the phone and I just kept calling and

Dylan Pathirana (28:51.734)
And the beauty part is the human body is very, very adaptable. You get rejected so many times that it just becomes, okay, no problem. Come another phone call. Like you just get immune to it. You just get immune to it. And second thing is the pattern will be discovered. Like if someone's talking to you in some shape or form, you will develop your own style of pattern that, I know where this conversation is heading.

And if you know where the conversation is heading and you've done it a lot of times, you probably can predict the outcome. So if you know it's going to hit that one, which you don't want the outcome, you can fix it earlier. But if you don't take, if you don't do a lot first, you will not know the pattern. You will not know how to fix it. And you will just keep screwing up. this is a lot of learning out of this for both of us.

We're getting a free consultancy from you. Happy to share. It's all good. Thank you. And so how do you define someone good sales to a great salesperson? Is there any difference? Yes, you can. You can tell. Number one, think the number one quality of a great salesperson internally is being very curious. Like being very curious, like if you tell me something. So what I share is suppose someone tells me no.

Initially, would be like, this person doesn't know what they're doing. They don't know my product. My product is good. So what I'm doing here is I'm judging you. Like, you don't know stuff. You don't know this. So very soon, I switched. I switched from being judgmental to actually being very curious. So I started saying, why are you saying no to me? I'm not curious. I can see the value. Why are you saying no? Is it because you don't see the value or because I didn't show you the value?

So I started being very curious. So the phrase that I use in my mind is be curious, not judgmental. So a good salesperson is very curious. Because if I'm curious, what will I do? I will listen to you. I won't talk. I will listen. I'm like, I'm curious. Tell me more. Automatically, instead of me talking, I will ask questions. Because I'm curious, I will ask, why do you think this? And now I'm listening.

Dylan Pathirana (31:11.916)
And if I'm listening, who's talking? You're talking. And if you're talking, who's feeling important? You're feeling important. And if you're feeling important, you're going to be like, hey, this is a great conversation. I'm like, okay, tell me more about your problem. You keep telling. How can I fix this? You'll keep telling how I'll fix this. What have you tried? I've tried this. Why hasn't it worked? You're telling me how to close the sale. And I'm like, okay, so all this hasn't worked for you. What do you need to make it work? So you'll tell me what you need. Okay, what if I can do that for you? Yeah, sure, let's do it. Close sale.

Fantastic. Easy as You make it sound so simple. It's literally being curious. And don't copy anybody's style. Like for me, my style is I like to work with people, right? So I sort of joke around a little bit. I sort of like make it feel... And I'm not hard push. It's a conversation. A conversation that converts. And create that value as you said. 100%. A sale will never happen.

if you cannot solve a problem. They don't care about your product. Nobody cares. So that's what I'm saying. After I took that 4 ,000 calls, over 6 ,000 hours, there's a pattern you develop. And of course, there are people that will come to you, and you know they're time wasters. In the beginning, I know they were time wasters, but I just went ahead anyway because I wanted to feel that emotion and I can control it.

Now time wastes, I can say your time wastes, you're good, you're not good. You find the pattern. So how do you find a time waster? Like fast. So that's another skill. That's another skill as well. So when I say a time waster, a better word to do it is someone who's not qualified. So let's say, for example, if I'm helping someone make at least 10k a month, for example, and someone comes to me and says that

I don't have any idea what business to do. Absolutely zero idea. That means they've not even started it. So I won't close the sale because it's not my market. Right? So I will look for that qualification aspect. And I'm like, hey, why don't you go do this? Give them some free resource. Go watch my YouTube channel. Go do this. When you're ready, you come back. So when I disqualify them, I disqualify them, but giving value so where they are at, they can grow.

Dylan Pathirana (33:37.826)
They're not ready. They're not ready yet. So, so when I say time wasters are like people, they're not ready or they don't really, they're not ready now. So you just disqualify. I think you said a very key word there. You said yet. Yeah. Yet. They're not ready yet. They're not ready yet. And I think that's a key element as well. Maybe, you know, that they may potentially be your customers one day and so supporting them, but knowing when is the right time that you can actually add value.

And so I want to ask you another question. What is the biggest mistake that you see, especially young salespeople making? Well, they go for the sale too fast. Yeah, they do attached. I was there. So when I'm when I'm attached, this person, I'm going to close this person. I'm going to close the sale. No, like, don't go for that. I'm going to go listen to the person to see what problem they have. Is that the problem I can solve?

What results they want, is that the result I can give? That's all. So the number one problem I see is like going for the sale too fast. Like I'm going to close everyone. It's not possible. It's interesting because we had a similar discussion. I have a study group. We talked about sales because one of the key issues in our group, they see there's a lot of good business development people.

They bring potential customers, but they don't know how to close that deal. We also, part of that discussion, we thought it's like hunting. When you hunt, sometimes you're good at finding the hunt, but you can't kill it. So you need to have the right people, right skills in the team. It's a teamwork.

Sometimes not a really individual game is called doing a sales. So business development guys bring the identify the customer and then the the sales guys actually really creating that that kill that sale. Do you see that that's in a large organization I guess you know. So what your reference to will be mostly B2B type of sales. So I think in a in a

Dylan Pathirana (36:03.04)
in an organization, everybody is actually in sales. Absolutely. Because if you think about it, and I'll answer your question in a bit more detail, if you look from a customer's point of view, when they're interacting with your company, they don't care whether you're in marketing, whether you're in product, you're in operations, you're in sales, you're in support, they don't care. All they care about is what is my experience with this company. If my experience is good, hey, there'll be a higher chance to work.

as simple as that. So everybody's in sales, right? If you're in product, for example, hey, your role is to actually really bring out what are the benefits of the product, how to do it, right? If you're in operations, hey, you've got to make sure that everything is efficient so that when customer complaint comes in, you handle that sales, right? Even business development, when you're coming in, the relationship that they bring into the company,

If it stops at the business development, there's a gap now. So imagine this, you walk into a store and the person greets you really well. Okay, I've got everything you want. Now this person will help you. And that person doesn't know anything what's happening and asks you all the same questions again. How are you going to feel? get frustrated, right? That's exactly what it is. So if the hand of good between the parties, from a customer experience perspective, it is one.

streamlined process. to be seamless. So everybody is in sales, right? And if the BDM, like you said, the business development comes, bring it in, the person who's sort of giving more details, because sometimes you need product knowledge. If the person who's giving more product knowledge can actually answer, does the feature solve your problem? Does this feature give you the result? You can answer these two all the time. And then you just show how you're going to make your money back in sales.

Yeah, so if you show these three things, the conversion just happens. And then, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. And you mentioned you're talking to your daughter about the sales thing. What exactly are you talking about? So I got two daughters, Seven year old and nine year old, right? And we play a lot of games together, but for every game they get points, right?

Dylan Pathirana (38:24.332)
So they want stuff like they want to buy this, buy that. Before we should just buy it for them. Now we're like, you got to earn points and you can take points and you can convert points into dollars. Right. So what am I doing here is I'm also training them how to sort of delay gratification a little bit. Right. So one of the games we play is sales. So of course the seven and nine right now. But what I do with them is I'll teach them first. This is sales.

Literally when I started earlier, I told him what he says, says is just two things. Solve a problem, get paid. Then I asked him, how do you solve a problem? They're like, I got to ask questions. So how many times you got to ask a question? So my daughter tells me this, right? She says you ask the question till you know what the problem is. Good. Excellent. Don't stop asking questions, right? Yes. Okay. And if you, if you know the problem now, how are you going to solve it?

I got to have a skill to solve that problem. Yes. What skill do you need? Depends on the problem. So these are the things that I am actually critical thinking. Yeah. So I'm getting them to think. But literally when they can answer, when they can answer this and then I do a bit of like after a few days, I'll ask the same question. And if they answer correct, OK, go put your. I've got this board at home, like a wall at home, which I've painted as a using the white white board paint. Right. So they go put their own points.

So that's how we play sales. You teach them a little bit of honesty as well so they can put their own points. Yeah, they go put their points and all. It's amazing because mainly I ask that question because if you can teach a kid because kids are very honest, right? Yeah. They're not really judging you. Just tell you as it is. Correct. Yeah. And if you can teach them and you can get feedback, that's a learning for you as well. Yeah, true, true. Although they're the best negotiators.

That's the best thing going here. was like my seven year old, when she wants something, she says, no, I want it now. I'm like, I want it now. I'm like, okay. Sometimes I have to give in. So I got to find a way. And then you can learn as well to have to negotiate. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's amazing. And talking about negotiation. Yeah. Do you have any key key learnings on how to be a good negotiator or a great negotiator? So

Dylan Pathirana (40:44.096)
So that's a good question, right? So in negotiation, I think what we want to look at is it's not always me winning or not always you winning, right? But I'd like to take a bit of a step back. this is probably, there's a book, really good book written by Sun Tzu, the art of war. It's a strategy book. He says the battle is won before it's even fought, right? So when you're negotiating, think the aim here is how can...

How can we both win? So there might be multiple negotiations. So analogy here is, let's say the negotiation is a war. Every conversation is a battle. I don't have to win every battle to win the war. I win some, you win some. As long as as a whole, you feel you're winning, I feel I'm winning, we've got a good negotiation. So I think the mindset plays an important role. There are certain things I'm willing to give. There are certain things.

I want as long as we play with that and we understand you'll be able to negotiate. I think that's fantastic because we did an exercise when I was over at Stanford and each there was there was two of us doing the exercise and we were negotiating over a job salary. And so I was the hiring manager and let's say you were the candidate and we both had a sheet which said, okay, if I get X days off,

then you get this many points. If you get this salary, you get this many points. And what we actually found afterwards, once we made the transaction and closed the sale, was that there was different areas that we could give up and the other person would also benefit. So it might be, let's say, I'll give you an extra day off and that adds immense value to you, but it doesn't really detract much from me. So I'm happy to give you that. And it really kind of...

cemented this idea of adding value to both parties to reach a happy medium because you're really trying to create that win -win situation. Yeah, true, true. It is generally a win -win situation. Definitely. You can't have a win -lose in a negotiation. can't. It's not sustainable if you do that. Even a win -win when people say, let's do win -win, it's easier said than done. Because a lot of people, they go in and they're like, I want everything I want.

Dylan Pathirana (43:08.994)
I'm winning, but the other person might not win. the ability to sort of give you what you want and the ability to get what I want, if we can do that together, it's a negotiation. Yeah, that's awesome. So, this is so much good learning. It's good being here. I'm also enjoying it. Yeah, this is awesome. You know, when you're looking back, I mean, we can continue to have this discussion because we are learning quite a lot. But when you're looking back, your journey,

Do any role models? Yeah. So I think when I grew up, my dad was my very big role model. Okay? The thing is, his working is very busy, but at the same time, every Sunday we spend time together. Like, when I was, of course, after I came from boarding school, I was always like, we had a great time. So that whole balance, that how he was working really hard, but found time for us, I think that is something I live till today. So...

For example, my kids and all, I will find the time to spend time with them. I will find the time. So that's a very role model where it's a family -oriented aspect, right? I think family first, you know? But that's one. Second role model I had, who was my mentor. So I looked at him and he was like, you gotta look after yourself first. Let's say, if I don't look after myself, I cannot help someone else, right? So that's when I decided three priorities.

First priority, look after myself first. Number two, my family. Number three, my community. Because it cannot be in any other order. If you look after others first and you don't look after yourself, you will come from a scarcity mindset that you cannot give with full heart. It's just not possible. Because you'll be thinking in your head, I don't have this, I don't have that. So I think my dad, my business mentor, they're my role models that made me realize that. I gotta look after myself, my family.

and then community. That's so interesting because you say look after yourself. But there's a point I want to counter on that. You were working 100 hour weeks to develop yourself and I understand that but coming from this lens of looking after yourself, do you think that was a good idea? 100%. So look after, looking after yourself has got multiple levels, right? So there's money aspect.

Dylan Pathirana (45:36.034)
this health aspect, there will come a time, so at that point of time, it was like I was not stable. So for me to be, I need to feel stable first. So for me to feel stable, I need to make sure that money comes in the door. I need to make sure that, so stability was utmost. So for me, I needed to feel stable because I had two young kids, my wife. My wife was a full -time homemaker, right?

And I was like, for me, that is the most important because me as a father, me as a husband, I have this responsibility. So I was like, I got to look after me first. So if I can do that, I can then look after them. So of course, certain aspect of health gave way a little bit, certain aspects of eating properly gave way a little bit, but it has its phases. So once you get that phase, how fast you do that phase, you can then capture the other phase as well.

But it's always one phase at a time. It's hard to do everything at the same time if you want the speed and growth.

And reflecting on your journey, are there any regrets that you've had? Regrets?

Dylan Pathirana (46:48.378)
I don't know if I had any regrets, I think where I am today is really with everything that I have done. I would probably say that if I was to do certain things again, I think the ability to decide faster on the unknown is what I would actually do better. Because a lot of times when I was doing something, I was like, fear of the unknown.

I don't know will it work, I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't know. So the longer I stuck in that zone, the longer it would take to get my successor to do the action. So I think for me would be ability to make decisions faster. So if I was to go back and say that, man, just decide, just decide. And when you do it, we'll just pivot along the way. So that's what I would actually, I would do. Spade to action. Yeah.

You ever thought that you could have started this consulting business earlier than five years back? So five years I was still in the job. I actually never thought that I would actually do consulting. I just thought that, you know what, I'll just be a sales mentor, be a sales coach, I'll just do it. But as I did it, I actually enjoyed consulting and eventually there's no difference. Because if you look at it, consulting is generally to businesses.

What am I doing in consulting? I'm solving their problem, giving them a result. What am I doing in coaching and mentoring? It's not business, but it's probably individual people, right? What am I doing? Solving their problem, giving... It's the same thing, but it's just a different terminology, right? At the end of the day, it's just helping someone get what they want, and you get what you want. I mean, even sales. Solving problems, Exactly what you're doing. Same thing. So you pretty much... They're different labels, but exactly the...

But to answer your question, did I want to do it faster? I wanted to do it faster. When I came here in 2006 in Australia, I wanted to just 2007 do it. But you my dad said, hey, just take it easy, man. You need experience. So I think that guiding star to say that, just relax, get the relevant experience. Absolutely. Learn to manage that emotions, form that foundation, and then the speed will be very fast. Yeah. That's highlighted throughout our discussion.

Dylan Pathirana (49:09.322)
And I don't know, you read that book, the CEO, the diary of CEO. Yeah, I watched his podcast as well. Yeah. And he was talking about having that five buckets. one is like, if you don't have that knowledge experience, it takes difficult for you to, know, what you're doing now. Over the years, you build that wealth of experience. So it's easier for you and you have a better reputation.

It's easy for you to grow your business now. Yeah. So what's next for Dev? So for me, so I started Stella Wealth, but there's a brand that I've now come in. I want to start. I've already started. It's called the Wealth on Command Movement. Right. So it's more about wealth for me is beyond just money. Right. So for me, wealth is about literally three things. Right. Having the success for yourself.

give back to family, give back to community. So for me is I want to build upon this. So I've expanded my business in Thailand as well, right? Really reaching out to people that want to build financial success for themselves through coaching, right? And build a community which is wealth on command. So you have the control in your life to create the wealth that you feel is right for you. So that's where I'm heading to.

expanding more on my consulting, expanding more on my mentoring along this line. Amazing. And is it more focused around supporting individuals to do that? So it started off with the coaching and mentoring business, which is individuals, correct? So mainly individuals that are currently in a job and they want to transition and build their own coaching or consulting business. That's a major focus. I still focus on that. But as I grow,

and I build a team, then I focus on the consulting side, helping businesses, pretty much the consulting side is helping people streamline their sales. But the goal here is taking businesses from in the business to on the business to above the business. A lot of businesses, they require sales consulting is because they are in the business and if they stop working, business stops. So if you streamline the sales process, build a team, they go from in to on. That's where I'm helping them with.

Dylan Pathirana (51:35.254)
It's two segments. And through your work with working with a lot of different people who are in that business journey, you have a very unique perspective because you get to see a lot of different people for us where we're trying to find some secrets to success. there any key features that you see in some of your clients that make them successful? Yeah. Yeah. There's, actually even I'll share with you. think the, the number one,

area for success is the way you think, is the mindset. So literally, this is what I do every time, right? And if I go out to someone and when I ask them, hey, how did you do this? What did you do? What I'm really looking at, it's not what they did or it's not what they're doing. It's how they're thinking. Because if I can understand how they're thinking, that's what got them from wherever they were to today.

So even a lot of my clients that are very successful, the way they think is different from the others who are not succeeding. They might be doing the same thing, but it's how they think about it. Right? So I think one absolutely key to success is it's not so much on the external, it's more on the internal. It's how you actually think about things that in your day -to -day life and gives you a new perspective. know, so I would say that

The key to success, one big element for the key to success is the way of how you actually think. So for a young, young guy like Dylan, just starting his own business, you know, that talking about thinking, is that something that you, he need to discover or do you think that coaching kind of thing help? So, so the good question, there are many, many ways, right? One is coaching will, will speed up the whole process.

But you got to also figure out yourself. Because, but if you only figure out yourself, it will take an extremely long time. So I think coaching plus coaching, mentoring plus figuring out yourself helps. But the big difference here is a big difference that I want to actually encourage you is when you ask someone, if you get a coach or if you get a mentor, you're trying to figure out yourself. If you see someone who's already successful, most people majority will ask the person, what are you doing today? Show me what you're doing.

Dylan Pathirana (54:02.338)
They are thinking, show me what you're doing to get to where you want, right? But that's a wrong question because the level you are at and the level they are at is a different level. The biggest question I want you to actually look at is ask the person, what did they do to get here? Because you are actually at that position. So if you can figure out what they did there and seek the guidance when they were there, you will get the right advice because

The mindset you are at today and the mindset that they were there at that time when they were starting, it is the same. Everybody feels the fear. Everybody is like, I don't know if it will work, but they did something to make it work. But if you ask the person today, they've already developed their mindset and you'll be like, but I can't do that. So the question is not what you're doing today, is the question is what you did to get here. Yeah, your journey.

Yes. Yeah. Correct. More than a destination. It's the journey. It's the journey. and, and so the, so if you're starting new, if you're brand new and you meet someone who's really successful, like you've been, for example, your dad, right? You ask him, what do you do? Like, you know, when you started out, like when you're in a job and you're going to quit your job, like what did it go in your head? What, what made you, those questions is what you're actually having today. That's what I would say. Cause then you get the actionable steps. Otherwise they're years ahead of you.

But if you put them back in the shoes that you're in now, then you can get actionable steps to go out and actually make the changes to try and get to where they are now. So that's, that's what I did as well. I, and I, I also made the same mistake that I was asking, what are you doing? Show me, show me what you're doing. what's the next big new thing? It didn't get anywhere. I kept changing from one thing to another, to another, to another. But when I, switched and I don't remember when I had the switch, but when I got this switch, I started realizing, I'm asking the wrong question.

Light bulb moment. Yeah. I mean, do you get that when you're doing a lot of things as well? I mean, you're talking about doing four thousand phone calls, you know, identifying that trends. Yeah. So you can't just come up with that light bulb moment. Just sitting sitting and thinking, right? You need to action. The light bulb moment will never come. If you.

Dylan Pathirana (56:26.392)
Don't stick with that thing for a while. It will never come. Right? So you're an IT, right? Yeah. Like, know, I think you're an IT as well. So you're like when you're doing a program, I'll give you an IT. When you're doing a programming stuff, you have written it and you find a bug. I'm like, how, how, what's wrong? And you keep doing, you keep doing it. Then you're like, I got it now. How to fix it. That, I got it.

is through a series of programming sequence you've done, through a series of bugs you've done, and then you get this aha moment. That aha moment, it'll only come through a journey of transformation. But if someone's not willing to go through that journey, that aha moment, that gotcha moment, it will never arrive. Yeah. I really like your analogy you used for that butterfly moment. OK, yes. Can you please share it,

So when I won this award in Canada, right? So it was my very, very first time I was on stage in front of 1500 people. I've never done it, okay? The maximum I've done is like hundred people like in the room. I was on stage in Canada, you know, in front of everybody who's like English is our first language. English is not my first language as well. And I was like, this is scary. But I won the award. And I wanted to sort of not make it about me. I wanted to sort of help others and inspire them.

on how they can win too. So I went on stage, I gave a thank you speech, and part of that thing, I actually, this is what I felt, right? It was more like a butterfly, right? Let's say a caterpillar. When you're a caterpillar, it looks very ugly. In fact, if you come here, you wanna stamp it, you wanna kill it. People will be like that around you, where they will not believe in you. They will say, what you're doing is crazy, it's rubbish, they'll pull you down. You will feel terrible.

You'll feel terrible. It's like that caterpillar. Nobody likes it. Right? In fact, you kill it, you'll throw it away. But when you allow the caterpillar to go to the next phase, it is the cocoon phase. It stays still. It's like us. We get into that phase where we've tried so many things, but nothing's happening. We're still. I've tried this, I've tried that, nothing happens. But what's happening is internally in that cocoon, the caterpillar is transforming.

Dylan Pathirana (58:49.942)
Same thing like yourself, when you have tried a lot of things and you're like, nothing is working, that moment of that dead silence, your mind, body, spirit, physical is actually transforming. And your environment as well. Everything is transforming. And in that transformation, the cocoon, one fine day, becomes a butterfly. So you yourself, if you are that cocoon today, you're like, I've tried everything, it's not working. You're just on the phase to actually get that breakthrough.

which is that butterfly movement. That's awesome. Yeah. That's give yourself a chance because change takes time. Success takes time. If you don't allow yourself that change, that time, the success will not come. So this whole analogy of butterfly from a caterpillar to a butterfly, it is a successful journey. It's the quest of success for that caterpillar to become that butterfly, right? That's the journey we all need to go through.

that's, that's really, really powerful. But on that, I want to ask you, how do you know if you're doing the right thing? Because things take time, but you could spend so much time going in the wrong direction. Let me ask you this question, right? How do you know things don't work? You've tried a few things.

How do you know it doesn't work? Only afterwards. Only afterwards, right? And when it doesn't work, do you stop there?

Dylan Pathirana (01:00:21.675)
But if you don't want to stop, what do do? Keep going. Keep going. And you keep going, right? So the only way you will know something is like successful is when you know something is not working. But if you have that courage and the dream to keep going, that thing that is not working will start working. Right? So the only way to discover something that is working is you have to be willing to go through things that are not working. It's like

the guy who made the light bulb, I forgot his name, He's like, I tried like a thousand times. It's not that I failed, I just know a thousand ways that it doesn't work. Yeah. Till I found a way it works. So to answer your question, the only way to know if it works is to actually just keep process of elimination. This didn't work, this didn't work, this didn't work, this didn't work. let me pivot it. So when what doesn't work, you pivot and you learn and you keep improving.

In English is called improvise, right? You keep improvising and improving. You find the, you, you find what it works. Yeah. That's pretty much my answer to you. No, that's awesome. And look, we've been, we could talk all day, but we were just hitting an hour here. And so I kind of want to wrap this conversation up and looking back on your incredible journey, would you say that you're successful? Yes. Yes. Where I am.

to where, I'm not there at where I am yet, but every journey is a success. Because every experience that I have, I used to go, that's a shitty experience, that's a bad experience. No, but if I didn't have that experience, it would not lead me to where I am today. If I didn't have that bad experience, I would not go through that bad emotion. And if I did not go through that bad emotion, I would not know, I would not understand how to actually manage that emotion.

Success has a lot to do with managing emotion. So today, where I am, yes, I am successful. That's amazing. I really like how you phrase that. It's very powerful. I suppose throughout our conversations, I've been jotting a few things down about why I think you are successful. And I suppose the first one is you're very secure and independent. You're always willing to take the chance to grow yourself.

Dylan Pathirana (01:02:47.116)
And I think it's very easy to become comfortable and kind of coast, but you're, said it so many times, you wanted to be able to stand on your own two feet and really find your own independence. And I think in doing that, it led to so much of your growth was when you stepped out of your comfort zone to try and be your own man. So I think that's a, a really powerful one. And another one is your curiosity.

I think that's probably one of your, your main ones. You are always looking for ways to improve. And I think another powerful point linked to that is you know, your weakness. Like you said early on, you identified that you weren't good at sales, but you didn't just go, okay, I'm not good at sales. That's it. You're like, okay, I'm not good at sales. How do I get good at sales? And you actually went out and, and did the work. And so I think that curiosity about always.

looking for ways to improve yourself and get 1 % better every day. We always talk about it is another core aspect. And you also talk about this really strong give back mentality. Everything you're trying to do is how do I give back? How do I give value to someone? How do I help one of my clients so that they can give back? And I think a lot of traditional success we see is making lots of money and being that wealthy person.

But from our conversations, I think the truly wealthy people are the ones who know that it takes an army to get them to where they are. And they turn around and give back to the people who have supported them along their journey. So I think that's really powerful. And the last one that I want to touch on is you have really no ego. You, you, you talked about how you were okay to be bad at something.

And I think that's something that I'm struggling a lot with as well is it's so hard to just accept I'm bad at something. But the fact that you did and you went out and did something about it, I think that's really core to your success as well. And so thank you so much for this conversation. I've definitely learned so much. And just to add to that list, what Dylan shared with you, what also what I want to share.

Dylan Pathirana (01:05:13.378)
You're a very positive person. Like the way that you look at things and most people look at it in a negative way, but you see always different way of looking at things. And then those things you turn into very positive way of looking at it. Even things like you don't like, you're looking at how can I make it more likable? So that's a very great ingredient that you have to achieve success.

Thank you so much. Thank you for having And you mentioned that you've been putting out a few things on YouTube. Yeah. If people want to find you, how can they do that? Just search for my name on YouTube, Dev Setti. You'll find me. And you're very popular on social. So I looked at some of the videos. Thank you. You can search Dev Setti champion. You'll find it. Yeah. Okay. Awesome. We'll put the links down in the show notes. So Dev, thank you so much. It's been a wonderful conversation.

And for those who are listening, if you aren't already, follow us at the quest for success pod on Instagram and also give us a follow and a five star review wherever you're listening to this. And we'll see you guys in the next episode. Thank you very much for listening. Thank you.